19 replies to this topic

[Dave Pazyniak]

Good Afternoon,

 

4 (hopefully) minor questions on my latest attempt to render...

 

1. I wanted a custom door for the solid doors on the rendering.  I drew what I wanted and started to save as a "Elevation Openings" in the system library.  Once there, I found an opening that matched what I drew as shown on the screen capture.  However, I can not select a door with that style.  How do I use the door style already provided instead of creating a new one?

 

2. My roof over the patio section will not snap to the exterior of the fireplace, so I snap it to the interior and use a negative overhang.  I think that is causing the white triangles where the roof and chimney meet.  How can I force the roof to bear where I need it to?

 

3. I need to improve my skills working with shapes in 3d.  Is there a tutorial somewhere?  My task this time is to create a round sign hanging off the sides of the building.  As close as I can come so far is the round hollow cylinder shown on the renderings.

 

4. How can I get the brick to show on the top of my kneewall?

 

Thank you for any assistance,

Dave

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[Keith Almond]

1. You can't use an elevation opening on plan, you have to use the opening it's defined in. I think the one you are looking for is:

OPENINGS > MANUFACTURER > THERMA-TRU > RUSTIC COLLECTION > 36X80 CCR205

 

2. Is the wall the right way round? The roof won't snap to anywhere on that wall? Check the orientation.

 

3. For a round sign, I'd open a NEW drawing, and put in in the model on it's own. Make it in PLAN with the 3D shapes that you want (adjust the height as necesssary). EXPORT the 3D MODEL as a DWG file, then use the SYMBOL WIZARD to re-orient it.

 

4. I'm not sure which knee wall you want the brick to show on ... but you can just edit the material to brick if you wish.

[Keith Almond]

Dave, can you show us what your round sign needs to be, or is it confidential?

 

You may also want to look at this thread ... http://softplan.com/...ignage-question

[Keith Almond]

How about this ...

 

 

 

[D M]

 

 

2. My roof over the patio section will not snap to the exterior of the fireplace, so I snap it to the interior and use a negative overhang.  I think that is causing the white triangles where the roof and chimney meet.  How can I force the roof to bear where I need it to?

 

 

Try using a hidden beam inside the chimney shaft and snap to that as well

[Dave Pazyniak]

Thank you all! Updated pic attached, comments below...

 

1. Never thought to look at the manufacturer doors.  DUH.  That is exactly what I needed.

 

2. Hidden beams fixed my issue, but I'd like to understand the walls. It is a block wall, defined as load bearing, but I cannot select which side is to be the exterior(it is greyed out).  Is it because the chimney continues past the plane of the roof?

 

3. Sign attached.  I will read through the link.  Can I just draw a solid cylinder on its side?

 

4. Tweaking the wall height got the brick to clean up on the top of the knee wall around the patio.

 

Thank you all again!

Dave

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[Keith Almond]

I suspect that it being a single wall and grey out the "outside" is what is causing the problem. Try add a 0" thick NONE material to the inside, and see if it makes a difference.

[D M]

 

 

3. Sign attached.  I will read through the link.  Can I just draw a solid cylinder on its side?

 

Use ‘Horizontal Arc Plane’

Give it the diameter you want, .. length is this case equates to the thickness of the disk

Change Horizontal Appearance to ‘Cylinder Slice, .. this infills the arc

Make a copy of this half disc, ..

Change the Start Angle of the copy to 180° .. leave the sweep angle as is at 180

Position the half discs relative to each and offset up accordingly, ..

 

The BIG problem with this, .. which makes it redundant in your application, .. is that although a continuous texture can be surface applied over all, an image will want to affix itself twice, .. (two half discs, .. )

 

Maybe someone else can suggest from there, ..

 

Forget most of my suggestion above, .. you only need one object, .. see edit below, ..

 

 

EDIT, .. problem solved, .. see 2nd image, .. Erase one of the half discs, .. change the sweep angle on the remaining to 360°, .. becomes one surface for image to attach to, ..

[Keith Almond]

I don't believe that you can draw a solid cylinder on it's side (the only full cylinders I can find are either hollow or vertical). Although you can draw a partial cylinder that's solid. And copy it, and edit it's start angle to 180 and put them together.

 

If anyone knows how to do a horizontal solid cylinder ... without turning it in the symbol wizard ... let me know.

 

I still think that the SYMBOL WIZARD is the way to go though.

 

If you can get me a flat version of that sign ... like a letterhead or a website logo, I'll do a small tutorial showing what I would do.

[D M]

Keith, .. see my post above

[Keith Almond]

Didn't think about changing the sweep - Nice solution. However, what diameter is that? I'm getting this, which is 3' diameter, and I can't get it round. What am I doing?

 

[D M]

Hmm, .. that is an issue, ..

 

My original, just by chance I made at 30' diameter, ..

 

The attached image shows your same result at 3', .. the rest are 5, 8 and 12' diameters, .. obviously the 'sides' disappear the larger you go, .. but that's no good if one needs it to be a smaller size, ..

 

Yet another thing to explore to see if it can be tweaked for appearance, ..

 

Maybe it's an issue for Softplan to resolve, .. 2D circles have no problem regardless of their diameter, .. they show as round as they should, ..

[D M]

Softplan seems to be generating most small diameter 3D solid curves as segmented, .. unless there's a setting I'm missing somewhere, ..

 

Makes no difference whether it's Render Mode or other and anti-alias is set at 10, ..

 

Outer ring (rail) is 4'+- diameter, ..

 

[Dave Pazyniak]

After several failed attempts, I think I have a problem.  Using a post from November by Keith, and the help dialog, I think I found what I messed up so I am going through the process step by step.  When I get to the "import the 3D symbol" step, I get an error message that "The location you selected already contains the file "round sign.DWG"".  I have tried deleting the library I was creating, using different dwg files from different locations, and other things and I cannot get past this step.  Any ideas how I can clear out my mistakes and try again?

 

T.I.A.

Dave

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[Keith Almond]

Don't click on the Import 3D symbol button. Just click on the open 3D SYMBOL FOLDER and 3D SYMBOL boxes

[Dave Pazyniak]

That gets me to the select view dialog, but they are blank. I click on no and next and those are blank also.

 

Feeling pretty stupid...  , and maybe a bit frustrated...

Dave

[Keith Almond]

I'm assuming that the "Round Sign.dwg" was built by you in the plan, or was it provided by someone else as an AutoCad drawing.

 

If it was by you, how did you save the .dwg file? It's IMPORTANT that it was exported as a DWG from the 3D MODEL WINDOW. If you exported it from the plan, then you have only saved a 2D drawing.

[Tim Stockton]

You may need to go to Windows Explorer and delete the file from the folder the wizard saved it in first before using the wizard to create the sign.  I regularly run into this...

[Dave Pazyniak]

That helped, but I still have something screwed up.  Screen shot 23 shows where I export my dwg ( I had to crop it for file size).  24 shows the beginning of the process, and it looks correct. 25 shows where I select the top view.  26 shows the next view select and it is all out of proportion.  I finished the block and placed it in the rendering.  It is on the ground on the right side.

 

Thank you yet again,

Dave

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