Tamsin Slatter

You can change the planting density from Plants per sq meter to Meters on Center and then specify the spacing you want if that helps?

I don't think that's possible... but if you want to call our team in the office we can look into it for you. 01488 658580. Kind regards

Hi Jeremy On the Resource Browser, locate the title block symbol. Right-click and edit. Choose to edit the 2D symbol. Use the Text tool to edit the text of your address. Click Exit Symbol. That's it! Hope that helps (and hope you are well!)

Jonathan is right - most of the plant graphic preferences (tag, center marker, render, polygon display) are now stored in the Plant Tool Preferences, rather than with the plant itself (on the Resource Browser). This makes the plant tool a LOT more flexible. To get a default tag set up, open your favourite drawing template and click the Plant tool then the Plant tool Preferences. Set the Tag options (and any other display preferences), and click OK. Now, save your template (File > Save As Template). The settings are stored with your favourite template forever. I wrote a blog post about the Plant tool migration - you can read it here: http://www.vectorworks-training.co.uk/blog/plant-tool-migration-in-vectorworks-2013/ Hope it helps...

If you have some extrudes, you can use AEC > Space Planning > Model to Floorplan to convert the extrudes to Walls... But I don't think you can convert to slabs. However, you could use the Extract tool to extract 2D Planar objects from the surface of your "slab" and then use AEC > Create Objects from Shapes to convert them into Slabs, walls, and a multitude of other things. Hope that helps

You can reduce the fuzz by reducing the width of the grout lines but if you reduce the Bevel Width to 0 you've get rid of the fuzz altogether. The Tile shaders are very flexible. Hope that helps!

I would look at the Grade tool to get the driveway to fall as you wish and then create a texture bed over the top. Texture beds will only be lumpy if the terrain underneath is lumpy. They don't actually change the terrain - they just lie on top and "paint" the triangles with a different colour or texture. A network of grade objects may help with the cross falls. If you may the driveway with modelling (such as a NURBs surface or a 3D Polygon), you can put it in the Site-DTM-Modifiers class and it will become a modifier.

Correct - Select Similar is not available for use in Fundamentals.

Excellent tips there! I like the crossed planes idea. I had not thought about the grayscale transparency for image props. Very cool.

Hmm - you're right - you can no longer edit the opacity of a viewport. Even if your default opacity is set to less than 100% when you create the viewport, the resulting viewport is still 100%.

You can open your tree images in Photoshop, select the pixel, make paths, copy the paths to illustrator, select them, paste them into Vectorworks, covert to 3D Poly, rotate 3D to make 'em stand up, and THEN apply a transparent texture! But you will need to make sure they are facing the way you want. Hope that makes some semblance of sense!

But the image prop already has its transparency shader set to Image Mask. This is what makes the area around the image transparent. So, I don't believe you will also be able to add overall Plain transparency to the image prop without losing the mask. You could experiment with overlaying viewports that have different opacity settings - but it probably won't work because you'll get messed up shadows.

But.. you will need to further edit your curves so that the arcs meets the straights at tangent, or you'll get gaps in your road!

Well, it converts any points along the Polyline to Arc vertices. The roadway that will be created will ultimately be composed of Roadway Straight objects and Roadway Curved objects. I can only assume that it is these curved objects that MUST have an arc in order to be converted. These tools are pre-radius vertices (which I think were "invented" in 2011 or 2012...). The Roadway from Polyline tools can create lovely curve data for you, so it is worth it over the NURBS tool. One thing I have had success with is this workflow: Draw the Polyline with Corner Vertices only to create the directional movement of the roadway. Then, use the Fillet tool at each junction. With the Fillet tool you can then specify the exact desired radius at each junction. Now you will have a Polyline that looks how you want it, but the Station on Polyline tool won't touch it! Don't run Arc Smoothing, or it will mess up your carefully created radii. Now, select the Reshape tool and choose the second mode - Change Vertex mode. Then choose Fillet (Circular Arc) mode. Click on the center of each radius vertex and it will be converted to the necessary Arc vertex without messing up your road layout. NOW, you can run Station on Polyline and proceed to create the road as desired! Hope that helps. Have fun with it.

HI Ray I have submitted the same bug, and been told it is working as designed. You have to run Arc Smoothing on the Polyline. I have found that drawing a polyline composed entirely of corner vertices and then run the Arc Smoothing Command, you can get it to work, but it is very difficult to achieve the road layout you want, because Vectorworks decides in the curve radii. Alternatively, you can carefully draw out your polyline, switching modes and including only corner vertices and arc vertices. The command will be happy then. Ultimately, I still prefer this set of commands over the NURBS roadway though, because the arcs help you get the curves built as you want them. The NURBs Roadway will give you more flexibility, but the problem then is that your roadway does not have "dimensionable" arcs to help get it built.

Hi You need to edit the textures on the plants (you'll find them on the Resource Browser), and turn off Glow reflectivity. This is on by default with plants - and serves the purpose of hiding the inevitable shadow that you will see from the crossed planes of the image prop. So, in effect, the plants themselves are currently emitting light. It's a bit painful, because you'll have to show the plants with or without glow. I have found a good compromise is to reduce the glow (instead of turning it off) to around 40%. As long as you employ indirect lighting on your daytime render, your plants will look fine, but will calm down a lot in your night time render. Hope that helps

Are those plants that are not displaying symbols part of a Landscape Area?

Yeah - it's cool!

Hi Jamie No - the Grade Limits is the version of the SIte Modifiers tool that limits how much of the site updates. The Grade tool is a separate tool in the Site Planning toolset. You could also create a 3D Polygon, with vertices set at the desired elevations, and put this in the Site-DTM-Modifiers class. That will turn it into a site modifier. Hope that helps

Hi Jamie In haste as I am in the middle of a training course... take a look at the Grade Tool. I'll answer more fully later, but that should help you out.

I'm glad I could help. That's a really useful texture to keep in your kit-bag for all sorts of projects.

Try this: Make a new texture, that has the color set to Obj Attribute. Set Transparency to Plain - 50%. That will retain the original 2D color of the object but reduce it's opacity by 50%. Glass has special properties for altering the transmission of light through the surface. Plain is probably going to be a better option for this. Hope that helps.

Is there any chance you have changed your View? It could be that your bitmap is a screen plane object and you are Top view? If so, change the view to Top/Plan and it should display quite happily.

It depends how the PDF was created in the first place. If it was made in another CAD system, you will be able to get to the geometry by ungrouping the PDF. (YOu will also get a large white rectangle that you'll need to delete to find the stuff. Hope that helps

Shapefiles are essentially 2D polygon information, with records attached. You cannot get 3D information in a Shapefile. So, you can import your contours as Peter describes, but the only way to get elevation data from it is to select the contour and click the Data tab on the Object Info palette. You will be able to see what the record is that's attached to the contour and what it contains. You can't easily create a site model from this information, because the data isn't inherently 3D and therefore has no Z value. However, you could convert the polygons to 3D, and then change their Z values as required (by reading the elevation value in the attached record - if it has it). It could be a painful process, but the @D Polys to 3D Contours command might help you. DWG is better if you can get it, and I would recommend Spot heights as 3D Point data if you can get them. Vectorworks can create the contours for you from the spot heights, which will import as 3D Loci. Then, you need to run Create Site Model. Hope that helps