[can't render scene - program freezing]

No, it still crashes when I turn NURBS off.

[can't render scene - program freezing]

Last week I made a 3D museum gallery and even though it rendered a little slow, it rendered fine. (I had to use Custom Renderworks and increase the ray tracing to 16 because I had so much glass.) Now this week with the exact same file, nothing changed or added, it completely freezes a 1/3 of the way down (right where the glass is) when I use Custom Renderworks. The whole thing stops and if I push "ESC" I have to force quit the program (using a Mac). Final Quality Renderworks is working good, but after the first few passes of glass, the glass starts looking solid so I cannot use this render for presentation.

Any suggestions? We are having extremely hot and humid weather right now and our other computer and plotter is having problems and the whole office having power flickers - is it possible this is the problem?

Thanks!

[glass cases & image props]

Thanks, that helps, but it makes rendering time SOOOO slow. It there a faster way?

[glass cases & image props]

I am modeling a museum gallery with a lot of glass cases and I am having two problems. One is that when I make an image prop of an artifact (that looks good and renders fine) and put it into a glass case & render, the masking doesn't seem to work, and the object's solid box shows.

The other problem I'm having is that when I render the scene, the areas that glass seen through glass (because of all the cases) appear to be solid (light blue). I have the transparency set really high for my glass and a low refraction.

Any suggestions?

[problem making white walls]

Hello, I am trying to make an interior view of my company's new office and the walls needs to be white or very very light gray. I have had this problem for a long time with a variety of different projects. Even if I make the walls pure white, they look very gray when rendered. I have tried messing around with adding reflectivity but it doesn't help at all. Does anyone know how to make white look white??

PS

I DO have lights in the scene and the walls are still gray even with direct light on them.

[3D Studio Max]

Are Vectorworks 11 files able to transfer to 3D Studio Max?

[translucence and rendering time]

Mentalist:

Thanks for the suggestion!

Dave:

Thanks for the offer. I'm currently using the file, but I might send it to you later. Would adding another GB to my RAM help? Also, my video card is only 64 MB, would upgrading that at all help?

Cipes:

My file right now is about 83 MB. I just timed the rendering today and it was 2 min. 30 sec. for one view and 11 min. 49 sec. for another view. There are a lot of light sources, but that is necessary to make it look realistic (I am re-creating a real museum.). All the rendering options are set to the lowest resolution and the fastest speed. I think I have about 10 layers, and I do have a couple of link layers. (I only really need 1 for now, so if that is slowing it down, I can delete the other 2) The file started in VW 10.5 and then I upgraded to VW11 and adding things to the file.

[suggest - system requirement]

CIPES: Since you seem to know about Macs, maybe you could help me. I have another posting on here describing my problem, but in case you didn't read it.... I have a brand new G5 Mac, dual processor, 2Ghz, 1 GB, and the best video card Mac makes, but my VW 10 & 11 drawings render incredibly slow! Tech support doesn't know what is wrong and thinks that maybe it is because I have a lot of mouldings and columns, but there is nothing I can do about that, they need to stay. Any ideas? Thanks!

[translucence and rendering time]

I still haven't been able to figure out the frosted glass problem. I want my skylight to produce a natural looking glow from a light source above, but I don't what the mullions on the glass to produce shadows (or have any shadows from that light source). I have used a variety of translucent and gridded glass textures, turned of the "receive/cast shadows" from the textures, and turned off the "cast shadows" from the light, but it is still casting shadows! Any ideas?

Also, I am using VW 11 on a brand new G5 Mac. with the fastest video card there is, 2 Ghz dual processor, and 1 GB of memory, and my rendering is still incredibly slow. Need ideas on how to speed that up too.

Thanks!

[Very Slow Rendering with G5 Dual 1.8 Mac]

APE Design: I have the same problem - just got a brand new G5 Mac, OS 10, 2 Ghz CPU speed, etc. etc... and rendering still takes a long time for me too. (And I don't even use autocad files.)

[frosted glass]

Thanks! I'll give this a try:)

[white walls show as dark gray]

Thank you all! (Dave - the file is too large to email, I tried emailing it when it was half this size and it didn't make it. Thanks anyway.)

[frosted glass]

I have another question. I am trying to make a lighted glass ceiling. I do not want to be able to see through the glass, but I want it to glow from the light on the other side of it, almost like it was frosted. Is this possible?

[white walls show as dark gray]

I am having a problem with my drawing that wasn't happening yesterday. My white walls are showing up gray/dark gray when I use Renderworks. I have multiply light sources shining right on them and they are still dark, but all the other light colored objects are the right amount of lightness. When I use openGL everything is a blinding light because of the light sources. Why does Renderworks make my white walls dark? I even tried making them slightly reflective but that doesn't help at all. I'd appreciate any advice.

[rendering time]

Also, my computer has 1 GB of memory. Would the process be speeded up if I upgraded my memory? 2 GB??

[rendering time]

Unfortunately, I don't think I can email you the file. I tried emailing a file that was a lot smaller than this and it didn't work. I will talk to my supervisor about compressing the file and maybe we can send it then.

There are a lot of polylines because I have crown mouldings and chair rails. I have also made my own columns and there is a dome ceiling and a groin vault ceiling (which I used spheres and extruded archs to create).

Is there a more efficient way of doing this? (If this was just for space planning, I could simplify the details, but my boss wants this to be a photo realistic presentation drawing.)

Thank you for your time and help!

[rendering time]

It's me again, and I have another problem with a complicated museum I am modelling in 3D. Working in wireframe is great, but eventually you need to use openGL to see what it REALLY looks like. I have my DPI set to 50, my conversion rate is low, I'm using low quality, and have all the settings set to as low and as fast as they get. It is still taking me 5-10 minutes just to render one view! And I just got a brand new computer - the Mac. G5! I can't imagine how long this will take once I use Renderworks Any suggestions?? Will adding solids together make things go faster? I haven't even finished half of the the detailing and haven't started renderworks........

[columns]

Thanks both of you. I will try the bitmapping first. If that doesn't work, I might just construction my own column capitals.

[columns]

Hello. I am doing a very complex 3D model of a museum and I need some good columns. The column tool seems to only allow the basic shape of the column and not the details of a Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian column. Is there something I'm missing or maybe a website to download the columns?

[a couple of little things I would change]

If I start to draw something else, it will de-select. But let's say I draw a line, it will be selected after I'm done, then when I go to pick a circle or rectangle tool the line is still selected. So when I go to change the color of my future circle or rectangle, it changes the line color because I forgot to click off it. Sometimes I mess it up with other commands too. This isn't necessarily something wrong with the program but it is a hassle because I keep forgetting about it. I'm used to a different CAD program where the line would be de-selected as soon as I click on anything else, like any tools, commands, or colors.

[need help on 3D curves]

Thank you!

[a couple of little things I would change]

First of all, I love the program! But there are a couple little things I keep running into that are a bit annoying. One thing is that every time you make an object or copy something, it stays highlighted/selected, then if you go to change the color for the next object you accidentally change the color of the highlighted item. This is because usually I forget to click in dead space before moving on. Also, if you are looking at a 3D object in an isometric view and click on the corner of it (with your object snaps on) to make a line, and then change views, it is no longer on that object. To me, if you are snapped on an object it should stay on that object no matter what the view. Other than these things I really am enjoying learning the program.

[need help on 3D curves]

Hello! I am having trouble making my curves go through 3D space. Well, I can make them, but I haven't learned to control them and make them go where I want them, like have a path or something. Is there a special technique or shortcut for this? Thanks!