NorCalLights

Just came here to post the same request. Glad it's on the list. ~P

Hi Jim, Thanks for being so involved in this conversation. Add my vote to spending development energy toward speeding up the 2D operations and display by any means necessary. I have really appreciated those improvements over the last three releases, and I'm excited to hear that future releases may harness the greater hardware capabilities of the new Mac Pro (and the increasingly powerful graphics cards in all computers). As a lighting designer, I spend the vast majority of my time in Top/Plan. So while improvements to the rendering engine are welcome, it's really the improvements to 2D operations and display that add up to an increase in my productivity. Cheers, ~Paul

In theory, VW is software for professionals, so I don't have any problem with a bit of a learning curve. In my opinion, customizing the workspace is a skill that should be learned early on that curve. ~P

I've been wishing for this as well... someone posted it over in the feature request forum too. The C4D<>Vectorworks workflow is so convoluted that even if I had the cash to drop on a C4D license, I still don't think I should be forced to use it every time I want to edit a simple rendering in Photoshop.

Hi Robert, Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. We really do appreciate when there are responses from folks at Nemetschek. Unfortunately, I have to disagree with the use-case you've described here. I can't rely on Nomad's cloud rendering at all, so I can't be sure that the file will be ready to view on my iPad when I get to my destination. I've just simply had too many errors, or files that didn't work properly. In addition, I would never show a client something that I haven't proofed in its final form. It's too easy to forget to turn on a class, or screw up a Renderworks setting. And so far, I've yet to find an instance where uploading a file to Nomad is faster than just rendering out the viewport myself, exporting the PDF, and opening it in iBooks (or some other PDF viewer). The real killer-app for us is to be able to mark up (or, dare I say, edit) actual 2D and 3D drawing files on site, and have those markups sync back to the master file in some way. Nomad doesn't do that. As it stands, Nomad is no better than any other PDF viewer on the market, and in many cases it is less reliable.

I just find it sad that the two "sticky" posts at the top of every forum announce the availability of 2012 SP1 and (even more pathetically) the 2011 Viewer. How does that slip through the cracks? I posted on the Vectorworks mailing list about a feature request, and I was told to come here to add it to the list. Now I feel like I'm talking into a vacuum.

Uncheck "Enclose VW Channels in Parentheses" in the Data Exchange window in Lightwright.

I'm honestly curious... I don't think I've ever seen a single response to one of our Wish List posts from someone at Nemetschek. A simple "We agree that would be a great feature to add in the future" or "We understand your frustration and are working on a solution" would really go a long way here. I rely on Vectorworks for my entire livelihood, and the silence on these forums makes me feel like we users need NA a whole lot more than they need us. It's a scary, lonely feeling.

That video blew my mind. The HOURS this would save me... I can't even let myself dream that someday we'll see something like this in VW. I'm with you, Kevin... Nemetschek has the entertainment industry over a barrel.

Hi Bruce, I have tried the sketch option for lines, but that isn't at all what I'm looking for in this instance. I'm trying to get renderings that look as if they were drawn completely with watercolors, paint, or colored charcoal. These were all possible in earlier versions of VW. Huge +1 to be able to export images with transparent backgrounds. My current workaround for the lack of artistic rendering options is a heavy dose of Photoshop. Transparent backgrounds would be a huge timesaver.

Yes please. This is standard issue on just about every other software package that offers 3D modeling. It's getting ridiculous that it doesn't exist in VW. I'd take options for 2 or 4 views split in one window, but an option for multiple views in multiple windows would be great also.

Could we get the artistic rendering options that were removed when the rendering engine transitioned to Cinema 4D returned to the Renderworks package? We need more options for non-photorealistic color renderings than what is offered by the "Cartoon" option. Thank you.

The Magic Sheet tool is basically useless. I don't know any professional lighting designers who use it. I just draw my own. Even on big shows (400+ channels), I can usually pound one out in about 3 hours. Since every designer has his or her own opinions about how a magic sheet should look, there's really no way for Vectorworks to auto-create one.

I vaguely remember some bugs with the Label Legend Manager around VW12. Make sure you've installed all of the updates (if this is a new computer, maybe you're still running the version that came on the CD?). I'm quite certain that the bugs were fixed in an update. Hope that helps... ~P

Thanks, Michael. That's good to hear at least. It's a little silly that my Mac Pro shows no real speed difference in my day-to-day 2D work over my (almost 5-year-old) Macbook Pro. Has anyone tried running VW on a solid state drive? Has that made any difference? ~P