mjm

Is this WAD or other?

@grant_PD yup, agreed, tho I sneak up on that often through a couple scratch lo dpi viewports till I'm happier enough to go up-dpi. I do wish I'd get with the program and learn to utilize cloud render efficiently.

So, just now VWX 21 just dumped all my palettes except visualization & Resource Browser. Why? Ok, fastest fix I have found: Resize your display which seems to reset the palettes, then re-set your display to your preferred setting, et voila! On a Mac this is done through System Preferences/Displays. If using multiple displays, be sure you've selected the correct one! No need to delete preference folders or plists, etc., or rebuild your workspace!

@grant_PDthanks man, the glow channel alpha mask idea sounds like just the ticket. Shots: Usually it's three/four shots from various audience positions, but basically all wide, so this solution seems appropriate to all.

Could you try the path with a simple 2d object then use the "Replace with symbol" option under the "Convert" menu?

Alrighty then; I have a scenic drop to light, quite traditionally executed, to my general delight. Got all wound up in the idea of previz-ing a few ideas in Renderworks (def not Vision) for the client. The few times I have executed this idea in the past, the drops have been either simpler in execution or I knew less then or both. This time the drop has the following attributes: opacity varied translucency specular highlights (glitter paint) My solve so far has been: image prop for the overall drop, with translucency determined by luminosity in PS translucent cyc behind that this covers all but the specular bit. Help? The attached image shows a close-up of the paint sample. The drop overall is a sub tropical cityscape. [The side-by-side is just because I got suddenly interested in who's interpretation compared to IRL worked best. The Canon (2012) for color accuracy's sake kicked the iPhone 11/Halide Raw's ass all over the kitchen floor to my eye, as it was shot in daylight and directly compacted to the paint sample. Punchy as the iPhone/Halide version is, it's much livelier (& plain wrong) than the reality.]

Really, @Andy Broomell this chart makes my decision tree for renders so much more efficient. Thanks for the share.

@bbudzon yup, I do that grid snap nudge all the time, works flawlessly

@Mainer just tested here on MBP, Big Sur, VW 2021. Confirming Shift+Option+8 = °

@line-weight super dry lol

@bbudzon Super clear and helpful in outlining the major friction points.

@Rob Books Cool. Can't wait to see em.

I'm not here for the clicks or the commiseration, just saying how I feel after re-engaging with VWX as the primary tool in my toolbox. I have not needed VWX for months -simple: no work. Now I need VWX -simple: got work. All I have wanted and needed to do is create easy-to-read documentation in 3D for a site installation of a temporary performing space, audience space, food court, reception, etc. It seems as though VWX has thrown obstacles in my way daily. So many random objects losing Z randomly. So many random issues such the one which has just occurred: popping out of annotation space, back to the sheet layer, only to watch my palettes disappear. Forget the time wasted on why. And now I have to re-build those Palette Positions, another ten minutes of fiddly nonsense. So many VWX lockups where the beachball of death shows up, causing at the least, an app restart, often first a reboot. That right there is fifteen minutes of my life and my clients time and money being thrown out the window. Change your Graphics: done, no diff. Copy file bit bit tedious bit onto new blank file. Same problems. Spinny beachball - no reason shown, just spinning and spinning. Every VWX session ends in anger or deep frustration. Every VWX session begins in fear. No way to work. Was handed a nice scaled pencil drawing to integrate into the VWX. That drawing took the TD 30 or so minutes to execute with pencil. Took me far far longer, due to VWX hiccups — that's not right (I'm all cool, using the softgoods tool and the stairs tool and the stage deck tool, right? cool, but not stable. It's actually embarrassing. I'm not winning and neither are my clients. I just want to get my work done. NB: the attached screenshot shows the current open VWX window, not a palette in sight, yet every palette is designated active. Just now; clicking the window menu choice and saw that I could have struck the keystrokes to hide enabled palettes. But no-woops: we can see in the screenshot that hide activated palettes is NOT activated. So yay. Now I have wasted another fifteen minutes finding - nothing. Time to reboot. Again.

@Jesse Cogswell This is the step which makes (almost) everything better. So worthwhile. And yeah, the viewports thing can be a stinker.

Oh, and after another VWX re-start (no reboot—my bad), upon simultaneously updating six pretty simple viewports VWX crashed again. I'm lovin' my professional life.