Looking for Software to Create 2D-Plans from Rhino 3D

Hello,

we use cadwork, its a very good programm for timber-constructions. But the geometry of our developments got more difficult, thats why we`re working with rhinoceros. Rhino is great for this, but the creation of 2D-plans is not very comfortable. Which programms do you use for 2D-plans?

Thanks a lot and please excuse me for my english :wink:

Christopher,
Unfortunately, rhino is poor when it come to traditional architectural drafting output. As far as meeting our workflow in architectural drafting. Particularly when it comes to hiden mode and perspectives it can not print vector grafixs, so it forces for everything to be rasterised. i usually go through a proccess of exporting everything to microstation (via Autocad or in some instances directly 3dm file) as the office uses mainly Microstation. This is my workflow, there may be better options out and it wil be nice to see how others work.

Hopefully they may be some major improvments in 2D output.
e.g
able to print in vector 3D views in perspective and hidden mode
Hatching like in Microstation and easier methods to create hatch patterns
Colouring like in illustrator
fence streching (Microstation)
etc

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We are hoping to improve the ability to produce drawings from Rhino in version 6. We are still identifying the biggest problems that prevent people from using Rhino to produce drawings. Can you tell me what you tried and when you decided Rhino could not do the job well?

Producing drawings is a huge project; we will likely not get everything done for V6, but we hope to get the biggest problems solved first.

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Thanks for the feedback!

We are investigating producing quality PDF files from Rhino, which should also help with printing quality.

Can you please describe the workflows for improved hatching you want to see?

What does ā€œColouring like in illustratorā€ mean? Colored fills? Boundaries? Something else?

Is fence stretching the ability to fence select geometry and stretch by elongating the lines that intersect the fence, but leaving everything inside and outside the fence unchanged?

Sorry to butt in here but Iā€™d like to add to the wishlist:

  1. vector output when in perspective mode (indicated on the previous list)
  2. annotation scaling in perspective mode

Can you please describe this with more words? Iā€™m not sure I understand what exactly youā€™re after.

Iā€™m not sure how to describe this more clearly. Annotative scaling makes your dimensions appear at a consistent size in different viewports regardless of what scale the viewport is zoomed to. But it doesnā€™t work in perspective view - which is the upper right image here.

Itā€™s always possible (likely, even) that Iā€™m misunderstanding something very basic.

@lowell, can you chime in here please?

Gā€™day @brian,

That is very good to hear about V6 plans. It sounds like a massive undertaking. Below is a link that might give some hints on a possible direction or features.

http://www.ssi-corporate.com/product-services/products/marine-drafting

I havenā€™t used it yet, but am looking forward to it. From what Iā€™ve read you define a plane and direction for the view, create a bounding volume that defines which items near the plane are also shown in the view, and then there is the ability to add and subtract items from that bounding volume.

These should not be available in model space, only in detail views. So a detail view has a position in model space as part of its definition. This is a variation on section tools, which was neat, but not particularly user friendly or intuitive.

+1 for vector output of drawings.

Good morning,

yes, I even made some plans with rhino, but it`s very long-winded to create a Plan with rhino. Normally i use Cadwork, with this software you have a 3D and a 2D module. So you can create many plans by an easy way, many plans can be created automatic. I think AutoCAD Inventor is a good solution to create plans from a rhino file.

We have to create lots of plans, and we have very big steel-parts with a complex geometry, the steel-constructor needs many detailplans. For each beam we produce we need a plan to check the measures. So 1/3 we working on 3D and 2/3 of our time we need to create 2D-Plans.

Best regards

Christopher

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Tha absolutley biggest problem is the disappearing lines.
A 2D generator needs to be robust. And a silhouette is never hidden unless it is behind another object.
PLEASE focus on that first.

Then speed.

Then new, cool, different approaches.

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Improvements to Make2D are definitely on our radar. We donā€™t have anything to show yet, but we are working on a new system with the express goals of getting better answers more often, be faster, and have the ability to create answers that many people have requested: automatic closed regions, and closed scene boundaries - both useful for illustrative purposes.

It is a big and complex project, and we donā€™t know when weā€™ll have something for you to try.

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In a perspective view of text, would you expect annotative scaled text to be the same size on the screen if its close to the camera as if its far from the camera?
Would you expect the size to be measured in the plane of the text so that the height in the plane of the screen is smaller for text not oriented flat to the screen, or in the plane of the screen?

I would reply first in general terms - Iā€™m not expecting magic - just something more presentable than my screen shot above.

Answer to first question - yes, the same as dimensions. If Iā€™m doing a perspective view of a room and I have half a dozen tags I donā€™t want the text over by the window to be minute whereas the text closer to the camera to be huge. I want to be able to set a height, say 1/8", and have all text no matter where it is in the scene, be the same height on the screen.

Non answer to second question - that sounds right, the plane of the text is foreshortening the text so it wouldnā€™t look right if it was the same height as text that was parallel to the screen.

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Brian, please have a look at the ā€œAlign, Stretch, Move Parallel, And Move To Contact Toolsā€ video at http://www.infiniteskills.com/training/learning_bentley_microstation_v8i.html. It is a free video.
The ā€˜stretchā€™ command is a not specific feature of Microstation only. You can also find it in e.g. AutoCad.
It is a very useful command, which you can use on every object(cell) in 2D/3D in Microstation.

John

Kind of like a Clipping-plane on steroids?
Or a Detail-Camera / Detail-Box?

-Willem

So would it be a useful tool for you to be able to select a series of beams and auto-generate a page per object?

Are these beams block-objects by any change?
I think when they are blocks it would streamline the possible auto generation of 2D plans per block
as the orientation of the block definition can be an initial guide to setup projections.

-Willem

more like a section detail. so rather than creating a section, either manually or with section tools, then putting that in a detail, the detail creates and manages the section and what is shown in that detail (which it can already do, hideindetail, etc).

This hasnā€™t come up much so it hasnā€™t gotten much focus. In the little experimenting I did a while back, it was pretty easy to make things look strange and the whole thing got shelved.
I guess weā€™ll have to try it, maybe a few times, and see what works for people.

I think one of the biggest issues is to be able to define sections and plans (horizontal sections) which can then be shown as a 2d vector section/plan in layout.
Hatches should be automatically applied or can be applied afterwards. (different hatches for different materials in a building (i.e. concrete, wood, steel etc.) All should be in vector format.

The sections / plans should also show the background elevation.

It should be easy to annotate plans and sections.

It may be worth studying other 3d documenattion packages as i.e. http://www.graphisoft.com/archicad/