AndyM

WOW, I didn't even know these PIO's existed. Are there any other 'secret' tools?

Mike - Thanks for the comments. Here are the shader settings I used for the plastic. I didn't spent that much time working on textures and lighting. How did you get nice reflections on your mirror ball? I still get speckles with the mirror reflectivity.

Thanks

I wanted to learn the 3dpp, so I decided to model my expresso machine. This was all done in VW/RW with stock shaders right out of the textures folder. I/m pretty happy with it. The only thing I don't like are the speckles that you get with the mirror reflectivity, but, hey, they just look like coffee grounds. I would also like to add the logo and text to it, but I gave up. I may add them in photoshop. All comments/tips appreciated.

I have am finally getting the opportunity to learn some of the 3d power pack tools. I am trying to make a cylinder with a smooth rounded top. I started with an ellipse, extruded it and converted it to nurbs. Then I selected the center vertex of the top surface and moved it up to get the curvature. This happens. The outside ring of the ellipse is no longer touching the rest of the object. How can I have this be a solid object with nice smooth edges and no "holes"? I was originally going to start with an elliptical sphere and subtract solids from that, but I can't figure out a way to make an elliptical sphere either. Any tips appreciated! Thanks, Andy

I have tried this a couple of times with not so good results. If you can get your hands on a copy of AutoCAD you will save yourself grief if you open it and resave it there. I am not a programmer, but it makes sence to me that both Microstation and VectorWorks' translators were written for and tested with AutoCAD. You should try and keep AutoCAD in the loop when using their file format. p.s. If you are really using 9.0.1 you should upgrade to 9.5.2 right away. [ 10-22-2002, 07:17 PM: Message edited by: AndyM ]

Unless things have changed with V10, VW is not written to use the advantages of the G4 processor. (Altivec or MMX) So, pure processor speed rules, particularly with rendering. I did speed tests between a PIII 933 and a dual G4 450 and the PC easily won every time. (Dual processors won't do any good on either platform.) Another advantage of the PC is that we have not had any of the problems introduced by OS 10. VectorWorks on Win XP pro is fast and stable.

Is the final 9.5.3 going to update windows as well as mac. Also I am curious what the percentage of copies sold are mac vs. PC. It seems like the majority of traffic here is from Mac users.

Hmmm....The only way I can think to pull that one off in VW is to remove the object that you want to cast the shadow through, render at an angle where your object is fairly square to the viewer. In photoshop crop out the object with the "magic" shadow and reapply the image as a texture on to the original. Maybe someone else can think of a more direct way to do it.

MikeB - NNA should put you on salary!

Never mind. I found it under Tool.

I am trying to add some 3d powerpack tools to my workspace, however, the "Convert to NURBS" command is strangely missing from the workspace editor. If I use the 3d power pack workspace the tool is right there under model. [ 10-16-2002, 05:12 PM: Message edited by: AndyM7777 ]

On your attributes pallet just change the fill color to whatever you want. I find that they render best when you use a dark grey rather than full black. Note - They will not obey class attributes unless you ungroup them.

I have two baby grand symbols. One native VW that is pretty cheesy and one converted from 3ds that is very good, but lots of polys. If you want them I will email them to you.

Thank you Mr B! That was super easy and did the trick. The only problem is that the lights cast too much light on other things. It seems that the falloff (if turned on) is related to the intensity of the light. It SURE would be nice to adjust these independantly of one another. As well as an include/exclude feature. Also the RW works manual does a methodical click by click explanation of how to apply shaders (yawn), but it does a very poor job of explainind what all of the shaders actually DO.

I am trying to simulate a light globe and have it "glow". I am taking a solid subtraction with a point light inside and applying different shader settings. Has anyone had much luck with this?

Thanks for looking into this. It's no big deal obviously, I tend to use several styles of callouts and rather than change the settings I just copy one that looks like the one I want. I think it would be better if the callout text worked the same way as the dimension text. The format text tool should work on callouts. [ 10-02-2002, 11:00 AM: Message edited by: AndyM7777 ]

Create a callout with a font larger than 4. Change the default font size to 4. Change the callout size to 4. It won't do it.

didja know that you can't make a callout with a font size smaller than 6. Even with it set to use the default. Any idea?

If there are any 2d objects in your symbol the symbol will become a hybrid symbol and you will only see the 2d aspects while in plan view. You can either delete all of the 2d aspects or you can create a 2d representation of the 3d aspects. (convert copy to lines)

Thank you for the response, but I am actually trying to learn how to prevent this. I know how to fix it, but am growing tired of doing so.

I keep losing my preferences. I know all about wacking the registry entries and have done it at least 10 times. They will stick for a few days, then die. Why does this happen? Is there anything I can do to prevent it?

Have the lighting tool been improved? I haved wished for: showing the cone, easier selecting and moving, target spots, bmp projection (without using the custom gobo tool). I am excited about adding environments, but REALLY wanted cameras.

Try cntrl+=

Thanks...Getting these two programs to play nicely together is something I have been fighting with for over a year now. I look forward to IGES importing.