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  1. Yes, exactly, the whole thing is inconsistent and confusing. Took me a while (and quite a lot of frustration) to come to the same conclusion - with the Railing/Fence tool you are only saving a configuration of settings. Nothing in the implementation helps you to understand this quickly, because it doesn't follow a pattern established by the way other tools operate. It doesn't work off an existing understanding of what a "symbol" is, it seems to be something like what a "style" is, and yet it's not.
  2. How's the user supposed to know this though? When I look at the resource browser showing everything that's in my current file, there's the drop down menu where I can choose between different types of resources. I can choose, for example, "text styles" or "wall styles" as a category. But when it comes to a "fence style" it is under the category "symbols/plug-in objects". And then there are "styles" which are in a "style" folder but under the category of "symbols/plug-in objects". So in fact there are at least 3 different places you might find a "style" - in its own-category top level style folder, in its own-category folder under "symbols/plug-in objects" or simply mixed in with everything else in the "symbols/plug-in objects" category. Furthermore, the "fence/railing" tool invites me to save these settings as a "symbol" not as a style. And, for example if I right-click on a titleblock object it gives me an option to "edit plug-in style" but if I right-click on a fence object I get no similar option to edit the style ... in fact it's still unclear to me whether you can actually edit a fence "style" (which nowhere is named as such). I don't think it's hyperbole to say all this is a user-experience disaster zone.
  3. Another thing that's really confusing about the fence tool is that aside from whether you use a custom symbol within the fence post settings... you can save the whole fence, or rather the fence settings as a symbol, which then appears in the resource browser as a red symbol. But it's not really a symbol, more like a saved set of settings, which to me ought to be called a "style" or something like that. To me it's unclear what exactly it is, this "symbol" that is created. I can use it as a way of applying that bunch of settings to another fence object, but I can't seem to go in and edit the "symbol" and then see these changes applied to all other instances of it. So it doesn't conform to the principles of what we expect a "symbol" to be. Another example of absolutely terrible UI design if you ask me.
  4. Yes, this seems to work for me. Quite confusing, it's like it's somehow tagged that symbol as 'available for fence tool' in a way that's invisible to the user. And that property remains, if the symbol is duplicated and then edited.
  5. Do you mean, does it create a folder 'within' the current drawing in the resource manager? No, it doesn't, the symbol just appears at the top level in that file.
  6. No, it'll only let me choose something from the library files. If I try and choose something from my open file, it just shows up blank - "no items to show in this view". And the open file definitely contains some symbols.
  7. I don't think I'm the first to observe that this is a horrible tool. But anyway... I want to make a railing/fence using custom posts, made from 3d symbols. Following the instructions here: https://app-help.vectorworks.net/2021/eng/VW2021_Guide/SiteModel2/Railing_and_fence_settings.htm#XREF_81227_Railing_and_Fence In the Section "Railing/fence settings: Post pane", and then under parameter: Profile, it tells me: You can create a 2D symbol to use as a custom profile, or a 3D symbol to use for the post. Save the profile or post symbol in the current document, or in a file in the appropriate folder in your user folder: [User]\Libraries\Defaults\Railing Fence\Profile Posts or [User]\Libraries\Defaults\Railing Fence\Symbol Posts. After some time I managed to create a file in the indicated position, in my user libraries. In this file I created my desired custom fence post as a symbol and saved it. I'm able in the railing/fence tool settings to choose this symbol, from that file in my user libraries, and I can make a fence that uses it as the post. However - what I can't do, which seems contrary to what it says in the help guide, is choose a symbol that exists in my current document. It seems that I can only choose a custom post symbol that exists in the appropriate folder in the VW library or in my user library. Is this intended behaviour? As a reminder the help guide says (bold is my emphasis): You can create a 2D symbol to use as a custom profile, or a 3D symbol to use for the post. Save the profile or post symbol in the current document, or in a file in the appropriate folder in your user folder: [User]\Libraries\Defaults\Railing Fence\Profile Posts or [User]\Libraries\Defaults\Railing Fence\Symbol Posts. I note that having created my fence using the custom symbol chosen from my user library folder, that symbol now exists in my current document. And if I edit it, then these changes appear in all instances of it in the fence. But if I create a new fence, I can't choose this edited symbol, because it seems I'm unable to choose any symbols in the current document.
  8. Two run natively and the other via Displaylink (which means it needs to be via a Displaylink adaptor). If you read earlier posts in this thread (from around page 9 onwards) I've described the setup I ended up with: https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/72941-mac-silicon-os-and-vw/page/9/
  9. I have 3 monitors + USB hubs running (mostly) fine on an M1 mini.
  10. Try searching the forums for "window schedules" - there are a few threads on this. Eg
  11. ...I thought this thread started out with the problem that hidden line takes so long to render/update. I don't see how combining hidden line with OpenGL solves that problem?
  12. yeah, I can see potential for animated walkthroughs etc and also for static outdoor views where you want to quickly add a lot of vegetation etc. Unfortunately though I can't really use it for either of these at present because of the problems I've outlined in the other thread. I'll look forward to things improving though.
  13. @jeff prince I've now spent a day or so messing around with Twinmotion. I think I can basically see how I would deal with iterations, although it still seems a bit cumbersome compared with the way I currently do things in Renderworks viewports. The benefits I can see of Twinmotion at this stage are that it's much quicker to try out different material and lighting settings 'on the fly', compared to making a change and then sitting waiting for a renderworks viewport to re-render. That's definitely an advantage. Although I'm sure I could improve things with practice/time I'm not sure I like the quality of render that TM produces compared with RW... it has that slightly faked/computer game look that I'm not too keen on. However all of this is made a bit redundant anyway by the fact that the Vectorworks > Datasmith > Twinmotion conversion process appears to involve multiple bugs that mean it just isn't really usable for me at the moment. I've posted about these on the other thread. I may come back to it at a later date to see if things have changed but for now I'm sticking with renderworks...better the devil you know.
  14. Also coming back to this... I have not been able to repeat this solution. I don't know why. Now, when I tick the "fix UVs/texture" box during an import, it still comes in with the texture mapping problems. Trying to apply a native TM texture doesn't work either. So, this is another thing that makes it unusable for me at present. Finally, I am finding that certain objects don't import, but it's not consistent. For example, I have a group of table and chairs. Each chair is a symbol. Sometimes it imports all 6 chairs, sometimes only 2 of them. If I copy the group into a new file, and export just that, then it seems to import without problems. If I convert the chair symbols into groups then they seem to import fine.
  15. I've fiddled with this a bit more and it's definitely the case that if you change an object's material in TM, then make some changes to the VW model geometry, re-export the VW model, and then update the import in TM, some objects whose material you have changed in TM revert to their original, VW-exported material. I started trying to work out if it makes a difference whether you've changed it to a TM material or a VW-import material, and/or whether it makes a difference which objects you've changed the geometry of, but to do these tests throroughly would take some time and I'm not paid to do them so I've given up. I'm not sure if it happens consistently or only sometimes. Either way, this on its own makes the VW>Datasmith>Twinmotion workflow unusable for me so I think I'm going to leave it for now and come back to it in a few weeks or months to see if bugs have been ironed out.
  16. Hi Sangmin. See if the attached is any use. I have also included a bit of the glass material that failed to import into TM with transparency. tmtest.vwx
  17. NB the missing filter colour is a problem with the C4D export rather than the datasmith one.
  18. More on textures/materials... my testing is really to see whether I can generally assume that VW textures that look ok in a Renderworks rendering will look somewhat similar in Twinmotion, because that has an impact on how much work I need to do to get things looking as I want them to in Twinmotion. Here is what an example object looks like in OpenGL in Vectorworks: Here it is rendered in Renderworks (using some of my custom settings) Here it is imported into TM using C4D format: And here it is imported into TM using datasmith format: It's notable that it comes out very differently in C4D format compared to Datasmith format. It looks like datasmith version has some kind of bump texture applied quite aggressively while C4D doesn't. Also, C4D format seems to have thrown away colour information (it's thrown away a grey colour applied to the main object and a green colour applied to the object in the background. I think it has thrown away the colour I've added to the texture in Vectorworks under 'filter colour':
  19. @zoomer yes, the same happens when I try to apply a TM material to those objects, so I think it's a problem with the imported geometry. When I try adjusting the 'scale' in the TM material settings, it has some sort of effect on some objects but doesn't correct it. I also tried switching projection modes, but also without solving the problem. I've also tried exporting from VW as C4D. This gives better results, but not all objects are correct. Changing 'projection' for the TM material seems to have no effect. Changing the 'scale' for the TM material does have an effect (although the scale is not consistent across different objects, so if I adjust it to be right on one object, then it is wrong where it is applied to other objects). Edited to add - If you tick the "fix UVs / texture" box in the import options in TM, it seems to solve these scale and mapping problems. This is true for C4D or for datasmith exports.
  20. Here is something else that is happening...I don't know if it's a TM problem or a problem with the geometry export from VW or a problem with the texture imported from VW Please excuse the ugly model...this is just a first test attempt in TM! You can see I am trying to take the grey wrinkly texture (this is imported from VW along with the geomtery) from the column and apply it to objects such as the walls and the cut-out man. But the texture is not showing up properly; instead I am getting a kind of faceted pattern. Screen Recording 2021-04-27 at 23.27.08.mov
  21. I'm getting the same problem that others have mentioned, of extrude objects failing to appear, by the way. If I convert them to generic solids then they come through ok.
  22. I think if I collapse by material then I lose the ability to turn on/off parts of the TM model that were defined as layers in VW, is that right? I think I'd probably want to keep that ability for optioning purposes.
  23. Connected to the above is another question I had - trying to work out how my Renderworks workflows can translate to Twinmotion. When I render in Renderworks I'll do it with viewports that often have quite a few class over-rides. This is because I have my various 'materials' classes which I use in the model, and which reflect the actual construction, so that they show up correctly in sections and so on, but quite often in presentation renders I'll want to render them as something different. So, in the renderworks viewport, many of those materials classes have an override to render as some other material. The most extreme version of this is where I want to render something out as if it were a white card model. Then I simply use class overrides, in the viewport, to make nearly all materials (whether they are brick or timber or metal or whatever) render as if they are white cardboard.There might be a few exceptions, for example glass will usually stay as glass. Of course when I do my export to Twinmotion everything appears as the construction materials I've set, with whatever textures they have associated. Ideally I'd like to tell twin motion something like: - any object which has texture A, change it to texture B - any object which has texture C, change it to texture D - any object with texture E keep it as texture E and so on, plus ideally, automatically apply these rules to any new objects that appear in the scene as a result of me updating the vectorworks model and re-exporting it. Is that possible to do - or do I basically have to do this manually, so if I have 30 different textures in the scene I have to go round and replace each of them by hand?
  24. Thanks. I've managed to replace all instances of that texture with one of TM's own 'glass textures'. I note however that if I make some changes to the VW file, so I introduce some new objects which have the problematic VW glass texture, and then I export and over-write the datasmith file, and then I update the import file within TM, the new object appears, but it appears in the opaque form, and I have to go and replace it with the TM material. Is there any way to tell Twinmotion that any objects imported with X texture, it should automatically replace with Y texture?
  25. I've just been making my first attempt at VW > TM using the Datasmith format. The first problem I have come to is that what is a transparent texture in VW (I am using it for window glass) appears to be opaque once imported into twinmotion. Am I missing something obvious? I've attached a file with the object/texture in question. bglass.vwx
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