Andrew Bell@NV

quote: Originally posted by bc: Think I'll post this question here. Couldn't find anything with a search or in "how-to" section. Is there a way to change the dafault settings of the various dialog boxes (e.g. Roof Creation or Set Sun Position or others). I can't speak for all of the dialogs, but certainly a lot of these dialogs have default settings built into the application, so no, you can't change those defaults. You might post to the wishlist section a list of the dialog defaults you would most like to be able to change the defaults for.

Create a 2-D polygon that matches the inner bounds of your walls. Then use the Floor menu command to make a floor out of that object. Depending on your workspace, that menu command may be under AEC, under Model->Architectural, or elsewhere.

quote: Originally posted by Jim Smith: I found an odd little glitch in VW10. It may have been fixed in VW11 so this may be a moot point. If you choose two lines and one is ?Locked? and the other is not and use the JOIN command the lines are joined, and the ?Locked? line stays Locked. Mac G3 OS 9 I can duplicate this bug, and I will make sure it is in the bug list.

The sheet layer has a DPI setting. What is yours set to?

quote: Originally posted by Bruce Ferguson: So if you're copying all the objects in a layer, do a select all, then create a symbol, leaving the instance in place. You might also check out workgroup referencing, then removing the reference but leaving the referenced layer. I haven't tried it with 10.5.1, but it's fewer steps than Bruce's way.

The smoothing angle only affects hidden line, dashed hidden line, and final shaded polygon rendering, so you'll need to use one of those modes to eliminate the facet lines.

quote: Originally posted by Adam P: This is a question for the designers here. I am trying to create a backdrop / scrim in 3D form that looks like a sail of a tall ship. I've figured out how to create a nurb curve for piping, but can't figure out how to create the fabric element of the sail. Create nurbs curves for the perimeter of the sail, and use "Create surface from curves" to create the sail surface. If you start in top view, say,you can create three or four three point curves for the boundary. Then go to an isometric view, select one curve, and choose the 3-D reshape tool. Select the move in Z axis option from the mode bar, and drag the center point of each curve up a little bit. Then "Create surface from curves" and you'll get a billowy shape.

quote: Originally posted by FRED JOHNSON: Can the scale of viewports be locked, similart to ACAD so that when zooming in and out the scale is not lost? or has VW's implementation made this ability no longer necessary. I admit I don't understand how this works and am trying to get info before making the plunge. Also how does VW11 run under OS9.2? Each viewport has an associated scale as one of its properties. This can be changed either via the object info palette or the Scale Objects menu command. Zooming in and out, either on the viewport's layer or the layers it views, will have no effect. VW11 requires Mac OS 9.2.2 or later.

You'll be happy to know that both the option to hide the page bounds on design layers and separate zooms for design and sheet layers are already on NNA's wish list. It might be possible to write a script to duplicate a sheet layer.

quote: Originally posted by ErichR: I'm not aware of the ability to adjust the number of rendered or hidden lines. Where is this preference located? You don't say which version of VectorWorks you are using, and I forget the exact history, but there's a smoothing angle preference in the Line Render pane of the Document Preferences dialog. As of VectorWorks 11, most truly curved surfaces have their non-profile facet lines removed automatically. The preference remains and is used for meshes, multiple extrudes, and perhaps some other types.

Have you looked at using a floor instead of an extrude? Floors are always aligned with the ground plane. They have a bottom height and a thickness, which you can set on creation or change from the OI palette. Look under Model->Architectural->Floor... for the floor creation menu command.

Instead of an extrude along path, you might trying lofting. Place your 3-D polygon at the ends of the wall and at the peak, in the proper orientation. Use the loft tool to make a loft surface between them, selecting the Ruled option and the Solid option. The only drawback of this approach is that it can't be edited as a loft, the loft tool just creates a collection of nurbs surfaces.

quote: Originally posted by tom kyler: Thanks Katie, looks like I got it about the same time. As a clarification, whatever is put into the "annotations" section of a viewport has fixed visibility and can't be turned on or off using classes, am I correct in that assumption? Not quite. The visibility of annotations in viewports is determined by the global class visibility settings, not the viewport's class visibility settings.

However, when trying to use this tool to combine a series of lines into a closed polyline it seems impossible to use the tool on the last two segments. Have you looked at using the compose command instead? If you have a set of selected lines, that will create a single object in one command.

quote: Originally posted by Kurt Magness: So my question is this. Why can't Vectorworks offer different renderworks packages like a basic one and a deluxe one with radiosity, HDRI, a decent animation system, etc. ? I will say the idea has been discussed. But NNA has a finite number of programmers, and it takes time to bring new ones on board and bring them "up to speed", and this slows down the others in the process as they help the new folks. Moreover, we programmers tend to specialize, so (for example) I would take a while to be able to work on printing issues. NNA management has to decide what are the best things we programmers can spend time on to improve the product, and as of VW 11.0, the assumed benefit of adding a deluxe rendering package hasn't been as favorable as other improvements. This may change in future, no promises one way or the other. But we're certainly not sticking our fingers in our ears and saying, "Nah-na-na-na-nah, we can't hear you..."

I think you may have slightly confused the issue there. If you have a symbol with only 3-D components (spheres, extrudes, nurbs surfaces, etc.), those objects will be drawn for the symbol regardless of plan/non-plan. Likewise, if you have a symbol with only 2-D components (rectangles, circles, polylines, etc.), it will draw those objects regardless of plan/non-plan view. If you have a symbol with both 2-D and 3-D objects, or with hybrid objects (walls, for example), then in plan view only the 2-D and hybrid objects will be drawn, while in non-plan views only the 3-D and hybrid objects will be drawn.

quote: Originally posted by G-Pang: Normally, they takes few days to make a move, and I need it within minutes. It is easy if we can do it ourselves..like Autocad. VectorWorks does it, also, it just doesn't do it through a separate command. In general we recommend using the automated save to periodically save your work, and use the "Save to separate file in backup folder" to make doubly sure. Furthermore, I'd recommend making daily backups at the end of the day, CD-Rs are so much cheaper than time spent dealing with lost data.

I wish Drawing Recovery Tools / Command can be added on Vectorworks. Basically, all our drawing recovery stuff is integrated into File->Open. In certain cases, that will fix problems. (Usually it does so without any sort of message, and thus it's not obvious that it's going on.) If you have a file that needs more recovery than is built in, contact tech support; sometimes they can work with the NNA engineers to recover more data than you would get otherwise. Occasionally, you can recover good layers from a bad file by creating a new file and using workgroup referencing to import layers from the problem file.

quote: Originally posted by Santino Di Renzo: is VW11 compatible with dual processor? in other words can I keep working while exporting a massive 3d file to artlantis for which now takes about 20 minutes? Dual processor support wouldn't help with this issue, because the export code needs the document "frozen" while it writes it. Are your files very large? You're using the Artlantis export plug-in, right?

quote: Originally posted by Haich: Is vectorworks 11 able to rotate the 2d PLAN VIEW within the new ViewPorts? Yes. You can rotate viewports with the standard rotate menu command. (Note that you can do the same thing with layer links also.)

quote: Originally posted by Steven Pike: Is there a way to control the number of facets VW uses to display a 3D circular object? If you just need a 3-D approximation of an arc, use the regular polygon tool and convert to a 3-D polygon. For more sophisticated geodesic dome construction, you'll probably need to look into writing a VectorScript program to create the faces to match your dome subdivision.

It could certainly be better documented, but if you hold down the Alt key on Windows or the Option key on Macs while doing a split by line, only selected objects will be split.

quote: Originally posted by MaxwellChicago: Andrew you lost me on the adding 3-D locus points to the window symbol. I've tried to edit symbol then add 3-D locus points, but it doesn't change the window. What am I doing wrong? It's hard for me to tell from here, even if I squint. Did you add at least three 3-D locus points? If you e-mail me at the address below, I have a sample VW9 file with a wall with two simple symbols in it that demonstrates using locus points for hole-cutting that I could e-mail you. Note that only the X and Z coordinates of the locus points matter. They are projected onto the Y=0 plane to make the shape used for cutting the hole.

If you wish to edit the wall further after making such an opening, you can "enter group" on the solid subtraction and do your editing. This won't help with redoing joins and the like, however; for that you would have to ungroup the solid, redo the wall joins, and then subtract the window shape. If your window shape is a convex shape (such as a triangle), you can create a custom opening by adding 3-D locus points to the window symbol. The wall cutting code will then use the loci to create a convex hole, rather than generating the hole from the bounds of the window object. A last alternative that works in some situations is to incorporate a small piece of wall in the window symbol itself, to fill in the gaps and make it a convex shape. This will leave extra lines in hidden line renderings, however, and will be challenge to texture properly.

Another technique is to create nurbs curves with the appropriate profiles, and loft between them. That allows you more freedom in how the fabric drapes.