Benson Shaw

I found that in VW 11 the Adobe programs could not display the default VW line weight very boldly - faded as you say. This happens in the Adobe Reader, too. Do a test file export with line weight one notch higher (Sorry, I have VW 12 now and do not remember the VW 11 line weight designations but I think 6 is the narrowest which shows well). Anyway, you can chanage line weight in the attributes pallet. Also check your export parameters. There may be a line weight or stroke conversion happening at a default setting too low for good viewing. Good luck.

UPDATE: My source polylines are big part of the problem. I found they were not closed and had stacked corner points. When I corrected the polys, most problems and error messages went away. Especially that strange transparent render of extruded 3d contour mode - now it renders opaque with shadows and no visible "hidden" lines. Here is what is left: 1. The nurbs road does not send to surface, or I misunderstand the intent of the tool: If a road is created flat, on the working plane, say, it stays flat and parallel to its creation plane. The Send to Surface command causes the model to dig or build to the road surface. I can raise or lower the road to different heights and in 3d front or side view mode, but that does not map to the surface. The road does not map onto the DTM and rise and fall with the site contours. How do I make the road follow the contours? 2. A click to Update in the Site Model OIP causes an error pane: Two Overlapping Pads. The screen shows the source polys and a curved arc. If I close the error pane and search all layers for that arc, I can't find it. How does one find and correct overlapping pads? Thanks for any comment. -B [ 03-27-2006, 06:26 PM: Message edited by: Benson Shaw ]

Thanks Robert - Zeroing out the the line weights works ok. I just thought there might be a render mode with no facet lines for a prettier visualization. Drape surface might work, but roads and other site modifiers would need extra effort. oh well. Any thoughts on the transparency of the surface in extruded contours mode? Is this intended? I selected a green fill color in graphic attributes pane and switched off the texture in OIP. No shadows, just yellow lines on a transparent green surface. Update command makes no change. Any thoughts on the road not projecting onto the model surface? or the notice that no DTM is present? Isn't the site model a DTM? I must be using the tools incorrectly. -B

My test site model is generated from four nested 3d poly contour lines, each shaped like a capital letter "D". The smallest contour fits in a 50' square. The contours are parellel to the xyz plane and have z heights in 5 foot increments with the largest contour at 15'. This makes a sort of basin with a steep grade or slanted wall at the deep end (straight part of the "D") and a gradual slope to the shallow end. The model behaves in unintended ways: In 3d triangle (colored slopes) mode the lines between facets render unless I switch them to zero line weight in graphic attributes. I have a Nature turf texture applied and render in Renderworks. Are there other ways to conceal the lines and just render the surface? In Extruded Contours mode, the texture does not apply, and the surface appears somewhat transparent revealing yellow lines at the contour edges and risers. More lines follow around the skirt. In oblique 3d views the lines of far skirt are visible through the surface. No setting in the graphic attributes pane shows the yellow line color and all the 3d line weights are set to zero. How do I get the texture to map and the yellow lines to dissapear? I drew a nurbs road (tried both nurbs road tool and convert polyline to object command) in TOP/Plan view and tried to "Send to Surface" but it did not send. The entire road stays at zero height. If road selected, Send Stations to Surface command in OIP returns error: No DTM present. If I select the site model and choose the Validate Data command, an error pane returns: Site Model Object, Internal error! Report this to NNA as a Bug Thanks for any comment or help on this. I will apply it to the large and complicated site model. -B

The hand vs CAD question is probably more personal than it should be. There is a hand drawing culture demanding line quality, impression/interpretation, and some demand for a human presence on the page. There is also a CAD culture demanding 2d and 3d precision at the design stage (which often used to be handled by fabricators, builders, site workers - in other words it could be handled by others and still turn out ok), pride of update and tracking ability, interactive zoom and scale, 2d to 3d conversion, etc, etc. A stridant stance in one of these cultures can cause stress or argument. Embracing all methods of design communication, without prejudice, can help with many aspects of your work and life. Do what the teacher asks and learn from it. If so inclined, prepare an additional submission using an alternate treatment or method. Good teachers love a challenge from a student. It can't hurt to become proficient at both hand and CAD. -B

I think the option drag select is a way to select an object by draging through any part of it. Try it with a rectangle and see that it is selected if your drag marque touches any part of the rectangle. The circle must get selected because that imaginary square is part of the circle's domain (my word for this). Strange, though, that if you rotate the rectangle, say 30 or 40 degrees, it is not selected when you option drag through its bounding domain without touching the rectangle. We need a deeper geek on this one. -B

This started with attempt to locate 2D loci on an arc with Duplicate Along A Path tool. Goal was to "divide" arc into 6 equal divisions with first duplicate on one arc end, last duplicate on other arc end, with 5 duplicates at equal arc length spacing between. I set the DAAP tool options to: Number of Duplicates = 7, Start Offset distance = 0. The result instead was 7 duplicates with the last one placed on the arc just a bit inboard of the arc end. The announced arc length (obj info palette) divided by 6 (on my external calculator) is not same length announced in the updated Fixed Distance box in the DAAP options dialog box. I got curious and increased the unit precision out to 5 places. Same result. I divided some open polylines this way, too. Corner Point, Bezier and Arc polys divide into even segments. Spline poly did not. Sometimes the "last" duplicate did not show up. Segment Arc command works on arcs, but not on polylines. Same results with anti aliasing turned on. OK, is this my system? Pilot error? A VW thing? Any comment welcome. -B

Thanks Islandmon - I had fair success modeling a small portion of the site. I created new nurb contours by placing groups of 3d loci on the exist contour lines. Each group has same number of loci and runs approximately perpendicular to the slope. The loci are assigned z heights corresponding to the exist grade contours - each group has a locus at z=256' placed on the 256 grade line, another at z=257, etc. Then I traced a nurb curve through all the loci on each height resuling in a new set of curves roughly shaped like the original contour lines. These curves have the same number of verticies so they loft!! Then I converted the loft to an interpolated surface with really limited number of points so I could click through them and adjust surface heights to fit paths, walls, etc. Problems arise where the orig contours die off in curbs or walks. Well, that was lots of wind. Your posts re the boat hull inspired the technique. Now I have to decide it the DTM tools are worth the price. Thanks again! -B

I'm trying to use VW 11 Foundation edition to model a big and complicated water channel site: gentle and steep slopes intersecting with curved top serpentine earth walls, earth ramps, pathways, bridges, stairs, etc. I receive the site plan as dwg from LA's who are constantly updating it. End product is design and presentation aid for public art treatment at the site. No DTM in Foundation edition so I am lofting along pairs of contour lines. Sometimes uneven vertex count or other issues stop the lofts. Anyway, model by this method is a big collection of nurb surfaces which render as facets. Projecting a pathway onto this is impractical because the lofts are groups of triangles. Can anybody suggest a better approach? I have to do site modeling for one or two projects each year. Model should be accurate and fairly easily editable to keep up with the other designers. I may have to bite the bullet and get the DTM feature in either LA or Architect when I upgrade to VW12. Comments on best choice welcome, too.

I use LaCie's Silverkeeper to backup user folder, aps, and system library to an external HD, currently for Mac OS 10.4.2. The Vectorworks 11.5.1 folder has several thousand items which return a "date not set" note in the completed backup. This includes: ADINIT.DAT Classic Dongle Shlb (I don't use a dongle) DWGdirect Library and apparently everything in the folders for Extras/Goodies, Object library, Plug ins, Parametric tools , etc Is this a bad thing? Do I need to access those files to set a date? Does it matter to VW or backup functionality whether the date is set? Any comments will help. -B

thanks, Mike - I checked the demo's. These tools may help with my needs. --B

Is there an easy and comprehensive way to check a polyline or decomposed polyline for continuity and remove piled up points or overlapping segments? Either within Vectorworks or through other Mac software? Continuous vector paths are often required to guide computer controlled machinery such as laser and waterjet cutters, mills, lathes, routers, etc. Discontinuity can happen in lots of ways, but stops or confuses the CNC machine, causing expense from delays or ruined parts. Part of a polyline can mistakenly be drawn on top of an earlier segment or arc. The trace bitmap command might return thousands of points piled up on top of each other. The dxf of an Adobe Illustrator path could import with lots of points and segments piled on top of each other. All these situations are difficult to see or assess with edit polyline tool or decompose/compose commands. Offset tool is a common approach, but complicated paths with lots of points do not always offset, even when continuous. Any experience out there? -B

New data, but still NO FIX - This is an OS/user related issue, not a VW problem, but we knew that. I tried same process with a photoshop file. Created a 36" x 48" canvas with some concentric rectangles filling it, set the File:Page Set Up to custom 48" x 36" and tried Print:Save as File:Postscript (not saved as postscript from Pshop save options). The resulting postscript file shows only lower left cornter of the Photoshop page.

I have one at home and one at studio. Same model so I can buy same ink. They must have different signatures because I can't print unless the one I am plugged to is selected in the print center. I have to name them so I know which is which. Most of the time no printer is plugged to the Powerbook. I don't print to paper that often, so don't bother to plug printer to usb port each time I move Powerbook (daily at least). I am using the driver(s) supplied by Apple's OS disk and updates, not driver from Epson CD. Did I do something wrong? -B [ 07-28-2005, 07:35 PM: Message edited by: Benson Shaw ]

I only have two epson 820's in my printer list . these are letter/legal size ink jets. One of them is selected when I choose "Print". Do I need to add a wide format or postscript printer to the list? I thought the Save as Postscript is a virtual printer, but I've been wrong before. -B

Thanks, Katie, but "One Page" is current setting. If I change it to some other page size, it updates the page break arrangement in the little preview window. If I change back to Arch E, close the Set Page box and reopen it, the size window says "One Page" again (responds to page size in File menu, I guess). pdf options give me the full image (slightly off scale), but the ps option only returns part of page. ??? -B

I send files to a local print bureau for my large format printing (no in house plotter). In Vectorworks 11.5 and MacOS 10.3.9 if I choose Print:Save as File: Postscript in a large sheet, say US Arch E, the resulting file shows only part of the page. Usually the lower left area - about equivalent to a letter or legal sheet. Print:Save as File:PDF or Print:Save as PDF return full image, but do not come in at scale. They end up a bit small .998 which translates to a 1/16 of an inch for every 4 feet - bad for full scale cartoon of 40 foot long mural). I can rescale objects in the drawing to compensate, but there should be a way to get the whole sheet in a Save as File:Postscript file. In letter sized tests the Save as File:Postscript file opened as pdf in Apple's Preview and when saved as pdf results in a properly scaled print. Any experience with this problem? Here is my drawing set up in VW: one layer, one class File Menu: Page setup:custom paper size: 48" x 36", scale 100% (I tried both landscape and portrait orientations - same problem) Page Menu:Set print area:Arch E (it reverts to "one page"), show page boundary, show page breaks Thanks -B

Select the object. Look at each entry for this object in the object attributes palette (fill style, fill color, pen style, pen color, line weight, arrows) and click the Class Style bar or box (an arrow will appear in that style icon). You can edit class style "global" choices: click Class box on the data display bar, select "Classes" on the pulldown menu. enjoy! -B

Sorry, not a workaround or solution. This is just for comparison. I have several big (for me) 3d models which can do final and artistic renders in Renderworks without crash or other problem. One file is 38 MB with lots of saved views and several thousand objects grouped into several hundred. Renders have solid and transparent objects, stock and self created textures, gradients, lighting conditions, background layer, exceeds paper size, etc. My VW files are stored in separate project folders (in my Documents folder) with other docs from their projects, not the master VW folder. VW 11.0.1 Mac OS 10.3.7 17" Powerbook, 1.33 Mhz, 1G RAM, -Benson

I do a lot of tracing of jpeg images for waterjet cutting. When the image is too big it slows down the trace. Also, a poly line with lots of points slows things down. One work around is to draw several short polylines around the image and join them in sequence with the Dual Object Combine tool. If you assign different colors you can see whether the combine comand worked. Another problem is that no matter which color polyline you are drawing, the rubberbanding is in grey while you draw. Tracing an object in a black and white image can be as hard finding your camo underwear in a stack of camp laundry. I guess I could change the image to a different duo tone with an image editor, but it would be cool to be able to control rubberbanding color.

In VW 11 for Mac, Volumetric Properties tool yields object volume in cubic inches and area in square inches. What is process to change units in the display panel? eg to cubic feet and square feet.