Orthographic elevations etc.

[pbacot]

I've been considering the use of elevations that have been rendered. Used it for a planning presentation and I think they work out well. Of course these didn't need to be to scale. They were just to project as pictures for discussion.
Has anyone worked on a system to set up elevations and export such that they are easily overlaid or presented in scale for printed material? Is there any possibility of a straightforward methodology? Resizing by eye and mouse isn't feasible in a typical workflow. I'd consider overlay in LayOut or other software for snapping so that dimensions and linework can be added. The closest method I see (eyeballing with mouse) might include adding points beyond the subject that are set distances in SU, crop the image to the points (eyeballing) and size the image in a scaled setting. The fact that Twilight provides real orthographic (and two point) projections is really great IMO.

[JGA]

Layout would be a good start, as it can read the scale from SKUP. From their, you'd have to scale in an rendered image - eyeballing it in place.
I use an AutoCAD to insert an image, where I can scale up the image to the actual building dimension.

[pbacot]

Yes, I'm thinking the idea of cropping the image to a known dim from markers in SU might work best in that case. Going through CAD has it's own problems because I haven't figured out the export at "paper space" size (in PowerCADD). I can see some possibilities as well as hang-ups. Still going to be a bit of tedious work, not automtic--which could make it unfeasible for production work. So far, opening in Preview, crop to markers, resize image to real world size, per scale, then import to LO. A further hassle is LayOut forcing reduction of inserted graphics, unless you use a very oversized sheet. I made a template just for this purpose, then copy into main document.

[JGA]

In ACAD, I import the image into modelspace, then view the image to a scale of my choice from a viewport in paperspace.
If I just want it in paperspace, I just do the above, then use the CSPACE (change space) command, that automatically rescales the image to paperspace units.

[Fletch]

This is a challenge for sure. JGA sounds like he's got a decent method.
There is something in Twilight that allows you to export the SU view without even rendering.
Go to Render Dialog>Render Pull-down Menu>Save SU View.
This will export the SU view exactly the same size as the final rendering will be.
Saving this file as .jpg and opening in Photoshop we can see that the file is saved at 92dpi. So, if the image is saved at 920px wide, this is 10 inches wide when printed at 92dpi.
After rendering the elevation and saving the file as .jpg and opening in Photoshop, we can see that the file is saved at 72dpi. So, if the image saved is 720px wide, this is 10 inches wide when printed at the 72 dpi.
So, since this would be a rather low quality print, you may assume you want to change the dpi when you print to something like 200dpi. This is done in photoshop or other photo editor that allows you to change the dpi. So, if you render the image at 2000px wide, and print at 200dpi the image is still 10 inches wide, but higher quality than the 72dpi.

Leveraging this knowledge, you can sort of scale the image with, as you mentioned, some scaled points outside of the elevation view, sized to match the paper size in proper scale. It is ultimately a math question.
If printing on 11x17, printing at 1/8" scale, then ... well, you can figure it out from there. If not... well... if you're an architect you'll figure it out.

[JGA]

I use ACAD as a DTP program for presentations, as we usually mix 2D DWG with SKUP/TWIL 3D images.
Although not to scale, I convert images to 300 dpi, so that the image is imported at the intended size in paperspace.

[pbacot]

Fletch I think I can follow your logic. The point would be not to recreate this every time but have it worked out (at least per project) so you can update your documents on an ongoing basis. I also found my method to be promising. Cropping in Preview, then rescaling to the proper paper size, I find in Layout it fits over the drawing well--such that vector linework could be overlaid if desired. One thing I've found with Layout , if you reload an image it puts it exactly in the same position so that is an automatic step (after you manage the first import). I don't know if I understand all the terms of your posts, but I'll give it some thought. Thank you both.