willofmaine

To minimize and even eliminate the cropped perspective "viewport," you can use a very wide angle lens on your camera. This won't affect the perspective - how "flat" or "exaggerated" the subject is - since perspective is a function of the distance between the camera and it's subject, not of the length of the lens. After you've set up your camera as you normally do, just shorten the lens before you start orbiting around.

At least now when you move viewports with Elevation Benchmarks in them that have "Auto-Set Relative to Ref Elev" selected, the elevations indicated by said Elevation Benchmarks don't change. But it you move the Elevation Benchmarks up and down within the viewport, their indicated elevations don't update unless you un-check and re-check "Auto-Set Relative to Ref Elev." Or am I missing something?....................

Is no one else experiencing this?...

In the Resource Browser, it doesn't seem to make a difference whether I select "Browse a Document...," "Vectorworks Libraries...," or "User Libraries...;" they all always look at the same location on my hard drive, always the last location viewed from any one of them. How do I get each to always return to its own, correct, location?... Thanks! Will

When I send objects to the surface of my DTM (AEC > Terrain > Send to Surface) they seem to be going to the existing terrain, and not the proposed terrain, even though my model is set to display proposed only. How do I get objects to go to the proposed terrain?... Thanks! Will

Nope, but thanks anyway. Just wanted to make sure I'm not missing some Architect capability... sounds like maybe I'm not...

Say I want to put some trees and plants in my model, and I want them to have a 2D plan representation, an image prop 3D representation, and the ability to vary their sizes. Evidently image props, being PIOs, won't re-scale if part of hybrid symbols that are re-scaled. Similarly, they won't re-scale if they are in groups that are re-scaled (including groups created when hybrid symbols are converted to groups upon placement). I don't want to have to constantly coordinate the locations and sizes of separate 2D plan representations and separate image props, which would be at least twice as much work... Any suggestions?... Thanks, Will

It would be great if HDRIs could be used just for reflections, such blue sky & clouds in building windows, without also having to be used as the RW Image Background. While HDRIs are great for lighting and/or reflections, they aren't always so great, or desirable, for Image Backgrounds. Currently, in order to get reflections from an HDRI in conjunction with a different Background Image, it seems necessary to create the Image Background as an image mask in a viewport, cropped around the model. This of course is pretty much always a very time-consuming task... Will

Fixing Permissions is a good thing to do periodically as routine maintenance, whenever you install software or updates, and whenever you have a new problem... Finder > Applications > Disk Utility > First Aid Select your hard drive at the upper left and click on "Repair Disk Permissions" May or may not help... Will

Is this a new and/or evolving problem? In which case, have you tried restarting VW, repairing your permissions, and/or restarting your computer?... These things often help when there is new, inexplicable, clearly odd behavior... HTH, Will

Any reason not to just use the Move command? It can be used in conjunction with the Reshape tool. After you've drawn your marquee, activate the Move tool (Apple + M) and type in the desired X and/or Y distances. Your question reminded me of a similar situation where there seems no way around the "hand gymnastics:" moving a wall with the Enable Connected Wall Mode turned on... in which case it's easier to select the wall and those connected to it and use the Reshape tool as described above. It would be much easier to be able to just enter an offset in the data bar. And it would be easier to just enter an offset in the data bar to reshape multiple objects, too........... But in the meantime, HTH, Will

Have you tried doing it all in one file? I've done some big files with DTMs in which I didn't find a need to separate the DTM from the Building, or even turn off interior classes (I don't even have "interior" classes per se...). I'm talking files that were about 150 Mb, in VW 2008... Just a thought... Will

I have a directional light and a heliodon in my design layer. In the design layer, I can adjust the brightness of either. In a viewport, however, whether I set the heliodon's brightness to 10% or 1000%, it's brightness doesn't change. But I can see its shadow, confirming its presence. The directional light works as expected in the VP. Any thoughts?... Thanks, Will

When I try to use the Attribute Mapping Tool to map a texture on a DTM, the grips of the texture frame and some of the icons in the Tool Bar and in the OIP flash relentlessly, and it's mostly impossible to actually adjust the texture frame using its grips. Also, the Render Tab of the OIP seems to get messed up, and while the sliders sometimes will work, data (such as scale and rotation) can't be numerically entered. Has anyone else experienced this?... Seems kinda like maybe it's a bug... Thanks, Will

That's easy!! No wonder I couldn't figure it out... Thanks Benson! Will

How do I get all of the 3D polygons associated with a particular vertex of a mesh to change when I move the vertex (rather than having to move the vertex of each and every polygon)? Also, how do I select multiple vertices of a mesh and move them all at once? Thanks! Will

THANK YOU!!! I'd looked in preferences; never occurred to me to click on the little triangle next to "Printer:" to expand the print dialog box... Thanks! Will

In VW 2008, if there were out-of-date viewports on a sheet, an option to not update them would be presented upon printing the sheet. How do I restore that option in VW 2012? Having to wait for all of the viewports to re-render when something is changed that doesn't show up in any of them is far from ideal!...

Which, so far, runs VW 2008 without any problem, other than imported PDFs...

I'll try to remember the tape measure tool; amazingly, I've so far at least remembered not to use the dim tool in extrudes... Changing "Display Screen Objects" and/or changing Unified View didn't make a difference. No!!!!! 10.6.8...

Actually, it does. With the possible exception of drawing the profile and extruding it in Top/Plan view, if: I draw the profile and extrude it in Layer Plane, and edit it in Layer Plane, it crashes upon dimensioning. Drawing & extruding, and then editing, in other combinations (Layer/Screen, Screen/Screen, Screen/Layer) don't seem to be a problem...

I was just using Arial; switching to Helvetica made no difference. Neither did fixing permissions or restarting my computer. I guess I just won't measure in extrudes; maybe a call to Tech Support is in order...

Thanks. Not sure what the problem is, then. I didn't try to exit the profile with the dimension in it; it crashes as soon as the dimension's drawn. Even in a blank (non-template) file.

Using the dimension tool when editing the profile of an extrude keeps causing VW to crash, without fail. Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks, Andi, I'm glad you appreciate my comprehensive posts! Now, forget pretty much everything I've written above!... :crazy: That completely escaped me, until Benson mentioned it a second time. That is exactly what the Fix Profile option in the Extrude Along Path creation dialogue box does! It fixes the location and orientation in 3D space of the profile with respect to the path's START point (with no need to subsequently edit the EAP and adjust the profile's location so that it's not just centered on the path). So, my new bottom line (forget creating profiles exclusively in the Layer Plane): Create the path in 3D space. The extract tool can be used to grab groups of edges from 3D objects, including walls, that can be ungrouped and composed as single NURBS curves. The NURBS tool can be used (with Degree set to 1) to snap to 3D objects and trace a NURBS curve. A polygon can be drawn in any working plane, and converted to a NURBS. (Of course, a polygon can be left to automatically convert to a NURBS curve upon creation, as required for an EAP's path, but this limits the control afforded by using the "Fix Profile" option and increases the likelihood of a failure). Create the profile in 3D space, in ANY plane EXCEPT the (infinite) number of planes on which the path's first segment lies (though typically perpendicular to this first segment). Of course the start point and first segment of an open path are at one of the path's ends, easily determined by showing the path's direction. For a closed (NURBS assumed) path, click on the dot between the two arrows in the OIP to temporarily highlight the start (and coincident end) point; the path's first segment is of course determined by the path's direction from there. In the case of a curved path, the first segment is the line tangent to the path at it's start point. The profile doesn't need to be touching the path's start point, though it's easiest and most reliable to have it at or near the start point. In some cases, it can actually be very far away... but that's another conversation. Select the path and profile and create the EAP, selecting the "Fix Profile" option in the process. Voila! Thanks to the ability to "Show Other Objects While in Edit Modes," it's easy to edit both the EAP's path and profile in-place. Regarding planes: I think the introduction of "planar" 2D objects (which, essentially, are 2D objects that AREN'T 3D but that are VIEWABLE and WORKABLE in 3D) represents a major step forward: it makes it possible to remain almost entirely in 3D while modeling, instead of constantly having to revert to 2D views (plan and side views) to create the underlying 2D shapes that are then extruded, etc.. I think the only reason to retain Screen Plane, really, is for hybrid symbols, which necessarily need representations that are only visible in Top/Plan view. I'm finding working planes so easy to establish that I'm not even saving them. Until reading this post, I didn't realize that I'd toggled the Automatic Plane function off a while ago; I didn't even miss it. Especially easy is double-clicking on a planar object, which will activate it's working plane. Almost as easy is using the keyboard shortcut to activate the Set Working Plane tool to set a working plane with respect to a 3D object. A simple object can be modeled in its entirety from, say, right isometric view simply by switching planes, without ever having to change the view. Will