zoomer

Unreal and Twinmotion basically were, (UE for "linear" animation work and TM licenses were most times offered for free) but Epic lately communicated that they will change this.

Batch Convert. I usually save the new files to a new Workgroup Folder.

Same here. When I first tested VW I was not able to move or copy anything in a controlled way 🙂 I also wished for that often in the past. Move by Points Tool was reworked some time ago and got much better than it was. For me it is also not yet really there but I can live with it. Opposed to Microstation where I would relocate objects exactly to a wanted position in one go, in VW I will rather copy in X, move in Y, move in Z ..... Or create a helper Cube, move to final position - just to have an autoplane underlay for the rotation tool and such things.

100 % agree. I also miss the Accu Draw compass. (Although it's already more than 15 years since I used it last time 🙂 ) And VW's Wall Tool is the only Tool where SHIFT works locking mostly reliable. Exactly ! Bricscad has a (deprecated ?) ORTHO mode, which basically also locked well, but also switched axes like VW does - which made it pretty useless. The more modern POLAR system locks pretty much reliable with Shift, similar to VW's "T" key .... but also has a tendency to lose locking in some cases. Thank god there is also the "Manipulator", a 3D Gizmo like in VW's SubD Tool, but available everywhere. Usually by clicking a bit longer when snapping/selecting. (You can set the amount of what is longer clicking in milliseconds). AFAIK VW 2024 no offers that Gizmo also for the Manipulation Tool for now, something I do not often need. But it will come to for more tools over time. But that may take a few years. But overall, VW allows me to easier create much cleaner 2D/3D Geometry than in the past with Microstation ! No matter if Accu Draw and manual helper lines and grids, at some point I was slightly off and got ugly numbers. And continuing work and snapping to such accuracies sooner or later pollutes the whole geometry. This is interesting, because when I worked with Microstation and got DWG exports from VW users, from architects and worse landscape architects, these were always inaccurate and I was sure that VW is an App for sketching only and that landscape architects ignore snapping completely. (I still do not snap to imported geometry from clients) But VW allows to show coordinates and angles everywhere, in OIP, status bar, snapping, .... and when you have multi digit resolution but hide trailing zeros, this way you will easily notice ugly numbers early, if something went wrong.

The logic of the symbol may be totally correct ... but I am also not clever enough to use it correctly. I often needed several tries.

I see in my quote, it was hyperlinked before. Maybe an admin cleaned it up ....

Sorry but I think this is just Link SPAM. I remember a similar post on the Bricscad Forum : BTW I already wondered who would ever use Bricscad for sketching !?

I like the BenQ Ergo Arm.

I am also in need of 1-2 Displays. If I would not see problems with 4k displays, I would be happy with the cheaper M8 32" (which mimics an iMac in cheap plastic) You can get it here sometimes for less than 500 €, unfortunately only the pink version 🙂 But the M8 itself is at least not super ugly. Maybe for the PC with a 150% scaling .... (Not sure if meanwhile such scaling would work with Bricscad on Windows, but I expect problems again with Bricscad on Linux) I would be only interested in the Studio Display base model. No need for height adjustment and even less for the coating. (I want to be allowed to clean my screens with any cloth or liquids in reach) So if there is only about 200 € difference, of course I would go with the original too. AFAIK there are 5k monitors from Dell too. My 24 is a Dell. Not as ugly as many others but not cute.

Then you will want/need a true retina Monitor. Samsung has one with similar specs (and look) like the 5k Apple Studio Display. Unfortunately nearly the same price, about $1500. (They argue that the height adjustable stand and glass coating is already included ....) But it will lekely get cheaper over time. And there is the old ugly LG. Retina means that the Display uses the same scale of text and UI as a standard monitor (for 27" this is usually 2560x1440 pixels) but has the exact double amount of Pixels to make everything sharper and crispier. I mainly use my Wacom Cintiq Pen/Touch as upright Display. It has 27" and the 2560x1440 1:1 pixels. I can not see every Pixel but it feels a bit blurry. As I have also a 4k with only 24" for the PC, the finer pixel grid itself makes it lot sharper and I do not want to go back to any 1:1 pixel displays. But the problem is, if you would run 24" with 4k, text and icons would be so small that you would need a magnifying glass. So you need to scale it, best at even numbers, like 200%. This means for 4k that you have retina, but only resulting 1920x1080 real estate left, which is noticeably less space for CAD palettes than I was used with 2560x1600 and Apple 30" Cinema Display or Cintiq, since 2009. And 4k is a pretty unlucky resolution. When using it 1:1, how large would the monitor need to be for legible UI fonts. Around 40" or more. Then you might see each pixel again or it looks blurry. For my 24" 4k, UI real estate wise, I would like a 175% scaling. In my experience that looks still better than 1:1 Pixels, at least on such a small display That makes problems with so many App's GUI though. Even with 150% scaling. So I set it to "save" 200% scaling but give up some real estate. Usually 4k Displays are sold at about 32". For me that would mean that I have to use an uneven scaling for legibility with all its resulting problems. I would not want such a large monitor with 200% retina scaling and therefore only 1920x1080. So the ideal monitor for me would be Apple 6k Display. But that is so far outside of my budget 🙂

I think DWG Import in VW is pretty good. If the DWG has Materials, VW brings them in. (Unfortunately, VW does not export Materials by its DWG Export) So it depends on which App originally did the DWG Export, if DWG contains Materials or not. And if the source offers more file formats for download, some may include certain things while other offer other things or not. So I usually would download or ask for all file formats that I can import and try which works best. In the worst case I try to combine imports or test importing by other Software too. DAE is Collada, which usually isn't bad for 3D either.

We have these Service Voids here too. Not for every standard Cabinet but those who are meant to include devices which need cables or pipes, or those where cables or pipes will cross, like where the sink is and other neighbored devices like dish washers will connect. Often mainly in the lower part only, where things happen. E.g. if there is a drawer on top, it may be able use the full depth.

Yes. I think TM (and Unreal !) Licensing changes are still not final, but so far it sounds like it is a perpetual License, including all updates for a year. But that was basically always the case for TM. (Beside that the gave out licenses for free, for doing early beta testing, for woning a VW license, .... and that I never heard them asking for a next year fee during the last years) But it is not clear if you get the perpetual App for that price (?) and pay the same price for a potential Upgrade/Update after a year, which feels a bit like a subscription payment - while keeping the perpetual character and access to your data. Or if you will get update discount prices ? Everything is a bit vague.

I would love to have a all in one App. Around 2009 I did so for some larger projects by doing all in Modo. That was a great and enjoyable time. I was already fit enough in Modo to be fast. No more lossy export/imports, redundant 3D Models, .... But somehow I really have a love for CAD and missed it again. Volume Modeling, Precision, .... And in 2014 I switched to VW and was even more intrigued by parametric Modeling with VW PIOs. So I switched from Modo to my redundant Cinema License because of better exchange with VW. And when C4D Exchange finally worked after a couple of VW releases, lossless Exchange was reality anyway and VW + C4D a no brainer. But what I would miss in VW and Cineengine - without a C4D, is NOT so much the missing or limited C4D Renderer and Material features .... (AFAIK Archicad does offer the full package since they also integrated Cineengine) It is the standard Visualization comfort features of 3D Apps. Things like being able to easily save a screen rendering. Or the flexibility of C4D's Render Takes System to batch render and "publish" versions. Or the ability to calculate and save images at a certain resolution by a given Pixel amount, and all such things. In VW this all is still a pain. Paper oriented, Imperial driven, DPI thinking, inaccurate Paper Sizes, ... So I do not see that happen for VW. And C4D personally deprecated since years since being subscription only and latest experiences with my last C4D R21 and VW 2022 (?) and newer weren't very good with Exchange anymore. I think Enscape Plugin would offer great "Exchange" with VW, since it has Mac support. But that is now Chaos Group and subscription only, so deprecated even before being released too 🙂 So for me it will also mainly lead to VW to Twinmotion (or Unreal). But I do not have tested enough if Datasmith Exchange would really work reliable for me. And if I ever need to go for an All in one App, I think I need to go to Blender(BIM). Which would cover both of my priorities, BIM and VIZ.

Yes, it is always 30 years from now. Very easy to remember.

I do not get crashes when quitting VW 2024. (That was more a Bricscad thing in the past) But I see that VW 2024 will not free the memory when you just close the file .... I have to close VW first, if that memory is needed for another App.

Am I the only one or does it make sense that I get always all messages with 2 copies !? And is it really necessary to ask for confirmation when I want to delete one ? BTW, maybe it has to do with my settings ?

OK OK, something to consider. But on the other hand, nowadays, 5 GB VRAM isn't that much. (E.g. on my PC I upgraded to a RX6800 with 16 GB VRAM, 2 years ago) And I read of Enscape projects not loading and their Forum Support said the model does simple not fit into GPU VRAM ... But anyway, 1. it worked with the Rhino workflow before already on your machine 2. this VW project does open, just it takes long time So It hink we can exclude the redundant 3D geometry problem idea .... Everything of your custom plant symbols sounds reasonable. The 2D Symbols do not look like they could cause any problems. But I am not sure if putting Enscape assets into another VW Symbol container could cause issues. As these are already Symbols (?) Unlikely though, as it would just be like other nested Symbols .... So, (so far), also not the problem. And I think it should not be problematic to finally use 20-30 or more assets. Especially if these are specifically from Enscape. I would do a test. If you create a copy of the file and delete half of the plant instances, would it load in 7 instead of 15 minutes .... or much faster .... (Or maybe also test by delete the city model to narrow down what works and what not) Or do have an option to test the file on a Desktop or more capable machine ? So far I am running a bit out of ideas ..... I think the Exchange will only load what is currently visible in the Viewport ........ So you could just switch of some unneeded Layers or Classes temporarily or create some Saved Views if you want to switch between such visibility setups later again.

When I read this my first though was, maybe it is a very big Model .... And it looks like it is. Does that mean that similar large projects worked with Rhino to Enscape flawlessly ? On your current hardware ? What are the hardware specs exactly ? What I mean is that complex projects very likely could lag under limiting Hardware. If such possible limitations can really be excluded it would be more likely that the problem has really to do with VW to Enscape exchange. But it could also be a file organization problem. Like not effectively using Symbol/Block instancing. For me, coming from VW/Twinmotion, embedding Enscape Trees inside of the VW Tree Symbols, looks a bit strange. I would have expected that VW Tree Symbols get replaced by Enscape Assets in Enscape. So for now I would think that the Plant Symbols containing both geometries, may cause some redundant geometries or general problems inside Enscape. But maybe there is no other way to organize the Plant Symbol replacement for Enscape exchange (?) I think the number of Tree "Instances" in File is not primarily the problem. It is the number Tree types you use. E.g. if you use 8+ Laubwerk Trees, it can already slow down VW itself significantly.

BTW, when I was young I was happy to have a real middle mouse button for CAD. Meanwhile, since getting a MMB again by my CADMouse I am even more motorically overwhelmed by it. Still don't know which finger work best. And will get rid of, hence the switch to a mere standard Logitech Mouse. As the MS Intelli Mouse years showed, as long a the scroll wheel allows a comfortable and reliable MMB click, it is even easier and faster without a real MMB.

As you do 3D, do you start the flyover tool to rotate the 3D view ? While others love shortcuts, I am also a notorious Icon clicker and my mouse curser may travel 5 times as far a day this way as their's, But View Navigation for me worked everywhere directly with Mouse and a few single keys. So in VW this is a bit harder ... ahm ...harder coded, so flyover fails without a middle mouse button and zoom fails without a scrollwheel.

OK, I could click the "X" on the keyboard to deselect and reset tools. But Fit View is a bit more complicated 🙂 I prefer to have that on my mouse buttons (and/or Space Navigator buttons) as usually Mice have these Backward/Forward buttons anyway. And for Bricscad I set them accordingly to ESC and Fit View. Similar for 3D Software. So I have everywhere the same haptic and do not need to remember each App's keyboard short cuts. Currently I try the magic mouse, which feels slow. I checked and have already max speed and even acceleration activated. Really a pity that my MadCatz does not work on Mac. It has the best Mercedes/Maybach solid click sound and feeling I ever experienced. Unfortunately, without a driver, it must have some non conform signal output, which is no problem on Windows or Linux but on Mac it will somehow e.g. not auto expand Menu entries when hovering. I also do not understand why macOS still ignores any extra buttons on a Mouse. Even for this basic behavior you need already a driver suite. OK, the 3DConnexion CADMous is so non standard that it even does no basic right mouse clicks with out its monster drivers.

Also no lags with VW Icons/Buttons here. But how do you temporarily orbit your View ? ("Flyover Tool") And how can you live with out 2 Thumb Buttons for "X" Selection and Fit View ?

Ah, could be that capped T-Mode is sometime necessary to force a butted connection, like in cases when Walls or their components do not use the same height levels .... But AFAIR, join same Materials, brought a desired non-capped Top Plan result anyway .... (?)

I usually try to do this with endless playing with Wall Component Connection Tool. I did not ever have a VW Roof so far but different Wall Height situations anyway. And with endless I mean that I can play easily 2 hours on a single Wall Connection. But it is interesting that in most cases you will get to your desired result at one point. Which means that already the overall Wall Connection type is important if it will work or fail. And you usually have to try all possible sequences and directions and all kind of capped or uncapped options.