How can I have more than one flat plan-view scene?

[tomsdesk]

I agree, Stuart...now that you bring it up, I can imagine I'd use such a feature all the time. Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest to find...?

Forgot to mention: "Flat and Happy" is to be the campaign slogan for Kansas tourism this year...they are selling t-shirts already (no kidding, really! :`)

[stuartb]

I even had the idea of changing the Axes. You might logically presume that the 'plan' view is aligning the screen to the default axes and that by changing the axes to the view you want then you could force the plan view to be relative to the new axes . . . . . . alas . . no luck.

[smartsizer]

I find that I can use the orbit tool while in parallel projection until the word "Top" appears in the upper left-hand corner of the workspace. There is a slight range of angle allowed on both sides of a perfect vertical plan view ( the Z axis doesn't disappear), and it will still say "Top", but it's pretty close. Then that can be updated to a new Scene. Does that work for you?

[stuartb]

thanks smartsizer,
you know I never even noticed the word Top appearing up there when manually orbiting. When I see the blue axis flipping around it doesnt 'feel' like its flat. There is no blue axis in the true top view. I still think it would be nice if a Ctrl+Pan cold force the true Top view while rotating

[pmiller]

There is a ruby script called cameratilt that will allow you to set the scenes you desire. I do not remember the author (maybe Todd) and there is no info in the text file, so I don't know whether I can post it freely. I will try to find the source. Perhaps someone else will remember where to look.

Found it: http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot/Ruby/en_cam_page.htm
credit is due to R. Wilson.

[peterbnilsson]

Paul, the link on that site is dead, do you have the file that you could upload?

Thanks,

[Wo3Dan]

@stuartb said:

Obviously we are not wanting to clone the entire model just to generate another view of it. that defeats the point of having 'scenes'.
What we really need is a 'Ctrl + Pan' which lets you drag-rotate the plan view (around the centre of the screen say). Maybe some expert on here knows another way? I cant beleive no-one has needed this before . . . . it seems such a simple thing.

stuartb,

Here is your answer to a rotated plan view (Top rotated in any direction you like)
see postnr.3 and the link to 3DW mentioned there:
http://groups.google.com/group/SketchUp3d/browse_frm/thread/c23e7ecc5aec78a9/17036a9886197b9c?lnk=gst&q=wo3dan+2D+floorplan#17036a9886197b9c

(you need to be able to see/use all the scene tabs!!)

success,
Wo3Dan

[tomsdesk]

Rick Wilson's cameratilt.rb link (thank you very much, Rick):

http://members.cox.net/rick.wilson/links.html

Now could someone send me to where I can learn to get this code into sketchup and how to then use it, thanks?

[peterbnilsson]

Here you go Tom, hopefully this will answer your questions. If not, post back and I'll try to clarify where needed.

500 Internal Server Error

(faq.smustard.com)

Edit: I didn't look at your link before responding. You'll need to right click on the link and save link as ***.rb (it should do this automatically). Save it to your sketchup plugins folder. It will shop on in the camera pulldown menu. You'll have to figure out how to use it since I havn't used that tool. Hope that helps.

[Wo3Dan]

@tomsdesk said:

Rick Wilson's cameratilt.rb link (thank you very much, Rick):

http://members.cox.net/rick.wilson/links.html

Now could someone send me to where I can learn to get this code into sketchup and how to then use it, thanks?

Thanks Rick for the script, just great!
Tom, for rotated plan view: select 'Parallel Projection' and 'Top' view.
Now select CameraTiltRotate and enter rotation angle for tilt. (rotation = clockwise).
(90 degrees places green to the right)
I haven't figured out 'Camera rotate' yet.

[stuartb]

thanks Wo3Dan . . I tried the google groups method but didnt understand it!
The cameratilt ruby works fine for me BUT it will not accept a tilt angle less than 1 degree. This means that it is almost impossible to align my building 'square' to my screen.
1 degree error is actually quite a lot.
Thanks for all the feedback so far . . my search continues. I still think a 'Ctrl+Pan' feature to allow you to manually 'spin' the current view would be simple and perfect.

[Anssi]

@stuartb said:

thanks Wo3Dan . . I tried the google groups method but didnt understand it!
The cameratilt ruby works fine for me BUT it will not accept a tilt angle less than 1 degree. This means that it is almost impossible to align my building 'square' to my screen.
1 degree error is actually quite a lot.
Thanks for all the feedback so far . . my search continues. I still think a 'Ctrl+Pan' feature to allow you to manually 'spin' the current view would be simple and perfect.

I would guess that the SU camera is not designed to that kind of precision. Even modeling is limited to 0.1 degrees precision.

What I would recommend is that you model your building using the standard SU coordinates, and then make another file for the site, and place your building into that as a component, rotating it to the correct angle. Then you can choose in which file you create your plan views, according to the use they are put in. Updates to the house are a simple "reload" in the site plan model.

Anssi

[crc]

Is it the rotation that is the main problem? Because you can zoom extents with the 2d/top view, than zoom window to the area you want.

Are you exporting this view as an image? If so, then you can rotate it any way you want after you have exported it.

Also, I'm not sure how big the model is, but you can do this in layout very easily.

[Wo3Dan]

@stuartb said:

thanks Wo3Dan . . I tried the google groups method but didnt understand it!
The cameratilt ruby works fine for me BUT it will not accept a tilt angle less than 1 degree. This means that it is almost impossible to align my building 'square' to my screen.
1 degree error is actually quite a lot.
Thanks for all the feedback so far . . my search continues. I still think a 'Ctrl+Pan' feature to allow you to manually 'spin' the current view would be simple and perfect.

stuartb, Anssi,

It's a pity that Cameratilt only accepts integers as it seems.
It would be nice if this was changed in an update.

The 'Camera Position' tool seems perfectly allright to achieve any desired rotated Top view and very accurate as well.
See the attached skp in my second attempt to show you how easy it is.
Most of the time your model (say floor plan) contains the desired 'tilt' angle(s) so there is no need to calculate anything. I just choose an angle to show you that you are not limmited to round figures or only one decimal.

Wo3DanTilted_TopView.skp

[sorgesu]

I haven't read this in great detail and I haven'quite digested the issue from the skp, but 1. I don't seem to have a problem when I click on the top standard view in a position other than the starting axis. It will simply go top down exaclty where I am.
2. Have you used the right click context menu for "align view" after selecting a rotated surface to align to?

[stuartb]

thanks wo3dan . . I understand it now! I really appreciate your efforts to explain this!

Susans solution however is blindingly brilliant and actually a lot easier.
Just reposition the axes to the geometry you want to view, then right-click on the new axes and choose 'align view'!
Perfect.

[Wo3Dan]

@sorgesu said:

I haven't read this in great detail and I haven'quite digested the issue from the skp, but 1. I don't seem to have a problem when I click on the top standard view in a position other than the starting axis. It will simply go top down exaclty where I am.
2. Have you used the right click context menu for "align view" after selecting a rotated surface to align to?

Susan, Stuartb,

Well Stuartb, we both learned something good today!
Thanks Susan, I new about the ‘Align View’ from the context menu but never realized that it applies differently to (rotated) axes than to faces.
With rotated faces, not being in the global Red/Green plane ‘Align View’ works as expected on faces: Top view plus aligned to the intersecting line from face and ground. The global axes don’t seem to have any influence on this.
However, with faces that are in the global R/G plane (what we were discussing here) you have 'infinite intersecting lines' from face and ground and you will always get the standard Top view, aligned to these global axes, despite having the axes rotated. Here your solution -to use ‘Align View’ on the rotated axes themselves, not the face- indeed forces SU to use the rotated new axes. Brilliant exceptional behaviour on axes that I completely mist.
(did I say I’m to old to learn)

thanks,
Wo3Dan

[tomsdesk]

YEH! Susan!

[pcdog25]

Thanks!