Before getting started I’ll mention the Layout Tab (just because I never knew about it:
Tip 1) Creating Views - My approach is to just pick a way that works and is easy to memorize. In certain situations I can create views faster, but I usually forget how. The CPlane from 3 Point method has been very reliable. Sometimes you snap to something unintentionally, so creating temporary guides to make sure that doesn’t happen might help. If you’re using one of the standard Orthogonal views (Top, Left, Right, Front, Back, Bottom) you might get away with not creating a custom CPlane.
I’ve started annotating in Paper Space. If you can you should. One of my reasons for not doing this was because I wanted all annotations in the same space. It’s hard to have things like Grid Lines and Reference Lines in Paper Space because your dimensions won’t work: They’ll grab Paper Space Dimensions.
In the example, I’m making sure my “project” snap is set. Make sure to remember to turn this on/off as it can really throw you for a loop if you forget:
Not my tip but I’ll include it here because it’s so importing: “Invert” combined with “Hide In Detail”. Make sure you have everything ready (and selected). That could include any reference lines and clipping planes if you want to enable them (it’s easier to do from within the Detail View itself). You can always hide them after.
I’m finding it easier to enable clipping planes from within the Details (better known as “viewports” for us ACAD users):
I’m still overlapping details unfortunately. But… at least I get what I think is a good result. If you establish an order of operations it’s quick. Once the view is set and locked, and the Detail sized correctly, I’m copying it over a little to the side (or else I have to hide one of the details), setting the display mode(s), then overlapping them. I have a layer for “Raster” and “Vector”. And I use the commands “Bring to Front” and “Send to Back” if/when needed. Note that in the example I forgot to do the “Invert → Hide in Detail” step (forgot because I had temporary isolate on). Meaning I had to repeat that step for both details… which wasn’t terrible but preferably avoided.
Getting used to the way Rhino objects work has a lot of advantages. I found a few tricks when working with dimensions. One thing that took me a bit to figure out is that the text’s grip is in the middle of the dimension line even if the text is off to the side… at least until you move the text. I have “DX” and “DY” as aliased for orthogonic dimensions. This is a huge time saver and effectively mimics ACAD once you’re used to the aliases. “PointsOn” is your friend. You can also use the gumball’s scale grip to align stuff (and not just dimensions).
I’ve slowly learned to use Groups in place of blocks. I like that I can select sub objects. Some of the groups might be better suited as blocks. The breaklines however, I think grouping is the way to go. Grouping works better in Rhino compared to ACAD in my opinion. The sub-object selection really accelerates things.
I’ll add a video of a 3D Vector/Raster section. My laptop fans were full blast during this. Mind you I had OBS Broadcaster running at the same time. It took a lot of processing power but was otherwise quick and easy to pull off:
The final result in BlueBeam. It looks close to perfect. There’s a few lines that came through but whatever. The PDF output itself is very small compared to how good it looks (on my end I haven’t polished off the display mode properties and lineweights yet, it could look way better). The PDF scrolls perfectly smoothly. That’s not the case with a lot of other programs. Sorry for forgetting to turn off the command line zoom :-S
The display modes I’m using are nothing special. “Vector” is just technical with hidden lines turned off. “kCsSteel” is just shaded (I think) with gamma turned up. Fading the colors makes it easier to see text if/when it has to be placed in front of other objects.
I might have a few more hacks/tricks but I think this covers the best Layout tips I’ve got. Anyone else got any?
