Damon Design

I think it would be easier to discern what plane VW is automatically constraining or snapping to when in an orthogonal view while moving in 3D. I've noticed particularly when dimensioning in front views that I sometimes will get a point well away from where I think I want it to grab with the new automatic plane feature with other objects available to snap to in a 3D model. Obviously, have to now remember to toggle off auto plane occasionally. As a workaround sometimes its just easier to pop a loci on the plane you wish it to constrain to if there is no object snap point for VW to pick up on in that area.

I think these are especially legitimate questions. As others have pondered, is it just the designer who now must research, process and then include for all potential users in the building's lifespan this now vast amount of building information about it? Will we be able to be compensated for these new requirements and data and all the time inherent in providing them for these potential users- and now do we also increase our potential liability by having so much of the information demanding to be included at the front end of the process by us? I'm just a small-time residential designer mostly but I can see these issues percolating down even to our slim margins. Again- this becomes a little off topic so apologize to OP.

If you are talking about snap hints hit the "y" key; it toggles hints on and off, I've accidently shut them off many times.

Yep, I'm finding my 256mb of VRAM a bit sluggish, with odd graphics behavior and such on my now seemingly out of date just two-three+ year old machines. Hate that. Do not have the money to upgrade, and machines (IMac/Powerbook) cannot easily be upgraded with a just new video card (right?) but definitely will go for the 1GB when I do.

That's exactly how we were taught windows should look like in a simple rendering in architecture school. Just saying'.

The connected faces feature works only on roof faces, not a roof created as a whole entity. Get all the elements on the original roof as close as possible to what you want with the final roof with the OIP functionality (facias, attics, soffits et...) available with a roof, copy it to refer back to it and then deconstruct it to roof faces to use the connected faces feature.

Screen plane is as if the elements are drawn right on the screen of your computer and stay there on that screen orientation regardless of different views. Layer plane is when the elements are drawn on a defined plane- a ground or floor plane in architecture, or otherwise defined for elements which are easier created on plane of a different orientation- whose geometry follows the orientation in 3D space of that plane when the view of that plane is changed.

Enable your wall insertion mode in the mode bar- the "button" just to the right of the scaling mode buttons.

We call that a jerkin head gable or clipped gable around here.

I think that the 15 "styles" that you mention are just class styles for you to apply graphical attributes (colors, textures if you have renderworks etc...) to the cabinets, they don't change the cabinet construction at all.

It looks like you also have some distinctly different graphic attributes between some of the elements which might exacerbate the problem. I think we have all dealt with this issue, it seems like it is getting better, but I admit it is not perfect. A couple of tips that I have found can solve some of what you are experiencing: -Use the Modify>Align/Distribute tool- works way better than trying to zoom in 1000s of times; use the inherent precision of the computer and application with those tools, if you invoke align, it will align exactly- also include the power of the "lowly" locus tool and the snapping constraints as opposed to "eyeing" it, find and snap exactly to a point, use the locus to lock on/move away exactly from and snap the geometry of the elements together to precisely positioned loci instead of element to element. I've also found to exaggerate the positioning (movement away and then back to) of elements to each other (or positioned loci) invokes the snapping and precision I'm looking for. Sometimes you have to override what might be the actual construction of the elements to achieve the display you are looking for, i.e. pulling away an element embedded into another just a tick will give you that line at the changes of planes between those elements.

Did the interactive appearance settings graphics change without me noticing recently? Everything seems to work except for the pre-selection "coloring" of an object with a relevant tool- I can see the subtle dashing of the edges but no distinct change in color which is helpful to highlight the object. I have reset the interactive settings and experimented with customizing that setting but cannot discern any color. The other interactive settings seem to work fine and the customization of them is readily apparent.

I'm really enjoying this discussion and the submittals of all the different examples as well. I thought I was the only one who has sometimes struggled with setting up an efficient and high quality rendering scene. The recently released rendering tips resource from NNA should be helpful. My opinion so far is that VW 2011 seems to have (or at least in my thus far toggling with the parameters) a slightly softer, though more realistic quality. It does seem to be a bit faster on my now getting old and out of date machine with most settings. Although I did some renderings for a commercial interior design firm with a two story lobby with lots of glazed walls that needed to be blurred a bit and that wickedly slowed things down. I think if I was to do that often I might put another wall with a very soft blue/gray color behind the glass textured wall with no blurring to approximate a look of a more opaque glass. Thanks again for the discussion.

Create another design layer and put the objects you wish to make more transparent in that layer, turn your view>layer options>show others and then choose the gray visibility option for that layer- make sure the other layer is active.

You can also use kind of a combination of bcd's and CipesDesign and use the door tool to create the cased opening, figure out the individual leaf size for the number to fit in the door (even divide tool) and make one door with the leaf parameters you want, convert to group, get rid of jambs and frame, group, duplicate and position in the RO and then create a symbol. You can create and use other sliding and/or folding doors with the same leaf size off to the side as templates to help you position the leafs like you want and then get rid of them before you create the new symbol.

I've found it pretty quick and easy to just have some "2D only" classes that are on in top plan view and off in a 3D view. Some elements that you create for a 3D model or elevation just don't look graphically correct, clear or even necessary in a plan view. Since there are so many class options for some of these symbols or plug-in-objects, I find it easier to just place them in a class that I will turn off for the floor plan view and just quickly knock out a few lines or polygons in a 2D only class to clearly represent them in a plan view only.

Duh! That was it. The more choices we get in customizing the visibilities and other attributes the more likely a long time user like me forgets to check all the new capabilities and options. Thanks bcd

I am flummoxed by the simplicity of this issue but I am unable to make my section viewport show the section style- even the default red. I was working on a complex model and thought it had to do with the 100s of classes from the base DXF drawing but created a new document, one layer, default two classes and made a simple model, invoked the create section viewport command with new sheet layer and the section shows up with the hidden line rendering, the new section style class is created but not showing, just showing as if no cut is being made, all classes are visible and solid. I know this is stupid simple but can anyone help? Thanks

Done.

Thanks for the workaround bcd. This does seem like a bit of code that shouldn't have been added. Since replacing a generic unstyled wall to a styled wall and then replacing it back to an unstyled wall leaves a wall with components and limited OIP edit-ability (locked thickness) that I don't want or need for schematic design/presentations; you can't really get back to a simple unstyled wall with full edit-ability. It seems that I actually have to convert a generic unstyled wall of the thickness that I want to a styled wall, add a "nothing" component with a fill of the same thickness to get back to the display attributes of a simple filled wall with no components- if I want to use wall recesses. Take this limitation that didn't exist before out!

Updated to VW 2011 SP2 (need to update my signature) and a project I am working on, with a distinctive feature wall that the whole design relates to (and about ready to present to clients) is showing the extruded objects that were used to create a wall recess, yet those objects are still showing as a wall recess in OIP edit mode, but not able to hide the geometry nor create a recess. Fiddling with line and fill attributes does not help- nor should it since the recess object is supposed to disappear after invoking the command, visible only for edit modes. New wall, new object to create a recess also does not work. Wall projection seems to work fine. Anybody else having this issue? Edit: Exporting to VW2010 the wall with the recess is showing correctly.

I was just doing some training yesterday for an interior design firm and had this happen to me. I was trying to create a door in a file that was imported from a DWG and nothing was happening, looked into the resource browser and found an object named "door", renamed that and the door from VW plopped right in.

Or, use the auto-dormer feature to get the geometry and elements as close as possible and then convert to group and/or ungroup to edit elements that are not available within the roof/dormer object OIP. Edit: Sometimes the resulting group is best used as a template to elements created as Wes suggested, since ungrouping can remove wall, window and roof definitions and that flexibility. I always make a copy of the roof or dormer before ungrouping to have something to refer or use again if I need to.

Got it, I think, you render first at VW settings and then export and it renders again at the set (2000 pixels size in you case) setting? Thanks

Those look great! When you say approx 3 hours to "export" at 2000 pixels across, what do you mean exactly, where is this setting and where are you "exporting" to? Thanks