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Build Your Ultimate CAD Library: AI Block Gen, Parametric & 10K Ready-to-Use Blocks — Transcript

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0:02If you've ever fallen victim to late
0:04nights making or editing your own CAD
0:06block, staying up way too late tweaking
0:08dimensions and tiny details that no one
0:10else will notice, or maybe even just
0:11searching for free blocks online, or
0:13even worse, paying for CAD block packs,
0:15then this tutorial might just be what
0:17you've been looking for.
0:20[music] If you're new here, I'm Meg. I
0:22use a software called Rayon to speed up
0:24my interior design workflow so I can
0:25work smarter, not harder, especially
0:27when it comes to CAD blocks. Rayon, the
0:29software that I just mentioned, is the
0:30new gen effortless CAD tool for
0:32designers like me and you. One of my
0:33favorite things about it is that it
0:34already has a massive CAD block library
0:36of over 10,000 blocks right at your
0:39fingertips, plus a new AI tool that can
0:41quickly generate custom CAD blocks just
0:43from a text prompt or an image. A ton of
0:45these blocks in their library are also
0:47parametric, which means that they
0:48automatically adjust when your design
0:50changes, because let's be honest, it
0:51always does. Plus, a really cool thing
0:53about this software is that you can
0:54combine all of these blocks into a
0:56centralized location to create your very
0:58own standard AI parametric block library
1:01and easily streamline the workflow
1:02between you and your team. In today's
1:04video, I'm going to show you exactly how
1:05to access these blocks that I've been
1:07talking about, how to create your own
1:08blocks and save them with just a few
1:10clicks so you can truly optimize your
1:11workflow. If you want to follow along,
1:13go ahead and download that free template
1:14below and create your own free account.
1:16Now, let's dive in. So, I am right
1:18inside of our free template, which again
1:21is linked below if you have not grabbed
1:22it yet. But I just want to start by
1:24showing you um all of the blocks that
1:26Rayon already has ready to go for us in
1:29their massive block library of over
1:3110,000 blocks. And my favorite part
1:33about this block library is that each
1:36block has three different views. [music]
1:37So, it has a top view, a front view, and
1:39a side view, which makes it perfect for
1:41your floor plans, your sections, and
1:43your elevations. So there's no like
1:45scrambling to, you know, make your own
1:47CAD block or try to search for a CAD
1:50block. Um they're all just right here
1:52and you can just easily drag and drop
1:54them into [music] your project. So over
1:56here when you hop into the template, um
1:59it's probably going to start you on this
2:00canvases [music] tab, which will just
2:02show you your paper and your model
2:03canvas. Uh we're going to go to this
2:06little block right here underneath it.
2:08And this is going to show us the blocks
2:09that we have in [music] the template
2:11already. and then also the full library
2:13where we can search any other blocks
2:15that we want to check out. So, under in
2:18models blocks, um you can see that these
2:20are all the blocks that are inside the
2:21model already. Right now, I'm I'm in our
2:24paper space. I'm actually going to hop
2:26over to our model space because this is
2:28usually where we'll end up dropping
2:30[music] the blocks because this is kind
2:31of like our working space. So, heading
2:33back into the blocks over here, you can
2:35see that if I just kind of click this
2:36little arrow, it shows us uh all the
2:39different blocks that we already have
2:40loaded into the project. Now, if we want
2:42to add a block from the library, we'll
2:44just hop over to libraries here. And you
2:47can see that they're nicely organized
2:49here from basics to beds to cabinetry,
2:53elevators. I mean, [music] there's so
2:55many blocks in here. And if you don't
2:57want to scroll through these categories,
2:59you can also just search here. So, if
3:01you want to search like chair or
3:02something like that, it will show you
3:04we've got a category of chairs. So, we
3:06can click on that. And then you'll see
3:09underneath each one of these blocks, it
3:11will say open. And opening this will
3:14show you the three different views. So,
3:15you have your top view, your side view,
3:17and your front view. And then to load
3:19those in, all you have to do is just
3:21drag them over, and it will pop that
3:24block into your drawing space. And then
3:26you can just easily move it. And then
3:28when you make your way to the elevations
3:30and sections, you would just drag your
3:32side view [music] and so on and so
3:33forth. So let's just pop into the basic
3:35blocks here where we have our three
3:37views. And you can see that we have a
3:39lot of just really [music] standard
3:41blocks already created for us, right? So
3:45a lot of kitchen stuff, a lot of chairs,
3:47tables, uh sinks, that kind of [music]
3:49thing, you know, sofas, that kind of
3:51thing. So you know, if you drag this in,
3:54um you're just going to see the top
3:55view. If you want to grab a different
3:57view, [music] like a side view, uh you
3:59would just go over here and bring that
4:01in as well. Just drag that in. And now
4:03you've got [music] your side view that
4:04you can load into your elevation or
4:07section. Now, another really nifty thing
4:09about this block library is that we can
4:11actually add in some filters. So, we can
4:13filter through our options. There are so
4:14many options. Let's say we want to find
4:17something that is parametric. [music]
4:18Um, and a parametric block, if you're
4:20not familiar with that term, is
4:21basically um just a block that will
4:23scale or shift with your design. Um, so
4:26for instance, within Rayon, we have like
4:28doors [music] and stairs um that will
4:30easily shift and like add a uh stair
4:33tread without stretching the stairwell.
4:37Um, and the cool thing about this too is
4:38that this is true for the top view and
4:41the elevation views um as well. So, it's
4:44not just um you know adjustable in floor
4:46plan, it's adjustable in elevation, too.
4:48[music] To filter those out, let's go
4:50over here and make sure that we are in
4:52our little blocks tab right here. And
4:54we'll click on filters. And we can just
4:57add in a filter that says is parametric.
5:00Um I'm going to remove this filter
5:01[music] up here. I just want it to be a
5:03parametric block. So, I'm going to hit
5:05save. [music] And then it's going to
5:06show me all of the blocks that I have in
5:08the library that are parametric. If you
5:11don't want to go through that filter
5:12process, you can also just search, you
5:14know, door or stair or something like
5:16that. And you'll [music] see this little
5:18uh tag up here that will say that it's
5:19parametric. And so again, let me just
5:22show you kind of what that means. So we
5:24can just click on this first one here.
5:25I'm going to click open. And what we're
5:27going to do is we're going to drag that
5:29into our project. And now you can see
5:32that it looks a little bit um different
5:34than a typical uh door block because
5:37when I click on it, you see these
5:39arrows. So these arrows allow you to
5:41kind of scale it up without messing with
5:44the actual scale the features within the
5:47door. So you can see it's not like the
5:49door gets thicker or anything as I scale
5:51this up. Um it's just as you know we
5:53widen the door opening you can see that
5:56the door gets bigger with it. And then
5:57same this way if we want to uh make the
6:00frame a little bit wider we can do that
6:02here. Uh now again if we drag in our
6:04front view you will see the same option.
6:07So I can drag that this way. And you can
6:09see that, you know, this exit and this
6:11person are not scaling up. It's really
6:13just the door is getting wider. So
6:16again, this is true for a lot of doors
6:19inside the block library as well as
6:21stairs. So let's go find um a nice
6:24little stairwell. So I'm just going
6:25[music] to type in stair. And our filter
6:28should still be good. So let's grab this
6:31U-shaped [music] stair that I have right
6:32here. We'll click open. And then we'll
6:36drag in the top. And again, you can see
6:40those little arrows. And [music]
6:42if I just extend that, you can see that
6:44it's not scaling the stairwell up. It's
6:46just adding treads to the stair. So
6:49again, this way, this way, and so on so
6:52forth. So that's a really cool way to be
6:55able to easily adjust blocks within your
6:58model. And then again, [music] same goes
7:00for the side views. So, if I drag one of
7:02those in, you can see I've got all these
7:04arrows that are basically just adding
7:07stairs. Um, it's not necessarily [music]
7:09scaling the stairwell up as it would um
7:12in a non-parametric
7:14block. So, let's just go grab a
7:17non-parametric block and I can show you
7:20kind of the difference here. So, if I go
7:24and find, you can see [music] that, you
7:26know, this stairwell right here has a
7:27little parametric button, but this one
7:29doesn't. So, if I bring this stairwell
7:31in and we bring that in, we are not
7:35going to see those arrows anymore. Now,
7:37the only way to make it bigger is going
7:39to be to scale it up or scale it to the
7:41side. [music] And you can see that it
7:42just kind of stretches it, which could
7:44work for other scenarios, but if you
7:46want to be able to [music] uh easily
7:48adjust this or change it if you're kind
7:51of like in flux in your design, this is
7:53[music] a really good place to do that.
7:55Now, before we go ahead and jump into
7:57building our own curated library of
8:00blocks, I want [music] to show you real
8:01quick the new AI panel within Rayon
8:04where you can generate CAD blocks from
8:06[music] just like a simple prompt or
8:07even a photo. So, if we head back to our
8:10[music] paper space, you can see here
8:12that we've kind of got this kitchen
8:14design. We've got a nice dining table
8:17and some dining chairs and actually a
8:20few pictures of those over here in our
8:22mood board. So, what we can do with this
8:24new AI panel is we can actually generate
8:26CAD blocks in top and elevation views
8:30directly from a photo or again a text
8:32prompt. So, let's go ahead and do that
8:34for this table and these dining chairs
8:36similar to our cover image. So, I'm just
8:38going to pop over to our AI chat. And
8:42once I select this table, I can tell it
8:46to use the selected image.
8:48you know, an image that I already have
8:49in here. Or you can always just add the
8:52image from another, you know, a website
8:54or save desktop. And I'm just going to
8:57say generate [music] a CAD block of the
9:01table. And we're going to let it do its
9:03thing. So, it's going to again give us a
9:06top view and then [music] two different
9:09side views. And let's keep in mind that
9:11it is AI, so it's not going to be
9:13perfect, but the nice thing is [music]
9:14that you can also eventually just kind
9:16of like adjust these if you need to.
9:18Usually, it gets you most of the way
9:20there, I would say. If [music] we pop
9:22back into while it's kind of doing its
9:24magic, uh, we can go back into our
9:27[music] model canvas. This will be the
9:29space that we'll drop our new block
9:31into. So, I'll just go ahead and delete
9:33[music] what we have here. And we can
9:36just replace that with, you know, a
9:38relatively accurate block of our table
9:40[music] and chairs.
9:44All right. So, we can see over here that
9:46it has completed our CAD block
9:48generation. Let's [music] go ahead and
9:50back and look at the picture. So, you
9:52can see it kind of captured um this
9:54little like hole in the legs um in our
9:56side view. And we can just tell it that
9:59we want to go ahead and like import our
10:01block family. And then we will also
10:03insert [music] it. So, I've inserted the
10:06top view into my floor plan. Now, the
10:09scale is not always going to be
10:10accurate, right? Because it's basically
10:12just using [music] the information that
10:14you gave it, which is uh the image of
10:16the table. I also have noticed that when
10:18I generate CAD blocks in here, usually
10:20they will come in without a fill. So,
10:22it's always good to kind of um go in and
10:24edit and add in like a nice little white
10:27fill just so you know it is cohesive
10:30with the rest of your blocks. [music]
10:31And then again, let's bring in
10:34this side view. [music] So, if I say
10:37insert, insert it over here. And you can
10:41just take a look at how nice that is.
10:43And again, if you need to go in and
10:44edit, um, you can add [music] in a fill
10:47to any of the shapes that I created. So,
10:51that makes that really handy. Again, you
10:53can also just use a text prompt if you'd
10:55like. Um, let's go ahead and do the same
10:57thing [music] for those chairs uh from
11:00our mood board. And we'll just head back
11:02into the paper canvas. Select our chair
11:04image. Go back to our AI panel. Make
11:07sure that [music] we're saying use
11:09selected uh image. And then it actually
11:11has a prompt right here that says
11:13generate CAD block for a chair. And I'm
11:15going to say that. And then we'll just
11:17say send. And then we'll let it do the
11:18magic. Drag and drop those into our
11:21project. And then we'll move on.
11:29Okay. So again, we can see that it has
11:31generated our three different views. So
11:34we've got the nice little arc and then
11:36we've got our top view. So if we just
11:38import that block library, it will just
11:40kind of load that into our project. And
11:42then let's pop back into our model
11:45canvas.
11:46And we can just go ahead and insert
11:49>> [music]
11:49>> um this top view. So then to put this
11:52chair underneath your table, we'll go
11:54over to our layers and make sure that
11:57the chair is under the table like that.
12:00And then again, you can add your fill.
12:02Um, if for some reason the lines come in
12:06and you are not able to do the fill, you
12:08might need to do a little bit of cleanup
12:10in that block, but for [music] the most
12:12part, it should get you most of the way
12:13there. And then we can just copy and
12:15paste like that. and then again relayer
12:19them so they [music] sit nicely in
12:21there. So I'm just going to copy and
12:24paste a few of these like [music] we had
12:26in our first view and then
12:31like so
12:33reorganize [music] this over in our
12:35layer panel. And
12:39then let's talk about how to get some of
12:41our standard blocks into a curated
12:45library that you and your [music] team
12:46can access on a regular basis. All
12:49right. Now that we have created some of
12:51our own blocks, we've added in some
12:53blocks from the block library. We have a
12:55few parametric blocks in here. Let me
12:58show you how to save all these for
12:59future projects. So, in a typical studio
13:02setting, um, having a curated library
13:04with ready to grab and go blocks [music]
13:07is going to be just like a it's going to
13:09be a standard practice. Um, and a game
13:11changer for your workflow. It's even
13:14better when your team has access to this
13:17library, not just you. So, then everyone
13:19is kind of working [music] cohesively.
13:21And this is another reason that I love
13:22Rayon. It's completely collaborative.
13:24So, let's go ahead and just create
13:26ourselves a new template [music] with a
13:30block and style library. We'll publish
13:32it as a library and then I'll show you
13:34how to access it from [music] a new
13:36project. So, in your Rayon homepage, you
13:39can just
13:40>> [music]
13:40>> uh create a new template or create a new
13:43project. And in our model [music] canvas
13:45space, we just want to basically drop
13:49any of the blocks that we usually use in
13:51here. So, let's focus on blocks first
13:53and then I'll show you how to create
13:54also the styles. So, you can see here
13:56that I have dropped some of the blocks
13:58that we just um had used in that uh
14:01project that we were just looking at in
14:02that template. So, all I did was if I
14:05flip back to [music] that project, all I
14:08did was click on the block and then
14:10instead of just doing uh like a copy and
14:13then a paste into the other project, uh
14:15you just have to hold down shift too.
14:17So, instead of like command C, you have
14:18to hold down shift command C. So you'll
14:21shift command C and then pop into your
14:24uh new model, your new template, and
14:26then shift commandV. And then it's going
14:28to paste that block in there. So you
14:30know, if you're already working in a
14:31project and you have all of these blocks
14:33that uh you want to dump into this
14:36library, then you can easily get them
14:38from one project to another doing this.
14:40[music] And then this is just kind of
14:41where all of those blocks are going to
14:43live. So you can see that I have copy
14:46pasted um this parametric [music] stair
14:48again with all three views. I have a
14:51door over here. I have our uh little
14:54chair that our AI panel just made for us
14:57as well as a couple of others. I've got
14:59the table that it made for us. Another
15:02uh little coffee table. And again, I
15:04just copy and pasted these from that
15:05last project that we were in into
15:07[music]
15:08this new project. Now, you can also add
15:11in some CAD blocks that you already
15:12have. If you already have a library of
15:14CAD blocks that you [music] regularly
15:16access, um you can import those easily.
15:19And I actually did that here with
15:20>> [music]
15:21>> um this chair. So, I'll show you how to
15:23easily get those in here. So, I just
15:25went to my little hamburger menu and
15:28then import. And you can do this with a
15:30DWG or a PDF. [music] So, if we do the
15:33DWG, um we can just go select that DWG,
15:37which is chair, and then open that. And
15:40then it will ask us a few questions. Um,
15:43I'm just going to say [music] import.
15:45It's going to kind of like go through
15:46this conversion process. And then you'll
15:48just pick an insert [music] point. Let's
15:50say continue. So, okay. Draw a line by
15:53clicking on two points. So, I'm going to
15:55click point point. If it doesn't come in
15:57at the right scale, you can just easily
15:59scale that down when we get it in there.
16:01So, I'm going to say continue. Um, we'll
16:03pick our insertion point. I think this
16:04is going to come in really big. And it
16:06did. And then you can just kind of scale
16:08that [music] down. So, if you know how
16:09big that's supposed to be, you can
16:10easily scale that down. But you can see
16:12that it brought [music] in that DWG file
16:14and then if I click in here, you know,
16:16it's completely editable. Same goes for
16:18the PDF. So if you have that same like
16:21[music] if you have a block library but
16:23it's in PDF or even if you just have a
16:25block that you downloaded in PDF form,
16:27[music] you can just go to import PDF
16:29and grab that. I'm going to grab the
16:32chair PDF. We're going to make [music]
16:33sure that we bring it in as a vector and
16:36then we'll say import again. It's going
16:39to go through that conversion process.
16:41It'll [music] just ask us to uh draw a
16:43line. And here it's actually asking us
16:44for to enter the size. So if I know that
16:47that chair is maybe let's say 16 in
16:51wide, we'll say continue and then pick
16:54the insertion point and drop it right
16:56in. And [music] so you can see again if
16:58I double click in here, um we've got
17:00actual lines to work with. And you can
17:01completely edit all of the style. If I
17:04want my line weight to all be the same,
17:06uh you can just kind of do that. And
17:08then if you need to go in and keep
17:10editing further, then you'll just
17:12[music] kind of do the same process that
17:14we've done with all of our past blocks
17:18and [music] just edit it that way with
17:20our own styles of course. So now we've
17:22got a DWG block that was brought in, a
17:25PDF block that was brought in, and now
17:29let's add a few styles to this library.
17:31So if there are certain styles [music]
17:33that you use on a regular basis or if
17:35you have created some styles that you
17:37really like all you need to do is again
17:39copy paste those you can just copy paste
17:41the shape or you can create a new shape.
17:43So I just created a little circle here
17:45and then once I did that I just added in
17:47a fill. So let's say that we [music]
17:50want to also add in this little paver
17:53fill. Now if we like that style we want
17:56to save it as a style and we'll [music]
17:58save that as paver. That looks good. You
18:01can add any other properties [music] if
18:02you need to, but I think we're good
18:04there. So now what happens is when we
18:07publish this model or template as a
18:10library, we can basically import that
18:13library to any [music] future projects.
18:15So I'll show you how to do that. Let's
18:17go ahead and hit share. And then we'll
18:20pop over to libraries. [music]
18:22And these should look unselected, like
18:25not selected um if you just toggle them
18:28on. So like they'll [music] probably
18:29look like this for you. And then you
18:31just want to toggle that on. And so that
18:33way it's going to publish this as a
18:36style in block library that you will
18:39then be able to access in other
18:41projects. So once you do that, let's go
18:43back to our Rayon homepage and I can
18:44just show you kind of what that looks
18:45like. So you'll see right here, this is
18:48my block library and I've named it block
18:49library with my initials. And you can
18:51see these little tags right here where
18:53it says publish block library and
18:55publish style library. So if we go ahead
18:57and open up a new model, I'll show you
18:59how we can access that library that we
19:02have just created. All we'll do is go
19:04over here to our little block panel
19:06[music] and then um under libraries, if
19:09we select this libraries [music] uh tag
19:11right here, then you will see your
19:13library that you have um created.
19:16[music] So it's completely accessible
19:17from there. So you can see it says my
19:18libraries and this is rayon libraries.
19:21So, because we have that tag, because we
19:23publish it as a library, it's completely
19:24accessible from any new project. So, if
19:26I just click on that, then I'm [music]
19:28going to be able to see all of my uh
19:30blocks here and then easily just drag
19:32and drop them into my new project. Now,
19:35same thing [music] goes for the styles.
19:36So, if we go to styles and we go to
19:38libraries, um we will see our styles
19:41here. [music] And you can see that we
19:42have that paper style that we just
19:44selected. And so these are all um
19:46completely usable now that [music] we
19:49have created that library. And then as
19:52that library grows, [music] you just
19:54continue to resave it or republish it as
19:56a library. And so you know as you find
19:59more blocks that you're like, "Oh, I
20:01could use this again." [music] Or as you
20:02create new styles that you're like, "Oh,
20:04I could use this again." You just want
20:06to make sure that those live in that
20:07block and style library. [music] And
20:09that's it. Today you got a peek at how
20:10easy standard and custom cat blocks can
20:13be inside of Rayon. the new gen
20:14effortless CAD tool for architects and
20:16designers where you can truly go from a
20:18toz documentation in a fully
20:20collaborative space. We explored the
20:21block library filled with over 10,000
20:23blocks, parametric blocks, the new AI
20:26panel, and even created our own
20:28collaborative and custom block and style
20:30library right within Rayon. If you
20:32haven't yet, make sure that you create a
20:33free account and download that free
20:34template below so you can go ahead and
20:36try it out yourself. CAD blocks are just
20:38one small part of how Rayon is making
20:39architectural and design documentation
20:41faster and smarter for designers. I feel
20:43like I've made it pretty clear which
20:45tool in this tutorial was my favorite,
20:47but I'd love to hear which tool you're
20:48most excited about in the comments
20:50below. And if you enjoyed this tutorial,
20:51don't forget to like and subscribe so
20:53you don't miss any future videos. See
20:55you next time.

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