ray isaacs
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Posts posted by ray isaacs
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i wish new versions of vw could reference older versions--at least the most previous version without having to update the older file. with symbols, classes, referenced vp's, etc. this is very annoying and time consuming.
ray
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thanks, jim. that worked. converted several thousand buildings from individual symbols to 3d objects with new class/attributes in less than 3 minutes.
cheers,
ray
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yes, very good. at first glance it appears to be in another league compared to 2013.
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Download and installation was a breeze. Much better than last year.
Christiaan is right. i was one of those who got held up for a day or so last year. this year, login-download-install-run-activate-open document took about ten minutes.
so far its good!
cheers,
ray
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while we are waiting for 2014...
when i import 3d objects into vw, they are symbols, which makes them very difficult to edit. given that i often have 100's of them, i need to import them as objects, not symbols. is there a way to do this?
cheers,
ray
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jim.
thanks for joining the conversation and letting us hear the story from the vw side. as patrick said, it is comforting.
cheers,
ray
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funny in a saddening sort of way.
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alice,
like monadnoc, i'm not sure what you are after. but, i am a big fan of photoshop and filters. i tend toward a slightly abstracted representation. lots of possibilities for experimentation.
the first thing i would try--if i were you--are the lighting options in rw, as monadnoc suggests. one bounce of indirect light makes a huge difference in the spatial depth of the rendering. take a little longer to render, but worth it.
cheers,
ray
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i imported a shp file of topo lines. the lines are 2d ploys with elevation data as records. is it possible to convert these to 3d ploys automatically, or do i have to do it one by one manually?
cheers,
ray
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thanks so much, dave, for asking. that is encouraging.
a lot of what is being discussed here has been popping up on the with wish list for a while.
i am finding more and more that the flow among different software programs is essential. while vw tries to cover all the bases, it is going to be a long time before it does that well.
i add that a seamless flow between vw and c4d would be close to ideal. but don't forget sketchup and rhino--huge and growing user bases--which have distinct modeling advantages over vw. better import from these, such as sketchup imports with textures, are essential.
but, you asked specifically about rendering...i think i am similar to many designers in that i am not that interested in photo-realism, but more interested in expressing design intentions. artistic renderworks is a step in that direction. but, it is way too limited. the ability to export images (as separate layers for lines, shadows, backgrounds, textures, etc) to photoshop (or similar) is necessary for post rendering production. currently in vw this is very clumsy and time consuming. as i understand (though i haven't had time to learn it) c4d can export layered psd documents preserving transparency. i would like to see this in vw.
cheers,
ray
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are you viewing the model in wireframe?
the vw tree symbols are not really 3d trees. they are 2d images applied as textures to the two rectangles that you see. the tree images only show in opengl or renderworks rendered images.
if you are aware of that and still not able to render the trees properly, post images or your file.
ray
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which 3d trees are you using, vw symbols, or a 3d polygon type (vbvisual, sketch import, etc.)? if vw symbols, did you check to see if they have 3d associates?
are you using a dtm? did you "send to surface"?
...first things that comt to mind.
ray
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bruce, this is something that is added to the wish list on a regular basis. if c4d can do it, why not vectorworks.
ray
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yes, ran, i understand you disappointment. there is a lot of discussion on this forum about 3d modeling and non-realistic rendering, if you look around. there are also a lot of hopes for 2014 in september.
in the mean time have you given up sketch up? i am trying to use it more.
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that's a very good question.
vbvisual makes polygon plants especially for vw. they look really good in final quality renderworks (as they are intended for (pseudo) realistic images. but they are expensive, and yield wierd results in sketch and artistic render modes.
some of the plants you can download for free from the sketchup warehouse actually work better in artistic render modes. but, you have to be careful about how you export/import them from su to vw. depending on how they are made, there are particular limitations. the 3ds (why is it always autodesk) export and import seems to work best in most cases, but the individual plant files can be very big.
there are other threads here about this. try searching for them.
cheers,
ray
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hi, dillon. i just made a bunch of new roads yesterday. for now i'm sticking with the grade tool. its tedious, but give me the best grading results. hopefully 2014 will improve the road and other site design tools.
cheers,
ray
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is the pdf grayed out in the original vw file, or only in the referenced viewport?
i would import the pdf directly into the docoment that i am working in and not bother with referencing the viewport.
ray
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doing mostly site planning, landscape architecture and urban design, our bim needs are not as great as with most of you. but, sitting here watching that beach ball spin and spin--as i have for much of the day--i'm wondering again why do i do this.
i'm spending more time with sketch up and rhino these days. they still have a long way to go. but, trimble isn't in this for nothing and rhino's popularity is spurring a lot of development in sophisticated plugins. i recently recommended buying rhino terrain and will recommend next week that we integrate sketch up more into our design process.
i still keep hoping for a break through release from vw, but we are branching out whether it comes or not.
ray
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i don't think you can create layers, but you can create a class for grid lines and turn it on and off as you need it.
ray
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drew, have you installed all of the updates (sp's)?
at first i found 2013 to be unusable because of things like you are describing. but, three service packs later i am using it again and those problems are greatly diminished.
ray
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thanks, tom. that's what i was afraid of.
i do have sketchup pro. and the 3ds export/ import works great. however, the file size is gigantic, (my one experiment went from 300kb to 45mb) okay for one or to instances, but not practical for large site plan. any way to reduce the file size of the 3ds model?
ray
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does anybody have much experience importing components from sketchup's 3d warehouse?
i'm getting radically mixed results with 3d trees.
first, it appears that we can import geometry only, no color or texture. is that the case? it would be nice not to have to re-apply everything in vw...very time consuming.
second, some models import fine, others scrambled, others not at all. i assume it has to do with how they were made originally. or is it something in the vw translation?
input appreciated.
cheers,
ray
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is there a way to do this already? would be nice to import an export terrain data directly from dem's as this is becoming more availble.
ray
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hey, bryan. with 30,000 points, does mesh smoothing work?
i'm working right now with an imported shapefile for terrain data right now. the original has 92,000 points. i immediately reduced down to 14,000. mesh smoothing did not work. i incrementally reduced the number of points down to around 8000, before mesh smoothing worked.
could it be a difference in our computers? when i asked tech support about that some time go, they said hardware wouldn't make any difference. but, i seem to be the only one on this board constantly having this problem.
cheers,
ray
simplify polygons
in General Discussion
Posted
i thought i saw in a preview that 2014 had a simplify 2d polygon tool. now i can't find it anywhere. does it exist, or is it just wishful thinking on my part?
ray