Top and Plan simultaniously

[RickR]

I've been wrestling with some poorly drawn symbols. I've developed a trick to see both the 2D and 3D portions simultaneously, for alignment purposes.

 

It got me thinking that a temporary hybrid/hybrid view could be useful in other cases. Spotlight fixtures, truss, positions would benefit, and maybe even simple door/window/wall situations.

 

So I propose a "Top AND Plan" view mode. All hybrid objects would show all of their components at once.

[Andy Broomell]

YES! I've often wished I could see both components of hybrid symbols at once.

 

What is your workaround?

[Mike T]

Yeah, Hybrid 2D/3D symbols are very frustrating to match up & align... unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious...  

[PVA - Admin]

12 hours ago, Andy Broomell said:

YES! I've often wished I could see both components of hybrid symbols at once.

 

What is your workaround?

I often end up having to break the symbol apart, align everything and then recreate the symbol, it's a time sink at best and dangerous at worst if you have symbols with records attached. This wish has my vote.

[Kevin McAllister]

This is partly the reason behind my wish to have symbols display their origin clearly in all symbol edit modes so there's a reference. I would also prefer if the views didn't move when switching between the edit modes - 2d, 3d and wall hole component.

 

Kevin

[zoomer]

1 hour ago, Kevin McAllister said:

I would also prefer if the views didn't move when switching between the edit modes - 2d, 3d and wall hole component.

 

That is a great idea in general !

 

I would like to have an option that the View doesn't change ever, until I actively change the View.

 

It may be sometimes nice, when Editing a bunch of Extrudes after each other starting from an Isometric,

that it jumps into Top Plan View automatically - and back when you leave.

But that doesn't work for me in general.

As I have mostly more than one 2D Object in my Extrudes and have my whole geometry not centered over

the VW origin but its lower left corner of the Bounding box only (=start of building grid)

 

My wish to keep the VIEW untouched is meant for everything :

When doing Undos, when entering or leaving Edit Modes, when changing active Layers, ....

Edited September 14, 2017 by zoomer

[RickR]

3 hours ago, Mike T said:

Yeah, Hybrid 2D/3D symbols are very frustrating to match up & align... unless I'm missing something blindingly obvious...  

 

My trick is to edit the 2D and Cut everything, go to the 3D parts, and Paste in Place. Make sure that all the 2D stuff is set to screen plane. That way, when closing the 3D edit it gets pushed back into 2D.

 

We will still have to deal with filled objects obscuring stuff underneath. Top/Plan 'front/back' rules should let us control what we see.

[Mike T]

13 hours ago, RickR said:

 

My trick is to edit the 2D and Cut everything, go to the 3D parts, and Paste in Place. Make sure that all the 2D stuff is set to screen plane. That way, when closing the 3D edit it gets pushed back into 2D.

 

Yeah, my fix was to have a copy of all the 2D objects onto the design layer then go into the symbol and align the 2D and 3D data, one at a time to the objects on the design layer... seems clunky though?... would be much easier to just see both hybrid objects at the same time!

[zoomer]

May be a 2D/3D Switch in Edit Mode that will show the other part grayed out if needed,

like surounding geometry.

[Kevin McAllister]

The cleanest solution might be to make an improvement to the "Show Other Objects While In Edit Modes" option. I know there's already a wish on the books to allow finer control for this (eg. levels of control when working in nested items).

 

Kevin

[RickR]

While all this is great for symbols, I can't help thinking it would be useful in other situations as well. Something more like X-ray mode, or the view behind functions to toggle "View Plan & 3D"

 

[LJ TMS]

I agree with all the suggestions here. It really is a pain.

 

Here's is my workaround. Although a few extra steps, I find it's the most precise method for me (and won't mess up attached records).

 

1. Edit 2D component of symbol.

2. Select All. With everything selected...

    2a. Attributes palette, change opacity to 50%.

    2b. Object Info palette, change plane to 'Symbol Definition' (this will move your 2D to the 3D component).

    2c. Group (so it will be easy to manipulate as a single object).

3. Exit 2D edit mode. Notice in the Resource Manager your symbol is a 3D only now.

4. Edit 3D component.

5. If you're in Top/Plan view, you'll see your semi-transparent 2D component on top of the 3D components. Move or edit as needed.

6. Once finished, select the grouped 2D component, ungroup, goto Object Info and change plane back to Screen.

7. Exit 3D edit mode. Notice in the Resource Manager your symbol is back to hybrid.

8. Edit 2D component.

9. Select All. Change opacity back to 100%.

 

Note that you cannot change the plane of a group. So you must change plane before grouping in step 2, and ungroup before changing plane in step 6.

 

[Andy Broomell]

2 hours ago, LJ TMS said:

1. Edit 2D component of symbol.

2. Select All. With everything selected...

    2a. Attributes palette, change opacity to 50%.

    2b. Object Info palette, change plane to 'Symbol Definition' (this will move your 2D to the 3D component).

    2c. Group (so it will be easy to manipulate as a single object).

3. Exit 2D edit mode. Notice in the Resource Manager your symbol is a 3D only now.

4. Edit 3D component.

5. If you're in Top/Plan view, you'll see your semi-transparent 2D component on top of the 3D components. Move or edit as needed.

6. Once finished, select the grouped 2D component, ungroup, goto Object Info and change plane back to Screen.

7. Exit 3D edit mode. Notice in the Resource Manager your symbol is back to hybrid.

8. Edit 2D component.

9. Select All. Change opacity back to 100%.

 

Vectorworkarounds... gotta love it

 

[Art V]

This option would indeed be quite nice to have, if possible with a colour and transparency that you can designate for the 2D part in such a view so that  you don't have to change the colour and transparency of the actual 2D object.