Steve S.

So if for some reason you don’t want to install a 2025 version of VW And if you happened to have Rhino, this might be a fairly easy workaround until the VW plug-in starts working with VW 2026 While back I happened to work on something using VW’s 3D Angle Iron tool that’s in the Detailing toolset At the time I exported this angle iron out of VW into Rhino And I did apply a hatch to it in Rhino I was curious to see if I could get a hatch out of Rhino into VW So I exported the angle with the hatch out as a DWG and imported into VW The DWG came into VW kind of weird but the hatch came in fine with all the hatch lines being considered as a single polygon by VW I moved this hatch (a single polygon) to the top face of the angle in VW See the pictures — So what I am stating here might be of no use to you But, if the hatch just happened to be something that you didn’t want to draft by hand in VW, then maybe the above technique might save you some time And Rhino does allow for the import of PAT files from such as https://www.cadhatch.com

@Maurits Verbunt I got curious and copied and pasted in the coordinates into OpenStreetMap and this is what came up. I believe it's the same as yours only this one is rotated 90° to the right in comparison to what you posted In other words, north on your map is pointing to the left. So there was no text overlay. But I tried bringing the PDF directly from OpenStreetMap into Vectorworks, and it came in as a bitmap. So then I opened up the PDF from OpenStreetMap into Affinity Designer and saved it as a PDF, and then bought that PDF into Vectorworks It came in as a vector. I have not scaled it. You will have to do that. VW Map.vwx

I took the PDF into Affinity Designer to remove the TEXT OVERLAY At the start, I selected the first large rectangle and hit delete Then selected the first letter and just kept tapping delete By itself, the cursor would jump to the next letter So I DID NOT have to select each letter. Just rapidly kept tapping delete Here is a REALTIME VIDEO Map.mov

The PDF comes in as vector, so it allows for zooming way in and still retaining crisp linework

@Maurits Verbunt Follow this video. I brought a PDFstreet map into Vectorworks using this technique The video is about bringing a map into Rhino BUT IT WORKED FOR VECTORWORKS IT'S FREE The picture shows what I brought into Vectorworks The guy keeps mentioning Digimap, but he was using OPEN STREET MAP.

Boat from Plan.vwx

Thanks @bcd I've hardly looked at mesh modeling. So this will be interesting I believe Rhino has a way of attaching a subdivision to a Nurbs So maybe that will be another or alternate workflow I use going forward Model part of something in mesh, and then attach the mesh to the Nurbs. Interesting thought if nothing else Or maybe just convert the mesh to a Nurbs But Blender is all about mesh. And loads of those folks use it to make 3D prints. So maybe just send the mesh to the slicer and be done with it. Thanks again

@bcd Tried to open your file I couldn't I am guessing you are on a 2026 ver of VW I don't have an M chip Mac yet so I can't install 2026 VW Can you save your file as a 2025 ver. I would like to take a look at the file Thanks

@DB_yachts So here is a way you may not have seen using VW to get a SMOOTH hull For starters, watch how I make a simple shaped boat hull. Because I use this method on your plans So from the plans you posted I get the curves you see below The RED CURVES are the ones I sent down the rails The surfaces derived from those curves, allowed me to make the solid you see directly below Now from here, I did go into Plasticity, because I’m not all that comfortable with VW’s Nurbs tools. Frankly, they are limiting to me. So doing the rounded nose is just a whole lot easier for me to do with a surfacing program, so that I can get a SMOOTH TRANSITION to the rest of the hull. So one of the Nurbs experts here in the forum can better show you how to do that nose with VW’s toolset. Now the rest of the shape can be done with no problem in VW If you take anything away from what I'm showing here, it's that in a number of cases, when you're trying to make shapes like this, LESS IS MORE. In other words, you may NOT want to use all those frames to loft off of. But rather, use them to help you derive the long curves that go from the back to the front of the boat Because if you try to loft off of every frame or rib, it’s possible your shape can get lumpy. SIMPLE BOAT.mov SECOND ATTACHMENT.mov FOURTH ATTACHMENT.mov FINAL.mov

Plasticity does have a FREE plug-in that works with Blender. Edits made in Plasticity update in realtime in Blender. So change a nurbs in Plasticity and watch the mesh change instantly in Blender.

@EAlexander Thanks for the compliment. I do appreciate it. Plasticity and Vectorworks both use the same geometry modeling kernel. Exporting out of Plasticity as a Parasolid XT file and then importing into Vectorworks works great The model comes into VW as a generic solid. I haven't spent much time that I can remember tweaking an imported XT model. But I’ve attached the VW file of the imported XT so have a go at it. I would think that you should be able to modify it as much as any other generic solid. The imports do appear to come into VW with a fair amount of iso lines (I guess that’s what they are). The pictures here in this post show the main curves I used in Plasticity for using XNurbs to make one side of the boat. So you can see that there was not a whole lot of line work to make a SHEET that was mirrored. Then the nose was made with XNurbs. The back end was patched to make a solid of the 4 sheets. I then used a polyline to do a cut to make the rear deck. For the rounds where the flat deck meets the sides, I did a surfacing technique. I've purchased Rhino about five weeks ago. And that program is going to have a place in my repertoire of CAD programs. Especially if Vectorworks gets to the point where I no longer want to pay what they are charging for Select Service At that point, Rhino will become my architectural CAD modeler. Not as fast as Vectorworks but for the type of work I do, it will get the job done. And for those that are interested, the drafting tools are getting better. As far as a modeling program for doing shapes that are more than rectangles and flat surfaces, Plasticity is the way to go as far as I'm concerned. Once you start getting up to speed and learning how to use the tools, you will appreciate the efficiency of that program and the power of it. On first glimpse, Plasticity doesn't look like much. But that is extremely deceiving. The toolset is powerful and fast. Boat made in Plasticity.vwx

DB mentioned how a model will be printed. DB also mentioned racing models. I would assume DB is looking for SMOOTH. If anyone wants to learn how to make smooth objects, they should spend time learning a surface modeling program. They should spend time in a good forum about surface modeling. This will greatly help them even if their goal is to end up using Vectorworks to make something like a boat Without doing so ——— well ——— this is Virtuals model brought into Plasticity and with Zebra stripes applied. So for those that don’t know what Zebra is about — the wavy lines indicate that this is far from smooth. You don’t want to print this type of model unless you are prepared to use a lot of filler and do a lot of sanding.

@DB_yachts @Jeff Prince suggested that there are other programs better suited for doing such as a boat hull. I could not agree more with what Jeff said. These other programs for one thing, may specialize in making objects very smooth. I used such a program to make what you see in the pictures in this post. If you look at the ZEBRA STRIPES, notice how there are NO RIPPLES in the stripes. That's an indication of how smooth the surface is on the 3D model. The smoothness you see is not due to any display or rendering trick to make things LOOK SMOOTH. But rather, those Zebra Stripes WITHOUT ripples indicate how smooth the model actually is. With time and patience you can get better at using a program like Vectorworks to do this type of work — but you're never really going to be able to tell how smooth your model is without bringing it into a program that has curvature and surface analysis tools The program I used is a $300 program. So if you are going to be doing a lot of boat hull type stuff, you may want to consider using such a program. It just makes life easier. Leave VW for what it specializes in. Architecture, Landscaping, Lighting & Sound set-ups. My two cents. By the way, I used a Polyline and then converted it to Nurbs to make the frame or rib for the boat you see in this post. Worked better than other methods for this particular model. So I would agree with @EAlexander on this point also.

LOL. Got it

And if that printer was still not big enough, then maybe an elongated printer would do the trick https://www.matterhackers.com/store/l/modix-big-120x-v4-3d-printer-kit/sk/MTPRRVG8 https://www.matterhackers.com/store/c/large-volume-3d-printers?srsltid=AfmBOoqhV-4yj46dyox-N3rWXPn0i8KG8Z-fHr7NclPxSA7e74uX2xeb