PhilDon

Really helpful, thank you Pat ... I'll keep Unified View on permanently then 🙂

See I knew it had to be me! Thank you Tamsin! Of course I am relieved, I don't wish to work on software that is buggy 🙂 I have signed up to VW university, though often struggle to find exactly what I am looking for in a timely manner and a quick internet search is usually a quicker approach. I'll get there, thank you! Phil

Hi, I have been using vectorworks for about 2 or 3 weeks now. I'm essentially educating myself prior to a potential purchase. I'm actually finding the software quite buggy and not entirely intuitive, but am forging ahead and getting used to it. I accept that many issues might just be user error, but this is latest one is just daft. I have all my open layers set 'show others, so I should be able to see them ... yet no matter what view I use, the screen refreshes showing only the selected layer, then wipes and shows the top view of the doors layer only. In the screen grab you can see that I have a perspective view set, yet only the doors show. Maybe I have checked the wrong box somewhere or set something up wrong, but I don't think so. Is this a known bug? I'm also experiencing erratic viewports, when I select top, the view shows are right(but rotated 90 degrees, when I select bottom, it shows as back etc, this can't be right ... I'm using a fairly powerful 3D PC workstation, but it seems to run very slowly compared to Cinema 4D ... is the Mac version of VW more stable? Thanks in advance. Phil

Ah brill - thank Peter. Though this tute is quite old and things may have moved on, I'll have a little play around - top fella! Xie xie

Aha - Peter my friend, good to hear from you! I'm kinda getting the hang of VW now, it's starting to make more sense and is feeling a little more natural. It seems a bit slow though ...? Actions in C4D that work in realtime seem to take an age in VW, it's serious concern. Always open to the possibility I'm doing something wrong of course, but can't imagine what in this instance, I have inserted some small 3D models that I produced in C4D, but they aren't heavy on polygon count. Really enjoying the auto hybrid function, that's a real bonus. Will look at Twinmotion - thank you!!

Wow, that's just evil - moreso for the plug in developers selling out their users. What happens with software these days of course is that once the software becomes successful, the multinationals become interested and get their wallets out, they bring in all the ghouls and turn the thing into a gravy train. C4D is a Nemetschek company, but has recently had a reshuffle - about 2 years ago and guess what? Their last release was a subscription based application!! Also my preferred rendering tool Vray has gone over to subscription. ... yeah, I'm sticking with the old versions - bugger that!

Back in the days when dinosaurs roamed these plains, I used to use a DTP application called Quark Xpress, it was great but they were greedy because had a monopoly on DTP software. I also used Photoshop and Illustrator was the new kid on the block, but they vowed to kill Quark and when they brought out INdesign we hailed Adobe as our saviour ... how times have changed. Bring on the Adobe killers! When I get some cash I will invest as I expect everyone will ultimately jump ship. 10-15 years from now I expect Affinity will be the demons ...

I have been meaning to check them out Milezee! However at the moment I still use Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Acrobat, After Effects, Premiere and Audition. But work has tailed off a lot due to bloody Brexit, and with my jump into Film I expect I won't be using them all for much longer. I agree it's a huge rip off and Adobe need their wings clipping.

You're absolutely right and I get frustrated because Vectorworks is nothing like Adobe Illustrator or Cinema 4D. Illustrator has been going downlhill since CS3 I would say, it was better when it was simpler, I find that the need to add more and more features in order to keep the pennies rolling in has just spoiled it. But I still love it. Cinema4D is actually great, it profoundly lacks quality boolean modelling functions that Rhino has, but for ease of use across all things 3D, it's an amazing one-stop tool - I am literally in pieces over the fact that I have to move to a more CAD based workflow. But there's no money or soul in animation any more, so I have to suck it up. Forgive my incessant moaning ... Thank you for your insights Claes - really helpful.

I can do technical ... just takes the use of a hammer and lots of late nights!

My answer for using AI is of course that I have been using it for 30 years - old dog - new tricks 😂 Yes I need to get to grips with Rhino too ...

Well I tried AutoCAD and it sucks! I have found some things I really like in VW, so I will focus on that and look to the future. Many thanks!

Hi Grant, So sorry for not replying sooner, I had to go an pick up a brief and got distracted. Thank you so much for all of this info. So my requirement is pretty much the same as yours, I need to produce draughtwork for set builders' instructions as well as 3D models to aid visualisation. Obviously I am not so familiar or slick with VW yet, but getting better. Agreed VW 2D drawing is not as intuitive as AI. Neither do the VW 3D capabilities come anywhere near Cinema 4D ... On both counts I am rather upset 😞 For C4D I have produced fairly accurate draughts by using the Sketch and toon module, C4D allows slicing as well, so it's really good in that respect. You can alter the thickness of the lines too which is an advantage. But VW is king with its Autohybrids which I have been experimenting with - honestly it is a bit clonky and slow, even on my superduper PC. But I really like that it can slice above and below and display dotted/dashed lines etc. Also dimensioning which you simply cannot do in C4D - whilst AI you can use the Hotdoor plug in. Importing C4D files into VW is possible but I think - as you rightly say - it's causing some issues. You can also import AI files in VW, but it seems that native VW drawn geometry is best. I admit I have been doing a fair bit of cursing and there are a number of things that seem really convoluted, however I expect that a number of these are just because I am a newbie. I hope that soon I will be singing its praises as a true convert - I'm going to need to incorporate it into my workflow if I am to stand any chance of working in the industry. Very best Phil

This sounds promising Grant ... I will investigate this. I'm just doing lots of experimenting here - working out where I can use my existing skills and where I just have to abandon them. Currently I'm not too chuffed with VW drawing capabilities, I much prefer illustrator (whilst not as precise, but there are means). So I am experimenting with exporting AI files as DXF and using these inside VW. I note you also use C4D, which is my go-to 3D application - do you use C4D in conjunction with VW? If so how? Many thanks Phil

Thanks Evan, you've saved me a lot of research time and given me a defined direction. Truly grateful! Very best Phil