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Mark Aceto

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Posts posted by Mark Aceto

  1. Posted

    On 12/26/2018 at 5:58 PM, ThreeDot said:

    Is anyone running Vectorworks 2019 on a new 2018 13” MacBook Pro? I have a 2016 13” MBP that ran Vectorworks just fine until I upgraded to Mojave. Now it’s unusable. I’m thinking about upgrading before the end of the year. I like the 13” MBP for portability and it works great for light drawing and modeling. The 15” MBP has a better GPU, but I’d rather not lug that around if possible. 

     

    Mojave is trash (in general not just VW). You can add an eGPU to the 13" for the best of both worlds (and have modular upgradability in the future). Plus, if you're running HS, you can use a NVIDIA GPU if you prefer.

  2. Posted · Edited by Mark Aceto

    @Jim W , sad to see you leave but massively appreciative of everything you've accomplished. Tons of respect for choosing to spend more time with family - perhaps the most important tech support lesson for so many of us here. Break a leg in your next endeavor!

     

    @JuanP , in the search for the new voice of videos and tutorials, I propose H. Jon Benjamin (reading a script prepared by someone as knowledgable as Jim).

     

    Because he's the hero Forum deserves but not the one it needs right now.

     

    tumblr_okwoyq0dqR1tkodheo2_500.gif

    • Love 1

  4. Posted · Edited by Mark Aceto

    Upgraded to Mojave yesterday. Downgrading to High Sierra today.

     

    Not worth the overall bugginess (in general) for a half-baked dark mode UI and a few bells and whistles. High Sierra runs smoother, is compatible with NVIDIA drivers, and is less locked down.

     

    As with all things Apple lately, it seems like 10.13 is the "last good version" before Apple replace features with gimmicks. And my "legacy" software (Office 2011, Things 2, Wunderlist, Yojimbo, Bento, Neat) all run on it just fine. Also, it's nice to stay logged into all of my work Gmail accounts in Mail and Calendar... 

     

  5. Posted · Edited by Mark Aceto

    Apple Releases Macbook Pro 8-Core, "Fixes" Keyboard:

     

    http://www.loopinsight.com/2019/05/21/apple-releases-macbook-pro-8-core-fixes-keyboard/

    • Year old pricing on year old GPU/RAM/storage components/upgrades in spite of the cost lowering year over year
    • Single core base clock speed is down from 3.5ghz (2017 13") to 2.4ghz not good for modeling in Vectorworks
    • “Up to 5.0GHz Turbo Boost” lies
    • “Experience smooth real-time performance when rendering 3D models in Cinema 4D” more lies
    • Other than reducing the base clock speed,  not sure what Apple or Intel have done to improve thermal throttling

    Possibility of a GPU bump to 6gb in the fall (similar to last year). Otherwise, this is probably as good as it's gonna get for this generation (before they screw up the next generation).

     

    @JuanP , do we have any updates on the reality of using an eGPU with a MBP? I'm still on High Sierra since Mojave is still a half-baked buggy mess (in general) so they can push subscriptions "services", which means I also have the option to go with NVIDIA.

     

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

    Really frustrated with SP3 performance. Super slow, lots of spinning beachball of death, seems to be graphics related, switching modes doesn't solve it.

     

    From the outside looking in, it sure seems like the new features created new bugs.

     

    2.1 was solid, and I'd roll back if I wasn't going to be onsite building this project for the next two weeks (past the point of no return to pivot mid-project).

     

     Going forward, guess I'll wait for .1 updates...

     

    I would also request that we have more of those minor stability updates in between the big features updates. I'm sure hundreds of bugs were fixed in SP3 but there was a huge gap in between 2.1 and 3.0, and I wish I was using a super stable 2.2 or 2.3 right now, and skipping the big Lumion update until 3.1 or so.

     

    Even Mac OS 10.14.4 is having graphics issues because that was mostly a big push for their new services features subscriptions, so I'm staying on 10.13.6 for now.

  9. Posted

    7 hours ago, Art V said:

    It probably depends on what info, but for where I used it, it updated in all places where that entry is visible as far as I can remember (e.g. class descriptions can be entered in the organization palette and will show up in the OIP etc., no need to reenter it there).

     

    Are there specific situations where it does not update the info?

     

    Specifically, when Vectorworks is running.


    The solution is to have more of a heads up arrangement of palettes like Cinema or Unreal vs going down a rabbit hole of buried palette tabs, dialogs, windows, preferences and advanced settings just to do something simple like setting attributes and textures.

     

    It's like every time I use a worksheet, I'm harnessing the incredible power of a relational database... that was designed by someone in the 90's and hasn't been updated since.

     

     

  10. Posted

    11 hours ago, zoomer said:

    1. repaired Stair tool can lag heavily

    But not always and maybe leads to largely increased file size (?)

     

    Definitely experiencing file size bloat again which is pretty typical this time of year. After this project, it's time for a clean install of SP3.1

     

    11 hours ago, zoomer said:

    TL;DR;

    Feels like I had less problems in SP2.

     

    Same.

     

    Also, the Screen Plane keeps activating and abducting objects that belong on the Layer Plane, which I've never experienced before. Frankly, I wish I could disable Screen Plane altogether. This isn't MiniCAD.

     

    I think maybe the key learning with 2019 is to wait for the .1 incremental updates (praying for 3.1).

  11. Posted · Edited by Mark Aceto

    On 3/28/2019 at 2:39 PM, Mark Aceto said:

    I dream of a VW with a single unified workspace for all disciplines (with Menus for each modality) and no GPU settings to fiddle with (just minimum/recommended GPU requirements), and it all just works.

     

    On the topic of streamlining continuity, it's one thing to have the option to enter class/viewport/drawing info in multiple places:

    • OIP top
    • OIP bottom
    • OIP render tab
    • Resource library symbol
    • Symbol within a symbol
    • Navigation pallette
    • Tool/organization/class settings
    • Attributes palette class settings
    • and on and on... 

     

    ...but to have to enter that info consistently in all places is insane. It would be nice if checking the "Use at creation" box actually worked but it doesn't, so I have to keep a mental checklist of all the places I need to hunt down to get a stick of truss to display the texture I set for that class. And VW2019 just added more options (many of which were not announced or documented, so they're just easter eggs of counter productivity).

     

    I spend so much time:

    • Hunting for where an object class hasn't been updated
    • Naming viewports
    • Renaming viewports
    • Manually reentering title block revision data over and over again on multiple plates
      • And why is the title block dialog forked into 2 options (screenshot attached)???

     

    ...that I'm not actually working; just playing a game of Whac-A-Mole.

     

    I don't want disappearing AI context menu options. I want fewer options, and consistent choices that simply work. We don't need 3 different tree tools. We need 1 that does the job of all 3. If I update the class somewhere, I expect it to update everywhere. Dr. Frankenstein is turning this into bloatware, and I honestly just want the interface to get out of my way.

     

    Solution: Less Friction, More Productivity

     

    While we're at it, can we please make Service Select a monthly bill like every other service subscription?

     

    Screen Shot 2019-03-27 at 3.50.03 PM.png

    • Like 2

  13. Posted

    23 hours ago, Jim Smith said:

    I'm seeing the same thing. A restart does resolve the issue.

     

    I'm also getting an new buggy thing where the "make all attributes by class" will not work, nor will the eye dropper, or the magic wand. A restart solves the issue, but as a fix this ain't a fix if I'm having to restart at odd intervals.

     

    Also by "restart" I mean shut the computron down & restart the whole magilla. (This is take 10-15 minutes BTW) 

     

    The SP does not fix the "rotated not rotated" ghost image issue where an object that's rotated does not appear to be rotated, but has to me nudged to magically reappear.

     

    Sorry @RussU , I kinda walked all over your issue.

     

    Looking forward to SP3.1

     

  14. Posted · Edited by Mark Aceto

    On 3/27/2019 at 6:57 AM, Jim Wilson said:

    For anyone still getting the failure to redraw in 2019 SP3, do you get this on BOTH the Best Performance and Best Compatibility modes?

     

    OK, so what's the recommendation here? Is the high setting a decoy? All things considered, should we all just use the middle setting? Would we really notice a hit to graphics performance if the tradeoff is improved stability? How much of my time drawing is really taking advantage of that high setting? 20%?

     

    I dream of a VW with a single unified workspace for all disciplines (with Menus for each modality) and no GPU settings to fiddle with (just minimum/recommended GPU requirements), and it all just works.

    • Like 4

  17. Posted

    On 3/20/2019 at 12:03 PM, Kevin McAllister said:

    ^ I wondered about that when I was told to lower my setting on an iMac Pro.....

     

    Same here. Was instructed to do this a number of times, and assumed it was like "Safe Boot" troubleshooting step because I always restored Best Performance following the tech support call. At least now I know for sure... 

  21. Posted · Edited by Mark Aceto

    TLDR: add Option+ modifier to presets in VW workspace editor

     

    At the moment there are a few ways to create custom shortcuts:

    • On a Mac, globally in Sys Prefs
    • Within VW, by editing a workspace

     

    Mac Sys Prefs works for most shortcut but not for Rotate... Does anyone know why? Oddly enough, it does work as expected for Rotate 3D... It also works fine for other shortcuts I've created in this manner.

     

    The VW workspace editor limits you to preselected modifier keys that do not include Option+. Consequently, most of the provided modifiers are already dedicated to built in shortcuts and, unlike Mac Sys Prefs, will not override them (you'll get an error message if you try).

     

    In the meantime, the workaround is Command+Option+R in Mac Sys Prefs to Rotate 3D... and it's saving me tons of annoying extra mousing and clicking.

     

    Screen Shot 2019-03-11 at 10.33.00 AM.png

    Screen Shot 2019-03-11 at 10.32.18 AM.png

    Screen Shot 2019-03-11 at 10.36.20 AM.png

  22. Posted · Edited by Mark Aceto

    On 2/13/2019 at 10:39 AM, EAlexander said:

    I work the same way as Wesley basically.  I do think that there is part of the conversation missing:

     

    Unreal Engine 4

     

    I think even dedicated render engines like VRAY, Corona, Octane, etc. should be on the look out for real time game engines.  Already making headway in Games and a lot of Archviz is moving towards this.  Have you guys looked at Unreal Studio:

     

    https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/studio

     

    Pretty impressive.

     

    It's also the rendering engine used in Twinmotion.

     

    When still renders are screenshots, and animations take a few minutes to render, there's no reason to spend time and $$$$$$$ on a render farm for Cinema (including the ported version in VW). Even an iMac Pro chokes on Cinema anything. Meanwhile a laptop running Unreal/Twinmotion is rendering in real time. The end result is 80% as good as Cinema but takes 20% of the time (and hardware cost), so it's a no-brainer.

    • Like 6

  23. Posted

     

    Would be interested in a similar test specific to VW (and adding the late-2018 MBP with Vega 20 GPU, and also an eGPU). Whether testing video editing or 3D modeling/drafting, the takeaway seems to be how each system performs in relation to the others. In other words, the test wouldn't require the perfect prototype file to interpret results (system A is n% faster at doing this test than systems B, C, D). That's basically what we're trying to figure out here: which system should I buy for my needs (and then factor in how many years it takes Apple to upgrade it, user upgradeability, modularity, built in display or not.. )

    • Like 2

  24. Posted

    23 hours ago, digitalcarbon said:

    this is not going to help anyone...it will start out as saving time but then we will fill up our time with other things and soon our lives will be choked...again. 

     

     

    All I want is a decent GPU in a MacBook Pro. Instead we get bluetooth toothbrushes and an app to tie our shoes. Everything's coming up WALL-E.

    • Like 3

 

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