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J. Wallace

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Posts posted by J. Wallace

    3D Loci density

    in Site Design

    Posted

    6 hours ago, Benson Shaw said:

    Hi, Joe

    I think what you want is the Extract Loci from Point Cloud command. It's in v2019.  Command is in the bottom of the Model menu in the Point Clouds heading.

     

    It has parameters for number of loci to extract.

     

    Here is a link to the Help topic on this:

    http://app-help.vectorworks.net/2019/eng/VW2019_Guide/SiteModel1/Extracting_3D_Loci_From_a_Point_Cloud.htm?rhhlterm=point cloud&rhsyns=

     

    Here is link to a short video demo for this and a couple other Point Cloud features in v2019.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZLxdtgVC8A

     

    Your signature shows v2018. Look for them, but I don't think v2018 includes any of these features.

     

    -B

     

    Thanks for that @Benson Shaw I didn't realize that this feature was part of VW 2019.

    • Like 1

    Plant tag alignment and rotated plans

    in Site Design

    Posted

    On 1/3/2019 at 6:09 AM, rowbear97 said:

    With VW 2019 you no longer need to use the default plant tags of old! Use data tags and even free yourself from the tyranny of circles or hexagons by making a custom data tag for plants and more.

    @rowbear97 thanks for that...I didn't realize that this was a new feature of 2019. Looks very useful for Landmark applications, I may never use the traditional tags again.

    Volume Issue with Hardscape/Site model

    in Site Design

    Posted · Edited by J. Wallace

    Brian do you any grade limits in place? These are an important part of adding a pad, in my experience.

     I haven't had a great experience using pads with retaining edges but a grade limit should help your situation.

    I often create a pad, then copy and paste this in place, change this to a grade limits within the OIP, then offset it by whaterever distance you wish. In this image, I offset it by 1'.

    The model will then place your pad and use the grade limits for just that. There are lots of good videos out there on VW Youtube channel which you might want to check out.

     

     

    A good practice can also be to put all your site modifiers into the same layer your site model exists.  Hope that helps...

    pad2.png

    pad1.png

    • Like 1

    Imac Pro Vs upgraded/loaded 27" Imac

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by J. Wallace

    We recently upgraded to a 10 core iMac Pro. I would say my workflow has increased by 10%.

    Super happy with this unit, except to the cost, saying that we are looking at it through the long-term lense...hoping to get 5 good years.

    We have another workstation which needs to be replaced and we're giving the Mac mini a serious look.

     

     

    Hiring a firm for LIDAR?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I live on Vancouver Island, BC Canada. A number of areas have free LIDAR information available but I found I needed someone to take this raw data and create contours. It's not expensive but this data is usually taken every 2-3 years so if there have been any site changes it won't be reflected in the data.

    Hiring a firm for LIDAR?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Hi @JohnAthayde great to see another permaculture designer in this group. I've used both LIDAR data and elevation data from a drone survey. I've got an associate locally who can take LIDAR data and create one-foot contours which is super helpful. I've only used this once as I prefer drone data where I can get contours and high definition images. The downside is tree cover, this is LIDAR's advantabe. Are you planning on making a site model from this? 

    Does anyone make use of mesh from drone data?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    22 hours ago, Peter Neufeld said:

    Dear Jamie,

    You might also consider exploring Sarah Barrett's Marionette network - presumably after you've got rid of the bits of the mesh you don't want included which is a hard thing to achieve I'd imagine. I haven't tried it but it should work like the Model>Point Clouds>Extract 3D loci from Point Clouds which is great.

     

     

     

    Cheers,

    Peter

     

     

    Thanks very much @Peter Neufeld I'll check that out

    2D Plant edit VW 2019

    in Troubleshooting

    Posted

    I've noticed that in VW 2019 Landmark when you go to edit a 2d plant symbol you get the plant symbol plus other aspects of the design rather than just the plant itself. It doesn't seem to matter what my settings are when I'm editing an object. Same results regardless of this setting. I've noticed this on several files but I'm just getting around to reporting it.

     

    plant edit.png

    plant edit1.png

    plant edit2.png

    Does anyone make use of mesh from drone data?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    4 hours ago, RussU said:

    Hi @J. Wallace I use this kind of data all the time.

    I rarely pull in the mesh though, as I don't find it all that useful. The mesh will have been generated from a point cloud in the first place, and that's what you want to use.

    I make a new file and then import the point cloud in to 3 layers. One layer with 100% points imported, one with 50% and one with 20%. Called Hi, Med and Low Detail.

    Then I use a DLVP to import it into my working file, so I can switch between levels of detail as required.

     

    Point clouds are much more useful than the mesh, as you can snap stake objects on to the points as need be to create a native VW site model with as much resolution that you need. Too many stakes makes messy contours.

     

    As for the mesh, it'll either have a huge texture mapped to it (with the weirdest mapping and UV's you can imagine) or it'll be coloured with vertex colours.

    You should be able to get a point cloud with point colours anyway.

     

    But which ever way you choose to go, I would definately recommend having the drone data in a seperate VWX and viewporting it in. Let me know how you get along.

     

    While not all of this video is entirely relevant, some of this video may help (it was prepared for another client a while back)

     

     

    7

    Thanks very much @RussU. That is super helpful information.

    What your describing here looks like your taking cloud point data to make a site model, by snapping stake objects to portions of this.

    In my case I get a set of shapefiles that contain 1' contours. I really like your approach and if I had a drone along with additional software, it's something that I could do myself.

    Love the video you put together and thank you again for sharing this.

    • Like 1

    Does anyone make use of mesh from drone data?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Benson Shaw said:

    Your middle image shows overlay of contours.  Are those somehow generated from the mesh?  Or applied from some other source? Are they extractable and therefore useful data for DTM?

     

     

     

     

    1

    Hi @Benson Shaw. The contours are from a site model which we created with shapefile contour data (from the drone, the shape file comes with other support files). Super easy to create, I think it took but a few moments. The high def image is from the drone, other than for observation purposes I haven't figured out how to use the mesh.  It's a monster file that is best not mixed with the project data.  I'm curious to hear how other folks use this type of information. 

    Does anyone make use of mesh from drone data?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by J. Wallace

    I'm starting a new project and have received some drone data which I've used for creating a site model as well as high definition images. 

    My question for people is whether (and how) one would make use of some mesh data. I've attached a screen shot and some information, the file is huge and an interesting reference but I'm not sure if it has any value besides that. You can see that once imported, the saved file size leaps up to 994 mb in size (this is the mesh only, no other data in the file, site model in a separate file).  Love to hear peoples comments. Thanks

    mesh1.png

    Intial image1.jpg

    mesh.jpg

    • Like 1

    So is the 2018 Mac Mini a viable VW machine?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    6 minutes ago, Rob Glisson said:

    We are looking at replacing our iMacs with the new 2018 Mac mini's. We have one here run the office which is the new Mac mini with i7 6 core processor.  Additionally, we have a eGPU attached to it.  Our simple test is as follows:

     

    2015 iMac 4 ghz took 19 minutes to perform a rendering

    2018 Mini WITHOUT the eGPU took 10 minutes to perform the same rendering

    2018 Mini WITH the eGPU to 4 minutes to perform the same rendering.

     

    So far, it seems faster than our fastest 2015 iMac.  We are considering switching our entire office this direction - 8 Mini's.  Our thinking is that plenty of other companies make good quality monitors, less $$$ than Apple, and we can add a really nice Radeon RX Vega 56 Card with its box for $740 to each machine.

     

    Advantages:

    We can buy Nice 4K 27" monitors for $400

    When its time to upgrade, keep monitors and eGPU.

    Should we need to upgrade eGPU - can replace card in the box.

    In future, can just upgrade MINI's as needed.

     

    Initial Cost/station:

    Mac mini, i7 6-core with 512 SSD, 32 gb RAM, and 10 GB ethernet port - $2,290 (with keybd & mouse)

    Radeon RX Vega 56 Card in Sonnet Breakaway box - $740

    2 - 4K 27" Monitors - $800 ($400 ea)

    Total Cost for Station - $3,870 +/-

     

    Thinking this will have a lower long term expense.

     

    Does anyone else have thoughts on this?

     

     

    Those are exciting results @Rob Glisson We have just two workstations and older 6 core Mac Pro and a new iMac Pro. Love the new unit as I can literally plow through work, I did not like the price(or the lack of upgradability). With another upgrade on the horizon, I like the direction your going and I would make a similar decision, and most likely will within the next year. In our situation having one computer more robust than another is very workable, I imagine this is not the case in most situations.  Keep us posted.

    eGPU and Vectorworks Testing

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 11/20/2018 at 12:57 PM, Jim Wilson said:




    I even have an iMac Pro here I'm going to test it with, not that it needs GPU improvement but just to see if I get the expected performance from the eGPU.

    1

    Thanks for all your hard work @Jim Wilson...I look forward to hearing about your iMac Pro tests.  We recently purchased one and quite impressed by the performance. 

    Site model pad (site modifier) with adjustable control points/vertice

    in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests

    Posted · Edited by J. Wallace

    1 hour ago, Tony Kostreski said:

    Hi @J. Wallace,

     

    I agree that site modeling could be improved upon to be more intuitive. If you haven't tried this already, create a simple 3D polygon or NURBS object and place it on the Site-DTM-Modifier class. It will be recognized as a site modifier object and gives you similar controls to the retaining wall site modifier.

     

    Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have further questions.

    -Tony

    Thanks @Tony Kostreski. I have certainly used 3d polygons in the past to bridge these gaps. Question for you, I've never placed them in the modifier class and when I do I get errors that show up. It seems to defeat the purpose by putting them in this class? I'm sure there's something I'm missing.

    site2.png

    Site model pad (site modifier) with adjustable control points/vertice

    in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests

    Posted

    While working on a site model today it became clear to me that more intuitive controls over pad slopes and how they intersect with others would be helpful. In the image below the property is on a steep slope with a slope driveway approach. Blending all these pads together would be so much easier if we could adjust the corner or additional vertice elevation much you like do with the retaining wall site modifier where you simply click and pull up or down the vertice. 

    site.png

    site1.png

    • Like 4

    Best Imac pro setup?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by J. Wallace

    @chris I recently purchased an iMac pro to replace an older 2012 era Mac Pro. We have had this two weeks so it's early in the game for us. I'm hoping to get 4-6 years out of this and we'll see if that happens. Early tests on our 10 core machine vs our old 6 core unit saw a huge difference in render times. Mac Pro render 7:32, iMac pro 2:40. So far I'm really impressed but spent more than I was hoping for. 

    The one thing I don't like vs my old machine is the storage. My old Mac pro had 5 hard drives within it, the iMac pro has one, so my back up and data has to go into an external enclosure.  Thunderbolt 3 enclosures are not cheap. Saying that the cost is actually spread out over the life of the machine. Good luck with your choice. PS check out refurbished units, we saved $1300

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