michaelk

To solve the crop issue: Double click the viewport, choose crop, if the crop object is not selected then select all. Set the pen to none. hth michaelk

You can put your reference on a design layer viewport. (set up the same way, but put into a design layer rather than a sheet layer.) The OIP of the design layer viewport will have controls for layer and class visibility of the reference. Then make a sheet layer viewport of the layer with the DLVP hth michaelk

Andy Most 3D objects remember how they were made. So if your picture frame is an Extrude Along Path, then double click it, choose the path object, and change the size of the path object. If it is a extrusion, double click it to get the original polygon, and edit that. If the picture frame is a solid subtraction double click it to get both the original objects, then double click those objects to edit them... Works for most 3D objects except for Lofts, and filets and chamfers hth michaelk

I forget how it worked in 11... Is the curser changing to a target or cross or something that indicates it needs a focus point for the seats? michaelk

hmmm let's see if this url will link: http://www.landrudesign.com/

There is no light bar tool. You have to either treat each lamp separately or gang them together as a multi circuit instrument - think of them as a striplight. For a scrim you need to create a texture. See the discussion here (and many other places): http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=126756&Searchpage=1&Main=25660&Words=scrim&Search=true#Post126756 Or if you don't want to roll your own, take a look at Mr. Dunning's solution: http://www.landrudesign.com/DefaultFrameSet.htm?VWPlugIns.htm~LandruMnFrm hth michaelk

You're right. Almost exactly 10 times bigger. Try the attached symbols. fwiw, the drawings from the thomas website didn't seem to scale correctly either. You might also check http://fieldtemplate.com/ to see if Mr. Shelly has a better symbol. hth michaelk

I'm pretty sure you can do this on 2008. I don't have 2008, but this works in 2009... 1. Make a record format w/ the fields you want. 2. Attach the format to the symbol. Add dummy text. Link text to record. 3. Make a worksheet w/ a database criteria that references objects w/ the record format. Anything you enter into the worksheet instantly shows up on the drawing. Anything you enter in the data pane of the OIP will appear in the worksheet after you tell it to recalculate. There is no autofill. It's sort of like very primitive excel - you can copy and paste one field at a time. However, each field can have a default value in the record format. Sounds much more complicated than it is. See attached example. Anything you type in fields in Worksheet-1 will show change in the symbols in the drawing. (I really hope this works in 2008 :0) hth michaelk

Maybe I misunderstood Tobias' question. I assumed that he was using VW 2010 and he had one instance of an instrument on a plot that he wanted to convert to a regular symbol. If he has 2010 and wants to insert instrument symbols as symbols, then he needs to manually select the 2D symbol insertion tool after making the symbol active. Of course, anything before 2010 that would be the default behavior. michaelk

Hmmmm. It might not work after all. I tried to download the demo but it doesn't run. Emailed the company and the email bounced back. Bummer.

Select the symbol Modify>Convert>Convert to Group>Don't convert sub-objects to groups. hth michaelk

I just opened it and it seems to be working. It is finding all the objects with the record format requested. All the fields are filled in correctly. Duplicating or deleting objects makes the count change. With the sums removed I can zoom to individual objects. Am I missing something? michaelk

Does it do this with all the constraints turned off? michaelk

I'm pretty sure that the lighting calculation in Spotlight 2010 is exactly the same as the lighting calculation in Spotlight 2008. (At least I haven't noticed any difference.) So if you already have spotlight, getting 2010 won't get you better calculations. And it would be a lot of work to make it work in a landscape application. And Spotlight doesn't use IES data - it just calculates direct beams of light. So it would have a hard time w/ point sources. Does Visual import your .vwx drawing? I was just looking at another similar program that seems to be mac based: http://www.ltblight.com/index.html. It looks like it is a plug-in for VW. No need to leave VW & export... Anybody tried it yet?

Hi Mike Thanks for the tip about right clicking on nothing! I knew about the 2D and 3D things sorting themselves out. That's what I was talking about in my poorly worded last paragraph. But I wasn't aware of the secret right click navigation... Lately I've been drawing symbols that get inserted in walls but don't go all the way through... So I've had to create the wall hole 3D geometry before converting to a symbol, then edit the 3D part, cut it, exit, edit the 3D wall hole component, paste in place. After a dozen or so such symbols I started wishing for a quicker way to move objects between 3D and 3D wall hole component. Lately I've been enjoying having 2D geometry in the 3D part in Layer Plane mode. I did it by accident the first time, and I keep looking for a good application for it... So I'll change my first wish: 1. Move the navigation between symbol parts to the top right corner of the screen along with the Exit Symbol button. And include Insertion Options as one of the choices. michaelk

I'm sure this has been requested before. If so, I'll renew the request now: 1. When editing a symbol, I'd like to be able to navigate between 2D, 3D, 3D Wall Hole Component, and Insertion Options without exiting the symbol and starting the edit process all over again. 2. I'd like to be able to send objects between symbol edit ..."spaces"(?)... the same way objects and be moved to other layers in the OIP. This would be especially useful when creating/editing a wall hole component in the 3D edit space and then being able to move it to the 3D Wall Hole Component space. Currently 3D objects in the 2D space and 2D objects set to screen plane mode in the 3D space sort themselves out in a very clever way w/o any effort on the user's part. But there is no way efficient way to move 3D objects between the 3D spaces. michaelk

I'd like to see the possible fields collapse into their parent record format when editing criteria in a database. Currently, if I want to set the set or edit the database field criteria, I have to scroll down through ____________________________ Wall Data .....10 fields Door .....many many fields Tapered Extrude .....2 fields Window .....many many fields etc, etc. _____________________________ I'd like to see: __________________________________________ Wall Data................(symbol to expand) Door.......................(symbol to expand) Tapered Extrude.....(symbol to expand) Window...................(symbol to expand) etc. __________________________________________ That way I can more quickly find the record format I'm looking for and explode only that one. michaelk

Bruce I think it would make more sense if the classes of the "parent" object either always or never controlled the visibility or attributes of the solid. Now it depends on what kind of solid. michaelk

Bruce Interesting idea for a preference... I like it. But it would necessitate a lot of dialog boxes. What happens when you add or intersect a solid of one class w/ a solid of another class? Or add surfaces of different classes. Every time you do that a new object is created and needs a class assignment. I get the idea that whenever an object is created (including an extrude "container") it springs to life in the active class. Extrudes vanishing when the class of their 2D precedent's (components? parents? is there a term for this?) class is set to invisible makes sense - it behaves like a symbol. Except when it doesn't. In the example of two polygons in different classes that are extruded together in a third class, half the extrude doesn't vanish when one of the "parent" classes are set to invisible. [That would be cool!] It only vanishes when BOTH "parent" classes are set to invisible. So are tapered extrudes not really extrudes under the hood? Because they behave like EAPs and not extrudes when the "parent" class is set to invisible. I agree, Bruce. It doesn't seem consistent. Maybe we need a preference w/ three options: 1 Maintain "parent" classes whenever possible. Ask for class assignment if there is a conflict. 2 Always ask. 3 Use the active class. (current behavior) I bet most people will be happy w/ #3. michaelk

Are you sure you don't have an extra light above? And the point source is at the right height? If you turn off the point source, does everything go back to normal? Is it possible that the layer ambient light go turned on? michaelk

Are your walls VW walls or other 3D geometry? Do they have a texture? If so, make sure the wall textures are set to cast (and probably receive) shadows. hth michaelk

Glad it worked. Rendering is a little overwhelming when you're just starting out. I highly recommend Dan Jansenson's book. It's a little out of date, but really helpful. http://www.imageprops.com/ When you get a chance, it would be helpful if you would add your VW flavor and OS orientation to your signature. Makes it easier to answer questions. michaelk

Bruce I'm glad you brought this up. Lately I've been thinking about it, too. It's even more confusing than that (Let's assume you are always in the none class - or at least not in class 1 or class 2): I can understand why an Extrude Along Path objects do it. If the profile is in class 1 and the path is in class 2, what's a poor cad program to do? Use the active class. Makes sense. If you turn off class 1 and class 2, the EAP is still visible in the active class. Because it now belongs to its new class. HOWEVER... If you draw a 2D shape in class 1 and extrude it, it belongs to the active class. I can see the argument both ways. But what confuses my poor little brain is the fact that making class 1 invisible makes the extrude vanish. Unlike the EAP. So is my new extrude really in the active class or class 1? Even more confusing: Draw a 2D shape in class 1 and another 2D shape in class 2. Select both and extrude. The extrusion is in the active class. Set just class 1 to be invisible - nothing happens. Set just class 2 to be invisible - nothing happens. Set both class 1 and 2 to be invisible - extrude vanishes. Sweeps and multiple extrudes behave like extrudes: the class of the original "generating" object controls the visibility of the 3D solid - which is in another class. BUT... Tapered extrudes don't behave this way. They really do belong to their new class. The class of the "generating" object doesn't control the visibility of the tapered extrude. Lofts are a little different. But they've always been different. They seem to behave like tapered extrudes and EAPs. So... Is the best practice to create 3D geometry in the none class and then assign it to a class? (Because you'll probably never turn the none class off and using another class risks have the geometry disappear while you try to remember what class the "generating" object was in) OR... Is the best practice to use the same class for the 3D object and it's underlying 2D geometry? And that brings us back to Bruce's question. michaelk

Edit Texture 1 > Edit Transparency > Set Horizontal Repetitions and Vertical Repetitions to "Infinite" That should do it. hth michaelk

That's exactly what I was looking for. I was missing step 2. Thanks! michaelk