Brian F. McGarry

Hello Carpalmer I have been using Rhino and Vectorworks together since 2008. I find there are several advantages to this workflow when dealing with really complex compound curves or if you need to fabricate the finished product using a CNC. The only minor hang up is occasionally the geometry may come in as all separate NURBs surfaces, so make sure you weld the geometry in Rhino before you import. If the import Rhino command causes an issue you can also go into Rhino and export as a Solid or .iges file and import into Vectorworks. I hope that helps a bit and good luck on your endeavors. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or if you get stuck.

It would be increasingly helpful if Vectorworks would actively seek to collaborate with one or any of the Energy Analysis program companies out there like IES, Ecotect, or other and create a more seamless work-flow. As it stands right now there is a substantial amount of work around procedures to make the interface between these programs plausible. The old stand by of using .IFC format is not truly an answer to this since there is, again substantial issues with this format as it is exported from Vectorworks. I see the other programs such as Revit, Architcad, and even Sketchup have surpassed us in this realm and I would like to see Vectorworks at the very least catch up.

The answer depends on the type of geometry used in Rhino. If the model was 3D polygons than .dwg or .3DS is the correct format, now if the the model in Rhino was created with NURBS than you want to save it as a .iges format. Now this next bit is a little strange but important. After you save the file as an .iges you have to delete the "e" in the .iges file extension and than import it into Vectorworks. That should fix it. Let me know if you have any issues. Cheers! Brian

M.CH I tried a few imports and had about an 80% success rate for those that failed I checked them in Rhino and it seems that some of the NURBS were being translated as solids. As with your files the troubled files did import into 2008 with out any issue. Sounds like a bug to me, sorry that I couldn't be more help.

MichaelK Meshlab I imagine keeps crashing when you apply the cleaning filters. It can handle the amount of meshes but once the geometry gets beyond a certain complexity it will not simplify in a meaningful way. Usually when there are multiply intersections of planar geometry occurring not at a vertex it starts to assume how to resolve these geometries. Which can lead to a crashing of the program. In that case I would use Rhino for Mac which has the most sophisticated tools for simplifying geometry. The tools will allow you to reduce the amount triangulation on planar surfaces which will reduce memory allocation, render times, and 3D print times. The other program that is available is called Magics by Materialize (http://www.materialise.com/materialise/view/en/92074-Magics.html)this is an investment, but well worth it if you going to be working with many complicated 3D prints. Since you are a Mac OS 10.5.3 user you can download the beta version for free here (http://community.irhino3d.com/) If you are willing to post your file then I will take a look at in Meshlab. Brian

I have unfolded several surfaces in VW 2009 and it will unfold NURBS and CSG objects that curve in one direction only. 3D polygons seem not to work at this point. In my opinion, I applaud the movement towards unfolding but there is a ways to go. I would still use Pepakura (http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/) to unfold developable surfaces for a whole building model. It is a kids program but it is extremely easy to use and creates adjustable tabs and labels the pieces for ease of assembly. As for double curved surfaces I would use Rhino's unroll surface command. There is also Touchcad (http://www.touchcad.com/) that unfolds and takes into account thickness of materials, but it is an investment. The pro to purchasing Touchcad is that it reads native Vectoworks files where as Pepakura you would have to export the file to be readable. I am anticipating that NNA will continue to develop this tool in future releases and that it will improve in time.

The easiest way to achieve this is by downloading a free program called Meshlab (http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/) and converting the file into a .dwg or .3ds format. The advantage to this is that if you are planning to 3D print anything Meshlab will run analysis and allow you to repair any gaps or naked edges.

I have had this occur when there was mixed geometry in the form of 3D polygons and NURBS coming from Maya. What program generated the .igs file?

It would be most helpful if the door and window labels had the ability to appear on elevation and section veiwports. The second request is the ability to have a more user friendly 3D viewing interface, similar to the 3D viewing options that are found in Rhino or Sketchup. The flyover tool for example is clunky at best and could use an overhaul to allow it to be smoother like in Maya's view rotation or Sketchup's Orbit tool.

I have since discovered the fix and it is quite simple. The answer is to delete the "e" from the file extension before importing, leaving you with .igs. This will allow Vectorworks to read and utilize the 3D information.

We work in vectorworks 11.5 and Maya 6.5. When we export the maya file as a .iges and try to import the file into vectorworks, the file is grayed out and can not be selected. These same files import into Rhino with no problem. Any suggestions?