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 07/25/07 by Todd Hunter Multiblocks Are Swell
- Random Dispersement
A Mulitiblock is a block that has more than one graphic value. This is useful for substituting large numbers of blocks with varying style blocks In the example from the previous entry, we substituted a grove of DWG tree blocks with styled blocks that were all the same type of tree. If we wanted the same grove to be substituted with blocks different species of trees we could use a multiblock to do it in one command.
To create a multiblock, in the Saved Blocks list, select the desired blocks from the list by holding the Ctrl key and picking. Then, right click and select Create Multiblock.
A new block is created with the default name Multiblock 1. If you hover your cursor over the new block thumbnail, you see a flyout that shows all of the blocks that now live within the multiblock. Now when you use the multiblock to substitute a DWG block, all of the DWG blocks will be substituted randomly using the group of blocks that live in the multiblock.
Previous Posts
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More Block Properties - Random Variation Substitutions
Posted 07/25/07 by Todd Hunter
More Properties
There are other properties you can adjust in the Substitute dialog. Before you hit OK, press the More Properties arrow in the lower right hand corner of the dialog. This expands the dialog and gives you other controls that allow you to tweak the way the blocks populate the canvas upon substitution. If you don’t want to scale the styled block to fit the bounding box of the DWG block, you can adjust the width and height here. Toggling the “padlock” icon will constrain the aspect ratio on or off.
There are other controls for adding variation to the size and rotation of the blocks as they are inserted.
Check the boxes next to Vary Scale and Vary Rotation to allow a random percentage of variance. For example, you can substitute a grove of trees that are all the same block name with styled trees that are all the same style, but inserted at different sizes and rotations. This helps a drawing have a more natural and random feel to it.
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More About Blocks - Substituting DWG Blocks
Posted 07/25/07 by Todd Hunter
Impression understands CAD blocks from DWG files and displays them the way they looked in the last saved view in your DWG. Currently, Impression only understands the graphic value of the block. This means that attributes or nested layers are not supported. Blocks will be on the layer they were inserted on in the DWG. DWG blocks are listed in the In Use section of the Blocks Palette.
Block Substitution
One of the most powerful tools Impression has is the ability to leverage the DWG blocks by using their repetitive nature to quickly stylize multiple blocks with one command. Impression Block Substitution allows you to quickly replace all blocks of the same name with a different, stylized block. This is especially useful when there are a large number of objects that need to be stylized like shrubs and trees and other natural objects. It allows you to keep the block detail level low in the DWG file because the blocks are now really just placeholders that will be substituted with rendered blocks in Impression.
Do It
The easiest way to substitute blocks is to go to a library of styled blocks and drag the icon of the styled block from the Blocks palette and drop it onto one of the blocks that you want to substitute. Make sure to pay attention to the cursor. It should have a small curved arrow icon attached to it. That arrow cursor lets you know you are going to create a substitution. If you get a plus sign icon on the cursor, you are not “grabbing” the DWG block for substitution and instead you will only insert a single styled block.
After releasing the mouse you will get a Substitution dialog box.
The left pane shows the original DWG block and the right pane shows the styled block that will substitute it. By default the Scale to fit bounding box control is checked. This means that regardless of the size or scale of the original block, the substituted block will be the same size. This insures that styled block will print at the correct size. At this point if you click OK, all of the blocks from the DWG that have the same name as the one you chose to substitute will now appear as styled blocks.
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Did I Mention My Hobbies?
Posted 07/11/07 by Todd Hunter
I wise man once told me that if you don't have hobbies, you will never retire. He used an example of a guy that had retired from our office after 20 some-odd years. After six months of being away, he came back to work because he said he was bored and had nothing better to do.
That is not the way I envision my retirement.
I have several pastimes and distractions away from my career at Autodesk that will hopefully keep me from being bored when (if) I finally retire in 40 years or so. Right now, my wife and two girls are my favorite distractions and while they will still be around if I ever retire, they will not occupy most of my free time at that point. We all love the outdoors and spend as much time either at a local park, or camping in the high Sierras as we possibly can. Life is too short to stay in one place all the time so we like to explore parts of the State that are away from the congested, populated areas. California is truly a beautiful State. At least to look at.
Maybe when I retire my wife and I will buy one of those gigantic motor-homes and tour around the continent. Of course by that time, there will be no more petroleum and we will have to do it by bicycle.
Another favorite pastime of mine allows me to tinker and work with my hands. I dabble with radio controlled helicopters and airplanes when I have time. I find designing, building and rigging these little machines quite relaxing and it allows my brain to focus on something other than work and family.
When I retire I will never get bored.
I just recently found out that a fellow Autodesk employee that I have worked with from time to time over the past eight years is also a miniature aircraft enthusiast. Gonzalo has shared some pictures of his models with me and they are so amazing, I would like to share them with you. Gonzalo has taken this pastime and turned it into an obsession. The birds are actually powered by miniature turbine jets, just like the full scale machines.
Cheers!