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SeanOSkea

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Posts posted by SeanOSkea

    Pre-select -highlight color change

    in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests

    Posted

    Simple change that would make learning VW easier for novices. I think this could just be a factory setting preferences change.

     

    Can the pre-select color when the cursor hovers over an object before it is actually selected be a different color than the orange color that an object takes on when it it selected?

     

    Perhaps the hover color is pink or teal or something and turns orange when selected?  I see my beginner students struggle with this all the time when they think they have two things selected for a Boolean or array or something but only one is selected and their cursor is just hovering over the second. They get confused and frustrated. If one object was orange and the other pink they could clearly see how many objects they have selected.  I know users can do this themselves in the interactive appearance settings but that's a pretty advanced preference setting for new users.  

     

    Thanks 

     --Sean 

    • Like 4

    Auto created Class control

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    @livespace josha Right. But its not working. Maybe its a glitch in my file. I've already moved the light objects to a different class where they clearly are and the Braceworks classes are all empty. I delete them. They are gone. And then almost instantly they are back. All I can think of is simply the presence of the light symbols in the file is forcing the related classes to regenerate. 

    Can't textually query/position an extruded object's location?

    in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests

    Posted · Edited by SeanOSkea

    @pschlie Well disappointment is a common state for VW and me 😉  its like being a Cubs fan or waiting for England to win the world cup depending on where you're from.

    Add it to the wish list thread.  --Oh I see you already have. 

    My #1 wish is sort of related to this. I want hotkey-based axis locks like in Blender. Hold down X,Y or Z and you transform only in that direction. Add Shift and you transform in all but the key you are pressing. There's a toggle button to switch to local too. One can but dream. 

    Good luck 

    Can't textually query/position an extruded object's location?

    in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests

    Posted

    @pschlie I guess you're right, tabing in moves the cursor (what I typically use it for) not the object. I guess once I know the location of an object in XYZ is just a quick Ctrl/Alt/M to move it in any direction. Or select and double click the rotate tool to rotate a specific angle from its current position.  For me that's faster than clicking into a field in the OIP anyway. Anything more complicated and I'll snap on a working plane. So I just don't need it in a one stop shop location. The only software I use that does what your asking are Maya and Blender but they lose the ability to resize parametricly as soon as an object is created. After that you only have scale. 

    Sorry you're still frustrated 

    -Sean 

    • Like 1

    Can't textually query/position an extruded object's location?

    in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests

    Posted

    55 minutes ago, pschlie said:

    fields aren't editable

    Yes they are. Just TAB till you get to the field you wan't and type a number. It will alter the size or location relative to the cardinal ords. Or used the Set Working Plane tool to snap to a rotated surface (and click on the Working plane button in the view bar) and then the data will be relative to the rotated angle (local). I'm still not clear on what you're trying to do but I'd suggest looking into the working planes and related tools a bit more. Its similar to clicking into a local mode for transform tools in other software, and even more useful as you can just pick any plane and angles and temporarily make that XYZ You can even save them for later use in the Working plane palette. 

    Also, don't forget the Push/pull tool. If you want to lengthen or shorten a side on a rotate object, you can simply click on a face and trombone the size in any direction relative to the the local cords of that face. Hit TAB and you can type in lengths of move relative to the face. If you want to make a 100x100x10 rotated box 20 units longer on one side, just click on a 10-unit side hit tab and type 20 and enter. Or -20 and enter to shorten the face by 20. 

     

    Sorry you're not getting the answer you're looking for but I guess I don't need to pitch/roll an object and then do it again relative to the rotated position very often. And if I do I just snap on a working plane.  

    • Like 1

    Can't textually query/position an extruded object's location?

    in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests

    Posted

    4 hours ago, Pat Stanford said:

    Another option is to select the object and hover over the point on the object you want to know about. Hit the TAB key (maybe twice or even three times depending on what you want to see). The data bar will show next to the cursor with all the information you are asking for.

    That's interesting. I sometimes use that trick in order to move the cursor into space a specific distance away from a known point but I never thought to use it as a data reading device. Its definitely giving xyz location of a point and if I'm careful I can move along an edge and get a length a la Tape measure tool (although I did get some incorrect lengths, no doubt due to operator error but Tape tool is fast easy and sure) but I'm not getting useful angle readings if the object is rotated in 2 directions. 

    Can't textually query/position an extruded object's location?

    in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, Benson Shaw said:

    Extrude of line or other shape from layer or other working plane offers great control for creation of guide plane.

    That's a great idea too. 

    I use the "Set Working Plane" tool in Planer face mode all the time. So much so that I've added it to my basic tools in my custom workspace. Click on a face on a weird angle and you can rotate (or whatever) about that plane. Hit the "Look at WP" button in the view bar and your back to cardinals relative to the weird angle.  Hit Numb Pad 0 twice (if you've go one) and bang--back to world axis. 

    • Like 1

    Can't textually query/position an extruded object's location?

    in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests

    Posted

    Lately I've started using the Move by Points tool in Move mode with # of Duplicates set to 0 for just this kind of thing. I can snap to a point on an object and precisely move that object in any direction by typing in the FDB or snapping to another object. That along with disabling Interactive Scaling Mode with the plain old Selection tool allows grabbing and edge or corner and snapping precisely to some other position with out risk of resizing.  Sometimes you can do some complicated 3D movement using Duplicate array as well with only one copy and "retain" turned off. This allows you to move in X/Y/Z rotate and resize all in one command. And you know you can double click the rotate tool icon in an Ortho view and bring up a command box to enter in an angle without having to snap to the object? If you do place the rotate icon on a point and run the extension line along the edge it will tell you that edge's angel relative to the Z plane too. 

    • Like 2

    Can't textually query/position an extruded object's location?

    in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests

    Posted

    In a basic extrude (parallel to the Z) the elevation can be read and adjusted in the "Bot Z" filed in the Object Info.  But yes, the Bottom Z and the rotation angle are not available for an object after it is pitched or rolled about the x/y. But how often do you need to do that? You could draw a construction line along an edge of your object with a mystery rotation and use the protractor tool. (you could probably do something with working planes too) The same with the tape measure tool for elevation and then the 3D Move command could adjust the z height precisely. It only seems like it would be an issue if you are making random rotations or 3D moves to start with. 

    This software pisses me off in a dozen ways every day but in this area I find it pretty useful and parametrically editable long after those controls are lost in a more advanced modeling program. IMHO 

    Auto created Class control

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    There seems to be a lot more auto-generated classes lately. For example, if I insert a stage light to project a gobo or I simply want the instrument body to appear as part of the scenery in my rendering, that auto creates four classes: Braceworks, Hanging Point, Distributed load and Point load. When I try to delete these classes I'm informed that "one of more of the objects I'm trying to delete is a required component..."  Even after I have moved the objects to other classes. Same with all kinds of objects and symbols. It makes me not want to import anything in from the RB for fear of cluttering up my document with undeleteable classes. 

     

    I can go into the Org panel and work my way up the tree reassigning and deleting and it looks like it worked. But exit, and there they are, still in the navigation stack. I go to one of these classes with Layers=S/S/MO and Classes=Active only and Ctrl-A and get nothing. So these are empty but undeletable classes. 

     

    Is there a way to control the auto-generated classes or at the very least delete them effectively? 

     

    VW 2020 Windows 10 

    v.2020 now available

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    @mjm 

    On 9/29/2019 at 7:37 AM, mjm said:

    Another oddity is that a design layer with a reference pdf imported to it will slow tasks and navigation down intolerably. Hiding said layer allows normal operations. 
    had to export to vw2019 in order to get that task done. 

    Yeah, I've had that problem for years. Not just the last two versions. 

    push pull tool it doesn't subtract

    in Troubleshooting

    Posted

    @Matt Hall You know, I just remembered something else that is probably the problem. This only works if you do it immediately after you draw a shape in auto mode. You can't draw a shape and then do something else and then select the Push/Pull and do the alt/subtract action. I don't know why but it only works right as you create the shape. 

    Push/pull: Sub face mode

    in Troubleshooting

    Posted

    @LeeElston Your second question. You want to draw a line across the top of a cube grab it and pull it up into a gable, a.la SketchUP? I don't think there is a direct way to do that same grab and yank action but you might try multiple extrude. Its under Modify (or model? Wherever the other extrude commands are. I don't have VW open with me at the moment) Draw a rectangle on top of your cube. Draw a line or other shape on top. Then select them both and Multiple extrude and it will ask "how high?" give it a number and you'll get your roof. Adds an extra step but also precision. You can also have multiple shapes and make things like hips and mansards and such very easily. Of course you can always draw the elevation and extrude horizontally as well. 

    push pull tool it doesn't subtract

    in Troubleshooting

    Posted

    I've always had trouble with this. The trick is when you press the Alt/option. Draw the new 2D shape on the surface in Auto-mode. Left click and pull the shape into the depth you want. Then, while still holding the left-click tap the Alt/opt key. Then release LMB.  If you hold down alt at any other point or hold it down as or before you Left click or keep holding after you release Left it won't work.  I think in my head: "Extrude, Subtract, Release" and hit the Alt button on "subtract." 

    Good luck 

    • Like 1

    Export as SVG?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    @Claes Lundstrom Thanks.  After reading a few more posts I've switched to PDF export fist and then opened in Illustrator. That managed to get it into an SVG format but even though I am drawing in VW in 1:1 it still opens in AI as a tiny little object that I have to scale up about x10. I haven't figured out the scale factor that it comes in at yet but there must be some consistent scale reduction. Thanks for the Affinity Designer tip but I'm going to try to get a workflow with the software I already have. I was disappointed to not see a native export in 2020 since a lot of the post saying they were working on it go back a couple years. 

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