Heather Francis

I have experienced the same dilemma often. What I've recently discovered for aluminum specifically is to use the chrome setting with a light grey base. Turn the chrome down a bit so it's not too swirly, then add a texture to it. This helps to get some variables in the color. When adding a texture, either scale it to very very large, or very very small so you don't get a pattern in your object. When lighting the object, make sure any direct lights are not turned up to high, this will just make everything appear white. I usually just use ambient lights set at about 30%.

Never mind, don't worry about me, I figured it all out. The newer version just takes a little longer to get used to

I still have not been able to apply an image to a 3D object and have it show up in the rendering. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Never mind, I got it covered. I erased the file and re-opened in VW10, and that seemed to do the trick.

I just converted an 8.5.2 drawing (my catalog drawing to be exact) to VW10, and my symbols are not there. Is there a way to convert with all record and symbol information attached, or do I need to go re-assign all these objects to symbols?

I am one of those rare Acad converts. I started on Autocad, but almost instantly fell in love with VW the first week I used it. It's certainly more user friendly when it comes to drawing in 3D. So much in fact that now I draw everything in 3D whether I need model drawings or not. The biggest benefit to this--one change changes all of your views. It does not take any longer to draw one 3D model than it does to draw 3 or 13 2D views. I also agree with MikeB, I'd rather use my screen for one view at a time so I can actually see what I'm working on. Using separate layers to harbor different views is also a great way to speed up the plotting process. Just remember not to convert to lines (if you so choose to do this) until the very end, so all of your drawings are updated with your changes. The only thing I miss with AutoCad is the right click menu. Is there a way to customize this in VW10? You guys are doing a great job, thanks for all that you do. hf.

I'm on a pc. When I apply the image to a 2d object, the image appears without problem, but when I extrude that object, the image dissappears. In 8.5.2, your images were applied as textures, but this is not the case in 10. Is there a way to ignore the image function and continue to import images as textures (seeing as that's what the most of the imported images are used as anyhow)? Thanks.

I'm trying to apply images to a converted 8.5.2 file in VW10, but it doesn't seem to be accepting it. It says the image is applied in the object attributes box, but when I render, no image appears. Am I missing a step, or is this a conversion problem? Aside from applying the image in Photoshop, what else can I do?

Say Mike, that worked swell! I am on to a whole new set of challenges now though. After I change the pixel dimension and export the drawing (I've tried many different formats), it seems to have a mind completely of its own. While the angles and curves are now smooth, it is only rendering a square in the center of the drawing, and leaving the rest in what appears to be a very strange hidden/dashed line rendering. The line drawing exportation is working much nicer though. Thanks a million!

The problem occurs when I'm exporting a line drawing or a rendering to another program, or when I'm saving it to be later emailed. I have no problems when I print line drawings, I do still however get very sketchy images when I print a rendering. I've tried changing the resolutions in both the document preferences and in the export image prompt box, but still I get the same jagged edges. Is there really a way to get smooth renderings in 8.5.2???

One more neat little thing is that you can extrude a group of objects at one time, then afterwards you can just ungroup (ctrl U) them and have access to each individual object.

Thanks, I've been working on 8.5.2 with great satisfaction and no reason to upgrade until now. It has recently become very important to have better resolution exports.

Will the new version 10 allow us to export a rendering with a greater resolution than 72 dpi?

I thought the problem had magically disappeared, but no, it still vexes me. I'm using a Canon S600, and the file I'm currently working on is about 9.5M. I will try to email a copy to TS.

Not always, right now I'm working with a drawing that has 6 layers and it's happening, and last week I worked on a file with bitmap textures, but the drawing was only 1.2M.

When I try to print a page from a drawing that has multiple layers or complicated symbols, my printer takes excruciating amounts of time to print. The file sizes are only 4M-8M, but my printer sees them as 72M files. It's a fairly new printer (3 months old), and this only happens in VWorks. Has anyone else run into this?

I have just run into the same problem, although I was just importing bitmaps from the internet. I tried everything: redrawing and remapping, reimporting, even downloading a new image to import. Nothing worked. What I ended up doing was bringing my rendered drawing into Photoshop to attach these images, unfortunately, you can only get one view at a time.

Thank you Robert. New dilemma: I'm having trouble getting the symbols to accept record information in the symbols library. I've had to create a separate drawing that includes my symbols with their records to pool from. Is there another way? This feels kind of Mickey Mouse to me.

I've spoken to TS about this, and the verdict is, 8.5.2 can only import up to R14, so if you're trying to import newer versions, they probably will not be recognized. Save them as R14, or have whoever is giving you the drawings do the same. Apparently VW9 can take up to 2000 files, but I haven't had a chance to experiment either.

Are you successfully importing other symbols?

I'm to understand that with a single magical click I may have an itemized spreadsheet with quantities and pricing and all. Now I know it's not that simple, but I can't seem to figure out how to make the program count individual symbols seperately without first marking them with locusts and selecting them in intervals (very time consuming I might add). Also, I just can't seem to find a way to assign numerical values (prices) to a symbol as I create it. Help. The goal is to be able to select a drawing (compiled of symbols) that will insert its info. into a created spreadsheet to show me amounts of each symbol and its assigned price as well as totals.

I had a very similar situation when I installed RW. I originally installed VW, and when I put the disk in to install RW it automatically ran to install, but did not ask for my information, so it did not complete installation. The only thing that worked for me was to completely uninstall both from my harddrive (all folders) and reinstall. I think I had to do it twice before it succeeded.