What are your 3D Annotation use cases and workflows?

[Anonymous]

43m ago - last edited 3 seconds ago

Hi,

I'm new to 3D annotations, and I'm interested in it's use cases, best practices, and industry standards.

• What are you using 3D annotations for in your workflow and why? If you could share/explain some examples with me, that would be awesome!

More specifically my questions would be:

• Do you use 3D drawings in themselves too, without any 2D views? If so, why?
• Do you actually annotate directly in 3D view? If so, why? If not, why?
• Specifically, what details are best to annotate directly on the 3D view, if anything?
• If you annotated directly in 3D view, can it be used in 2D views too? And vica versa? If so, how, what’s your workflow?

If you could answer any of these questions it would be helpful.

Thank you in advance! 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm new to 3D annotations, and I'm interested in it's use cases, best practices, and industry standards.

• What are you using 3D annotations for in your workflow and why? If you could share/explain some examples with me, that would be awesome!

More specifically my questions would be:

• Do you use 3D drawings in themselves too, without any 2D views? If so, why?
• Do you actually annotate directly in 3D view? If so, why? If not, why?
• Specifically, what details are best to annotate directly on the 3D view, if anything?
• If you annotated directly in 3D view, can it be used in 2D views too? And vica versa? If so, how, what’s your workflow?

If you could answer any of these questions it would be helpful.

Thank you in advance! 

[Anonymous]

43m ago - last edited 3 seconds ago

Hi,

I'm new to 3D annotations, and I'm interested in it's use cases, best practices, and industry standards.

• What are you using 3D annotations for in your workflow and why? If you could share/explain some examples with me, that would be awesome!

More specifically my questions would be:

• Do you use 3D drawings in themselves too, without any 2D views? If so, why?
• Do you actually annotate directly in 3D view? If so, why? If not, why?
• Specifically, what details are best to annotate directly on the 3D view, if anything?
• If you annotated directly in 3D view, can it be used in 2D views too? And vica versa? If so, how, what’s your workflow?

If you could answer any of these questions it would be helpful.

Thank you in advance! 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm new to 3D annotations, and I'm interested in it's use cases, best practices, and industry standards.

• What are you using 3D annotations for in your workflow and why? If you could share/explain some examples with me, that would be awesome!

More specifically my questions would be:

• Do you use 3D drawings in themselves too, without any 2D views? If so, why?
• Do you actually annotate directly in 3D view? If so, why? If not, why?
• Specifically, what details are best to annotate directly on the 3D view, if anything?
• If you annotated directly in 3D view, can it be used in 2D views too? And vica versa? If so, how, what’s your workflow?

If you could answer any of these questions it would be helpful.

Thank you in advance! 

[BrennanJWilkie · Accepted solution]

Hi there!

I'm assuming that we are talking about a 3D isometric view being used on a drawing with 2D views. 

We use 3D views and 2D views on the same drawing if we want to add a little bit of extra information to the drawing, like if a drawing includes multiple parts, the 3D view can show how they go together.

The only time we use 3D views by themselves is to call out overall dimensions (the box is 40 inches long, 20 inches wide, and 16 inches high), or to call out the individual parts as noted in a Bill of Materials. These are done on the 3D view because it compiles the basic dimensions of the overall part nicely into one place. In both of these examples, the 3D view would be one of the main views on the drawing, not tucked away in the corner like you see sometimes.

Normally, my company also uses 3D views on anything that is complex, but not too complex. A few examples:

- There's a drawing that shows a piece of sheet metal that will be used as a mounting plate. Because there are no bends or any details that are noteworthy, we don't need a 3D view, as it doesn't really add anything.

- A drawing showing a bicycle. This has lots of small parts that you would need to show individually to get measurements of, but showing them all together in a 3D view goes a long way to helping the person reading the drawing to get a better idea of what they are looking at. If you just had all the individual parts (or even just the views from above and head on if the part is one piece or already assembled), it can be hard to understand what you are looking at. The 3D image gives the reader context.

- An entire plumbing system. This has way too many parts to effectively be shown with a 3D model. In addition, most people don't see the plumbing in a house anyway, so it doesn't really give much context and just kind of wastes space.

Long story short, when you have done enough 3D drawings, you will begin to understand when it just feels 'right'. There aren't too many hard and fast rules, but I would stick with these as guidelines:

- Don't do any annotation on a 3D image unless it is either the main view being used, or at least as big as the main view.

- Only use 3D annotations and views on drawing object of medium complexity/part number (see examples above).

- If you think it would make your drawing look better, throw in a 3D view, even if you don't annotate it. If you think it just wastes space, take it out.

Let me know if you have other questions or need something cleared up.

[BrennanJWilkie · Accepted solution]

Hi there!

I'm assuming that we are talking about a 3D isometric view being used on a drawing with 2D views. 

We use 3D views and 2D views on the same drawing if we want to add a little bit of extra information to the drawing, like if a drawing includes multiple parts, the 3D view can show how they go together.

The only time we use 3D views by themselves is to call out overall dimensions (the box is 40 inches long, 20 inches wide, and 16 inches high), or to call out the individual parts as noted in a Bill of Materials. These are done on the 3D view because it compiles the basic dimensions of the overall part nicely into one place. In both of these examples, the 3D view would be one of the main views on the drawing, not tucked away in the corner like you see sometimes.

Normally, my company also uses 3D views on anything that is complex, but not too complex. A few examples:

- There's a drawing that shows a piece of sheet metal that will be used as a mounting plate. Because there are no bends or any details that are noteworthy, we don't need a 3D view, as it doesn't really add anything.

- A drawing showing a bicycle. This has lots of small parts that you would need to show individually to get measurements of, but showing them all together in a 3D view goes a long way to helping the person reading the drawing to get a better idea of what they are looking at. If you just had all the individual parts (or even just the views from above and head on if the part is one piece or already assembled), it can be hard to understand what you are looking at. The 3D image gives the reader context.

- An entire plumbing system. This has way too many parts to effectively be shown with a 3D model. In addition, most people don't see the plumbing in a house anyway, so it doesn't really give much context and just kind of wastes space.

Long story short, when you have done enough 3D drawings, you will begin to understand when it just feels 'right'. There aren't too many hard and fast rules, but I would stick with these as guidelines:

- Don't do any annotation on a 3D image unless it is either the main view being used, or at least as big as the main view.

- Only use 3D annotations and views on drawing object of medium complexity/part number (see examples above).

- If you think it would make your drawing look better, throw in a 3D view, even if you don't annotate it. If you think it just wastes space, take it out.

Let me know if you have other questions or need something cleared up.

[jtylerbc · Accepted solution]

We are still firmly in the world of creating 2D drawings, and probably always will be.  I use 3D Annotation in a somewhat less conventional way. I bring it up here to show that the tools have some applications even if you don't really go down the "get rid of 2D drawings" route. 

I use leader and general notes to keep notes for myself, or to communicate with others.  Generally these notes are tracking issues I've found while working on the design, and by the time I'm finished they have all been deleted as they were resolved.  This can be especially handy if you do a lot of jumping back-and-forth between different projects.

If there is a certain clearance relationship I want to keep an eye on while adjusting other geometry, I'll use a 3D Annotation dimension so I don't have to keep measuring it over and over.

Essentially, I use it like a simpler, (usually) temporary version of the Engineer's Notebook. 

[jtylerbc · Accepted solution]

We are still firmly in the world of creating 2D drawings, and probably always will be.  I use 3D Annotation in a somewhat less conventional way. I bring it up here to show that the tools have some applications even if you don't really go down the "get rid of 2D drawings" route. 

I use leader and general notes to keep notes for myself, or to communicate with others.  Generally these notes are tracking issues I've found while working on the design, and by the time I'm finished they have all been deleted as they were resolved.  This can be especially handy if you do a lot of jumping back-and-forth between different projects.

If there is a certain clearance relationship I want to keep an eye on while adjusting other geometry, I'll use a 3D Annotation dimension so I don't have to keep measuring it over and over.

Essentially, I use it like a simpler, (usually) temporary version of the Engineer's Notebook. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your quick and detailed reply! Do you have any public drawing examples including isometric 3D views, that I could analyse?

Also I would be interested in your process of annotating (both 2D and 3D). Do you use 3D views to annotate the 3D models, or you usually annotate directly in orthographic 2D views?

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your quick and detailed reply! Do you have any public drawing examples including isometric 3D views, that I could analyse?

Also I would be interested in your process of annotating (both 2D and 3D). Do you use 3D views to annotate the 3D models, or you usually annotate directly in orthographic 2D views?

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your explanation! Very interesting, I did not think about 3D annotations as a tool for improving the design process, will have a look on that.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your explanation! Very interesting, I did not think about 3D annotations as a tool for improving the design process, will have a look on that.

[BrennanJWilkie]

For annotating on 3D drawings, we normally don't do it unless it is showing the overall dimension of an assembly. I can't really think of a time where I have ever annotated on a 3D view of a single part, only an assembly of multiple parts.

Give me a little while. I might be able to make up some sort of example for you.

[BrennanJWilkie]

For annotating on 3D drawings, we normally don't do it unless it is showing the overall dimension of an assembly. I can't really think of a time where I have ever annotated on a 3D view of a single part, only an assembly of multiple parts.

Give me a little while. I might be able to make up some sort of example for you.

[Anonymous]

Last week we released a frame for fabrication in another company. They only received a step file. Main dimensions and some notes (general welding, pickling&passivating) were done with 3D dimensions/annotation. They did not receive any 2D drawing.

I didn't hear any complains so far, but to be honest, next time i will send 1 main drawing along, just for case of disscussion afterwards.

[Anonymous]

Last week we released a frame for fabrication in another company. They only received a step file. Main dimensions and some notes (general welding, pickling&passivating) were done with 3D dimensions/annotation. They did not receive any 2D drawing.

I didn't hear any complains so far, but to be honest, next time i will send 1 main drawing along, just for case of disscussion afterwards.

[Anonymous]

Interesting! Looking forward for the example. Regarding the 2D drawings with annotations, do you ever create your annotations in 3D even if you will use them only for 2D drawings, or you only create your 2D annotations on the specific 2D views?

[Anonymous]

Interesting! Looking forward for the example. Regarding the 2D drawings with annotations, do you ever create your annotations in 3D even if you will use them only for 2D drawings, or you only create your 2D annotations on the specific 2D views?

[BrennanJWilkie]

Just to keep things consistent, I don't like to put 3D annotations on just for the hell of it. 3D views for me are all about giving the reader more context in what the part or assembly looks like, so adding in dimensions that don't need to be on the 3D view would just clutter things up.

So short answer, no, I wouldn't normally put annotations on the 3D view if there is a spot where they can go on the 2D view. There will always be exceptions, but that's my general rule.

I might not have time to do up a drawing today with an example of 3D annotations, but this is a good example I found online of just about everything else.

[BrennanJWilkie]

Just to keep things consistent, I don't like to put 3D annotations on just for the hell of it. 3D views for me are all about giving the reader more context in what the part or assembly looks like, so adding in dimensions that don't need to be on the 3D view would just clutter things up.

So short answer, no, I wouldn't normally put annotations on the 3D view if there is a spot where they can go on the 2D view. There will always be exceptions, but that's my general rule.

I might not have time to do up a drawing today with an example of 3D annotations, but this is a good example I found online of just about everything else.