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zoomer

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Posts posted by zoomer

  1. 2 hours ago, unearthed said:

    Do you have access to Acad or Bricscad, or any dwg editor so you can clean incoming files?

     

    I have.

     

    But if not, it is always worth to bring the DWG in by a shuttle file for examination

    and run VW's Purge Command. And add a Prefix to ACAD Layers when importing

    to get ordered Classes in VW.

     

     

    3 hours ago, unearthed said:

    Make sure your raster files are not at greater pixel densities than your display of them, e.g. 300dpi versus 600dpi. I sometimes degrade high-res imagery, or run a monochrome set for my own use.

     

    Images and Textures or most times the biggest part of file size.

    So beside using wise resolutions, Purge also helps to clean up Resources no more in use.

     

     

    5 hours ago, Chame_liam said:

    One other specific thing that I'm interested in is any modelling tips to keep file size down. I have one particular project at the moment that is requiring more accuracy on the drafting end than anything I have ever worked on. It's an entirely custom build on a super short time line and there's no time for mistakes. So my modelling has been super detailed so I can be as confident of not having fabrication issues as possible. But some of these models are ending up at more than 200mb.

     

    Avoid loading in complex Meshes, especially curved geometry.

    In some cases it may be worth to rebuild these or parts of it by VW Solids.

    Use Symbols wherever a part is used more than one time. Use nested Symbols

    for variants. (E.g. a seating combination Symbol (1 table Symbol + 6 chair Symbols))

    Do as much complexity as possible already in 2D , e.g. for Extrudes, instead of

    later Add/Subtract Solid operations as those may tend to degrade roundings.

     

  2. Better whole VW Files should be universal.

     

    Like DGN

    (or even DWG - although having versions !)

    OK, if you are using latest IFC features that an older version did not support

    it may be a bit lossy in exchange. Such things can happen even in Blender.

     

    Just a warning, that saving could lead to some data loss but being able

    to open a file and show its geometry and data would help a lot.

     

    I also keep 3-4 Workgroup Library Duplicates on disk.

    Basically untouched since 8 years. Just that I migrate a copy each September ....

  3. 46 minutes ago, Jezzer said:

    I do not have access to  any file menus, everything is blank on top.

     

    I wondered about this too.

     

    I read a lot of people missing their Menu in the past - which I never had.

    Solution was to close the laptop lid - but I have a desktop anyway.

     

    Now with 14.4 I saw that too.

     

    But I realized beside the Apple in menu there was still the VW entry (only)

    So I clicked on that and my whole VW menu reappeared.

     

    And I see the same for Bricscad.

    Looks like Apple did a critical change or just created a bug in 14.4.

    • Like 1
  4. Something went deeply wrong here.

    That file is not realistically editable in DWG. Everything lags terribly.

     

    I see only one Block.

    Looks like all fillets got tessellated.

     

    5 hours ago, Magic_4_Forum said:

    I imported the connectors made them into symbols but as each connector is made of around 2-3thousand nurbs surfaces

     

    Seems like this is the problem.

    I think you need to rebuild this with VW Solids from scratch or find a better geometry source.

    • Like 1
  5. If the Wall is really in your most upper Story "R", as it looks from here, as Story R

    being highlighted ....

     

    For the Wall Top definition.

    There is no "Story above" that could deliver the "Top of SLab [Story above] Level.

    Therefore the Level "does't exist" warning and the Wall having an undefined height,

    interpreted/represented as zero height in 3D.

     

    What I do not really understand is the same warning appears for the Wall's bottom !

    As Story "R" does show a "Top of Slab" Level in your Story Settings.

     

    So either the Wall sits on an other Story,

    so you should check if Wall's Story and Story above really have activated/include

    "Top of Slab" Levels. If not add them.

     

    But if the Wall is in Story R,

    something is really strange.

    (Because of the "missing" Wall bottom Level warning)

     

  6. But honestly, as great as Room Plan is,

    the Meshes are such a mess.

     

    I mean a Walls Top Face may only have 4 vertices around its 4 Corners.

    But there may be 2 or more (why at all ?) Wall's Face Edges touching that

    Top Face.

    For me it is mandatory that an Edge sharing more than one neighbored Face

    is divided by extra Vertices, wherever other touching Faces have vertices.

    And of course such shared Vertices have to be welded into a single Vertex.

     

    If you ever try to convert such a VW Nomad Room Plan Mesh Wall into something

    useful editable, like to a generic Solid/Acis Solid in Bricscad,

    such Wall side will still offer 2 or more Side Faces for Push Pull Tool.

    If you try to pull one of the Faces, it is either blocked or will result in a corrupt Solid.

     

    Or Nomad produces single Meshes containing multiple independent/non touching

    Mesh Volumes !?

    (That is fine and a feature in 3D Apps like Modo, but not for Solid Convertion in

    CAD Apps)

     

     

    OK,

    in your case,

    The geometry looked OK.

    (Simple Furniture Cubes Meshes from Nomad where always OK for me too)

    So this crash is very likely a bug to fix.

    But it may also have to do with trying to Edit crappy Meshes in VW Edit Mode.

     

    So I vote for Nomad producing clean watertight Meshes though.

    • Like 2
  7. Maybe because of different color system or gamma output defaults on both systems.

     

    But AFAIR I did not notice any problems between both when I did last time.

    But AFAIK it were C4D Perspective Rendering only. Not sure if I ever published my

    rendered Elevations from VW as a) PDF and b) in a mixed environment though.

     

    As PDF in itself is its own error prone debacle.

     

  8. I tried that just yesterday as I thought that would not be possible.

     

    But it is,

    if you select "export All Sheet Layers" from dropdown,

    (deactivate export to separate DWGs)

    you will get a single DWG with n-times separate Paper Spaces,

    according to your Sheet Layer number !

    Those PaperSpaces (Sheet Layers) do not contain Viewports though.

    Just different scaled Blocks containing editable 2D Geometry.

    Which don't look bad !

     

    Have not tested if it also works by just a smaller selection of all your SLs (?)

     

    ----------------------

     

    I always thought you could either DWG export DLs or SLs.

    But as I see, that way, the Model Space (VW Design Layer) also contains

    some 3D Geometry, but also lots of unwanted 2D stuff.

    But it looks all DL export is pretty arbitrarily, what concerns visibility

    settings or not, real Z heights or just Layer or origin heights ....

     

    But I saw that quite a few objects came in fine as proper ACIS Solids !

    (Not sure why exactly, the other 20% similar objects came in as poor loose

    3D Faces though)

  9. VW's iOS/iPadOS (or Android) App is called Vectorworks Nomad.

     

    And there are some Videos about workflows with VW and Nomad

    at VW University or Youtube.

  10. 3 minutes ago, zoomer said:

    For me that looks like Isometrics !?

     

     

    OK, I think I got it.

    (I do not like ISOs at all as they are hardly legible, at least for anything being partly quadratic)


    That is why, when I was asked for an Isometric, I always drew the right example ..... (60° 30° 90°)

     

    https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60d0dc813cda7940a0359050/0b49b9fb-7330-4b84-ba49-e38cb434ac58/Screenshot+2022-04-06+at+12.11.48.png

     

     

    So, seems I am a big fan of AXOs.

     

    1993-07-05_FHM_ENT_ATELIERHAUS_09.thumb.jpg.093d4110dc324af489ef00f2b674c1fc.jpg

  11. 2 hours ago, shorter said:

    only standard views available are isometric, which TBH, I always found far more appealing than axos which we always found clunky in comparison.

     

    I do not really get the difference between Axo and Iso ?

     

    https://www.archdaily.com/869688/digital-sketch-axonometric-representation/58f1077ee58ece35590001f3-digital-sketch-axonometric-representation-image?next_project=no

     

    For me that looks like Isometrics !?

  12. On 8/3/2023 at 4:58 PM, StagehandPv said:

    For those of you who have moved from PC to Mac, any regrets concerning your Vectorworks efforts?

     

    Not at all.

    I think VW runs on Mac at least as good as on PC, if not better.

    (But honestly I started VW after switching from PC to Mac)

     

    For Mac in general,

    my first years after switching to Mac where absolutely great from 2007 to 2012.

    But honestly all following years seeing degrading of Mac Mini, degrading of OSX for

    iOS/iPadOS compatibility, missing "Pro" hardware offers, "what is a computer ?" adds,

    questionable price worthiness, diminishing support from 3D Software because of Nvidia

    Cuda and OpenGL support, collapsing butterfly keyboards, .....

    Frustration got endless.

     

    But it is ok or better again since Apple's switch to ARM.

    Plus another 3+ years to a finally mature to a M3 (and +) Max/Ultra version of a Mac Studio,

    which should hopefully arrive during the next 4+ months.

     

    But for VW, if a Mac fits generally for you - for VW itself, a no brainer.

    • Like 1
  13. 46 minutes ago, rudybeuc@gmail.com said:

    I still want to use the default level in other places.

     

    Haha,

    no chance.

     

    The Default Level Duplicates even happen when you just edit the Default Level

    height after you already applied it in Stories.

    The Duplicates will only disappear when you deleted/unchecked/replaced them

    for any Story. Once no more used it will just disappear - automatically.

     

    But in your case - if I got that right - you want to change that Default Level height

    just for one Story - but keep all other Stories using the "original" Default Level.

    This way the Duplicate stays in use and no chance to get rid of it.

     

    As I usually also need a way to set delta height offsets for "Default" Levels for

    certain special Stories - and Story/Levels is unfortunately designed that way

    I renounce of using Default Stories completely.

    I just define the "possible Level Names", and assign/add these Levels manually (sic!)

    for each Story by myself - this way I can set the delta height from Story individually

    for each Story as much as I like.

     

    OK,

    may be a quite tedious workaround for buildings with 5+ Stories or more.


    But controlling such duplicates, I managed to have up to 4 of these per Story,

    (together with VW's inability to show or have more than one panel active)

    you totally lose control of which of both would be the correct Level duplicate

    activated in this Story ...... and you can't go out to check your forgotten

    offsets, without the need to leave the dialog.

     

     

     

    • Like 1
  14. It depends on the specific Project, or better how standardized or not.

     

    To be more precise, I delete those Default Levels for which :

    - it is likely that changes will happen

    - these need individual heights per Story

     

    So for a complicated two story residential building + cellar and foundation,

    I will likely prefer to do all manually without any disturbing Default Levels,

    e.g assigning Levels to Stories.

     

    BTW

    I also deactivated any auto Layer creation from Levels, although manually

    attaching a Layer to a Story is also cumbersome, as long as VW adds the

    previous Layer height or other delta height to the Stories height .....

     

    2 hours ago, shorter said:

    and set up our own

     

    Of course,

    already just for naming and spelling.

     

     

    But I also would love to have working Default Levels.

    As long as they are linked to Stories and update Default Layer Changes

    AND

    when there is a way to overwrite these locally in a Story.

    (In a way that it does not lead to multiple same name Level entries in Stories)

     

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