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Kevin McAllister

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Posts posted by Kevin McAllister

    Joining Lines

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Kevin McAllister

    One of the great things to know about the Polygon Tool "paint bucket" is that you can use it to add bounded areas to an already selected polygon..... hold down the shift key while "painting" into the adjacent bounded area.

    KM

    Vectorworks 2010

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Rhino for Mac is in beta testing. I have played with it a little (no Rhino experience before) and it has some nice features. It is, however, quite a different workflow. Its probably well suited for industrial design of products, but I can't imagine doing what I do (exhibits, theatre shows) completely in Rhino.

    Vectorworks is fairly powerful on the 3D side, but the interface is a bit inconsistent. Its taken me a while to get up to speed, but now I seem to be able to make it do much of what I want. More so than my colleague using Autocad when it comes to more organic shapes.

    KM

    3D Rotating

    in Solids Modeling

    Posted

    Here is a quick solution. If you change to a side view (right or left), select the object(s) and double click on the Rotate tool and rotate it 90 degrees you should get the result you want.

    I suspect you are having trouble using the rotate tool in the drawing window because all of your objects are 3D and your working plane is not in a useful orientation. Often if you add a 2D guide line and rotate it as well, it forces the rotate tool to work in 2D mode instead of 3D mode.

    Another way is to select the objects in a true side view, choose the Rotate Tool, go up to the Mode Bar and select the last icon (Rotate in Screen Plane). Now click into the drawing and rotate the object as you normally would in 2D. This is probably considered the proper way to do this, but it is an extra step.

    Kevin

    3d export to DWG

    in Troubleshooting

    Posted

    I have been sharing Vectorworks 2009 3D files with an Autocad colleague a lot recently with very few problems.

    What version of DWG are you exporting to? Ask your engineer what version of Autocad they are using and export the newest version possible.

    Are you exporting Vectorworks layers or classes to Autocad layers? Often this is how objects get lost (something is turned off and not exported). Are you only losing 3D objects in the transfer, or are you losing 2D objects as well. My understanding is that Autocad sees everything as a 3D object (even though the 2D objects are flat on the ground plane) so it would be unusual to lose only the 3D objects alone.

    Another thing to be aware of is mirrored 3D objects. I have had some trouble in that regard. Often they can disappear or unrotate.

    Kevin

    3d upholstered surface

    in Solids Modeling

    Posted · Edited by Kevin McAllister

    Ok, here?s a kick at an example with some instructions. I?ve concentrate on the shapes, not finishing or texturing. Note that I did everything in top/plan view or top view and then rotated the finished object.

    - the back panel is a straight extrude of the entire outline

    - the outer border was made by using the offset tool and then the paint bucket option of the polygon tool. I had to draw a horizontal guideline to contain the shape. It was then extruded and the edges filletted.

    - I did a 2D layout of the diamond pattern. I traced one diamond as a polygon and converted it to a nurbs curve. I then used the ?Create Surface From Curves? menu command (3D Power Pack I believe). In the object info palette I increased the U Degree and V Degree each to 2 (From what I can tell, 1 is a flat plane, 2 is a simple curve). With the nurbs surface still selected, choose ?Show Points? in the object info palette. Change the Move drop down menu to ?Vertex Only?. Using the point arrows, step through the points until the centre one flashes and is selected. Change its Delta Z height to make the diamond puff towards you. Note that this is the amount you are moving the point, not the surface itself (I moved about 4.25? to get the diamond just over an inch high).

    - I repeated this process to make the custom edge pieces.

    - I used the Move 3D command to move the objects into their relative relationships (ie. the diamonds and the border above the back panel) since they were all generated on the working plane.

    - I then duplicated the various diamond variations filling the upholstered boundary. At this point I also deleted by guide lines, except the outline for the entire inner panel.

    - I grouped all the diamond pieces and the outline of the inner panel I?d saved. Working in the group, I converted the outline to a nurbs curve. Using the Project & Trim tool and the outline of the inner panel, I trimmed all the diamonds at the edges. This process was a little fiddlier than I?d hoped. Because the outline disappears after each trim operation, pasted in place before each operation. I did all the pieces instead of only doing half and mirroring. Mirroring with nurbs will mean you need to reverse their ?normals? so they render properly.

    - I created a simple button using the Hemisphere tool. I had to play with its placement a bit so it didn?t disappear into the folds. I duplicated it using the Move tool.

    I have attached the finished file so you can see the pieces.

    I have found that modeling in 3D is actually easier than I thought. Most of my initial troubles came from not understanding the tools and when to use solids, when to use nurbs etc. Unfortunately some of this knowledge is not written down anywhere.

    It certainly could be finessed a little more and have textures added, but you get the basic idea.

    Kevin

    Elliptical walls?

    in Architecture

    Posted

    That's an excellent tip. There are a few tools there (oddly I remember using them at some point). I have been working my way through Jonathan's 3D book and there is no mention of them in there either.

    Once you draw the 3D ellipsoid, you can use the extract parametric curves tool to get the curve you need and convert it to 2D.

    KM

    Export PDF - Bookmarks

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I recently switched from using the Print>Save as PDF function to the Export PDF function. I like some of the additional options I have but I am wondering if there is a way to control the bookmarking feature. I don't mind that in multiple sheet documents it bookmarks each page (in fact I like it a lot), but I find that it adds a bookmark for each individual sheet layer viewport a bit too much. I often duplicate sheet layers and edit from there, so my viewport names are all over the map. I can delete these extra bookmarks in Adobe Acrobat, but I wondered if there was a more direct way to change this setting.

    Thanks,

    Kevin

    3d upholstered surface

    in Solids Modeling

    Posted

    I think it could be made with some nurbs objects. I've discovered that mastering nurbs is all about practice and learning how the tools respond. When I first started trying to reshape in 3D space it was a bit of a mind bender.

    I may give it a go over the weekend to see how possible it is. What size of bed do you need it for (width and height of the headboard)?

    KM

    For the UI, Don't Even Consider This...

    in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests

    Posted

    I disagree that the VW interface isn't broke - it's a mess, with attributes detached from other object properties, two sets of class/layer settings, no controls over frequently used preferences (like View Line Thickness, Edit in Groups etc) and it needs tidying up to free up space for a more pictorial Object Info palette amongst other things.

    I must admit I'm not entirely clear on what the "ribbon" interface is, but I do agree with a lot of what Chris is saying. While I wouldn't say its broken, there is a lot of duplication and room for streamlining and improvement.

    I customize my palettes so the tools are arranged horizontally across the bottom of the screen. I have done so for many version of Vectorworks/Minicad. With my OS dock across the bottom as well I find its efficient for most mouse movement and increases the usable space for the object info palette and navigation palette at the side. Screen real estate is at a premium when you are on a laptop. I used various workaround over the years to achieve this as the palette interface changes. Right now I find that the palette borders use up a lot of extra space. (My current experiment involves stacking the closest 3D equivalent tool above the 2D tool. My work is quite varied, so dividing the tools into categories as VWs does is not that efficient.)

    Additional duplications include the object info palette and properties dialog, which are almost but not quite the same as I discovered recently. And even I have fiddled with scripts to try and make the prime preferences Chris mentions accessible from the tool palette (black and white is another).

    Kevin

    Move doors/windows in wall

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I discovered something new about this the other day. If the symbol is the only thing selected, a custom move dialog appears when you use the move command (VW 2009). I think that dragging only works in top/plan view. I see that you are using Vectorworks 12, so dragging may be the only option for you.

    KM

    Import DWG file results in numereous design layers

    in Troubleshooting

    Posted

    Here are a few thoughts based on my own experience of importing DWGs. Hope they help.

    2. the object is extremely far away from the absolute 0,0. I'm talking 15 km, more than I've ever seen before. Is there an option during import to avoid this awkward position ?

    You can choose to centre on import (primary setting>model space in the import dialog). This should help with this problem.

    3. Right after importing the drawing, I'm facing a whole list of new design layers, named : _Layer_Crop-xxx, where xxx represents a value from 0 up to 287. Many of these additional layers have a few objects, so I can't just delete them.

    After years of bringing in Autocad layers as Vectorworks layers, I finally switched to bringing in Autocad layers as classes. I would suggest you try the same. When you delete classes to clean up the drawing, you are given an option to move or delete the objects within that class. So the scattered objects can be brought together into one class or reassigned to other classes, instead of being deleted. Also, classes can be quickly grouped by using the dash ( - ) within the name of the class, so in the class drop down menus they nest cleanly.

    4. Several symbols have a selection area that is way larger than the object(s) would have you to expect. Scale to Objects results in a zoom number like 0,004%. Top right would be the actual symbol, while the rest of the area seems empty. I already checked for text objects size 0, arc centers etc.

    Usually this means either objects within the symbol in a class that is turned off (may not be likely in your case, since you are importing layers), or that there are loci (Autocad points) in the symbol. Often the points are the WCS/UCS 0,0,0 of the block. Try Vectorworks>Preference>Display and turn Display 3D loci to Always.

    Hope these suggestions help.

    Kevin

    Co-ordinates of the ends of a line

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Is it possible to list the starting and ending co-ordinates of an open 3D nurbs curve in a worksheet? I can find functions for the centre x,y,z co-ordinates, but not for end points. I have spent some time looking through the archives and it sounds like it may require writing a script to feed data into a record to do this.

    Thanks,

    Kevin

    Length of Nurbs Curves

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    As far as I can tell the length values are for the true length in 3D. I can verify this in two ways -

    1) Draw a nurbs curve in plan view with a few points. This creates a nurbs curve with no Z value. Duplicate it. Edit the duplicate by moving some point in the z direction only. Both curves look the same in plan view (ie. the plan lengths are the same) but in the properties dialog the one with a Z value is longer as expected.

    2) I had a colleague import the file into Autocad. Using the list function it returns the same length values I am getting. His understanding is that the length shown in the true length, as everything in Autocad is 3D.

    Length of Nurbs Curves

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I should have searched the archives before posting my question, though there is an ironic twist. So if you right click on the nurbs curve and select "Properties", opening the properties dialog, it shows the length of the curve.

    I had always assumed that the properties dialog showed the same information as the Object Info palette. Clearly a bad assumption, though I suspect its a common one.....

    KM

    Length of Nurbs Curves

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Is there a way to find out the true length of a nurbs curve in 3D space? I thought for sure this could be done in Vectorworks but I am at a loss to find it. I need to figure out the time it will take to travel along the distance of a curve I've drawn.

    Thanks,

    Kevin

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