Title Block

speaking of the Grizzley, know when its due?

Rod.

Not in the current release of the product - SU V5 Pro. However, if you stick around long enough, you'll be pleasantly impressed.

Todd

just wondering if it is possible to have a title block that could have a border and sketch name, client name etc. on a page, and have this carry over to other pages.

designd -- Todd (as Rod intimates) is referring to the development of 'Grizzly'. The SketchUp developers are working on this sister product that is a page layout system that will work well with SketchUp. With it you'll have your title blocks & much more in a unique super-easy to use package. Visit this thread about Grizzly and you'll likely join those of us who can't wait!

Rod -- Google have released no info on their schedules for releasing SU v6 or Grizzly.

Designd,

You can actually to that . But with out Lines.

See attached skp.file . At least you got the

title or project name!

TITLE TIP.skp

Using the method ECQ shows, its possible to get crazy with special characters and make a nice border around your screen, with boxes that go around the names and date, etc.

Chris Fullmer

i Thanks for the title block idea that is really good.

I have been using SU5 for a while, but cant work out how you do it ?

What is the trick to keep the text at the same position whilst changing the model size and position. ?

Chris,

Just click the Text tool in the middle of nowhere and type, instead of letting its little pointy thing attach to an edge. You can then select and move the text wherever you want.

Grizzly will be able to do full title blocks, either for printing or as consistent style sheets in an onscreen presentation.

Chris Fullmer: Nice idea mate! you can also add a splash of colourMaking the title blk. was a challence lining up the character.

Horizontals were easy using dash but verticals ???

What i did was increase the font size to 72 and use lowercase "L"

to create verticals. any ideas?

Attached skp.model

TITLE BLK 2.skp

Ozkid -- that works pretty good! I think it would look better without any horizontals - more sophisticated. You also forgot your phone number -- how are we going to call you?

Try using these types of characters. They are made for this. They run all the way to the edge of the character block and match up with each other. This is from my old ansi artist days.

┌ ┐ └ ┘ ├ ┤ ─ │ ├ ┤ ┬ ┴ ┼ ═ ║ ╒ ╓ ╔ ╕ ╖ ╗ ╘╙ ╬ ╫ ╪ ╩ ╨ ╧ ╦ ╥ ╤ ╣ ╢ ╡ ╠ ╟ ╞ ╝ ╜ ╛ ╚

You'll need to mess around with the font to use. Arial wouldn't line up right. It worked perfectly on the old standard DOS font. Just plain ascii or something. Anyone got any ideas what font will make it work right? I used one yesterday when I was toying around with it that worked, but it had less line options. And of course I forgot what font it was.......

Chris Fullmer

All,

TIG posted this a while ago.

http://forum.sketchup.com/showthread...=shop+drawings [bad link. But this old thread was wish list of things oft page layout abilities that were addressed with the release of LayOut]

Ron

This is a Title Block that Chris Love made for me, but I really haven't ever used it because I can't figute out how to position the model on each Page so that it's at the correct scale.

Maybe someone here could figure it out?

Template JW.skp

ok, here's an example. I used Book Antgiua font that I think is Windows 2000 standard. hopefully everyone has it.

It took some work to make it line up right. Also, its imossible to select blank space through the window. So it might be best to put it on its own layer and leave if off while working.

Chris

also this is set to look right on my screen at 1024x768 with my toolbar sizes.

titleblock.skp

Ron, your link does not work. You copy and pasted but it wasnt displayed in full where you copied it from. Could you post it again?

Chris

Quoting chris fullmer:

Ron, your link does not work. You copy and pasted but it wasnt displayed in full where you copied it from. Could you post it again?

Chris

Oops. Actually, it was meant to be a link to the same attachment Joe just posted.

Ron

Edit: More accurately, my bad link was to a post by TIG who linked to a post by Chris Love (referred to by Joe). A search for "title block" will get you there better than I can.

Let's see if this works:

Shop Drawing.zip

Ron

Edit: Nope. Sorry

Ross i just whip the dummy title block in a few minutes to test chris idea using my old pc with 17" monitor.It was friday night and my son is in command with my mac for his Runescape game:)

Anyway, with my 20" imac the title block is all over the place!!! So it depends on the screen size. And also if i group it does'nt work as well..

Chris F: Yeah! i remember the old DOS fonts creating perfect squares. long time ago mate!

Ozkid, did you look at the model I posted? It is all one text block, so it should work on any display.

Quoting todd burch - katy, texas:

. . . . . however, if you stick around long enough, you'll be pleasantly impressed.

Todd

Do you know something we dont? Do tell . . . . . . Whats 'long enough'? Are all these workarounds posted on here going to be redundant anytime soon?

That is a reference to Grizzley(and maybe more, who knows what information Todd's head holds about the future of SU). Here's a thread that talks about what the SU team has up their sleeve:

http://forum.sketchup.com/showthread.php?t=70721 [broken link]

Chris

Chris, I did open your file and resize skp. window to fit your title blk.and works well.

Hmm! this is diff. you only got 1 text entity/block

The problem with this it you cannot change the font size. Maybe if you can make 1 text entity just for the titlle blk alone ie as lines extending to to top/skp window as what you did. And the other one will just normal text and adjust text according to your requirements.

i have'nt time make a real title blk. yet but this ideas are great!

Stuatb: Probably it going to be redundant soon! But when is Goolge going to release Grizzly/V6???

Another example, Inspired by Mic Lucey title block posted before.

TITLE BLK 3.skp

That loks really nice ozkid.

A silly experiment here with a custom font made in Font Creator http://www.high-logic.com/products.html.

I have a hand drawn jpg of a rooster and laid out some text in Illustrator. The text was saved to web to make it a jpg. Each image was then imported as contours in its own character (glyph) in Font Creator. The custom TTF with only two characters - so far - was installed on the computer. The rooster was ‘!’ and the three word text was ‘∞’. Color separation of multi-colored logos can be assigned its own character. Custom border/text separator(s) can be drawn in Illustrator and become its own character.

If the location of custom text is forgotten, open the Character Map for the TTF and copy/paste the character (in XP, Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools).

Fonts are not embedded, so the custom font will only work on the computer with the font installed. OK for exporting as other types of images though.

The roosters were initially grouped for placement convenience and individually sized and colored. Grouped/component text rotate about and go wacko, especially when camera perspective is on. It can be saved as a component and tucked into a favorite component library for reuse, but needs to be exploded immediately after adding to a file (perspective off?) and moved into position.

The drop down portion of Entity Info shows text properties but most adjustment were done through Model Info. Text size can be greater than 72.

Edit: The text has a slight drop shadow so it's unitentionally fuzzy. Importing larger JPGs into font program helps clarity too. Now I like changing color, font and size via Entity Info best. Elements in title were in separate layers to aid in isolation and selection if needed, but everything in sample was spaced far enough apart.

That looks great Catamountain. I really like that font program too. I used it to create a new font for my office based on one of the employees hand writing last year. Its a great tool. It would be cool to create a font full of title blocks and and such. However, I suppose its too late if grizzley is in the works.

Chris

edit:BTW, interesting horsehead model. Was that a project of yours? Or something just for fun?

Thanks Chris, the horse was made in SU for fun - the chess pieces SU 3D challenge but never submitted.

And as far as using custom text is concerned, it may depend on the new features of the next SU upgrade or if means adding another standalone program.

For my purposes, just having the option to embed fonts would be a nice addition to SU6. I only want to add little things indicating ownership - my signature, logo, etc - to text boxes. Although if I scan my signature and make it a TTF character, I would only want to keep that font on my machine. This custom font stuff may be all I require.

Nice Catamountain, can this be done in Macs? i've been trying windings fontsbut skp. don't recognise it.

Attached another title blk style

Any ideas to rotate text in SKP.??

TITLE4.skp

FontCreator is only for windows http://www.high-logic.com/fontcreator.html. FontLab makes things for Windows and Mac http://fontlab.com/Try-out-FontLab-Products/. It's more expensive stuff. Back when I was hunting for font programs, I was happiest with the features-for-the-buck with FontCreator, I bought the pro version before the price went up:) Both programs have trials.

I think one of my research sources was a software hunt on CNET http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?tg=dl-20&qt=font%20program&tag=srch.

The installed Wingdings work for me. I used the Character Map on my PC to select the character and pasted it into the text box.

And EQC, I like your last idea. It's clear, simple and gets the message across. Although since fonts are not embedded in the skp, my computer substituted fonts. So part of your message - your style and design sense - was not passed on to this viewer. Could you add an image file to your post?

Catamountain: Thanks for the link and comments.Attached image for title4. This is good if you are illustrating interior perspectives As you know occupies the whole window of skp.. i dont want title block to crash with my image.

But it will work in this kind of illustration as well.

interior perspective illustration

Looking good ozkid. My computer changed the proportion of your font too. Mac and PC fonts have different properties. Seems like embedding fonts for cross-platforms could be a bit of a nuisance. FontCreator can make fonts with either properties, but I don't think both sets of properties can be inserted in the same font.

You were asking about rotated text. Here's a quick text line, 4x, made in Illustrator and imported in the font program as a single character. At the text point size shown, this free font would need some cleaning up in the font program to look smoother. I could have enlarged it so it would be smaller than 280 point too.

hi guys, interesting thread, Ive been looking for something like this.My workaround is to print off a few title block pages produced in my case in fireworks, then print my model on to 'em again.

Chris, your ascii tiitle block looks just the thing but when i tried exporting it, it went out of alignment. I have the same screen res as you - 1024x768.

Any idea why, Id love to use the method.

baz

Not sure why, but the workaround would be to create a title block that is a single charatcter. I'll play around with it when I get a chance tonight, unless catamountain beats me to it :)

Chris

EDIT:Attached in the .zip is the font I created that contains a the titleblock pictured.

ok, I got the first version out. I used the title block presented above by Chris Love via Joe and Ron. It is the lowercase letter a. So there is nothing useful in this font except the lowercase letter a. This is a windows font, not sure what it will do on a mac. Install it to your windows directory. Then open SU and add text to the screen by clicking anywhere on blank space. Then type the letter a in lwoercase. Now in entity info for that text, change the font to "Titleblock". Now change the font size to something around 500. Its not ont he scroll list, you will have to type it in. Then hit ok, and your box should be there. If you don't change the size,t he box is so small, it is essentially invisible. You will need to change the size right away or it is easy to lose on the screen. Try that and see how it works.

Chris

edit: In the screen shot, I put my name in there as another text entity. I had to create it off to the side and then move it into place.

Quoting chris fullmer:

That is a reference to Grizzley(and maybe more, who knows what information Todd's head holds about the future of SU). Here's a thread that talks about what the SU team has up their sleeve:

http://forum.sketchup.com/showthread.php?t=70721 [dead link]

Chris

I am well aware that it is a reference to Grizzly . . . . I was perhaps too subtle with my sarcasm . . . . Grizzly seems to be all talk so far . . . Sketchup is brilliant . . there NEEDS to be an integrated means of generating layouts and repeating title blocks. I thought 'Pro' meant professional? Professionals need corporate logos . . . amateur workarounds are no good.

Chris, I wont pretend to know how you did that but it works a beauty!

Thanks.

Whoops, might have spoken too soon, in print preview the block shows but doesnt print. Then when I go back to the drawing the block has disappeared and the text tool doesnt want to work.

It will however export as a jpg so thats ok.

Something weird going on tho.

baz

lol. well, I've had a problem berfore where I've managed to dislodge the text block. It was a week or two ago and I can't figure how I did it. So the ability to stick text to the screen is cool, and helpful, but its not always 100% prefect, especially when trying to force it to do something it wasn't designed to do.

What if you set the text smaller, like down at 100 or 200. Maybe do that and try to prnt again. See if the huge font size is what's messing it up.

Well anyhow, glad it worked. If you made a title block shape you wanted in SU, I can turn it into a font character.

Chris

I noticed that if all objects orbit out of view, the text box disappears. Even a boring normal text box.

This little program might be worth trying out http://fontlab.com/Font-tools/SigMaker/. It just inserts signatures or graphics (logos) into existing fonts. Unused font characters can be assigned to your own graphics. Minimal editing options though. Cannot clean up sloppy lines and curves. Most of this developer's software is quite pricy.

Edit: Font programs have attribute settings. One of the controllable attributes is embedding rights. For security reasons, a font with a signature character can disable embedding or keep it as a single document only use font when the document is opened on a different system. SU5 doesn't allow embedding so that's not an issue here yet.

A little script called AddPage.rb, http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=39092, may have a place in this title block thread. It will add page number layer at a location of your choice. Those text layers will turn on and off as pages change. Open script to adjust the location coordinates and text to suit - fit it in one of Chris' title blocks. If you don't want a number, change to descriptive text.

Chris, just came back to it to try your suggestion but it is now working perfectly, I swear my computer does these sort of things just for fun.

Anyway, Ill take you up on your kind offer, no hurry, whenever you get around to it, thanks.

baz.

titleblock_gls.skp

ClearType font enhancement settings for Windows usershttps://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28790/tweak-cleartype-in-windows-7/#:~:text=ClearType%20is%20enabled%20by%20default,and%20then%20click%20%E2%80%9CNext.%E2%80%9D. There's an online interface and downloadable tuner called PowerToy Tuner https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/. It [used to] add a ClearType wizard to the Control Panel.

edit 9/2/21 ClearType has be added to Windows.