Page 151 - Enhancing CAD Drawings with Photoshop

4386.book Page 134 Monday, November 15, 2004 3:27 PM

134 CHAPTER 4 YOU AND YOUR ENTOURAGE

7. Press F to switch to the Front viewport. Press G to toggle the grid on. Click the Plane button in
the Object Type rollout. Drag out a plane next to the box. Don’t worry about its exact size or
placement yet.
We need to temporarily change to generic units to match the size of the plane to the pixel
dimensions of the image.

8. Choose Customize Units Setup to open the Units Setup dialog box. Click the Generic Units
radio button and then click OK. Changing units does not scale objects; it merely changes the
system of measurement. Using generic units may be less confusing than feet and inches in the
next step.
9. Click the Modify tab of the Command Panel. Change Length to 1415 and Width to 345. These
generic values match the pixel dimensions of the image.
10. Click the Select And Uniform Scale tool on the main toolbar. Drag the Scale gizmo down to
reduce the size of the plane. Keep dragging until the plane’s height roughly matches the height
of the box. Right-click, choose Move from the Transform quad, and move the plane so that its
lower edge rests on the major line of the grid (see Figure 4.39). Finally, erase the box, now that
it has fulfilled its job as your visual template (click to select it and press Delete).

Figure 4.39
Scaling the plane to
match the box

11. Select the plane again. Click the Hierarchy tab of the Command Panel, and click the Pivot
Category button if it’s not already selected. In the Adjust Transform rollout, click the Scale
button in the Reset group. Now the object’s transform scale is readjusted to 100% at the
plane’s current size.
Now that you have created the plane to match the pixel dimensions of the image using generic
units, you can set the units back to feet and inches.
12. Change the units to US Standard, just as you did in step 1.
By default, the plane primitive’s pivot point is located at the center of the object. However, you
will find entourage more useful if you move the pivot down to the ground. You can then place
entourage planes on floor surfaces in VIZ and rest the figure’s feet firmly on the ground.