willofmaine

I only have VW 2008 and so can't open your file, but it sounds like the kind of thing that is the reason why, after schematic design, I tend to model my doors & windows from scratch. Tedious, but it makes for complete control over the results... AND, if you want to do something completely crazy like have a 6 over 9 window, you can do it (though maybe 2009/2010 have more capabilities in that regard...).

I wish... That elevation benchmark's used a file's Z=0 (the one that all the design layers are set with respect to), rather than the combination of a section viewport's Y=0 and a user's adjustment. The possibility of someday having to explain to a client that their building is higher or lower than expected because the viewport was moved on the sheet is not appealing... There could be a master file-wide adjustment should one's model not be at it's actual real-world elevation (such as because of a desire to always put the model with its first floor at Z=0 or Z=100', or because during design the building's vertical placement is changed). Further, if elevation benchmarks could also in plan view recognize and indicate the tops of 3D components, such as varying TOC elevations on a foundation plan, that might be especially helpful.

Is it possible in VectorWorks to have glass that: 1) Works in both FQRW and Custom Renderworks; 2) You can see through (particularly to RW Backgrounds); 3) Has a reflective surface; 4) And that light can pass through (such as the sun's light, to fall on the floor...)? I can't seem to find or create such a texture for glass... Thanks.

Wow, I had no idea that geometry such as extrudes and curved NURBS surfaces could be turned into light objects! Thanks for the example files. I found that, at least in my situation, a flat area light seems to render faster than one with curved edges, but the results are just as good. It seems the key was to use area lights in lieu of line lights. So, thanks for sending me in that direction! I haven't been able to replicate the textures with a constant reflectivity turning black in viewports. I have since restarted VectorWorks; maybe VW just needed a break?... I have found that, in order for area lights to work properly, the Sampling Quality in Custom RenderWorks needs to be set to at least "Medium." Thanks for all the advice & files; much appreciated! Will PS - I like the matrix idea for door and window settings! But if I mention that here I may be accused of getting slightly off topic............

Hi, Thanks for your response. Selecting "Transparent Shadows" doesn't seem to make any difference. There's a single light fixture with two line lights in it. When I eliminate one of the line lights so that there's only one, there are still multiple shadows (though not as many). Must be bounce off the walls... I read in another thread your suggestion to use "constant reflectivity" for white surfaces. Funny thing, after some frustration, I found that constant reflectivity was causing an image prop to show as a black silhouette. Oddly enough, this only happened in a viewport. On a design layer, with all the same Custom RenderWorks settings, the image prop showed as expected. When I changed its reflectivity to none, it then worked in the viewport. The same thing happened when I changed my white walls to have a constant reflectivity. In the design layer they're (very) white, but in the viewport they're black! Very odd...

Line lights in Custom RenderWorks with "Shadow Mapped Shadows" selected don't seem to cast shadows, even though point lights do. Line lights will cast shadows with "Ray Traced Shadows" selected, but they're don't have the desired "smoothness." (See attached). Any thoughts greatly appreciated! Thanks, Will

Why don't Elevation Benchmarks just use the file's Z=0 value? All of the design layers are set with respect to this Z=0, so it seems it would make sense for section viewports to also use this value. Buildings could be set at their real-world elevations or, alternatively, a file-wide adjustment could be used if one prefers to model their first floor at Z=0. Either way, having to explain to a client that their building is sitting higher or lower on the site than expected because the viewport was moved on the sheet is not terribly appealing...

Is it not possible to use RW Background Images in Section Viewports? Or in Viewports generated with cameras set to 'Orthogonal' rather than 'Perspective'?...

I went through this some time ago; it was very frustrating. But, I did come up with a Glass texture that is both transparent when it comes to RW backgrounds and that also has some reflectivity, as follows: Color: Object Attribute (makes it easy to use the one texture for green tinted glass, etc.; I recommend a class for each color of glass, where the class's fill color combined with this Glass texture will color the glass). Reflectivity: Glass, Simple Specular: 6 (at the sixth of those little lines in the slider...) Transmission: 10 Mirror: 3 Roughness: 0.1 Refraction: 4 Transparency: Plain Transparency: 8 Bump: None I think Plain Transparency may be the key; maybe that combined with some reflectivity. In any case, I've had really good results with the above described texture... HTH

Thanks for the responses. When a symbol that contains a 3D-only symbol within it is placed in a drawing, including in Top/Plan view, it includes the 3D-only symbol just fine. The 3D symbol of course isn't visible until you switch to Top view or any other 3D view, but it is there. The problem I'm having is when 3D symbols are set to convert to Groups upon placement; it is then that any 3D-only symbols are excluded, if in Top/Plan view. It's not unlike when a 2D/3D symbol is converted to a Group using the "Convert to Group" command, in which case only the 2D or only the 3D is included in the group, depending on whether or not the current view is Top/Plan or a 3D view. I'll probably end up just putting a 2D loci or some such thing in the 3D only symbols (they don't need or want 2D representations...) to convince VectorWorks that I do indeed want them as part of my groups... Thanks again!

I have symbols that are placed as groups. Each symbol is made up of two or more sub-symbols, some of which are 3D only. When I place one of these symbols in a document in Top/Plan view, the resulting group does not include the 3D sub-symbols. If I place it in Top view, or any other 3D view, the 3D sub-symbols are included. Why is this? Is there any way to make it so that when a symbol is placed, regardless of view, all of its components are included as expected??... Thanks

Wow, all these years, and I completely missed the Edit > Duplicate Along Path tool. I think the reason I missed it is because there's also a "Duplicate Along Path" tool in the "Basic" palette that, I just realized, seems to be significantly different in how it functions. I'd always assumed the two tools, having the same name, were the same tool.... silly me. Thanks B Shaw!

Are the panels going around the curved ends flat or curved? It they're flat, simply draw a circle with a 136 mm radius centered on one end of the panel. Where that circle and the arc intersect will give you the other end of a 136 mm flat panel (the "chord" of the arc). If they're curved, simply select one of the arcs and type 136 (mm) into "Arc Len:" in the Object Info palette. Most likely you'll need to rotate the resulting arc to the correct position. The Object Info palette will give you the "sweep" angle, which you can use with the Duplicate Array tool to replicate your 136 mm panels around the arcs.

After many years of AutoCAD, I escaped to VW. I spent about a year trying to get useful 2D drawings from Architectural Desktop's 3D 'model.' I finally gave up and just did everything in 2D (except the plan view of walls, doors and windows, of course). At first, I had an excruciatingly difficult time with VectorWorks. So I called up my salesperson, and sputtered at her about all the inconceivably ridiculous issues I was having. Finally I needed to breath, and she asked if, by any chance, I was a former AutoCAD user. Well, yes, I was... She sent me their "VW for AutoCAD Users" CD, with which, upon viewing, I 'saw the light.' While it certainly isn't perfect, I highly recommend VectorWorks. The key, I think, is to forget a lot about what you know about using AutoCAD for a smoother transition to VectorWorks.

Wow, that does seem to be the case. It turns out that the oblique views are intended only for measuring, in that they show all of the (orthogonal) lines at their actual size (or exactly half scale for vertical (z) lines in the case of 'cabinet'). But, they do greatly distort the image. Maybe they felt such a distorted image would never be worth rendering?...

You need to edit the class and deselect "Use at Creation." Then the current graphic attributes set in the Attributes palette will apply to everything drawn in that class. With "Use at Creation" selected, everything drawn in a particular class is controlled by that class's attributes.

When using the 3D reshape tool to work on NURBS curves, is there any way to constrain a vertex in both the X and Y directions at the same time (so that it's Z value can not change)? Constraining to the working plane seems to almost always (yet not quite always?...) change the vertex's Z value to zero as soon as it's moved. Thanks! Will

Hi, Thanks for the responses. I'm not surprised to hear that files can't be "seamlessly" transferred to AutoCAD. I'm actually pretty happy that I can import DWG files, such as content from the Internet, and that I can export DWG plans for consultants' underlay drawings with little difficulty. I might consider switching careers before going back to AutoCAD! I agree that seamless transition is a function of the drafting methods of both parties, though using two different softwares clearly adds another level of complexity.

Hello, I consider myself a very capable user of VW at this point, in both 3D modeling and production work. I would like to offer schematic, presentation and construction drawings services to architects. However, I have just lost a job because of my inability to export DWG files so that the "transmission of drawings (to AutoCAD) can be seamless." Whether I export the VW files as is, or spend tremendous amounts of time trying to prepare them for AutoCAD, the results are much less than satisfactory. Currently I am using VW 2008. Does VW 2010 by any chance represent a significant (and I mean significant) leap when it comes to exporting DWG files? Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks, Will

Thanks Orso! Sorry to deprive you. But I have every confidence that VectorWorks will present future riddles. Don't get me wrong, I love VW, but I say things like that when faced with a deadline and contract components of the building start randomly disappearing! It's very unsettling. Thanks again, Will

I'd rather not upload all of my custom symbols here. But when I purge them from the file, I am then able to import the symbols that had disappeared. I suspect this defeats the purpose of your looking at the file, Orso. But, thanks for offering to take a look!

Thanks for the responses. So far, it's been two entirely different, recently created symbols. I don't think it's a class visibility issue, like you say because of the RB, and also these are in classes that I rarely if ever turn off. It's one project, but different files because I'm continuously duplicating and advancing them (numerical file names) as the project evolves. The first time when I noticed this problem, I went back about three files, before I'd ever even made the offending symbol. I then updated that older file by re-doing all the work, including re-creating the symbol, that I'd done in the subsequent files (which files I then abandoned). Yet after all that, the new symbol, using the original name, disappeared again. I have since re-created it with a new name. Creating a new file is kinda problematic: I've got over 60 sheets and a few hundred viewports; the file is 160+ MB. What and where is the "name list"? I'm sure it would take forever, if it's even possible, to upload 160 MB...

Hello, Symbols have been disappearing on me. After created, at some point they disappear from both the drawing and the resource browser. They don't even leave behind a loci, as symbols do when intentionally deleted from the resource browser. When attempting to re-import the symbol from another file, it says that the symbol's name is in use by another object (first a group, now a line...). The first time it happened, I went back to an older pre-symbol file and started from scratch. When I closed and re-opened the file, the symbol had disappeared again! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Will

If you double click on an extrude along path, you can edit it's profile. The intersection of the crosshairs represents the path (the "control line") itself (which is a NURBS curve). The location of the profile can be set with respect to the path this way. Note that when editing the profile, you are looking along the path in it's direction of travel, such that for a counter-clockwise path the right side of your screen will actually represent the left side of the profile with respect to the path when viewing the extrude. HTH!

Zooming in and out on a sheet layer that has many viewports, such as 12 section viewports that are interior elevations, tends to be slow and tedious. Is this something that a faster graphics card might help with? Current card is a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT, VRAM = 256 MB... Thanks!