{"id":107,"date":"2009-12-14T00:30:42","date_gmt":"2009-12-14T07:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.visiozone.com\/?p=107"},"modified":"2010-12-22T19:38:37","modified_gmt":"2010-12-23T02:38:37","slug":"simulating-3d-with-isometric-visio-shapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visiozone.com\/?p=107","title":{"rendered":"Simulating 3D with isometric Visio shapes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Post<\/a><\/p><\/div>

\n
\"Tripp

Tripp Lite isometric<\/p><\/div>\n

In our last post I discussed 1D Visio shapes and their powerful connection features that ease the task of creating drawings of objects assembled into systems.\u00a0 In this article I\u2019ll describe a variation of 2D Visio shapes that are drawn to look like 3D views.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Visio includes in the box several stencils with objects drawn in an isometric style. \u00a0Wikipedia has an excellent overview of the isometric projection<\/a> technique if you are interested.\u00a0 The appeal of isometric is that it\u2019s much easier to draw than perspective since distance of the object from the eye is not considered.\u00a0 An object at the front of a room drawn in isometric will be the same size as an identical object located at the back of the room but the view shows 3 dimensions.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Isometric

Isometric Visio shapes from Visio and Visimation<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The adjacent illustration shows the angles of the Isometric X and Y axes with the Z axis pointing up.\u00a0 The illustration has no scale\u2026 the objects are samples from Visio and Visimation stencils drawn in isometric simply to show a variety.\u00a0 In a similar style, we created a custom set of scaled isometric shapes for Tripp Lite products including equipment racks, enclosures, power strips, and power distribution units.\u00a0 A sample is at the top of this page.\u00a0 These stencils are available for free download from ShapeSource.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a future article I\u2019ll cover the differences in behavior of the various types of Visio connection points for 1D and 2D glue that can ease the process of assembling a set of parts.\u00a0 I previously discussed 1D glue for mounting devices in racks, for example, and we\u2019ll revisit that here as we place devices into the enclosed racks in a simulated 3D isometric view.<\/p>\n

Since Visio is a 2D system, it has no way of knowing that an object is physically contained by another object in 3D space.\u00a0 We need to trick these shapes into showing the devices inside of the enclosure.<\/p>\n

\"Visimation

Visimation custom Tripp Lite isometric assembly technique<\/p><\/div>\n

The following steps correspond to the numbers in the image above:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Drop an enclosure on the page (part SR42UB from the Tripp Lite Isometric stencil)<\/li>\n
  2. Drag a device (in this case a PDU) and drop it in the enclosure.\n
      \n
    1. Note the dark box that appears around the enclosure.\u00a0 This signals that the enclosure shape is a group that will accept dropped shapes into it which is a setting in the Format > Behavior dialog box.<\/li>\n
    2. For this to work, the dropped shape must also have a special behavior set, \u201cAdd shape to groups on drop\u201d, in the same Behavior dialog box. The shapes in this stencil have been preset with these options.<\/li>\n
    3. If you zoom in closely you can move the PDU until it\u2019s snapped into the rack with 1D glue.\u00a0 Visio can be a bit finicky under these conditions so zoom in close to see the shape handles and the red glue indicators.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    4. The PDU is now in the group but the side panel of the enclosure is beneath the PDU shape so the PDU does not look like it\u2019s inside the enclosure<\/li>\n
    5. Right click on the side panel and select Shape > Bring to front.<\/li>\n
    6. The side panel now covers the PDU and the PDU appears to be within the enclosure.\u00a0 Note that the enclosure is a group that\u2019s structured so that when you click on the side panel, that portion of the enclosure comes to the “front” while leaving the remainder of the enclosure \u201cbehind\u201d the PDU.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \"Visimation

      Visimation custom Tripp Lite isometric close up<\/p><\/div>\n

      At the right is a close-up of the PDU before and after the enclosure side was brought forward.\u00a0 You\u2019ll need to work with these shapes a little to understand how to manipulate them to achieve the desired 3D results.\u00a0 Of course, this is only a problem when you are trying to place an object within the 3D envelope of another object.\u00a0 It\u2019s much easier to work with the free standing racks and enclosures and especially (on the Tripp\u00a0Lite isometric stencil)\u00a0the SRCOOL12K cooling unit and the SU20K3\/3 power unit.\u00a0 With these objects, the last one dropped will always be \u201con top\u201d.\u00a0 If you move objects around you may need to bring certain ones forward with right click menu I mentioned above or the Shape > Order menu from the main menu bar.<\/p>\n

      I hope this brings the subject of Visio 3D simulation\u00a0a bit more into <ahem>… perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \"Post<\/a><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      \"Post<\/p>\n

      \"Tripp<\/p>\n

      Tripp Lite isometric<\/p>\n

      In our last post I discussed 1D Visio shapes and their powerful connection features that ease the task of creating drawings of objects assembled into systems. In this article I\u2019ll describe a variation of 2D Visio shapes that are drawn to look like 3D views.<\/p>\n

      Visio includes in the box several stencils with objects drawn in an isometric style. Wikipedia has an excellent overview of the isometric projection technique if you are interested. The appeal …Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[6,61],"tags":[20,19,37,7,3,22,21,73,4],"yoast_head":"\nSimulating 3D with isometric Visio shapes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How to use Microsoft Visio for 3D style drawings\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/visiozone.com\/?p=107\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Simulating 3D with isometric Visio shapes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How to use Microsoft Visio for 3D style drawings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/visiozone.com\/?p=107\" \/>\n<meta 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