Kevin McAllister

Interesting. I received a warning that I've never seen before saying the file was created in the student version and cannot be opened in the professional version. @JuanP is this new or maybe regionalized? I guess someone from NV will need to solve this thread since most of us won't be able to open the file.... Kevin

Bruce, it would make more sense to consider the symbol as your "tile" not the geometry within it. Set all the geometry inside the symbol to Bot Z = 0" (relative to the symbol) and set the symbol "tile" to Bot Z = 1/2". (The only reason not to do this is if you anticipate moving the Z height of all the tiles later on since the easiest way to do it would be editing the symbol.) Kevin

A file would help a lot. Some observations about what I'm seeing in your screen shot and a few things to try - You're working in a mix of 2d layer plane shapes and some 3d surfaces. The layer plane shapes have edges in your image, the true 3d shapes do not because draw edges is turned off. Are you drawing individual planes of your geometry like you would in a polygon modeller? Is Unified View turned on? You talk about moving from "any layer" to a "3d layer" which leads me to believe that you're working in 2d on some layers and 3d on others. Each layer will have a different view if Unified View is turned off. Screen Plane objects on different layers may disappear depending upon how your Unified View Options are set under the View menu. What happens if you try putting all of your geometry onto the same layer? If you take all of your geometry and paste it into a new file? Perhaps there's a corrupt object in your file. Pasting into a new file and then back again can often resolve things. What type of machine are you running Vectorworks on? Perhaps try adjusting your Navigation Graphics setting on the Display tab of the Vectorworks Preferences. Kevin

I did some testing and you should be able to use the Insertion Pt Z value found under Object Functions. It would be #IPZ# Kevin

Hi Matt, Have you tried using the Object Functions as the Data Source to pull from. There are options for Area and Bounding Box dimensions. Kevin

I wonder if its been previously filed as a bug. @Selin do you know? I can't really test and file it because I'm on a Mac. Kevin

When I open the file the cached viewport image has a black background. If I update the viewport it snaps to transparent as it should be. All of your settings are correct. This seems to indicate its not corruption in the file. I notice that you're working on a PC and I'm on a Mac. Out of curiosity what is your default compression set to in the Vectorworks Preference on the Edit tab? Kevin

The subdivision tool creating hollow object in section is an issue. Hopefully this will be corrected in a future version. I miss Jim W right about now.... @Matt Panzer is there someone who can speak to this? Kevin

This example looks a lot like a Renderworks or HDRI background has been turned on. I don't think its the infamous "black viewport" issue in a traditional sense. Are you able to share an example file where this happens? We might be able to pinpoint the source. Kevin

I just learned what a roof cricket is 😀 I draw objects like this all the time using loci guides and NURBS. I would draw three NURBS curves (degree 1 creates straight sides), convert each to a NURBS surface and Stitch & Trim them together into a solid. It would be great to have a solids object that you could drag corner points around but it wouldn't be very easy to control until VW adds a 3d dragger type interface for point movement. Kevin

Somewhere on the forums there is a "proof" of sorts that shows that within the margin of error from the calculations, a Vectorworks oval is an ellipse. There are issues if you offset an oval, since an offset oval is not an ellipse but Vectorworks draws it as one. Kevin

I think its probably a reference to using the Shell command to give the surface thickness. Without seeing the situation its hard to know exactly what to advise. I often create the extra surfaces needed (sides and a bottom surface) to make a nice clean solid and then run Stitch & Trim. Kevin

Personally I would never move the user origin. I like the user origin and the internal origin to be the same. Its probably fine to do in newer versions of Vectorworks but in the past it could cause problems. Work in symbols? That would be a way to always edit objects near the origin, albeit the symbol origin. I tend to work this way but editing within symbols has been problematic in recent versions (seems better in VW2019 SP3.1). Sometimes with problem objects I will paste into a clean file, do my edits and then cut/paste back into my working file. Kevin

Good catch with the origin. I tried the same method in place in the original file and couldn't get it to work. You solved the mystery. Kevin

The issue here appears to be that some of the surfaces are 3D Polygons not NURBS surfaces. But on a bigger level there is something about this geometry that is preventing the solid you want to make. I tried various options without success. If I have time I may play with it a little more later. Kevin