Kevin McAllister

It sounds like you have Unified View turned off. What version of Vectorworks are you using (ie. Fundamentals, Architect, Spotlight)? Kevin

Essentially a traditional elevation drawing from the model.... only the lines you see. +1 Kevin

I'd actually like both. Flexible, interactive basic modelling like in Christiaan's Siemens examples and parametric NURBS type modelling like in Jershaun's Revit example. Imagine if using the NURBS Loft tool was as simple, intuitive and re-editable as the Revit example. Or if a Vectorworks door or stair plugin could be customized using the push/pull methodology of the Siemens example and still retain its data and know how it originated. Kevin

Creating your own parametric shapes, now that's useful.... Revit seems to have more flexibility than I expected. KM

I often use Custom Renderworks in combination with Hidden Line for my SLVP. Today I working with a fine that had a painted backdrop image mapped onto both a cylinder and an extrude. (The image was mapped across both the extrude and the cylinder so it lined up, creating a backdrop with a painted pipe pocket at the top.) When I turned on antialiasing in in the Background Render Settings the backdrop image on the extrude flipped left for right. Is this a bug? Should antialiasing change how an image is mapped? Kevin

Use the Extract tool in Surface mode. Make sure "Extract Planar Surfaces" is ticked in the Extract tool preferences. It will create a 2D poly in the same place as the 3D poly. Kevin

It sounds like we are talking about a "solo" sort of function. I think this would be great. Saved views is useful but its not really something to use quickly as part of an editing workflow. My solo workaround is to group things and then edit the group. I have become very fast at grouping/ungrouping. Kevin

Bruce, When did your problems start? I notice you're running Mountain Lion. I've had a few times when snap has misbehaved unexpectedly and other oddities since installing it. And I've been working from some 2011 files lately. Maybe I should test this further..... Kevin

It turned out to be a few steps easier than I thought. The cylinder works great, the trick is to offset the centre points of the curves. 1 - draw a wall the width of the widest part of the ramp. Change the height on one end to zero to make it a standard ramp. 2 - draw a circle using three point mode. My points were the inside corner of the ramp at the top, a quarter of the way in at the midpoint and half way in at the bottom. 3 - extrude the circle into a cylinder 4 - select the wall and the cylinder, change to a 3D view and Subtract Solids. (note that in my original instructions I suggested changing the wall to a generic solid which isn't actually possible and not actually needed) Kevin

I have to say that the node based approach such as Xpresso in Cinema 4D is pretty brilliant. Perhaps Vectorworks should add a layer like that, something that is readily accessible to all users. KM

Why don't you draw a ramp the way you normally do, convert it to a generic solid (if its a wall you need to convert it in a 3D view), create your other curve as part of an extrude or cylinder and subtract one solid from the other to get your finished ramp? KM

Different disciplines are using hybrid symbols in different ways as mentioned above. For Spotlight users usually the plan view or plot is a schematic, so the graphic matters more than the accurate plan. I can also see how an accurate, auto generated 2d element would be helpful. I would prefer if Vectorworks had the option to do both. KM

willofmaine, are those rendered in OpenGL? I'm only curious because most of the rendered geometry problems I've seen occur when Vectorworks is using its own rendering engine (any mode that's present without Renderworks - OpenGL, Hidden Line etc.) not the Cinema 4D engine. The native rendering engine is a big weakness and isn't even consistent between what it renders for display and what it renders in Viewports. KM

I don't believe this is actually true. Same polygon, drawn by double clicking on the last point so its open. Fill turned on (left) and fill turned off (right). Vectorworks sees both as being "open" polygons. The area is not actually zero but instead missing because there is no area... Same result if I draw the complete polygon and hide one side. This is why I call it a cheat on Vectorworks part. As far as I know you can't actually remove one segment. KM

As the others have confirmed, a polygon is only straight segments. But if you use the Paint Buck or Lasso mode of the Polygon tool to create surfaces, it will create Polylines if the boundary includes curves.... Circles / ovals are specialty polylines. (Create a circle, group it, stretch the group in one direction and ungroup it again. It becomes a polyline.) I think the idea of an "open" polyline or polygon is a bit of cheat by Vectorworks. All it means is that one or more segments doesn't have a pen fill. The underlying shape is still there. Create a polyline with a curved side and choose that side to be the open side. The line of the curve disappears but if you give the object a fill it follows the curve. In various rendering modes these "open" curves don't necessarily play well...... Only NURBS curves can truly be open. If you take a 3D polygon that has a hidden edge across into Cinema 4D, the hidden polygon shows up again. KM

This is my understanding in a broader sense of 3d modelling - Polygon - all sides are straight and on a single plane. As was pointed out certain shapes have their own names (rectangle, triangle, n-gon) Polyline - essentially what other programs call a spline. A curve defined by various types of control points (the standard being Adobe Illustrator style, Vectorworks points are a knock off version and not quite as elegant or intuitive)). In Vectorworks all points need to be on a single plane. Allows for smooth curves. Open and closed polygons or polylines are still closed surfaces, one or more segments are just hidden. This becomes apparent if you give it a fill. For rendering all 3d objects are broken down internally by Vectorworks into quads (for sided polygons) or triangles. KM

I agree completely! ( I originally posted the FormZ 7 links in this thread months ago - http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=163641#Post163641 ) I had an email exchange with Nemetzchek at some point where they maintained their 3D modelling is "best in class". I suspect its all in the nuance. As someone pointed out, Revit is not a modeller so Vectorworks could the be "best in class" for 3D modelling when compared to Revit. I didn't realize how challenged Vectorworks was as a 3D modeller until I started learning Cinema 4D. Now I wish there was a send to Vectorworks command in Cinema 4D..... Jershaun, your examples really show the differences well. I was surprised to see how much better Vectorworks 2008 behaves. That's really disappointing. Its true that if you have to clean up any geometry in Cinema 4D its almost easier/faster to rebuild it. Sweeps are especially bad for generating too much geometry. Here's hoping things improve and soon. Kevin

The easiest way to move any 3D object to 0,0 in x and y is to group it, switch to top/plan view and type 0 into the group's x and y co-ordinates in the OIP. Then ungroup it. You can then change the Bot Z to zero as well. Accurately placed, though it is a workaround...... Grouping things is a good workaround for lots of things, including scaling things that don't normally scale. KM

I have had some problems recently and suspect it may be related to Mountain Lion. I haven't been able to pin point the cause precisely but Vectorworks is less reliable than it was before. Some files are slower, I get a new spinning blue ball (seems to be part of Mountain Lion) quite often, and yesterday Vectorworks just disappeared and crashed. Normally you have a sense its going to crash with the spinning beach ball but I've never had it just disappear before. KM

It needs something. Vectorworks doesn't deal well with anything that interrupts a process. Notice how quickly you can ESC from a Renderworks process run by the Cinerender program yet any process run by Vectorworks itself hangs. I have never had Cinema 4D crash and Cinerender is a good example of its stability. I suspect when autosave kicks in when any other process is running it basically does Vectorworks in. KM

Yes this is maddening. I've bug submitted this in the past. There is a work around (isn't there one for everything associated with Vectorworks). You can click the back button in Adobe Air and it will take you back to where you were.... I hate that Adobe Air wants to update itself essentially every time you launch it.... Kevin

This is a frustrating and ongoing problem in 3D. I'm not sure why it always wants to select the background objects..... KM

Text is a prime example of an unfinished feature. A few versions ago they added Text Styles yet so many elements have never been updated to make use of it (how about apply at text style to a callout, drawing label, dimension style, title block, class.....). Many good ideas, mostly unfinished. KM

VW is the MS Excel of the CAD world, lots of hidden power behind a cluttered interface. MS Excel figured that out a version or two ago and concentrated on the user interface. KM

If you want planar geometry when using the Extract tool, turn that option in the tool's preferences (the icon looks like a wrench and a pencil in the mode bar). If you use the Vectorworks stair, wall, door etc. tools they will do exactly as you're asking for. Unfortunately most scenery doesn't necessarily conform to what these tools are able to create.... so hybrid symbols are your only option. I've found the slab and floor tools helpful as well for decks and platforms. Kevin