hatching elevations

[Diana]

I have seen examples of elevations ala AutoCad with hatches, not rendered. I have done viewports of in hidden line which yield simple line elevations. Short of making new polygons for everything (and how would I go around windows) how do I hatch the image to make it look fancier?

[Robert Anderson]

What version of VWA do you have? Do you have RenderWorks?

[Diana]

Yes, I do. I converted to polygons to try to hatch them but all the hidden line stuff is all there and when I try to hatch an area, they are in the way. It would be faster to retrace the elev in line than to delete everything!

[Diana]

I am having so many problems with elevations. I created a gable roof, added a point and reshaped the wall. That was good. Then I added a high up window to simulate the attic vent. However to show in elev and ortho views I had to put it in the wall. Now it is registering as being on the second floor, since the wall starts there. But it is above the 2nd story windows so in plan it looks riduculous. If I take it off the wall I don't have it in elevation.

[Diana]

Would I have to save a duplicate layer with that window to use in the viewports? That would work except that it was so fast to build the condos from sketched notes and now I am spending just as much time creating correct elevations that I lost all that I gained. We are not really using the 3-D views as the project is too small to warrent the time it takes to set up lights and rendering and all that.

[Grant M]

Diana I use classes and/or layers to separate out objects that only appear in 2D or 3D. They are turned on/off as needed for a particular view. This can sometimes require a little duplication i.e. walls for attic windows.

If you want a quick(ish) hatched elevation you could convert a copy of your model elevation to lines, place solid polygons behind the windows, and hatch an elevation shaped polygon behind that (or put them on separate layers.)

Placing a solid polygon behind the windows (or better-within the window) allows a window to be easily moved without affecting the hatch. You can also cut holes in a polygon (in this case the hatching) if you would prefer by using the clip surface tool.

Obviously using 2D techniques requires more work than 3D modelling when a client requests changes - as is their perogative.

[Kevin]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Diana:

I am having so many problems with elevations. I created a gable roof, added a point and reshaped the wall. That was good. Then I added a high up window to simulate the attic vent. However to show in elev and ortho views I had to put it in the wall. Now it is registering as being on the second floor, since the wall starts there. But it is above the 2nd story windows so in plan it looks riduculous. If I take it off the wall I don't have it in elevation.

---

I just tried something that might work for you. Rather than running the wall to the roof, I created a gable roof using the Create Roof command and chose to create gable end walls using the checkbox in the OIP.

I then ungrouped the roof and inserted a window into the gable wall. This way the window resides in the Roof layer and not in the Floor layer. It shows in elevation but does not show in the roof plan, just as I would want it.

[Robert Anderson]

Why not try something different? The goal is to make, as you say, "fancier" looking elevations. Try using the Render Bitmap tool to make a rendered elevation as a bitmap and send it to the back, behind your hidden-line elevation. If you have RenderWorks 11, try this with the "color wash" setting on the Artistic RenderWorks mode (I especially like this one...)

[Kevin]

Thanks for the tip, Robert. BTW, do you have some guidelines for resolution settings? Rendered Bitmaps can get quite large. At what point is more resolution just a waste of file size?

[Robert Anderson]

This has to do with your printer. Generally, I would set the resolution of a (colored) bitmap to be one-third that of my printer. So if my printer were 600 dpi, I'd set the bitmap rez to 200 dpi. Your milage may vary.

[Diana]

Thanks for the tips, everyone. Robert, I hadn't had time to play with Renderworks and I was familiar with AutoCad so I was trying to mimic it. I definately want to get into different looks than conv. Acad but I was on a deadline.

Kevin, the gable wall idea is good except that it shows a line where the pieces meet in Hidden line elev. Maybe if I was hatching it wouldn't matter.

Grant, you answered my next problem, how to hatch around windows done as cad lines. I realized too, that changes in cad elev. add time but now more than Acad.

[Kevin]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Diana:

...Kevin, the gable wall idea is good except that it shows a line where the pieces meet in Hidden line elev....

---

Hidden line rendering usually produces some unwanted lines. Make a copy of your hidden line rendering and ungroup it. Then you can delete individual lines and draw in lines that should be there but did not render.

[LarryAZ]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Robert Anderson:

Why not try something different? The goal is to make, as you say, "fancier" looking elevations. Try using the Render Bitmap tool to make a rendered elevation as a bitmap and send it to the back, behind your hidden-line elevation. If you have RenderWorks 11, try this with the "color wash" setting on the Artistic RenderWorks mode (I especially like this one...)

---

I love this idea. It makes great looking elevations that can be easily annotated.

How do you get them on a sheet? I can't get them to show up using a viewport. I tried coping the bitmap to a new layer and making a viewport but nothing shows up in the viewport. I tried pasting direcly on the sheet and the bitmap is about the size of Texas.

Larry

[ 08-17-2004, 09:38 PM: Message edited by: LarryAZ ]