Dario

More great ideas guys, thanks. The pre-engineered steel building idea may be the cheapest option. Hadn't thought of that either.

quote: Originally posted by Travis: By the way, I know where there are some 40' and some 60' salvaged bow-trusses ? all timber ? that might be applicable. We frequently design structures, especially large barns, based on the known available materials. I'd LOVE to take you up on that for my studio but unless this project comes through I'm working at Burger Bobs (OK, Mickey D's).

WOW, thanks for all the responses guys. I should have thought of the warehouses around here, not to mention airplane hangers. The idea is to have the viewer/patron be able to walk in and see all the paintings at once by simply scanning the room. There are 21 paintings and they average 8' x 10' (going up to one that's 12' x 15' high) so they're quite big. I had thought of either splitting them up into groups (and therefore giving each group a seperate room) or putting each painting into its own room (much like a monk's cell) -The paintings are of the life of Christ so that would fit. As for the long wood beams... perhaps a Sequioa (sp?) or two. Not politically correct I suppose. Steel would be just fine.

Hi, I know this isn't an VW question but I do own VW Architect. I'm proposing a large museum building and have come up against my ignorance. I'd like to get a basic design done in VW before I make the proposal and we hire a trained architect. So, picture a 100' x 100' square building with an 18' to 20' ceiling -a BIG empty box. The roof would be a basic gable but an 'A-Frame' design might be an option. -I'm in Minnesota, so a northern lodge or Scandinavian woodsy style (stave church) is what I'm after. Is it possible to span 100' without central supports?

I'm using V2 an I've never had V1. I did do a test late last night and found that the export does work with another file. It must be a bad file or something.

For some reason, I can't get VW 11 to export to C4d. Regardless of the settings I choose, all I get is a 'Cinema 4d Export in progress' bar that moves across pretty fast. All the while a spinning watch (not multi-colored wheel, though I am on OSX 10.3.7). Once the progress bar fills up, the watch keeps spinning forever. I have to force quit. Used to work. Any ideas?

Great suggestions and it seems extrude to path is the proper way. I'm on 11 by the way. I'd love to solve the inital problem just to get a better understanding so I'll experiment with that a little bit too. On thing I didn't mention was that the pastes of the copies that I was using for the short sides, pasted on a different z plane. When I looked at "right" view they were quite a bit higher than the long sides so I had to bring them down. Perhaps this was part of the history problem. Thanks.

I've noticed that "add solids" doesn't seem to work all the time. I get a "...geometry" error frequently. Here's the situation: I'm using VW 11 on a PowerBook G4 1Ghz with 768Mb RAM. 1-created a crown moulding profile with the polyline tool. The line is connected to itself (closed). 2-copied and pasted three times to end up with 4 pieces. 3-extruded two of them to 100'. 4-extruded the other 2 to 50'. 5-3d rotated to get them all in top/plan view. 6-split by line cut all the ends at 45 degrees. 7-checked all views to make sure all 4 mouldings were on the exact same plane. 8-put 2 of the 45's together and zoomed in as close as possible. 9-selected both pieces and "add solids." 8 times out of 10 this results in a "... geometry" error (don't have VW on this machine so I forget the exact error message) and it won't add the solids. Am I missing something or doing something wrong? I have also tried making a 3d box and using it to subtract at a 45 but that doesn't seem to work for this situation either. Read the manuals as well as the Visual Quick Start guide (for version 10), no luck. [ 10-11-2004, 12:52 AM: Message edited by: Dario ]

Thank you Gentlemen, I had success with Alan's method. The cookie cutter analogy makes a lot of sense. As for the Option/Click: very good to know Jonathan. The problem with my situation (I think) was that I had done something earlier to make the 4 mouldings into 1 object. When I tried the Option/Click it still split both mouldings. Thanks again.

I suppose a simpler way to say it is that the split line tool "splits" across the object, not just one side of it. How do I split just one side?

I've created baseboards for a rectangle room. I used the 2d ploygon tool and drew the profile of the moulding which I then extruded to the length of one side of the room. I did this four times and then selected all and used "add solids." Now I'm trying to add a moulding for a door. When I put the door mouldings in place, the floor moulding obviously shows through. So, I used the "Split by Line" tool to cut the floor moulding where it meets the door moulding. However, this also cuts the moulding on the opposite side of the room. Does anyone have a solution for me?

Thanks Andy, I was able to do it from a design layer. The sheet layer was the problem. I also had some help on a CGTalk forum: http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=174199 ALANMAC helped a lot over there and I think he's the same one here too.

I'm new to VWArchitect 11 and C4d 8.5 (9 is on the way) I finally installed the R2 Plug-In. I found the pdf manual and made sure the VW plug-ins were in both places. I went through the edit workspaces stuff too. I get the proper options in both VW and C4d when I run each program. I should be ready. I have created a simple building (120' x 60'), no textures or lighting, just a wireframe and optionally, shaded polygons, no classes (I did use Architect's "walls" tool, Create Floor and Create Roof). I have set the VW document scale to 1/16. I've set the C4d scale factor to 1 and units to Inches (tried Feet too). When I export to C4d, and then open the file in C4d, I get nothing but the ground plane grid (dramatically zoomed in) with the Red, Green and Blue arrow lines (forgot what these are called, sorry). Whether I zoom out all the way till the grid is barely a single dot on the screen or choose any of the 4 views, all I see is the grid and RBG arrows. Clearly I'm not understanding something in one or both programs. For what it's worth, each time I exported from VW I was in a scene viewport and was able to see the entire box/building I had created. I have tried wireframe as well as shaded ploygons and can see both in the viewport. I made some tests using the plug-in and regardless of which options I choose (color or class mode) in the VW>C4d Export dialog boxes I get the same thing when I bring the exported file into C4d. I can export these as DXF(text) without the plug-in but the resulting file, while visible in C4d, is missing some elements. A least the DXF model is visible in C4d however! Please excuse my ignorance. Just starting to learn both of these programs and I need a small success to keep me keeping on. Can anyone help?

Just received VW 11! I am intending to do walkthroughs of buildings the basic architecture of which I'll be creating in VW. From there I plan to export/import into Cinema 4d (awaiting the plug in R2) where I will do the texturing, animating and rendering. Dumb question is: When I create my initial floorplan, if I am seeing it on the screen in VW at 100% size will it export over to C4d at the same size? I read a post somewhere that mentioned doing the initial modelling at 1:1 and making sure the C4d import preferences are set the the same measurements (cm, feet or whatever) as the VW file. I'm worried about the final output to a DVD and making sure it fills the screen. So, anyone with experience out there care to give me a quick outline of the best proceedures?

I'll pass it along Kevin, as soon as I figure out how to use them. Looks like I have a busy Fall this year I figure I'll delve into VW first and then tackle C4D.

OK, Broke down and bought both. Let the learning curve begin!

WOW, new ideas. The mind expands. So, the latest is BOTH VW and C4D! Would this combo eliminate the use of/need for AnimationWorks? By the way, now I'm thinking of skipping the outdoor scenes and having the entire thing be indoors. Any difference here?

Thanks to all. Still ruminating here... So, here's the rundown: Plus for VW/RW (not Architect)- 1. Easier 2. Included elements (doors, walls, trees, etc...) 3. Faster modelling Plus for C4D- 1. Better results. 2. Better and faster rendering. 3. More control over animation and lighting. Minus for VW/RW- 1. Slower renders. 2. Limited to Tween type animating unless I also buy AnimationWorks. Minus for C4D- 1. Seems like I'll have to create EVERYTHING from scratch. 2. No built in elements like plants so I'd have to buy those. Well, that's how I read it. Sure do miss the days of MacDraw. Life and expectations were simpler then.

quote: Originally posted by Ziska: Dario, I think Nicholas has the best solution for your problem.... Ziska The more I research, the more indecisive I get. But, I relooked at the OzCad animation plug-in and I'm swinging back to VectorWorks again (with the plug-in). So, with VectorWorks Architect, do I have plants, land and skies available? How about indoor lighting control? All in all should I get the Industry collection or will Architect alone give me the abilities above?

quote: if you're doing clips and crossfades why not set perspective views and export jpegs? That would cretainly be faster.... I think we're up against my ignorance of 3D and VectorWorks here. IF I did what you're suggesting wouldn't I merely end up with a bunch of stills? If so, not quite what I want. Am toying with the idea of Cinema 4D for all this due to all the posts that mention slow and difficult rendering in RenderWorks. Still, there are the architectual items in VectorWorks that C4D doesn't have...

quote: Originally posted by Ziska: VW11 QT export as panorama works fairly quickly. Walkthroughs in full final render- days and days and days- which you will then have to import into Final Cut Pro to resave with a better cleaner/compression. Ziska Hi Ziska, Thanks. I have Final Cut Express by the way. I'm pretty sure it accepts identical file formats. Either way a Quicktime .mov is a Quicktime .mov. Could one break the walk-through up into sections. That is, room by room and then end up with a bunch of walk-through "clips" that Final Cut could then piece together? I realise the transition would be sudden but an extended cross fade would take care of that, no? Smaller files = shorter render times right?

Thanks. I looked into the AnimationWorks plug-in. Since I'm really a beginner to all this it didn't "sell" me on the advantages over VW with or w/o the plug-in. I suppose it's best to try VW/RW, see how it works and then after I have some experience with the concepts I'll be able to tell if the plug-in is worth it. Based on your computer info (550MHz TiBk, 512Mb, OS10.2.8, VW Ind,RW10.5) I shouldn't have any problem with my system. Thanks again for the suggestions and response.

I talked to Tech Support today to find out if VW Architect is the right package for me. They were helpful but rather than continue to bother them I thought I'd try the forum. My goals: 1. To create a "walk through" of a building I'm designing. 2. To place scans (Photoshop, etc) of paintings on the walls of the building being "walked through" and have the walk through do a close up on them and then move to the next room (think "museum"). 3. To output this to a file that Final Cut can use (ultimately made into a DVD with DVD Studio Pro). So, this is what I'm trying to do and Tech Support says it's possible. OK, fine. Now I'm reading the forums and finding complaints about RenderWorks and the speed of rendering. Some posts suggest Cinema 4D but I can't afford two programs. It seems like Cinema 4D can do all of this by itself but I just can't imagine using it to do CAD related stuff like buildings. I have a PowerBook 12", 1Ghz G4, 768Mb RAM. Can VectorWorks/RenderWorks REALLY do what I want to do? Any suggestions out there?