Kevin Keys

I have been complaining ( yes, complaining) about, in my opinion, something that I consider to be THE most negative aspect of what is otherwise a fabulous piece of software. To date, this bug, for lack of a better description, still remains within VW. It concerns the lack of ability to have, for example, a wood grained texture, going in the correct direction, around the elements such as the 'Trim', or casing, around doors and windows. Obviously, in the real world, wood grain goes vertically on vertical trim and horizontal on horizontal trim pieces, right? Yes, right. But, when configuring the Trim ( as well as several other items of a window or door PIO) you can only pick one direction, which totally cheapens the accuracy of a Photorealistiic Rendering. It is a bit like swimming 10 miles and then drowning 3 feet from shore, after spending time to do a nice Rendering in RW and having all the trim, casing, and frames of doors and windows in the file appear completely unrealistic, because of this non natural look of the wood grain applied to the elements of windows and doors in VW. So......because I do a LOT of Rendering I would certainly appreciate someone who writes the code for these items at Nemetschek to put some attention on addressing this bug. It can definitely be accomplished. I know this for a fact because the program "Interior Cad", which works within VW has absolutely resolved this issue and can display the wood grained textures as they should be, in real life, on vertical and horizontal members. Thanks

Tom and all Actually, I ended up just making my own threaded rod in 3d without using the parametric 'shaft-3d' tool. This technique is actually better and more accurate for two reasons. First, because in reality, based upon the 'thread standards' there are 'flatness' calcs for two areas, not just the outside part of the thread (P/8), but also the area on the shaft itself (P/4). The parametric fields do not offer a chance to input data here in the 'shaft-3d' dialogue box. So, sadly, it is like swimming 10 miles and drowning 3 feet from shore. Meaning it does most of the calculations but leaves out the ability to input the P/4 data from the thread standards. I am sure this contributes to the frustration that others here are expressing. Secondly, by just building your own sweeps to, in this case, make a threaded rod in 3d and then using the boolean add, subtract, and intersect solid functions in VW it seems to produce a more reliable 3d item. Does seem odd that Nemetschek wont address these items, as I am pretty sure they must have ben aware of the shortcomings and that users would discover the flaws at some point. Perhaps they have their priorities and this just isn't one of them as expressed by several of the Machine users here. They sort of threw you under the bus Tom......;-) -Kev

I am getting deeper and deeper into depths of the machine design objects and I am finding a lot of inconsistencies. Case in point, when you take a 'shaft' item, which in my case was an M10 6 inch threaded rod with chamfers at each end and ungroup it so it becomes a Solid Subtraction, and enter the solid subtraction, once existing the solid subtraction it no longer looks the same. It has the sweep that were the threads extending out beyond the chamfered solid that was part of the subtraction. When I export the original 'shaft-3d' item as a dwg file it comes in on a co-workers PC with the threaded sweep going beyond the solid part of the other sweep with the chamfer on it. Is this because we are not suppose to edit these parametric items, such as "shaft 3d" ?? -Kev

Aloha Islandmon I am at this nice Marina called Ko Olina, on the leeward (west) side of O'ahu. I have been here for about 4 years. -Kev

Larry In dealing with this company here in Hawaii, it was pointed out to me that the flatness can be different for major diam and minor diam. Vw makes the flatness the same for each as far as I can tell. There is not option to have separate input there. The guy asking me to make these various parts said it wasn't critical however and that as long as the flatness was correct on the outside edge of the threads it would work fine. -Kev

Islandmon Hey...I am sort of an island guy too....just different Ocean. I live on a cat in Hawaii. Thanks for the heads up with that link you sent. I will check it out. -Kevin

Aloha Tom Thanks for the response. I finally figured out the Flatness formula, yes. My frustration was that there was no explanation in the manual nor in VW help to direct one to the math involved in arriving at the flatness. The manual just said ' type flatness in this field" or something close to that. I think it would be good for future version or manuals to include a description of now to figure out Flatness. As you know all this is spec'd out, depending on the standards used for creating a specific thread. I mainly wanted conformation that the only tool that can build a 3d threaded rod with chamfers on both ends IS the Shaft tool, unless there is another option. Thanks -Kev

Man oh man I never thought I would spend so much time with the Machine and fastener aspect of VW. I assume that the best (and only?) way to build a 3d threaded rod with a chamfer on each end is by using and configuring the 'Shaft-3d tool???? It took me 2 hours to figure out how to configure the "Flatness" parameter with the correct number. Perhaps that is because I know nothing about the basics of doing machine parts, etc. I certainly could find NOTHING in any of the manual nor in the imbedded VW help Menu option. All it notes in both of those was "Type Flatness number here", with no explanation at all of what that number means or does in relation to the universe. Again, perhaps it is assuming that I know all the basics about thread pitch, major diam. P/8, etc but I had to learn the hard way. Sorry for the rant. I just wanted to know if I am using the correct tool (Shaft-3d) to make the threaded rod I mentioned above. Thanks -Kev

I think this topic has been touched upon, so excuse the redundancy. I am mainly exist in the architecting world but have of late been getting involved with this company at my marina here in Hawaii that has asked me to make various fasteners in 3d. Many of them I have found in the VW library of items. Some I have to make from scratch, or add or subtract items to the original VW fastener. Because of the format required with this company, dimensioning has to be done in 3d so it can be visible in the correct view ( right, top, left, etc) next to the 3d object. I have figured out a workaround that allows seeing all the text and dimensions in 3d as you rotate the primary object around. Its a bit tedious as well as not having te dimensions associated to the object as we have in the world of 2d dims in VW. So.......any thoughts on when 3d dimensioning may be included in a VW upgrade? I know certain other cad software does have that ability. Thanks -Kev

Tom Thanks for clarifying that. At least I know I tried everything I could. That would certainly be a great wish list item for the future. Also..........in the arsenal of screws I dont see a "Deck screw" with appropriate threading and head styles ( eg bugle head) Is there one hiding there somewhere?? Thanks -Kev

I am wanting to subtract the shape of number 8 machine screw from a solid object and not having much luck. I keep getting error messages saying it I need to 'edit the geometry'. As a workaround I can accomplish the task by using the '3d threaded shaft' tool, then using a portion of the '3d hole tool' but its much more time consuming to do it this way. Perhaps I am missing something.