COMJAX Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 In my ever expanding adventures into VW I've begun getting into the rendering aspect of the program and I've hit quite a wall. Am I to understand this correctly; If I have say a structure with 50 of the same symbols, say flanges, and I want to render the assembled structure I'm going to have to make a separate flange symbol for each texture? I can't just apply a texture to the symbol after it's placed? Or I'm going to have to take each symbol after it's placed into the drawing and "convert to group" and then ungroup that? Or am I missing something? TIA AJ Quote Link to comment
islandmon Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 Symbol = container=make once use many... each Symbol container should contain ALL of the attributes including the texture(s). Often it is useful to assign Classes to the attributes so as to allow each Symbol to display multiple instances of style & substance depending on Class visibility. Quote Link to comment
Benson Shaw Posted April 3, 2008 Share Posted April 3, 2008 What islandmon says, and . . . Some basics about working with symbols: Attributes of all of instances (copies) of a symbol in a drawing are controlled by the symbol edit process. If you edit the objects, attributes or textures etc of one instance of a symbol, all the other instances change to match. Access the symbol edit mode either by dbl clicking one of the instances, or by selecting the symbol in the resource browser and choosing Edit from the resource browser pulldown menu. To change attributes of a single instance of a symbol, simply remove its symbol status (Select it, then Modify/Ungroup). Change the objects attributes, textures, etc. Remaining instances of the symbol are not affected. If needed, create a new symbol from the edited object(s). -B Quote Link to comment
COMJAX Posted April 3, 2008 Author Share Posted April 3, 2008 Thanks. I'll have to try those ideas. Quote Link to comment
COMJAX Posted April 3, 2008 Author Share Posted April 3, 2008 What islandmon says, and . . . Some basics about working with symbols: Attributes of all of instances (copies) of a symbol in a drawing are controlled by the symbol edit process. If you edit the objects, attributes or textures etc of one instance of a symbol, all the other instances change to match. Access the symbol edit mode either by dbl clicking one of the instances, or by selecting the symbol in the resource browser and choosing Edit from the resource browser pulldown menu. -B Right I understand about, what I call, the "core symbol" being what is referenced when I place a symbol into a drawing. One thing that I should note is that what you said in red above does not apply to records to symbols already placed with a drawing. I learned that one the hard way. Quote Link to comment
Pat Stanford Posted April 3, 2008 Share Posted April 3, 2008 One thing that I should note is that what you said in red above does not apply to records to symbols already placed with a drawing. I learned that one the hard way. Actually it does apply to symbols as long as they are symbols in the drawing. There are three kinds of symbols in the Resource Browser. They are distinguished by the color of the text of name of the symbol. "Black" symbols are "True" symbols. When you put one in the drawing it is listed in the OIP as a symbol. If you edit one of these (either placed in the drawing, or from the Resource browser), every other instance changes to be the same. Second are "Blue" symbols. you can take a Black symbol and change its insertion options by checking the Convert to Group box on the Insert Options page. In this case, the object will be inserted as a group that is no longer linked to the symbol definition. If you change the definition in the RB, the placed instances will not change. Conversely, if you change the instance, the symbol definition will not change. Finally, there are "Red" symbols. Red symbols are like blue symbols, but rather than inserting as a group, they are made up of a single Plug-In Object. The check box in the Insert Options dialog box becomes Convert to as Plug-in Object. The object inserted to the drawing is a PIO, and is not linked to the symbol definition. My guess is that you are using Red or Blue symbols if you are not seeing a change to one object effecting all the objects. Pat Quote Link to comment
COMJAX Posted April 3, 2008 Author Share Posted April 3, 2008 Pat So that's what "convert to group" means when I was creating my symbols. Thanks. Quote Link to comment
COMJAX Posted April 3, 2008 Author Share Posted April 3, 2008 I just checked, all my symbols are black. Quote Link to comment
COMJAX Posted April 3, 2008 Author Share Posted April 3, 2008 Sorry I'm going off on this tangent but............ I may not be attaching records the way you think I am so here's how I attach most of them. I went back and found how I've explained how I created my symbols. Here's an old link I posted here. LINK 1. Create your symbol. 2. Delete it from your drawing screen. 3. Select it from your resource browser, right click, edit symbol. 4. While in the edit symbol mode DON'T SELECT the symbol. Just click on the screen so nothing is selected. 5. NOW ATTACH your record and set your defaults. When you import the symbol it will now show the record when you click on it after it has been imported into your drawing. NOTE: If you change the record AFTER you've inserted a symbol it only changes the record on that single symbol NOT all of them. Quote Link to comment
Pat Stanford Posted April 3, 2008 Share Posted April 3, 2008 This is the first time you have mentioned records in this thread. You are correct, you can attached a record to the symbol definition that will allow you to attach different record data to each instance of the symbol. Records are different that attributes like colors/textures/line weights. Pat Quote Link to comment
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