Cloud Hidden

When mixing scripting of renderings and either QuickTime or other image creation, there's a lot of wasted time. First I have to get the image to render on screen, and then it has to render for the file creation. I've been told that some of the on-screen render included calculations necessary for rendering to a file, but I'm wondering how much. If I cmd-period to stop the on-screen rendering as soon as possible, I still get a good export. It seems that the main reason to have to do an on-screen render is just to let VW know that you wanna export that, instead of an OpenGL image or wireframe image, etc. If so, then the actual time to do the rendering on-screen is wasted as part of a script (or even if just exporting an image). So my wish list is for a way to export a rendering without having to draw the whole thing on-screen, which effectively doubles the run time of the script.

Is there a coherent explanation somewhere on the differences in which jpg images of renderings and QuickTime images are prepared? I created an animation by stitching together a series of exported jpgs, and was at less than 1/2 Mg for the first dozen of them combined. Then I used QTWriteFrame in a script to build a movie, and at as close to the same quality as I could approximate, was at 2 Mg for the same length movie. I'd like to use the QT because it can be fully scripted with VS, but it seems I'm having to sacrifice either quality or file size to do so. It comes down to, how is an image written to a QT movie by VW different from an image exported as a jpg (or any other file type)?

I completely missed the QT scripting commands. I was focused on the menu execution commands, and knew they wouldn't work. But QTWriteFrame, in theory, is exactly what I needed. I'm creating an animation--not just a fly-by or a solar animation--but actually moving and rotating objects. Here's the final result http://homepage.mac.com/cloudhidden/.cv/cloudhidden/Public/DomeHangars.mov-link.mov . (Warning: 8 Mb) I wrote "in theory" above, because I re-did my script for the QT VS commands. It worked brilliantly in that the script can run completely unattended. However, to get the same quality as I had from my jpg approach, I was getting a file that was HUGE. My movie would have been more than 30 Mb instead of 8 Mb. So now I have to decide on the lesser of the evils--creation time or file size. Or I have to figure out why the QT images are so much larger than the high quality jpgs that I them let QT Pro sequence into a movie. Ideas? Maybe I'll repost this into one of the other discussion areas.

I second your call for NNA adding this support. It's the difference between starting the script and heading off to bed, and having to run back and forth to the computer every 5 to 8 minutes all day long to type a file name.

I've not found a way to automate saving a rendering as a jpg. All I've found is the DoMenuTextByName('Export Image File',0) command, but that requires operator intervention. This is all that's preventing me from creating a script that can run unattended. Any ideas for getting around this? Thank you.

I want an object to be moved to a specific x,y,z position. There doesn't seem to be a Set3DCntr complement to Get3DCntr. What's the best way to do that--Get3DCntr and then Move3DObj by the difference? Or is there a direct way that I've overlooked? Thanks.

If you're looking for other aircraft 3D stuff, look at http://www.aeronautica3d.com/ . Not free, but if you do a song and a dance, you'll get one free dxf. I got the LearJet I stuck in the hanger to the left of my rendering. Theirs have great detail compared to 3Dcafe--about 14K polys in the Lear, compared to the 4K-6K from 3Dcafe. Even for this one though, I had to research the actual sizes elsewhere and scale the drawing in VW. I have no clue how dxf's are scaled, but it doesn't really matter.

Thanks, Mike. That helps to put it into perspective.

I wanna ask again about DXF imports. I imported the Boeing.exe dxf from 3Dcafe, and no matter what options I chose on the VW import dialog, it imported with a wingspan of about 40', which is not even close for that plane. This question isn't about avionics, but about how to know how big an imported object is supposed to be, and how to get it to import at that size. Any guidance? Thanks.

Thanks all. Having written a commercial app for Macs, I knew about (and implemented) Command-period. But it's never worked for me with VW. Glad to hear it's supposed to, and that I'm likely not being patient enough (though that really shouldn't be necessary for an escape sequence). Thanks.

Is there a way to stop in mid-render? Pain to start rendering, realize you did something wrong, and have to wait the long, long wait till it completes. If there's a "stop" key sequence, I haven't seen it. Similarly, to export an image, I have to render it, and then export, which renders it again. Some of mine take 15 min each, and that duplication wastes a bunch of time. Have I overlooked the way to avoid this?

What's the secret for knowing how to scale the DXF files when importing? I doubt a biplane and a Boeing jet are the same size, but they imported as such. Without actually knowing that a certain jet is 96' or 56' or 120', how does one know how to set the scale for imported objects? Each plane went into a layer scaled 1:50. My drawing layers are 1':1/8". I'm not sure what to convert to what.

Half the fight is knowing where to look! Gracias, senor. I even remembered about stuffit opening the exe's from the last time I travelled this path--today that seems like a major accomplishment. Thanks for the help!

Thanks, Mike. 3Dcafe is bookmarked somewhere on my computer, but I can never find it or remember it...need a new system, I guess. At the risk of hitting on something that's been covered been covered before (but being on a bit of a deadline, so asking is quicker than research at the moment), those are all 3DS files, and the last post I read about those seemed to indicate that they didn't work with VW. I don't have other 3D apps to use for converting them. Is there a straightforward way to use any of those 3D files w/in VW?

Anyone know where a 3D airplane object is? I know there's one with VW, but it's bigger than the hanger I'm rendering. Need biplane or any of the smaller planes. VectorDepot didn't have any.

Thanks for the explanation and update. I look forward to the results of your experiments. To put it in context, I design air-formed (inflated) houses. They are individual spheres/ellipsoids, or combinations of those. The intersections are either simple (a sharp point where they intersect) or curved (with for example a 4' R saddle). Ideally, I can create the zero-thickness airform shape--the final inflated shape--and then give it thickness to represent the 8" of foam/concrete sprayed inside. I've had trouble with the saddle connections at times and with shell thickness regularly. I know I can create the outside shell, then create an inner surface 16" smaller (2 x 8), but when I cut holes in them for windows, doors, or artistic openings, I have to extract the edges and loft a surface to fill the gap, and it can get tedious. Searching for a quicker approach, and Shell Solid seemed to hold promise. Any insights greatly appreciated.

I guess my question is, why shouldn't it work on a nurbs hemisphere? The tutorial/manual example is of a nurbs object, I believe. I regularly have spheres, intersected spheres, torii, and similar, and they are nurbs objects, or solid additions or solid subtractions, and I'd expect Shell Solid to work with all of them. But it doesn't seem to, even after the 10.x enhancements.

10.0.1 makes no difference. Create a sphere of any size. Nurbs. Ungroup. Shell Solid never seems to work. Any ideas? Isn't this a proper use of Shell Solid?

Export an image, import it to Photoshop, and use their feathering effect.

I want an 18'R Hemisphere with a 7" thick inside shell. Seems like I should be able to use the hemisphere tool, convert to NURBS, ungroup, and use the Shell Solid tool. But that just tells me to select Tangent Faces, which is selected. Should this tool work in this way, or in some other way?

quote: Originally posted by Katie: To add a texture -- Add the texture file to the Favorites. In the drop down box for Favorites, select the texture file. select the texture you wish to use, right click or cmd+click and select IMPORT. This will import the texture to the file. There are dozens of texture files. Do you mean to add each of them to Favorites (or at least the 2/3 of them I'm likely to use at some point)? If I don't do it this way, I have to use the "Find Resource on Disk" command, right? Have you observed that it is necessary to use the Set Where button each and every time to select the Textures folder before clicking Find? If I neglect to do that, even though it appears the textures folder is selected, the Find button says that no "concrete" or "glass" or whatever can be found in the folder. Have I observed this correctly?

When I Add Solids on the two hemispheres, and make that the only selected object, the Create Fillet Surface command is disabled. If I convert that to Nurbs and select just the two shell portions, the command is enabled, but choosing it gives the message, "Fillet surface could not be created. Try changing the fillet radius." That was for a 2', 4', and 8' R on spheres in the 20 to 30' R range. There's no denying the drawing you posted, Mike, nor Katie's suggestion to use the same command, but I'm thus far unable to explain the above. Katie, did you successfully use that command on the sample drawing? How?

Except give the smaller one a Z different from the bigger one. I've made the "peanut shell" shape when Z=0 for both, but not via hemispheres when the Z's differ. (It's domes built on a sloping site, so they will have stepped footers.) Now I did just have "success" by using spheres, rather than hemispheres, and then subtracting solids from the bottom. But that's some extra steps and I haven't thought through if there's a way that will bite me in the future. Hopefully not. Two followups on your drawing (and thanks for the efforts): 1. Can you create an inside shell for it? That command didn't work for me, and it was one of my fondest desires for v10; 2. How did you get the red lines in that pattern?

Thank you, Katie. v10, Mike.

Create a 20'R Hemisphere. Create a 15'R Hemisphere, and give it a Z of 5'. Position them so they overlap by maybe 5 or 10'. What I want is to create a 4'R fillet at the curve created by their intersection. Blend Edge just beeps and says to do that Tangents thing (done) and use a diff radius (tried). Ideas? Thinking that maybe the the horizontal part of their intersection at z=5' created the problem (and I didn't need that blended anyway), I "Section Solids" to trim the bottom 5' off the first dome. Now they have the same bottom elevation. This time Blend Edge "works", however it erases the larger dome and just curves the open edge of the other one. Any insights? Any other ways you can think of to blend the curved edge of two domes when one has a different Z than the other?