Parametric Constraints, 2D Polyline to 3D Solid

Lukas Fertig

I'm setting up a collection of cabinets and other furniture and want to show the swing direction of the doors using a polyline on the BRX_2D+_SWING layer. The plan view of the cabinet works nicely, but i don't manage to somehow constrain the directional marker on the door to the solid, or to create helping lines in 3D space to constrain it to. Does anyone have an idea how to solve this?

RSW

Are your markers 2d or 3d objects? 3D constraints don't work on 2D objects and vice versa. So if your lines are 2D lines then using constraints won't work. You could try converting your helping lines to 3D polylines and see if if that works.

Alternatively as a workaround you could use the thicken command on the lines with a very small value to generate a 3D object that would look like a line and you could use constraints on. There are probably more elegant solutions and I'd have to try some ideas first but this could be a quick and dirty workaround for the time being.

Joe Dunfee

Another part of the process needs to be a way to hide/show the 2d vs. 3d representation.

The Mac program Vectorworks handles the idea of a hybrid 2D3/D object very well. This was from a trail I had done of the software over a decade ago. They may have changed their approach over time. I only spent a few days with the software, but it seemed like 3D objects had a 2D drawing associated with them. My memory is vague, but I seem to recall that whenever you changed your view, Vectorworks would automatically choose the 2D version, if you were in plan view, or the 3D if the view were not a plan view. Though, sometimes it seemed to get confused, and show the wrong kind of view. Or more likely, I didn't understand how to use all the settings. That is the problem with smarter software, the user has to know what the program will do on its own, and comply to its work-flow process.

I wonder if it is somehow possible to nest parametric blocks? Two parametric blocks, one is 2D and the other is 3D, and they are present in the parent block, which has the parent attributes. Specialized software would have to edit the sub-blocks individually, and pass on the appropriate parent attributes, such as the door swing direction. The two sub-blocks would need to be on different layers, so that the user could turn off all the 3D, or all the 2D versions, depending on what they want to see.

-Joe

Lukas Fertig

Using a 3D Polyline didn't work. I didn't manage to constrain the polylines endpoints to the solid.

Vectorworks indeed has 2D/3D representations, but as far as i recall only for the plan view. Using the BRX_2D+/BRX_2D layers you can enhance/replace the 3D representation in floorplans and elevations, it's explained briefly in the help under "using parameters".

Nesting parametric blocks is actually the solution. You can constrain the block to the doors faces and drive the parameters using the parents dimensions. Whats nice about it: it is way easier just adding the sub-blocks and driving the parameters than constraining everything within one file.

Thanks for the hint

Lukas Fertig

just tested the section views, it looks like it's displaying properly. I attached my testfile if anyones interested

Yass

Using the prefix 'BRX_2D_' to layers to replace section geometry with 2D symbols work like a treat, but is there a way to remove the prefix in the layer name in the result of the bimsection generation? Or perhaps someone knows how to do this as a batch change to files?