Equipment Rack Clip Cube

[Ian5100]

First off, I think the new 3D rack editing is pretty nifty. It's something I wish that I was able to do before instead of getting a monolith that I'd have to redraw any time I made a change to the elevation. That said, there are a couple things I'd like to see:

 

1. The ability to edit a rack while using the clip cube. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, it would be nice to not rotate the entire world when I want a different view of the rack I'm working on.
2. The option to work in just 2D. Most situations, at least for me, just don't call for modelling the entire rack in 3D, and as such, don't justify the headache of working in 3D. It would be nice to be able to just slap together a quick and dirty elevation like we were able to before.
3. I've seen it elsewhere in the forums, but a tray that does not have slots. The slots are cool, but more often than not, I'm putting devices with different form factors on a single shelf, and I'd like to show them as they would appear in real life.
4. The option to create a side view elevation. I know I can do this manually, but it seems odd to be forced to model the rack in 3D, but then not have the option to auto-magically create front, rear, and side views.

 

Otherwise, I'm really enjoying the upgrades made in 2024, and I appreciate you guys continuing to improve ConnectCAD. Thanks!

Edited January 17, 2024 by Ian5100
grammar

[Nikolay Zhelyazkov]

Hello @Ian5100,

 

8 hours ago, Ian5100 said:

• The ability to edit a rack while using the clip cube. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, it would be nice to not rotate the entire world when I want a different view of the rack I'm working on.
• The option to work in just 2D. Most situations, at least for me, just don't call for modelling the entire rack in 3D, and as such, don't justify the headache of working in 3D. It would be nice to be able to just slap together a quick and dirty elevation like we were able to before.

 

8 hours ago, Ian5100 said:

The option to create a side view elevation. I know I can do this manually, but it seems odd to be forced to model the rack in 3D, but then not have the option to auto-magically create front, rear, and side views.

- For 1, 2 and 4 I think that Edit Front/Rear of Rack right click command should give you the desired editing context. Have you tried it?

- For 2 and 4 there is also the Create Rack Elevation menu command that can create the front and rear viewports of the racks that can be used both for presentation and In Place 2D like editing.

 

As for the side view, I have a question there. Would you expect it to automatically hide the side panels of the 3D rack so that the equipment in it is visible or would you expect it to show you the 3D rack in the state that it is?

 

All that said, I think that the only things that have to be addressed here are the side view of the rack and the non slot trays. If you agree, I will create wishlist items for these in our database and we will consider them.

 

Best Regards,

Nikolay Zhelyazkov

[Conrad Preen]

@Nikolay Zhelyazkov Side views and trays without slots have come up before so I think we should consider these. I will create the enhancement requests now.

[Ian5100]

9 hours ago, Nikolay Zhelyazkov said:

- For 1, 2 and 4 I think that Edit Front/Rear of Rack right click command should give you the desired editing context. Have you tried it?

Thanks for the suggestion, I didn't know this feature existed. I'm playing around with it now, and it's not really giving me the behavior that I'm after. I didn't mention it in my original post, but I'm often going a little off-script to get things to look the way I need them to look in a rack elevation. I've included a screen cap of what I'm working on. I actually started this project in v2022 and am struggling to pick up where I left off in v2024. What I need to do is show a touch panel mounted to the front of a blank panel, and I was able to just drop the touch panel device over top the blank panel in v2022, but no matter how I try to do this in v2024, I can't quite get it. I'll probably just have to hover the touch panel in front of the rack and manually create a section view to see it, then manually enter the rack information on the device using custom properties.

 

9 hours ago, Nikolay Zhelyazkov said:

As for the side view, I have a question there. Would you expect it to automatically hide the side panels of the 3D rack so that the equipment in it is visible or would you expect it to show you the 3D rack in the state that it is?

I would think either hide the side panels, or have the the option.

 

7 hours ago, Conrad Preen said:

Side views and trays without slots have come up before so I think we should consider these. I will create the enhancement requests now.

Thank guys! These will be a big help.

[spettitt]

2 hours ago, Ian5100 said:

I'll probably just have to hover the touch panel in front of the rack and manually create a section view to see it, then manually enter the rack information on the device using custom properties.

You could use the existing section viewport and just nudge the section line forwards so it's not right against the front of the rack. Doesn't entirely solve your problem, but is something I've done before and might help a little.

 

3 hours ago, Ian5100 said:

I would think either hide the side panels, or have the the option.

 

Upvote on Side View as well - I have made a 3rd section viewport for these recently. I think the side panel should be off by default when created but with the ability to turn on if necessary.