[Inserting Multiple Windows]

With more experimenting, it seems the Duplicate Symbol in Wall tool doesn't work on round walls, just straight. Is this a conspiracy against dome designers? Can you confirm it doesn't work on round walls? That makes it a nuisance to add a bank of windows following the curve of the dome...

[Urgent Help - Walls]

Thank you. So is it only the Wall Type Tool, and not the Wall Tool (for segmented walls)? I only use that and have had the wall type change.

But while I'm here asking about walls......I just discovered that the Duplicate Symbol in Wall tool doesn't work on round walls.

[Urgent Help - Walls]

Can someone summarize the problem and who it affects or what specific actions it affects? I read the above, but don't know what y'all mean by the wall is stuck? Since I haven't yet seen this, I could leave well enough alone, but with my luck, I will first notice it on a Friday eve at about 6 pm when I have to get something to a client by sun eve and can't get any help.

[Inserting Multiple Windows]

Things aren't happening as I expect them to. What's a better way. Have a round wall and wanna create a bow window in it--5 windows total in the bow. Use the window symbol from the sampler resource file, set it to a perfect 90 degree orientation for the building, and change its width to 4'. The question is...how to best place the other 4....2 on either side with perfect spacing? If I use the same symbol, I have to change the width on each. I tried the Symbol Pick-Up mode from the 2D Insertion Tool, but clicking on the window in the wall gives message saying that's not a 2D Symbol. Tried Duplicate Symbol in Wall tool, but that wants to measure from the end of the wall, and I want to offset from the existing symbol. Am I overlooking a tool, or the way one of these tools works?

[Diffuser Label]

When I use the diffuser tool, the CFM label writes directly over the diffuser symbol and makes the label and direction arrow unreadable. Is this intentional or controllable? Same happens with flex duct, supply registers and other tools with labels.

Edit: OK, never mind. There's a handle in the middle of the text that I never saw before that allows the text to be dragged. My bad (though a tech support dude missed it, too).

[ 06-03-2003, 02:56 PM: Message edited by: Cloud Hidden ]

[Walls from Polyline]

Ahhhh, thanks. Always seem to be a version short and a day late...

[Walls from Polyline]

The Objects from Polyline command seems to create walls for every selected polyline in the document, whether in a current or even visible layer or not. That's not expected behavior. I created a bunch of polylines, then moved all but one to a different, hidden layer. VW keeps them all selected, and then Objects from Polyline created walls for all of them in the current layer.

Also, creating curved walls from polys is still a nightmare. The polyline tool lets you create all kinds of nice bezier curves, but the wall tool limits that to simple curves, and the Object from Polyline tool can make a complete mess of the wall--one small s-curve became 58 walls! That's unusable. Even the retaining wall tool lets me create walls that the curved wall tool can't seem to match. Arg.

[Cut and Fill Uncertainties and Error Msg]

Frustrating day messing with dtm and finally punting so I could get something done. Last straw was retaining walls that draw like the right side of the image--tops and no sides. They weren't transparent and they had a texture and I can't figure out what some of those lines are. Replacing them with plain curved walls like on the left. At least I can make that do what I want. Any ideas on that stuff on the right? It all cleans up when I delete the retaining wall. but doesn't show in anything but a rendering. Also couldn't figure out how to create a site modifier based on an existing polygon/polyline, and my building perimeter was too complicated to trace it multiple times with the site modifier tool.

[Cut and Fill Uncertainties and Error Msg]

Seems another key is choosing "Site Model..." and updating it after EVERY change I make through DTM Processor->View Options...

I'd get one result (often goofy looking) when checking a box in the View Options dialog, and then it'd change to a different look when I updated the site model. Finally got the layered look I wanted by remembering to do both commands in sequence, or else I wouldn't see the true impact of a change in the View Options. Could this be a correct conclusion I reached, or just dumb luck?

[Cut and Fill Uncertainties and Error Msg]

>I'm not sure about the bezier modifier, try and simplify it to see if the error message goes away. Fewer edges are always better.

I design domes, so was just trying to match the "cut" to the circular foundation. This one's lots of intersected domes...simplification isn't going to be so...simple.

Thanks on the other answers. I'll try that. VW has a ton and a half of powerful features--stringing them together to accomplish a task is not always so obvious to me, but we usually get it done somehow.

[Cut and Fill Uncertainties and Error Msg]

Trying to figure out the best approach on my first site model. Usually I just create the planes to represent the site and live with that. But on this one, we have to push some dirt around. The general idea is that we have a flat piece of ground. I want to push 2' of dirt back to some safe distance, build the house, and then berm the dirt back against the house behind a series of retaining walls. If I plan it right, the net cut and fill will be 0.

So, I built a huge square DTM at 0' elevation representing the lot. Now what? Do I first cut the house shape and then fill? But how will the fill know to stop at the house? Or do I first "fill" an area that extends to each future retaining wall and then cut the house out of that? Or doesn't it matter? And when do I add the retaining wall? And how does it know to stop the "fill" at the retaining wall and not slope it to the control fence I set up about 10' beyond the walls?

And when I set view to 3D Contours or Extruded Contours, to what object do I apply texture so that I don't just get the contour lines?

And when I use a bezier site modifier, why do I get "A miscellaneous error has occurred (20,2)"?

And why is the sky blue?....oh wait, I know that one...

Thanks.

[Getting an elevation from a rendering]

No, that would have been too obvious...

(I think I have a mental block about that one. And yes, of course it worked. This time I'll write a note for the next time I forget it. Thanks, Mike)

[Getting an elevation from a rendering]

Trying to create a page with a front and rear elevation. Since I design domes I end up having to hidden-line render with a high smoothing angle. The result looks fine, but how do I get that as one of multiple elevations on another page? Since Copy copies all the objects and not just the rendered lines, I end up Exporting a jpg, but that leaves jaggies rather than a smooth curve. So, how do I get the look from a hidden-line rendering with the smooth lines that I can copy somewhere else?

Thanks...

[Smoothing and 3D Section]

Never mind, answered my own question. That was the plan all along, huh?

[Walls that curve out]

Domes again. If the dome is a hemisphere, then I can section it along a wall line and edit the wall top to match the curve of the dome. (Still have the outstanding question of how to not get the polygon lines when I section the dome....posted over in 3D Solids forum) But I have some domes that are more than a hemisphere...say, 2/3 of a sphere. So as I rise off the floor, the wall curves out before curving back in to the peak. But wall objects don't seem to edit that way. The bottom vertex won't move either in or out. And the top corner verticies won't move out beyond the bottom ones. In fact, no point will move outside of the prior points, so there seems to be no way to show a wall that slopes out before it slopes in.

Of course I can make the wall out of an extrusion, but then I give up other useful features of VW, like symbol insertion.

Ideas? Thanks.

[NURBS Sphere]

Does this happen in a brand new empty file where nothing else is in the way? I do spheres and hemispheres all day long and never had one disappear. Does switching views to front, side, etc help it appear? When you first convert it to nurbs, does it at least stay selected so that you can change it's color to see it better?

[Smoothing and 3D Section]

I know smoothing angle affects wireframes. But what's the best way to get the same effect (no polygon lines) when doing a 3D Section of a dome? There are so many criss-cross lines that I cannot see the edges that I need.

Thanks.

[Background during animation]

Like the Background capability better than any of the backgrounds I've tried to create for myself (and especially better than the skydomes, which looked dorky). But if you run an animation with an orbit point, the background never moves, which gives the impression that the house is on a turntable. For the illusion of realism, the background needs to move as an animation moves.

[A Blend Edge tool that works]

I 3rd or 4th that motion. I mess with compound curve buildings and would like to round edges, and it almost never works. Never have figured out when to use tangent faces or what other radius to try when it keeps telling me to try another radius.

[Working Plane confusion]

If ya start a new file and alternate between the top view and the 3d top view (1 and 5 on the numeric keypad), the thicker gray lines that show in the 3d view to signify x and y correspond to the 0, 0 point on the 2d rulers.

Somehow, that's not the case in one of my files. Don't know how it changed, be/c I don't use working planes. Nonetheless, when I Show 3D Axis Labels as a pref, the axis labeled Y is somewhere near -8 on the ruler and the axis labeled X is somewhere near 1. This is throwing off my 3D measurements, and I get fractional dimensions in the info palette, so I don't know if things are at the proper location or not. How do I get that X and Y axis from the 3D overhead view to match back up to the ruler's 0 and 0?

Thanks.

[Solid volumen calculation]

Thanks for posting the script. Coincidentally I had a big need for that very thing just this evening. It's a big help.

Jim

[The Kinko's Blues]

I just had success with printing PDF's to a large format HP plotter at a service bureau, and I have nothing but curved lines in my designs. Came out very crisp. No fuzziness or skipping. It was an HP755 plotter, but I used the Design Jet 5000PS driver without a problem. Make sure that you're generating the PDF to the right size from VW, and not just scaling it up when sending it to the plotter--that's the tip from the service bureau.

[Making .plt or .tif files]

It would be worth asking the service bureau, or even different people who work there, if they are absolutely certain they don't accept PDF's. For months now I've been told that the place I want to use accepts only HPGL and EPS. After calling them for the 5th time today and discussing troubles with each of those, they said, "Oh, we can take a PDF." Duh. Those are a breeze to create and they include the fonts. Sure solved my problem.

[Fix 2d stair break]

I second the motion. Let's vote.

[Scripting File Operations]

Identical frame rates. When you image sequence with QT Pro, you can't choose key frames. Essentially, every frame is a key frame. Thus my surprise that it was so much smaller than even the VW-made QT movie with frame rate of 12/s and key frame every 12 frames. Same compression settings. The sequenced-jpg mov seems to be better quality while also being a lot smaller. Must be something in the way frames are made (images stored) in the VW QT movie, versus jpg's. Wish I knew what, or how to control it, be/c that would be more convenient.