klinzey

The recommendation is to begin with the version of Quicktime shipped with the application. Usually it's safe to upgrade but there have been problems caused by different versions of quicktime in the past. Also, depending on how Quicktime was installed it may be missing optional components required by VW.

There is no direct access to the color name but you can get the RGB values from the record attached to the texture. The record name for 2010 and 2011 is different. For 2010 R=GetRField(TextureHandle,'NNAPlain Color','Color'); G=GetRField(TextureHandle,'NNAPlain Color','Color G'); B=GetRField(TextureHandle,'NNAPlain Color','Color B'); After that you can use RGBtoIndex and then IsUserColor to get the color name. You must use a DYNARRAY[] OF CHAR for the IsUserColor .

The error you are getting is because Quicktime returns an error to VW when we ask it to create the file. Quicktime does not report what the error is only that it had an error.

FUNCTION Index2Name(index:LONGINT):STRING; Should work.

Could be a different version of Quicktime. Also check the file path of the output file.

The best thing to do is just make a 3D poly in VW and apply an image texture. Once you are in vision select the Material node and change the Material Properties\Effect. You can use something like a SoftLED or tiles effect to simulate the grid. This will allow you to keep the polygon count down and easily map images, change colors, or map a capture device to the object.

Accessories don't get a LL by default. You have to assign it after it's placed. Most people did not want a LL applied to their "Top Hat".

Do the Label Legends work correctly in a new document?

If it is a new machine make sure you installed from the CD and get any updates that are available. You should also install the version of Quicktime that came on the original CD. (I'm running Vista and the current version of QT and the LL in 12.5 works fine for me.) Also make sure you are in the correct workspace.

Brian, Typically the lag or slow renderings are caused by an object that has a problem with the geometry or an excessive number of polygons. Start by checking the symbols that you used. If you have a good layer and class structure try turning off layers and classes till you find the one that makes things speed up and concentrate on those objects. VW ships with some very detailed symbols and if you use one or two in a drawing it may take 30 seconds to render but when you use 300 of them the rendering time is going to be more like 2 hours. (30sec x 300)

In the resource browser open the file that contains the Label Legends. Select the label legend then right click on the Label Legend and then you should be given the option to import the label legend. This is the same process an any other document resource. Check out "Importing a Symbol or Symbol Folder" in the help. It's the same process for the label legends or the entire label legend folder.

You should just be able to replace your chair 3 with this chair 3 and regenerate the seating layout. (Just change a value then change it back.) Because the symbols are nested everything should update. If that does not fix the problem you may need to edit your other symbols to get them to update. Just edit the symbol and exit then regenerate the seating layout.

Try using this symbol to replace the chair symbol and see if it speeds up the rendering.

That's the correct way to make the symbol. Look at the original chair symbol geometry. It looks as if the top of the chair has a curve to it that may be taking some time to render. I know we fixed some chair symbols for 2011 that were taking a long time to render. If you are using one of our stock chair symbol let me know which one and from which library and I'll take a look at it.

Odds are that there is some problem with the geometry in the chair. First try placing the table and chairs in a new drawing and seeing how long it takes to render one. (or 10) In general you want to eliminate unnecessary curves. Try using a different chair. Also just to make sure your symbol of the 8 chairs should contain 8 single chair symbols. I did 3100 chairs and 310 tables with textures in 2011 in about 4 seconds in OpenGL and about 30 seconds in Final Renderworks.

The color should be set using the "Color" field in the Object Info Palette.

There is no way to get the scale of a PDF. If you know the length of an object in the PDF you can use Modify\Scale Objects... to scale the PDF to the proper size in VW.

Are you on Mac or Windows? OS version and VW Version? Are you running under any sort of emulation? (Bootcamp or similar on the Mac?) Is there anything special about the OS install or the machine? Multiple boot drives or boot partitions? Is the machine or user log-in part of a university or corporate network? At this point I think it's something specific to your machine or your user account settings.

This is the symptom of a file path or file name problem. In the XML file you should see a list under and but no information under if the tag even exists. Try placing the VW file at the root level of the primary boot hard drive with a simple file name as a test.

The checkbox "Full Export on Exit" is automatically reset each time you enter the dialog. A full export is done when you click the "OK" button in the dialog. Try placing the files on your local hard drive and make sure there are no special characters in the file or path name.

I usually convert all the pipes to lighting positions and rename them as necessary and send the ones I don't want to use to another layer. My base drawing has all the lighting positions labeled as bar1 etc that way during the planning stages everyone is clear as to which bars are used for what. So even if "bar 1" becomes "LX 1", "bar 2" will remain "bar 2" Remember the riggers and loaders are going to be looking at the bar # or Counterweight # on the rigging schedule. The LX position numbers are only have meaning the the lighting people. You can also ungroup the lighting position to convert it back into a symbol. and if you really need the EAP you can ungroup it again. Kevin

James, I asked our rendering expert here and Horst is correct, you need caustics to produce the prism effect. C4D supports caustics but this is not currently supported in Vectorworks 2011. In C4D the way you do it is tell the light how many photons you want it to emit, and they bounce around to form the focused patterns depending on how they bounce around. Kevin

The symbols for 2011 have been updated to allow for the rotation. You can check the WV help for details or take a look at this thread: 2011 Question fixture manipulation or Help with custom lights

bcd, The easiest way to achieve the results you desire is to draw the truss flat and then use the "Create Plot and Model View..." command. This will allow you to rotate the lighting position and the instruments together.

You don't say which version you are using but it looks like you have already tried the simple solutions. If you have rebuilt the Label Legend and it works in another file the only other thing to try is to delete your user settings. Close VW and delete (where xx is your VW version) Library\Application Support\Vectorworks\20xx