Hey guys,
I have a problem I couldn’t solve. I am making a 3d model and I want to use CAD drawings made by other architects. I want to establish a workflow that would allow me to update the model once the drawings are changed.
These are the steps for the workflow:
- I attach drawings in the worksession, use lines/curves to model whatever I need. Everything works fine, except:
a. I can’t move the drawings. For instance, if the authors of the drawings used real world cordinates of the project, that means I have to model far far away from the origin of Rhino WCS. That makes artifacts and flickering of the model.
b. I can’t really use elevations and sections, because they are attached to the same place and with the same coordinates as in the CAD file, meaning they are on Top view.
c. Attaching several floor plans results in missing parts, because in the original drawing people used the same block (for instance, elevator) for several floors. Thus, you have an elevator on the first floor drawing, but not on the second, third and etc.
Advantages: you have a clean file, you can use lines
Disadvantages: you can’t position the drawings; you have missing parts (e.g. same block on different floor plans)
The other option is to make a new Rhino file, insert all the drawings, rotate, move if needed, save the file and use that file in the worksession of the main file. This method works mainly for elevations and sections (see later why).
So, the logic is like this: CAD → Rhino (Inserted to) → Rhino (Main file)
You can ask why can’t I just insert all the drawings in the main file, move, rotate or do whatever tranformations I need. Firstly, I don’t want to keep those reference drawings in the file. When you try to delete the inserted block (drawing) from the BlockManager - it leaves nested blocks and the layers in which these blocks are. You can see those nested blocks of the CAD file in the BlockManager, but you can’t delete them, nor you can delete layers of the inserted block in the Layers window. Second, when you insert a file (Linked) you can’t pick lines or curves and use them for modeling. Thus, it works only for sections and elevations, because usually I use them as a reference of floor heights and etc.
Advantages: you have a clean file
Disadvantages: you can’t use the lines of the drawing; works for elevations and sections, but not for plans
So the ideal workflow would be the following:
- Using worksession you attach drawings you need, rotate ones you need or move, explode the blocks of the drawing during the attachment or Rhino makes copies of the blocks for each attachment.
or 2. When you insert the drawing you can automatically explode all the nested blocks so that after you can easily delete the block and get rid of the corresponding layers.
I know that I can manually clean the drawings, move to the coordinates I need, use them in Rhino, but… the drawings are being changed and it quite tedious to do the same thing with multiple floor plans with every update they make. I would like to quickly update the drawings in the Rhino file and use them to make changes.
Thanks.