Topic: Edit solid models

[cad-waulader]

this is a quote from Jay's post on 3/21:
"I'm not sure what you mean by translate"

apology for taking ten years to reply now. 
By translate, I mean designate sets of vertices or faces of a solid model and 'drag' them elsewhere, meanwhile, the rest of the model stays immobile.  It's (apparently) not possible with solid models to the extent that it is, for example, with meshes or polylines.   
Thanks for beaucoup helpful input, everybody; the solids are going swimmingly now. 
Anybody proficient in 2D autocad will have no trouble delving into 3D.  3d comes nearer to representing the reality of objects than 2d, and as such is more readily understood, a lesser abstraction of the model.   And for presentation purposes, with 3d you're free do derive relevant views and sections straight from the model.  So you retain all previous capabilities and gain additional means to understand and present the designed object.
Not everybody needs 3d, but doubtless many who don't know it would profit from it. 

[DaveW]

The problem is that dview is not that intuitive. Many people have a harder time learning it and understanding it. I happen to like it too. I have written some code that automates dview and clipping planes. It is reduced to 2 choices v or p, for vertical or plan, then a second choice to back, front, left, right or up or down, then the user just picks one point and they are done. I have also added some code which adds the section command into the mix, when needed. It is only good for orthographical views though, so the end user still needs to know how to use dview for any non-orthographical views.

Video here:
http://SmartLister.com/files/section.avi
No audio, 8 meg.

[CADaver]

Apologies for taking 5 months to answer:

apology for taking ten years to reply now. 
By translate, I mean designate sets of vertices or faces of a solid model and 'drag' them elsewhere, meanwhile, the rest of the model stays immobile.  It's (apparently) not possible with solid models to the extent that it is, for example, with meshes or polylines.   

If you mean grips, no, but SOLIDEDIT>FACE>MOVE is pretty stinking quick.  R2007 you can use grips.

Thanks for beaucoup helpful input, everybody; the solids are going swimmingly now. 

You may wish to delve into unit blocks now.

[CADaver]

The problem is that dview is not that intuitive. Many people have a harder time learning it and understanding it.

I guess I still have trouble with that word.  It seems perfectly intuitve to me.  I've only had one student have a real hard time understanding it, and he had a hard time understanding that the different views were looking at the same model.

I have written some code that automates dview and clipping planes. It is reduced to 2 choices v or p, for vertical or plan, then a second choice to back, front, left, right or up or down, then the user just picks one point and they are done. I have also added some code which adds the section command into the mix, when needed. It is only good for orthographical views though, so the end user still needs to know how to use dview for any non-orthographical views.

Have a look at the lame little DVP function I posted on page two of this thread. Non-orthagonal views can be had by rotating SNAP or keying relative coords or angles.

[DaveW]

I may be able to use that as an end user from time to time or even my customers. I cannot take advantage of the actual coding because it is lisp. Might as well be Greek to me. Besides your utility automating the non-orthographical views, it may give me some insight in what I should code next to get a similar result.

Thanks,

Dave