domer1322

thank you so much for helping out .... as usual, it was something I just didn't understand.

I'm puzzled .... if I put a texture bed in class 'A' on a DTM and then turn off the class 'A', it seems the DTM still shows the texture bed, even after updating. I was trying different options, so I want to have different texture beds on the DTM and easily be able to toggle between options. Is there a method to do this ? Am I just not seeing things correctly ?

Wes: thank you very much ... that was the simple solution I was looking for. It now shows up on the second floor 2D plan view. Sorry I didn't notice that little check box. I can't help but notice, however, that it isn't perfect. If I try to view the second floor only in a 3D isometric view with OpenGL, then the stairway does not appear. I guess it can't possibly work the way I hoped, because if I had both layers turned on, then I'd see a duplicate of the same stair ... unless it was smart enough to know that I only wanted to see one stairway in any view I designated. I need a software program that monitors my brain waves and acts accordingly. (well .. maybe not .. that might crash my computer)

I'm, embarrassed to ask this simple question ..... how do I get a single stair object to show up on both the first floor plan and the second floor plan ? If the stair is on the layer for the first floor, it won't show up on the second floor layer and vice versa. I could put two stairs, one for each layer, but that makes a mess of 3D views.

TomKen your reply makes me feel stupid that I didn't think of that. What a good solution ..... thanks.

UPDATE: thanks, but , it doesn't exactly work well. In a new sample file in VW2015, on a layer without a story, and an "unstyled" wall, I made a simple wall with manually inserted peaks. Then I ran the script. The first anomaly is that the suggested wall height is 253 ft high. Regardless of whether I adjust the 'final' wall height or not, these things occur: the peaks go away and the wall is a uniform height (as it should be) the bottom of the wall is no longer at 0 and I have to move it in 3D space in the Z dimension the OIP shows the wall height incorrectly. For instance, I set the wall height to 8 ft, and I can visually see it is 8 ft high, and the dimension shows it is 8 ft tall, but the OIP shows it with a height of 12 ft. I enter the correct height in the OIP and it might have several different outcomes: no affect; shows in correct height; adjusts the bottom and top to different elevations. I tried to figure out if these anomalies might have something to do with levels and story heights or layer wall heights, and I can not make any such correlation to correct the wall height using the stories/levels. It appears that once I use the command on a wall, the wall is forever corrupted to show incorrect values in the OIP Thus .... this script might still be useful if I get a wall with many peaks to remove, but otherwise, it has too many glitches for me to say it works correctly. But I do appreciate your help.

It works ... thanks .... but now I have to show my ignorance. I opened your file in VW 2015. A "custom palette" dialog box opened automatically. I made a wall with many peaks. Then I double clicked on the custom palette command, and it set all the peaks to the height I entered. Success. BUT ... in that file, I found the custom palette under the menu WINDOW>PALETTES>CUSTOM. I quit, then re-started VW2015. The command is longer there under the menu "WINDOW". So .. how do I load this new command into my copy of VW2015 ? I assume I have to load something into a library, but what ?

thanks ... but .... I could not find that command. I am using VW 2015, so is it possible they might have added that command in a newer version, but it is missing in VW 2015 ? Is there another way to do it ?

I used the command to "fit walls to objects" and the walls properly extend up to the next object (ROOF). HOWEVER, sometimes I make a mistake, and I want to "un-do" it. I find that I select the wall, but in the OIP there is no field to correct the extension. I adjust the 'top bound' to a ceiling or roof, but the wall retains the height it generated after I used "fit walls to objects". i can manually delete vertexes in the walls, but I still end up with a wall that is not the correct height for the top bound. So ... how do I "un-do" the "fit walls to objects" command ? (that is assuming I've made too many changes to use the 'un-do' command.)

Each case is different, and yours is different than mine. My problem was that VW2015 initially worked well on my 2009 MacBook Air. Then, I upgraded the MacOS and Safari and didn't realize until later that VW2015 would no longer initialize on the internet from my MacBook. My older version of VW 2014 still initializes on the internet so I can use that on my MacBook Air. I was (and am still) using VW2015 on my newer iMac with Yosemite (OS 10.10.5) but I can not upgrade the MacOS without also having to upgrade VW. Since I am retired, I don't intend to upgrade VW ... so I'll keep the same Mac OS and iMac until they are dead .... for the sole reason of keeping VW 2015 functional. I still think Nemetsheck is deficient for not making a patch for the internet initialization so I can use VW 2015. However, I doubt I'm the first to have software become outdated and I guess no software company cares about that. In my view, I paid for something and I can no longer use it . i think that is bad practice.

well .... it turns out the solution was to upgrade everything. Nemetsheck will not allow anyone to use it without internet activation. It seems when Apple upgraded their Mac OS, that caused a problem with the VW version activation. I suppose I could try to downgrade the Mac OS, but that simply causes the browser to be downgraded, which makes internet use inconsistent. So ... it is the same story we've all suffered with computers for years .... upgrade or die. In this case, I'm dead. (You are too .... :)

Dave: thanks for the help, but ..... I looked for "caustics" in those places you mentioned, without success. I opened the VW help manual and searched for 'caustics' and returned "no results". I suspect this feature is in a newer version, and not available in the version I'm using - VW 2015. Does that mean that I can not generate the light reflections that I want in VW 2015 ? (as mentioned in the original post). .... or is there another way to do it ?

I tried to set up the glass texture on a window to act like tinted glass with the sunlight bouncing off the glass and then showing up as a reflected light on other objects like the pavement. I've been tinkering but can't find the right settings to show any light bouncing off the glass. I've set the texture reflectivity to "mirror" but that doesn't seem to make the light bounce. (It does make other textures visible on the glass as I would expect for a 'mirror'.) I set the 'lighting" control to allow indirect light (1 bounce) but again, it didn't work. Is it possible to make the texture work in the way I describe ? If so, please tell me the proper texture settings because I'm obviously too ignorant to figure this out. Thanks. (I'm using VW Arch 2015 with renderworks)

I've never figured out how to make a normal brick texture. The ones included with VW libraries are based on images that repeat. I want one that shows normal red-brown brick with slight color variations between bricks that don't repeat. Does anyone know what shader settings to use to make a non-repeating brick texture that looks real (or at least close to real) ? I've tried and tried, but I'm beginning to think it is not possible. I'm only a part-time user, but I recall 10 years ago VW could make a non-repeating brick texture, but when they changed the rendering engine several years ago it seems that it isn't possible anymore.

thanks .... even though the slab drainage features are not included in VW 2015 your help is appreciated. HOWEVER ... it still doesn't function as I believe it should ... you correctly pointed out that I could add or subtract solids from the slab and shape it the way i wished, but, when I do that, the slab changes into a "solid addition" and loses the characteristics of a slab object. Thus .... I still can't shape a slab object in 3D as I would want to do. If I'm missing something, feel free to let me know. Once again ... thanks for the help ... I did learn something.