Truss symbol 3D duplicate - What is the intention?

[Stefan B.]

Hey,

 

I have never noticed this before, but if I draw a truss with an angle in the Z axis Vectorworks creates a duplicate symbol with the _3D suffix. This is new to me, and I think I understand the idea behind this, but not really sure. Could someone from Vectorworks maybe @jcogdell elaborate on this feature?

 

I played around with this a bit, and see some challenges in the use of this feature.

 

1. The duplicate _3D symbol does not inherit changes to the original symbol. I found this out the hard way. I had an error in my truss symbol and corrected it, but the error was still there. I spent quite a lot of time understanding that there actually was a _3D duplicate and this is where the error was.

 

2. I like my file folders quite tidy. And work hard to keep them tidy, but these duplicate symbol files end up in the top level and kind of make a mess. Automated file creations like this should maybe also inherit file locations, and maybe even put themselves in a subfolder of the original symbol _3D symbols. In other words, it would be much appreciated if the duplicate files don't just end up in the top folder of the file.

 

 

[markdd]

The 3D Symbols are generated when a Truss object is rotated around the X and Y axes and are used as substitutes in the Truss Object. If you make a change in the Hybrid version (from where the 3d object was created) then it won't be updated in the 3D-only symbol.

 

I agree it's untidy and leaves a mess in my resource manager as well. It also feels like a workaround that I wish could be made more elegant. It's all to do with the Hybrid nature of Symbols and the fact that the Truss Plug-in does not generate 2D geometry when you rotate a Truss object about the X and Y axes, so it must display a 3D-only version instead (which look horrible on Rigging Plans).

[jcogdell]

@markdd is correct about what is happening.
 

My understanding is that there is no easy way to interactively modify the 2D geometry of a symbol (truss or other) to correctly display its foortprint when rotated out of lying flat on the horizontal plane, that doesn't have a massive performance impact.
 

 

 

[Peter Neufeld.]

Hello,

Jesse is correct, doing it on the fly wouldn't be conducive for performance. Interestingly, there are some Spotlight PIOs that do break the rules - Video Screen, Speaker and Speaker Array and Straight Truss objects all redraw the 2D on the fly while still remaining hybrid PIOs using Autohybrid but that is processor intensive. I believe they are the only PIOs in the entire program that do it. However they're not symbols turned into 'higher level' objects such as a Truss object.

 

Once you're satisfied with the roll or hanging angle you can quickly add the 2D using the 'Generate 2D from 3D Component' after editing the 2D part of the 3D only symbol, if you want.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Peter