Clever ways to highlight a line using data visualisation?

[line-weight]

 

In a sheet layer viewport, I want to take a line like the one at the top, and "highlight" it something like what's shown at the bottom.

 

To mock this up, I've duplicated the line in the design layer, made the duplicate thicker and yellow, and then placed it behind the original line. It's possible to do something similar using the viewport's annotations space.

 

But I'd really like to be able to do this (or something like this) to selected lines in selected viewports, using data visualisation.

 

Any clever ways of doing this?

Edited September 11, 2024 by line-weight

[Tom W.]

I'm not sure how you'd do this without using two lines. I tried making a 'highlighted line' line type but couldn't get it to display correctly. If you could make a line type which displayed as a thin black line over yellow background (in my tests, the yellow always obscured the line) it would be easy to use class overrides or Data Vis to swap the original line with the new one based on class or data.

 

 

[bcd]

Maybe Drop Shadows. It's subtle.

 

[line-weight]

1 hour ago, bcd said:

Maybe Drop Shadows. It's subtle.

 

 

Yeah I was just trying that myself!

 

My conclusion so far is that it's too subtle though. Also, is it an attribute that can be adjusted via data vis?

[line-weight]

2 hours ago, Tom W. said:

I'm not sure how you'd do this without using two lines. I tried making a 'highlighted line' line type but couldn't get it to display correctly. If you could make a line type which displayed as a thin black line over yellow background (in my tests, the yellow always obscured the line) it would be easy to use class overrides or Data Vis to swap the original line with the new one based on class or data.

 

 

 

An added complication is that I'd like to be able to apply it selectively to a variety of different line types. For example, I'd like to apply it to one or more lines here without affecting their basic colour. I think that even if I could simply over-ride with a special "highlighted line" line type, I'd need to make one of those for each of the various line types that I want to highlight.

 

[Tom W.]

5 minutes ago, line-weight said:

I'd need to make one of those for each of the various line types that I want to highlight.

 

Yep.

 

This is the best I could come up with for a highlighted line type:

 

[Flair-Studio]

Have you thought about giving a try with Marionette?

 

Perhaps there's a way to associate a nurbs curve with an offset command, which is yellow-filled, so that when you edit the curve the highlight follows through

[line-weight]

25 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

 

Yep.

 

This is the best I could come up with for a highlighted line type:

 

 

I manages to make something similar ... line type just made up of a yellow background rectangle plus black "line" rectangle:

 

 

And I realised that each of those rectangles can be given a class. So I made a "yellow background" class and made the background rectangle from that.

 

I then hoped that this would mean that in a design layer or in a viewport, I could then make that "yellow background" class visible or invisible and using it as a way of turning the highlighting on or off. But it doesn't seem to work unfortunately.

 

[line-weight]

15 minutes ago, Flair-Studio said:

Have you thought about giving a try with Marionette?

 

Getting a bit too complicated for my abilities, I fear!

[Tom W.]

3 minutes ago, line-weight said:

 

I manages to make something similar ... line type just made up of a yellow background rectangle plus black "line" rectangle:

 

 

And I realised that each of those rectangles can be given a class. So I made a "yellow background" class and made the background rectangle from that.

 

I then hoped that this would mean that in a design layer or in a viewport, I could then make that "yellow background" class visible or invisible and using it as a way of turning the highlighting on or off. But it doesn't seem to work unfortunately.

 

 

If you're happy with the custom line type (mine looked a bit scratchy/pixelly) then Data Vis has got to be the way to go.

[line-weight]

5 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

 

If you're happy with the custom line type (mine looked a bit scratchy/pixelly) then Data Vis has got to be the way to go.

 

I could potentially live with the linetype appearance.

 

However, unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the case that I can alter components of the custom linetype using data vis (even though I can give those components a class).

 

Another possibility I'm investigating is the "repetitive unit" 2d detailing tool. It repeats a 2d symbol along a line, and the components of that symbol can be classed.

 

I can switch the "yellow background" component of those symbols on and off using class over-rides per viewport. So I can have one line type and turn the highlight background on and off.

 

I've not yet succeeded in getting the same to happen via data vis, though.

[Tom W.]

8 minutes ago, line-weight said:

However, unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the case that I can alter components of the custom linetype using data vis (even though I can give those components a class).

 

To use Data Vis you just replace whatever the original Line is with the new one based on a value associated with that object.

[line-weight]

6 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

 

To use Data Vis you just replace whatever the original Line is with the new one based on a value associated with that object.

Sure - but I'm trying to avoid having to make two line types (one with highlight and one without) for each line type I currently have in the file.

[line-weight]

I've found that the "linear material" tool in the 2d detailing set nearly gives me what I want: if I set it to "board" it basically gives a pair of parallel lines which take the "pen" attribute and then fills between them with the "fill" attribute.

 

This means I can make a "linear material" object where the fill attribute is the basic "line" I want to appear and then by over-riding its "line attributes" I can make yellow lines either side of it appear or disappear. This works with data vis. The only problem is it doesn't give me quite the graphic appearance I want.