mark@custom

Thanks for posting this! Who knew that the columns in the Navigation Palette could re-size themselves and that they could be manually fixed? Yes, I re-installed VWX twice in hopes of fixing this. Best, Mark Barnett

Any luck with that request to get opengl textures to view in the VW 2015 file viewer? Thanks

Hmmmm, Here's a timely response - only, what 8 mo's later? I was having the opposite issue. My sheet layer viewport class selections were over-riding the classes selected in my design layer viewports. Very frustrating. I hope someone'll chime in re: Best Practices and all in ref. to this, but I just ended up making symbols of the elements in the DLVP's in order to get them to show up in the SLVP correctly. This worked okay in that the parts and pieces involved were for some display cases. Thanks, m@c

Doh! This is handled with the 'Backlit' Reflectivity Shader now. Just stumbled across this while searching the forum "after" hitting the 'send' button. Oops. Guess I didn't phrase my search terms very well. However - the question regarding the non functioning 2 Color RW Background stands - dadgummit!

Hey! Where did the Translucency and the Translucent Plastic Reflectivity Shaders go? They were there in VW 2010 Spotlight-Renderworks. Do I have to resurrect an old copy? Is there a way to create a translucent reflectivity shader for 2012? Oh, and I really, really miss the Renderworks "2 Color background". It seems like it stopped working with the VW 2011 release as well. Whenever I try to use it now-a-days, all I get is a single middle ground color. Input appreciated! Please don't tell me it's a PC thing... Thanks

I too have found the 3D dim's to be useless. When checking out the dimensioned item in a view port the text in the dimensions don't show up. With my best Ricky Riccardo impersonation as I wag my finger; "Nemetschek, you have some 'splaining to do!"

I'm Baaaaaacccckkkk.... In 2008 this card had fits with VW2008 - see 2008 Thread titled "CRASH CRASH CRASH" - and now with VW2011 it's just plain dotty. The drawing area goes blank as I move the cursor over parts of the model. Lot's of drawing by inference involved here. Very annoying! So far, the kind and patient Tech person at NVW has only offered speculation that it 'might' be the driver for the display adapter and that I should download the latest one. Which unfortunately was from 02/2009. Downloaded it, installed it, and found that nothing changed with the winkiness & blinkiness of trying to draw with VW2011. Anyone else experiencing issues with ATI FireGL cards? Especially now that they're a 'legacy' model? ATI is actually listed as a good brand in Vectorworks' knowledge base. Any suggestions [besides 'Get a Mac'] for a good card to go in a Dell Precision PWS390 with an Intel Core 2 processor and 3.25 gb of ram? BTW - What in the blazes is up with the 3D Align/distribute command? This business of having to re-orient the view each time I align to a 3d locus sets my teeth on edge. Definitely was NOT fixed in SP2. Input is welcome. Thanks!

Sure, whenever you re-import the VW file. That's one of the reasons I went away from Artlantis. Even though there is a plugin for Artlantis / VW, I found revising a rendered model to be a drag. Also, At the time I was using Artlantis, one had to adjust light sources one at a time. It appears that Artlantis has upgraded like everyone else so my input is a little dated [like 3 years]. At least with RW the sketchy / line art options aren't "...pretty well hidden hidden...", they're out in front. Yeah, the render engine is creaky and with HDRI scenes it can take a while, but for work flow, VW/RW still works for me. Obviously, YMMV. Good luck!

Just in case your 2d and 3d stuff is in the same class it's possible to go to the tools menu, pull down to the custom selection palette, select the differing types of objects that you need to hide, and then assign them to a class that can be turned off. How now?

I'd like to see what the wise people know about this topic too.

+ 1 for 3d dimensioning. Hopefully this won't become as contentious as the render farm thread...

Thanks Dave! That did the trick. I didn't even know that I had the Auto-Align Planar Mapping thingy selected.

I sent this to tech@vectorworks.net on January the 15th and have been in contact with Donald[?] Ward and Sofy in the tech support dept at VW since then. For some reason Ward thought the problem might be that I was attempting to map to a surface on an extruded object rather than a 3d polygon or a nurbs surface. That suggestion was a non-starter for me, as I have been successfully mapping textures to extruded objects for 5+ years now. This a problem for me on [2] other machines, as soon as I get home from the office I'll be able to post their spec's as well. I hope they get this sorted out soon!

+10 for MullinRJ's suggestion. That appears to do the same thing as creating a layer comp in P'shop...

Is it a 3d object? Failed solid additions and subtractions show up as pink objects. Sometimes such an object will 'fail' when a VW 2008 is imported into VW 2009. I've also had them 'fail' when done one addition, subtraction, intersection too many to a solid shape.

+ 1 on that request. I used them for years and often wished for models from someone else to play with!

Okay, I just tried selecting "Use World Z for Origin" under the the Edit Mapping function on Object Info's render tab and it made no difference what so ever. With textures not lining up consistently with opengl and the differing renderworks options then there's no point in trying to use the Edit Mapping function on Object Info's render tab. The Edit Mapping function appears to use opengl for placing & orienting the textures. The trial and error method of keying coordinates for the graphic and re-rendering the scene gets old quick. I tried the "attribute mapping tool" under the visualization tool set and found it to be quirky when mapping to flat surfaces and useless when dealing with curved. Thoughts? Thanks!

Well I still need to pester the o.p. to see what he's learned. At the vectorwork users group meeting in Austin last night it was suggested that selecting the "Use World Z for Origin" might help. I'll try that soon.

Vectorlogic? What is it? How does one use it? Where can one go to learn more? Thanks, m

Your issue sounds very familiar! I too am having issues with a mapped texture or graphic looking one way when using the opengl render mode and then seeing the alignment for that graphic go out the window when switching to a fast renderworks, fast renderworks with shadow, custom renderworks and final quality renderworks. Because of this, the mapping function under the render tab in the object info palette is useless as is the attribute mapping tool in the visualization tool set. I have to align the texture by keying in the coordinates by trial and error under the object info palette render tab. Tech support suggested that I should map textures to 3D polygons or Nurbs surfaces rather than extruded shapes. Talk about throwing a wrench in the work flow. My last several texture heavy projects have been painful. What is up with this? I AM NOT seeing the much vaunted increase in speed and efficiency here! Rant off... Thanks, m

Adjustable Constant reflectivity? I don't think that's the answer. I'd suggest going with a fill color that you like for the walls and adjust the lighting of the scene either the with light sources that you place or with the viewport lighting options on your sheet layer viewport used for your perspective view. Constant reflectivity is good for imagery to go on a monitor screen or projection screen, or as a visible object that you want to look like a light source...

Re: CutePDF - I have the CutePDF Pro pdf writer & editor. While it doesn't recognize a 'secured' pdf file as being 'secured', [one can edit and add pages, etc, even if acrobat says it is secured] if the file you open is 'secured', it'll save out as 'secured'. The 'Pro' version is $ 50.00 and well worth it. This last week, when I output a set of 8 pdf documents from VW, 2 read as 'secured' when opened in Acrobat. I have no idea what would cause some to secure and others not.

I feel your pain! I submitted a file with the same issues on July 1 to a tech in the tech support department. He wasn't able to replicate it on a mac, but was able to on a pc. If's very frustrating having 3D symbols in a design layer viewport not render in a sheet layer viewport. They show up in wireframe and in hidden line views, but not in any of the renderworks render methods [fast renderworks, fast renderworks with shadows, and custom renderworks]. I think a tempory work around would be to go "old school" and use a layer link instead of a DLVP.

Look for the "Cut 2D Section" or the "Cut 3D Section" menu items. I think they're under the Model pull down menu. It's been awhile since I used 11. For more details - do a search on those terms with VW Help. Good luck...

Hi Jeff, thanks for your reply. Here are the specifics: Computer: Dell Precision PWS 390 OS: MS Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2 Processor: Intel Core2 6600 @ 2.40 GHz 2.39 GHz, 3.25 GB of RAM Display Adapter: ATI FireGL 7200 VW 2008 SP2 (build 83388),Fundamentals, Spotlight, Renderworks BTW - I'm also having issues with the texture map function on the Object Info window - render tab. I'm able to map 1 texture before the interactive window texture mapping window goes blank and stays blank. Then it's a matter of quitting and restarting VW in order to map another graphic. This makes a difference when I have specific graphics that have to be mapped onto specific surfaces. I'll follow up with submitting a bug. Thanks for your help