Shawncfer

I'm trying to make this object that I found in a photo that I cant figure out how to make. It's a white box with a company logo that seems to glow form the inside. Here are some pictures of it. It may be a little hard to see.

So I need yall's help. I'm absolutely stumped on this one. I'm trying to replicate the Torre Agbar in Barcelona Spain. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, I'll upload some photos. So here are my problems so far. The building, even though it appears circular, is actually an oval shape going up. I have all the exact dimensions of the building and I'm trying to build from that. Right now I'm using Vectorworks 2013 on a Mac. I draw the base oval to the dimensions given, and then proceed to draw the profile curve. Now, I know I don't want to sweep because a sweep will go in a circular motion. So I've been trying to do a Loft Surface command with the profile and rail. Then, I keep getting error messages. I've realized if I draw the profile to where it doesn't reach all the way center, it will work just fine. So I'm assuming because it's reaching the center axis, and that it's rail is an oval, at some point it's overlapping therefore not letting me do the full thing. So I can't figure out that part already. Also, once I get that done, my plan is to do a surface array with a window I build. But then, I want to light it like it is at night. In real life, the windows have LEDs in them that change colors and make it look super awesome. I'm not wanting to make the lights change, just one simple look I can replicate. How should I tackle that? Any help is awesome! Thanks in advance!

Well, I deleted the profile, redrew it as an arc again, converted to NURBS, and it works perfect. I have no idea what I did wrong in the beginning, but it works perfect now. So my next (hopefully final) question is, how would I give the 'roof' some thickness?

Kevin! I'm trying it your way first and am having a little bit of trouble. In plan view, I drew an oval. I then drew a line from the center of the oval directly up to the height I wanted of the dome. Then drew and 'arc' connecting one of the midpoints of the oval to the top of the line. Finally I converted all of which to NURBS curves. But when I go to 'Revolve with Rail', I'm allowed to select the axis, but when I select the profile curve, I get an error message. Here are a couple of photos (The line through the middle of the oval was so I could find the center point of the vertical line).

So let me also ask you guys this: Back to the dome reference. Let's say I wanted to make the roof of a football field, that's more of an oval shape. How would I accomplish that?

Awesome! Thanks Michael! So I were drawing the roof of a dome, for example, it obviously has some thickness to it, it's not just flat. Is it safe to assume that if I want my sweep to have some thickness like a roof, I just draw the original object like a polygon, and then sweep it? Instead of just drawing an arc?

Hello all! I'm having a little trouble with the sweep command. This is probably a stupid question with an easy answer, but I'm stuck and frustrated! I set my view to 'Front', draw a NURBS curve like an arc. Set a locus point at the top right corner, select both, and Sweep. Then I get "The objects being operated on must be in the same plane." I'll be honest, I semi-understand the working planes thing, but not totally. So any help would be much appreciated!

So I've got a basic question. I can't figure out how to use the lighting tool! I know it might be pretty easy, but I'm teaching myself how to do 3D in vectorworks, and I've gotten pretty far, just run into a little bump in the road. I've built a theater space, and completely finished with texture and everything. But I want to see the final product. When I view a camera with Open GL, I can see everything, but not final rendered. When I do the finally render, everythings pitch black. Well when I built the theater I completely sealed it up so I could re-create the scenes of a play with lighting how I want, and no exterior light. But now I can't use the lighting tool. I've tried different types of lights with the lighting tool, but I just can't seem to get it to work. If I set it to spot light, the height is right, the direction is right, and the pointing to height is right. But I final render, and Nada! I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, and I'm sure with the little information I've provided, you can't tell what I'm doing wrong. But I'm just hoping someone can help walk me through it so I can figure it out. Also, if I import my Lighting Designers light plot, and he has all his areas set up, as well as those lights focused at those areas, and then I set the lights of the lights, can I turn those lights on to mimic the lighting as it will be in that scene? Or would I just have to put the light tool on top of his lights? I know that last question should be posted in the Spotlight board. But I think the first question is more appropriate here. If you think I should move it, please let me know!

Right now I'm trying to build a theater in 3D. The audience floor is raked up, and I've already built it in 3D, nothing to difficult. So then, in 2D, I drew and arc to match the arc of the house seating, then grabbed a theater seat from a Vectorworks Library, and duplicated it along the path. So now, all the seats in 2D are perfect. However, I can't figure out how to raise the seats up so they'll sit ontop of the raked floor they're suppose to be on. Any ideas?

Hey Guys! Right now I'm working on a Ground Plan and 3D model of a set piece for a theater space. A class project. I've been making my way along pretty well but I've run into a bump that I can't seem to get over. I'll upload photos at the bottom if I can so you can see more of what I'm talking about. I have a wall with three windows in it on a certain part of stage that is at a weird angle. I drafted it in the ground plan, then went and drafted an elevation, made a copy, and extruded everything making it 3D. Everything came out perfect. So I put it into the 2D symbol that I had already made and turned it into a hybrid. Everythings great so far still. But right about then, I realized I forgot to put in my crown molding! So I went into to edit the 3D symbol. I realized it was at an angle, and I thought it might now work. So I put down two Locus's at the corners to keep track of where it was originally, and I turned it so it was flat. I then put it in front view, I drew a line 1 foot away from the top, then drew a section of my molding, and selected both the molding and line and attempted to extrude along path. One more thing I should mention is that the top of the wall is at an angle because it's forced perspective. So when I extruded along the path, it extruded the perfect length, but it was straight left to right instead of the angle of the line I wanted to extrude it on. And it also put it in the air completely off the wall. So I thought maybe it I rotated it so the top of the wall was flat it would work. Well sure enough it extruded it flat, but it's still floating in mid air not connected to anything. Any ideas?

Hey guys, I'm working on a plot right now for a class. I'm in a theater space that was already given to us but lighting wise was completely blank. I'm finally starting to put the lights in the plot and I'm having a little problem. When I double click on a S4 25degree in the resource browser, a message pops up and says "A texture named 'Default Instrument Texture' already exist in this document. What would you like to do?'. I click 'Replace the current texture in the document'. Next, another message pops up that says "A symbol definition named 'ETC Source 4 body' already exist in this document. What would you like to do?" I click 'Replace the symbol definition in current document'. Next, another box pops up and says "A symbol definition named 'ETC Source 4 26' already exists in the current document. What would you like to do?" Once again, 'Replace symbol definition'. Then I can click where I want the light, it shows up no problem. BUT, I can't add my lighting info to it (channel #, Dimmer #, etc...) for lightwright. Any ideas?

Hey guys! I have a couple light plots I need to print out. In my drawing it has the right dimensions and all that. But when I print, the print is not to scale. I read in the manual to print by exporting to PDF. So I do, and I print to ARCH D, 24"x36". And where ever my 6'6" dimension line is, it measures out to 8' something on my scale rule. Any ideas? I'm using both 1/4" on my drawing and scale rule.

Hey guys! I'm new to Vectorworks but I've been able to teach myself a lot lately by just working with it. For my class, I had to create a light plot not to long ago. I created it and everything with no problems. Well, I want to take the tittle block I used, and save it, so I can use it on future plots in different theaters. It has it's own layer if that makes a difference at all. Is there a way I can save that tittle block somewhere that it can permanently be used from now on?