Kurt Magness

use doodle all the time in 10.5, sketch seems to be way better per keven's comments. clients & review boards definately apreicate the "handdrawn look" I have had projects shot down by review boards because of being too hardlined. with sketch or doodle they applaud the drawings, same info, different look. next time I will bring jello for all of them too! it still would be nice to have radiosity & hdri though in renderworks

I beleive NNA is paranoid about recomending anything that could come back and bite them later when a user is not happy with the performance. I beleive the speed to Render a image is based on cpu power. A graphics card would have a effect on speedy redraws like scrolling through a drawing, open gl rendering (walk throughs), game play, etc. So If I it is static renderings you want get the best cpu and a lot of ram. If it is walk throughs then go for a better graphics card. I think 128 mb of video ram is the norm now for games or intensive stuff. there seems to be not that much price difference between cards. nvida or ati have several cards out even a 256 mb card I beleive. most retailers give you a 15 or 30 day return policy if you are not happy.

what office chair are we talking about ? i wonder why it hasn't been removed from the library. What other symbols have this problem ?

mac or pc?

you can use the render bitmap tool to cut down on render time. make saved sheets of your views in wireframe, then just render the area in question.

a draftsperson of mine was looking for a job in LA. she interviewed several places. one place even did the acad speed test. she didn't do so good. she was bummed. thought she couldn't compete. wanted to take refresher coarse in acad. thought vwks was a handicap. she said vwks made her forget all the acad stuff she learned in school. self doubt. then she went to one more interview. Suprise ! they all use macs & vwks! way cool young office. creative types with powerbooks, now she's stoked. better pay too. moral to the story? don't be discouraged by acad speed tests ? practice your acad shortcuts ? hold out for the best ?

they both have their advantages. the shadow casting , & reflections are better using a image prop. I use both ip's and p shop. in p shop i de select the building and then dry brush filter the plants in fore and background. leaves the building more hard edged

comand line interface ? ugh ! sounds likes your on acad from the late 80's, with a black screen and colors showing line weights still. Where's your puck and tablet ? Do you still prefer DOS because it is so much quicker than windows 3.1? As an employer, I am more impressed with people with a broader knowledge of computer software and the ablity to use many programs and to adapt to changing program versions and new features. I hate Acad guys that will not learn new programs and adapt to changing interfaces. It reminds me of the old timers. The guys who wouldn't change to computer drafting when acad 1st came out. Lets all go back to the glory days of ruling pens, french curves, 30 & 60 ? triangles, and drafting powder. You got to be able to learn new tricks in this business otherwise your going to be left behind. Anybody want to buy a parallel bar? or how bout a drafting machine?

thanks i will try it

i know of some employers that do sit you down and test you (timed) on acad as part of your interview. but maybe you do not want to work for a firm that hires you on your acad abilities alone. it is unfortunate that acad is so dominate but lets face it vwks will never replace acad. i would try to stay up on both. As well as photoshop, web stuff, other 3d apps etc. the cooler firms use macs and vwks anyway, engineer types use acad. don't pigeon hole your self into a acad drafter, unless thats what you want to be.

i have been having problems with bringing into a file, image props created in other files and having image props rendering properly. when you create a image prop the program creates a texture for that prop usually called prop texure-1 or 2, etc. But if you cut and paste a image prop from another file, it may have the same prop texture name with another such that the prop renders with the wrong texture. Do you have to rename the texture every time ? I use tree images with transparent mask. some times they render with just a rectangle in gl or final qualty why? sometimes when i make a image prop and create its transparent mask it renders fine but when i convert it to a symbol it renders transparent, with box. is this a class issue ?

how do i get a glass texture in a door or window symbol to show up? i tried in the object info palle,t render tab then selecting a glass texture. also in the info pallet i select glazing syle 1, nothing seems to happen. what am i doing wrong ? could i have a class visability wrong?

Even though VWKS does not support dual processors it still is worth it because the machine just rips on other tasks. like the finder and other apple programs that you wil use every day. I also believe the print center too, such that working and printing at the same time goes fast & smoothly. So while you are working in VWKS, searching the web for info, having photoshop open, printing, multiple windows open on your desktop, etc, etc this is the way most people work these days and a dual processor is well worth it for those types of tasks.

as much ram as you can get. 1 mb at least, get it separately from where you buy the computer for cheaper price. internet is best price. easy to install. When you buy the computer it comes with a video card. so anyother setup is extra. i personally do not like dual monitor setup. gets confusing going back and forth + alot of distance to cover. just get as big a monitor as you can afford. LCD monitors are supposed to drop in price up to 30% next year. the mid dual g5 is a great machine & best price / performance

upgrade to OSX buy the epson 7600 it has pigmented inks ie do not fade no rip or ps or fiery rip required on the epson

your video card most likely is creating this behavior. the walk though tool normally uses the open gl renderer and depending on the complexity of the model, video card manufacturer, how much vram it has, etc. it may just drop back to wireframe. also some video cards work better with open gl rendring than others and maybe the driver may have to be updated. I wuold check it out on a simple model and if it works there then you might see how much vram you have. if it still is in wireframe then it might be the driver. the more vram the better

you might want a 24 x 36 size print sometimes. the 4000 can't do that. it also is really a photographers printer versus a cad printer. Kinda like using a ferrari as a family car. I have a epson 9600 and love it but I use it more for fine art than cad. You might want a 7600 they are not that much more than a 4000 and you get 24 x 36 with it. the hp inks on their "low end" plotters will fade pretty quickly. epson ultrachrome inks are great and do not fade nearly as fast.

no need for a rip with the epson. you can get a ethernet add in card for the epson and then any computer on the network can use the epson. you got to use the eposn card however, not any third party ones. Print processing is done on each computer. if you have recent macs like dual processor G4's or G5's they can handle the print processing and working in vwks ( multitasking ) pretty good such that you will not notice the print processing that tmuch.

oh and some other print servers like the hawking one mentioned above may only work on a pc and not on a mac. Some cable or dsl internet routers like from asante, come with print servers built in. but they work only on a pc too.

usb is fast than a ethernet network which is what I am assuming you mean by getting the hp printserver option. i am not sure if on that model hp would give you a add-in ethernet card to the printer itself or just give you a external print server like a 300ex or something. Either way it works the same and the speed is the same. You can buy used externals on ebay. I have seen them for as low as $50 bucks. you could do this later on if you got more computers. Check with hp for the models of the external print server that would work for your model printer. print servers do not really have memory, they just communicate on the network, so print files do not "spool to the print server" per se, and as such the print file does not get off your computer any faster. some models of large format printers can take more ram or come with hard drives on them which speeds up printing. You might be able to add ram to the 100 but this only speeds up the printer coming from a pc computer. macs do not take advantage of more ram on large format printers from what hp has told me.

check posts below at renderworks11. renderworks is what it is. if your are looking for superior quality stick with strata. if you want ease of use and integration into vwks then check it out, it's got a money back guarentee from our good friends at NNA.

Ditto Shaun. LWA textures too. But how about including them in release R11.5 ? I will be 2nd in line.

A version of renderworks with radiosity, better texture mapping controls, HDRI, etc. the AEC pack from lightworks will do nicely. see post in the Renderworks forum, renderworks 11, for more info.

imported files especially ACAD, always act weird, slow, etc. Native VWKS stuff should rip on your new system, i'm jealous. If you you want to go back to your old setup and unload your new stuff for cheap...

Sean: Thanks for professional response. Yeah, I knew that "5 days" was some marketing guys hype & jive. But I had to throw that in. When Lightworks hypes their stuff as to be so easy to implement and to add the lastest technology ( radiosity?), it kind of makes you wonder whose zoomin who. Other simlimar programs to VWKS (as posted on Lightworks web pages use their AEC pack ( they said it included radiosity)) seem willing to pay the licensing fees and their users get the good stuff integrated right into their programs. My personal frustration is that I have spent lots of money and years following Diehl Graphsoft's and or NNA's recomendations to go to other programs when I wanted a better renderer and have gotten less than satisfactory results. Not with the output necessarily, but with the process to get there. And having multiple programs to upgrade, multiple tech support people, and the all to often line "it must be the other guys program that is causing the problem, sorry can't help you", it gets frustrating and not productive. I like Renderworks and I think NNA does a great job in integrating it into VWKS. And the workflow is smooth and efficient. But as it is now, depending on which program you go to (C4D, Artlantis, Strata, Maya?) you have to be sure to organize your classes per their import recomendations, forget about applying textures in renderworks because they do not translate, convert nurbs to polygons, convert to group your parametric symbols, deal with weirdness in geometry from the import, weird texture mapping issues, scale issues, oops the change the model geometry, back to VWKS, export again, recheck the textures, etc, etc. hours of additonal work. I would rather give NNA the money. I know you guys can do it. It would be so efficent and Lightworks makes it sound so easy, to just hit the Radiosity render button and walk away (for 24 hours?).