Kevin McAllister
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Posts posted by Kevin McAllister
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Ray,
You need to change your Mac system preferences to Metric. Under the Apple Menu choose System Preferences. Choose the Language & Text icon under Personal. Click on the word Formats in the tab bar. Way at the bottom change the Measurement Units from US to Metric. You can always change it back after you set up your custom sheet sizes. They will hold their metric sizes even though there dimensions will show up as imperial.
Kevin
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Upper right hand corner of this forum screen, in the VW Community Links box, click on Bug Submit.
Kevin
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Same here. Autosave by operations is much more reliable. The only thing it still seems to cause problems with is updating Viewports if the update is the last operation.
KM
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Nemetzchek should be able to implement this pretty easily. The technology exists in the Cinema 4D rendering engine. I am assuming your rendering either has a black or white background. Vectorworks isn't so good at compositing at the moment. It would be great if your could turn the alpha channel for a viewport on or off.
Kevin
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I support this.
I would also like Vectorworks to be smart enough to re-render outdated design layer viewports before re-rendering the sheet layer viewports containing them.
Kevin
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I never realized how backwards the implementation was until I started using Cinema 4D. Once the "camera" disappears its not really a camera any more. As Grant says, really you want to keep the camera in the design layers as an object. If you adjust it there then the linked viewport should adjust as well.
KM
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One of your text objects has gotten corrupted. If its a single font and you've used multiple fonts in your file, concentrate on text objects using that font only. I tend to track the object down using a process of elimination. Do this process in a copy of your original file.
How many sheets are in your file? Try using batch print to PDF but eliminate a different sheet each time you try to narrow where the corrupt object is. This will help find a corrupt object on a sheet layer.
If you think the corrupt object is on a design layer (ie. one of the label legends is the corrupt text object) then you will need to delete objects in a methodical manner, testing batch print to PDF after each deletion. I would try a big area first (ie. delete all lights stage right of centre) to narrow your search more quickly.
Once you isolate the corrupt object(s) you can delete them from your original file.
I've never seen text turn into random letters/numbers but I often have issues with a single font disappearing from a batch print. This is how I solve it. In my case, the corrupt text objects have always been in the annotations of a sheet layer viewport. In my case they have been text objects, regular dimensions or radial dimensions.
Kevin
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Its all in the setup of your own files/workflow. Remember Vectorworks has two complementary methods of organization (Classes and Layers) whereas Autocad only has one (Layers). In the original methodology, layers in Vectorworks were essentially seen as stories in a 3D model, so it didn't matter if they were stacked on top of each other. The only way that things won't be stacked is if you offset them in your own setup.
Are you working in 2D or 3D? Working in 3D solves many of these issues.
Unfortunately it sounds like you are trying to crunch two layers of organization into one. The weakness is Autocad here, which has a simpler organization workflow.
Kevin
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I agree completely with AndiACD. The modelling tools should be where the improvements start. The next improvements should be with the process of getting good 2D drawings off the 3D model. These things need to be sorted before any more resources go into the mythical BIM.
Over the last few years so many of the improvements have been with specialty tools instead of the basic toolset. I don't object to these improvements but I think the basic toolset has been neglected for far too long.
Though I'm not an architect I often use the architectural tools. I would like these tools to be more universal (the "stair tool", as an example, doesn't even do a basic flat bottom massing stair that I can use for a stage stair, or how about "fit walls to roof" which should actually be a universal "fit this geometry to that geometry" tool instead.)
I do not want to manage a million plug ins given the current plugin architecture. I am paying for Vectorworks Designer for a reason.
Kevin
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I'm not entirely sure that its the vector elements that increase the file size. I often receive vector based PDFs generated by Autocad of entire stadiums that weigh in at a mere 500KB. There's something about the bitmaps that Vectorworks generates and how it crops them that is definitely part of the problem. When trying to optimize a Vectorworks PDF in Acrobat you often get the error message "The PDF document contained some masked images that were not down sampled." This leads me to believe that most bitmaps generated by Vectorworks sample a much larger area of the drawing/viewport than they need to and are masked off using clipping paths.
Kevin
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The combination of Hidden Line and Custom Renderworks shows how Vectorworks rendering (Hidden Line) and C4D Rendering (Custom Renderworks) don't play well together. I believe that the basic render modes (ie. Hidden Line) are still handled by Vectorworks internally instead of using the C4D rendering engine. Because the results are created by two different rendering engines, they don't overlay exactly. Hidden Line creates a vector based layer while Custom Renderworks creates a bitmap based layer. Planar object outlines are rendered on both layers resulting in soft line edges or inconsistent line widths.
I believe the result we all desire is actually a combination of 3D objects rendered in Custom Renderworks combined with 2D/3D objects rendered in Hidden Line, but at the moment there is no way to exclude the 2D planar objects from the Custom Renderworks render pass.
I've been doing some online courses for C4D and its rendering engine has the ability to do many of the things you are asking for (heavier line weights in the foreground, lighter line weights in the background, outlining complete objects with heavier lines), Vectoworks just doesn't implement these options (mostly because its not using the C4D engine for line work).
Kevin
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Are you using both foreground and background rendering modes on your Viewport? I only ask because I've recently been fighting with inconsistency caused by this. I often use Hidden Line and Custom Renderworks together but Planar Object lines render in both modes, causing inconsistent line weights and other messiness....
Kevin
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Agreed that this is annoying and inconsistent. But are we asking for 2d objects to behave exactly like 3d objects? Aren't these weird, 2d/3d hybrids on fake planes?
-B
That's exactly the problem. Everything should be 3D period. And snaps should be smart and helpful. Often you want to snap in some visually logical way and can't. Vectorworks is missing basic snaps that other programs call "2.5D" snapping. It amazes me you can't just hold down shift to constrain and drag an object across the ground plane in a 3D view. 3D should be simple and intuitive not complicated and convoluted as its become with the transitional Vectorworks approach.
KM
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I like the idea. Often you think its closed and its not. Perhaps it needs to auto close when snapped within a certain distance of the starting point. Or perhaps it needs a smart cursor clue (much like you get when you use Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop) when it will create a closed polygon.
Kevin
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Definitely a good question. It was down for me as well though, unlike in the past, this time there was a message saying the board was closed.
Kevin
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I wish that I didn't have to choose the Cinema 4D application every time I use the "Send to Cinema 4D" command. If its really necessary to set the path to the Cinema 4D application, please make it a preference that sticks.
KM
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I love this. Real world files are a great test for real world software :-)
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Hi Donne,
I had a follow up email from someone in your department. I sent them an example of what I was seeing and some other feedback based on my Cloud experiences.
Thank you,
Kevin
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I would tend to agree with Christian. I used Vectorworks Cloud Services for a few days before I went back to my old workflow. My previous workflow used iBooks as my viewer for self generated PDF files. It never has trouble with my PDF files.
The PDF generator on Vectorworks Cloud Services is actually custom. It doesn't generate identical PDFs to Vectorworks (different bookmarking is one anomaly). Perhaps it could be made to "flatten" the PDFs or optimize them in some way. This has long been a wish list item for the desktop version of Vectorworks.
Kevin
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Importing DWG files directly often causes a double origin problem. I can imagine it would affect Workgroup References too. It usually shows up when I use the Cinema 4D command and things show up in Cinema 4D off to one side even though they appear centred in Vectorworks. Just like moving the origin, which you should never do, importing a DWG directly into a working file is not good workflow. Import it into a clean file first and copy/paste or reference it in.
Kevin
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I think I just answered my own question by looking at the source code for the web page. When entering the symbol for inches you need to use the double quote " (shift plus the single quote key), you cannot enter two single quotes in a row.
Kevin
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Ok, this is going to seem like an odd question but I'll ask anyway. What keystrokes are you using to type your ' and " ?
Kevin
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I always leave the inches " off. If your units are set to feet and inches Vectorworks doesn't need it. It will save you a lot of keystrokes.
Interestingly if I cut and paste the 10'6" from your post into Vectorworks I get the ding sound too. I would add a signature to your post (under My Stuff above) detailing your Vectorworks version and system specs. From a Mac perspective it seems like something may be wrong with your keyboard settings or font encoding. If I cut and paste the 10' 6" from Pat's post it works fine.....
Kevin
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Well, Unified View is missing from Fundamentals so its not really a surprise. Not sure how exactly you use Fundamentals for 3D in a meaningful way without it.
This was exactly the need that should have been filled by the Vectorworks iPad app. Unfortunately we got a 3rd party PDF viewer repurposed for closed networks use. The only feature of interest is the measure tool it provides, but it doesn't recognize Vectorworks snaps making it less than accurate.
The most successful company in the world right now is based on the principle of user simplicity. The Vectorworks Viewer is based on developer simplicity. These two principles are polar opposites, its no wonder one approach is successful and the other is not.
Kevin
vectorworks nonresponding or pause on some layers
in Architecture
Posted
Are you using Workgroup Referencing?
Did you import a DWG into any of the files?
In my experience, its likely there is a corrupted object that's been shared between the files.
Kevin