creating image fills - RW Recipe Book

[Don Chin]

I am using the Renderworks Recipe Book and the section on "Using Image Fills for Presentations and am stuck on Steps 3 & 4 on page 15-3

1. for Step 3, it looks like the picture is of a camera view of the building, judging by the camera border around the building. If it is, how is the background photo imported in? Or is this step done in the design layer or sheet layer?

2. for Step 4, I can't figure out how to trim an image so that the image within the polygon remains and everything outside is trimmed with the clip surface command. I always end up with the opposite,where the image outside the polygon remains, and have tried every combination of sending objects/layers back and forward.

Thanks

Donald

[islandmon]

#1. Probably a Renderworks background created with an Image Texture.

#2. the Clip Object must be 'closed' and 'on top' > bring to front over the object to be clipped.

[Don Chin]

Thanks Islandmon, but I am still confused re. #2. Wouldn't this leave you will a cutout in the object to be clipped? These steps sound like what is shown in the Fundamentals book that leaves you with a cutout in the object to be clipped.

Thanks,

Donald

[Benson Shaw]

Are you using the Clip Surface Command in the menu? or Clip Tool in the basic tools palette. The Clip Tool has 3 modes. Middle one removes area outside the marquee.

Explore also the Attribute Mapping Tool in the basic tools palette (I think it was available in VW2008) to crop or otherwise control scale/position of an image fill applied to an object.

But I do not have the Recipe book, so just guessing.

-B

[Don Chin]

Benson - thanks so much! The clip tool was what I was looking for, not clip surface. The Recipe Book was written for previous versions of VW/RW.

As usual the answer to my question was right in front of me.

[Danielj1]

The author of that book occasionally lurks hereabouts to see what's going on...and is actually currently in the process of working on an update to the book. So feel free to email him directly if you wish, although his day-job workload may preclude a quick (or any) answer...danielj1@earthlink.net.

As for the answer to the poster's question, yes the Clip Surface command is still there and available: Modify>Clip Surface. Of course, as others have noted, we also have the clip tool as well, which is extremely useful in certain situations.

Personally I have a bias toward the command in these situations because the Clip tool requires drawing a clipping shape using its marquee function, and in complicated clipping situations it is sometimes necessary to first draw a 2D shape outlining the clipping area, and then trace over it with the Clip tool marquee. Using the command allows you to use the 2D clipping shape directly, without needing to trace over it with the marquee.

But it's really a matter of taste and habit, and I'm glad we have multiple options to suit our individual work styles.

Dan Jansenson

[Don Chin]

Dan,

I really like your book. (and your web site too) I just couldn't get the Clip Surface tool to behave as you show on Step 4 of page 15-3. I could only

get it to make a cutout in the image instead of trimming away everything outside the polyline.

And for Step 3, is this done on the design layer or sheet layer, or somehow after the camera is activated? I can't quite figure this part out.

Thanks,,

Donald

[Danielj1]

Donald,

The problem you're describing is, I believe, due to Vectorworks behavior that has changed since the book first appeared. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

The task described here uses the Clip Surface command to trim away unneeded portions of a 2D polygon containing an image-fill-based rendering of a building. To do this with the current version of Vectorworks, you must in essence first create a kind of masking doughnut sitting on top of the first 2D polygon. The doughnut hole will be in the shape of the building's outline.

When you select both 2D polygons (meaning, the underlying one containing the building's image, and the overlying one functioning as a doughnut-shaped mask) and then invoke the Clip Surface command, the doughnut will cut away the underlying 2D rendering/polygon--except for the portion that can be seen within the doughnut hole itself.

At first it will appear as if nothing has happened. But when you delete the top-most doughnut, what remains is the underlying rendering, trimmed to the shape of the doughnut hole; that is, the building's outline.

Now, the challenge, a small one really, is how to draw the doughnut with the properly-shaped hole representing the outline shape of the building rendered beneath. One simple method involves first drawing a 2D polygon on top of the building rendering in the shape of the building's outline, and then drawing a second, large 2D polygon covering everything.

Send the new large polygon to the back and select both the new large polygon AND the one representing the building's outline, and then invoke the Clip Surface command. The large 2D polygon will now have the shape of the desired doughnut.

Move it back to the front, make sure the doughnut and the rendering polygon are both selected, and then invoke the Clip Surface command again to trim away the unneeded portions of the rendered polygon.

Whew, I'm hungry now.

As others have mentioned, all this can be done much more easily (if the outline shape is not complex, that is) by using the Clip tool, with the Removes Outside Mode selected, and the Clipping by a Polygon Mode selected too. But you only have one shot (except for the use of Undo), and you cannot adjust the shape of the marquee that the tool creates. You can, however, use this too incrementally, cutting away portions of the underlying image piece by piece for greater accuracy until arriving at the desired shape.

Dan J.

[Danielj1]

I forgot to mention that the steps outlined in this chapter are all done in design layers.

Dan J.