2D Projection

[portamigra]

A few concerns...

first off, look at the picture from the link. what i would like to do is make everything flat (delta z=0) and then stack three floors like this in the same viewport. the problem is that, although i could delete all 3d information in the drawing, i don't want to. is there a way to 'smash' all the 3d information into a '2d projection' for a single viewport?

the walls are all flat because delta z=0 and i've turned on project 2d to get the gray polygons (areas) to display on the floor. i would like the doors, windows, and plumbing fixtures to all appear as they do in top/plan view, but at an angle.

i was even eccentric enough to make new textures out of pdf's of each floor and apply them to surfaces, but the pdf's are not crisp enough, you can't read any of the writing.

thanks in advance!

zach

2D Projection Inquiry

[RonMan]

This is not trivial, but one way of doing it is to create the annotations you want, convert everything to a group edit the group, convert the text to polylines and then extrude everything to 0.01.

I would do this on another layer. If you do it on different layers at different heights you can do multiple floors in the same viewport and it will all look pretty.

[John Meunier]

What about exporting an image file of the layer with all the information you want seen. Then importing the image as a texture an applying it to an extrude or pillar object on a separate layer, or controlled by a class on the same layer as the floor plan?.

[portamigra]

i've basically done what you described ronman, and it looks...moderate at best. the polylines are just not as defined as real text. the real problem with extruding all those polylines is that now i can't change the text when the project changes and i have to recreate the pieces and go through the process again.

my first attempt was as you've described john, and the texture was sooooo pixelated you couldn't hardly tell what you were looking at, much less read anything. (even at 500 dpi...)

thanks for the ideas fellas

zach

[portamigra]

so i just spent some time applying the polyline technique to a file, and there are a few problems: 1. i can't use our standard office font, and 2. it slows VW down soo much it's not worth it.

our office standard is helvetica neue bold condensed. when i use the truetype to polyline on the helvetica, VW leaves out the insides of a's, o's, d's, etc. it also looks really pixelated (even at a higher dpi). to combat this i changed the font to arial (a more common font) and VW seems to not have deleted the insides of my letters.

even with arial font truetyped to polylines, VW runs insanely slow. this g5 is half decent, but with hundreds of polylines, it still lags pretty bad.

there must be a simpler way!!

[RonMan]

Hmm?

I have only had to do this once and it worked out OK. Your milage was different.

VW handles True Type fonts well, others it ignores. If you really need to use Helvetica Nue, then you will need to convert it to True Type. TransType handles this well.

We have some 300 MB files that perform just fine on my system. My partner's G5 has some issues with the size so we do all the renderings on my system. He handles the annotations.

Other than the methods suggested, I really know of know other way to accomplish what you want.

Good luck

RonMan