Then allowing -1 as a valid setting in the view scaling section would do exactly what you’re describing…and all picking would work correctly. Unfortunately, the code that does all of this is not accessible in the OpenNURBS SDK, and therefore writing a plugin to do it is near impossible. I could certainly try to hack something together…but no promises.
If I can manage something, here’s what I’m thinking…
A simple command called “Flip”, that will act on and bind itself to the “Active View”, and will simply scale the view by -1 vertically… Notice I said active view…this means it will work on any view regardless of which display mode is being used… So in your “Bottom View” scenario… you would simply set a view’s projection to “Bottom”, make sure it is the active view, and run the “Flip” command… Running the command again on the same view would just turn it off and return the view back to normal.
Ok first draft…, I’ve attached both versions… Although I’m skeptical if it’s going to do what you expect…so let me know.
Note: This will not work (does nothing) for Perspective views, only orthographic projections. I’m also not sure how well (if at all) any of the lighting and shading modes will work, since the scaling is applied across the board… But I’m sure I’ll hear about it
I did run the plugin and think it’s working the way some people asked for.
However as I’m not the requester I’d leave it up to those in need of these RCP’s to comment
It works. I tried overlaying a plan detail with a reflected ceiling plan, ghosted. I’m doing awful things to the detail view (I don’t think anyone expected users to stack them) and it was cranky to set up, but it does exactly what I need.
@Sam I wonder if you could look at the attached png? On the upper left, you have a ceiling seen in perspective view from below with an object “hidden” underneath up near the ceiling that could only be seen from – underneath. To its right, you have the conventional “top view”. You can’t see the hidden object.
Lower left hand image is the conventional “bottom view”. You can see the “hidden” object but the ceiling is flipped. It does NOT look like the ceiling would if it were glass and you were looking at it from above.
Bottom right hand image is the flipped view. It also does not look like the ceiling would if it were glass and you were looking at it from above – and you can’t see the hidden object, which you should be able to, right?
The whole point of a reflected ceiling plan is to show you everything that’s up at the ceiling.
The plugin is only a Projection flip…it’s not a “Bottom Ceiling View” plugin… You first have to set your view to a Bottom projection, and then run FlipView… Your images and description look/sound like your flipping the Top view projection.
Thank you-- this is going to be an essential part of the arsenal for both architects and set designers. If only we could find a way of telling them : )
Sorry @jeff , I do have a RCP due on this set and thought I would get to it this week, but as usual, things slip. When I get there, I’ll certainly give your plug-in a go around and report back on it. Thank you for whipping something up so quickly, if only my drafting was as fast as your coding
Oh, this is so tantalizingly close! At first look it does exactly what I would expect it to do, although it does make me feel a bit drunk trying to navigate it in a detail The issue that I am having seems mostly related to its use in details. The flipped view doesn’t stay put in a detail (it swims around a bit), and it seems flipView will also turn itself off if I try and lock the detail. Less important, but interesting, is hatches and pictureFrames in layout space don’t get flipped (I did this by mistake, and for my immediate needs have no use for applying flipView to a whole layout, but thought it was interesting).
For a bit of an explanation, if I make a detail, set it to bottom drop in a clipping plane, call FlipView, double click out of the detail, the flipped view stays (which from you initial description sounded like it might not do), but the contents of the detail now slips around as I pan and zoom the layout.
Also, when playing around with this in model space, it behaves much more predictably (zooming takes a bit to get used to because it doesn’t zoom toward the mouse pointer). I do have a display mode however where it is behaving badly. It seems that wires are in the right place, but the meshes aren’t flipping (and as I pan, the two are going in different directions). I’m not sure what it is about that display mode that is making things unhappy, but it is attached.
Hey @jeff, just bumping this to be sure you saw it. I understand if it isn’t high on your list, but wanted to make sure you knew it got some feed back.
The issue that I am having seems mostly related to its use in details. The flipped view doesn’t stay put in a detail (it swims around a bit), and it seems flipView will also turn itself off if I try and lock the detail. Less important, but interesting, is hatches and pictureFrames in layout space don’t get flipped (I did this by mistake, and for my immediate needs have no use for applying flipView to a whole layout, but thought it was interesting).