jmcewen

In Vectorworks Preferences>3d.3d Conversion resolution are you set to very high? Has actual geometry changed or only the render, i.e. if you hover over where the curve is supposed to be does the cursor snap to it? I have seen this A LOT before on different curved objects. I have often modeled the same object multiple ways to try to get it to display properly with mixed results. I have modeled the curve and extruded it up instead of modeling the profile and extruding along path. I have EAPed each wall of a square tube separately in hopes of simpler geometry working more easily. I have EAPed a square profile and then shelled it. Sometimes things work and sometimes they don't, and it doesn't always seem consistent. Have you performed any actions on the object after you created it? Have you added/subtracted solids, have you used the split tool on it, pushed/pulled, etc? Often I have an object that performs correctly until I do one of those actions. Have you tried converting to a generic solid?

I sometimes use them as a fall back if something funny happens in regular shaded, but i typically avoid it. it seems slower and more resource intensive and doesn't look as good as shaded to me. The difference between lit sides and unlit sides in the shaded polygon for me always seems so stark, and I tend to color code a lot of models. With the wide range of appearance it makes thee color coding more difficult to read.

I may be confused or may have some setting dialed in differently from your setup, but I think when I cut and paste currently, I am getting exactly what you are asking for. For example, I just copy pasted E|FA's signature line into a vwx and it pasted as Arial 8 just like it would appear if I just typed manually, and it was also stripped of the bold style used on ARCHITECTS. Also , you can set a style and select it from your OIP and it will change any selected text to match that style. This may be quicker than Eyedroppering it.

I haven't used this specifically. I know a lot of people that use a Streamdeck. I use a Streamdeck XL and a Streamdeck pedal (3 pedals, one pans left, one pans right, and one invokes X ray)and I love it. Also use a mouse with 16 thumb buttons. 9 of the 16 replace the numpad view shortcuts (though the numbers don't match, then I have common operations like copy, cut, paste, and paste in place. I have almost entirely done away with keyboard shortcuts in my work. Let us know how the console works. Streamdeck has a very active community. I will be curious to see if Logitech does as well. Also, be prepared to change how you program and layout your buttons a few times while you get used to it. you will probably find your layout you worked out logically in your head might not be the one that feels right in practice.

Just to eliminate all the possibilities, have you tried a different mouse? Or try changing any settings on the mouse like polling rate? I have my doubts that the mouse should be the answer, but in the absence of another more reasonable source of the problem it may be worth looking at.

There is a way to convert viewports to 2d geometry. Not sure if it worked back in 2017, but in the last few years I have been able to convert a viewport to a group. Once you enter the group you will find a bitmap of whatever rendering you had, but also all the 2d linework. This probably doesn't help solve the question that started the post, but I think it is useful info all the same. But yes, my drawings are full of sections and I always dread them. I do all the silly work arounds you are talking about as well. I also hate exporting them. i have not found a way to keep them from losing their crop object when exporting to dwg.

Thank you for all the responses. Data Vis and class overrides are not something i have looked into. i will need to learn something new today and try it out. I figured there would be functionality to do exactly what i am looking for, I just didn't know where to look.

I have recently taken to putting a small isometric viewport of an assembly in the top right corner of my drawings, then highlighting the part that is being detailed on that particular plate in the smaller reference viewport. I end up tracing by hand the items to be highlighted in the annotations of the viewport. This was great when I was picking out simple shapes to trace, but as assemblies get more complicated the tracing is getting more labor intensive. See the example below, with identifying details black-banded. In the top right corner is the viewport, with one wall highlighted in transparent red indicating what portion of the project is being displayed on the particular plate. The designers I have been drawing for have been very happy to have the reference available to show clients how elements relate to one another without needing to flip to another plate, and it is a practice I would like to continue, but need to find a more efficient way to do so for more complicated instances. I know we can turn layers and classes on, off, or greyed out in the OIP of the viewports, but is there a way we can assign other attributes easily that may simulate this highlighting. i don't necessarily need to perform this exact effect, but something that produces similar clarity. Greying out layers other than the indicated layer got too muddy. to distinguish.

Good! This is less fiddly than the push/pull method where an errant keystroke could make a distance different but by a small enough amount that you might not notice until too late. Just received another drawing with tons of meshes that should have been solids. It appears I will be putting my newfound knowledge into practice.

There certainly is a lot of complicated history that goes into the conversion, but at least it is a fast process, and converting to generic solid takes care of it in the end. Also note this was a fairly simple form. More complex meshes will be more resource intensive and take longer. And plenty of meshes are broken from the outset. Don't count on being able to solidify just any mesh you find on CGTrader or similar site. Many will work fine, but people modeling for these sites often don't work to our standards because they don't need their models to do what we need them to do.

Great! Thank you. I was hoping to apply each objects attribute, but even just changing from red will be a welcome change.

i would love to know why it works if there is anyone out there that understands. I just know the series of steps, but understanding the logic might help in solving future problems or lead to more elegant solutions.

I don't know if this is normal, but i will say that i have sometimes selected all my viewports in a package to update all at once, and i often have issues when i try to do this. i find that sometimes i get a half-rendered/half missing or entirely blank viewport hidden among all the successful updates. itis embarrassing to turn in a drawing package. Generally these days i update plate by plate, especially if hidden line is involved.

Is there a way to make the clip cube display with the attributes of the object it is cutting or with the drawing's section style where it sections objects (instead of the default red?)

I hope this helps. I am new to screen recording and it seems the microphone did not pickup any of the narration and I spend a lot of time not doing anything while I am explaining what is going on. Again, i have no clue as to why this works. i just know I read about push/pull turning meshes into filled solids on the forum b efore, so my first step was to change your unfamiliar problem into a problem i was familiar with. i deal with a lot of designers who don't understand export settings in their software, soi end up with a lot of meshes coming to me that have no reason to be. I do some variation of this process fairly regularly. select all, then stitch and trim. convert the resulting generic solid into a mesh. This is the point where the problem is familiar territory for me. switch to the push pull tool pull one face out by an easy to remember distance. i generally chose 1 inch. at this point your object becomes a solid addition and should be filled, but the one face has been shifted by 1" so push the same face back by 1" to return the object to its original shape. now it is a solid subtraction. you can convert to a generic solid at this point if you want. You might be able to skip the mesh conversion -- I did not think to try that. I am in the windows version but i see you are on a Mac, perhaps that makes a difference? solidifying an object made of NURBs.mp4