This might be a bit confusing, When I want to display a plan view, i use a section cut, but the section cut makes the above section cut line invisible so I cant work on that area. Section cuts are only good for exporting or printing the view straight out of the plan. Adversely the scene and proper grouping and layer manipulation can give me a plate top view which I can work an the entire plan. The difficulty becomes the organization of groups. Take for example a stairccase, when you are working on the stairs you want them all editable, but in plan view you dont want the second floor stairs showing on the first floor plan, They are already on group with nested groups inside itself, like railings , pickets ,treads, etc. To split this mass into groups by floors becomes difficult, because it seems the ingredients you dont want to be shown in plan are the deepest into the model, thus the hardest to turn off, hide or relayer. Like you have started with the first floor stair, then move to the lower floor, which becomes group 2, then you doe the upper flight which becomes group 3, now when you want to display only group 3 it is nested under two other groups and if you hide an upper level group it hides its subgroups as well.
So i tried to regroup without any nesting, everything in a group on the top level of the hierarchy: this becomes equally messy.

If I was just trying to make a visual model, I would be OK without this management, but I am trying to make these Scenes, a usuable page or compilation that I will print for CDs. I dont like having to send work from one program to another, I think I could group text and dimensions, make components of stuff like electrical symbols, and use the dashed line ruby, Cut section details of the 3D model and assemblies and have very nice 3D details on my CDs. Are there any tuts available accomplishing this? I guess I could component the different conglomerates of groups, but I have not gotten that far yet
any ideas? Is anyone printing plans, either simple or complex straight out of SU?

Jean Lemire,
And a very good idea too! I will add that if you don't hit a carriage return after entering the new view angle the angle doesn't apply. thanks for the advice, it worked!

I have been sending interior shots of my model to jpg and inserting them in cad drawings. i find that each time I define a view I have to redefine the SU Field of View. Is there a place to set the interior field of view at 60 DEG permanently rather than the default 30 DEG?
Thanks,

modelhead,
good suggestion and I dont blame you for not looking it up,I had no idea about that script I just spent an hour checking out script descriptions, I am starting out with the StrayLines by Todd Burch, I thought I found another but I'll have to search for it again.

Are there any other rubies that can make SU more adept to developing construction documents further in SU? Group and layer managers perhaps? I've been trying to get a grip on Outliner,
Thanks

Yes, I know, I should have read it b/f sending, but you interpreted correctly.

I originally imported a 3d version of the building. I like your method of 2d elevations and I am off and running. I dont know why I didnt think of that! Thanks very much for desciphering my gibberish and offering a very good solution. 5 stars

My local planning staff has to have a building on the landscape for view corridor approval and my extruded cad image imports into SU O.K. but it needs editing. There are a lot of short segments and triangles that make editing almost impossible. Does anyone know of a trick to make the cad version clean up and become usuable? I know I need to settle down and work it in SU but I dont have much time, so I am asking for any tricks. Many Thanks...

It sure is nice to work with pros. Thanks

@unknownuser said:

I think I would try to use a Tool, and have it recognize only edges, and add the selected edges to some data structure. The tool could have a proximity setting where it would select lines with the specified radius of the click. Or even select lines within an agular proximity of the last selected line (say within 45 degrees.) It could auto-select connected lines in this manner (using the angular proximity.)

I'm just throwing ideas out there to see what sticks.

that was my cue, wasn't it?
Let me see, only edges. sounds good since this is the beginning of the geometry.
data superstructure: lost me there, don't know.
I was thinking whatever the last selection was, so a radius of x units would be fine, but I think default should be suitable for re selection without extra input. Angular proximity: ok could it be 360? I never really know where the cursor was when the last valid selection was made. The command is initiated working towards the Weld.rb, where sometimes there's spaghetti on the screen, all connected makes a mess.
Sorry I didnt recognize the question earlier, Thanks for the suggestions.

You know when you have to select a lot of lines segments one by one to make a group ( like the civil guys drawing who really doesnt pay much attention to layers, and you have to reorganize his topo, text, building footprint, etc.) and when you right click you dont get it just right and the hundred or so lines you just selected go back to black? You know how mad that makes you?
Well I may be the only one, but when this happens I wish I had a command to reselect all those lines (or faces or......) again. like: oops: Reselect Previously Selected. Just my thought for the day.

I have a ruby in my plugins called midpoint.rb, I was enjoying it very much, problem is, it has quit showing up in my menus, I have tried reinstalling it but that didn't change anything. I have dropped in some other rubys & stuff, and I know this is an ambiguous question, but I am looking to troubleshoot the reason it's not showing up. Any tips?

I solved the problem, the command is looped to the rt click. I thought I had it on line, menu select, midpoint.

Jim, I saw this quite often on another pc a couple years ago. As a matter of fact it was the topic of my first post on the old forum. I have no idea about your start-up entries, but the answer to my post was that the VC was at fault. I have seen it once in the last year. I never could find a definitive solution to the rearrangement of menus, but after a couple of menu adjustments everything started up fine for awhile, then it would rearrange itself: cycle started over.

Good luck,
Hank

Yes, it is a critical subject for me, I thought I saw a post copying this one in the other forum, so i was waiting till I was signed up /activated there before I added to it.

The number clementure is smart. I have resorted to alphabetic prefixes to group cluster layers, and many of the layers I do are made on the fly. Not the most favorable method, I know. the good thing I have found though is I am not scouring the layer list very often looking for a layer and its ingredients. The scenes are taking care of that aspect for me.

I have another venue i am working on at the moment: that is multi layered components. this is a favorable arrangement for me when any component needs a label. My first area of emphasis is windows. I am working on stock widths as components, and adding a label as another component on another layer. the cool part of this is when I add a multi-layer component to a drawing, the layers in the component are added automatically. This ties in with your number system in that adding multi layer components with a consistent layering system, will of course decrease the quantity of rouge layers. I was trying to figure out a way to make the components parametric. But I cant see how to make a single window plan symbol component and have it self labeling unless I could customize a dimension by using a mask over the leader and dimension lines.

carry on...
Hank

I see different rub...I mean jewels to enhance the SU experience, I am finding designing in SU so easy, It plays well with others, raster images work, dwgs work, the file structure is simple, groups and layer system is very nice, SU into my cad is awesome, though I'd rather stay outta there. I see developers mentioning add-in programs that are furthering the SU experience, and making it possible to wean us off cad as we knew it. there are scripts and command structures imulating all the things we loved about our respective cad programs, thus I ask the question: What favorite commnands are you pros finding to help you get to the deliverable "the drawings are on paper" and I'm finished with this job: pay me stage? It seems the rub... developers can make SU do anything!

Any recommendations from design pros for rubys to enhance the house design process? Operations like layer and group management, line weights, text and component placements and their rotation before placement? Yes, I know Su isn't cad, I think that's why it is so cool!

Thanks Dave, That goes in the Greene&Greene style cottage I'm currently working on.

I was a "lurker on the old forum. I signed up when I bought the software, and posted when i had a (single) question. I got an answer and I was OK. I bought SU because I was told I could import cad 3d into and texture. Well it worked but I wasnt trying to do that everyday. My bubble was burst about a year ago when I was trying to export the biggest house I have ever drawn into SU and it wouldnt go. I couldnt use SU in any other method.

Somehow I learned that SU was ridiculous at working with cad stuff, and it worked alot better just starting off in SU. About 2 months, (march) before the other forum was disrupted I had started using SU on a daily basis, It was gradual at first, but with all the practice, now instead of booting cad in the morniings, I boot SU. It has been quite a transformation... and you guys have been awesome getting me off the ground. I know there are alot of cad-ologists back at the old cad forum who have SU but dont spend alot of time with it. They haven't been bitten yet!

It moves your items a key-in distance in an arrow direction. You dont have to set up a construction line or infer and watch the VCB. Key the distance, click a direction and done, Easy.

Jim,
I got your script running, thanks for putting this together. Very Nice!

Ron, Cant say thanks enough! This is very nice. Thanks.....

thanks guyd. zi fo hsvr thr dpi turnrd high. I'll let it down and give it shot. Talk to you soon.