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P Retondo

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Everything posted by P Retondo

  1. What I always do is decompose the NURBS, move pieces of it to change size, join the segments, select all and compose. Always works. Dragging vertices can sometimes get the curve out of plane.
  2. I have 22 stake objects, from which I have attempted to create a site model using the method I've used many times. I get the following message as this operation fails: Tried pasting the objects into a new file, same error. Does anyone have a clue what is going on? If I convert the stakes to 3d loci (by ungrouping in a 3d view), I can then create the site model.
  3. You have not given enough of the important information, and also too much information overall! I suspect your problem has to do with layer settings or class settings. If you want someone to try to answer your question, get it down to 1 wall with 1 window, select a window so we can see the information in the OIP, and tell us what your view settings are (wireframe, hidden line, etc.) in a clear way. Try to make your question as simple as possible.
  4. Set your jamb width to “use wall thickness.”
  5. Or maybe it should be a setting? VW Classes auto/suggest/off
  6. Agree. There is a whole structure of classes and other kinds of things that VW engineers believed would be needed by people, but actually we prefer to make those decisions ourselves!
  7. Sorry CW, an old disagreement surfacing here, going back many years. Although I don't use Layer Plane objects (with rare exceptions), for someone who works in 2d drafting, using Layer Plane has no disadvantage and is now favored by VW in that it is put forward as a preference. You should have no problem using Layer Plane objects, but do be aware that unless you are in Top or Top/Plan view they will show their true colors as 3d objects flattened like Wile E. Coyote run over by that steamroller. AutoCAD was always like this, and most AutoCAD drafters are completely unaware that their objects have a Z component. Also bear in mind, to your original point, that the following can occur (in v2020 at least): If an object is created in other than Top or Top/Plan view, is a "working plane" object (i.e., not screen plane), and is cut and pasted into a file that has Document Preferences/Plane Mode set to anything other than "Screen Plane only," that text when viewed from a top view will look like a line.
  8. Hey cd2020, maybe I was confused by something in your original post. You said "My settings are 2D layer plane top plan. I copy this text and when I paste it and it's now 3D. Does anyone know why this happens?" So, "layer plane" objects are not true 2d, they are 3d, but they are flat 3d so from the top they appear to be 2d. If you look at them from the side, they will just look like a line because they are actually 3d. I assume that when you paste a screen plane text object from an old file to a new one that is set to "layer plane," it may be copied in as a layer plane object, and look 3d from certain viewpoints. In the version I'm currently using (2020), if my file is set to create objects in "Working Plane," it will ask when I paste a screen plane object, "Do you want to convert this to Layer Plane." If I choose "yes," and check the box "do this without prompting," then from that point on all screen plane objects pasted into that file are automatically converted to layer plane - which, again, is actually a flat 3d object that looks like something painted on the floor from any viewpoint other than top. Pat will be able to advise about how this behavior works in 2022, I haven't installed 2022 because just not worth all the trouble to convert all files, etc. (still waiting for those killer stairs and door/window parametric objects that actually do what we need!).
  9. You are changing views on Layer Plane objects, that appear to be 2d in Top/Plan view, but are actually flat 3d objects that appear as 3d from any other viewpoint. To check an object, select it and look in the Object Information Palette (OIP). Does it say "Layer Plane," or does it say "Screen Plane?" You can change the nature of the object by clicking on the drop-down menu in the OIP. Screen Plane objects are true 2d objects, and always look the same regardless of whether the screen has a Top/Plan orientation or some other 3d view.
  10. Thank goodness we have gotten rid of Screen Plane objects, now VW can operate more smoothly and without snags. Sarcasm, I grant you, but the nagging question remains - do VW engineers and management know what they are doing? I'm starting to have serious doubts. NNA, get it together, I and everyone else want desperately for VectorWorks to succeed and be the awesome go-to software in the CADD space (CADD = Computer Aided DESIGN and Drafting). I've stuck with VW through thick and thin, weathered many attacks from advocates for AutoCAD and Revit (Archicad, too) in my workspace, and I think I've been right. But . . . (Speaking as someone who has paid for 2021 and 2022, but won't move to 2022 until I stop hearing about this kind of problem, it's just not worth it. But, I keep hoping that those who are in charge will get it, that usefulness and stability and speed are #1, not destabilizing glitz.)
  11. I think a lot of our discussion is really about the difference between presentation of 3d designs and the CREATION of designs.
  12. Pat, agree, but note how convoluted we are getting to achieve the same results we can get simply and elegantly from the Screen Plane object that is already built into VW. (BTW, when I want to get a relational geometric reference point I sometimes copy and paste a group of objects where a locus or rectangle corner represents a desired alignment, i.e., I don’t always rely on paste in place.)
  13. Josh, something along those lines might work very well. It could be a modification key combination like <ctrl> + <alt>. Bear in mind that the user might also want to extract 2d info from a 3d object in a certain view. For example, my steel stair stringers were extracted as polygons from the 3d views, including locations of brackets, etc., then output as .dwgs for waterjet CNC that cut the shapes, bolt holes, and markers for welded attachment.
  14. @zoomer OK, it's fine that you don't get how my work process operates! And I am happy that you realize yours is not the only way, and that others may have methods that should be respected. I don't have time to write a dissertation on how I work, and I doubt you would be really interested, but suffice it to say that the ability to copy and paste 2d objects from one view to another is key to my system of working. BTW, if you go back to the post that initiated this thread, you will see that I am directly addressing the comment there and defending those who use Screen Plane capabilities against attacks that claim that aspect of VW is not important.
  15. Zoomer, draw a layer plane rectangle in Top or Top/Plan view. Copy it. Switch to a side view. Paste it. Do you see a rectangle, or do you see a line? Now do the same thing with a Screen Plane object (if you still have VW 2020 or 2021). See the difference? This capability is actually useful, and in many cases I think faster than other workarounds.
  16. Zoomer, if you are a classically trained architect you may have been taught the method in hand drafting whereby you put a piece of trace over a plan, and by projecting lines develop a section design for a building. We used to call this "designing in section." What I am referring to is a similar process, but using the 2d/3d hybrid methods of VW. Very useful to create objects like these: Regarding Marcel's request, it would be difficult approaching impossible to attach a video showing what I CAN'T do. My complaint right now, though, is not that I can't do something, but that VW seems to be headed towards doing away with true 2d objects altogether. This seems to me to be thoughtless and unnecessary.
  17. Zoomer, for the most part I create 3d models for every project. The piece that you may not be understanding completely is that I use 2d screen plane shapes to transfer relationships and form from the Top view to other views, usually side views, in order to create or manipulate the 3d geometry through a variety of means based on the information thus derived from the top view.
  18. Pat, what I think is missing is the ability to copy a 2d shape from Top/Plan view and be able to paste it on the “screen plane” in a different view. Or, would be missing if the ability to do this is not understood by engineers developing future versions. A 3d “simulation” of a 2d object has a unique place and orientation in 3d space, so pasting it would seem to mean retaining the original object’s orientation. BTW, working plane and screen plane are completely different in reality and concept. You can be working in a (x’,y’,z’) coordinate system and have a view of the (x’,y’) plane that looks at it from various angles. Every view has a “screen plane”, and only one such view is normal to the working plane. (I know you realize this, but another poster seems not to.)
  19. What I like about this thread is I have the utmost respect for Pat and Zoomer, and although I sometimes think they don’t quite get why I care about this, I trust they will. 2d is not just for plan view design, it is for design in any view. It is for translating 2d relationships from one view to another in order to precisely form a design in 3 dimensions through time-honored processes. I am concerned that VW engineers completely don’t get it.
  20. I know better than to disagree with Pat Stanford! Maybe it was too long ago to remember, or maybe it’s because I started out on MiniCAD 2.0. But I remember walls being truly hybrid objects in that version. 2d only in Top/Plan, and if you ungrouped a wall in Top/Plan all the 3d went away and you had just 2d objects. My main point is that the “screen plane” terminology only came in when “layer plane” objects came in - to distinguish between objects consisting of a set of (x,y) coordinates, and flat objects consisting of a set of (x,y,z) coordinates where z=k, a constant (and the rotational transformations of such objects). Before that, 2d objects had only one form, straight on 2d. For some reason, some people are confused by a screen that shows 3d and 2d objects at the same time. Software engineers who are not building or machine designers see 3d CAD as matrix transformation operations on sets of triplets, and think 2d is a subset consisting of flat 3d objects. But 2d is actually an important way of thinking. Or at least it has been going back to Vitruvius.
  21. Zoomer, you are a great resource on VW! But I think the history of 2d/3d in VW is slightly different from what you are saying. There was a guy named Richard Diehl. Some people at Nemetschek North America may know his name, but apparently few respect his legacy. Richard Diehl invented MiniCAD, later renamed VW. His genius idea was hybrid 2d/3d objects, at the heart of the software from the very beginning. For example, a wall contained both a 2d object (now called a screen plane object) and a 3d wall. The 2d object presented in Top/Plan view like a normal architectural plan drawing, and the 3d object presented in all other views. At some point after Mr. Diehl sold the company, a new generation of engineers decided it was too much trouble to maintain true 2d objects, so they decided to transition to false 2d objects (layer plane) that are actually 3d with zero thickness. In other words, they lost sight of the original vision.
  22. The whole “everything 3d” idea tosses aside centuries of experience working with 2d representation of 3d objects. As someone who was trained in this architectural tradition, where designing “in section” meant relating plan representation simultaneously with section, I find a lot to be desired in continuing to work this way. Sure, with Sketchup and Rhino it is now possible to manipulate 3d blobs ad infinitum. What we lose is precision, and, as importantly, the link between design process and construction process. Even CNC, when you get down to the nuts and bolts of motor control and G code, is a 2d process. Fever dreams of freeform fabrication notwithstanding.
  23. Look at the z height of the window that isn't showing up. Sometimes it can be above or below where you intend it to be, entirely outside the wall. Also, as I look at your wireframe vs. rendered wall, it could also be that you have two walls superimposed (easy to do). The windows may be in one and not in the other.
  24. Thanks, Zoomer, for your input. When you say you can download WinDoor as a plugin, did you have to pay extra for it? It would be great if WinDoor can be incorporated into the standard VW tools and we can integrate its features into native VW.
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