Add Ability for Worksheets to Grab Hatch Fills/Fill Attributes of Objects

[gloudon]

Worksheets can already grab the image of objects to display things like a symbol or plant which is incredibly useful for schedules. What would improve the functioning of worksheets even more is the ability to grab the fill attributes/hatches/line types of specific objects similar to how graphic legends grab the fill attributes. I try to grab the images of items (landscape areas, hardscapes, etc...) but it just shows the actual objects not the fills or attributes of the object.

 

I know that I could just use a graphic legend but I've found that they really don't help when making CDs for certain information as they are clunky and unable to be modified easily to look a different way, as well as the information is not able to be edited in the graphic legend like a worksheet is. That's why our firm exclusively uses worksheets for plant schedules, and all other schedules (paving, irrigation, etc.). Graphic legends also don't allow easy stacking of information or editing of information on the fly like a worksheet does unless they are being used for specific objects like doors, gates, etc.

 

I believe this conceptually simple solution would add a lot to the functionality and usefulness of worksheets.

 

 

[markdd]

You can add Cells with an Image Function that will show the hatch fill of an Object. It all depends on the criteria you choose. Can you provide an example of what you need?

[gloudon]

19 minutes ago, markdd said:

You can add Cells with an Image Function that will show the hatch fill of an Object. It all depends on the criteria you choose. Can you provide an example of what you need?

@markddThis is how we are organizing our worksheets and we would like to also grab the image hatch (drawn in blue) to show the different paving options and relate them back to the drawing. The 2nd picture is the drawing we would like to grab the information from. The third picture is the criteria for the database.

 

Is it that I need to grab the part of the object and not just the whole object as the criteria? If I do this will it not report the square footage of the hardscapes/paving since I'm going into a part of the object instead of the whole object? Let me know if that makes sense or not.

Edited November 4 by gloudon
Added another image

[markdd]

Is this the kind of output you need?

 

[gloudon]

@markdd Yes! That is exactly what I'm looking for. What's the workflow?

 

Edit: It is not what I'm looking for. See below for details.

Edited November 5 by gloudon
Adding updated information

[markdd]

44 minutes ago, gloudon said:

Yes! That is exactly what I'm looking for. What's the workflow?

Hardscape Worksheet.vwx

Let me know if you need any more detail.

[gloudon]

Ahhh so you are basically only looking at the plug-in objects instead of the whole object. I get it. Do you know if we have the ability to change this based on the current data visualization? I know graphic legends can change based on the viewport you are looking at.

[Tom W.]

20 hours ago, gloudon said:

I try to grab the images of items (landscape areas, hardscapes, etc...) but it just shows the actual objects not the fills or attributes of the object.

 

Isn't the issue to do with the cell formatting? Mark has set his cells to Top/Plan view + layer scale size whereas you perhaps were using a 3D view...? I don't think the criteria comes into it. 

[gloudon]

@markdd Yeah this doesn't solve the underlying issue. Because as soon as I change the shapes of the objects the cell image turns into that shape. @Tom W. I think you are right. In cell formatting I have the option to select the "2D Attributes" but it just shows up as white squares.

 

I want the 2D attributes/fill of the object that is unaffected by the shape of the object.

 

Edited November 5 by gloudon
Adding detail

[markdd]

Just change the formatting of the cell.... It looks like you have autosize formatting. Change it to the design layer scale or another scale that suits you and you should have more luck.

[gloudon]

Still no luck. It just changes the scale of the image

[markdd]

Try a scale of 1: 50. It's not perfect and will take a snapshot of the object from the center. Otherwise, I don't think there is another method besides using a Graphic Legend, which I find much more useful when using images. I may be wrong, though.

[gloudon]

Yeah I think that's why I made this post. I like worksheets better as they provide more editable data that can be formatted to look different and worksheets even allow for exporting to excel. They are, in my opinion, better when running schedules for the many sheets that our firm has (hardscape, landscape, plants, etc.). And if there was a way to grab object attributes instead of just overall objects then our workflow would benefit a lot from that.

 

Whereas graphic legends are hard to format, you are unable to actually edit any data through it, you can't export to an editable format like excel, and they are limited in their organization and look.

Edited November 5 by gloudon