Redirect me?

[Ken Bowen]

off topic, but I figured someone here could point me in the right direction. I'm doing a set design with a two-sided flats, 3-position wagons, etc., and I suspect that there is a much better way to organize my drawing than I now have. I have hinged flats that play on an "A" or "B" side and an articulated double-hinged rolling book-flat that plays in three different configurations with different furniture. In addition I am cramped for space and want to show the storage positions of stuff I am not using in each scene. Currently I have a layer for each scene, (and thus many copies of the reversible units,) and am planning to put the furniture and accessories in different classes that I switch on and off with saved views and viewports. I see massive file bloat in my future when I start to render.... Ideas?

Ken

[michaelk]

Ken

I can tell you how I've done it in the past.

It sounds weird, but I put everything on one layer. (Or create a new layer that will have all the perment elements like stage, seats, masking, etc. linked to it.)

I make everything, including the flats, 3D or hybrid symbols. (make the hinges of the flats be the insertion point. They can have the same xy coorinate position and you can easily change the rotation)

Then I make a class for every scene. I always use numbers first ie

01 Pre Show

02 Act 1 Scn 1

etc.

It's easy to keep them in order that way, and easier to insert scenes later.

Then set all the scene classes to invisible.

I keep the stage, theatre, seats, whatever else in a class that is set to visible. (Like None. This is almost the only time I use a lot of different classes.)

Then I got to the first scene class, ie. 01 Pre Show, place the furniture and scenery symbols.

I select all the pieces that don't move in the next scene, dupilcate them into the next class, go to that class, add the elements that have moved, etc, etc.

It makes it easy to move the views around because there is only one layer to deal with. And you can flip through the scenes really quickly by using the keyboard shortcut to go to the next class.

It does mean that you will have the same chair drawn as many times as you have scenes, but if the chair is a symbol it's easy to modify it, and the files don't get that huge.

Hope that makes sense.

MK