JoeF

Here is a tutorial that I came across that addresses the procedure for converting viewports to design layers: http://www.aecbytes.com/tipsandtricks/2006/issue7-vectorworks.html

Thanks Michael! This is very encouraging. I will descend to the laboratory and try this out.

I managed to correct the problem I was having with the viewports by editing the class that the viewport was on and making it transparent. There are so many ways of controlling visibility in VW it becomes a guessing game at some point. The model is not at 0,0. I'll try to move it, but selecting everthing in the file is a challenge. I want the shadows not as a sun study but to highlight the different planes of the building. This is not an unusual activity and is not really "fake". What I would like to be able to do is control whether a light affects a viewport. I should be able to put the light in a class and then turn that class off in a viewport. Alas this doesn't seem to work.

I am going to have to admit to some frustration here. I have four views of my model. I set one of the views up so there is an overlay of a hidden line and a rendered view. Looks great. I go to another view and set it up the same way. The hidden line view obscures the rendered view. How come this didn't happen with my other view? Who knows. So I decide to just copy the viewports and change the view from front to side. When I do that the viewport is completely blank. No model visible at all. Why does this happen? It never happens in the tutorials. There must be a logical reason for stuff but whenever I think I have a grasp of it things do not work as I had predicted. I am also trying to figure out how to set up lights so that every view has the same shadows. I don't want some views to be in shade. This will require a Phd. in Vectorworks.

Solved the gray problem by turning on the ambient light. Yay!!

I have been having some success using the overlay method. I would post an image here but I can't believe you have to set up the image on a server. I tried to apply the same technique to a model I have been working on and everything turns out gray-ish instead of white-ish. None of the classes are gray, nor is the lighting a gray colour. I cannot find the source of the gray. I even copied the sun position from my sample. Any ideas? I am unclear about the best way to texture something. In the wall definition or the class definition? Which takes precedence? What layer do you put your lights in? Does it matter? Help, as always, is gretly appreciated.

I like your overlay technique! Thanks for sharing it. You are right that VW is very close to having the ability to easily use the 3d model for 2d plans. I think I can make something useful using overlays. If I create something worthwhile I'll post an image here. Thanks for the help!

The problem I am trying to address is that VW does not have the ability to show a pattern in hidden line. This makes my elevation views look like bad. I have to produce elevations during the design stage that look good but are drawings not renders. Sooo, I am experimenting. I do not want to explode everything to lines and fill the walls with patterns. This defeats the whole idea of creating a 3d model in the first place. If VW is going to sell itself as a BIM program the finished product must be a model and not a flat 2d drawing which may or may not represent the finished building. You lose all BIM integrity if you explode your model. Applying flat textures to building faces that may be at an angle to the viewer (roofs for instance) always looks like crap. If I can find a way to use textures to mimic patterns I can produce an elevation that looks like a professional drawing. So far I am not having a lot of success, but I have just begun experimenting. Problem is that when I bought into Vectorworks I thought this problem would have been addressed and I would just have to check out a tutorial or buy a how -to manual. I do not want to worry when I produce a set of plans whether the elevations reflect the latest changes in the plans. Using the 3d model to produce the elevations removes that worry. At the same time I want my drawings to look good. So I continue to experiment in my laboratory.... (I can't wait till I try to show shadows on my elevations)

Thanks! The manual failed to mention that you have to load a texture into your drawing before you can edit it. If I want to alter the colour of a texture I guess I have to do it in a Photoshop kind of program then load it into the texture. The open gl view looks so grey, I am trying to brighten it up with some monochrome textures.

I have been through three manuals and searched this forum for an answer to a very simple question. The following sentence is from the VW manual: 1.From the Resource Browser, select the texture to be changed, and then select Edit from the Resources menu. I cannot find the Resources menu. I have the following menus at the top of the program screen: File Edit View Modify Model AEC Tool Text Window Help. No Resources menu. I have tried right clicking on a texture and double clicking. I feel like an idiot spending $$$ on manuals and then having to come here for answers. I appreciate the help I get here.

Thanks, The move 3d does the trick. My problem was not noticing the check box for "entire roof". Seems odd that the Bearing Height parameter does not show up in the Object Info palette.

Thanks !!! Unfortunately I had not set the walls to use the class settings and when I reset the wall parameters one wall shot off into infinity and VW locked up. I now have a solution though. Thanks again for the help.

I am in the midst of the design of a residence and need to produce periodic sets of plans showing the design as it progresses. I was hoping to set up a Sheet and use the viewports to present the views of the building. I have run into a problem with lineweights. If I have my wall outlines in plan view set heavy, the walls appear heavy in elevation as well. Is there any way to set the elevation linweight different than the plan. I know the standard procedure is to explode all your elevations into linework, but this seems to defeat the whole idea of building in 3d. I'm hoping that I have missed a setting somewhere.

I had planned on using VW as a 3d program but is becoming increasingly difficult to do this. There are so many roadblocks. I'll keep trying but it is very frustrating having to wait a few seconds everytime you want to see a hidden line view. It's 2006 for heaven sakes. Now I have the added fun task of trying to lower an existing roof as I mistakenly set the bearing height incorrectly. I thought this would be easy. Not so.(first try to find where the bearing height parameter is hidden) I get a message saying that the roof is to complex and is being deleted. I am only trying to lower it!! Guess I'll have to redraw the roof.

It's not the computer. If I use hidden line, every time I change the view I get asked if I want to re render. Can a new computer change that?

Thanks. Too bad hidden line views are so slow.

Another newbie question; When I create a roof I get a line (in plan view) at the eave, which is great and a line at the wall edge which is not great. How do I get rid of this double line situation? Thanks in advance for helping out. Also: How do you post a message with an image in the body of the message.

You will most likely want to change the attributes of the Section Style class from a red fill to something more easy to annotate.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Learning a new program can be vexing. I am used to automatic wall joints that do not require reattaching after every modification. I look forward to the day when I see the advantage of this, but right now it just looks like more work.

Even when the walls are joined, walls do not join in a graphically correct fashion. If I join a wall in a "T"fashion, the framing is shown butting against the drywall. Framing should be shown butting against framing with the dry wall wrapping at the corners. Perhaps I am not joing things correctly but I cannot find a way to fix this.

I thought when I started using VW that it would be a lot smarter about walls than it actually is. Every time you move a wall you have to go back and join it again. This infinite wall problem slows me down as well. Won't be long before I eat up all the money we saved buying the cheaper program.

All you have to do is make sure you have unchecked the box next to "scale text" in the layer scale selection page. This will ensure that your text always stays the same point size. I had this box checked so whenever I changed the layer scale the text would get bigger. I'll get the hang of this eventually. There seem to be so many places to control things.

A quick question. Should dimensions change size relative to the layer scale? If I want my text to always be a certain size then when I change the scale of my layer, the text should change size relative to the geometry. This does not seem to be happening.

I am having the infinite wall problem. Seems to me to be a serious flaw. When I try to join walls manually after drawing them with the autojoin set to off, they will still not join. I will probably have to abandon my intentions to use VW till this is cleared up.

Thanks, I'll try this out. good to know there are several solutions.