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Total Plane confusion in Vw2011


jtml

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Total Plane confusion in Vw2011

In front view I want to make a balustrade by sweeping a profile (a 2d polygon). Later I want to alter it so I ?go into it? and whop-ti from front view i m in top view. I copy and past the 2 d polygon because i want to take it out of the sweep to rework it in front view in which it was created and whop-ti it appears as a line. I go into top view to see it as a profile and rotate back to be in front view so i can work with it with my other objects in front view. I make a rectangle I want to add to it and Vw2011 tells i can t ad them as the original profile are not in the same plane; nowhere in the info pane can i see a value showing that plane . I can see that if i go into iso view the original profile is a a 2d object with a 3d logic and the newer rectangle remains truly 2d. very confusing. And I try to draw a rectangle in all the different screen planes, layers planes etc to get a square on the same plane. But in vain. How do I draw a 2d object in the same plane as this strangege 2d object?

Please make a mode where 2d remains 2d. And if a 2d objects gets a 3d quality give it a value and a different name in the info pane as its not a 2d object anymore.

This is total confusion

Cheers

Joergen tml

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You can set the planes to be Screen Plane. this will leave the 2D rectangle as a 2D rectangle. However, you will find Vectorworks more effective if you master working planes. In my latest 3D Modeling Manual , i have made working places the first exercise to get the users used to them. I use working planes in many of the exercises to make sure that users can use them correctly.

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I agree with jtml.

I find that survey drawings I import from autocad become a total mess. This is because they are both 2D and 3D. importing as 2d only doesn't fix the problem.

my workaround solution is to export the file as vectorworks 2008 format, which strips the layer / screen plane settings.

Opening the 2008 format file back into 2011 finds the file behaving as desired.

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Hi Robert,

What it looks like from my position is that the whole "2D objects on 3D planes" idea was only introduced to assist the Push & Pull tool. If that is so, I would have preferred a new set of tools that draws the 2D objects on those planes. (Directly on the object clicked on, rather than on separate planes that have to be established first. More on that later).

Now it looks like we want to have 2D objects on several planes, which in fact we don't want at all (well, I don't want that). We want 3D objects on planes through our model, not 2D objects. The advantage of 2D objects is that they can have several kinds of graphics attached to them, but instead of spreading 2D objects through space, it would have been nicer if we got more flexibility in texture handling on 3D objects, and more control over 3D objects. Like 3D rotation of textures (rather than rotating the texture in it self) and assigning different textures to different sides of objects, like we can with walls.

The downside of 2D objects floating on other planes in space is that it is very unclear how these are going to be treated by the render engines and how they will export to DWG on one side, C4D in the middle and IFC on the other side of the spectrum.

BTW I like the idea of the Push and Pull tool very much, it looks a bit inspired from Sketch Up though. All other things that were inspired by other programs are far better implemented than in the original programs, like References and ViewPorts. In the case of the Push and Pull tool, that is not very clear yet.

One point of improvement might be the control over the objects that are drawn on the surface of a 3D object. For instance: a separate tool that draws the rectangle directly on an objects face. It would have an optional first click on a corner of the 3D object, then a 2nd click along a side, VW would still not know which surface it would be, the 3rd click would reveal to VW the surface and finish the rectangle or oval. When you'd look in the OIP you'd see the X and Y values as distance to that first click. This would give control over the object drawn. This is already possible in VW 2011 but it requires the set up of a separate working plane. While the tool could do that immediately the moment it recognizes the 3D objects side clicked on.

One last thing: I noticed the default setting of the plane is Layer plane in case of a new file. I would suggest to default to screen plane as it used to be. VWs object handling in screen plane is still much better than its "plane object" handling. Also, when I set the plane to default to Screen Plane, it sometimes, by itself switches back to Layer plane or 3D plane. Very annoying.

Editing an extrude, shows me the object in "Extrude Plane". Especially for extrusions, it might be far better to look at it face on. The same goes for Editing symbols. Symbols are created in their easiest orientation and then placed in drawing under strange angles. When I edit the symbol I would like to be in straight orthogonal mode.

I do see it might come in handy some times and I do admire the fact that you are able to rotate it in this way. I noticed I can do a few things with the "Plane Mode" buttons next to the views, but once hitting the "Active Layer/Symbol Plane Mode" button should return me to old fashioned Front and Rights (etc) views inside the symbol.

Thanks,

Gerard

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Gerard says "One last thing: I noticed the default setting of the plane is Layer plane in case of a new file. I would suggest to default to screen plane as it used to be."

I agree. It is not always good to turn a tool on just to show it off and I think this is a case in point. A newer user is going to have 2D linework showing up in in 3D in their drawings and not have a clear and simple means to disable them.

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