Text in Elevation in GDL object

[dushyant]

Hi all,

Is it possible to add text (text2 or alike) for the elevational/sectional view of a GDL object? The 2D script affects only the plan view.

Thanks.

[DGSketcher]

@dushyant I don’t believe that is possible as the elevation & section views are derived from the 3D script. The only way to get round it is to create an associated label and add text that way. If there is another way I would be interested to know!

[Barry Kelly]

Not text that you are thinking of.

It would have to be 3D text (look at the 3D text object), which means you will see in in every 3D view, section and elevation.

It may appear side-on or back to front, as it is just another 3D object.

You can filter so it just shows in elevations, but not for a specific elevation.

As DGSketcher said, use labels.

Barry.

[dushyant]

Ok, so GDL doesn't allow controlling the elevational view.  Yes, labels seem to be the apt solution then, in my case.

Thanks.

[SenecaDesignLLC]

if you use

GLOB_VIEW_TYPE

you can make it only show in sections

and you could probably use

GLOB_NORTH_DIR

to define which sections to show it in if it needed to be hidden in some.

[SenecaDesignLLC]

Check out page 336 in the gdl reference guide (im v24 so it may be different for v25)

GLOB_VIEW_TYPE

i use it all the time to control what i see where in my 3d script and view.

[DGSketcher]

I was trying to do something similar a while back and tried using 3DText, I can't say it went well. 3DText is great for showing commercial signage with limited usage, but to annotate an object with fabrication notes etc the poly count, coarse edges and speed hit just weren't worth it. 

[SenecaDesignLLC]

an option is to explode 3d text, make an object then convert the 2d lines to 3d lines to minimize polygons.

maybe ill look into writing a text block using 3d lines...

[dushyant]

3D text is not an option as the text would be dynamically generated and would keep changing with parameters. And more importantly I don't want to add extra 3D geometry in the object and increase its polyCount. As @DGSketcher mentioned, it's not worth it in this case to use 3D text for dynamic annotation.

Anyway, I have managed it by creating a custom label now.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts though. 🙂

[A_ Smith]

if 3D text has zero thickness, each letter will be count only as 1 polygon