broesler

mike m oz- Thanks for the directions, but I can't get that to work with OS10.2.8 and VW 9.5.3. Is there something I'm missing. Thanks, Bob Roelser

Command + up or down arrow key will change the active layer. Is there a keyboard shortcut for changing the active class?

Try this- Assuming the background you want to elimate is pure white, paste the image into your VW document, then using the Attributes pallet, set the Object (your image) fill color to None. This should make the white background disappear.

Kevin certainly has a point about "surprising" your dad, but I say "go for it". "IT" being VW11 with Renderworks, but not VW Architect or any of the other industry specific packages. I too go back to the MiniCad days and really appreciate the straight forward 2D drafting this program has always provided. He should have no trouble coming up to speed and will enjoy many of the improvements since MC6. On the other hand, I have found NO use for VWArchitect. Please, do not attempt to move him from Mac to Windows though. That is a move he will probably resist, and thus possibly not be able to take advantage of the software improvements. OSX is fantastic.

WOW - that does work. Setting the fill of a bit-map image created by the Render Bit Map Tool to NONE, does indeed eliminate all the white pixels - rendering the non-object areas of the image transparent. THIS IS GREAT. Thanks for showing me how to achieve this effect whenever I want. I still don't understand what caused the behavior in the first place, but I don't care.

Dave- Thanks for the explanation. I'll try that - but I will be most interested to try it in reverse. If setting the fill to NONE eliminates the white background pixels I normally get, that will be great.

Dave - Maybe I don't understand your question correctly. When you state "the rendered bitmap object's fill is set to None", I assume you are refering to the 3D model object. When you you say "When bitmaps are drawn with a None fill..." , I'm not positive I understand this. Does the Bit-Map render tool have an option I'm overlooking, or are you again refering to the 3D model object. As far as my model objects go, no doubt about it, all model objects are solid fill or textured. The basic "transparent rendered" behavior I'm describing is not about what happens to solid 3D objects, it's about what happens to the background. The "sky area" (the background) degraded over time to the point where it rendered transparent rather than a rectangular-bounded area where the non-model areas (sky) are white pixels. The fact that areas within the model where the specular high-lights create an all white pixel also turned transparent (and by "transparent" I mean: there is NO PIXEL of any color, that area is transparent) is simply consistent with the rendering engine turning what should be a white pixel background into a transparent (non-existent) background. I am not complaining. I'd love to be able to reliably reproduce the behavior. The final effect was identical to a bit-mapped image with an alpha channel mask hiding the background.

Dave- All the model elements are solid fills or textured. The transparency only occured where the final pixel color in the bit-mapped image would be white (background, hi-lights on white glass street light globes, white lettering in full sun, etc.). Katie- I'll have to check out whether transparency was enabled via ViewCustom RW Option or not. I'm sure it was because I want (and have) somewhat transparent glass, but what would that have to do with non-object backgrounds becoming transparent? And oh yes, I certainly did a lot of quitting, restarting, etc. as I progressed. I've been using MiniCad and VW with rendering for 6-8 years now at least, so I'm pretty familiar with the applications. This strikes me as a hardware/software interface memory problem. Thanks for the replies. Bob Roesler, architect, Memphis

Now that the job is done, I have time to describe a bit-map tool rendering behavior I found both frustrating and brilliant - if it can be harnessed. Dual 400mhz G4, OS 10.2.8, VW 9.5.3, 832mb memory. 27mb 3D architectural model at 1/16" scale, no background. Various views set by Save Sheet with Layer Links. Normal behavior when using Bit-Map tool is that non-model areas - the background - will render as white pixels and when the bit-mapped (raster) image is copied and pasted into Photoshop, those white background pixels are there, they are white. OK, that's normal. Now for the Wonderfully Wacky. I'd been rendering my final images when I started to notice a single light grey "scan line" appear in the otherwise white background. Sometime later while rendering a different image, the same line appeared again, only this time is was black and there were several of them. As I rendered away numerous times on my five final views the backgrounds continued to erode until at one point, all white areas in the image (including those "white" areas even within the model image) were rendering as solid black. TALK ABOUT FRUSTRATING!!! I'm at the end of this project and now all of sudden my rendering engine goes haywire. FORTUNATELY, I was pasting into Photoshop for file size reduction and other modifications when I noticed that the areas that rendered "black" when they should have rendered "white", were not black at all - but TRANSPARENT. I couldn't believe it. The ability to bit-map render with transparancy. So what is it? A bug? An Opportunity? Stikes me the behavior lies in the rendering engine memory (or memory leak). Could my video-cards (I have 2 monitors) have anything to do with this? Oh yes, I certainly did all the normal things like Restart, higher and lower resolutions, etc. as the problem progressed.

Since I happen to doing a shoji paneled gardening pavilion at this moment, ditto on Shoji paper

Make sure you have the 2D Selection tool (arrow pointer) selected. I find I can't move something all the time, only to find I have somehow deselected the 2D tool.

BrianMedMan- Don't give up on Mac because of Epson. OSX and its developer community are so good they provided us with a free work around via GIMP-PRINT. Look it up. It works great. I use my 1520 with OSX.2.6 and VW9.5.3. My color pallet had to be completely reworked, but that's better than no printer at all. Personally, I find VW is the one drifting off course. Except for the OSX compatibility provided by VW9 (and then not effectively until 9.5.3) I would still be using VW8.5.3. The problems I saw with VW9 and now read about with VW10.whatever keep me from moving to VW10.

If you are on a Mac (and maybe PC) using the BitMap (?) tool, press Command + Period. It usually doesn't stop it immediately, but it will stop the render. I don't know if it works for other types of rendered output. This is a standard Mac interface command for interrupting a process.

Dual pretty please.

Gremlins? We always chalk such things up to ELVIS!