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MHBrown

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Everything posted by MHBrown

  1. Of course, all the lights are back, but now I'm getting the viewports rendering as solid white as has been reported here before. I think I have to restart for that. I hope these problems are resolved in VW2020 which I will be installing soon. Mike
  2. I got my wish for something simple. Somehow, someway, the VW Preferences had "Never" for show lights. I must have created a hot key for that and somehow accidentally clicked that combination. I totally forgot about that. Thanks for suggesting that I look at that. All the lights have come back, but it's odd that even a new document had that setting. I suppose that's because it was a VW Pref and not a Document pref. Thanks for solving the mystery: human error as it often is. Mike
  3. I have VW Architect, so I'm not sure what the Spotlight Workspace is. Is there a "show lights" or "hide lights" hot key I may have pressed my mistake? Mike
  4. Thank you for responding, but I don't think it is something simple like that. I wish it were! I opened a blank VW file, which has only two classes as you know: dimension and None. I cannot place a light in that file, either. Mike
  5. I'm using VW2018 with SP6 on a MacBook Pro running OS Sierra. All of a sudden, I cannot place any lights in my files. I click the light tool as I've done thousands of times before, click in my drawing and nothing places. I opened a file that I knew had dozens of lights and none of the lights were there. The renderings created from that model were all over the place as far as lighting: some dark, some super bright. Mostly dark. Has anyone had this experience? If so, what did you do to get it back? I sorta need lights in my renderings. Thanks, Mike
  6. Thanks to all. I was able to create a flat plywood form--just as the carpenter would do. I then used the deform tool to bend the two ends into the "boat" shape. I must say, however, that the deform tool was very hard to use. It looks so easy on the VW video, but my shape took over an hour of monkey clicking to make behave. I had this rugby ball shaped flat that I looked at in front view to do the bend. In front view it's just a skinny rectangle, but I had to do it in that view to see when my bend was the proper angle. It just never seemed to "take." Suddenly, it did. Any tips on using this somewhat ornery tool (at least to me)? Again, thank you for all the helpful tips on importing the existing on-line model. Thanks, Mike
  7. Thanks to all. The 3D Warehouse chair may work, but it only has downloads for SketchUp and Collada. How do I get that into VW? Mike
  8. Hello, All, I hope this is the correct place to post this. I'm using VW 2018 (about to upgrade to 2020) and I've been asked to model a barstool for inclusion in a rendering. It doesn't have to be exact, which is good because I only have the attached image to work from. I know how to create everything except the seat: two bent plywood shapes. The cushion has soft edges, which I think I can do with one of the VW modeling tools. I've mostly done architectural models, so not a lot of curved, rounded pieces. Any advice as to how to approach modeling the seat in either VW 2018 or VW2020? I think it would be done in two pieces. If this isn't the correct place to post please let me know. Thanks, Mike
  9. Thank you, Adam. That's good advice. Mike
  10. @Dave Donley I couldn't agree more with your hammer analogy, Dave, but many of my opportunities are with trade show companies where I am supplementing their in-house design departments. Each one has a chosen software that they use and will only hire designers from the sub-set of those users. I wish it were creativity or strength of portfolio, but it is my experience that if you don't use Studio Max, a SM-based shop will not give you a second look. I have not seen any shop that has offered training when discussing a full-time position. It is assumed you will do that on your own. Right now, I have a demo of FormZ on my computer because a potential client uses that for trade show design. When will I have the time to get up to speed on that? The fact that Keyshot exports in something like 30 formats seems to suggest just how fragmented the 3D design world is. Is this anyone else's experience? Perhaps I should be looking at different clients. I wish it were more like graphic design where everyone uses Adobe CC. Now I'm looking at the demo for Keyshot and will give that a go. Thanks for all the great advice! Mike
  11. Thanks for the quick reply, but I'm an exhibit designer. I do mostly museums (which are interiors, of course) but also do trade show exhibits, retail environments, store displays, etc. It's mostly interior design focused although sometimes I do exteriors. When I do exteriors, however, I just render the display/exhibit/interactive component and insert it into a site photograph via Photoshop. Sorry for the long description, but these are the projects for which I'm seeing Keyshot being required. Are these companies talking apples and oranges, too? It seems to me that I don't need this if I have Renderworks which is much improved since migrating to the C4D rendering engine. It works for me just fine. I don't need a redundant application. Is this something I should explain to my potential clients or would I just sound "behind the curve"? Thanks again for the reply. As a one-man-shop I can get pretty isolated in pondering what technology is worthwhile and which is simply the latest shiny thing getting attention. Mike B
  12. I'm starting to see a lot of "Keyshot experience required" on job sites. It's bad enough that designers are limited to the subset of jobs that happen to use the software one knows, but now it seems there is an extra layer with Keyshot. As far as I can tell it is just a stand-alone rendering engine...somewhat redundant to me since VW finally has a pretty good rendering feature built in. What makes Keyshot worth laying out $2,000 and why is it suddenly such a hot commodity? Does Vectorworks have an export option to it? Does anyone else find this puzzling? Thanks, Mike
  13. OK, thanks for the quick reply. That seems like a big bottleneck for running Vectorworks. Mike
  14. I'm looking at a 2013 Mac Pro cylinder. The specs look pretty good, except it has two video cards, each with 2GB of RAM. My question: does Vectorworks "see" this as a 4GB GPU or does it only see one of the video cards? It seems like an odd thing for Apple to do, but it is less than the cost of a reasonably equipped iMac. I already have a monitor; I just need a CPU for VW. Any advice on this is very appreciated. Thanks, Mike
  15. I'm looking to design trade show exhibits and museum exhibits using Vectorworks and Renderworks. I don't think these are heavy duty projects like a skyscraper or similar model. I'd like to stay on the Mac platform, so I've been looking around. I will have to do fairly high-end interior renderings, but that seems doable on the old iMac I was using with 16GB RAM and a 2GB video cards. I noticed Other World Computing has "trash can" Mac Pros for under $2,000. Typical specs as follows: Apple Mac Pro (Current Model) 3.7GHz 4-core Xeon E5-1620v2 - Used, Excellent condition, $1,549.00 Mfr P/N: ME253LL/A | OWC SKU: UAGA4HS3HXXXXXB 16GB RAM, 256GB Solid-State Drive, AMD FirePro D300 x 2/2GB. macOS 10.12.x Sierra. 90 Day OWC Fulfilled Limited Warranty. I know 256GB is small for an HD, but I could save up for for an external drive and this would be dedicated to VW and Adobe apps only. Also, 16GB is a little low, but, again, I could upgrade that. How does this compare to a new iMac with 16GB RAM, i7 processor, the 4GB video card, that comes in around $1,800? I have a nice monitor, keyboard, and mouse already. All I need is the CPU. The Mac Mini is out of the running because of the lack of a dedicated video card. The iMac Pro and new Mac Pro are not in my budget. I'd look at a Windows machine, but I'm a one-man-band, so I have to do my own IT troubleshooting and Macs are what I know. Any advice is very appreciated...expecially if you can explain why the used Mac Pros are so inexpensive. Are they really that old or are there bugs I don't know about? Thanks, Mike B
  16. I'm back in the self-employed world after 15 years and I need to find a Vectorworks 2018 solution...on a budget. I have a MacPro early 2008 (see attached image). It runs El Capitan and VW2017, but with a 256MB video card and only 2GB ram it is not real quick. My 2015 Macbook Pro blows it away. My question is this: I think I can purchase a 4GB video card for around $500 and 16GB ram for $160, for a total of around $700 after shipping. The drive is fine for now, though a little small at 384GB, it is 7200rpm. My other option is a Mac Mini. I have a monitor, keyboard, mouse, so all I need is the CPU. Is the Mac Mini a reasonable VW machine? What configuration is the best? Can I upgrade it as I make a little money? I need to figure this out fairly quickly or I'll be doing all the work on my MacBook. I also need to run Adobe Cloud, but that's another forum. Lastly, I could purchase a reasonably equipped iMac for around $1,700 (faster video card) and add RAM as I go. See specs on the old Mac Pro below. Any thoughts are very much appreciated. Thanks, Mike
  17. Thanks, Larry, but I think that the Renderworks renderings are done by the main memory. It is true, however, that a GPU with at least 2GB of RAM is required for OpenGL and all the other model navigation requirements you mentioned. Since the Mac Mini does not have a separate GPU it sounds like you are implying that it would not be a good VW computer. Is that right? What do you (and others) think about upgrading the old Mac Pro? Is that worth it? Will it run VW 2017, 2018 or 2019? Anyone else have an opinion? Thank you, Mike
  18. I'm back in the self-employed world after 15 years and I need to find a Vectorworks 2019 solution...on a budget. I have a MacPro early 2008 (see attached image). It runs El Capitan and VW2017, but with a 256MB video card and only 2GB ram it is not real quick. My Macbook Pro blows it away. My question is this: I can purchase a 4GB video card for around $500 and 16GB ram for $160, for a total of around $700 after shipping. The drive is fine for now, though a little small at 384GB, it is 7200rpm. My other option is a Mac Mini. I have a monitor, keyboard, mouse, so all I need is the CPU. Is the Mac Mini a reasonable VW machine? What configuration is the best? Can I upgrade it as I make a little money? I need to figure this out fairly quickly or I'll be doing all the work on my MacBook. I also need to run Adobe Cloud, but that's another forum. Any thoughts are very much appreciated. Thanks, Mike
  19. I'm not even in a symbol or editing window now. I'm just looking at an object in front elevation. I have Screen Aligned only, all the other necessary boxes are checked and I STILL cannot draw a dimension line without it disappearing. So it is worse than I described before. I don't really see this as a "bug." A "bug" is something that was simply too odd to notice. You can't check every possible combination of moves. I know that. This, however, is more akin to putting a car into production, but forgetting to put rotors on the disc brakes. It is a fundamental feature of the car that it stop on command. It the same sense, a CAD program's number one requirement is that it show the size of things. The size, folks. That is what it needs to do. I can't believe that someone didn't try to take a dimension of an extruded square in a Design layer before this version was released. But that is apparently what happened and it is now exhausting to use. Please don't tell me VW2019 is better. I'll keep the devil I know for now until I hear that VW has staffed up or has abandoned its 18 month release cycle for something more attainable, 24 to 30 months maybe. Until then, I'll keep the bugs I know rather than trade for new ones. Thanks, however, for everyone's tips and suggestions. I have to say that usually someone has figured it out and is generous enough to take the time to let us all know. That is greatly appreciated.
  20. In VW 2018 SP56 on an iMac, High-Sierra, late 2017 The well-known bug that causes Renderworks renderings to render black at random times (or sometimes white) has apparently been ignored by VW. As far as I can tell, this has been going on for around three years with zero action. This is not acceptable! I am NOT going to restart every time something new does not work with this software. My renderings work fine in OpenGL, but do not render with the Renderworks engine. When. Is. This. Going. To. Be. Fixed.? Really. I am NOT "upgrading" to a new set of problems with VW2019 until I have satisfaction that the old problems have been corrected. You can also add the disappearing wireframe when editing inside symbols and/or groups. This is NOT an issue with my file since it happens in many files. Please. I want to use this software, but it's continuing lack of stability is killing my productivity. When will these bugs be fixed? MHBrown
  21. Thanks, Matt, but that doesn't work either...at least not all the time. It is a bit hit and miss. My definition of "working" does not allow for random failures, but it is always something to try when I'm stuck. To respond to markdd, I appreciate the explanation so I won't bang my head against the wall anymore. I appreciate your help very much. But this flaw is simply not acceptable. That's like saying "well, the volume works except when you are on even numbered channels" and thinking that's OK. It's not. It's not even close to OK. The whole point of symbols is to only have to edit the master file instead of all the instances scattered around the drawing. I'm not putting a dimension on it as part of a presentation drawing. I'm just wanting to see how big something is (in the latest case, I wanted to see if I was in compliance with the ADA for wheelchair clearance.) Don't tell me to use the tape measure tool, draw a line and look in the OIP, or some other workaround. That is the point. VW has become a rat's nest of workarounds for things that are fundamental to drafting: such as knowing how big something is. If I want to be a fine artist I'll get some paints, canvases and brushes and slop around shapes and forms. But that's not what I want in my drawings. I want precision. I want it available wherever I am in the drawing. Previous versions of MC and VW allowed dimensioning anywhere on any orthographic view. If that is not the case, the application is fundamentally broken. I know I need to pass this along to the VW folk, not here. So sorry for the misplaced rant. MHBrown
  22. I am on a Mac, High Sierra OS. Sorry for the omission. I usually put all that in, but I'm in a rush.
  23. Of course as soon as I hit "submit" I found it. I followed your advice. Nope. Still does not work. To be honest, I don't need anything other than "screen aligned" view. The other views are far too unstable. Even when I select "screen align only" it jumps back to one of the other views. I wish there were a way to remove the lines of code that give the other two options. Thanks again for the help, but it is still not allowing dimensions in orthographic views within the symbol edit (perhaps elsewhere, it works, but I don't have time to do VW's work for them.) MHBrown
  24. Thanks for the tip, but I don't see any menu that reads "Display Screen Objects" anywhere (what else would be displayed if not "screen objects"? Why would I want a blank screen?) I also don't see anything that reads Unified View Options and the VectorWorks "Help" menu is no help. Can you elaborate? MHBrown
  25. In VW 2018 with the latest SP. I go to edit a symbol in 3D. I want to check a dimension, so I go to a right elevation. I measure the overhang of a counter top. The dimension is distorted. Then it disappears. I switch to "Screen orientation only." Still it disappears. I change from "3D" to "working plane" in the OIP. Nothing. I know that for over 25 years I have been able to do this very, very simple action. This happens all the time in all sorts of views, not just in symbol edit. There is no reason for this and I'm sure it is an accidental change due to some addend "feature." I do NOT want to work in any mode other than screen plane due to the instability of the program. Look. It is like this. If I'm in an orthographic view--whether it's 1919 on a drafting board or 2019 on a computer--I am looking at true size projections. If that is the case I should be able to pull a dimension between two points parallel to the paper/screen. This. Is. Basic. Why are my dimensions either 1.) distorted 2.) invisible (just the blue handles) or 3.) visible, but no longer anywhere near my drawing. Do NOT tell me to put it in a viewport and use the annotation tool. I'm editing a symbol, remember? I want to be able to dimension, alter, or otherwise edit in orthographic views. Doing anything in a 3D view results in imprecise changes at best and pieces and parts slung to the far reaches of the desktop at worst. If I just wanted to slap together a massing model I'd use SketchUp or some other consumer CAD-lite system. I need precision. What is happening here with VW? By the way, "Screen view only" does not "stick." what is up with that? MHBrown
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