walzo Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Hi, This might seem like an basic question, but as someone more familiar with Sketchup and ACAD it's totally baffling to me: Is there a painless way to view 2D objects on a plane in relation to 3D objects in VW 2011? Like, at the same time? All I can come up with by googling around are video demos discussing the marvels of working planes in vague terms. My traditional workflow is to draft in 2D, and extrude into 3D as needed. This becomes pretty confusing in VW when 3D objects suddenly start existing in an alternate universe as soon as I start modeling them, and un-extruded objects sit stubbornly on my screen like a ghost image on an old CRT. I really don't understand why VW separates these two ideas in such an unintuitive way. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Quote Link to comment
michaelk Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Select a 2D object. In the OIP switch the Plane pull down from Screen to Layer. hth mk Quote Link to comment
Pat Stanford Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 If you make your objects "Layer Plane", they should act like you want. "Screen Plane" 2-D object stay stuck to the screen and allow 3D object to move behind them as you change view. Very useful for annotations and things like title blocks. Quote Link to comment
walzo Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 Thanks a million for the quick replies. Now that I realize I've been drafting everything in the screen plane, is there anyway to move everything in bulk to the layer plane? I see that this option is only available in the OIP for certain objects (apparently not groups). Quote Link to comment
walzo Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 And as a bonus question: What's the best way to keep all my design layers synced up when I rotate the view in 3D? Thanks guys you're saving my life here. Quote Link to comment
CipesDesign Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 First , while in top/plan view, select all Screen Plane objects and change them to Layer Plane via the pulldown in the OIP. Unfortunately there is no Custom Select for Planar Attributes. Maybe someday. I'm sure a decent script writer could create a script for this... Second, to ensure that all design layers are aligned properly in 3d space, make sure that Unified View (formerly Stack Layers) is Active... Quote Link to comment
michaelk Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 If you change the pulldown in the top center of the drawing window to Layer (instead of Screen) then all the objects you draw after that will be in the layer plane. You might try using custom selection (Tools > Custom Selection...) to select items whose planes you want to change. Not sure if that will look inside of groups or not. To keep your design layers synced up turn on Unified View. You can find it under the View menu or it can be placed in the tool bar at the top of the screen. hth mk Quote Link to comment
walzo Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 Thanks again. Sadly it appears that Unified View is one of the features oddly chosen for omission in Fundamentals. I'm going to try my best not be snarky about this, but in general I wish the line between the Design series and Fundamentals was more consistent. Obviously something like creating risers and moving light fixtures automatically is an advanced, industry-specific feature and should be included in Spotlight. However something like this would seem to be part of the core workflow. Quote Link to comment
michaelk Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 I did not realize that... You could always use View>Align Layer Views after each view change. Not a great solution, but it should work. mk Quote Link to comment
CipesDesign Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Or, just a thought, look to see if Unified View is available in the workspace editor or in another workspace... I'm really not sure... But it'd be worth checking! Quote Link to comment
walzo Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 Thanks Peter. Alas, I can add the function in the workspace editor, but I can't use it (it returns a 'not authorized' message). What a tease. Quote Link to comment
CipesDesign Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Yes. I can see how that would be annoying, to say the least. That's one reason (of many) why I usually recommend that folks spend a little more $$ to get Architect or Designer... Quote Link to comment
Nicholas Kargel Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 As a workaround, before the days of unified view, I'd do a lot of design layer viewports (formerly layer links) to bring different layers together into one 3D view. be careful how you class them, as visibilities can start to get confusing. Quote Link to comment
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