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2D isometric view for presentation


ben.m

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Hello, I have to create a presentation drawing where I stack five floors of a building in isometric view. The idea is to show the plans in 2D, but every time I go to isometric views in Vectorworks 2011 it projects everything up in 3D, which I don't want. I want the plans totally flat.

For example;

http://i50.tinypic.com/2rclbpe.jpg

Some things in that image are shown in 3D, but it was the best example I could find. The column grid and the dimensions are still flat, just shown in iso. This is what I want for everything, even stuff like walls and windows that have been drawn in 3D. Is there a quick way to achieve this in Vectorworks?

I tried exporting the plan to Photoshop and then stretching it to look like an iso view but that's time consuming. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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:cry: I certainly don't want to modify the drawing that much - even a copy of the drawing. Seems like way too much work, at least for someone with my level of skill. There are hundreds of windows and doors and thousands of walls. Tons of stuff is grouped. This is a 120k sq/ft building. It would be a nightmare.

I've been playing around in Photoshop and come up with a pretty good technique for faking it with a Top/Plan exported view. Once I import the image into PS it takes 30 seconds.

This is really disappointing to me for some reason. I mean, for Vectorworks.

Thanks for the tip though. :)

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What is your Photoshop trick? Sounds interesting.

I exported a JPG of the plan from VW and brought that into Photoshop. Once in Photoshop, I rotated the plan by 45 degrees and then smooshed it like a pancake by 50%.

After that you can piece the rest of the presentation together in Photoshop or bring the JPGs back into VW if you're more comfortable with that.

Another option I thought of is exporting a DWG of each floor from VW into SketchUP. Stack them up and just orbit around to take a snap shot. That seems like more work than Photoshop, but also a lot more accurate and flexible for choosing different angles

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I would do it this way:

Export the 2D plans as pdfs then import them as references into the same or a new VWs file in DLs.

Go to an isometric view place the pdfs at different z values as layer plane objects and create a viewport that suites your presentation.

When your plans change just overwrite the existing pdfs with the new and the changes should follow in the VWs file (perhaps a regeneration or update is need for the pdf changes to be shown)

There is even the added possibility of exploding the pdf to leave 2D lines and fills.....This will give the option of transparent plans.

If you want transparent plans ie. wireframe you could try the same solution using dwgs, first exported then imported and referenced. One of the first videos showing 2011 2D/3D workflow shows this technique. (sorry couldn't find the link, i'm on an iPhone)

Edited by Vincent C
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I would do it this way:

Export the 2D plans as pdfs then import them as references into the same or a new VWs file in DLs.

Go to an isometric view place the pdfs at different z values as layer plane objects and create a viewport that suites your presentation.

When your plans change just overwrite the existing pdfs with the new and the changes should follow in the VWs file (perhaps a regeneration or update is need for the pdf changes to be shown)

There is even the added possibility of exploding the pdf to leave 2D lines and fills.....This will give the option of transparent plans.

If you want transparent plans ie. wireframe you could try the same solution using dwgs, first exported then imported and referenced. One of the first videos showing 2011 2D/3D workflow shows this technique. (sorry couldn't find the link, i'm on an iPhone)

I like it.

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No. I had a stack of DLVPs created in Top/Plan. I thought I could get the DLVPs to display in Top/Plan, even when rotated into iso.

Maybe copy the file and manipulate the copy file? Select all and use global commands to adjust heights of walls, etc to zero. May take several commands for different types of objects.

Or, in a copy file, make some DLVPs and convert to lines. Put them in a stack - but then the grid labels and some other text entries are defeated.

-B

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I would do it this way:

Export the 2D plans as pdfs then import them as references into the same or a new VWs file in DLs.

Go to an isometric view place the pdfs at different z values as layer plane objects and create a viewport that suites your presentation.

When your plans change just overwrite the existing pdfs with the new and the changes should follow in the VWs file (perhaps a regeneration or update is need for the pdf changes to be shown)

There is even the added possibility of exploding the pdf to leave 2D lines and fills.....This will give the option of transparent plans.

If you want transparent plans ie. wireframe you could try the same solution using dwgs, first exported then imported and referenced. One of the first videos showing 2011 2D/3D workflow shows this technique. (sorry couldn't find the link, i'm on an iPhone)

Just to follow up, I tried the PDF method and it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay resource intensive. Working with the PDF alone was too difficult to manipulate. There was a 2 Mississippi pause after every movement or object manipulation. Once I exploded it to get transparency, it was ridiculous. This was just one floor. I've got a nice quad core Mac Pro.

Another thing about the PDF method, and maybe it's my lack of VW skills, but after I exploded it, that was that. Didn't matter what view I went to after that it would show in the angle that it was exploded at. So if I wanted to draw any color or additional information on top of it I had to draw in the iso view it was exploded in. Couldn't go back to Top/Plan and draw normally.

So I'm going with the DWG method. Seems to work nicely and keeps all the workflow in one application which is preferred. Thanks.

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