Schematic View 3D Rotating (Booms)

[Daniel B. Chapman 17]

I'm was thrilled to see the schematic views as a new feature as the model viewports were next to useless when you needed accuracy in a model. (I actually opted to maintain a 3D file and a 2D file as it saved me time). I cannot stress how much I would like this feature to work for theatrical designers. 

I spent the better part of the morning trying to make this work and I stumbled upon the fact that I needed to create the lighting position perpendicular to the plan and then rotate it up.

If I built this as I normally would in 3D (with a boom  created as a boom would normally stand) I can't use label legends:

 

Obviously there is a workaround (create the position and rotate it) as I have done here, but this seems like an oversight. Is there a way to display the "2D Component View" AND the view of the schematic so we can control this behavior more accurately? It seems to me that I'm nearly ALWAYS going to want to display the 2D component view in "top" where my label legends will be legible but I might want to LOOK AT THE SCHEMATIC from the FRONT/LEFT/RIGHT etc...

 

Is there any more insight I can get into this workflow? It is an obvious improvement but I'm going to be forced to rotate all my 3D components 90 degrees to make it work.

[wclights 2]

I would also love any insights into a more efficient workflow for this. Same as above my normal workflow would be something along the lines of draw lighting pipe, rotate to standing, convert to hanging position, hang lights from there. However, the schematic front view when I do this places the lights and position at a perpendicular angle from each other. The workaround so far is create the light pipe, create the schematic view in top view, rotate the pipe to standing, place my instruments. If I try to convert my light pipe to a hanging position before instruments but after schematic view the schematic no longer works as it still references the light pipe which technically only exists as the base for the hanging position so any lights added do not show up.

[Daniel B. Chapman 17]

Ok, I've been playing around more with this and here's another example where we need more functionality to get the schematics to lay out correctly:

Here's an example of my "ladder" position with a light focused upstage and a light focused as side light. As you can see the plan view doesn't take into account the rotation against the normal (Y) axis.

I would love the ability to set the orientation of the top view of the symbol. I'm sure I can "make this work" by rotating the position but this assumes all my lights are hung the same way in all positions. We really need to be able to control a few more variables in the schematic view.

 

Similarly this doesn't show an accurate depiction of the 3D model in other views:

 

To correct this I'm forced to rotate my hanging position base symbol into the orientation I want the lights drawn and then re-rotate it into the actual model space to get it to lay out. For the most part I'm able to work around this to get the paperwork to layout properly, but I can envision a situation where I'm going to need to draw the units differently and I need a finer grain of control. Something like "use layer plane rotation" rather than whatever the model is laying out in.

[TomWhiteLight 10]

There will be webinars for these workflows soon. I will post on the forum when they are available.

 

[Alexander Thiel 0]

@TomWhiteLight Hey. When will this happen?

 

Thanks in Advance

Alex

[scottmoore 219]

i know I say this a lot, but it seems like it would be helpful to spend a few hours creating yoked out versions of your typically used symbols. Then you can layout your booms and ladders in 2D in the actual way the fixtures hang and not have to rely on the “rotate 3D” functionality. This would also give you an accurate 2D representation. 

 

This is not necessarily a VW provided suggestion, but instead a way to improve your personal workflow. This is what a few of us do and it works quite well. 

[mjm 119]

6 minutes ago, scottmoore said:

i know I say this a lot, but it seems like it would be helpful to spend a few hours creating yoked out versions of your typically used symbols. Then you can layout your booms and ladders in 2D in the actual way the fixtures hang and not have to rely on the “rotate 3D” functionality. This would also give you an accurate 2D representation. 

 

This is not necessarily a VW provided suggestion, but instead a way to improve your personal workflow. This is what a few of us do and it works quite well. 

IN fact, I needed to do this very task with a Martin Mac III for a roof  mount. Took me under two minutes to create the dup, rotate it to satisfy my need and…done.

[Daniel B. Chapman 17]

@scottmoore

This topic is addressing the schematic views and their 2D representation, not the 3D orientation. Advice is always welcome, but in this case I'm interested in having my 3D model (Vision/Capture/Blender) match my Vectorworks model (2D printing plates). 

[TomWhiteLight 10]

Hi Alex. I will hopefully have these webinars in place before christmas. Workload depending. There will be content available on our new training site. Vectorworks University.

 

Best wishes

 

Tom W