mike-h

as I haven't managed to lure anyone in to my problem, maybe a picture will tempt you fine folk out there! all the windows are set to clear - but some are more clear than others. Any ideas gratefully received... (I also am not sure what the blocking of different greys on the northlight are - on the right hand side I put a couple of light sources inside to 'simulate' the north - light, but it seems to be leaching through the windows/ frames/ solid matter.??) thanks Mike

for a nice renderworks rendering of an elevation, what should I set the 'render' property of windows to in the object info palette? and do they apply to the frame, the pane, or both? I changed all mine to glass or clear, - both seem to come out grey all over, except for about 50% of the windows set to clear appear to have transparent frames too! any pointers? thanks

I've done a little masterplanning exercise that involves plugging a building I'm working on into a linear park. Now, I've just found a neat arial isometric axo someone has done of the whole area I'm working in. I want to layout the arial image then keep it 'still' while I 3d rotate my building to establish the same view, then save it and use the arial image as background in a sheet layer. Any ideas or am I being daft? I thought it could work as long as the layers arent stacked, but that would mean merging my building into one layer to get it set up which sounds like a recipe for disaster. Or would it be better to make a new file, extrude an approximation of the building (enough to get the setup right) then copy/paste my entire (pretty complex) building model in from the original - and losing the drawing setup (viewports, sheets etc..).??

I'd love to be able to set the opacity of viewports, or fills, or ideally both. You know when CAD drawings can seem pretty heavy, particularly with trees/ foliage/ textures/ backgrounds all added in. I've come to VW from Illustrator and I often like to knock those elements down to be a lot less dominant (or add a low opacity white mask over the lower layer/s) to let the really important stuff (whatever that may be) stand out. It would cut down my workflow (ie export to Illustrator, adjust opacity/ layers then print) and make my final sheets 'dynamic' - as the viewports are - related to the model. Opacity adjustment could bring fantastic sublety to the presentation of VW drawings.

Thanks Bill (and Peter!) - thats a really useful post, for creating the sort of drawing I'm after. but... I'd still love to set the opacity of viewports, or fills, or ideally both. You know when CAD drawings can seem pretty heavy, particularly with trees/ foliage/ textures/ backgrounds all added in. I've come to VW from Illustrator and I often like to knock those elements down to be a lot less dominant (or add a low opacity white mask over the lower layer/s) to let the really important stuff (whatever that may be) stand out. I'll still do it by exporting the hidden line and renders separately then working in Illustrator, but really want to cut the steps in the workflow. And done in VW it would be dynamic-fantastic. Maybe one for the wish list...?!

Does anyone know of a way to se the opacity of a viewport? For presentation what I would like to do is create a rendered elevation viewport on a sheet layer with 3D trees, shadows etc, knock the opacity down to 30% or similar, then overlay a hidden line version of the same elevation for a really clear drawing with nice crisp lines but a suggestion of depth/ texture etc.... I can see opacity control for design layers but not for viewports, maybe there's a trick..?!

thanks folks, I think we're getting somewhere now (these buildings are getting a bit less draughty1)

can anyone help? I am modelling a cluster of small buildings with an assortment of roofs, but they seem to want to hover just above the wall! eg., most recent is a garage with wall height 2300mm on a layer with z value of zero. Above that on the same layer (as there are a lot of wall/ roof heights it seems easier to keep G.Floor roofs on the G. Floor layer etc.) is a pitched roof (rectangle - create roof). Double clicking a roof face shows me the bearing height to be 2300mm, but going to an elevation view makes it clear its about 2390mm - 90mm above the top of the wall! Any ideas? - its got me stumped!

seem to have sorted it by changing components of the symbol to another class. (i think!) mike

I have a building with lots of instances of a 3d symbol, thats effectively a bay window. My building is surrounded by a permanent framework - like a big scaffold. I want to create an exploded view to show the wall and windows with the scaffold out of the way, so as the windows are in one class (all parts of the symbol are in a 'window' class, but once installed they end up in my 'external wall' class; the 'scaffold' is in a class - well 2 - of its own. When I turn the scaffold classes off, the detail disappears from the windows leaving the top and base of the 'bay', and the hole in the wall, but none of the frame... any ideas folks? thanks mike

thanks for that islandmon - thats a crazy plugin that could give hours of fun I'm sure! but on the sectionline...any more ideas anyone? If not could Tech tell me if its possible? cheers mike

Anyone tried doing a curved section line? I drew a polygon and thought I could trace over it with the section line tool, to give an approximation, but the section line seems to only like doing staggered, parallel sections. Thing is I am working on an existing building that is curved like a 1/4 arc with a central corridor - one section line that follows the corridor would show clearly the spatial goings on, though I guess it might need some interesting perspective tricks - bit like mapping a spherical globe on a flat piece of paper? (and no one'd be mad enough to try that, would they?) any suggestions? cheers Mike

I'm finding after waiting for 10 minutes for a section viewport to render into hidden line, that as soon as I zoom in to proudly examine the results, the vp reverts to the crossed red box. Is there any way to get my section back without updating the vp and waiting 10 mins again? Its starting to upset me - really disturbing my workflow. hoping-I'm-missing-something Mike (have now found going to 'edit crop' then exiting seems to work)

anyone?! I am trying to cut some sections of a 9 storey building - so far its just floors, walls and windows, no textures or fancy objects, but I am working at 1:1 on the design layer while trying to cut a section at 1:500. Cutting to render in open GL (low) took over 40 minutes to not happen, (twice), I've now switched off rendering any layers I can and knocked the dpi down to 72, but that was about 15 minutes ago and the progress bar top right of screen is only just showing blue so I think I'm in for a long wait... Does drawing at 1:1 actually slow things down in this situation - am I being daft to work this way or is the geometry actually the same at all scales? (is it the same case if using textures/ fills etc) I guess this is a fundamental VW question that I'm still not sure the answer to, I'm inclined to work at 1:1 - it seems 'easier', but if it effects render times etc, I'm quite happy to work at any other scale! (that vp has just completed - thanks for the dpi advice Peter) I am running OSX 10.4.6 and frequently repair the permissions etc VW 12.5.2

Thanks for that Pat, I've managed to make a floor with my map on, but its created a lot of triangulation (see attached pic - a basic GL render of work in progress). The map is an illustrator file that I imported to vw as a dxf. Do I need to trace the map in vw to get rid of the mess,and make sure all the lines are nice closed polylines or suchlike, or is it likely I've done something wrong along the way? As I'm now having a go at making the site into a contoured model (mainly a 3m high embankment south of the buildings), is it possible to 'overlay' the map to show locations of trees, kerbs, boundaries etc on the new levels? (I think sketchup calls it a drape tool). thanks for any help for this novice! mike

I hope this is a simple one, but I haven't found any info... I am building a model, that I want to sit on a site map as if it were on a flat board.. I know that really I should model the site but I don't think my powers are up to it right now and the processor is already groaning under the strain of my building. So I have my site map laid out, at z=0,or actually its -200mm (working at 1:1), and in plan view its all fine, go 3d and the map disappears. Is there a simple way to get it to stay visible, or do I have to make up some sort of 3d geometry to drape it over? (also am I being daft working 1:1 - does it slow my poor computer down more or if as I'm assuming the no of points, vertices, vortexes etc is the same whatever the scale, does it make no difference to speed?) thanks for any help! mike

have you come across ecotect by square1? Its meant to be pretty good, particularly for passive heating/ cooling/ shading measures etc, as it carries a lot of global weather data etc., though I'm not sure how precise it is for your purposes. Apparently you can import 3ds models (I know this is an export option for VW) - is this enough 'interfacing' for you? Unfortunately its PC (or virtual PC) only - but that'd be fine for you.. there is a free download trial from their website. I'd be interested in anyones experiences with this or other such software too.

can anyone help, I have a house mostly at 18 deg off North, with a few outbuildings at assorted angles. When I draw a space object to calculate the floor area OR if I draw a rotated rectangle, the room dimensions are calculated from the orthogonal bounding box, rather than the hatched area that actually represents the floor area. e.g. a rotated rectangle at 45 deg and equal sides (ok, a square) of 3000mm gives me 'dimensions' of 4246mm + 4246mm, whilst managing to use that to calculate the correct area of 9 sqm. Is there way to calculate the measurements correctly in this situation, or am I stuck with measuring + inputting manually?

I'm not sure I get what you mean... the roof bearing height is set to match the height of the walls that carry it - in this case 5800 for the main roof and 2700 for my monopitch extension. Everything looks at the right height in right/ left/ back view, but "fit walls to roof" reduces the wall height to zero. If your saying the roof still 'thinks' its at Z=00 - (which would make sense) then why would it appear (visually) at the right height, and show 5800 in the bearing height section. I can't find a specific z value field for the roof as there is for the walls..

a quick one (I hope) I am making a basic building shell, and have 200mm unstyled walls. I have made 2 roofs, one with 2 gables, and a monopitch for a single storey extn at the rear. When I select a gable wall and hit "fit walls to roof", the wall disappears, or rather its delta Z height drops to zero. I have the 'create gable walls' box in the roof obj info box unchecked, as I want the walls to go up. The walls and roof are on the same layer. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? It is the same with both the roofs..

Thats heavy work! along the lines of what I was thinking - I'll give it a go when I've got a bit more time! meanwhile, bearing in mind my a. skill level b. available ram, and c. effort/ attainment ratio, I think I'll be making some stripped-down version of my building and turning it into a symbol, on one layer if possible. I think I have heard of this new feature in VW2008, it sounds very useful in this case...best start saving my pennies! thanks for the response

I guess to do that I'd have to flatten it down to one layer, then raise or lower the heights of each element individually, in order to select everything at one go? I'm hoping theres a way to avoid this ...?

I am working on a project for a street of terraced houses, of which I'm going to do detailed work on 3-4. To get the daylighting/ sunpaths/ general effect I want to model the whole st - the easiest way to do this for me (in principle!) would be to make a group of my single house I've modelled in detail (leaving out the complex bits), reflect a second version (so as to have a left and right hand version (our terraces work like this, with front door and back extension mirroring the neighbour's), and then copy/paste along the street. Unfortunately this doesn't seem possible due to the layers, and combining layers just complicates things - I've read up a bit on the debates about WGR as a tool for this sort of thing, but also that the X-ref'd object cannot be rotated etc. Any ideas if this would be the best route for me, and if so how could I reflect/ rotate the house to suit my needs. It would be good if I could do this anyway, as my st is about 19deg off North even in the case of my 3-4 detailed houses it would be great to work orthogonally on a master, then WGR and rotate it into individual files. I could always make a stripped down block model on a single layer, but would prefer to do it another way...any ideas gratefully received! VW 12.5.2 G4 powerbook OS 10.3.9

thought I'd just say thanks for the help - I'm still working on it but seem to be getting somewhere! cheers

While I'm here (!) I don't know if its the same issue, but I have a plan cut as a horizontal section from an elevation, section style is set to fill but only about half of the walls are filled. The outside walls are all the same no of layers, and I've extruded some studs to show the framing. Where the whole wall has not been blacked in, VW seems to have found the studs, or the inner layer and blacked them in. Again it seems odd that its not consistent across the drawing. As a side issue, I guess if you are making plans like this and your doors are set closed in elevation, then its not possible to have them open in a horizontal section cut from that elevation? blimey, its not a walk in the park, is it!