BLOCKIFY

Michael Mayer
Michael Mayer
edited November 2018 in 3D Modeling

Oh,
2D only ?
(or single Solid)

I was very impressed by the Videos and thought this is great for me.
I pulled out a Vectorworks project where I modeled with Solids only,
no BIM Plugin Objects, but lots of Symbols (Blocks).
I had lots of exterior Benches which I forgot to instance at that time.
Just 1 concrete Cube on 2 steel Frames.

BLOCKIFY will not use Selections with more than 1 Solid.
(And I hardly have anything 2D in my workflow at all)

Is that something that will improve in the near future or are there any
technical restrictions that will prevent BLOCKIFY usage with n*Solids
(or Meshes) forever ?

Comments

  • WouterNys
    WouterNys

    Hello Michael,

    I just saw your post passing by on the forum. It's the first time I see it, so my apologies for the late answer!

    The BLOCKIFY command was firstly showcased on the Bricsys 2019 Conference and introduced in the BricsCAD V19 Release. As you correctly noticed, this version only supported sets of 2D entities or single 3D solids.

    The previous months, we have been listening carefully to all our user's voices, and worked very hard to improve our existing tools. Since the V19.2 version, which was released a few weeks ago, the BLOCKIFY functionality is broadly extended. Now it is possible to specify an input set containing really everything:

    • 2D entities: lines, circles, arcs, polylines, multilines, text, multiline text, hatches, dimensions, solids, traces, leader, multileaders,
    • 3D entities: faces, solids,
      or a combination! It is even possible to put existing block references (containing a random combination of the abovementioned entities) in the input set, in order to create nested block references.

    I hope this newly added functionality helps you further!

    Kind regards,

    Wouter Nys
    R&D Software engineer @ Bricsys
    Developed BLOCKIFY

  • Michael Mayer
    Michael Mayer
    edited March 2019

    Hi Mr Blockify,
    I'm very impressed by what you and the team are doing !

    Yes, I wanted to update this thread for v19.2 but there was
    no time unfortunately.

    I carefully read all Release Notes and found that Blockify already improved.
    Misleading was that there are 2 Blockifies now, a 2D and a 3D.
    I have still only one Blockify quite deeply informal hidden in Menu.
    I always searched in Quad.

    And I already Benchmarked the new version - with my Park "Bench".
    3 Solids, 2x same frame for legs and a simple concrete Block.
    Which I forgot to block-ify before I spread instances in the park.

    I tried again and realized that it will no more warn about multiple Solids.
    But at the end I had no Block with Bench but still 3 parts.
    So I thought I have still the older Blockify Version.
    I found the short Blockify Video too already.
    (Much too fast for me, watched at least 10 times and stopped every few
    milliseconds to get what is going on ....)
    So I see it works now by double Blocking,
    1. Select all Parts and create Blocks from each
    2. run again with your Blocks, to finally create a nested Block

    Nested Blocks make sense of course in efficiency and is even more than
    I expected from Blockify.
    But for exports they are not always without problems and more,
    I think working with "nested" Blocks a bit cumbersome in Bricscad.

    So in your case with the damper or hydraulic cylinder,
    in case I need to do larger changes later,
    I would prefer to just create a Block from all Solids as 1 single Block,
    instead of Block-ing all Rods, Cylinders, ....

    So I would very welcome an Option to just create a Block for from
    all selected Solids that have the same geometric relations or distances
    to each other in the file (my Park Benches)

    That is what I assumed when I saw how 2D Blockify works.
    (The bunch of lines copied and rotated over each other)

    Am I right with my fears that this could be a bit problematic in
    programming terms. That such an estimation for 3D elements wouldn't
    be that trivial and likely much much slower in large files ?

    BTW I
    Which Insertion Point or Block Origin does Blockify automatically create ?

    BTW II
    I am really impressed by V19, or even .0 to .2 releases, features and constant improvements !