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Back to Tutorials
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Part 10 Creating a Page Template
Camera
Before
we go into the process of laying out the drawing view’s, an
understanding of Blenders camera is needed.
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Perspective
Projection
The two
images we have created in Part 9 use the camera in perspective
projection mode and gives similar results, as you would get if an
actual bearing had been photographed.
The
size and
shape of the image on the image plane is a product of the focal length
of the camera, distance of the object from the camera and the object
size. This type of camera will never give us the flat-scaled 2D drawing
required.
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Orthographic
Projection
Blender includes however an
orthographic mode for the camera, which takes a parallel slice, the
size of the image-plane through the 3D workspace. The size of the image
plane can be set to suit the overall size of the drawing you need to
output. |
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Printer
The
next
thing we need to consider is the printer. For engineering purposes we
are most likely
working to a scale of 1 Blender unit equals 1 millimetre and the output
from the camera is likely to be in 96 DPI (dots per inch) The usual
output from a printer will be 300 DPI. So how do we get a drawing
to scale out accurately onto a printed page?
Setting
up the Scale
The
way I
find easiest is to set the camera scale at a multiple of 25.4 and set
the size X and Size Y in the Format panel of the Render Buttons to an
equivalent multiple but this time of 300. So if you wanted to have a
1:1 scaled image fit onto an A4 page of 11” by 8”
you would
need to set the camera scale to 25.4 x 11 = 279.4, the Format panel
Size X: to 8 x 300 = 2400 and Size Y: to 11 x 300 = 3300. There is one
further requirement as the image is set to print at 96 DPI not 300 DPI.
This requires the use of an image-editing program such as the Gimp or
Photo Shop, to change the output size of the image to 300DPI.
If
you want
to set your page up to print at an exact size and at a scale other than
1:1 the correct Camera scale factor and output resolution become a
little more difficult to set up. The easy solution is to scale your
model once you have set the camera to suit the page template.
Page
Template
Save
anything you currently have open Ctrl
W and open a new Blender file Ctrl
X. We will
start by making a
page template to suit an 8 x 11inch page, in front view add a Plane SpaceBar
Add>Mesh>Plane,
select and grab the top two vertices moving them 277.4mm (25.4 X 11 inches - 2 the
original Plane size) in the Z axis.
This sets the height of the page. Grab the two right-hand vertices and
move them 201.2mm (25.4 X 8 inches - 2 the
original Plane size) in the X axis, to set the
width of the page. Select
all vertices and delete X Only
Faces to remove the face. This
rectangle
becomes the page boundary we need to work within. In the Links and
Materials panel, rename OB:Plane to OB:A4pBoundary. (A4p being page
size A4 Portrait) |
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Next we will set the
camera to view this rectangle at the print resolution.
Press N
to open the Transform Properties panel. Change RotX:, Y and Z as
indicated.
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Camera will now be parallel to the plane. |
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In the Camera panel
(Editing Context Buttons) press Orthographic. |
Set
the scale to 279.4 (11 inches x 25.4mm) |
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In the Format panel (Render Sub Context buttons) set sizeX: 240 (8
inches x 300 pixels) and SizeY: 3300 (11 inches x 300 pixels) |
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Select the camera and in
camera view NumPad 0,
move G the
camera so that the outer dotted line aligns with the A4pBoundary. |
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Select the A4pBoundary
object RMB
and copy it Shift-D
then press Esc
to leave it in its original position.
Tab into Edit Mode
and in edge select mode select each edge individually and move it G 12mm towards the
centre of the rectangle, constrained to the X or Y axis. |
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This
rectangle will form our page border, it could now be rendered
as a wire
object but the output will only be one pixel wide, so we need to
thicken the line.
Select the Left hand edge and extrude it -0.5mm on the X axis. Extrude
the Right hand edge 0.5mm on the X axis. Box select the three edges
making up the top of the border and extrude these 0.5mm on the
Z
axis and repeat this on the bottom edge but -0.5 on the Z axis.
Rename this object A4pBorder |
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Tab into Object Mode and
Add a new Plane SpaceBar
Add>Mesh>Plane. This will be used to create the edge
ruler's. Move the Plane to the bottom left corner
of the A4pBorder and resize to X axis 6mm and Y axis 0.5mm.
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vertices A
and copy Shift-D
the vertices
on the Z
axis 10mm . |
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This will form the marks for a ruler that runs along the outer edge of
the border.
Grab G
the two Left vertices and move them on the X axis 2mm.
then select all
the vertices A. |
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In the
Modifiers panel
click Add Modifier and select Array from the pop up menu.
The Array modifier will copy the selection by the number set in the
Count: field and offset each copy. |
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Set
Count:13, De select Relative Offset, select Constant Offset and set
Y:20. The selected lines will be copied up the side of the border.
Tab
into Object Mode and select A4pBorder object. Tab
into Edit Mode
for this object and select one
of the long bottom edges. Snap the cursor to the
edge Shift-S
Cursor>Selection.
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The cursor will be repositioned in
the middle
of the edge. Tab
back into Object Mode.
Select
the Plane object
and copy it Shift-D
then press Esc
so it does not move position.
Set the Pivot Point to Cursor select.
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Mirror the copied
edge ruler Ctrl-M
and accept "X Local".
The
Border rules will now be mirrored onto the right hand edge.
Select
both border rulers and copy them Shift-D
then rotate them 90 degrees R-90.
These will form the top and bottom rulers. |
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Select the A4pBorder
object and snap the cursor to the object centre Shift-S
Cursor>Selection. Select the bottom ruler and snap this to the
cursor |
Shift-S
Selection>Cursor.
In
the Modifier panel, reset the Array count to 9 |
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Repeat
this on the top edge but snap the cursor to the top left vertex of the
A4pBorder object (Edit
Mode).
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It may be necessary to
adjust the position slightly to ensure the rulers are touching the
A4pBorder object.
It doesn't matter that the rulers overlap the border slightly, as we
will be using a shadeless texture.
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With the top ruler selected press
Apply in the Array Modifier panel.
This will convert the Array into a mesh objects.
Repeat
this on the other three ruler's.
Shift-RMB
Select all the rulers and the A4pBorder Object ensuring the A4pBorder
was the last selection and join them into one mesh Ctrl-J. |
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All thats left now is the
Title Box
Add
a Plane object and move it just inside the lower right hand corner.
Resize the plane to 0.5mm high by around two thirds the width of the
border. The exact size will be dependent on the text fields you want to
put in it.
Copy
the plane several times in the Z axis at a height to suit your text. I
have used 7mm for the small text and 10mm for the larger text. Form a
space for the title box by shortening one of the lines. |
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Copy one of the lines Shift-D and Rotate
it 90 degrees. Position
it on the |
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and adjust its length to
suit the horizontal lines. |
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Copy
this edge to form the other vertical edges and resize them as necessary. |
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Tab
into Object mode
and with the Title Box selected, Shift-RMB
select the |
A4pBorder object and join the
meshes Ctrl-J.
The
Border and Title Box are now one object.
We now need to add a colour for the border. |
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In the Materials tab of
the Material sub context buttons, I have set R, G, B to 0 for a Black
colour.
Select the shadeless button |
so
the colour won't
be affected by any
lamps in the scene. |
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In
the links and Pipeline panel press the small button with the car on it.
This will give the Material an automatic name representative of the
colour chosen. In this case Black. |
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now need to add some test to the Title Box. LMB click over the
Title Box to set the cursor position. |
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Press the Space Bar to
open
the Toolbox and choose Add>Text, a text object will be
placed on
the view, but much to small to see. In the Font panel of the Editing
Context Buttons change Size: to 10
Backspace to remove the word Text and type in 608 Bearing. Scale S and move G the text so it
fits in the Title Box.
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To
add the same Black Material to the text in the Links and Pipeline tab,
click the Arrow box to the left of Add New and select Black from the
pop up menu.
In
the Link and Materials tab of the Editing buttons change the name from
OB:Text to OB:A4pText. |
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Tab into Object Mode and
copy the text Shift-D
to another area of the Title Box and Scale
it to fit. Tab into Edit Mode
and Backspace
to clear the text, then type in the new text. Repeat this for all the
fields of the Title Box
One further useful addition is to copy a text object outside the
Boundary object and type in the camera scale, Format size x and size Y
and the printer dpi.
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In
the Outliner you will now have a grouped list of A4p objects that can
be easily appended into any .blend file you are working on
The settings needed for the camera will be appended along with the
Border.
All
that is left for you to do now is make more templates in different page
sizes.
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Finally save
your work as
PageTemplate.blend |
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