[Colour difference between VW and the export to image file]

Has anyone ( @Dave Donley 😊 ) had any luck at stabilising this problem ?

 

I'm still battling my way through a brochure, and this is really wasting my time.

 

This morning, I drew something, exported it as before, and it came out perfectly. Then I realised that I had a spelling mistake that I fixed, and now I can't get it to export in Final Quality Renderworks again without it going to the dark side.

 

The other day, I tried exporting a model which was drawn on two layers. It didn't work.

 

I then tried printing one layer at a time using "Current View". It worked. I used GIMP to put them back together again.

[Colour difference between VW and the export to image file]

Unfortunately, I need to turn on "Save Alpha Channel" because we need to remove the background to paste into PowerPoint without wiping out the text and other objects.

 

I tried using a graphic editor to remove the background, but the silver finish is so close to the background that it can't achieve a high-quality finish.

 

Thanks Dave. That would save time explaining this when reporting this as a bug.

[Colour difference between VW and the export to image file]

Thanks Bart.

 

Since I deleted the files that didn't work, and they were huge anyway, I thought I'd try a test today ( a.vwx )

 

First time and it failed.

 

I used a VW blank stationary sheet so that it was unadulterated.

 

When it's working properly, it's supposed to look like this with Metal Zinc Polish rendering with Final Quality Renderworks.

 

 

Not this ..

 

 

 

Using these settings ..

 

 

From this file ..

 

a.vwx

 

 

[Colour difference between VW and the export to image file]

After many hours of trial and error, I have discovered that if I copy my model to another drawing that does print correctly, that this model now prints correctly.

 

In the drawing that is wrong, somehow, it or I have changed a setting that cannot be reset. It would be nice to have a reset button somewhere though.

[Duplicating a view in separate drawings]

Since you all think it's not option of VW, I think I've figured out two ways for achieving this, but I'm not sure why VW doesn't offer the data in some way to reuse.

 

1. The old-fashioned way. I have an A4 sheet of paper that I balance on the bottom of my screen. I have cut the paper at the angle that I want so that I can rotate my model to approximately the same each time 😜

 

2. I have a "Saved View" on my first drawing. I can use that drawing as a blank template for other drawings, since the Saved View cannot be copied or imported across to new drawings.

 

[GPU or not GPU]

Thanks Pat.

 

I'm using "Final Quality Renderworks" rendering.

 

We are adding realistic pictures to our brochure.

 

As far as I am aware, cloud services only works with Sheet layers, and I'm using "Export to Image" with "Save Alpha Channel" to remove the background.

 

Unfortunately, the cloud services (or Sheet Layer) result leaves a lot of unwanted background pixels around the perimeter of the objects, giving a pour result at 300dpi.

 

The abrasive nosing is made of thousands of realistic cubes for a grit surface when viewed closer - for our close shots.

 

[Colour difference between VW and the export to image file]

Can anyone explain why there is so much colour difference between VW on screen rendered, and the exported image file ?

 

I have enabled a light source to try and fix this, but it seems that VW just ignores it when exporting to an image file.

 

The left is what I want, and the right is the export. Whether I open the image with a separate viewer, or if I drag and drop the image back into VW, it looks like the right.

 

[GPU or not GPU]

Hi all.

 

I'm looking at a new computer because I'm fed up with waiting 5min for a stair tread to render/refresh "Final Quality Renderworks".

 

While it is rendering, I am watching the Task Manager.

 

I have read articles from VW that say that the GPU is the priority, but in Task Manger, it's hardly doing anything.

 

The problem I see is maxing out the ram, and the CPU is running at 98%. My ram is doing a small amount of caching.

 

You can see my current computer specks in my footer.

 

If I'm going to get an upgrade, I think it should be a top of the range CPU and fast ram.

 

Why does VW suggest the GPU is the main component to aim at ?

[Duplicating a view in separate drawings]

I think I agree with Jonathan.

 

Let's say I drew the flatbar and orientated it to what I want to see. Then I copy and paste that to another drawings.

 

This paste is what I want to orientate to the same as the original drawing, with the same rendering, etc.

 

The above is the example, but I would normally be drawing something else but still want the same orientation. I wish to get a similar view for all designs into a brochure.

[Duplicating a view in separate drawings]

If I draw a top view of a flatbar 5 x 30 and then extrude it -32, I can then rotate it to an isometric view.

 

How can I figure out the orientation of the isometric view so I can repeat it in another drawings ?

 

I can save a view, but I can't copy and paste it to the second drawing, and I can't see any data to duplicate.

[How to chamfer a wall]

Excellent Jonathan.

 

Much simpler than some of the other suggestions I searched and found.

[How to chamfer a wall]

Hi.

 

I'm drawing an angle and using the wall tool to do so.

 

This is not going to make a true angle, but since I only need a top view, it will look correct.

 

Back in the early days of MiniCad and the Vectorworks, I use to be able to trick the wall by drawing the below left, and then deleting one wall, which left the chamfered wall ( middle ) and then add caps to both ends ( right ).

 

However, the newer fancy wall tool returns the wall to a square end now, so how can I chamfer it ?

 

[Milling a curved slot]

I'm seeing a lot of good ideas coming through here.

 

I started with the sweep but failed. That doesn't mean that I got the setup right though LOL.

 

Just to confirm. The split-pin that is protruding, is press fitted into the bolt. A compression spring is extending from the top of the bolt (not shown).

 

When the bolt is turned 180°+, the split-pin is to slide along the horizontally cut solid subtraction so that the spring is tightened by half a turn.

 

That is why it is so important that the sides of the slot are all horizontal as it goes.

 

Even though I have a solution, I'm going to have a go at some of the ideas above so I can experience the tools and methods.

 

[Milling a curved slot]

Nice one VE

 

I can use this for my next development.

 

However, for this one, when you fillet the top, the center of the circle is not the center of the pipe. If I rotate the development to align the center of the circle to the center of the pipe centerline, the side of the circle is not perpendicular to the pipe center plane.

 

 

If I rotate the development, the left side is not perpendicular to the centerline plane.

 

Therefore, I ended up working from basics.

 

I drew a circle on the centerline in the front view and extruded it. If I subtract solids at this point, I will have a hole in the wall.

 

But before subtracting surfaces, I duplicated it, rotated it, and moved it downward - 200 times in a 180° sweep.

 

Painful if I did this manually, so I made a macro. Not fancy, but cheap.

 

procedure Fetch;

var
i : integer;
pX, pY, D, R : real;
h : handle;

begin
pX := -1228.91; pY := 103.72; { Top view pipe centerline }
R := 0.9; { Rotation angle }
D := -0.0575; { Drop distance }

for i := 1 to 200 do
	begin
	h := LSActLayer;
	Duplicate (0, 0);
	RotatePoint (pX, pY, R);
	h := LSActLayer;
	Move3DObj (h, 0, 0, D);
	end;
end;
run (Fetch);

 

I then added the solids.

 

Duplicating this solid, rotating it 180° and then subtracting the two solids from the tube gave the result I needed.

 

 

Thanks for showing me some new methods of creating objects using tools that I wouldn't have thought of.

 

It was a very challenging model.

[Milling a curved slot]

No problem. Thankyou again.

[Milling a curved slot]

The square edge one is exactly what I would like to do.

 

How did you do it please ?

[Milling a curved slot]

Hi,

 

I need to mill out a curved slot like this. It's a vertical pipe with a hole drill horizontally and the milled horizontally down and around to the far side.

I can make the nurbs curve, but I can't extrude it so that it can be subtracted from the pipe solid.

 

[Get rid of Plane visualize pink box]

Excellent idea Tom.

 

Thanks for the prompt Mark.

[Get rid of Plane visualize pink box]

I like the Working Planes option.

 

Thanks Tom.

[Get rid of Plane visualize pink box]

This pink box sometimes pops up, but not always.

I like to take snaps of things for emails and this topic.

The only way I know of getting rid of it is to choose top plan view and back to this view and render again.

Is there another way ??

 

[Exporting Vectorscipt "extrude along path" to AutoCad]

Ok.

 

Sorry to challenge you all when there was not challenge.

 

The problem was the export settings.

 

I'm still not sure why there is a difference between the VS pipe and the manually built pipe, but AutoCad only opens the drawing properly when the "Use DXF/DWG indexed colours" is picked (with or without the "Map line weights to colours").

 

[Exporting Vectorscipt "extrude along path" to AutoCad]

This code work perfectly in VW, but after exporting the pipe to AutoCad, AutoCad shows this pipe on the left.

The other two pipes, to the right, created manually with VW tools/menu options, work fine.

 

Can anyone suggest what needs to be adjusted in the code to make the left look like the right please?

 

The macro uses a line that is drawn to length and is selected at the time of running the code.

 

GetPolylineVertex (h2, 2, p1X, p1Y, N, PipeR);
    h1 := ConvertToNurbs (h2, false);
    PipeLnth := HLength (h1);
    Oval (-PipeOD/2, PipeOD/2, PipeOD/2, -PipeOD/2);
    h2 := LNewObj;
    Oval (-PipeOD/2 + WallWdth, PipeOD/2 - WallWdth, PipeOD/2 - WallWdth, -PipeOD/2 + WallWdth);
    h3 := LNewObj;
    ClipSurface (h2, h3);
    h4 := PrevObj (h3);
    h5 := CreateCustomObject ('Extrude Along Path', 0, 0, 0);
    DelObject (h2);
    DelObject (h3);

 

I have also tried "h5 := CreateCustomObjectPath ('Extrude Along Path', h1, h4);" which didn't change anything.

 

In AutoCad, the left pipe is a "Block Reference", the right top is a "3D Solid", and the right bottom is a "Block Reference".

[View hidden objects]

Nice one Tom.

 

That workspace V is the only one missing from mine, so your probably right about the 2025 change which didn't happen for me since I have a revised copy of the workspace.

 

Thanks.

[View hidden objects]

I'm seeing that your suggestion works when I switch workspaces.

 

I haven't reset the V button so I'm not sure how it attached itself to the Visibility tool.

 

I will have to make a new workspace using a copy of the default.

 

Thanks. The V does do what I was expecting by hovering over the Unhide button. Interesting.

[View hidden objects]

To use the V key as you suggest, when you have hidden some objects, don't you then have to change your preferences to toggle the "Visible mode" ?

 

Then when you hit the V key, that's when the ghosts appear.

 

If you forget to change your preferences, then you have to select them after hitting the V key.

 

I would still opt for a default hover over the unhide button to temporarily ghosting the hidden objects.