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MHBrown

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Posts posted by MHBrown

  1. The Magic Mouse is not really good for Vectorworks because often the clicks don't "take." Most long-time users have gotten used to quickly clicking the tool palette (if not using a short cut) and then zipping back to the drawing. You have to linger on the tool for the Magic Mouse to work. You just can't click quickly and move away. It is super annoying and a backwards step in UI. I'm not sure why this is.

    MHBrown

  2. I agree with Jim. The eyedropper tool has devolved. It doesn't work on anything grouped (why not? This is an absurd flaw. Things are grouped all over the place in a VW document.) It works only around half the time on anything else. If you can't fix something, just delete it and send a message to your users saying that you have done so. It is much better to weed out tools and plug-ins that don't work than to leave them there because you are embarrassed about it. Be honest and honesty is nothing more than being able to deliver bad news. VW would be better off in the end with fewer tools, but where all the tools work.

     

    That said, will this tool be fixed anytime soon? I'm using VW2018SP6 and is not working.

    MHBrown

  3. My understanding is that the "black rectangle" problem goes back aways and is not unique to my file. Also, it does the same thing with much smaller files with different items. In short, it's not my file. It has something to do with the Renderworks engine (OpenGL has no problem rendering a scene.) Thank you for your advice. I think I just need to wait for a fix from VW.

  4. rDesign, thanks for letting me know about the service packs. I'm not going to upgrade due to the uncertainty that I'd be just be replacing unknown problems with ones I already know about. There is no reason to believe that SP5 and SP6 will result in a more stable version of VW. Just a different one. Thanks, Neil, for the suggestion about objects very far away (I've had objects whose distance were so far out it was given in scientific notation!) I checked that already and that is not the case...but it was a good thought.  I think that after using the same file for over a year--with lots of rendering and textures--that it broke down.

     

  5. Thanks, Neil, I might have too many legacy symbols that I'm not using. Other than that, there is not really anything unusual. I have quite a few texture maps, perhaps 75 or so. But it's a interactive science area with lots of graphics and colors. I'm always careful with my polygon sizes and only use real geometry when I need to. VW's transparency maps, however, don't always render transparent. So if I have something punched out of metal, I have to actually punch it out. I'll try to clear out unused symbols and texture maps and see if that helps. I've generally used Strata3D for my color rendering and this is the first time I've tried to keep a project in one application. It is not really possible to model with precision in Strata and VW's rendering has gotten better so I've giving it a try. 

  6. rDesign, thanks for letting me know about the service packs. I'm not going to upgrade due to the uncertainty that I'd be just be replacing unknown problems with ones I already know about. There is no reason to believe that SP5 and SP6 will result in a more stable version of VW. Just a different one. Thanks, Neil, for the suggestion about objects very far away (I've had objects whose distance were so far out it was given in scientific notation!) I checked that already and that is not the case...but it was a good thought. Neither to I have an extremely large object. I think that after using the same file for over a year--with lots of rendering and textures--that it broke down. At this juncture, VW is simply not robust enough to do even simple projects if the file is used too often. I'm not building a skyscraper; my projects are very modest in size...although the latest file is over 500mb. I think it is the repetition that eventually causes things to go crazy. Even after I put my model into a blank VW2018 file the images come and go.

     

  7. It is not a corrupt object, unless you are defining as "corrupt" any object in a drawing created in a VW2017 file and opened in VW2018. All such objects within seem to have a significant chance of being misinterpreted by the newer version software. But I would not call that a "corrupt object" since it is somewhat intentional. That is what appears to be happening, anyway. It is not behaving as if a single corrupt object were living inside the file. Anecdotal evidence, to be sure, but gathered over 25 years of using the software.

  8. Yet another bug in bug plagued VW2018. Dimension witness lines cannot be dragged out from the text end, only where the lines touch what is being dimensioned. This means you have to drag the "wrong" end of the witness lines into the work and then try to snap the lines back to where they belong. This means you have to zoom way in to make sure you are hitting the points you want to hit. VERY frustrating. Add to this VW's generally eroding ease of dimensioning (the snap points are chaotic and nearly impossible to choose without randomly running the cursor around the area and hope, by chance, to hit the point you want.) Has anyone else experienced problems with dimension lines in VW2018?

  9. Thanks for the advice, but none of that worked. It's sad to hear it is a chronic, across platforms problem. It better get fixed. Do other CAD programs have this type of problem? I am very much dissatisfied with the present state of VW. I won't be upgrading to VW2019 until all of these problems are fixed...and I'm not talking about work-arounds. OpenGL not working, the model missing from the screen. What could be more basic than being able to see one's work? And VW, do NOT give me that nonsense that my problems are solved if I start and start a project in one version of VW. It was YOU who decided to accelerate the upgrades to yearly without committing the resources to pull it off and YOU need to fix it. It may be a video card problem, an OS problem, or a VW app problem, but YOU need to identify it.

  10. When using OpenGL or Wireframe my model will disappear or parts will disappear. Doing a re-render does not help. Having the model disappear makes is very difficult to work on it. Is this a new "feature" that allows me to go play golf instead of working ("sorry, boss, the model does not exist. See for yourself")? I'm thinking that the random missing parts is some sort of criticism by the application.

     

    Since my MiniCAD days in the mid-1990s I've never seen such a mess as VW2018. We used to call a dead boat engine an "anchor." VW is not the equivalent of that for me. The only thing that works are the Renderworks settings. Even fast renderworks, however, means minimum ten seconds between mouse clicks. S.....L.....O...........W. I'm using VW2018 SP4. Any ideas as to what is happening? I'm on a iMac. See image below. 

    Any help is welcome; this is very frustrating.

    MHBrown

    Screen Shot 2018-12-18 at 5.27.31 PM.png

  11. Thanks. I'm mostly getting tired of having Vectorworks crash once or twice per day. I want to transfer to a new document, but VW has dropped the ball on that. There is no way to do this very fundamental action. Probably because it is "too hard" although "too hard" is not the same as "impossible." I want to do something analogous to an ID "package" where I could copy and paste an entire model and all the saved sheets, saved views, viewports, and elevation views would come with it. Alas, VW does not care about fundamentals, but would rather design little protractors for its rotate tool.

     

     At the height of its build, around VW12, I might go a year or more without a crash. Now it is at least once a day. I'd love to be able to downgrade back to that old version. I could not care less about the features added since then compared to the speed and reliability of the older version. VW has become as unstable as the old Strata3D of the mid 1990s--and that is saying a lot. 

  12. No, I'm getting the problem in VW2018 with a file that was started in VW2017. I'm also getting what seem to be video card problems, which may be related to the OpenGL issues where the rendered image jumps around. Often, in wireframe, parts of the image will disappear to where a screen refresh does not bring it back. See attachment of system specs. Perhaps I don't have enough RAM or too small a video card?

     

     But my real question is this: is there a way to migrate an old file into a new document so that all the fixes work? This should be a major requirement that would have been discussed as part of the program of changing major updates from 18 months to 12.  So, is there a way? I tried copy and paste but I could not use my elevations nor my viewports.

    Thanks,

    MHBrown

    Screen Shot 2018-12-10 at 4.04.12 PM.png

  13. The thread where I asked the original question was closed, but the problem has not been solved as far as I know. I'm sure that if one opens a pure VW2019 file that the black viewport rendering will not occur. But what about a file created in VW2018 or even VW2017? If VW insists on yearly major updates, the unintended consequence of letting the calendar (and not readiness) dictate major releases is the requirement that the update work with at least two older versions. This isn't because users are not updating---it's easy with a subscription--- but because sometimes projects will stretch across two years. There is no way that I know of to copy and paste the model, viewports, section views, elevation views, camera views, and more into a pristine file. Or is there?

     

    Thanks,

    MHBrown

  14. Jim, asking us "did the frequency change..." leaves the impression that you have not isolated the problem and are sort of grabbing at straws.

     

    I do not understand why this cannot be tracked down and fixed. You need to STOP changing VW while you fix the horrible bugs that are rendering the application unusable. The digital world does not contain "frequencies." It will do the same thing every time when the same conditions are met. Outside of tunneling electron microscopes, quantum forces do not greatly affect us in the macro world where classical physics rules. Determine the exact conditions where this does not work first and go from there. Very frustrating...and time consuming...that this problem has existed since 2016 and it is almost 2019.

  15. When I render a camera viewport in "fast interior renderworks" style it renders solid black. The camera is not inside a wall because it renders fine in OpenGL. This was a problem over three years ago. Has it still not been fixed? I'm using VW2018, the latest SP whatever. I tried closing and re-opening VW. Nothing. A different file will render "fast interior" just fine. Any idea as to what I can do? I will not upgrade to 2019 until this works the way it is supposed to.

    Thanks for any help.

    MHBrown

  16. I don't know what you mean by "add textures in viewport annotations." Textures are mapped in 3D views, but it is presently impossible to do this because OpenGL does not work in edit windows. If you go to Edit 3D for a symbol to put a texture on it, you can only view it in wireframe. If you go to Map Attribute tool, it only works about 20 percent of the time. When it does work, it can't be used because as soon as you render in OpenGL the model disappears. That's right. It disappears. It goes off to some other place. This is not only true with Interior Elevations, but with all views. OpenGL is unstable in any project that was NOT originally a VW2018 file. I am confident--especially with the purposeless yearly "upgrades"--that everyone has most of his files bridging across different year versions of VW. It is a stupefying miscalculation by VW to have a bug of this type. It greatly increases the time it takes to do color textures to the point where it is unusable. This must be fixed now.

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