Plot 3D Viewport to 2D Wireframe on PDF

Rory Brady
Rory Brady
in 3D Modeling

Afternoon all,

I'm not sure if anyone else has this problem, as my workflow isn't the best at the moment. I am currently try to find the best visual style to plot a 3D model viewport to 2D wireframe for printing to PDF. I have attached a drawing as an example of what is happening. Basically we are creating viewports into the model space, lining up the 3D model in the view port and then prining the page setup to PDF.

When we do this (for larger models) the PDF seems to constantly reload the model as you open it/move around in it. Has anyone come across this, and is there something I am doing wrong or just the fact that I shouldn't be trying to print a 3D viewport to 2D wireframe? I have been trying to get the same PDF result by using BIM Section and various other tools but can't seem to get the right colours etc. at the minute. Still working on it, just wanted to see if this would work in the meantime.

Thanks very much and appreciate any assistance.

Comments

  • Roy Klein Gebbinck
    Roy Klein Gebbinck
    edited October 2017

    Using the 2D wireframe visual style is indeed the problem. It means that all edges are printed. Even if they are hidden or exactly match other edges in the PDF. You can try to use the (Legacy) Hidden visual style, but this does mean the viewport will result in an image in the PDF. And, depending on the zoom factor in the PDF reader, will look different than the vector-based results you have now.

  • Hans De Backer
    Hans De Backer

    Hi Roy,
    when using Legacy Hidden plot style, edges of solids will be exported to PDF as vectors. E.g. one can control their linetype and when attaching such pdf as an underlay, it will possible to snap to endpoints and similar.
    Calculation of vectorial (=exact) 'legacy' hidden line output is expensive though, so it takes longer to create this type of output compared to producing a rendered (=approximate) hidden visual style output (to which no linetypes or linecolors can be applied).

  • Roy Klein Gebbinck
    Roy Klein Gebbinck

    @Hans De Backer:
    Thank you for your comment. You are right in that the Legacy hidden plot style does produce vectors, but in my test the entity linetype is not displayed. See the attached files.

    In conclusion I think that both the 'Hidden' visual style and the 'Legacy hidden' plot style do not produce the result the OP is after, namely a 2dWireframe 'look' without duplicate lines.

This discussion has been closed.