Tamsin Slatter

You CAN use any 3D Polygon as a Site Modifier. All you have to do is put it in the class Site-DTM-Modifier. Same applies to 3D Loci, Nurbs curves and Nurbs surfaces.

Just checked again - it's working fine on my machine. Did you get the file I sent back to you?

I am not seeing the same thing. The palette will grey out, because it is a complex symbol containing objects that all derive their attributes from sub-classes. This is completely normal. But on your Planting layer, I click on a blank space on the drawing and check nothing is selected. In this state, your attributes palette was set to 0%. I changed it to 100% and placed a plant. All visible.

I am not seeing the same problem in the Viewports as you, so I suspect you are just running out of memory on your laptop. Also, you have opacity set to 0%, so whenever you place plants or anything else, it disappears from the plan. Late nights, not enough sleep and a looming deadline is my diagnosis!

Sophie Send me your file.

They look to be mcd files, so unlikely to be newer than 2011, but I could be wrong!

Sorry, you are quite right - I misread the signature and thought you were on 2011.

Is your camera linked to a viewport? If so, right-click or double-click on the viewport and choose Edit Camera.

Hi Pedro You need to change the Z value of your Loci to match the levels taken on site (in the Object Info palette). You can then use them as source data for a site model. However, I would recommend that you look at the Stake Object tool which you will find in the Site Planning toolset. It is a hybrid tool which will create your 3D Loci as well as creating a 2D plan view of the locus, with the height labelled. You can also use 3D Polygons representing the contours on the site, again setting their Z values in the Object Info palette. I am running a course on Site Modelling next week, but I guess the UK is too far for you to travel from Portugal! Good luck with the project.

You'll also need to create a class for the texture that you want your texture bed to display. You need to specify this class in the properties of the texture bed. Have fun.

Have you tried using Turned instead of Brushed within the Metallic reflectivity shader? An alternative is to use a stretched noise shader within the Color shader - increase the value of the Relative U% to something like 2000 and reduce the Relative V% to something like 10. This will stretch the pattern to a similar effect, but you do get a seam where the texture maps on the surface and I've been unable to get rid of this...

That's so cool! As for faking it - it's all fake anyway!

If you are placing lights inside the sphere, you could set them to not cast shadows, and then you would not need to cut holes - the light would just pass straight through. But the downside of this is of course that the light would not cast any shadows elsewhere. And even if there are lights inside the sphere, you will only see the beam, (with lit fog set), but not the light source itself, (unless you make my fake glow shader lights).

You can fake this quite nicely by using the new Renderworks noise shaders... Create a sphere. Create a new Renderworks texture and use Noise as the basis for the colour shader, as well as the Bump. This will break your sphere into small, flat square surfaces instead of you having to model the individual mirror faces. For the Reflectivity shader, set it to Mirror. Apply the texture to the sphere. The problem then is getting the mirror to reflect light sources, as Renderworks doesn't do this (see Horst's response above). However, you can get round this by using small 3D polygons with a Glow Shader texture applied to it. But you will not see light rays leaving the mirror ball. Hope that helps!

Hi Teresa Were your rectangles arrayed using Duplicate Along Path by any chance? I have had a small issue with this recently (which is in hand with NV I believe). If this is the case, try arraying your rectangles using Duplicate Array first and see if that makes any difference. If they were not created with Duplicate Along Path,I'll have to think again and come up with a better suggestion!

For the Get Plant Data issue, try this: Go to Landmark>Plant Database Does it open correctly? Should fire up Filemaker Pro. If it does, go to File menu and choose Create Category Plant Lists. This will refresh the data that VW uses when you choose Get Plant Data. Just wondering if your data has somehow become corrupted.

Make sure each of your plant definitions have something in the ID field. Of course it should not crash, but do give this a try.

No problem. I've sent you the file with the lights showing their beams now. The symbol you are using in the dark light is one that seems to contain some geometry that obscures the beam. Editing the symbol and applying the Default Instrument Texture (which is set not to cast shadows) fixes the problem. Lit fog also doing its stuff.

When you check Lit Fog, a Renderworks Background should be created in the Resource Browser. You can edit this resource to change the intensity of the fog. You might want to check the settings here. Otherwise, I'm happy to have a look at it. If you want to copy the offending light into a blank file and send it to me I'll take a look. tamsin@vectorworks-training.co.uk

Do you have the light switched on in the Visualisation palette? Or do you instead have Draw Beam checked on the Object Info palette? Turn it off there and ensure that the light is on in the Visualization palette. Then it will show in a final render. It should not pass through objects UNLESS you have a) edited the light and unchecked Cast Shadows or b) you have edited the texture on the surface that the light is hitting and unchecked Cast Shadows.

Hi Hmm - it's difficult to work out what's going on without seeing the issue. Did you send the wall to the surface of the model? Can you post the file? Or you are welcome to send it to me offlist - tamsin@vectorworks-training.co.uk

I second that Dan. The lighting options within RW2011 provide superb results.

Hi Gerrit Renderworks 2011 does stills, but can also produce animations by path or by fixed point. You don't necessarily need Renderworks for working with C4D, but it would mean you can texture as you go in Vectorworks and then send the file directly to C4D full version if you wish. HTH

Yeah - it's cool. It also comes with a library of Vectorworks symbols which are a superset of the Lighting symbols supplied by NV. But you can use both. Good for simulation, but you can also use it to pre-program your console as it works with the many software consoles out there, saving money on hiring the venue before the event too!

ESP Vision can do what you need, I believe... and integrates very nicely with Spotlight's workspace. (I do not own any versions of Blade Runner, but have, of course seen it many times)