Defining slab geometry using zones!

[Anonymous]

He all, I was wondering if there is a quck way to create single slab for a number of adjacent zones by means other than tracing these zones. I have tried to use the magic wand, but It seems to want to create a single slab element for each individual zone.

Any ideas anyone,
Thanks

[James Murray]

habiatuq wrote:
He all, I was wondering if there is a quite way to create single slab for a number of adjacent zones by means other than tracing these zones. I have tried to use the magic wand, but It seems to want to create a single slab element for each individual zone.

Not exactly. You can 'incrementally' magic wand regions by using the polygon palette's Add button. (Select zone, click on edge/corner, choose Add, magic wand the other Zone.) If the zones are touching, this should just work. If they have walls between them, you'll need to add the 'connections' manually.

Tip: Magic wand on the zone stamp, instead of finding the edge of the polygon.

HTH,

[Anonymous]

Hi James

thanks for your replay. i am not sure if follow your instruction. I am attaching a diagram to help explain what I am trying to do. can you help explain what you were saying again.

thank you much

[James Murray]

Since they're touching it's very simple. Magic wand a slab onto one of the zones. Select the slab, click on an edge or corner, and choose the Add button. Magic wand the adjacent zone. Slab still selected, click on the edge/corner, magic wand the third slab.

Oops, I see I said 'select zone' the first time. Not helpful. You want the slab selected to add to the slab.

Better I hope,

[Anonymous]

thanks James. I got it this time. it seem that it would be quite a task if there were a great number of zones involved. It would be far more efficient if one could select the zones and magic wand them all at once. At any rate, thanks for your help

[Anonymous]

It's not a single click but it is pretty easy to do what you want using what I call the "shrink wrap" trick.

Draw a rectangular slab around the zones. It should extend beyond the zones on three sides and be coincident on one. With the slab selected, click its edge or node and select subtract (minus sign) on the pet palette. Then magic wand (space bar click) inside the slab but outside the zones. Done!

The cool thing with this is it works in all kinds of situations even with very complex contours (as long as they are well formed without gaps).

The reason it needs to be coincident on one side is that the subtraction will work on a "U" shaped area but not an "O" shaped one (topologically speaking that is).

[Anonymous]

Matthew this is a great method. However, I am not able to make it work for me. not sure what I am missing.

I'll keep trying.
thanks again

[Anonymous]

habiatuq wrote:
Matthew this is a great method. However, I am not able to make it work for me. not sure what I am missing.

I'll keep trying.
thanks again

It's possible that it's not detecting the zone boundaries (I haven't tried it myself) but that would be strange since it works with most everything else. I'll test it in a bit when I get the chance.

[Anonymous]

Hi Matthew. I tried you "Shrink Wrap" method with a number of polygons created with the Fill tool. It seems to work just fine. but I am still unable to make it work for Zones.

any ideas why?

[Anonymous]

habiatuq wrote:
Hi Matthew. I tried you "Shrink Wrap" method with a number of polygons created with the Fill tool. It seems to work just fine. but I am still unable to make it work for Zones.

any ideas why?

Sadly it seems that zones are not detected by the magic wand process. I just tried it myself with only zones and an outline fill. If I select only the fill and try to subtract the empty space, the entire fill is deleted. If the zones are also selected it does nothing at all.

Oh well, I guess with zones the sequential add process is the easiest. Unless of course you need to add walls to the zones anyway. Then you can shrink wrap to the walls.