Benson Shaw

@rseybert - Sorry if this is too late to help. But I was irked we couldn't get it to work, so mulled it over and came up with some proof of concept solutions. Center needs Loft Surface - No Rail Mode Ends need Loft Surface - One Rail Mode Setup for both requires several NURBS Curves: fabric edges, central sag guide, several profiles. Surface "ballooning" can be prevented if the profiles are evenly spaced (shown), or progressively spaced (but that's a more difficult task). Results shown are tolerable surfaces. Because of the pointy truss, each loft results in a group containing two surfaces. Without knowledge of the real world dims and parameters, these surfaces may not represent how the fabric actually tensions from the various supports and pulls. My loft profiles are drawn by clicking 3 vertices onto the 3d Loci, therefore they are shaped as vwx NURBS curves. They may not represent the actual fabric shape. If the profiles adjacent to that pointy support truss are fattened up a bit, some of the concavity can be reduced. But it's a lengthy description to alter them, so examples here show the basic 3 vertex curves. Enjoy! -B SaddleSpanTent.vwx

Thanks Stephan. That’s what I surmised , but could not find documentation. It’s another almost-too-small-to-see interface feature. I wasn’t sure it was a magnifying glass until I zoomed the screen 📺. -B

I just today noticed a feature(?) in my smart cursor, in some situations. It's a little magnifying glass icon with an exclamation point in the "glass" area. It appears during pre select hover at a snap point, but only in certain zoom ranges and not at all snap points. Zooming in or out enough removes it, but zooming back reestablishes it. Not all snap points receive this icon I have seen it at beginning of cursor cue for symbol Insertion Point, Arc, Top Center, probably some others that I did not notice. What is purpose of this icon? Is there an associated notification and a keystroke to access? Seems it might be warning that other snap points exist within the snap radius, suggesting zoom in to verify desired point? Or? -B

This seems useful Eg move a roadway by half its width or place a retaining wall to fill over over a driveway, or put a swale in a buried culvert, or draw new contours creating terrain over or under Existing site mod features. etc, etc Worthy wish, but how implement? Just throwing some ideas or critiques: — Existing site mod can be simultaneously present in two states: a) a thing that modifies the exist site model and b) a thing that can also be modified by one or more Proposed modifiers? — when Proposed mods are introduced they vitiate/undo effects of Existing mods in Proposed views, but not in Existing views, so that the Proposed mod is acting on the unmodified Existing condition? — or other??? Not much visual difference in those ideas, but might have different implications for cut/fill and other data? What about indications of demolition or of existing elements that remain in form of abandoned, buried or exposed objects. The wish needs to be filled out with details of how the feature could act, how a user would provide input, . . . . A basic roadmap for engineering -B

Hi Bruce! Did you work this already? Some things to know: - the section solids command is a bit finicky, in my estimation. Sometimes doesn’t work when I think it should. - typical use is to cut through a solid with a straight or a “shaped knife” profile, sort of a cookie cutter tool, or ice cream scooper. It will split the target along the profile and allow choice of which part to keep (the dollop of ice cream, or the remaining ice cream) . OIP “Reverse Direction” button switches the choice. - the cutting profile needs to be a surface, Eg an extrude, or NURBS surface, or 3d poly (at least this works sometimes), or a generic solid version of the others. - the cutting surface needs to intersect the target in a way that defines two volumes. Eg a straight, flat cutting surface that penetrates only partway into a cube will produce an error message. It’s helpful to spin the view a bit to verify that the cutter and the cuttee are engaged in the required config. Regarding the Loft Surface idea: Lofting can can be a quick way to generate a cutting surface, especially a curvy one. Lofts generate NURBS surfaces, but other types of 3d surfaces work with the Section command, too. HTH -B

Yes, seems that a snap alignment through the curve center AND parallel to x axis causes the tangent acquisition to disable in preference to the new acquisition anywhere on that horizontal extension line. But the tangent reacquires as soon as cursor is away from the alignment. Strangely, any other extension line alignment passing through the curve center does not cause this problem ??? -B TangentsLite.mov

I don't ever see a tangent/tangent hint if I'm snapping tangent from a circle/arc to a point on a line or a point in the drawing space. I think the tangent/tangent hint only shows if snapping a line object tangent from one arc to a second arc? Drawing an arc or other curve to be tangent between a couple target curves seems out of the snap capability. Workaround is to use a fillet, but then radius must be chosen in advance.

Horsing around some more. 2 more things of note: 1. The tangents seem to work except to a target horizontally aligned with the curve center and in the positive direction. 2. Tangents to target close to the curve cannot differentiate the opt/alt key. I took my test away from the drawing origin in case that is an issue. Targets between the axes are not shown, but those seemed to work OK, too. This could be a good feature, but needs a defeat option, similar to the ` key (temporarily defeats ALL snaps).

Thanks @Kevin McAllister & @mike m oz for looking and further analysis and commentary. Yeah, this is not new. I’ve always had trouble with vwx tangents, often use workarounds. This seemed over the top, so I posted here and submitted a bug. Time to retool this snap. I too want the tangent snap to apply to both the fist click to lock onto a curve AND to a second click to find tangent on another curve. I say curve rather than arc to expand the functionality into objects with variable radius. And in 3d, how’s about linear and planar tangents between curved surfaces or planar curves and curved surfaces? -B

Is the Tangent Snap unreliable? Tangents from opposite sides of a circle should mirror. Option key reverses sides, but start points are not symmetrically aligned One workaround is to snap the first one, then use the Mirror tool. But is the 1st one really tangent? -B Tangent v2020.vwx

Just a guess - There is a resource in the resource manager of the active file which has a component in that class. Could be a symbol, or wall style, etc. If the class is deleted it would break the resource definition. Therefore vwx generates the error message. Even if no instances of that resource are present in the drawing. a test: Open a new drawing file and somehow make that class appear in the class list but without any objects on the drawing. Eg Place a symbol instance containing objects in that class on the drawing, then delete the instance. Or open a new file from a template with that class. Or in a new blank file perform some action that causes auto classing of that class. In this new file try to delete the class. -B

Hi @Chan Welcome to the forum! Lots to know, but short answer first, then some discussion and how to. Possible causes for no texture in your imported 3d symbol: - Normally a texture cannot be assigned to a symbol instance on a drawing. Texture must be applied to the objects contained in the symbol. - You are rendering in OpenGL but the Use Textures setting is not enabled. - Objects contained in the symbol do not have texture assigned. - Objects contained in the symbol do not have color fill, and therefore cannot accept any texture. - Objects in the symbol are not assigned to classes with textures. Or the class “Use at Creation” option is not enabled. (This one probably does not apply to your question) Some detail: Attributes, such as line qualities, color fills and textures, of an object identified on the drawing as a symbol are applied and controlled by editing the symbol definition. First, some things to know: A. Only 3d objects can accept textures. 2d objects can accept image fills, patterns, hatches, color fills, gradients, but not textures. B. 3d objects need color fill to accept texture. C. Renderworks renders should always show textures where they are present. OpenGL has a setting to show textures or not. Find the OGL setting options in View menu>Rendering>OpenGL Options, and some other places depending on your version and setup. D. Symbols can be composed of 2d or 3d objects or both. —-An object identified as a 2d symbol is composed of only 2d screen plane objects. —-A 3d symbol can contain 2d layer plane objects, 3d objects, or both. —-A hybrid or 2d/3d symbol is a 3d symbol which also contains screen plane objects. The screen plane objects are visible only in Top Plan View, but the 3d components are not visible in Top/Plan. E. Editing a symbol definition will alter every existing instance of the symbol on the drawing. Two ways to edit a symbol definition: 1. Dbl click the symbol on the drawing (this is an “Instance” of the symbol definition) to access the edit space. 2. Open the Resource Manager, find the symbol icon/name, right click and choose Edit 2d or Edit 3d Components to access the edit space. Either way, an orange Edit border surrounds the drawing window to indicate the edit space. The component objects within the symbol are available to select and edit. Select any objects requiring texture, verify that they have color fill, then apply texture via the OIP Render tab. Make a test render with OpenGL or Fast Renderworks. When satisfied, click the Exit button in upper right or press Return/Enter. Now render the drawing. Textures should show. HTH. Post again if none of this makes your renders texturized. -B

Whoa, @Andy Broomell ! Thank you soo much for the analysis and taking the time to write it all out. This is the kind of detailed talking points and slide deck I always imagined the vwx engineers engaging in. Managers at the same table then directing the engineers to take it all apart and put it all back together in a specific way that is cohesive and logical for the end users. But, maybe that discussion and direction just doesn't happen for these legacy tools and processes. Hopefully this thread will be a kick in the pants to take a look. This seems like one of those vwx items that started one way then was remodeled and added to version after version until development was just abandoned. A massively revised version of this "section/elevation marker tool/object thing" might break the existing one when drawings are converted. Would engineering a new, consolidated object/process be a viable path? The old objects could coexist on drawings and the old tools/commands could then be delegated to the legacy area of the workspace mgr for use if anyone needs. And, I'm imagining @zoomer screaming and running (zooming?) but not too far. 😀 -B

A possible pitfall of the workaround is inadvertently couting the hidden dupes in worksheets. Vigilance and criteria care advised! -B

Ahhh, yes, I can confirm that Advanced Properties do not affect the line styles that have text or geometry. Here's my workaround. There may be others. 1. Make two new classes: A. GasLine Orig B. GasLine Small (or Large, or .5. or 1:50, or logical (note - avoid name conflict with the Gas Line line type definition) 2. Assign the orig Design Layer gas line object to GasLine Orig. 3. In the Resource Manager, find the line type definition for Gas Line and duplicate it. 4. Rename the dupe, eg Gas Line Small. 5. Edit the Gas Line Small geometry: A. Select/adjust the text object size. B. Select/adjust lines on either side of the text box. 6. On the drawing DL: A. Duplicate the orig Gas Line object (class is GasLine Orig) B. Assign the duplicate to the new line type Gas Line Small. C. Assign the new gas line object to class GasLine Small Edit this is redundant step B D. Hide the class GasLine Small 7. On the drawing SLVP> Select the Viewport>Class list and make two overrides as needed: A. Hide GasLine Orig B. Show GasLine Small Whew! That's a hassle, but it does the trick. Might be refinements with text styles applied to the class definition. Unless I'm completely missing the obvious way to do this (not unlikely), consider adding a wish for better VP control of these geometry and text line types. HTH -B