Samuel Derenboim

I know people are starting to experiment with different databases, remote management, etc... particularly with this pandemic. Any way we can support library references via webdav ? (I.E. if we self-host a nextcloud or owncloud instance?)

Good afternoon, I have a fairly large model and have been trying to share information with consultant engineers. Upon exporting IFC V4, all wall types in the file, particularly the record #IfcWallStandardCase#.#Pset_WallCommon#.#Reference# is deleted from all the walls, and hence all the ID tags. I have repeated this twice on the file, and the bug is consistent.

@zoomer Does it mix the textures somehow using an overlay? And what about general material properties? would this be an advantage to having a single base material for lets say reinforced concrete vs precast concrete? All I am trying to figure out is how is a composite texture advantageous to a single one.

Hi Everyone, this maybe a loaded question, but I thought I should put it out there. 1. Is there a way to create a mass amount of materials via command using a texture / hatch library rather than creating one by one from scratch? 2. Is it possible to create a new material from a context menu item like you would a hatch after scaling or modifying it via the attribute mapping tool? 3. What is the difference between composite and / or simple materials ? 4. is there a way to attach a material so a wall component the same way you can modify its properties without having to change the wall style? (note - This is for using the same wall type, but different wall finish colors. Say Gypsum board - different colored walls, for stucco, metal panels, stone, wood paneling...so on and so forth) 5. Regarding Windows / Doors - same question above. Would something like that every be integrated? **Note - Ive read some of the other posts regarding materials on the forum. I know that it has been noted that the deviation of windows and doors not having materials was for the purposes of calling out quantities of extruded objects, geometry and wall components. This is great, but when you have to render the project, that is when it becomes tedious and cumbersome to set up the 3d model, whether it is exported via collada, obj, 3ds, etc...to sketchup, lumion, enscape, 3ds max, or blender. 6. What is the purpose of adding additional / separate record information via the material properties. Is this for callouts via tag tool? If so, would it work on wall component plan / section details? or would it just work on 2d / 3d geometry ? Hopefully maybe some people can chime in with their experience of the new material tools features or uses here as well! Thanks in advance!

Perhaps I utilized it the wrong way, but I am trying to compute surface area of a curtainwall for each of the components accurately. I created a wall Area schedule (default template) and did two types of walls - a regular wall, and a curtain wall. A regular wall accurately shows surface area of a material (connected or not...which is great for my purposes). Curtainwalls for some reason are notoriously elusive when it comes to computing surface area, and in this case showing area for glass for instance. I am using the =MATERIALSURFACEAREA('Glass Double Glazing Low-E Argon-filled MT') function, have assigned the material to all the components in the curtainwall, but alas, no cigar. Any help? Also, something to note, material surface area computes only on one side of the wall as shown for the masonry! If you have alot of walls, getting the settings right can be tricky! Please note - the material surface area only computes wall surface area on the left pen line, not the right! so if you need to define orientation, that is the way to find out. Thanks in advance!

@Joe-SA Marionette did the trick. Use at your own risk ! 😉 Multi Extrude Experiments.vwx

Has anyone successfully extruded along multiple 3d poly lines/ nurbs lines? I am trying to use a single profile (i.e. 2x8) and extrude it along 51 3d polylines that are spaced 16" o.c. in the same direction. Is there a way to do this in bulk rather than one by one? Question 2 - Can this be used with the Marionette? and if it is, can someone direct me as to how this can be done?

Works like a charm! Thanks!

I was curious, when editing a subtracted and added geometric object where the push pull features are used - I ran into something interesting. When editing a feature, and selecting a face, it leads me to move the feature as previously shown in the preview videos, however, when exiting, it goes into every other feature added after the one that is edited in the geometric model. Is this as designed? or is there a way to skip editing all other features (the ones created after the current edited one) after exiting the edit feature mode? If there are tens or dozens of additions added to the geometry, clicking that exit feature button however many times would be quite tedious, no? but otherwise, the feature is pretty awesome!

Does anyone know how to synchronize incrementing values of tags if they are used separately between different design layer viewports and / or different worksheet annotation viewports? Whenever an incrementing tags is placed in only one location, you cannot tag it again in another viewport without changing its incrementing value. Is there a way the numbers can be synchronized thoughout the entire document?

@zoomer This is why I prefer Windows. Apple's closed ecosystem gives developers a hard time developing cross platform applications and instead specifically cater to them because of the user base they have. That's why you guys have such a hard time with every OS release. Hopefully once Wine / PlayonLinux gets more developed and mainstream with Linux, perhaps VW can be even ported there by using compatible opensourced windows OEM windows direct link libraries and .Net libraries to run it. A guy can dream right? 😉

@zoomer Working with 400 mb files remotely will be a challenge IMHO for especially large projects. Also, if you have a lot of custom record information for Building code requirements, zoning requirements, specifications, details, and FFE / Fixture callouts, using the Object info pallet will be difficult / tedious at best, especially if the project references other VW files. Even with a 15" laptop, my productivity was cut substantially because I didn't have a second monitor. It is nice if youre checking something in a cafe somewhere in Tahiti, but I doubt its a good replacement for a workhorse, even if it is possible to do over webgl, maybe I'm wrong?

I am very excited about this. _________________________________ @zoomer Why?

So I'm guessing this release is only concentrating on Metal API? Interesting though, how were the engineers able to speed up VW Graphics module for windows if their concentration was mostly for the Mac platform?

Will VW ever use the open source vulkan drivers? Any discussions regarding that? Just curious? It's becoming very competitive with OpenGL, D3D and DX12

@Boh If it makes it any consolation, I'm Russian. I too have a Russian accent. Don't think we said anything insulting, on the contrary. It's good to be not so serious sometimes. Yes, she has a Russian accent. But I'm sure she's brilliant nonetheless. PS. For the record, This is the teaser video I've watched the most thus far. These particular features seem like one of the primary reasons to upgrade.

Zis vaz havy Rashan Akstent. Eet can bee onyusual ot fherst, bat, eeventshuali eet grrous on yiou.

@TomKen , seems like it will

I sooooo hope they get area calculations for the surfaces right ! This would be sooooo great! (Que Tony the Tiger) That and.... 1. Will the display criteria be controlled only by the view port like before? or can it be done live like its shown on the video? 2. Structure grid and detail viewport symbols look very useful. Do they also work like section tools? And lastly 3. The Material resource, will it take over the class control of materials in door and window plugin objects???? Also...+1 for Russian Accents 😉 Love it! lol Edit: For those who didn't notice :

@jeff prince , I agree, the site model needs a little work. I have learned by using the site model tool ends up being problematic when using hardscapes and actual cutouts and site modifiers that I've resorted to using Nurbs surfaces, and mapping 2 dimensional geometry on the produced 3 dimensional surface. Sure, it's not parametric, but its a solution that isn't impossible to solve. I've also had many a problems before, some severe, some, not so much. (I.e. the way vectorworks calculates surface areas for walls, windows etc..., energos, the way VW tabulates records and it's inability to divide 0 into 0 without getting an error, among many others) Tech support wasn't able to help me much either. It's ok. I still found a solution. Regarding the contour problem, let me check it out, maybe i can creatively come up with something. Regarding export to C4d and exporting alpha channels shouldn't be such a big deal. I know in 3d max and / or in sketchup / vray - you can use a single image as an alpha and as an overlay if I'm not mistaken. VW isn't meant for that type of work. Now that Lumion, Twinmotion and Unreal Engine are on the market, real time renderers and it's entourage / foliage models should be able to replace such models. All I'm saying is that, yes, work-arounds are annoying, but it is not impossible to implement. My personal preference, I just import low poly sketchup foliage, and use that instead. Much easier to transfer to other 3d programs. If polys are too high, use a poly reducer to get the results you need. I'm just happy I can produce a decent BIM model in VW, create a set of documents, label everything, use records for everything, and still be done on time. I can't say the same for any other program. Opting out of the service select might be a financial savings for one year, but you will end up paying for it when VW solves the problems you're talking about, or creates new tools that circumvents some of those problems. The tag tool for me was one such example 2 releases ago, I don't know how i worked without it before that point. In either case, what you pay in service select for upgrading VW upon release for 2 years is probably less than what you would pay to upgrade after missing the 2 years (depending on when you have service select). Financially, it works out for the better I think. Additionally, I don't think they (service select customer service) will solve alot of problems you have. They're not intended for that purpose i believe, but they certainly are useful to get some ideas on how to solve something. They're also not the size of autodesk. You're still getting updates (more than autodesk produces), and its 2 times if not 3 times less expensive for a single seat. You're getting almost everything you want out of the software. If you want to stay in the same family, maybe Archicad is better for your needs? Have you tried it?