Isometric Piping Stencils: Example Drawings

[davidoff]

very good work Stefan!!!

[Stefan]

Thanks for the positive comment.

I do not have the time these days to use Visio to i'ts full potential, but I have enjoyed using Yoda's stencils.

Perhaps when I retire from my daily job which is not to far away, I will have some spare time to enjoy myself.

I have gained much pleasure teaching others in my workplace to use the program instead of getting me to produce thier drawings. My company does not get the most out of this program which tends to frighten off personnel more so than the use of the standard office programs.

The work done by some of the contributers really gives me a buzz, perhaps because I have developed my skills in producing drawings for the petrochemical industry, which I have have used in learning aids, is very focused, some of these other guys are really thinking outside the box.
Stefan   

[davidoff]

is there any way to make shape in 3D axes,

for example X - Y and Z, ??

[Paul Herber]

There is a 3D axis shape in the Charting Shapes stencil.

[wapperdude]

Visio is 2-D, it only knows X-, Y-Axis.  You can brute force your shapes to look 3-D, but there is no third coordinate, Z-axis.  That's what makes these isometric drawing shapes so special.

[Stefan]

Not only are the stencils amazing, the use of Isomentric fonts makes the ISO drawing look and feel more complete, that Yoda is one smart guy.
I have made some additions to the original stencils, to add pieces of kit which were not in the package as I am using for a specific purpose and once you start to draw in ISO, you find out what the limitations are for Visio, some shapes it will accept and enlarge, rotate etc some it will not, but it can be fun to try.
Some years ago I did try a similar drawing package 'Conceptdraw', but this had similar limitations. Perhaps it is something for the future to expand and develop this feature.   
Stefan

[Stefan]

Here is another example of what can be achieved using the ISO stencils and fonts, you will see I have added 'lifelike valves, relief valves and pressure gauges to aid the recognition for personnel using these drawings.
The file attached is compessed due to the large size it will extract to a pdf
Stefan   

[vojo]

As a suggestion:

There are universal equations to translate a 2D object into a 3D object.  Typically this is presented as a matrix operation using sine/cosine of 3 different angles.  Ie maps any point (vertex) in 2D space into 3D space.

Anyway, it might be helpful if there was a macro or VBA that could be called to make the translations.
Ie, a common shape (say cube with all 6 sides defined), run the macro, values get plugged into shape, voila, an isometric view (or any 3-D presentation - standard or non standard) based off the 3 angles defined in say custom properties.

I have done a bit of thinking about extending the idea of the offset light source control handle idea presented here about a year ago.  Ie 3 control handles to define the 3 angles of interest, user can move at will.  Control handle manages the value of the angle, shape takes the angle and applies to the geometry sections of interest.   But I have not had a chance to play with the coding.

anyway...just a suggestion.

[Visio Guy]

In Visio 2007 you have the ability to define custom functions for the ShapeSheet. This eases the problems of transforming 3D points into 2D space.

Yoda (Junichi) and I have played around with this a little bit as far as 3D stuff goes, but we haven't done anything serious.

If you're interested in this user-defined function capability, check out this article:

User-defined ShapeSheet Functions in Visio 2007

[wapperdude]

Well, since you're playing around with this, might it be possible to take Vojo's idea of control points on the document page, and then, when you drop a shape, it inherits the angle values from the page via parent reference?

[vojo]

user cells at the sheet level.

I used that approach for the animation dashboard

[zhuravsky]

"3d" picture of 200 MW steam turbine

[Visio Guy]

Whew! That steam turbine is cool, and is definitely worth a look.

Here's a sneak preview:

[Stefan]

Wow zhuravsky
That is one excellent drawing, those stencils sure are versatile.
Stefan 

[zhuravsky]

Here are sources in VSD format (part 1of 2)