Outside the Lines
Technical Marketing Manager Todd Hunter provides his colorful views, opinions, and expertise on Autodesk Impression, remote controlled helicopters, Triumph motorcycles, and everything in between. Read his blog and chances are you’ll learn more about treble, bass and oil filter maintenance.
Latest Post
- posted 10/31/07 by Todd Hunter Draw Order Part 2
- Draw order can also be controlled for the individual elements of a style. Change elements to the foreground or background within a style by dragging the element up or down in the element list in the style editor.
Previous Posts
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The Law and Order of Draw Order
Posted 10/26/07 by Todd Hunter
The method of managing draw order that most people are familiar with is within the layer palette. Objects on layers near the top of the layer list will appear “in front “ of or in the foreground, and objects on layers toward the bottom of this list will appear “behind” or in the background of the rendering.
This is a simple and effective way to control draw order, but what if you have a DWG with only one or just a few layers? Usually in this circumstance you will have lots of layer overrides. That is, objects on the same layer but with different styles other than what has been assigned to the layer.
In the example below, all of the line work is on layer 0 and a Soft Charcoal stroke has been applied to the layer. Since there is only one layer, Area Styling has been used to fill the colored areas and all of the different colored fills are on layer 0 as style overrides.
Notice in the image that the colored fills overlap or obscure the charcoal lines. We want the edge lines to be dark and really “pop” so we need to change the draw order to bring the lines in front of the colored fills.
“But Todd..” I hear you say.. “How can we change the draw order if all the objects are on the same layer?” “Simple,” I reply. Draw order can be controlled within the layer.
To do this we first need to select all the lines. To make a selection set of just the line work on layer 0, 1st select a line, then select all instances of lines by clicking the check-mark in the lower right hand corner of the style editor.
Once all the lines are selected, right-click and go to Arrange Selection, then Bring to Front of Layer
After we do this, the lines really “pop” now. So you can still tweak your renderings even if you are working with only one layer.
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Impresion Positions Itself for Global Domination
Posted 10/16/07 by Todd Hunter
The Impression Technology Preview 6 is live on autodesk.com pages around the world!!
This means that people outside North America can now download the newest Technology Preview 6 of Impression that includes all of the current Hotfixes.
If you live in Northern Europe and have already downloaded Technology Preview 5, your time limit is almost up so uninstall TP5 and download the new TP6. You will find that the new TP6 is more stable than TP5.
Here is the list of countries where Technology Preview 6 is available. If your contry is not on this list, then you aren't reading this blog.
Australia
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
Finland
Ireland
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Singapore
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States -
Posted 10/12/07 by Todd Hunter
Impression had a presence at the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA http://www.asla.org ) conference in San Francisco last week. Lisa and I had a spot on the expo floor where we showed off Impression's benefits to landscape designers. We must have answered a million questions. Of course CAD Geometry Update was one of the most compelling tools as well as Block substitution.
Attendees that had been coming to this conference for many years said it was great to see Autodesk back at the expo and many people had not even heard of Impression. People were really excited that Autodesk is finally making a product for non-photo-real rendering.
It was a great conference and well worth attending. -
You Have the Power!
Posted 10/02/07 by Todd Hunter
Partner with us and rule the world!
Or at least tell us what you need our products to do for you.
Every single feature in Impression is derived from direct customer feedback. We listen to you and implement your wants and desires to the best of our ability (within the law, that is). Join the My Feedback and flex your power over us. Remember, we work for you. Just like politicians except without the scandal, debaucheries, and lies.
By joining the My Feedback team, you get to see what future projects Autodesk is working on, try them out, and tell us what worked or didn't work. Give us suggestions and examples of how you would use your ideas on a project or for Nation building.
If you are specifically interested in the Impression beta program, please go to http://myfeedback.autodesk.com and click on the “Sign up” link located in the upper left hand section of the navigation. Fill out the requested information and be sure to include the Beta Code “ColibriBeta” in the field at the top of the form. Don’t forget to hit the “Submit” button at the bottom to submit your application for review. If you have ideas and a pulse, you are in.