Jeff Prince

Have you watched the VWX Uni course "REFURBISHMENT WORKFLOWS: CONSTRUCTION PHASING USING RECORD FORMATS AND DATA VIS"?

….With records and data visualization. I can’t see and advantage to having 3 different versions of a door style just because of a change in status. I think this is even better than classing or design layers for showing status of items because in addition to having graphic control for different drawings, you also have reporting functionality, such as how many linear feet of wall will I be demolishing. How many new doors am I buying vs repurposing, etc…

You should check out Vectorworks University. It has an excellent collection of landscape tutorials and finished projects you can download and inspect.

9 times out of ten....

Weird, I saw my post earlier, but the video wasn't there. Now it's back in the quoted text above as well. Mysterious internet 🙂

Was the video link I shared deleted? If so, why? Here it is again.. https://youtu.be/ne1eIMHCuUo

@KIT KOLLMEYERyou have a "slope dimension" object hanging out really far from the internal origin. Delete it and your problem will go away.

I was speaking more about the visual proportions than the the actual dimensions. It has a more savanna like form than say something like an elm tree, hence the shadow.

It seems the odd visual is due to a couple of factors. 1. Low sun angle casts long shadows. so when the... 2. Plant is wider than it is tall, the 2nd face of the image prop renders beyond the top of the expected elevation view shadow. Exacerbating the problem is... 3. The tree is asymmetrical and the base of the trunk is not centered in the image. This makes an odd artifact where the tree hits the ground as two multi-stem trunks are rendering some distance apart. This can be fixed to some extent by redoing the texture to center the truck in the image. I think it is one of those things you live with. If you need a more accurate depiction, there is always 3D plant geometry, but that is pretty heavy. Or Lobby VWX to allow for crossing planes to be turned off 🙂

I always thought @zoomer was quick, but didn't realize he is actually from the future 😉

@Michael Siggers glad you found a solution that works for you. Here's how a hardscape behaves using a Material to represent the "mat" and lines. Works in Vectorworks as hardscape Shaded or Renderworks Works in Twinmotion, presumably would work in Lumion. I think I would use the hardscape method if I was generating plans as it brings the workflow into alignment with other Vectorworks processes for sections and such. If I was just rendering it, a decal applied to a simple rectangle would be quickest.

@JonKoch i can take a look at it if you post the file. I was thinking like Pat and Tom initially, but I think there is something else going on here.

You could operate your work computer from home using a remote desktop application. This works extremely well if your company has good internet connectivity, but should be okay even if they don’t since you are just rendering. I spec’d a high end workstation at my last office that was accessed by many people, one over 100 miles away, as a shared resource.

what is a cricket lane? This looks like a portion of the pitch for the field sport cricket. Is this the case? If so, use hardscape objects. I’m going with that assumption…. Yeah, use hardscape objects and do some virtual construction. All the dirt looking stuff (presumably infield mix) is one hardscape style, including substrate. All the green stuff is a different hardscape style (presumably turf) with its unique substrate. The lines are then floated on top of the “dirt” with a simple surface made from 2d curves converted to NURBS surface(s) or simple extrudes and make them auto hybrids to display in 2d correctly. That’s how I do parking lot and athletic field striping. It looks good on plans and renderings. the rendering below uses this technique for the white stripes. They are floated 1/2” above the paving for this distance, less if the camera was closer and model smaller in context.

@Benson Shaw these little easter eggs are littered throughout the program. This one is particularly bad though since turning it up past 100 = 0. The other "Plastic transparent..." series is incorrect, except for the "Plastic Transparent Polyethylene RT", which is actually transparent as the name indicates.

There are a few strategies you can use. Options.... a. Place your site models for each level in separate files and reference them into you main file. a1. Place your site models for each level on separate design layers and carefully manage site modifiers, plants, etc.... b. Create your site model for a particular level, make a copy of it once you are happy with it. Ungroup the copy and you will have a nice mesh of the site model to use. Repeat for each level. The intact site model will serve as a backup in case things change. c. Use the Subdivision or Loft tools to develop a surface for each level. It's a bit hard to see exactly what the desired final result is here, but one of the above techniques will get you where you want to go. Site models are easier to texture with sketched or other graphics with the bonus that plants and landscape areas will find their correct level. I would use option A personally. Some related techniques you might find helpful....

Did you try the photogrammetry option in Scanniverse instead of lidar? I have found it creates a better result than Nomad.

This video is probably the best I watched for explaining things and showing results in a fairly clear way. Check it out and you will see that the real magic is rapid shape development with SubD and then adding features with NURBS and Boolean operations. The combo approach leverages the best of all worlds to get to the finish line. Vectorworks does similar work with SubD and NURBS, it's just the VWX toolbox is missing a few of the fancy tools in found in Rhino.

/\ That’s a forum post and an opinion, not an official position of the company… The full discussion and quote can be found here: https://discourse.mcneel.com/t/when-to-use-nurbs-vs-subd/125395 thanks for sharing the Rhino car video.

Just for the record, you attributed Virtual’s comment to me. He’s the one who tried it years ago 🙂

This is not true. Both are equally accurate. In fact, some softwares allow you to go back and forth between NuRBS and SubD. Think of SubD as parametric objects defined by linked NURBS whose resolution can be changed on the fly. That is why SubD is so powerful, especially when developing a design concept from scratch. You need to try this so you understand the massive advantages clearly illustrated in my video. You can 3D print or machine a physical object from a SubD representation and it will be equally accurate to the same surface generated by NURBS. So… vs Rhino eh? In your last post with the two cars…. How do you know the Rhino car was mot made, at least in part, with SubD?

That's the recipe for stagnation and sadness. I look outside my disciple for inspiration every chance I get to keep things fresh. I have used SubD twice now in my entire existence. Once to do that stealth bomber linked earlier(Vectorworks) and now this showerhead (Rhino). Clearly I am the utmost authority on the subject now 😉 I haven't used Rhino in over a decade and had to install the program and relearn the interface and tools I was interested in prior to taking on this showerhead. Even with all that drama, it's so much easier and faster to model with SubD in Rhino than Vectorworks. More options, more control, faster operations. I find the same to be true with NURBS modeling, there's just more options in Rhino for surfacing. You need to do yourself a favor and take another look at this SubD workflow, it's really the NURBs killer when it comes to interactive shape making IMHO. I suppose if you are starting with the answer and not actually designing, cross section lofting is OK... ...but it's just not as much fun as SubD sculpting, especially in Rhino 7. Rhino even has a nice little animate along a path tool with some different rendering options. Here's a video of making the shower head out of two SubD spheres and Bridging them to create a single continuous surface. I'll have to record the handle sculpting again, forgot to restart the screen recording. rhino2.mp4

I’m finding more and more that people want to come together in person rather than do online stuff. We are social creatures and there is something special about the collective energy in a room that can not be replicated through a monitor be it a meeting, play, or speaking engagement.

You could do this by setting criteria in the worksheet, but that could be a lot of work if you have many rooms.

I would probably just list it in specifications and have the contractor provide shop drawings 🙂 In all seriousness, I think SubD is the way to go with this kind of stuff. You should treat yourself a few hours by watching the tutorial and playing with it a bit, I think you would enjoy the process. It's a very liberating workflow for sculptural forms. Here's the first thing I ever made with SubD. 1/2 that plane is a single object! SubD is the future and the future is now.