bphelps

What have you found the best way to get your models from MacOS VWX to Lumion (PC). It appears the Lumion plugin can't be installed on a Mac so I can't export a .DAE file. Has anyone had success in exporting. Curious if there are any best practices before I go down the trial and error road. I did a search and couldn't find the topic, which makes me think it is a simple thing that I am missing.

Thanks. So far the sloping aligned slab is most reliable. I do still get crashing particularly if I save while modifying slopes. Also gettign so weird instances where the slope modifiers will change or not stick when I type them in. I have to do it twice to make it work sometimes. Not sure why. The workflow is creating accurate results when it works. I really appreciate you taking the time to explain this. I tried the slab tool and can't see how site modifiers are added. It appears it may be able to be sloped in one direction based on your example but for the slab nothing related to slope is showing in my OIP.

I think I mean site modifer (stake, grade tool). When I create a slab, I can add grading but it doesn't change the slab in three dimensions. I assume these two tools only work on an aligned slab vs other type slabs to create 3D topo with them. In regard to settings, I missed the tab for global settings (Duh.) Thanks for explaining.

I assume site modifiers is only for the aligned slab (when using slabs). Your response made me think that wasn't the case. Also, can you adjust arrowhead size on slope? I have tried in classes. I couldn't directly do it when using tool because the arrow attributes were greyed out.

Confirmed my questions above. Very helpful tool. Thanks again for explaining it.

Can I set one corner with stake and then slopes along edges to set other corners? Will it display the slope? I'll play around with the tool. BTW, it does seem that when I put stakes on corners that VWX sometimes doesn't read it. When I move it off corner outside slab it recently fixed it. Hoping that may solve it but it is hit or miss so far. I do like the slope method if I can get it to work. It would save a lot of time. Thanks for sharing.

I would like to have a slab that I can manipulate with spot elevations. My current workflow is to add spot elev that are all the same for the slab to ensure it is stable and creating the faces correctly. I only do this because the tool has been so unpredictable and unstable (saving every two minutes now). After I have confirmed it isn't going haywire, I then proceed to change the grades accordingly. I cannot have flat slabs. They have to reflect real world grades. Ultimately, I am using them for sections, details, renderings, and linking to a team REVIT file (which is a whole other can of worms). This is my first foray into using the hardscape tool so I assumed I was doing something wrong in creating them. Brian

Sorry for late reply. Thank you for looking into it. I ended up getting the one I submitted to work with just trying over and over. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. It also often results in crashing VWX. Attached is another one that represents the same issue. Brian slab_error_example.vwx

I have been piecing together through this forum and YouTube how to use the hardscape tool and aligned slab to create graded slabs using spot elevations. I need the precision of the spot elevations. I was excited to get it to work after hours of trial and error. Unfortunately, the tool is very inconsistent. It sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. You can see in the attached screenshot that the faces do not act the same in the three slabs. (I had to break it into three slabs just to get the two others to show up correctly, I'd prefer a single slab). Sometimes it seems it as a surface like the two on left and right and other times it doesn't and the surface stays at 0 elevations in places vs the spot elevation. I feel I have to use slabs for precision, assignment of cross section, and export to Revit for linking to team architectural model. Is there something I am doing wrong or is there a bug that makes it inconsistent? I feel like I am going crazy. Very frustrated. Is this a case of 462 ft being too far from the origin? Any insight is appreciated. Brian

The roof face tool may work in some instances, but seems to need all elevations to be the same at the top and all the same for the bottom. The NURB method described by Benson_Shaw worked to create a sloping slab with different spot elevations at each corner. The Shell tool provided the depth and I was able to cut a section view to create a detail of the slab. There was a need for a little bit of clean up of the loft before creating the shell, but not bad at all. For some reason, the lofted faces had some overlap around the drain (square). Thanks again for everyone's suggestions.

The roof faces seem to need to have a consistent face vs each corner having different elevations as a hardscape to drain might (see attached screenshot of a part of the hardscape test I am trying). There is only one 3D polygon created. Each corner is staked. I drew the 3D poly based on them.

Thanks. I couldn't get the shell to work. Is it possible to edit vertices of extruded solids? If so I could create a extrusion and then reset vertices to stakes. Also, another thought is to copy the 3dpolyline and then move it to depth of slab and then loft it. Surprisingly, this did not work because it wasn't a solid. Also, I tried the roof tool and it says the 2d polygon I am using is too complex. It is fairly simple in my opinion. I may have to just use stake object modifiers for spot elevations and then change the proposed topo while using 2D with records to add the data to 3D objects. This defeats the purpose of doing sections but may be all I can do at this point. Very frustrated. This seems like every person working on a site would need this.

Thank you for the responses. Can you create a slab from a 3D poly? Top of the slab needs to be sloped (i.e. to drain in the middle of the slab. I though a slab was flat. In referenced to the use of the roof object,is this only available in architect. I will look into it. The end result doesn't need to be a hardscape object. I just need to be able to take sections and assign records to it. Thanks again.

Is there a way in VW2009 to create sloping hardscape 3D slabs relatively easily? I thought I could create a 3D poly line and then extrude or drag face to a depth. Unfortunately, it is not letting me do this. My thought is that I could do this with site modifiers but the slab and base would not be a separate 3D object that would show up in a cross section for details and take offs. The hardscape tool only seems to work w flat planes. Am I wrong about this? Also, I have heard the Roof Tool could possibly do this? Unfortunately, I am only in Landmark at the moment. Would I have better options in 2011? Any insight is appreciated. Thanks Brian Using Vectorworks Landmark 2009 Mac-Power PC CPU