Thomas Ames

Hello Marty E, Wow, you were right! I'm poking around the internet and am finding more sites than I'll ever get to. Don't know why I didn't think of this. Thanks

Hi Dane, I just checked out the cultured stone website. That was a great and timely suggestion on your part. I'm in the early stages of a castle (house)project, built entirely of concrete and structual steel. The tower, 32' diameter, will end up being five floors of poured concrete. I've been pondering the exterior. I'll chat with these folks on Monday. Thanks again. p.s. Hang on to that CD.

Hi Dane, That's interesting. I'll give 'em a call and at least find out what format the textures are in. Thanks very much for the info I'll let you know how it goes. On another front, given the number of VW licenses that are now out, I'm curious as to why there are not more persons utilizing this message board. I'm not complaining.... just wondering...

Caleb, thanks. I'm familiar with IRC... so I imagine that ICQ is similar. I'll check it out.

Hi MikeB, thanks very much for your suggestion. I haven't gotten that far with RW to really understand the extent to which these things are possible. I'll try scaling down the stone/varigated texture as you suggest. I'll bet there's a way to easily alter the overall color as well. Your aggrement about "trading textures" has me thinking... Since you folks have been at this far longer than I, could we find out if there is a way to set up a "forum" of textures and/or objects? One could give an idea of the contents under "Topic". I would think that we would see all sorts of useful input. I'm not sure how we would get to the point of "seeing" or grabing the texture or object, but this may be worth pursuing.

Hi, I'm wondering, what is an ICQ Number? Its in the "Modify Your Profile" area.

Hello, I'm wondering if anyone knows of sources for textures. Perhaps a few of you trade textures? I'm still very new to RenderWorks. I know that one can import a texture... but I've got to find it before I can do that. I'm on the lookout for "washed stone" textures that one would use as a finish on the exterior of a concrete wall. This type of surface is quite common in tilt-up construction. It is a bit like taking a blob of mashed potatoes and dunking it into a pile of peas (stones). I imagine that someone out there must have a several of these sorts of textures. The RenderWorks "Texture Reference Card" shows a stone/aggregate (too fine) and a stone/varigated (too course). I'd like to find these sorts of textures. Thanks for any suggestions

Thanks MikeB and everyone... I figure that I'll leave Artlantis stuck to the inside back cover. I've got enough learning curves on the plate. Now... I'd better head over to the RenderWorks Forum dept since this is where I probably should have asked this question in the first place.

Hi Dieter, The following will reveal that I'm still in the early stages. You mentioned preferring Lightworks... Is this RenderWorks or a particular function within RenderWorks? I've been fiddling around with LightWorks RayMaker, which I assumed was, somehow, RenderWorks... under View/Rendering. At least I'm able to get point(s) of light and sunlight to work. This seems just fine for basic lightbulbs in my concrete bunker renders at this point. Almost every day, I find myself delighted that I never bought any of that Autodesk junk, except for a couple of books. And, I bet it just gets better...

Hi Dieter, Thanks so much for your helpful reply. Sounds as though you've got some great experience under your belt. I've been getting up the curve for about a month now. I design industrial-grade, underground concrete, living facilities.... lots of concrete and structural steel for the basics. The inside finish depends on the customer's whims. A plaster skim-coat is typical. I've been able to get some simple light bulbs going, along with some sunshine and have managed to cut chunks out of elevated slabs for "cut-away" type views of the interior and equipment - pretty cool really. For rendering, so far, I've only used the LightWorks RayMaker flavor. Thanks again.

Hi, I recently got a copy of Works Tutorial. Stuck to the inside of the back cover is an Art-lantis Render CD. I don't know a thing about it other than it makes the back cover very stiff. I have 8.5.2 and Renderworks, which I'm just beginning to try. What sort of experience does anyone have with Art-lantis by way of comparison? Thanks.

I've been running two monitors with NT4.0, with a Colorgraphics Pro Lightning card just fine for a couple of years. Added VW8.5.1. a few months ago. Lots of room for pallets, etc.

Hi CADD, Thank you for your thoughts. Just finished ordering 42" unit "with PS" from MicroWarehouse.... ouch! It is backordered.... Christmas comes around Oct 12th.

Antone, thanks so much for your help. Your suggestion works I now somewhat recall this procedure. I bought 8.5.1 back in May, but life has been too busy to get up the curve. I can now spend several hours a day through the winter and learn how to put this to work. Thanks again.

We are looking to buy the new HP DesignJet 800 42" color plotter for our NT4 network. The unit comes with a PostScript software RIP driver. The PostScript version - HP DesignJet 800PS 42" is a good deal more money. We aren't doing rendering, yet. We don't think we'll need Pantone colors, etc. in the future. Can we get by nicely without PostScript? Thanks

When dragging an exterior wall out, or in from several interior, perpendicular ajoining walls, is there a way for the perpendicular walls to come along for the ride and not seperate? All walls have the same specs, ie. 8"CMU. So far I've had to go back and adjust each perpendicular wall to catch up. Thanks.

I'm looking to get up to speed with architectural drawings, then rendering. I've been working through the QuickStart CD's, still in volume 2, and the "help" Learning Exercises Manual, up to "add doors & windows". I really like the QuickStart proccess of laying out and combining floor "shapes" before drawing footings and walls. Would one be preferred over the other? Are both ultimately useful for overall competence? For what its worth, I started out, a year ago with Architectural Desktop R1, got about 200 unpleasant hours in it and quit. VW seems so much more friendly I'm optimistic agian. Thanks

I'm in CD volume 2, chapters 2 & 3 and am noticing that the rectangle tool produces 8 handles. As I try to follow along with VW, I only get 4 handles. Also with the CD lessons, VW Setup Assistant offers a Perspective Sheet. I don't seem to find this in VW. Are these features just not important? Am I doing something wrong?

Well, here it is, Sunday on a long weekend. I've switched VW8.5.1, RenderWorksV8 and VW Architect1.01 to another computer in order to watch training CD's on one while having VW running on the other. All windows based. VW Architect1.01 serial number entry proceedure does not follow the proceedure on page 1-7 of its manual. I needed tech support to get it entered last week for the first time, but can't remember how tech support had me do it. Argh. Thomas