gmm18

You can create a new Renderworks Texture. Select the Image Color, Pick your photo, then add that texture to your object. You can then use the Attributes Mapping Tool to adjust the size and placement.

I think you need to insert a door with the overall size opening you need. Set it to "Cased Opening" Then place your storefront in the hole you just made.

You can control wall height with the Layer Z Height and Delta Z settings. An easy way to be sure that your walls are lined up properly between the 1st and 2nd Design Layers (so you don't see the line in HL Rendering) is to Draw the walls on your 1st Design Layer. Now duplicate them (with "Offset Duplications" Property turned OFF). Then in the Object Info Pallette, change the Design Layer location to your 2nd Design Layer. If you set the Layer heights as I mentioned at the top, then the walls will automatically move to where they need to go. Then adjust windows and doors as necessary.

Also check the wall heights

Greyscale, Grayscale, Gray Tone, however you want to say it. Yes, this can be done to a PDF after exporting, or using viewport class overrides, but why not be able to do it right in VW with one simple click? It would be very similar to the "Black and White Only" option found in Advanced Properties of a Viewport.

Hi Eoin, It would be helpful if you could post an image to help illustrate your point. I am not disagreeing with you, but it will help to see what you are talking about.

i am assuming the box that says "Including components of: Viewports" is UNchecked...

Yes! this should be a priority.

I added a graphic of what this would look like in this post.

I wish there were TWO crop options, 1.) Crop Viewport (crops the design layer info contained in the viewport, same as we already have). 2.) Crop Annotations (crops just the annotation objects, not the design layer info in the viewport itself)

Thank You.

Agreed. I just recently started to use Viewport Class Overrides, it is incredible how easy it is to create dozen's of different graphic outputs without changing the attributes of the actual objects or class definition. There has been a wish list item about being able to link saved view settings to viewport settings, so they work together better. This would be nice as for now to switch views I often navigate back to Viewports, where I have a specific set of class and layer visibility settings, then double click to get to that same view in design layer mode. It would be a little less clicking and more efficient if I could just click a saved view to get there, but then I need to set up duplicate saved views and viewports. Anyway, Viewports are the way to go.

http://www.nemetschek.net/downloads/index.php

You could use Viewport Class Overrides to change the color of the roof objects to white in that viewport. (As long as you have the roof class set to "Use at Creation" and the actual roof object attributes set to use class. Or, just with the PDF you already have, you can Open in Preview, do a "Save As", PDF with the Greytone Filter Option.

Are you on a mac? If you use File>Print>PDF (in lower left corner)>Save as PDF, or if you are on a pc or mac, Use File>Print>Set to Adobe PDF for the printer>Print (as opposed to the File>Export>PDF option), then the security is not applied to the resulting file. You should post a signature with your stuff on it.

Hey Jeffrey, this looks great, but could you post the VWX file in 2008 version? Thanks

I don't know the answer, I am sure someone will chime in soon, but that is a really cool screenshot!

You can draw separate walls, stacked on top of each other. Or draw the most typical wall from floor to roof, then apply either 3D polygons, extrudes, or walls on the face of that wall with the texture of that part of the wall. I tend to use extrudes. Set to a front or side view, draw a polygon over the wall area that I want to cover in a different material, then extrude how ever much you want. Then go to a top/plan view and move the extrude to position it where you want it in front of the wall. I only get into this later on in the design since changes to the wall layouts also requires fiddling with these other parts, slowing down the work. I am interested to hear how others tend to deal with this issue.

You should be just fine in 12.5, at least on a Mac. But you can only control the Opacity (Transparancy) of entire Design Layers, not individual objects. Put your sunlight shapes on a separate Design Layer than your section sketch. Then Edit that Design Layer properties to adjust the opacity. I did this example image in 12.5.3 When you edit the Design Layer opacity for the first time in a file it comes up with the following warning, so as long as you are aware of this there should not be a problem.

I am not seeing this issue. I am sorry I don't know what is going on, but I did run a test and it seems to work fine. I wonder if it has to do with that specific hatch you are using. I assume you have tested other hatches?

I would urge you to consider this as just an approximation, not a substitute for a thorough materials take-off. Below I go through setting up a worksheet for walls, but not foundations or anything else in your list. You should also be spending some time reading the Help files on this, and getting familiar with worksheet formulas and criteria. Open a new worksheet Turn on the Database Headers... Right-click on the Database Row, Select Edit Criteria to "Type Is Wall" and "Layer is Your Design Layer #1" Using the down-arrow you can select "Paste Function" where it has some of the wall functions listed. I'm picking Wall Area Gross here. Now Edit the cell format, change the Number style to a Dimension Area Keep fiddling until you get what you want. Note in this case that the header row gives you the sum for the Gross Wall Area, but that the other items in that row may not be relevant for your needs. I wrote the formulas I used in each column for clarity. There are more than just the ones I listed here though.

Yes, PDF's come in with a white background. You will have to import it as an Image File, then turn the fill style to none to get rid of the white. Yes, I put PDF's on separate Design Layers in cases like yours. First, I would set the scale of that Design Layer to match the scale of the drawing on the PDF. Once it is imported, you can change the Design Layer back to any scale you want and the PDF will change along with you. The "X:" be sure to set your Layer Options to Show Others, or Show/Snap Others, or Show/Snap/Modify Others. Signature: Make one with your info on it so we can play along.

http://www.nemetschek.net/downloads/fundamentals/2008/2008SP3.php

Have you tried copying a Viewport, and pasting it right into Illustrator?

It just doesn't. A lacking feature I suppose. You will have to fill in those dims by hand. "N" on the keyboard is the shortcut to the dimensioning tool ('constrained-linear' variety).