Plant 3D SECTIONPLANE vs PLANTORTHOCREATE

[flemster911]

Not sure where to post this, but...
I'm a piping designer and we've been trying to use SECTIONPLANE (volume) to create 2D plans and elevations of our 3D models. It works fine except none of the Plant 3D entities (piping, structure, plate, etc.) show up. All of the non-Plant 3D stuff shows up in 2D, but not the Plant 3D stuff. The piping is in one 3D model, the structural in another and they've both been added to the project. Any ideas anyone???

Currently, we use PLANTORTHOCREATE for generating 2D, but we have to set the layer states in all of the models before generating the ortho view. This means if we want structural to plot out 'light', we have to modify their 3D model, generate the view, then change it back. It would be nice if we could set the layer states in the Orthographic view model during the PLANTORTHOCREATE command - without having to change the models.

We appreciate any feedback...

[Wanderer]

Hi there,

I'm moving this thread from the AutoCAD forum to the new Plant 3D forum, as I believe it will be better served here. Thanks.

[AetrioEngMD]

Plant 3D is annoying like that. It's components only work inside of Plant 3D unless you export the model to AutoCAD. Then use that model to make your 2D drawings but again if your model changes in Plant 3D you'll have to re-export your model to AutoCad...it's very annoying. Using Plant's Ortho create is probably your best bet. Now to change colors in the ortho instead of changing the model is actually pretty easy. Right click on your project and go to it's properties. At the bottom of the list expand "Ortho DWG Settings", click on Title Block and Display then click on the "Setup Title Block..." button in the right window.

In here you can define what title block gets used and also all of the layers. On the top ribbon click on "Ortho Settings", here you can define layers and colors for everything as well as set up default dimension, leader and text styles.
If you have your project setup to define layers based on your Spec for instance you can predefine those layers here so they always show up how you like when you create an Ortho.

Check to make sure your model is being colored the way you want by expanding the "Plant 3D DWG Settings" in your project properties then click on "Layer and Color Settings". Set this up the way you want.
I for instance have it set up to "Assign layer by: Service" and "Assign color by: Service" as well. This way when I assign a certain service to a line like "DRAIN" for instance, the line get's modeled in that color.
If we go back to the Ortho Setup now, I can pre-define a layer called "DRAIN" and have it use the model color or I can set it to something completely different for when the Ortho is generated.

I hope that helps you out.