Kevin McAllister
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Posts posted by Kevin McAllister
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Hi Peter,
All of the figures have geometry that breaks through the floor (their feet haven't been flattened off). The intersecting lines option is turned on. I tried a higher angle and re-rendered and now different feet are missing.....
Kevin
PS. the geometry rendered as expected in VW2012 on many different projects.
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Is anyone else having problems with inconsistent hidden line rendering in Sheet Layer Viewports in VW2013. I've attached an example image with the inconsistency circled. Each time I render the viewport it does different things where the feet of the figures intersect the floor or other objects. Some render properly with a line, some don't. And it seems to vary each time the viewport re-renders.
Kevin
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Ok, so I have to say the new rotate tool, with the protractor that shows which plane you're rotating on, is really great. Simple always works better. Good job Nemetzchek.
Kevin
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Haha Peter, I'm not entirely sure that's what Christiaan meant.....
Kevin
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Thanks Maarten. That did it.
Much appreciated.
Kevin
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Ray,
The best series of polygon modelling tutorials I've seen for Cinema 4D are by ShepperdOneill on Youtube -
These explain polygon modelling very well. Even if you don't think you'll use it, its a good background to how different the modelling approach is. I've linked to the first but there are 13 tutorials in this series.
You should also know about GreyScaleGorilla - http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/
Some of it is motion based but if you search back there are some modelling and simple animation tutorials too.
I've actually found there are lots of really good C4D tutorials online. Much moreso than Vectorworks.
Also, for the basics check out Maxon's Cineversity. You need to sign up (there's lots to access even with a free membership) but its worth checking out. www.cineversity.com
I've been learning C4D seriously for about a year now, mostly from online sources.
Kevin
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I am working on a script to make a Viewport's name match its "Drawing Title" field in the OIP. I have most of the script working but I haven't been able to find the proper selector for the "Drawing Title" field. Does anyone have experience with accessing this from a Viewport?
Thanks,
Kevin
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Did you ever resolve this? I have a small script to change views which works fine from the script palette too but does nothing once I make it into a menu item.
Kevin
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Christiaan,
Are things in symbols or groups? I've had a lot of problems with PIOs in symbols and even more with things in groups in symbols.....
Kevin
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Thanks Juan. Works great now.
Kevin
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It works perfectly for me. I was even able to create a viewport within a viewport!
Bill, I see you are working both on a Mac and a PC. Which are you running VW 2013 on?
I've tried everything and it still crashes every time. No problems with any of the other new features or with Section or Standard viewports either.
Kevin
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Interesting. Ever time I've tried Vectorworks crashes. I create a crop object, choose Create Detail Viewport, the dialog box appears, I hit OK and Vectorworks disappears. I've tried in clean files and ones imported from VW2012.
Kevin
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The specs will reflect what's needed for running both Vectorworks and Renderworks (Cinema 4D Engine). Vectorworks is not 64bit. The Cinema 4D engine is as well as supporting multithreading. It does not use the graphics card and relies on the main processor only.
See this article in the section called Other Talk for more info about the switch to 64bit on a Mac - http://architosh.com/2012/06/aia-nemetschek-talks-with-architosh/
Kevin
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Has anyone actually been able to create a detail viewport in VW 2013? I've been playing around with it tonight and every time I've tried to create one VW has crashed.
Kevin
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I'm curious if there is a proper procedure for removing the default content libraries. I currently have VW 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 installed on my system. I keep them installed in case I need to access older files or check files that have been exported backwards. I've been working on freeing up some hard drive space and thought perhaps deleting the default content from older versions could help. It turns out these content libraries I'm not using amount to 22GB of space. Will it cause any trouble if I just remove the corresponding Library folder for each version?
Thanks,
Kevin
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Hi Matt,
You've asked a very good question, one that I've never seen answered very well. I wondered the same thing a few years ago when I dove into the deep end and started 3D modelling everything. Because I do design work for theatre and events, I've modelled a lot of unusual stuff. Here's what I can tell you from my experience -
- when I started out I mostly worked with either solids (extrudes, solid additions/subtractions) or NURBS objects. Each has their advantages. Solids behave well and render cleanly. Solids are also necessary if you want to section objects and have them show up "solid". NURBS are essential for many shapes that use curves. NURBS create both curves (3D lines and polylines) and surfaces (filled shapes). But NURBS show up as pieces or facets in some rendering modes.
- I've only recently investigated 3D polygons in greater detail. Polygons are efficient unless you have a lot of them. Many other 3D modellers use polygons exclusively. Vectorworks doesn't really work with groups of polygons in the same way, so unless you're importing from other programs you're less likely to do much polygon modelling. A 3D polygon is only a surface anyway (usually a triangle or quad). Any object made of polygons is basically an empty shell. If you section it is shows up empty.
- A mesh seems to be a connected "blanked" of polygons in VW. I can't say I've used them much if at all.
I would suggest starting with solids first. Most simple objects can be created by adding and subtracting solids. Extrudes are the easiest in the beginning since they are created using 2D shapes you're probably already familiar with.
From there I would investigate NURBS. The NURBS tools in VW are extremely powerful but not particularly user friendly. Some NURBS tools will interact with solids and solids can always be converted to NURBS if needed. Often collections of NURBS can be combined back into solids using Stitch and Trim, but not always.
Hopefully this helps a little as you get your feet wet in 3D.
Kevin
PS. I've added a file comparing objects as solids, 3D polygons, and NURBS. I've opened the tops to show how the 3D polygon and NURBS objects are hollow. Notice how the 3D polygon objects have black areas, that's because VW is drawing the outline of each small polygon. You can reduce the conversion quality for less polygons but then your curves begin to appear facetted. Notice how smooth the NURBS curves are since they are mathematically derived.
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Also noticed that multithreading for hidden line renders is windows only?
I noticed that too. Its likely tied to the ongoing work to remove Quicktime and convert the Mac version to 64 bit. The interview in Architosh implied it was a two year process.
KM
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Full 3d perspective is indeed welcome!
And I agree with DWorks, there's much focus on lighting design. I know that the new tools apply to architecture as well, but for teasers I would have shown an architectural example as well. The rendering stuff doesn't do me much (Arroway Textures etc.) as I render with V-ray in sketchup but it will probably please a lot of people. Anyway, my focus will be on the architectural tools and I hope there's some new and exciting news on that front. As I said earlier, the demo I got from Archicad sure got me thinking...
LiveDesignOnline is an Entertainment Design publication which probably explains the bias.....
Kevin
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Perhaps with this :grin:
Ok, that looks promising. They are also using the word "evolution" to describe it. And over the last few years there has been other sharing between Nemetzchek partner companies so its not that far fetched. It mentions them being script based so perhaps with a translator objects could be shared objects between the programs.
Interestingly one of the other Allplan features is faster graphics, much like Tamsin's sneak peak at VW2013.
I guess we'll find out tomorrow.
Kevin
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Did you notice in Bill Knight's preview video there is a checkbox in the new Detail Viewport creation dialog which says "Name Viewport as Dwg No. / Sheet No."? This makes me very excited!
Kevin
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That made me laugh out loud.
Its a fun concept but perhaps they could have made the designer a little more sophisticated. If they see us all as sort of slow moving like they've portrayed him perhaps that explains the pace of feature implementation.....
Marketing is a funny thing and Nemetchek approaches it in its own unique way.....
:-)
Kevin
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isnt it a bit early to comment on the worth of the release?
I would agree.
(Though Nemetzchek has sort of set themselves up in a way. They introduced Service Select in the US on the same cycle as new versions, so all those initial subscribers are judging the worth of renewal on the basis of an unseen product.)
The article link I posted above is an interesting read and depending upon how much is added in this upgrade it may be more than worth the price.
KM
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There's a teaser article about 2013 here that implies good things for a 3D workflow - http://architosh.com/2012/09/vectorworks-2013-to-be-revealed-next-week-innovative-new-3d-coming/
I guess maybe it is 3volve....
Kevin
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So will the last teaser finally show something architectural? There are 3 lighting designers and a landscape example. I hope the last one will show more and surprise us before the 18th.
Haha I'm an Entertainment Designer and I was wondering the same thing.
KM
MacBook Pro with Retina Display
in General Discussion
Posted
Is anyone out there using VW2012 or VW2013 on a MacBook Pro with a Retina Display? I'm starting to think about replacing my aging Mac laptop and was curious if anyone has any first hand experience with how it performs.
Also, does anyone know if VW2013 has been tweaked to take full advantage of the Retina Display at full resolution?
Thanks,
Kevin