Design Integration Laboratory

Design Tools - Connections

3D -> 2D by Object PICT

Objective

These notes are intended to help export base drawings from a model made in DesignWorkshop® for use in almost any Macintosh 2D drawing/drafting application or presentation layout application, using the 32-bit color Object PICT format.

It makes sense to use Object PICT to go from 3D to 2D when you want a fully shaded or poched view, or a perspective drawing. If what you want is a high-precision orthographic drawing base, use the DXF format instead.

3D --> 2D Drawing Export Process

Export the drawing from a DesignWorkshop model:

  1. Whatever you have on the screen is exactly what will be exported to the PICT file.

  2. Carefully choose your view, rendering style, background colors, if any, and sun angles.

  3. Export the 3D objects to Object PICT format, with the File menu Export > PICT command.

    Then bring the PICT drawing you have prepared into your drawing/drafting application, using the appropriate commands in that application.

    1. Using PowerCADD, import the PICT drawing file using the File menu Open command, with the PICT file type setting.

      • PICT drawings are not formally scaled, so no import options dialog box will appear.

      • The better you know your drawingdrafting software, the more efficiently you'll be able to clean up the drawing. For instance, if you need to trim down objects which stick out beyond the main rectangular border of the imported PICT in PowerCADD, use the Utilities menu Fence Cut command, with the Delete Outside box checked, and then drag out a rectangular box which the selected PICT will be trimmed to.

    2. To bring your PICT drawing into ClarisWorks for presentation or report layout, use the File menu Insert command.


    (Over the next several months, these multi-step procedures will probably be superceded by more elegant translations using the "QuickDraw 3D Metafile" (3DMF) standard recently introduced by Apple Computer, Inc. This format will be supported in DesignWorkshop 2.0, and by most other Macintosh modeling programs.)

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    http://www.dil.uoregon.edu/computing/tools/3d_to_2d_by_pict.html - Posted 96.02.10 KMM