Chris Dordoni

Adam, While I don't use C4D, I have had good results in other rendering applications by saving as IGS or STL. If C4D cannot import these formats, try going through another CAD application to translate the IGS or STL to a format C4D can read. The IGS (or IGES) format will export your nurbs surfaces and can then be tesselated (meshed) in another application with better results than in VW. The STL export presents a slider to control the number of polys exported. Chris

Hi Jon, Have you considered using VirtualPC and a windows plotter driver? Looks like Winplot6.7 might work if you can use a usb cable to connect to the cutter. Winplot 6.7 http://www.summa.be/pages/soft.html FlexiSign will drive most vinyl cutters, and runs in OSX. I guess it depends on how desperate you are or how much $$$ you can spend on the problem. http://www.scanvecamiable.com/products/flexi_overview.asp Unfortunately I can't give you a direct printing method from VW, as both options above require you to export a file. Good Luck, Chris [ 06-06-2005, 07:19 PM: Message edited by: Chris Dordoni ]

FYI, You can select your object and apply Arc smoothing; however, this can distort your curves, requiring some fixing afterwards. Probably would work OK if you have objects with just a few curves. Chris

Ken, I would guess that there are splines or bezier curves in your file. Most CADCAM programs cannot use spline curves. I would guess that your friend converted the spline curves to arcs in Autocad before he saved the file. Unless I have missed something, there is no quick method to convert spline curves to arcs in Vectorworks. Chris

soup sf, I recall your response to the thread I started asking for input on ESP Print Pro a few months back. Are you continuing to have good results with it for postscript output on HP printers? Chris

Larry, If you have VirtualPC, IntelliCAD5 at http://www.intellicadms.com will read DWF files. I have not actually tried to open any DWF files in IntelliCAD, just letting you know it is an import option. They have a free download for a 30 day trial of the SE version. Chris

Hi Eddie, Please send me your samples. I'll let you know if I can help. Regards, Chris Dordoni dordoni@verizon.net

Alan, Looks like HP5000PS is retired, is HP5500 similar in capability? I assume you are referring to a second hand unit as the new prices are considerably more than the HP500.

Hi Damo, The response I received after sending in my sample file suggested that I move my object closer to the page. This seemed to work in some situations. I have since upgraded my OS to 10.2.8 and I have not experienced the problem. Chris

Heath If you can have the person save two IGS files, one with trimmed and the other with untrimmed nurbs, you may have better luck figuring out where the problem is. Chris

Hello, Is anyone familiar with this plotter driver? http://www.easysw.com/printpro/ I am considering purchase of an HP DesignJet 500, and since HP has dropped their PS option on this model, I'm looking for reliable PS options to print line drawings and color renderings. Chris

Thanks for the info Mike. I'll check it out. Chris

Mike, Apple's 3D format is pretty much dead, although some of the applications that have been around for many years do have translators for 3DMF. FormZ and Carrara are two that I know of, and I suspect that Amapi might also. There is a free time limited trial (you can import and save files) of the latest versions of Carrara and Amapi at http://www.eovia.com. An older version 5.15 of Amapi is also available for free at http://www.amapi.net. From Carrara, the compatible export format for VW would be DXF. FormZ will export in DXF, DWG, IGS and SAT. Only VW 11 will import SAT in addition to DXF and IGS importers in earlier versions of VW. I suspect Amapi will save in DXF, IGS and SAT as well. Regards, Chris

Hi Ritchie, If you have a later version of Illustrator that can save as DWG, you will get an editable vector file in when imported into VW. However, there is a difference between Illustrator bezier curves and VW spline curves, so you'll have to check your curves in VW to make sure they don't noticeably distort. If you find curve distortion to be a problem, you can get a plugin for Illustrator to save a DXF file with arcs. I am using EXDXF-Pro, which costs about $90, and works great with VW. Regards, Chris

Quicktime Pro ($29.99) will save in many video formats, some of which probably are compatible with WMP. You can check the import/export formats on Apple's site. Here's a link http://www.apple.com/quicktime/upgrade/ see #8 on the list for import/export formats Regards, Chris [ 11-15-2004, 09:59 PM: Message edited by: Chris Dordoni ]

Hi, Tools for nearly automatic polygon to nurbs conversion like Geomagic or RapidForm are fairly expensive, in the $10,000 plus range. Most low cost solutions involve sectioning the model and drawing nurbs curves to loft or skin together. There is a plugin for Rhino called Smurf that semi automates this process. FormZ has a Re-engineering plugin to process point cloud data into a nurbs model. Chris

Is there any speed improvement with a dual processor in hidden line or OpenGL rendering? Thanks, Chris

Bob, Yes, I agee it is odd that it is not initially created when you install VW. You have to create a folder called "Templates" in the VectorWorks folder. Chris

Eric, Did you use the COMPOSE function to join the arc and line segments together before extrusion? If you are not familiar with COMPOSE, it requires the endpoints of entities to touch in order to join them together. Chris

Anthony, Check out WireFusion at www.demicron.com. It only imports VRML format; however, if you have RenderWorks, you can save as VRML. WireFusion uses java, no plugins required! Chris

Hi Azizg, If you have done a lot of solid modeling operations, you can use "convert to generic solid" to reduce the object's file size. You will lose the "history" of operations that were performed on an object, so it is a good idea to save a copy of your object BEFORE you convert to generic solid. Hope this helps, Chris

Katie, Do you had any more info about this problem? Regards, Chris

Hi Katie, Please go here for the thread: http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=002427 Regards, Chris

Does anyone know if the bug in the parametric constraints in VW10 has been fixed in VW11. I searched the forum here and the last reference was in January '03. Regards, Chris Dordoni Mac OS 9.2.1 VW 10.5.1

You could try one of the photo modeling applications. I know there's at least one (ImageModeler) available for the Mac. You would have to stick reference targets or dots to the object to define the curves, prior to taking the pictures. You could get a general shape this way. I would not recommend this method if you needed more detail because it is very time consuming for a lot of points. Chris