AndyM

I have to use both 3d studio max and vectorworks. I have pretty good luck going from VW to 3DS, but now I need to go the other way. I have an object in 3DS that when exported to dxf turns into 30K polygons. My question is this: Is there anything 3D power pack can do to turn this into a usable object. I can't add solids, I can't convert to mesh. Are there any other options or am I stuck with a group of 30K poygons? Any tips would be much appreciated!

I thought some of you might be interested in this.We use both PC's and Mac's in our office and have just purchased renderworks for the Mac. With a 6 pack of beer riding on it we had a speed test between a Win XP PIII 933 w/512 MB and a Mac OS 9.1 dual G4 533 w/512 MB (360 MB allocated to VW). Both with dual monitors running the same resolution. The test file was about 20MB with a dozen of so textures. Fast RenderWorksPC - 0:51 Mac - 0:50 Custom renderworks with raytracingPC - 4:09 Mac - 6:21 Exporting 1000x700 pxl image to .psd PC - 3:02 Mac - 4:41 I use the PC and quite frankly I expected to lose, but I will enjoy my PC a little more from now on. Any comments on why the mac lost?

Maybe this will help. I had this problem once in another program and I turned the resolution on my monitor way up and then I could move it to the center of the screen. Then I just changed the resolution back and all was well. (to change the resolution right click on your desktop then choose settings)

I'd go for a Dell Precision 530 with 2.4 GHz Xeon with XP pro. Dual processors won't do you any good with VW - the program doesn't support it. I have found that dual monitors is a huge help and I will never go back to only one if I can help it. Having a super-duper video card is not much benifit either (unless you're playing max payne or quake at work) any of the ATI or nVidea cards that support dual monitors should work just fine. When you are working with the Renderworks plug-in for rendering and animation RAM is king, go for 1 GB or even more. You can't have too much RAM. By the way Dell is not the place to buy RAM, you can save a lot of money by buying a machine with the basic RAM then buying additional chips from any of the 300 or so places that sell it much cheaper. (crucial.com for instance)

If you link the referenced layer to another layer you can move it around to your hearts content in the linked layer. The reference will still update the referenced layer and the linked layer will update from that. I'm getting a headache.

It is a bit goofy how you have to do this, so I will try and explain. I do not know if scripts are different for mac and PC, but I am on a PC Go to organize>create plug-inClick new...Select the "tool" radio button and click OKThis will add a tool called Untitled Plug-In to the list.Click re-name and name it.(turn off object class)Click the script button and paste this script into the box: Procedure TurnOffClass;var xpoint, ypoint, dummynum : Real;thisobject, thissubobject : Handle;classname : String;BEGINdummynum := 123;WHILE NOT GetPickObjectInfo(xpoint, ypoint, thisobject, thissubobject, dummynum) DO GetPt(xpoint,ypoint);IF (thissubobject = NIL) THENBEGINClassName := GetClass(thisobject); HideClass(ClassName);END;IF (thissubobject <> NIL) THENBEGINClassName := GetClass(thissubobject);HideClass(ClassName); END;END;Run(TurnOffClass); Click Done, then OK(If you want to get fancy you click on properties and replace the default icon with something else) Now click on File>Workspaces>Workspace Editor>Edit Current Workspace.Click the "Tools" tab then scroll down to where it says Miscellaneous - Your new tool should be there. Now all you need to do is select the pallet you want to place it in from the right side list and drag it over there. You can even add a shortcut key if you want. Click OK to exit the worspace editor. Now it's in your workspace and you just click on the tool and then the object whose class you want to turn off. It doesn't work on groups for some reason. Maybe someone else can fix the code so that it will. The method that Ruud suggested is simpler and will also work, but it will not stay with you when you start a new drawing. This way you will always have it. Hope that helps. [ 06-29-2002: Message edited by: AndyM7777 ]

You can create a custom tool to do this and you can get the scripts here: http://www.nemetschek.net/cgi/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=21&t=000049 Hope that does the trick

How adding some w-ref features to the resources pallet. It would be nice if when you insert a symbol from another drawing you had the option of merging it into the drawing (like it does now) or continuing to reference the original. This could even go both ways - If you wanted to you could update the original with the one you edited in your current drawing.

I have been curious about this as well. I thought that you got smaller files/faster loads when saved in plan. I did a test I have a big file with lots of hybrid objects and solid operations. Saved in plan 18.2MB, saved in perspective 18.2MB. However, the plan version does load faster. I guess because drawing a hybrid symbol in plan view is much easier than drawing the 3d version of the same symbol. So there is some merit in always saving in plan view. Correct? [ 06-24-2002: Message edited by: AndyM7777 ]

sounds like a class or layer visability problem. Check the class and layer options for show/snap/modify others.

Ya I do that too. I've made a big mess that way. A bit off topic but correct me if I'm wrong. If you create a class, but a bunch of things in it then later decide to add a sub class you can no longer add things to the original class where you have all the other things.

Use the tape measure tool and then press the spacebar to pan. When you release the space bar the distance information for the tape measure tool does not come back. Is there a workaround for this?

Is there a way to crop an image file imported to VW? The clip tool does not work. If there is not a way to do this could you please ad it to the wish list?

Just FYI - You can save your template as "default.sta" place it in the templates folder and it will open that when you start VW.

I wish for multi processor and network rendering support.

Is it just me or does the custom visibility tool not display all of the classes in the drawing?

Is there some fundamental reason why lines can't exist in 3d space? In AutoCAD or 3ds max if you draw a line in plan view that line will stay put in a 3d view.

I forgot to put in my original post that I had the resolution set to 128. It does not affect this problem. I have, however, found a workaround. When I insert a curtain object for the first time if I leave the fullness at 6" it will render poorly. If I then change the fullness it will render fine. Although if I leave the fullness at the default and set the resolution to 256 it will dissapear in all but plan view. I did not have this problem before 9.5.1. Is this a new bug or just me?

I am having a problem rendering curtain objects. They look very jagged and like they are leaning over. I have 3d conversion set to high, custon renderworks with everything on.

I find it easiest just to use an image, you can get some here. http://oss.medialab.chalmers.se/textures/php/entries.php?Mode=Seamless There is an endless supply on the web if you just look around.

My copy of RederWorks defaults to the 9.0 directory during installation, even if you don't have one, so if you're like me and frequently click next-next-ok-next without paying much attention RenderWorks will be in the wrong directory and VectorWorks will not recognize it. Make sure you point it to the directory of the version of VectorWorks you are using. 9.0.1 or 9.5.

You can lock the object you want to stay stationary. I have assigned a keyboard shortcut to make locking and unlocking objects easier. You can also place a locus at the point you want everything else to line up to. The locus will stay stationary and everyhting else will align to the locus.

A while back there was tons of discussion on needing a place to share textures, hatches, symbols and plugins. That place exists at http://www.vectordepot.com/, but there are very few people posting things there. If you have something that you think would be useful to other people and don't mind sharing please post it there. If we can generate some interest in this it could become a valuable resource for all of us.

It's stiil there just hiding a little. Go to your workspace editor and its hiding under the AEC rollout on the tools tab. Just add it to your workspace.

The cabinet tools are included in the basic package.