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compusam

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Everything posted by compusam

  1. Explanation of the Texture Shaders in RenderWorks. What does each Shader mean? How do the values change the Shaders? How to control Bump Maps? There are hundreds of possible combinations, but very little technical information about how to achieve specific results. For example, how would one create a bump map for standing seam roofing? a linear texture with raised ribs every 16"? Frankly, I have experimented with these for years (since VW 2011 introduced the new format) and I only get predictable results by sheer accident. Thanks.
  2. Clip Cube is a great idea and it works well in wireframe, however, in Open GL it bogs down. I am currently waiting for an image refresh to complete (going on an hour now) so this is not workable. I have watched the demos which seems very responsive, but in real practice with a complex model refresh is too slow. The problem seems to be trying to render all of the intermediate steps between the beginning clipping plane and a subsequent clipping plane (maybe hundreds of redraws in the animation). I will try some differing settings for Open GL to see if I can find a more optimum experience.
  3. Remarkable Renderworks, 2nd edition is now available. This is great news since this edition should cover RederWorks 2011 & 2012. Problem is, when one tries to order a copy of the 2nd edition from VectorWorks website, the artwork is for edition 1 and there is no clarification as to which version will be shipped. I was planning to place my order, but I have no use for the 1st edition. Can you please clarify which edition will be shipped?
  4. I am "learning" to love the new C4D rendering engine in VW2011, but it has been a struggle. At least, when I need the previous Artistic Rendering capabilities, I can always export back to VW2010 and convert a few textures back to VW2010 types. A bit cumbersome, but now I can pick and choose between 2 different rendering engines. VW2011 rendering has required a huge learning curve regarding textures, and I am not 100% satisfied so far. One problem is the lack of detailed info about the various texture settings in VW2011. It is sort of a game of discovery at the moment. Creating a satisfactory "glass" texture has consumed many many hours and I still do not have a consistent solution. The "clear glass" texture which ships with VW2011 is not acceptable to me.
  5. What happened to Artistic Renderworks options in VW2011? A quote from the VW2011 Help file: "3. Select the Style from the list, and then click Options to set specific style parameters. The preview image displays the resulting effect." There are no options in VW2011. VW 2010 had options to set parameters. So, not only are the number of Artistic styles reduced in VW2011, but there is no way to adjust the parameters of the Artistic Styles in spite of what the Help file suggests.
  6. Recently, I have been having a lot of problems with VW 2011 crashing. Seems to coincide with update to Snow Leopard 10.6.7, but not sure. For example, when I import dwg files (downloaded from Jeld-Wen Windows), once the import of the file is completed, all I have to do is "select all" and VW crashes. The same dwg files imported into VW2010 work fine. Any suggestions?
  7. Wes, Thanks. Yes, I have the color of the glass set to black. I am using VW 2011 supplied "Clear Glass" texture which has the color set to black, but the texture is anything but "clear". The problem I am having is that the glass simply looks "dirty" when rendered as an exterior view. Also, there seems to be light coming from the interior where there is no light other than the light coming through the window. In the real world, if I stand outside a house with windows on a sunny day, the windows are almost black due to the difference between the sunny outdoors and the indoor ambient light. With VW 2010, I get that kind of rendering, but with VW 2011, the windows are gray and muddy (dirty). Not sure what is going on, but I have spent about 20 hours trying to figure it out.
  8. I am having the same problem. I recently upgraded to VW 2011, but am unable to use it due to rendering problems. When I import a file from VW 2009 or 2010 which renders perfectly in those older versions, the imported file renders very dull in VW 2011 and the windows appear to have gray gauze (semi-transparent), but not realistic. I have spent 2 days messing with the glass settings, but to no avail. Also, the interiors of my model (a house) appear to have interior ambient light even with ambient light turned off and no interior light objects. Where is this interior light coming from? I have also tried creating a new file from scratch in VW 2011 with a simple model (4 walls with 3 windows, roof and floor slab). The results are the same - dull gray gauzy looking glass and lighted interiors when rendered. Interestingly, if I export this simplified model to VW 2009, the 4 walls become transparent when rendered and all I see are the slab (which should be hidden, and it is black), the 3 windows floating in space with gray opaque glass, plus the roof. The walls appear correctly in plan view, but transparent when rendered from an iso view. Obviously, something is amiss so until I can figure this out, I am sticking with VW 2009 and VW 2010.
  9. I am evaluating VW 2011 (evaluation download) and have experienced a problem with the Window tool. I sent a bug report regarding this issue, but if you experience a similar problem, I think I have narrowed it down to a specific combination of settings and it can be reproduced consistently with a new file. I originally experienced the problem when trying to open a VW 2010 file in VW 2011. The file would be in the process of "updating plug-in objects" when the translation would stall and then VW 2011 would crash. By process of elimination (several hours), I identified the culprit as a window in the VW 2010 file with a "segment" top which would cause the crash in VW 2011. It is very easy to recreate the problem in VW 2011: 1. Create a new blank file. 2. Using the Wall tool, draw a new wall, any style, 8'-0" tall. 3. Using the Window plug-in tool, place a window in the wall. 4. Give the Window the following General Settings: a. Segment top b. Rise: 1'-0" c. Width: 2'-6" d. Height: 4'-0" e. Sash: Fixed Glass f. Horizontal Muntins: 2 (or any number) Now, close the window dialog palette and the window behaves correctly. Next, change the width of the window to 2'-0" and VW 2011 crashes. I think what is happening is the Rise of 1'-0" in a 2'-0" wide window causes the top of the window to become a Round-top, not a Segment, and this is crashing VW. The problem only seems to occur when there are Muntins in the window and the wrong combination of Rise and Width. If the 2'-0" wide window has a Rise of 4", for example, the crash does not occur. I hope this helps to track down the gremlin and perhaps an error message will happen in the future in lieu of a crash. I would be interested to hear if others can reproduce the problem and I hope to see a quick fix.
  10. OK, with your help, I think I have answered my own question. If I set the drawing scale for a design layer to "1/4" = 1'-0," for example, then enter the edit hatch window and select "scale" and leave it at "1", the thumbnail will be recreated as an appropriate thumbnail for that design layer scale of drawing. If I change the design layer scale to say 1/8" = 1'-0" and enter the edit hatch window, the thumbnail will be recreated again at an appropriately smaller scale. The key here was your suggestion to look at the hatch scale, but the layer scale at the time of editing the hatch is also a factor. So, the trick is to set the "design layer" scale at the time of editing the hatch to a scale most likely to be used in the drawing for that specific hatch. As long as the hatch scale is left at "1" the actual hatch will not be modified, only the thumbnail. Thanks, this little detail has been bugging me? now I can get some sleep.
  11. OK. This sort of works. I can increase the "scale" of the hatch by a factor of 2 which makes the thumbnail scaled up and readable, however, this also makes the actual hatch bigger by a scale of 2 (ie. 100% bigger). This would wreak havoc on a hatch like a siding texture or a stone texture, however, by going back and scaling the texture again, by 0.5 (50%), the actual hatch goes back to its original intended size and the thumbnail is more useable. This seems convoluted. It works, but is there some magic relationship between drawing scale, hatch scale, or whatever? that is more predictable in terms of thumbnails? Thanks for your help?
  12. Does anyone know how to control the scale of a hatch thumbnail in the Resource Browser? When I create or import a complex hatch pattern (a StoneCad stone hatch, for example), some times the thumbnail of the hatch pattern shown in the Resource Browser is so full of lines that the hatch appears all black in the thumbnail. Is there a way to create a thumbnail of the hatch that is zoomed in so I can actually see the hatch lines in more detail? I have tried different zoom levels in the hatch creation window, but this has no affect. Thanks
  13. As confirmed by tech support, VW 2010 (to be released September 15) will not function on a Power PC Mac. The software requires an Intel processor Mac. If you are currently using VW 2008 on a Power PC Mac, you have until Monday (September 14) to upgrade to VW 2009 which may be unavailable after the 14th. Yikes!
  14. An example of elevations with viewports Final Quality Renderworks plus Hidden line sketch
  15. Is there any way to create a line tangent to a circle where the line is constrained by an angle such as 90?, 45? or an angle entered into the data bar? For example, when I start a line tangent to a circle and hold the shift key down to constrain the line, the line is tangent to the circle, but the angle of the line is not constrained. Even if I enter an angle in the data bar, the angle is ignored and the line placed is at an imprecise angle.
  16. I tried your suggestion to convert to a new directory and the results were interesting, but not successful. Fortunately, I tried this experiment on copies of files as opposed to the original files. Here is what happens: I have a folder with 14 VW version 12 files and no sub-folders. When I select "convert in place," the dialogue box identifies 14 files and begins the conversion. When the 8th file is converted, the conversion stops and the conversion reports 14 files were identified, 8 files were converted, 0 files not VW files, 0 errors, etc. So 6 files are skipped. All of the original VW12 files can be opened in VW2008 by way of the file menu so the files are not corrupted. Now, using the same VW 12 files and performing a "batch convert" to a different directory, the conversion dialogue box identifies 14 files and converts the first 2 files successfully, the 3rd file is converted as the 2nd file with "_VW12" added to the file name. The 4th file is converted as the 3rd file with "_VW12" added to the file name, and so forth to the end. In other words, I end up with a folder of 14 converted files (2 files convert successfully and 12 files are the same as file #2 with "_VW12", "_VW12_VW12", "_VW12_VW12_VW12"? etc. appended to the file name. And, what is worse, the name of the original #2 file is changed to include the "_VW12" addition to the name. Needless to say, I would not attempt "batch convert" on original files until this is sorted out. The results are different and un-predictable on other folders with a different numbers of files and with sub-folders. I contacted technical support and I have sent a copy of my 14 file folder to see if they can reproduce the problem. It is also entirely possible that my system is the culprit and not VectorWorks, however, I can reproduce the problem on 2nd computer as well.
  17. This is a local folder and I have had the same issue on 2 different computers.
  18. Katie, Thanks. I could not remember where those keyboard list files came from. Will you be preparing similar lists for VW 2008? It would be nice if there were a script to provide this info to include user defined shortcuts. Does that exist?
  19. Batch Convert (convert old VW files to VW 2008 version) does not seem to be working consistently. Some times I can scan a folder with hundreds of files (not all of them are VW files) and maybe one or two files will convert even though there are dozens of VW 12.5 files in the folder. Some times the report at the end of the scan says zero files scanned, zero files converted even though there are several VW 12.5 files in the folder and sub-folders. Anyone else having problems with Batch Convert in VW 2008? Have not had these problems with previous versions.
  20. OK, I found the "Non-defineable shortcuts" on pages 28 & 29 of the 29 page workspace download text file. This is what I was looking for: snap to grid, zoom in, zoom out, etc.
  21. Let me clarify: I have a pdf file and an excel file of "VW Keyboard Shortcuts" which I downloaded in August of 2006 (presumably VW 12), but I cannot remember where these files came from. I assume that I downloaded these files from the VW website, but I cannot find similar files for VW 2008. These files are strictly keyboard shortcuts and are not bloated with other info.
  22. Does anyone know how to find a list of VW 2008 keyboard shortcuts? I know that the workspace can be exported as a text file with the menus and tools shortcuts, but that file is 15 to 30 pages long and does not include built-in tool shortcuts such as "zoom" "snap to grid," or "2D selection," etc. Some of the shortcuts appear to have changed and not all of the shortcuts show up in the smart cursor cues. I hope that I do not have to read the whole manual, tool by tool to find each shortcut.
  23. I too am curious about the fillet tool bug and whether it has been fixed in VW 13. This is not a minor bug, as some have suggested, but rather a major aggravation in terms of creating accurate geometries (driveway arcs, topo lines, etc.). I have found the fillet tool in VW 12.5 to fail approximately 50% of the time, not 1% of the time as some have suggested. Two of the first CAD programs available for the macintosh were MiniCad (VectorWorks 1.0) and VersaCad. I used VersaCad for many years with great success, but moved to VectorWorks about five years ago due to the strength of the 3D capabilities. VersaCad is still available and has been ported to OS X. VersaCad was, and is, a virtually bug free application and it handles arcs, curves, and fillets beautifully and it gives one options on exactly which fillet to accept (which VectorWorks does not). When VectorWorks fillets do not work (frequent) I some times export the geometry by way of DXF to VersaCad, create the complex geometries which VectorWorks cannot handle, then import the geometries back to VectorWorks. This is a bit of a pain, but it is easier, for me, than trying to create the complex geometric constructs. I have ordered VW 13 and I hope the fillet tool has been fixed.
  24. Also: "Download the What's New [VW 2008] Brochure" link downloads VW 12 brochure rather than the 2008 brochure, and after klicking on the following: "To learn more about what's new in your product, click on a link below:" the javascript "illustrations" links do not work, but the movies do work. At least one can watch those movies.
  25. Yes, I just noticed that as well.
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