topic Re: 3D view, grey model with colour mechanical in Documentation

3D view, grey model with colour mechanical

Foti — Thu, 25 May 2023 22:02:19 GMT

Hello

I am trying to demonstrate my mechanical and plumbing system, I would like to make a full grey model transparent, not wireframe, and have just the plumbing in colour and then one for the mechanical.

I tried making different pensets, but when in 3d view, the opengl doesnt do anything with the pen sets and when i do a vectorial, it seems to work, but not 100%.

Would there be a way to make a full model transparent, with a pen set for ventilation and pen set for plumbing?

Thank you

I am using AC21 on windows.
foti

Re: 3D view, grey model with colour mechanical

DGSketcher — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 09:33:50 GMT

Have you looked into using Graphic Overrides? If your version of AC has it then it should be ideal for what you want to do.

https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/user-guide/76882/

Re: 3D view, grey model with colour mechanical

Foti — Thu, 02 Jan 2020 17:36:25 GMT

Yeah not really working, I am not sure how to make a rule where a wall is transparent in the 3D view. I need a basic ghost of the whole building, and just the mechanical in the colour I have associated them systems, cold intake is blue, hot return is red etc....

Re: 3D view, grey model with colour mechanical

mikas — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 08:01:12 GMT

I believe you can achieve it with graphic overrides. Just make all the needed and suitable rules, put them in a list (and arrange). Also make suitable surface materials for transparency first, and after that make rules and build the override with them.

It might look something like this screenshot, just with different colors and with HVAC elements. Would it be what you are after for? (screenshot in foreign language, but you get the idea). This is AC22, but I believe AC21 does the same.

Re: 3D view, grey model with colour mechanical

DGSketcher — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 11:00:32 GMT

Another thought, if the transparency is not clear enough you could change the layers you want as transparent to wire frame in the 3D view display option and just leave the services as solid.

https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/user-guide/89381/

Re: 3D view, grey model with colour mechanical

Foti — Sun, 05 Jan 2020 15:53:36 GMT

Hello Mikas, yes thats what I would like to achieve, I did read something about transparent material, I have stone as my exterior, does that mean I would have to go into the surface of that material and make it transparent? Would I have to make all my materials I am using transparent in the surface options? I will keep trying to play around with what you suggested as well.

DGSketcher, I will try that as well, did not think of that, maybe too many lines but interesting approach.

Thank you both.

Re: 3D view, grey model with colour mechanical

mikas — Sun, 05 Jan 2020 16:26:12 GMT

You need to make new materials for HVAC elements (red, green, yellow..) plus one transparent material for everything else. I took glass material as a reference, made a copy, adjusted the transparency a little, and then tinted it red. All the real materials can be as they are modelled and as they are going to be for real. This is going to be just a temporary overdrive which we will switch off later while doing renders, construction drawings and details etc.

Adjust the overdrive rules so that HVAC elements are overdriven with respective colors, for example you can order all elements in one layer to be opaque yellow or opaque green, and so on. Last you order all other elements exept HVAC elements in your project to be transparent red. Or maybe just transparent white, whatever suites you.

There are a lot of criterias to use when overdriving the graphics, it's not just layers. For all other elements I can use for example renovation status (new) as a filter

User interface is a little bit cumbersome I think, but it is a powerfull feature. Very handy to do checks for the model. It could well be used as a poor mans visual collision detection.

Re: 3D view, grey model with colour mechanical

Foti — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 17:21:13 GMT

Great just getting the hang of it, one question regarding the over ride rules. When I make a new rule and list wall to be transparent, doors to be transparent, it al work as you said. But as soon as I introduce a layer in that same rule the model goes back to its original state.

in the second image i added the layer and the model returns.

Re: 3D view, grey model with colour mechanical

DGSketcher — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 18:09:17 GMT

Simple logic... the GO will consider each of the elements as they are OR but your layer will be treated as AND. The GO will only change the listed elements AND they are on the specified layer. I don't know you layer set up but it may be easier to change all 3D elements to grey and then apply a second rule for instance layer "heating" to change lines to black & surfaces to red. You do know you can have multiple rules for a GO?

Re: 3D view, grey model with colour mechanical

Foti — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 18:36:24 GMT

Thank you so much, it is working, I love AC!!!

Re: 3D view, grey model with colour mechanical

Foti — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 02:53:40 GMT

Hey

All my 3d images worked great, with all your help. But now I believe they are so complex that my computer doesnt have the power to generate the view on a sheet. Example I took a ed view and dragged it to a sheet and lets just say after 24h it was still generating the view. Am i right to assume my poor computer hardware?

Re: 3D view, grey model with colour mechanical

DGSketcher — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 09:53:45 GMT

FFFFF wrote:
Hey

All my 3d images worked great, with all your help. But now I believe they are so complex that my computer doesnt have the power to generate the view on a sheet. Example I took a ed view and dragged it to a sheet and lets just say after 24h it was still generating the view. Am i right to assume my poor computer hardware?

Sounds more like a glitch/bug when you dragged it to the sheet. Try again with a simpler model or even without the transparent to check it isn't a more general issue.

Re: 3D view, grey model with colour mechanical

Foti — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 20:14:02 GMT

I tried with a small portion of the building and that worked, so it must be that its too complex for this pc I have. The other thing would be to generate a mep view no building then another ghost building and merge the views, but then I might still run an issue of that ghost building not generating the view......hmmmmm

Re: 3D view, grey model with colour mechanical

Lingwisyer — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 02:24:05 GMT

If the view takes a long time to update, you could set it to manually update. Let it render the large view, then just update it when ever the highlighted system changes? Bit of a compromise and a spot for possible future inconsistency if you forget to update it...

Ling.