Plotting

To create drawings, Surface produces a general plot file. The user can control the size orientation and contents of the drawing, which can be previewed before the general plot file is created. The Plotting dialog is accessed using the icon.

A plot is made up of one or more views, which are positioned by the user on a specified size of drawing area. Before producing a plot, the orthogonal and 3D curves to be plotted should be created and stored on separate layers, as the plotting facilities use the layer display dialog to control the contents of each view in the plot.

To illustrate the use of the Plotting dialog, a simple body plan, as shown, will be produced. First open the design twin_fwd_hull using FILE \ OPEN.

Create a body plan plot file drawing

1. First, specify the size of the drawing area using the Media page. Select the Media A2.

2. Next we will create two views for the display of the aft and forward sections. In the Names input box type the name AFTSEC then click the Add button. Then enter the name FWDSEC and click the Add button.

   

3. To set the drawing scale, enter the value 50 in the Scale box, this specifies a scale of 1/50. In the Position panel, enter the value 0.025 in both the U and V boxes for Media Position. To specify the size of the view, in the U column of the World Extents boxes, enter the minimum and maximum values 0.0 and 12.0. In the V column enter the values 0.0 and 10.0.

   

4. Having defined two views, we will now specify their size and contents. Select the name AFTSEC from the view list, using the Left Mouse button. On the Display page, select Section from the Type pulldown. Select Options Reflect. From the Grid pulldown select the Curves option and select the Numbers toggle. This bases the grid on the orthogonal curves stored in the datastore. Set the values of U Increment and V Increment to 1.

5. The aft sections are stored on layer 1, so we must turn the other layers that contain objects off. Click the Layers... button and turn off layers other than 1. To check the view click the Preview button.

6. Next set the size and contents of view FWDSEC. Select the view from the list and follow the procedure above except for the following, Reflect toggle should not be selected, the Media Position should be 0.265, 0.025 and the layers turned off should be all other than 2. Then click Preview to check the full bodyplan.

7. Finally, to output the drawing to a general plot file click the Apply button.

8. Enter the file name twin_fwd_hull.plt in the File Handling dialog and click the Close button.