John Meunier

Soo Exciting!! I hope the screen redraw rate has been fixed, sometimes its sooo slooowww.

I hope that NNA brings back the function of the navigator to VW it works so well in C4D its a drag not to be able to use it in VW! (comment comes from research to see if there was a workaround to fix the space navigator continuing not to function, no such like, unless someone else has found away:))

I have attached a vectorworks file of one way we do our door and window schedules for you use, hopefully this helps with some of your questions.

How Do you control the Lit fog Option in Vectorworks Renderworks. I have attached a PDF file for your viewing, The circle with lines around it is a point light 100% brightness with lit fog selected and cast shadows off. The arrow is a directional light with cast shadows on. I am trying to get a look like the building is fading off into the distance. Not much like yet. Any insight into how Lit Fog is controlled would be helpful. Thankyou

I use the window and doors as 3D symbols allowing me to insert extruded objects to get the desired look on my elevations. Image: https://files.me.com/station411/la8wi9 Vectorworks 2011 File: https://files.me.com/station411/clp0l0

Thanks for the reply Pat. I will change the roofs with the custom modification, I appreciate you willing to put a script together for me, however it will not be necessary. Maybe in the new year it will be more pressing and there will be time to work on a script. Happy Holidays! John

Good Morning, I need to change 934 roof objects in a current document, I need to change the thickness and how that thickness will be applied. First thing that comes to mind is worksheets. So I created a database of the roof objects but I dont know how to return the variables to change them. Any ideas what the criteria is? Thank-You

Grant, I think it would be a great idea for NNA to issue a program like cinebench to compare different computers, its always a struggle to "KNOW" what the real world value of spending X amount of dollars to the improved performance is to justify large purchases. It was great to see almost a improvement of 4 times faster than the old machine. ahh side note the 27" screen is the bomb! Bill, Thank-you It is a big difference in VP rendering time, Im excited to upgrade to VW 2010 in the new year!! The old machine was a older G5. (Mac OS X 10.5.8 4.5 GB DDR, Dual 2 Ghz Power PC G5 (970), ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 64MB AGP Vectorworks Designer with Renderworks 2009 SP5 (Build 115703))

Good Morning, I just wanted to share some information with everyone. Recently in our office we upgraded a number of our computers. So I decided to see what the viewport render time increase would be. We do not have VW 2010 yet but when we upgrade it will be nice to compare again the speed increase. I Have attached a PDF file of the analysis for you. The analysis is very basic, and gives a general idea.

I use the cordless optical trackman (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/trackballs/devices/189&cl=us,en) it works excellent, very precise, and your not moving your wrist. I also use the 3d connexion space navigator (http://www.3dconnexion.com/products/spacenavigator.html) this works excellent for doing walkthroughs.

So the easiest way to fill in a boundary is to use the polygon tool with the mode "polygon from inner boundary" second mode of the polygon tool. it looks like a paint bucket. All you do is click inside the boundary you want to fill and it fills that area in with a polygon. However if the area is extremely complex I usually draw lines across the boundary creating smaller areas which I then fill and after add polygons together. Another hint is that you should be able to see the entire space you want to fill on your screen.

Thank-You for your suggestion, I want to use Sketchup because of its "sketchy look" there is a almost childish quality to it that makes for an interesting image. I will look into Piranesi as a render. I guess the only course of action to get the file into google skectchup though is to import the base units and reposition and redraw the 3d site. Thnaks John

Ok, I have no idea what the workaround here is going to lead to but I'll explain the problem. Some history first: The job is a 105 unit multifamily site with 5 different unit types each type has 3 different styles, different colours. The different units are arranged to form 34 buildings. There are 4 vectorworks files: 1) DP Common contains the title block wich the layer is referanced into each other file. 2) DP Unit plans contains the unit floor plans for every type and style 3) DP Block Plans contains the block plans which are referenced DLVP from the unit plans, as well as the roof plan 4) DP site Plan and Sections contains topographic information as well as DLVP to create a complete site plan with roads, roofs, buildings, all that fun jazz. The Problem: I want to export the site plan with all of the data, roof plan floor plans roads and topo information into sketchup to do some renderings. The site plan exports all fine and dandy, however the DLVP which make up the main Floor, second Floor and roof plan do not export the way I need them to. When exported as 3ds the DLVP just don't export, when exported as a DWG, VW exports them as individual DWG files. For example, the site has 105 units so on the main floor the is 105 VP on the second Floor there is 105 VP on the roof plan there is 34 VP because there is 34 Blocks. Aside from exporting each unit and editing in sketchup then positioning on the site and so on, basically redrawing 2-weeks of work, I was wondering if any one has a work around for this? Thanks for any ideas, I will elaborate if need be. PS I have attached an Image file showing a wireframe outline of the entire site for clarification.

You can do it as an annotations in a viewport with 2009 using the tool "Batt Insulation" found in the Detailing work set.

VW is great for a drafting program. Especial for its price. As long as your not going for photorealistic images, VW will work great. We use it all the time for building renderings and the result is satisfactory. We underuse the 3D capabilities of VW, (nurbs, lofts, etc.) because our buildings mostly are created with the hybrid plug-ins, walls, doors, windows. All the basic elements. If your drawings natural shapes with very fluid curves there are other programs that handle this easier than VW.

Ray, Thanks, I guess I should have looked a little deeper, Early November, not to far off now.

Any ideas when the update to VW 09 will be released for compatibility with Snow Leopard?

My two sense on the Foundation / Footing I would create a separate layer for the foundations, (ie. Unit A-Mod-slab 1), I use walls to create the foundation and walls to create the footings so 16" walls for ftgs and 8" concrete walls for foundations. When detailing I place in rebar as an annotation. You could then use a spread sheet and perform a simple calculation for how much rebar you need based on / ln ft of the footing and foundation which are wall objects and have linear measurements which can be extrapolated.

Hello, 1) You can use a texture bed, and apply what ever texture you want. If you where to turn of the texture bed by putting it on a class you would have a hole in the site model. 2) I am assuming that your house and site model are drawn on different layers. If you can create a DLVP on the site model of the your house. Alternatively I Have the site model drawn to where my house is I then adjust the heights of the layers to reflect real world conditions, then use stack layers. 3) click on the site model, go to the render tab in the objective info pallet and select the texture.

Im not 100% sure how VW works with Viewports. But if you render on a DL you can actual see the horizontal lines of each Processor working. I have a dual quad core at home and I see eight lines when I render. I know that rendering on a DL is faster than rendering on a sheet layer VP.

We use a lot of external referencing in our office. For example : Multifamily town-home site (80+ Units), we have a min. of 4 files. 1) Survey...........- Contains: No DLVP 2) Unit plans......- Contains: No DLVP 3) Block Plans....- Contains: DLVP of Unit plans 4) Site Plan.........- Contains: DLVP of Survey *5) Master File......- Contains: DLVP of Survey, Block Plans, & Site Plan (for Renderings) The problem is the Master File file takes forever to load because of the amount of data in the external references. Either saving cache or not saving cache, the file still takes sometimes 20 minutes to open. Then to work in the file, can become very cumbersome when the DLVP regenerate as you pan etc. I Hope NNA resolves this so that external referencing becomes fast!!

On the viking website they have the CADD files under "Design Software Symbols in the specifications for the product" Why not use there cadd file for a base to draw your 2D/3D symbol on.

Interesting idea. Im interested in how you manage your specifications for your accessories do you manage them in Vectorworks or another program separately? There is one problem i find with this. That is the PDF is so tiny even if you print with the class on you will not be able to read the PDF. This means if you forget which product you spec, or if the client asks you need to open the file and go to the symbol turn on the class and zoom in. I import the PDF files onto a separate layer scale them 1:1 then Print them on 11x17 sheets which I form a spec book, for the clients use, and ours. It would be nice if the PDF file could be linked to a symbol through BIM some how (new function maybe) and allow the PDF's to be printed separately somehow.

Pat, I have tried to import saved views, however this is the message I get. "The Tool Command named "View 4 - Toward Cottonwood" contains a Saved View, so it cannot be imported into a different document. Any other objects will be transferred." Any ideas?

Is there a way to transfer a saved view from one document to another. I dont have any Renderworks cameras set for the view I want or I could copy and paste them between documents. You can't copy viewports into another drawing file or saved view scripts. Any ideas for a work around? Thanks