I am making some technical figures and looking for a fade-out look on the edges of a viewport in Layout. Using fog is nice in SU, but it doesn’t work with LO vector, and you can’t apply it in multiple planes.
I have played around with importing a white transparency gradient as a pattern - but applying it around as a shape is a little manually intensive and clunky. Any better alternatives I’m missing?
Maybe use a watermark in the style for those scenes?
Similar to fog, that could work in raster, but not in vector/hybrid.
Before fog existed in SU, we used to use a technique with staggered inactive section planes. Not sure at all how that renders in vector.
Nice, I wouldn’t have thought of that, but still not quite what I’m looking for.
I’m trying to get a shop drawing set out so I don’t have a lot of time to play - but if you don’t have a lot of them - make a screen shot, open in Photoshop (or similar) - add a layer, use gradient fill, adjust your center / etc. - delete the original layer, use a mask to create the fade from the gradient fill, then export a transparent PNG and import into LayOut.
The circular/radial gradient might be the best I can get easily - but ideally, I’d want to make a custom transparent shape and “frost” the edges. Kind of like the basic “Soft Edges” picture-effect-feature Microsoft Office products have.
I could probably make something in Ps that was rectangular and I could scale easily in LO… but I’d have to spend time on it.
I use a set of four gradient rectangles (transparent pngs) around master plans and other exhibits all the time. They are quickly adjusted and stretched in a group in LayOut. Not ideal, but a fairly simple once you get the hang of it. Attached my version that you can play around with. Good luck!
White Vignette.layout (62.3 KB)
Yep, that’s basically the method I started with, just trying to if there were any other ways.
I also just tried a “glowing” white line png shape (traced in PPT) and that works as a custom shape fade too.
Well, that is slick. I know that PowerPoint has some decent options in import/editing of images but that’s another feature I hadn’t seen. Interesting! I really like your premise and one I have been trying to crack for years. I also use Xara Designer and every object (vector or raster) has the ability to allow the feathering of edges as easy as adjusting a slider. Super easy and useful. Love for LayOut to have more of these options without sacrificing the bigger goal of making it work fast and fluid with SketchUp.
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