Jeff Prince

What a legend, we are so lucky to have a humble expert like you Paul. That being said, this thread is about Rhino inside Vectorworks, not a measuring contest.

I'm curious, what are you basing this "most users are in 2D" statement on? I was in manufacturing engineering over 25 years ago, and 3D was required for I.D. and Mech to get a job in industry... Pro/E and Catia were the things to know if you wanted a real job in manufacturing. Computer modeling, CAM, 3D printing, CNC, and EDM were mature and robust tools at that point. The AEC industry was slow to adopt 3D, but that was even common in big companies and government such as Federal Highways and state DOTs in the mid 90's. Even sole proprietor architects who plan on being in business for the next 10+ years have largely moved to Revit or similar. Ironically, BIM has its foundation in Pro/E and Catia, if you want to know the future of Architecture, look back 30 years at the history of manufacturing. The kids coming out of school for the past decade are largely taught Rhino and Sketchup as a primary design tool. 2D has pretty much gone the way of the Diazo machine, and that seemed to happen overnight. Landscape Architects and Interior Designers are usually the very last to embrace technology, and even we have slowly been incorporating BIM and 3D into the majority of our work. The only work product that seems safe to stay in 2D is the illustrative sketch, but even that is threatened by Procreate and such amongst traditionalist. You are a self proclaimed "3D NURBS Modeling Specialist" who has worked for Vectorworks, yet you do not know where Vectorwork's modeling kernels and tools come from? I was under the impression that everything Rhino and Vectorworks uses was licensed from SMLib and Siemens with regard to NURBS and Solids. I could be totally wrong on that though. If Vectorworks bought their NURBS core from Rhino, why does Vectorworks drive like an old jalopy held together by baling wire and duct tape compared to the highly tuned Rhino 😉 I'm 100% certain there will be another great disruption to how AEC projects are digitally delivered within the next decade, especially if there is another global recession. What we are doing today will be archaic by then.

Hey @JuanP or anyone reading this, how does one check on the status of this tracking #?

What training have you taken on using the site model tool? What version of Vectorworks are you using? There have been significant improvements in 2023 that change the way we do a few things.

If you really need good people, you might check these out... https://renderpeople.com Whitemodel with the lines turned off VS Shaded mode. These are the highest quality I have ever seen.

The file you posted is from the Student version of the software. Pros can't open it, sorry.

Hopefully someone with more experience will jump in here. I think you have two options... 1. Make some geometry for the actual light source you want to show and make its material have a Glow. or 2. Use the lit fog effect, but that might be too heavy for this scene

You can upload the file here and someone will convert it for you.

You should post a picture of what you have done and what you hope to accomplish. Probably easiest to render your people separately from your scene and then combine in a photo editor. That way you can turn the lines off for the people. Alternatively, just use ghost or silhouette photo people instead of trying to model them.

@DiggleDesigns based on what I think you described, I threw an example together. Is this what you are trying to achieve? Vectorworks and Blender.mp4 If so, the steps were pretty easy. Model it all in Vectorworks Export pieces you want grouped together in Blender as separate .DAE files, this makes turning things on and off really easy. Import into Blender Position camera Keyframe the scenery rotation. Done. I hadn't tried this prior to today and my Blender skills aren't much beyond knowing how to launch the program... Figured it out during lunch by watching a few tutorials... Positioning the camera: https://youtu.be/0sDZ0zRVn1M Rotate around different axis: https://youtu.be/2RADeCcafCI For future times when you just need a SMOOTH spinning turntable animation of a object: https://youtu.be/6oXkRIN_t0Y Hope it helps.

Paul, this thread is about animation, not modeling... I think we can all agree that Vectorworks is not an animation tool and just includes a few amateur tools that serve mostly to aggravate. In terms of modeling, it is very good for AEC modeling. However, it's never going to be the go to tool for real industrial design.

This is a hilarious response. You come into a thread, offer no solution to the problem at hand, suggest that learning 3D is too hard for most…. and then promote another of your “tutorials” claiming its super hard. Yawn.

@VIRTUALENVIRONS if it is so easy in Vectorworks, tell @DiggleDesigns how to do what he is trying to achieve 🙂 Please explain how to achieve this in 2020+. Apparently, some tools no longer work like they used to. Blender is free, youtube tutorials plentiful, and it’s unlikely they will break such basic functionality. A few hours of learning and you have something that will probably serve you for years.

Once again, the answer is Blender.

Go to the Render tab and change your mapping to something else and then back to what it was. This should fix it. It has been happening for many versions.

It does work as described, you choose to ignore the proper workflow and pay for something you don’t like…. I don’t know what to tell you there bud 😉 A guide isn’t some magical BIM object, Vectorworks just throws stuff you draw on a class and locks it for you. I just put objects I use as guides on their own design layer and manage them myself… more freedom to do what I want with controls I can manage myself.

I’ve seen that before, but I can’t remember the cause. I haven’t had it happen in a long time. Bet it has something to do with the design layer scale or units even though it is on a sheet layer. Did you import a dwg at some point?

Nothing is wrong, that is how the guide tool works... https://app-help.vectorworks.net/2023/eng/VW2023_Guide/Basic1/Guides.htm Lot's of stuff is old and/or hard coded, not following recent developments in workflow like Styles. When using Vectorworks tools, you will find it best not to try to change how it wants to behave 😉

I don't agree with that if you know how to use your working planes and snaps. Far easier to move things in 3D along multiple axis than to be contained to a single plane. @Eva99 Here's a video of how it's done. Text on a wall.mp4

Are you planning on using BIM and modeling your buildings or staying in 2D? Visit Vectorworks University. There is a Core Concepts certification that will get you up and running on the basics of the program in a very beneficial way. After that, you can focus on some of the architectural or interior architecture content and really get the best out of it. For interiors, there is a very strong benefit for using the 3D BIM approach if you intend on doing interior elevations and renderings.

This is one thing I love about the forum. Some random question ends up challenging your assumptions... Investigation leads to new knowledge. I have 2021 installed and it works back then too, I wonder how long it has been possible. Shame it can't be done with Extrude Along a Path.

Holey Moley, you can actually do this in Vectoworks! See attached, redefine the hole symbol from the resource manager and the block and all of it's holes update. You can even change the shape of the hole from round to a polygon, etc... Learn something new everyday 🙂 Holey Moley.vwx

Sounds like a Solidworks feature 🙂 I don't think Vectorworks is capable of such a thing with it's underlying modeling kernel, unless you made a plug-in object.

I don’t do much production work since switching to Vectorworks. I sometimes dabble in Blender now for fun. I would freshen up my Rhino if I had a need and the time to do. I mourn the loss of Bryce. AutoCAD and Sketchup are in the rear view mirror and I hope they don’t catch-up. Revit is still sitting on the dealership’s lot and about as appealing as an ingrown toenail. If I were limited to only one modeling tool to use for the rest of my career, I would use clay or chipboard and ditch the computers.

I didn’t say it was the VWX file, I opened your DWG and it’s fine. See @rDesign’s comment for further clarification.