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Back to Tutorials
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Part 4 Laying Out The Component
Drawings |
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Most of the
techniques
necessary to layout an orthographic drawing were covered in Part
11
of the 608 Bearing Tutorial so rather than just repeating what's in
that
section this will be just a brief description of the layout process.
Initially though I thought it would be good to mention the two standard
methods of laying out a drawing. 1st Angle Projection and 3rd Angle
Projection. To see how the views are represented on paper it's
easier to fold the paper into a cube around the component and project
the view onto the cube. When the cube is unfolded it gives the correct
layout. |
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| 1st
Angle Projection |
3rd
Angle Projection |
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First Angle projection the view is projected through the component,
so the front view is projected onto the back wall and the top view is
projected onto the base. |
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In 3rd Angle projection
the side facing the cube is projected onto the cube, so the top view is
on the top of the box and the front view is on the front of the box. |
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| When the
1st Angle view is folded out the front view is at the back of
the top view and the side view is on the opposite side of the front
view.
This type of layout often causes confusion with people who aren't
completely familiar with orthographic layouts. |
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In
3rd angle projection the views are positioned on the same side of the
view next to them, so the top view is on top of the front view and the
side view is on the side of the front view that it represents. This is
a much easier layout to understand and my preferred choice. |
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Hopefully
that,s enough for you to appreciate the formal aspects of orthographic
layouts, Its a subject where you can go into ever increasing detail and
this is just a brief primer to get you started. If you want to learn
more about layouts there is a lot of detail on www.technologystudent.com,
it's worth a visit as it contains a lot of in depth advice.
I think that's enough on layouts so let's get back to Blender. In part
10
we created a page Layout for an A4 Portrait Page. We can start by
importing this and then rotating the border to form an A4 Landscape
layout. Start a new Blender project. If you already have Blender open
save your work Ctrl-W then
press Ctrl-X to open a new
file. Delete the Cube Object that opens with each new project X, as we don't need it. |
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Append
all the A4p objects from the PageTemplate.blend file created in the
608-Bearing tutorial. Shift-F1
to open the File Browser window in Append mode and from the
"PageTemplate.blend" file LMB
click Object then RMB select
all the A4p objects. Click on Load Library to bring them into the new
file. They will be placed on Layer one, as this was the layer they were
created on. Go into front view to see the layout NumPad 1.
In the outliner select the A4pBorder object then in the Link and
Materials panel change its name from A4p (portrait) to A4L (Landscape).
Repeat this for all the other A4p Objects.
It's now time to rotate the border. The only problem is that the Title
box is part of the Border mesh so we first need to separate the Title
Box from the Border. Either in the outliner or 3D view select the
A4LBorder Object and Tab into
Edit Mode. Select All
vertices, it's easier to deselect the vertices of the title box than
select the vertices of the Border. |
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de-select the vertices of the title box press B for box select, but this time drag
a selection box over the vertices you need to de-select using the RMB.
The vertices will no longer be selected. On the 3D View Header press
select>>Inverse, this will invert the selection so the title box
is now selected and the Border isn't. (You
could have just de-selected all then box selected the Title Box, but I
wanted to show the Box Deselect feature!) |
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With the
Title Box vertices selected press P (part)
to separate them from the current mesh and choose "Selection" from the
pop-up menu.
Tab back into
Object Mode and select A4LBoundary, Tab
back into Edit Mode and select RMB
the bottom Right Hand vertex snap the Cursor onto this Shift-S Cursor>Selection.
Tab into
Object Mode and RMB select the
A4LBorder Object and Shift-RMB select
the A4LBoundary Object. In the 3D View Header set the Pivot point to
3D Cursor, then Rotate the
Border and Boundary 90 degrees. |
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The
Border is now disjointed from the Title Box so Grab the Border and move it on the X-axis until the bottom Right Hand
corner sits around the Title Box.
The final
thing to do is amend the Camera and output Format settings detailed in
A4LText.007 so Size X becomes 3300 and Size Y becomes 2400.
You now have
an A4 Landscape page template that can be appended back into the
PageTemplate.blend file. |
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Append
the V-Roller Object from V-Roller.blend onto the scene and position it
within the Border. (If it doesn't
appear on the view after appending check the Eye icon in the outliner
is open or it's layer is active) Copy this Shift-D and move it on the X-axis to the right of the original.
Rotate the
copied V-Roller on the Z-axis 90
degrees. Copy the rotated V-Roller and position this to the right of
the original. We will use the second copy to form a sectioned view.
Append the V-RollerAxle from the same file and position this within the
border. Copy this on the Z-axis and position it above the original. (3rd Angle projection Top view sits above
Front View)
Save the file as V-RollerLayout.blend |
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We
now need to change the material for all the components. Select the 1st
V-Roller and In the Links and Pipeline tab of the Material Buttons
press the X to remove its material, then click Add New to add a new
material.
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to white and click Shadeless so it renders as a pure white colour. |
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In the
World Settings change the Background to white. |
With the material set on the first
V-Roller Shift-RMB select all
the other components, then Shift-RMB
select the 1st V-Roller to make it the active object. Press Ctrl-L (Make
Links) and select Materials from the popup menu. This will copy the
material from the active object onto all the other selected objects.
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In
the Output tab of the Scene Buttons click Edge to allow the Edge filter
to
draw an outline around the components and then click on Edge Settings
and set Eint (Edge Intensity) to 1 to give lines only on the most
prominent edges.
In the
Format tab change size X to 3300 and Sixe Y to 2400. Select the camera,
go into camera view NumPad 0
and align the camera with the Boundary Object. Set the Camera to
Orthographic in the scene buttons Camera tab |
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Because we are working with such a large output size you can select
areas of the camera view to do a test render. In the camera view press Shift-B and drag a selection box
over the area you would like to test. The render will then be confined
to the area of the selection.
To come out of Border render de-select Border in the Render tab. |
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In side
view NumPad 3
cut the right hand V-Roller in half by deleting all the vertices
forward of the centreline. This is easier carried out in local view
NumPad /.
Alt-Shift-RMB select the vertices on
the two open ends and copy Shift-D
them forward of the 1/2 V-Roller on the Y-axis. Shift-F fill these faces, beautify
the fill Alt-F and convert to
Quads Alt-J. The faces have
been separated from the V-Roller to allow the edge filter to detect the
edges cleanly.
With the vertices of the disconnected faces still selected we need to
add an image texture with a hatch pattern. If you haven't already got
one available use one of the textures from the 608-Bearing tutorial Part 11.
In
the Link and Materials tab
of the Editing Buttons click New to add a second material to the mesh
and then press Assign to assign the second material to the selected
vertices. |
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In the Shading Buttons, Texture sub
context add a new image texture and load your hatch pattern.
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do this go back to the 608-Bearing tutorial, Part
11 describes the process in detail. |
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Because Image textures are
stretched to fit the object's bounding box
size the hatch will have been skewed vertically so increase Y repeat to
2 or 3 in
the Map Image tab of the texture buttons. This will repeat the texture
2 or 3 times in the Y-axis.
If you
do a test render you should end up with something like the image
opposite.
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Radial Dimensions
To construct a diameter dimension select a vertex either side of the
horizontal centreline and add an edge F.
Click on Edge Length in the Mesh Tools 1 tab of the Editing Context
buttons. We can use this figure for the dimension text.
Separate
this edge from the V-Roller P,
choose "Selected" from the popup menu. Tab
into Object Mode and select the new edge, which will be used to form
the dimension line. Go into Local view NumPad
/ for dimension line, then Tab
into Edit Mode (Note I have
removed the material to make the images clearer for this tutorial).
Select both
vertices and Extrude them Z 0.1. Select the bottom two
vertices and Extrude these Z -0.1 This adds thickness to the
dimension line.
Select All and cut K through the horizontal edges
choosing Knife (Multicut) from the popup menu and accepting the default
2 cut's. |
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Select the six new vertices that have been cut and Scale them along the horizontal
edges X until they are
around 4mm from the ends of the dimension line. Select
the two vertices A & B and Extrude them in the Z axis 1mm Repeat
this on the other three edges. You should end up with a dimension line
that has a box
on either end. |
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Select
the five left hand vertices and with the Pivot Point set to Median
Point Scale the vertices to 0 then Remove Doubles w. You will end up with an arrow
shaped end.
Repeat this
on the other end of the dimension line.
The next requirement is to add a leader line for the dimension text.
Select the three vertices in the yellow box opposite. |
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Toggle
back into Global View NumPad /
and extrude these vertices on the X-axis
out past the edge of the component.
Add the
Black shadeless material from the border to the dimension line.
Tab into Object Mode and in side
view NumPad 3 move the
dimension line in front of the V-Roller. With the dimension line
selected snap the cursor Shift-S
to its object centre Cursor>Selection. |
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Insert a
Text object and in the Editing buttons Font tab, increase its size to
suit the page scale (4 on my layout)
Backspace through "Text" to remove
it, then add the dimension size using the number keys on the main
keyboard (not the NumPad keys)
Tab into Object Mode and move G the text over the leader line.
Finally add
the Black material to the text object.
With the
cursor snapped to the Object centre copy the the dimension line and
text, then rotate the copy from the horizontal.
The original
dimension line can now be modified by moving the arrows on the X-axis
to a new diameter. |
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This
technique can also be used for radius dimensions by cutting the
dimension line on the centre-point and deleting all the vertices to one
side of the cut.
If you
haven't been doing so it's worth frequently saving your work. Press Ctrl-W and save the file. |
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Linear dimensions
Linear dimensions using the Blender Caliper script were covered in
detail in the 608-Bearing tutorial Part 11 along with scaled
views. If you can't remember how to add the dimensions please revisit Part
11. |
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As a quick refresher, in Edit Mode select the two vertices where you
want the dimension measurement to be taken from.
Copy the vertices and move them away from the model (constrained to an axis).
This gives a break between the extension line and the model. Extrude
these vertices to the point where you want the dimension line, then
extrude again past this point.
To thicken each edge so it will show on the render, select the three
vertices of one edge and extrude it away from the other edge 0.2mm. Do
the same with the other edge. |
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To add the dimension select
the two vertices on the inner edge of the extension lines. Open Blender
Caliper, adjust the measurement settings for the dimension line and
press measure. (You may need to play with the settings to get a
suitable font size and dimension line scale).
Select
the vertices of the extension lines and separate them from the models
mesh P.
Go into Object Mode and join the extension lines to the dimension line
created by Blender Caliper by selecting both objects and pressing Ctrl-J.
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you progress through your layout join all the dimension and extension
lines into one object. It helps to change the colour of the dimensions
to help differentiate them from the model. |
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The
models are going to be rendered using the edge settings so need to be
rendered separately to the drawing border and dimensions. Select all
the
models and move them onto layer 2
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Move then click the second layer box
in the popup. |
In the
Render Layer tab of the scene buttons select layer 2 to limit the
render to this layer. In the Output tab make sure Edge is still
selected.
In the
Format tab select PNG as the file format and check the RGBA button.
Render the line drawings of the components. When you save the
render it will save the component layout onto a transparent
background. Save F3 the drawing as V-RollerLayout1.png |
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To
combine this drawing with the border and dimensions, we can use the
Node Editor. The Node editor is a complex image editor and needs a book
of its own to describe its full capabilities. I will just touch on
what's needed to combine the two layers.
In the render Layers tab select layer 1. In the Output tab deselect
Edge to turn off the edge filter. Render the layer and close the render
window.
In the 3D View click the window type button and choose Node Editor. On
the Node Editor
Header click on the face icon to select composite nodes, then click
Use Nodes. A Render Layer Node and Composite node will appear in the
view joined with a curved line.
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view of the Border and Dimensions. We
now need to add an input node so we can load the image with the line
drawings. |
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Press the SpaceBar to open the node menu
choose Add>Input>Image, a new node will appear in the View. You
can move the nodes around by LMB
dragging the Header at the top of the node. Position the Input Node
below the Render Layer Node.
Press Load New and load the drawing V-RollerLayout1.png. The thumbnail
of the image will appear in the node. Nodes are arranged with inputs on
the left-hand side and outputs on the right-hand side.
We now need to add a node that can combine both the Render Layer and
Image nodes together. To do this press the SpaceBar and choose
Add>Color>AlphaOver. The AlphaOver node will be placed in the
view.
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We need to re-wire the nodes
to give us the correct output.
LMB click and drag the cursor across
the link between the Render Layer Node and the Composite Node. This
will cut the connection.
LMB
click and hold on the yellow output socket on the Render Layer node and
drag the mouse to the bottom yellow input socket on the Alpha Over
node. A new connection will be made.
In the same
way connect the output of the image node to the top input of the Alpha
Over node. Then connect the Output socket of the Alpha Over node to
the input socket of the Composite node. The connections are now
complete.
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rendering the layout you must tell Blender to use the composite output.
In the Scene buttons Anim tab click Do Composite, then render the
layout. |
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If
all has gone well you will get a composite layout with a dimensioned
line drawing of the components. In the Scene buttons Format tab Click
RGB as we no longer need alpha in the image and Save the Layout drawing
F3. Save your file Ctrl-W.
The
final thing necessary to print the drawing to scale is to adjust the
pixels per inch to 300 in an image-editing program such as Gimp or
PhotoShop. |
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