Symbol Edit Wishes

[michaelk]

I'm sure this has been requested before. If so, I'll renew the request now:

1. When editing a symbol, I'd like to be able to navigate between 2D, 3D, 3D Wall Hole Component, and Insertion Options without exiting the symbol and starting the edit process all over again.

2. I'd like to be able to send objects between symbol edit ..."spaces"(?)... the same way objects and be moved to other layers in the OIP. This would be especially useful when creating/editing a wall hole component in the 3D edit space and then being able to move it to the 3D Wall Hole Component space.

Currently 3D objects in the 2D space and 2D objects set to screen plane mode in the 3D space sort themselves out in a very clever way w/o any effort on the user's part. But there is no way efficient way to move 3D objects between the 3D spaces.

michaelk

[Ray Libby]

Excellent wishes.

[mike m oz]

Michael you can already switch between the 2D, 3D and 3D Wall Hole Component parts from within the symbol edit. With nothing selected right click in an empty part of the drawing and choose which part you want to move to (see image below).

Any 2D elements you draw in the 3D part will automatically transfer to the 2D part when you exit the symbol edit, and any 3D elements you draw in the 2D part will automatically transfer to the 3D part when you exit the symbol edit.

The easiest way to create the Wall Hole Component is to enter that part, switch to a front elevation view, draw your shape and extrude it wider than the width of the wall and then use Move 3D to move it half of the extrude depth in the Y direction (for the last step you can also switch to Top View and use Move if you find it easier).

I agree it would be useful to be able to draw the Wall Hole Component in the 3D part and then 'transfer' it to the Wall Hole part via the OIP (Object Info Palette).

[michaelk]

Hi Mike

Thanks for the tip about right clicking on nothing!

I knew about the 2D and 3D things sorting themselves out. That's what I was talking about in my poorly worded last paragraph. But I wasn't aware of the secret right click navigation...

Lately I've been drawing symbols that get inserted in walls but don't go all the way through... So I've had to create the wall hole 3D geometry before converting to a symbol, then edit the 3D part, cut it, exit, edit the 3D wall hole component, paste in place.

After a dozen or so such symbols I started wishing for a quicker way to move objects between 3D and 3D wall hole component.

Lately I've been enjoying having 2D geometry in the 3D part in Layer Plane mode. I did it by accident the first time, and I keep looking for a good application for it...

So I'll change my first wish:

1. Move the navigation between symbol parts to the top right corner of the screen along with the Exit Symbol button. And include Insertion Options as one of the choices.

michaelk

[mike m oz]

To make it simple and obvious I would like to see buttons in the top right corner for moving between the 2D, 3D and Wall Hole Component parts.

The problem with things that aren't obvious (like that 'secret right click') is that most users never discover them. Particularly when they are not documented as that one isn't.

There also needs to be consistent behaviour - you can right click on a symbol in the drawing and choose to edit its three symbol parts but you can't bring up its Insertion options for editing. You should be able to choose which part to edit in the same way you can if you double click on a symbol in the drawing or right click on it in the Resource Browser.