I've been working on making some 2D furniture content for a client and I thought that some of the tips and tricks that I'm using for it would be beneficial to share with you all.
Why would you want to make 2D-3D furniture? Well, often, you may only need to see it in 2D and it's not worth the time to make it 3D. It may also be something that is very complex and would not be worth the time to make 3D. Or maybe you have a CAD block with the linework and you want to convert it to Revit lines. No matter what the reason, hopefully, these tips will make it easier to make and use them.
Create a custom template. If you're going to be making a lot of this type of content, make yourself a template. Add in a subcategory, premade reference planes with dimensional parameters, and even other parameters that you might need for all the families. I have reference planes in both plan and elevation. The elevation one is to attach the masking region to, so that it can be above other elements if desired.
Use model lines for 3D visibility. If you put them on their own subcategory, you can easily control their visibility in your project.
Masking regions. Use a masking region so that it masks any floor materials or even other 3D content, i.e. a 2D table masking a 2D chair.
Use nested components for consistency and efficiency. In the bed families, the pillows are nested and in the sofa families, the tufts on the cushions are also nested. This also allowed me to put them in an array so that as the sofa size changes, the number of tufts does, too.
Make them parametric. Just because the family is 2D doesn't mean that you can't harness the power of parametric families. It's actually easier because there isn't 3D geometry to deal with.
Hopefully, these tips helps you create more smart families to use in your project that are quick and easy to create but can provide a lot of value. Remember, you can also add any other text parameters you need for easily scheduling!
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