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broesler

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Posts posted by broesler

    Upgrading from MiniCAD 6

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    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.

    Wonderfully Wacky Behavior

    in Rendering

    Posted

    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.

    Wonderfully Wacky Behavior

    in Rendering

    Posted

    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.

    Wonderfully Wacky Behavior

    in Rendering

    Posted

    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

    Wonderfully Wacky Behavior

    in Rendering

    Posted

    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.

    Mac X.2.6, VW10.0.0->10.1.2?

    in Troubleshooting

    Posted

    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.

    Stopping a rendering

    in Rendering

    Posted

    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.

    VW 9.5.3 quits on start-up OS 10.1.5

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    As a follow-up to the above post, I just tried opening old 8.5.2 drawings with Tekton and Optima fonts directly in 9.5.3 without changing the fonts first and everything came through OK. What version of VW are you trying to open the drawing in? 9.0 and 9.1 were definitely a problem so I finally chucked them and waited for 9.5.3 final + OSX.2 and that seems to have cured the problem.

    VW 9.5.3 quits on start-up OS 10.1.5

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Probably it is the font causing the problem. You are not alone. There were numerous posts regarding this type crash when 9+ 1st came out. The only way I can open any of my existing 8.5.2 drawings in 9+ is to 1st open the drawing in 8.5.2, change all the Tekton font items to some other font, save, quit, and then open the drawing in 9.5.3, and even that doesn't always work. Even if you can open the original unaltered drawing, VW will probably still crash if you make a layer containing your problem font visible (Graphite was mentioned as a problem in earlier posts, Tekton, and Optima may also be problem). If you create a totally new drawing in 9+ and use the same fonts, the fonts don't seem to be a problem. I have finally moved to Mac OSX.2 with VW 9.5.3 and now don't seem to be having any problems with using Tekton and Optima in newly created 9.5.3 drawings.

    which mouse is best?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I'm on Mac using a Kensington 4-button Turbo Mouse. Kensington's Mouseworks software allows programming of the 4 buttons for different applications, including "chording" (press 2 buttons at once). My buttons are:

    Lower left = click

    Upper left - delete

    Lower right = undo (command + Z)

    Upper right = trim (command + T)

    Chord lower buttons = Join (command + J)

    Chord upper buttons = was Extend with 8.5.2, not still unassigned in 9.5.3

    Being able to initiate keyboard commands from the TurboMouse has been a fantastic advantage. I look forward to purchasing the new TurboMouse Pro which apparently adds a scroll wheel to the mix, plus some other programmable buttons which may or may not be useful in VW.

    importing vector objects from illustrator

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Marc-

    In response to your question about why some need to import image files. Most of my drawings are for hotel concept design schemes which almost always include photos of the existing building and/or 3D model shots that have been saved in PICT (Macintosh) format. Also, scans of other drawings or documents may be imported for tracing, etc.

    Viewports

    in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests

    Posted

    I agree. Though the 3D modeling and rendering has improved dramatically since the original Blueprint 4 days, for me the bread and butter of VW is 2D drafting. VW is a great 2D drafting tool. It allows me to create WYSIWYG drawings just exactly as I would if I were hand drafting individual sheets, but with certain really great advantages.

    Ever since VW opened up to Windows users and was taken over by NNA, the basic program is ballooning, and fragmenting, and beginning to forget that the main reason I (and probably many others) originally bought Blueprint and have continued to upgrade. That is, it allows me to do 2D CADrafting better than I could by hand.

    But just like when I was drawing by hand, my sheets are still the same size, I still make blackline prints, blah, blah, blah. We still output a traditional form of information conveyance: the standard "blueprint".

    And so we still organize our drawings with that end goal in mind. And there is where VW shines over any other CADD program that creates a single building-centric database and then extrapolates plans, etc. from the central database: it has organized the data on the sheets EXACTLY as you want the final print to appear. If there is an error, or you want to move something - you just do it. No Viewports, or any of that nonsense - just simple straight forward "draw it the way you organize it" drafting. Remember the old saying: KISS (Keep it Simple Stu...)

    Vectorworks Woes

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    It's early in the morning and I just can't resist weighing in on this.

    First, I believe the comment regarding no difference in "concept" referred to VW9 vs. VW10, not VW vs. ACAD. VW and ACAD think differently.

    Second, regarding presentation quality. VW on a Mac (I have no experience with PCs) is fabulous for what I consider "quality". I disagree strongly with the statement "a line is a line is a line." For example, the line that represents the pavement side of a 6" high curb is different from the line representing the grass or sidewalk side of the curb because the first line indicates a difference in surface heights between the two planes separated by the line, whereas the second line represents a separation between two materials roughly in the same plan.

    A "typical" drawing would usually represent both lines with the same pen (or line weight, width). In my opinion, a quality drawing will go beyond the mere conveyance of technical info such as "where is the curb" by striving to present all relevant information simply and quickly in a visually pleasant manner. To that extent, the use of line weights can convey information about "how far away" something is (which side of the curb is the vertical face) and solid or pattern fills can help identify different materials. By incorporating various line weights and fills you can create a site plan drawing for example where you can instantly determine what's where. No searching and reading to be sure you understand what's going on.

    The visual clues available through the use of line weights, various fills and patterns, and colors also if you out-put in color are easily created in VW. I draw with black and colored lines on a white background. The lines I see on my screen are EXACTLY what prints out. WYSIWYG. Actual line thickness and color, colored and patterned fills, importation of numerous image formats such as EPS, PICT, JPG, etc., and concept differences noted above all add to my ability to create drawings which (hopefully) not only convey the necessary technical information, but are also pleasant to look at, well organized, and easy to read.

    And then of course there's the whole 3D modeling and rendering thing built right into the program. And quite frankly, since most of my work is concept design only, I use VW much like a desk-top publishing program to assemble line-work, art-work, photographs, rendered and shadowed 3D model shots, etc. as required to "tell the story". It's all there in VW.

    So much for a positive rant.

    Epson 1520 WILL NOT BE SUPPORTED

    in Troubleshooting

    Posted

    Christa

    Thanks for your comment. I wasn't sure whether or not I had loaded EPS Ghostscript (probably not because I don't usually print to a postscript printer) so I loaded it just to be sure everything was included, and sure enough, the next time I used VW9.5.3 via Mac OX.2 to print from the Epson 1520 (which has the optional postscript drivers installed, I think) I got all kinds of paper sizes available via the Page Setup dialog box. I still haven't been able to figure out how to specify a custom page size that works, but that's OK because I just chose A2 paper and then positioned my drawing sheet border lines just inside the printable area as determined by test printing an A2 sheet with rulers horizontally and vertically to see where the print area limits are. Finally, I can use this printer again. Anyone with an Epson 1520 other formerly unsupported printer under OSX.2 should check into Gimp-Print. An advantage of the open-source nature of the new Mac system.

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