2D drawings have seen huge improvements in the Rhino 6 WIP, but as we move into 3D drawings there is one place that we are needing some help. Clients regularly ask for the 2D CAD drawings (along with the contracted PDF drawings) that they can use to modify in the future. What would be awesome is a feature to “Make2D” Layout views. That way we could save out flattened 2D drawings for our clients to edit.
The way I see it, we’d set up each layout with the detail views and annotations like normal, so that we could print to PDF or a physical printer. But if the client requests editable 2D drawings we could then go through and “Make2D” each page to create seperate *.dxfs or *.dwgs (one file per page). Any detail views that normally would be rastered for printing would have the Make2D process completed so that editable curves could be generated.
I understand that generally the inability of the end user to edit drawings is a good thing. However, we have a unique client base that requests editable 2D drawings quite regularly. As we move away from Autocad we are recognizing that our clients aren’t moving as fast and we need a way to continue to provide editable “old school” 2D drawings even as we move into 3D more and more.
If there is possibly a way to script this process I’d be very interested in that. Otherwise I understand this wish is probably too late to make it into Rhino6.
Hi Ian - I think this is a request to have Make2d output to a layout and a sort of Bake process when the curves are needed. That is how I envision Make2d working, so I may be reading into your comments, but if that is correct, then yes, that is at least one of the ways the tool could be made better and it is on the list of things to consider - it’s impossible to say yet what the work involved might be, nor what the design might actually be like, but it certainly will not be in V6…
Pascal,
Thats not quite what I was thinking. We use 3D Isometric and planar views of 3D models and then dimension directly from the solids/surfaces in paperspace. This works great for reducing steps in the drawing process, because we skip the step of creating “Make2D” curves which don’t update if the model changes.
I suppose a form of “Baking” with “Make2D” might somewhat align with my wish though. To create a 2D drawing from a layout, the curves in each individual detail view of a layout could be “Baked” into paper space and then the layout could be exported, to a 2D drawing format of choice.
Have you considered refusing supply of CAD files (dwg, etc)?
We’ve been asked and supplied CAD files occasionally and rarely has anything good ever come from it. We will write the scope of work to specifically exclude it from supply, unless the client has a very good reason otherwise. We stick to pdf only.
I suppose it depends on the client, but going by your nickname we are in the same field of work.
This has been a long running goal that started with the rewrite of Make2D in V6. Basically, generating vector output for for technical style drawings without having to “bake” that geometry first. A lot of the functionality is possible today in a semi-automated way through our SDK, but it is still far from where it needs to be.
There is the case where you freelance for a design office which uses Acad, and communicate ideas with them using .dwg files, also the resulting drawings belong to the client in these cases.
This isn’t exactly what you are looking for but here is a method for creating single layout extracts from a file.
Generally we only provide PDFs. That is what we prefer to do. But we have a number of “Hands-on” clients who want to be able to use the drawings to create their own drawings for in-house use. We have long standing relationships with them and prefer to keep them happy. Additionally, we have other clients who are obligated by their own contracts to store digital copies of the 2D prints. We could sent the Rhino model for them to store, but would rather limit them to 2D drawings.
Steve, If you could point me to the applicable SDK commands that I would use to script up something, that would go a long way to meeting our need. A quick search for Make2D in the online API help doesn’t bring up any search results so I’m guessing the function is under a different name or broken in to simpler parts.
We had a good reason at the time, I swear Once the name is set and we publish SDKs, there is no going back. We’ll just have to make up for it with good samples and documentation.
Once the name is set and we publish SDKs, there is no going back. We’ll just have to make up for it with good samples and documentation.