Scenes: Shelf, Pallet and Wall

A 3D page can show its model in a scene: the folded pack faced up on a retail shelf, shippers stacked on a pallet, or a sign or frame hung on a wall. The scene is set once for the drawing, with a SCENE statement or 3D › Display › Display Scene, and every 3D page of the drawing shows it, with everything that shows a 3D page: the proof images and video (in both qualities), glTF, USDZ, COLLADA and 3D PDF exports, and the web viewer. The slider still makes the model: on a shelf or a pallet every copy folds up together.

SCENE "SHELF",ROWS=3,COLS=4,DEEP=2
SCENE "PALLET",PALLET="EUR",PATTERN="BEST"
SCENE "WALL",HANG=1600,HALO="#ffd9a0"
SCENE "NONE"

Every setting is an expression, so a variable keeps the scene following the drawing (COLS=FACINGS). Sizes are in the drawing's units. Without a setting, the scene's default is used.

Choosing a scene

3D › Display › Display Scene lists None, Shelf, Pallet Load and Wall. Choosing one writes SCENE "kind" (one step you can undo) with the scene's defaults; change its settings in the Scene panel on the 3D page, or by editing the statement (in the drawing's text or the command line). Choosing the scene the drawing already has keeps its settings. None takes the scene away. A 3D page whose MODE names its stages leaves the scene out unless the list has SCENE.

The Scene panel

Click Scene on the 3D view's toolbar (beside Variables) to show the panel beside the view. With the Variables panel shown too, the two share one column, Variables above Scene: drag the bar between them to give either more room. Its first row, Scene, chooses the scene (None, Shelf, Pallet Load or Wall, as the 3D menu does); under it are the scene's settings, each by its name and key, with the value the drawing gives it or, if it gives none, the scene's default:

Each change is written into the drawing's SCENE statement as one step to undo, the other settings kept as they are, and the 3D is made again in the background, as the Variables panel does: the view and the camera stay where they are, and a slider tries its values as you drag it. Empty a text box, tick Price strip again, or choose (automatic) to take the setting out of the statement and leave it to the scene.

A setting written as a formula (COLS=FACINGS) is shown as its formula in a text box, and what you type there is kept as a formula, so the scene stays parametric; a size the scene works out also takes a formula. A formula that can't be read is refused and said in the message bar. Choosing another scene in the first row starts it from its defaults, as the 3D menu does.

Standing the model up

The model is made (folded, extruded …) and measured, then stood in the scene. A folded carton is drawn flat with its first panel on the floor, so by default its Y axis (up the drawing) becomes up and its first panel's outside faces the front; a solid made by extruding stands as it is made (its Z up). Three settings change that, for the shelf and the pallet:

A tray folded up from its base, for example, stands with UP="Z",FRONT="-Y".

Retail shelf

SCENE "SHELF": a shelving bay (a plinth with its base deck, uprights each side, a back and shelves) with the pack faced up on it, row by row.

The bay is sized to fit: as wide as the facings, as deep as the packs behind them, a shelf above each row. The 3D page's messages say how many packs it shows.

Pallet load

SCENE "PALLET": shippers stacked on a pallet, layer on layer, by a pattern.

The messages say the plan: the cases on a layer, the layers, the total, the pattern and the load's height. The pattern is worked out by the same code whichever way the case's size comes, and Export to Cape Pack on a 3D page with a pallet scene writes the pack on its own (not the pallet) and adds the 3D page's plan to its messages, so you can compare it with Cape Pack's.

Wall: signs and frames

SCENE "WALL": the drawing is the wall's face (its x across, its y up) and the model stands out from it: a routed or built-up sign, letters on stand-offs, a frame with its glass (Wrapping and sweeping).

The photo and the halo are made into the wall's own image, so the proofs and the 3D exports show them as the 3D page does (the web viewer shows the wall in its colour, without the photo or the halo). A frame's glass reflects the studio's soft box in a Photo quality proof, as glass does on any 3D page.

Example

SCENE "PALLET",PALLET="GMA",PATTERN="INTERLOCK",MAXH=60*25.4

The drawing's shipper on a GMA pallet, interlocked, as many layers as stay under 60 inches with the pallet.

See also

• SCENE: the statement.
• Making drawings 3D: the 3D page's modes.
• Proofs: proof images and video.
• Pallet software: TOPS Pro and Cape Pack.