jeffroyer

Peter - yeah, a bug. Probably related to importing the file from 2008. As Gytis notes, impossible to isolate and understand when or why it happens. Nothing consistent yet in terms of an operation that causes the symbols to go crazy. In one case, I had just re-opened the file after the night off and everything was flipped. Plug in objects and "ready mades" (like furniture in the resource browser) don't go through the same antics. Just symbols we have made ourselves. Gytis - glad you have an outlet!! If I did not like my computer so much I might vent on it but alas...

No, I am not selling a new video series of symbols on spring break! I have a file imported from 2008 up to 2010 and it is having some problems with symbols. It wasn't immediate - it showed up several days after the import and after quite a bit of other editing. All my lights flipped into a horizontal position (no longer aimed where they were supposed to be). Other symbols in the file also flipped up to the same horizontal position. Cussed, fixed it, and moved on. Just happened again though (more cussing). Is there some sort of new setting I could be missing in 2010 - or is this just a bug in the translation?

Dave, Thanks for the feedback. We have been off this area of the house for several weeks so I had not made it back to this question until today. We will try out the options you have recommended. I will also get around to sending you a copy of the file (kinda large). jeff

Just upgraded to 2010. Opened a large file created in 2008. On my sheet layer I find that the some 3d objects in the viewport are missing - even though the viewport class setting has them on. Turning the class visibility OFF on the sheetlayer class settings turns the object ON in the viewport. Its kinda like a 3-way switch! Anyone seen this yet? Should I be sending in a bug report? thanks

Importing an autocad that has an infinite line within it causes havoc. I know, I know - I should not import autocad files directly into my vectorworks file. I dealt with this a few years back. Nemetschek's tech department kindly fixed the file. Question is - has anyone dealt with this before and is there a straight forward approach to getting rid of the offending line (without sending it to tech support?) thanks

Ok, what exactly is this and how should one use it? For instance, I have walls with a texture which is a "plain color" and the specific paint color my client is interested in using. I am trying to get the walls to reflect light better in my rendering (or more accurately may be another way of putting it) How should I employ using image reflectivity in this case? thanks in advance to you gurus...

Thanks for the feedback. I will try a few things out and repost my results. The renders take a while - we are doing these on an older iMac. Might be upgrading to a new iMac, Snow Leopard and 2010 if a few more checks roll in...

While we are on the subject of lighting... Attached is a room we are working on with input from a lighting designer. The room is rendered with only her actual lighting along with sunlight. It still seems way too dark although I don't think it is a product of her lighting placement. We do have an HDRI outside along with one sun. Interior is lit only with actual lights an no ambient light. Render is Custom Renderworks with Final Gather at 12" and 10%. My question has more to do with reflectivity of surfaces - our walls and ceilings had no reflectivity in the texture. Should we use "image reflectivity" or "matte" in order to get the light bouncing more? The wood floor has phong as the reflectivity. It seems that we really aren't getting very much from the sun. I think the reality is the room will be very bright during the day. Any thoughts would be appreciated. thanks

Islandmon - thanks for that suggestion! Interiors are tough. Lots of trial and error.

Islandmon and Kevin, Thanks for the information/jpgs/files!! Very nice. It's great to get other's approaches to solving the problems since there are so many different ways to do so. much appreciated! Jeff

Kevin - We don't have a specific size at this point. The application may be more of an upholstered wall than a specific headboard. I would be curious to see what sorts of methods might achieve the same end product. islandmon, as usual, has my head swimming!

Thanks Carl. This texture on this upholstered headboard is what we are looking for. I was hoping to use the interpolated surface tool and pull points down but it doesn't behave like I had hoped. We ended up cropping this image to make a texture - worked pretty well in our 3d model. I would still like to be able to make the 3d version. I think we are going to make several "tornado shaped" solids and subtract them from another solid to create the same effect.

Has anyone tried creating a 3d upholstered surface? We have been trying to use the interpolated surface to do this but do not have enough experience with the tool. I have seen these surfaces in other 3d interior renderings so I know it is possible. Just a question of how with VW. thanks

I have been wondering about this for long while but have only just decided to ask the experts. I double click the circle tool to get the dialogue box to set my radius. I then go and drop the circle into my drawing. At this point I would love to repeat the same circle with my next mouse click - as many times as needed. Is there a toggle for this - is it possible?

Okay, now I see that this problem has been discussed before on the forum with apparently no resolution.

Any time we use patterns instead of hatches we cannot get them to print right. They usually end up solid black. Would love to make use of them but currently that is not an option. Any suggestions? - Perhaps an errant setting I am missing??

That was my thinking. We have been working on how to arrive at a more intuitive naming system - when a bunch of layers start with Mod it seems you have to search a little deeper in the text to find your layer. Small gripe really.

I assume that the "Mod" stands for model. Why is this the default - it seems extraneous. Do most people establish their own layer naming systems and delete the "mod" prefix? I am not losing sleep over this - just curious.

On one of our files we are getting a strange behavior with the id label tool. After the appropriate clicks, the label appears far off to the side of the prescribed click. It does it consistently regardless of the thing being labeled. Any thoughts?

Thanks guys. That thread was the one I had remembered seeing before. The other thread that was very useful was the one between Bill and Dave Donley concerning shadows and using custom renderworks. http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=7&Number=112307&Searchpage=2&Main=23903&Words=radiosity&topic=0&Search=true#Post112307

I am looking for basic instruction for understanding the finer points of rendering with radiosity - ideally something online that is free. I thought I had seen a video on the vectorworks site a few years back but cannot find it currently. thanks

That is a renderworks background made from a photo taken at the jobsite.

So here is the answer to my own question. I had previously been using the glazing option "clear" in the window settings dialogue. This time, under the window settings, I choose "use class" and created a new class. With this class, I used the "clear" texture and set the fill to "none". This worked but is it at all intuitive? And why didn't the Clear setting work within the dialogue?

I am having rendering issues when using a background image on Final quality renderworks. The windows are transparent without a background - I have placed objects "outside" of the window to verify. When a background is added, the objects are still visible but instead of clearly seeing the background image the "air" has been turned a solid color that is derived from the color of the background image. Please see the attached images for explanation.

A little late on the discussion but... I also find that the sweep command works great for stuff like complex stringer shapes. You have to monkey around with the pitch a bit but it produces a shape that is quite good. Doesn't have all the funky faceted surfaces that extrude along path does when the path is a curve.