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3D Turntable Elevation Viewports


Tucker

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Hello! I’m designing a set with some scenery on a turntable. I’ve drafted this in 3D, and I would like to get elevations of some of the different views. When I do this with ground plans, it’s really easy—I just create a viewport of the stage and masking, and then add a second viewport of the turntable and set in top of the first one. I can then rotate the turntable viewport to the correct orientation for each scene.

 

Is there a way to do this in 3D?

 

Thanks!

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Yes. Use the same principle as you have in 2d. However this time make a series section viewports around the static turntable design layer and then place as desired on top of the elevation of your empty stage. 

 

That should work work well with maybe some tweaking of classes to get things looking just right.

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1 hour ago, Tucker said:

Hello! I’m designing a set with some scenery on a turntable. I’ve drafted this in 3D, and I would like to get elevations of some of the different views. When I do this with ground plans, it’s really easy—I just create a viewport of the stage and masking, and then add a second viewport of the turntable and set in top of the first one. I can then rotate the turntable viewport to the correct orientation for each scene.

 

Is there a way to do this in 3D?

 

Thanks!

 

Put the turntable and the scenery on it into a symbol. Create a class for each state. Duplicate the turntable symbol, rotate it and place it in the appropriate class. Repeat as necessary. Remember to place the initial position into a class as well. Now turn the various classes on/off to change the state of the turntable. Later on when you need to make changes to the turntable and the scenery on it, edit the symbol. It will update everywhere. In the long run this will be much simpler to manage than two sheet layer viewports for each state in both 2d/3d.

 

Kevin

 

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I second Kevin's method. Although I tend to place the different configurations on different layers rather than classes. So the class assignment is for different components of the set. I duplicate the first configuration onto a new layer, rotate it to a new configuration - rinse and repeat. This is applicable to non-turntable sets as well.

 

Gabriel

 

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Another consideration would be to use a Design Layer Viewport. Draw the turntable and all associated scenics on a dedicated layer and then Viewport that I to your Design Layer. Create classes for each necessary iteration of the turntable. Assign the viewport to the appropriate class. Then duplicate the viewport and for each iteration and assign those to their appropriate classes. 

 

The advantage is that you only have to manage a single drawing set and the editing of those drawings is as simple as editing a drawing and not having to go into editing symbols. That said, I usually create scenic elements as hybrid symbols so that I have a nice element to display in plan view. In this scenario you only need to address specific scenic elements as symbols and not having to turn the entire turntable into a symbol.

 

Once you get used to DLVPs you will find they have a lot of functionality besides a “workaround” for angled lighting positions. 

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6 hours ago, Gabriel Chan said:

I second Kevin's method. Although I tend to place the different configurations on different layers rather than classes. So the class assignment is for different components of the set. I duplicate the first configuration onto a new layer, rotate it to a new configuration - rinse and repeat. This is applicable to non-turntable sets as well.

 

I often use layers for scene by scene drawings. In this case I may or may not use classes too but I would definitely put the turntable and the scenery on it into a symbol. Then it would update everywhere it appeared when I made changes to it.

 

2 hours ago, scottmoore said:

The advantage is that you only have to manage a single drawing set and the editing of those drawings is as simple as editing a drawing and not having to go into editing symbols. That said, I usually create scenic elements as hybrid symbols so that I have a nice element to display in plan view. In this scenario you only need to address specific scenic elements as symbols and not having to turn the entire turntable into a symbol.

 

I make the majority of my scenic elements into symbols so this workflow makes sense for me. I like the options to make them into hybrid symbols. I also tend to have a layer per symbol (separate from the composite model, see screen shot below) so its easy to edit and do construction drawings of each scenic element. I tend to orient the scenic element in an easy to edit orientation before creating the symbol and then rotate the symbol. That way direct elevations (eg. parallel to walls etc.) are easy using standard views from sheet layer viewports. Then I only need section viewports some of the time. This saves time since section viewports are the slowest to render (single core).

 

I'm sure that Design Layer viewports would work as well. A few versions back there were issues with them not updating properly so I don't use them much myself.

 

Kevin

 

1200610348_ScreenShot2018-11-12at8_09_33AM.thumb.png.62a1dc2b0c1e309a7f437aad3e689705.png

Edited by Kevin McAllister
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As you can see there are a few options to choose from. My favoured option in fact would be Kevin’s or Scott’s. I suggested the viewport route because that’s what you were doing with your Top/plan views. However Scott’s use of Design Layer Viewports is also a good one (I agree that they are certainly not just for angled lighting positions)

 

I tend to manage different scenery configurations using classes. (Scene-0, Scene-1, Scene-2 etc) and make sure that all the attributes are set to None as a way of reminding me to not create objects using any of those classes.) I use them solely for their visibility options.

 

However, if you use Layers, then you can sometimes take advantage of layer colours which can be helpful if you want to show more than one scene at a time. 

 

The other reason to use a single viewport and mange your scenes with either layers or classes is to make sure that your the relationship between the set/masking and venue architecture is appropriately “stacked” so that objects are hidden or visible correctly.

 

As you can see, there are as usual loads and loads of options!

 

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7 hours ago, Kevin McAllister said:

I often use layers for scene by scene drawings. In this case I may or may not use classes too but I would definitely put the turntable and the scenery on it into a symbol. Then it would update everywhere it appeared when I made changes to it.

 

How true! I tend to receive set drawings from set designers so more often than not that's a done deal and I just replicate in VWX (they mostly come in DWG). This definitely helps with edits. Great workflow 🙂

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks to everyone for the feedback!

 

I ended up using Kevin's method, and it worked great. I made the turntable itself and all the scenic pieces on it into a symbol, copied the whole thing onto different classes, and then rotated the unit to the correct orientation for each scene. The symbol editing feature was handy because I did need to adjust some elements on the set after creating all the scene-by-scenes, and it was quick and easy.

 

I feel like all of these options could work for different situations though, so this is all very helpful. Thanks again!

 

Tucker

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