OpenPlant Modeler Help

(Technology Preview) Named Presentations

When working with 3D models, some geometric components need to display different symbols in different view contexts, and simple projections may not be sufficient. The Named Presentations feature allows you to do so. For example, consider a door component. You may want different symbols of a door in different views as shown below.
Adding the elements you want to see in each view to the corresponding Named Presentation will only show those elements when the door is placed as a parametric cell in a design and the respective view orientation is selected. For example, Top view will only show the door in plan and its swing when these elements are added to the 'Top' named presentation.

Named Presentations Dialog

Used to manage named presentations.

You can access this dialog from the following:
  • Ribbon: Drawing > Content > Named Presentations > Named Presentations
SettingDescription
Set Element to Named Presentation
Starts the Set Named Presentation tool using which you can add elements to a named presentation.


You can select the views to which you wish to add the selected element to by selecting the corresponding checkbox(s) in the Select Views section of the tool setting. In the extended tool setting you can choose any other view combinations than that are mentioned above. You can add multiple elements to any named presentation and also add a single element to multiple named presentations.

Named Presentation list box Lists the named presentations, number of elements added to each named presentation, and the view orientation to which the named presentation will be applied.

You can turn off the display of elements in a specific Named Presentation using the icon on the left of the list box.

Named Presentation View Attribute

In the View Attributes dialog's Presentation section, a new icon called Named Presentation is added. If on, named presentations are applied to the selected view.

Note: You can set and change the participation of an element to named Presentations from the Properties dialog. This will be possible only if both the below mentioned conditions are satisfied for the active model's properties:
  • "Cell Type" is set to "Parametric".
  • "Can be placed as Cell" is set to "True".

Elements in a design that are not added to any Named presentation will display in all Views. To prevent an element from displaying in any of the standard views you must add it to the Model named presentation. Elements added to the Model named presentation will only display in non-standard views like Isometric view or Rotate view.

Workflow for Using Named Presentations

Following is the general workflow for using named presentations:
  1. In a model, draw the desired 3D model. For example, a door.
  2. In a different view orientation, place elements that you want to view for the model in that view orientation. For example, for a door model, in the Top view, you will draw the commonly used symbol of door in plan views, which is a rectangle with an arc and line indicating the door and its swing.
  3. Open the Named Presentations dialog.

  4. Select the Set to Named Presentation tool and in its tool settings window, select the desired views to which you want to add the elements.

  5. Select the desired elements and enter a data point. In our example, select the door symbol in Top view.

    The elements are added to the selected named presentation.

  6. Now place the model as a parametric cell in another DGN.
  7. In the View Attributes dialog in the DGN where you have placed the parametric cell, make sure the Named Presentation view attribute is turned on.

  8. Change the orientation to the one that has named presentation created and observe that the elements that you included for that named presentation are displayed instead of the original cell. So, in our door example, in the Top view, you will see just the door symbol, which is a rectangle with an arc and line.

    Door representation in 'Top' named presentation