MHBrown

Back in the day, I used Vectorworks/Mincad for modeling and Strata Studio 3D for rendering. Many, if not most, VW/MC users had the same workflow. It worked very well since Strata's modeling tools were unstable and nearly impossible to use, but the rendering engine was, and still is, amazing. Even back in the '90s, Strata allowed raytracing and easy animation tools with the ability to create texture maps from videos. They were placed just like static maps, but would run during a walk-through or other animation. It was great to design a museum space and have the video monitors playing or lights flashing in a walk-through animation. Now VW's high-quality rendering ability has made using Strata unnecessary--but I really miss those video texture maps. This should be added to VW's feature list. I'm sure it is possible in C4D, so it should be a fairly simple port to VW, yes? That would make one less reason given to me to use 3D StudioMax, which I have been resisting. MHBrown

I have 2023 SP7 and have downloaded VW2024, but how do I install it? It asks for a serial number, I put in the number I have, and I get an invalid serial number message. It is not invalid. I have paid my money. Why can't I install the new version? I can't find any "how to" information anywhere. Any advice? Mike

To VIRTUALENVIRONS, I'm looking for realistic human forms, but thank you for your post, regardless. Thanks to all for the tips. I've discovered that if I import the OBJ file with a smoothing angle of 130 degrees, simplify the mesh in VW at the default setting, and set the reflection of the map to "none," the result is generally very good when rendered in Realistic Interior Final (or fast). This is in VW2022 and I should upgrade to VW2023 to improve this process. After all, I assume I've already paid for it. MHBrown

The problems with image prop people: 1. They only look accurate in views that exactly match the angle from which the image prop photos were taken, usually eye level. This is mostly revealed by how the feet meet the floor. It is rarely realistic and often parts of feet are missing or hanging up in the air. In a bird's eye view it is even more apparent. They look like they are lying on the floor. 2. Although the image props automatically rotate to be perpendicular to the camera, the shadows they cast don't. 3. Not a problem, but with the power of today's computers, the size has not been a big problem for me. Scenes render just fine and quickly enough to merit the improved professionalism of my renderings. 4. Not a problem, but one must keep up with expectations in my industry. Thanks to all! MHBrown

Sorry, the names of the files didn't show up. The one with the fewest arrows pointing to texture mapping failures was rendered in Shaded. The other was rendered as Realistic Interior (not Redshift). I'm using VW 2022 SP4. MH Brown

Oh, OK. Thanks for the quick response. By the way, I like the new offset line tool very much. Those are handy when I'm using Studio Max or FormZ, so glad to see this in VW. MHBrown

I am using VW2023 Architect SP4 on the Mac and I don't see the 3D Dragger anywhere. Is it something that has to be added via the Workspace Edit? I've looked at tutorials on the subject and I'd like to add it (although I wish it had gone all the way and become a full-blown way to move objects in 3D). Can anyone point me in the right direction? I have the same question regarding the Offset Edge tool. In some videos I've seen, there are four small icons in the upper left of the screen when this tool is selected. I only have two when I select it. Thanks, MHBrown

I agree. After a couple of days trying to VW models into photos (one-point perspective photos, which are the hardest) I've come to really dislike the ham-handed way this is handled in VW. I also strongly agree that a camera should not disconnect from the viewport. The entire camera system needs a total redo. VW needs to hire someone who knows how it should work. Clearly, they did not do this and it would be nice to find out why the company would release such a poorly thought out system. MHBrown

"How would you unlock it" Well, off the top of my head: 1. Menu / Unlock 2. Unlock/ Unlock All and Unlock Selected 3. Pick "All" or "Selected" 4. If "Selected" is chosen, then the now highlighted locked items (or groups thereof) are identified for selection. 5. Close menu or, if you like, use one of the little green check boxes found elsewhere. This is just one way. It may have some faults, but I'm sure there are many other ways to accomplish something this simple. I think the best advice, however, is to make it a different layer or class and work with the visibility attributes, as Andy suggests. Thanks everyone! MHBrown

This is a wish list item, but I could not figure out how to access the wish list. I'm hoping it makes it somehow. I often draw on top of PDF floor plans. When I do, I lock them so I don't inadvertently move them. Often I am zoomed way in on the floor plan when I notice I can't select anything. Imagine my amazement when I look over to the OIP and see that I have selected the locked underlay AND it cannot be unselected. The fact that it cannot be unselected is moot because the darn thing should not be able to be selected in the first place. Here is how it should work: locked items CAN be snapped to, but not selected. That should be a part of the "locked" attribute, in my opinion anyway. If this is something I can adjust, please let me know. Thanks and sorry for posting this out of place., MHBrown

That seems to have worked! Thank you! MHBrown

Thanks, Dave, I hope you are right! I appreciate the quick reply.

It is August 2022 and this is still not working. It has not been fixed, although it was supposed to have been fixed nearly a year ago. Here is how I think it used to work: I have a viewport with a foreground renderer and a background renderer. I render the foreground as Hidden Line. I then add a "background" render of a sketch, "Tentitive." What I get is a messy looking wireframe. There is no longer anything "hidden" with the Hidden Lines drawing. You can reverse the "background" and "foreground" inputs and the same thing occurs. In short, you get a sketched, wireframe drawing no matter what you do. Something no one has ever asked for. Am I doing something wrong? I used this command for at least the last 20 years and now I have no way of giving a line drawing a roughness. It is possible VW changed the way this works. If so can anyone tell me--step by step--how to take a hidden line viewport and give it a sketched look? And I'm not talking about using a shaded render. I want to do it with the Hidden Line command, the way I used to, if possible. Very frustrating because I need to do this NOW. Thanks, MHBrown VW2022 the latest SP version whatever that is up to Windows 10 Mac Monterey

It is August 2022 and this is still not working. It has not been fixed. Here is how I think it used to work: I have a viewport with a foreground renderer and a background renderer. I render the foreground as Hidden Line. I then add a "background" render of a sketch, "Tentitive." What I get is a messy looking wireframe. You can reverse the "background" and "foreground" inputs and the same thing occurs. What I should get is the same Hidden Line, but now with the lines "sketched." I believe this is how it has worked since it was added until VW2020 or '21. Now it remains unfixed in VW2022. Can anyone tell me how to take a hidden line viewport and give it a sketched look? And I'm not talking about using a shaded render. I want to do it with the Hidden Line command, the way I used to. Thanks, MHBrown VW2022 the latest SP version Windows 10 Mac Monterey

I'm using a MacBook Pro 2019 i9, 32GB RAM, 5500 8GB video card, VW 2022 SP4, OS Monterey When I render with Redshift, Vectorworks will not allow any other activity. I can't activate any pull down menus, I can't work on another file, etc. Nothing. The file I'm rendering is a trade show exhibit with maybe 25 spotlights, some transparency (windows), in short, I don't think it is a real complicated file. I don't have anything like text converted to polygons, or any other intense geometry. It takes over an hour to render on the Fast Interior rendering Style...not even Final. I'd say most everything is set on medium. It takes the MacBook Pro down to 58% processor speed as the temperature of the CPU nears 200 degrees F (around 93 degrees C). Is this normal? When it is all finished, the quality isn't really any better than the non-Redshift setting for Interior Fast. Is this normal? I thought this MacBook was great for VW, but I'm not so sure. What is everyone else's experience in using Redshift vs. the ordinary Styles settings? Thanks, MH Brown

Thanks. I think it was a selected face when using the texture apply tool. If you select a single face it shows a the red outline I was seeing. The problem was that it would not go away no matter what I did. I finally went back and deselected the outlined face. Apparently, the texture tool does not release when clicking in the drawing or hitting the "x" key. Thanks for your help! MHBrown

I just upgraded VW 2022 to SP4 on a MBP 16" i9. All of a sudden, this red square has appeared on one of my extrudes. I cannot delete it and it appears in the extrude edit window, too. Anyone know what it is? Thanks, MHBrown

I sometimes have to click the "solid" window twice to get it to work properly--on every filled object! Talk about a time-waster. I just upgraded to SP4 and none of the bugs I'm aware of have been fixed: - This hidden line not rendering problem. - I can't switch between open files by clicking on the window tabs. - Imported PDFs, regardless of size, still result in the spinning pinwheel when moving or even dimensioning. - Images and dimension strings flicker and disappear and reappear and flicker... when inside Edit Attributes. It is almost unusable. - Texture thumbnail images in the Resource Window are still missing, replaced by some sort of default white-to-black gradient. Awful. I don't think anything was done in SP4. It was pretty pointless to upgrade; ten minutes I'll never get back. MHBrown

Happy Friday, I'm using the latest build of VW2022 on a MBP i9, 32GB RAM, 8GB VRAM As shown in Screen ShotVW is still occasionally rendering hidden line without fills in the Viewports. As shown in the screenshot) not accurately showing where the objects are in space. As the screenshot shows, the image renders far away from where the object geometry is located (as shown by the handles). This usually happens out of the blue with no particular reason. This is not a complex file. Yes, everything is filled. Yes, all the poly lines and polygons are closed. Yes, to all of the easy questions. Please do not ask me to: do a restart, close and open VW, clear my preferences or any other suggestion that is a failure of the coding. It is not a problem with this particular file because it happens with many files. This is not a previous version opened in VW. It is a native 2022 file created from a 2022 blank. There is only one texture map. Anyone know when this bug will be fixed? I'm thinking it is some sort of compatibility problem with the video card and VW. Does that sound right? Any ideas on how to fix? Thanks, MH Brown

It is still lagging in 2022 sp3.1. It is a problem with the VW 2022 software. In my case--also on an i9 16" MacPro with similar specs as the OP--it is horribly slow with any 2D images. This includes small jpegs and png files up to large PDFs. Doesn't seem to matter. There are other serious lag problems, but this inability to handle 2D files is absolutely fundamental to any CAD program and I find it hard to believe that the VW staff (overworked since going to a yearly subscription model) simply can't keep up. What used to be a rock-solid CAD app is rapidly losing its reputation as these basic problems are released, unsolved. It's really unfortunate, especially since the rendering quality is now at a very high level. MHBrown

I am having the same problem. I can copy and paste a drawing label from another file, but it immediately disappears if I try to insert a new one. I only have two classes and both are on. The label is "unstyled." MHBrown

I, for one, have no idea what "story aware" means. I have to believe there is a better way to describe what is happening, but I also think it may be an unnecessary message. MIke

It is a bug because the language makes no sense. As far as I know, all it is trying to say is that the class that it is going into does not exist. So what? The class is brought into existence as soon as the symbol is inserted. At least that is how it should work. At a minimum, the language should read something like "The symbol you are inserting is in a class that does not yet exist in your drawing." Mike

Why is this absurd bug still in VW2022. It goes back at least to VW 2017. Don't you think it is time to fix it? Thanks, MHBrown

Thanks, Pat, but I have no idea what "IMNSHO" means. Right now I have imported a 35MB PDF into a VW file. In 1989 that would have been a huge file, nearly the size of many hard drives. Today, however, that is tiny. Once imported, however, my MBP 16" i9 with 32GB of RAM slowed to a crawl. I'm getting beachball times of 15 to 20 seconds just dimensioning a view port of this PDF. I find that inexcusable in modern software. With all due respect, it has nothing to do with with the possible causes you mentioned. At least it shouldn't, not in 2022. In my experience, it probably has to do with either 1.) sloppy coding in the OS or 2.) sloppy coding in the software. File handling is so important especially when referencing files as VW does it really needs to have a lot of attention put to it. As with just about everything, it is the unsexy things that count the most. I really like VW and I believe, on balance, it works much better than other CAD/rendering apps I've used. I love being able to build one CAD model and use it from concept, schematic, final design and on to CDs. But this PDF thing is really a killer. I'd love to know why it happens, how to get around it, and/or when it will be fixed. Now, about texture mapping...:-) Thanks, Mike