P Retondo

I have been building complete 3d models for most of my projects for almost 20 years using Vectorworks. I have yet to come across something architectural I couldn't model. My clients have been very satisfied with the renderings, and I find I can bring projects in for well below the expected % of construction cost for fees. Since I started using Enscape to make visualization and real-time walkthroughs more convincing, I find that presentations have been far more useful. Try using the command to advance the time of day in real time, it literally causes gasps. Used ACAD for a number of years, it's okay for 2d. I've dabbled with Revit a bit, but given the cost and time involved in switching, I haven't seen or read anything that convinces me it could do a better job. But - you'll have to train new hires in Vectorworks, most job-seekers know ACAD and not VW.

Virtual, since you are very familiar with C4D, I wonder if you could check for me. Is the program you are running a .exe file, or a .dll file? That would be the difference between a program that requires export and import, and a program that works with the .vwx file directly.

One thing that occurs to me is that you have 2 walls overlaid. You can check this by deleting the wall, and the second one would still be there. If not, my second course of action would be to quit and restart VW.

Not sure if this adds anything to the discussion, but here's an interesting experiment: Black is letter converted from Text to Polyline, using the VW tool for that purpose. Note limited vertices, most of which appear to be bezier curves. Red is the polyline extruded to 0. It will have no edit handles because it is an extrude. Green is the extrude converted to a polygon, in which all the segments are lines. If I export as a .dwg, then import back into VW, things are the same, except the red extrude becomes a NURBS surface. So, the procedure chosen to process the letter creates a significant difference, but perhaps not significant enough to affect the CNC product. 3d Conversion Resolution affects the number of segments in the converted polygon, by a factor of about 2 from "low" to "very high." Also, I would check to see if the polyline or polygon is "closed" (see OIP), as some manipulations I tried did create an unclosed polygon.

Dave, thanks for jumping in on this. I’m very interested to know your take on how this would compare with what I currently use, Enscape, which works off a .dll and runs in real time, parallel with Vectorworks, incorporating changes to the model without exporting. But it does take about a minute and a half to boot and generate a render, and although it creates convincing renderings, it can be a bit fuzzy.

Very interesting, propstuff! I’m afraid you and I are the only ones interested in this discussion, I note the original poster has gone silent. We still don’t know the details of their issue.

G-code is a language for entering geometry, but at the machine level a series of target points are created. These points are very close together, so although point-to-point tool movement is a straight line segment, it looks like a smooth curve when executed because the target points are very close together, and also because of motor control latency. VW does a similar thing when it converts a polyline to 3D geometry (or even to screen output), which is why when you zoom in those shapes look like a segmented polyline. You can check this by creating an arc, then converting it to a 3D poly, and editing - see all the little vertices. If you scale such an object, the line segments will get big, and CNC will follow the lines instead of following the mathematical curve you started with. Sounds like propstuff has a handle on your issue, you should try to figure out why his conversion is succeeding and yours is not.

Hi Ross, all works fine after running the installer again!

Thanks, Ross, a couple of questions though. First, will this render Enscape unusable in my previous version 2024? And second, I have a lot of third-party “custom” assets, only a portion of which I have used in files. Is there any problem accessing those, or do I have to reload those again - a long and tedious process? You may not use Enscape that way, so you might not know the answer to that question, but if you do, it would be very helpful to know.

CNC should have no problem dealing with a shape consisting line segments. That is how CNC breaks down complex shapes. So I assume that what you mean by “doesn’t work” is that the resulting letter shapes are jagged and segmented instead of appearing smoothly curved. Is that correct? If so, your problem is a matter of scale. Scaling up a small letter consisting of relatively unnoticeable segments will result in a shape with very noticeable segments.

I just downloaded v2025, and migrated various settings, etc. My custom workspace did not migrate, for some reason, and - subject of this request - the links to Enscape did not come through. It would seem a simple matter to make that possible, so I'm requesting that migration include links to third party enhancement programs. It's going to be a real pain in the rear to get that set up, I'm guessing. BTW, when I pasted my 2024 workspace into the 2025 folder, the Enscape links reappeared, but they are all red X's and don't work, so I'm guessing that is the source of the workspace migration failure.

I installed my Vectorworks 2025, and Enscape does not show up in the tool palettes. Does anyone know how to migrate Enscape from VW2024 to VW2025? And what about assets?

Just to close out this topic, the border is a site model that needs to be updated. Actually, it didn't need to be updated, it just thought it did, and once I executed the update, the border goes away, until the next time the site model decides on its own it needs to be updated.

Example: The design: The technical drawings:

As Steve S. points out, the calculation of a bend allowance, or a bend deduction (depending on how you are thinking about it), is complicated. It depends on the thickness of the material, and the k coefficient, which depends on the type of material. It also depends on the type of bending process used. I use SendCutSend to do sheet product fabrication, and they have a calculator built into their web ordering tool. Their calculation and one done from pure theory are slightly different, but it works. Check it out - you can get an instant quote once you upload your design, for laser cutting, deburring and bending. Not as good as a custom metal worker would produce, but fast and economical. I wouldn't recommend getting mechanical engineering software if you only do this kind of work occasionally, you can crank it out old-style.