Bruce Kieffer Posted May 18, 2019 Share Posted May 18, 2019 I set my symbol's Bot Z to 1/2". I place the symbol, it is 1/2" up from zero, yet the OIP says it's at 0. Why is this? Wouldn't it make more sense for the OIP to say it's at 1/2" when it actually is at 1/2"? Quote Link to comment
CipesDesign Posted May 18, 2019 Share Posted May 18, 2019 Just a guess, but probably the inner mind of VW's uses a symbol's settings as the zero point. For example, when I place a new Sink from the libraries, zero is equal to the bottom of the flange which would sit on a counter top, or about an inch below the sink's highest point. Therefore, if I want the sink to sit on a 30" vanity all I need to do is move up Z=30" and the flange will align as expected. And, if I Edit 3d for the sink I find the Z=0 locus right at that same level. Try it and see what you think. Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted May 19, 2019 Author Share Posted May 19, 2019 22 hours ago, CipesDesign said: Just a guess, but probably the inner mind of VW's uses a symbol's settings as the zero point. For example, when I place a new Sink from the libraries, zero is equal to the bottom of the flange which would sit on a counter top, or about an inch below the sink's highest point. Therefore, if I want the sink to sit on a 30" vanity all I need to do is move up Z=30" and the flange will align as expected. And, if I Edit 3d for the sink I find the Z=0 locus right at that same level. Try it and see what you think. I think I understand, but I do feel it makes more sense to have the correct Bot Z dimension appear in the OIP. Here's an example: I created a floor tile symbol and set its Bot Z to 1/2" so it resides on top of the 1/2" OSB subfloor. It orients correctly in my drawing, but the OIP shows its Bot Z as 0, which I consider wrong. It has caused me problems. Quote Link to comment
CipesDesign Posted May 19, 2019 Share Posted May 19, 2019 Why fight this kind of uphill battle? Just edit your symbol so that your desired Z=0 is aligned with the zero mark (locus) in front or side view and get on with it. See attached. Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted May 20, 2019 Author Share Posted May 20, 2019 19 hours ago, CipesDesign said: Why fight this kind of uphill battle? Just edit your symbol so that your desired Z=0 is aligned with the zero mark (locus) in front or side view and get on with it. See attached. Sure I could do that, but it would be better for me if I could set the symbol to Bot Z = 1/2" since all of the tile is set at that height, but the problem remains the OIP shows it at Bot Z = 0". Quote Link to comment
EAlexander Posted May 20, 2019 Share Posted May 20, 2019 (edited) Set your symbol bottom to 0 with it sitting on the ground, then raise it in Z 1/2" in the OIP - Peter is correct and this is expected behavior as designed. The OIP is only feeding you back what your insertion point is, so it's up to you to put your symbol (inside the symbol editing envelope) at the right place. VW doesn't know what the bottom of the object is, it can only get data from the insertion point. Edited May 20, 2019 by EAlexander 2 Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted May 20, 2019 Share Posted May 20, 2019 4 hours ago, Bruce Kieffer said: Sure I could do that, but it would be better for me if I could set the symbol to Bot Z = 1/2" since all of the tile is set at that height, but the problem remains the OIP shows it at Bot Z = 0". Bruce, it would make more sense to consider the symbol as your "tile" not the geometry within it. Set all the geometry inside the symbol to Bot Z = 0" (relative to the symbol) and set the symbol "tile" to Bot Z = 1/2". (The only reason not to do this is if you anticipate moving the Z height of all the tiles later on since the easiest way to do it would be editing the symbol.) Kevin 1 Quote Link to comment
bcd Posted May 20, 2019 Share Posted May 20, 2019 Yes, I see a Symbol as simply a container and the objects within it can be anywhere in 3d space relative to the origin of the container. This is different to a Group - which constrains its extents to the extents of the objects within. Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted May 21, 2019 Author Share Posted May 21, 2019 I found a solution that I'm pretty sure works. I'm not sure if you folks were telling me this, but if so I did not understand. Here's what I did: I edited my 3D symbol to set the Bot Z back to 0. Next I did these steps: 1) Right clicked my floor tile symbol in the resource manager. 2) Clicked "Edit Symbol Options... 3) I checked Story Aware. 4) I set the Z Reference to Layer Elevation. 5) I set the Z Offset to 1/2". There's a Replace Height checkbox there that allows this change to be applied to all existing instances of the symbol (nice!). Now the OIP shows the symbol at Bot Z 1/2" which is what I need, and the OIP now shows two more fields; Z Ref and Z Offset. Here are some screen shots. 1 Quote Link to comment
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