Having a choice of members to not show in General Arrangement Drawings

[Tony_Gibbs]

I'm a big fan of the camera to create General Arrangement drawings. As you know the camera takes in all the members that lie inside the camera boundary and shows them on the drawing. Quite often I don't want certain types of members to be showing, for example On my steel marking plans I don't want to show Purlins & Bridging. So in the drawing I have to isolate these 2 layers then delete those members, update the drawing and unisolate the other members. This is time consuming and I also feel it shouldn't be necessary. My solution could be that part the way through the drawing creation a dialogue box will appear and give you a choice to deselect model roles or it could be to deselect layers. This new command that the Autocad developers may adopt could also be used for any other views that you create. I suppose you could also have a tick box in the Management Tools to "SHOW MODEL ROLE DESELECTION IN DRAWING CREATION".

Regards Tony

[DumitruBerteanu]

Hi Tony. Advance Steel does provide a workflow that accommodates this request. The drawing style that is used to generate that Camera drawing can be configured to not detail elements filtered by using the model object (which can filter out model objects (beams, plates) using a specific model role). 

To make sure the camera is detailed with those specific drawing styles once you configure them, you can either use the Drawing Style override option on the Camera dialog in the model, or have the process associate the Camera Type (e.g. Node, Elevation etc.) to this specific drawing style.

Camera type list can be extended if needed. 

This workflow allows this type of filter out elements to work more automatic then having to select on demand on each drawing creation. There are already styles that do this : for example Plan views will filter out the attached elements, so you won't get the clip angles or shear plates on your drawing. 

Please let me know if this answers you request, and also if you need further assistance in making the necessary configuration to the style (and processes)

[Tony_Gibbs]

Dumitru

Thanks for your input. I think I understand what your saying. Wouldn't that mean that each time you create a plan view you need to pre-configure the drawing style? If that is the case I think that would slow down drawing production.

I'm thinking more along the lines of deselecting on the fly so you can quickly pick anything you want to not appear. This member deselect choice can change with every job. Wouldn't then configuring the drawing style be unacceptable.

Regards

Tony 

[DumitruBerteanu]

Yes, you would need to pre-configure drawing styles, but its about the amount of different setups you would need. If this varies between jobs and are unique, the of course configuring a style each time would be tedious. Its all down to how many different setups are needed, and in some way how they are predictable so they can be done in advance, and be available in the database while working on the job. 

[Tony_Gibbs]

My argument still stands for the following reasons

1) Pre-configuring drawing styles is to tedious

2) You can't always predict what you want to show

3) Drawing styles are very delicate and are not just a simple edit. They can be very trying.

4) I don't believe a lot of Advance Steel users are proficient in editing drawing styles.

The solution that would be useful to all users would be the dialogue box as I mentioned in my first post

I think it has merit and should get serious consideration

Thank You

[jess_neal]

Why can't you use a GA view? "3d View - Objects Selected w/ Labels" is one I use all the time to only show certain parts/assemblies. 

[Tony_Gibbs]

Hi Jess

I assume you have read all the posts to this idea If so can you explain your method as I can’t see how it works

Thank You

[jess_neal]

You stated you have to isolate and DELETE members before you update a camera view on a drawing. With "3d View - Objects Selected w/ Labels" only the members you originally selected show up on the drawing. When you create a "3d View - Objects Selected w/ Labels" GA drawing you change your UCS to whatever elevation/plan view you want and only select the members you want to show. No deleting of members when you need to update. 

It may not be as automated as you want but the end result meets your criteria. Not saying your idea is invalid, just trying to offer a solution with existing tools.

[Tony_Gibbs]

Hi Jess

Yes you are exactly right and I do use this method from time to time. The problem I see for me with this method is that if I remove or add members into the model after the view is created they wont update in that drawing. I would have to recreate it.
Thanks for sharing this info

Regards
Tony