Tom G.

Thanks, Jim, for taking time to provide your file. One request--can you post a v2015 version?? Tom

Thanks, Jim, for your reply. Really, what I'm after is the best setting set for a fly-around that can reasonably be rendered overnight. Realistic Exterior Final, as good as it is, is too much of a load for my i7 Mac to handle. That's why I'm interested in a less demanding but still good looking render setting thus my interest in Custom Renderworks. Realistic Exterior Final, rendering in a Layer and not a Viewport for a fly-around, is so locked in that no amount of keyboard combinations will stop it from working away thus I have to do a Force Quit to get my Mac back. I can certainly edit Realistic Exterior Final to do less. Suggestions welcomed. Regarding Custom Renderworks loss of sky, I've had success with this style for years. Completely stumped as to why it is now uncooperative. Tom

When choosing Lighting Options for a perspective render in Vwks 2015, under Custom Render, while checking From Selected Background, I no longer can get an HDRI sky, or any sky for that matter, to appear in the rendering. Realistic Exterior Final works fine. Ideas? Wks 2015 SP5, Mac OS El Cap 10.11.4, 2.2 i7, 16GB Memory. Thanks

Tech support was back fast with the answer: I have two video cards in my Macbook Pro, a fast one and a slow one. The advice was to check the box keeps Vw from defaulting to the slower card (and thus saving battery life). This loss of palettes is a new behavior so I don't know if it was caused by upgrading to El Capitan or what. Just glad I don't have to rebuild my palettes each day.

Vwks 2015 (Mac, SP4), for the last week or more, can't remember which palettes were open upon starting up Vkws. Palettes open prior to shut-down have now, upon startup, disappeared. I have to uncheck checked palettes and then recheck in order for them to show up. Happens every time I restart Vwks. Ideas? MacBook Pro OSX El Capitan 10.11.1, 2.2 Ghz i7, 16 GB Memory. Thanks! Tom G.

I found it. Have to turn off both handrail AND guardrail. Would be great to have an off checkbox for both. Tom

Am using the stair tool in v2015 Designer: What's the simple setting to keep handrails/guardrails from showing? The setting shows the rails should be off but the 3D view shows them anyway. Thanks Tom

Modeling a bedroom in C4D http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/tutorials/how-to-model-and-render-a-realistic-bedroom-in-cinema-4d-part-1/ Parts 1 & 2 are on the same page. Tom

Jonathan Pickup is a great resource. He is a consummate teacher and has developed a great number of teaching tools. Best free bang-for-the-buck: the many videos posted on YouTube by Sean O'Skea and James Russell (Semaj) http://www.youtube.com/user/seanposkea?feature=watch http://www.youtube.com/user/Semaj000?feature=watch James is fun and no one packs in more words per inch than Sean O. They are primarily set designers but their lessons apply across the board to almost all aspects of Vwks CAD work. Tom Edit: Also look at Stephen Barker on Vimeo. Especially interesting is the series of exporting from Sketchup into Vwks. http://vimeo.com/mysolent/videos

When I insert a door which I intend to next change to a garage door, I always pull the door swing into the garage as 99.9% of garage (roll-up) doors operate this way. Why then does the garage door outline spring to the outside or exterior of the structure when a door is inserted? This goes back years. There must be a reason or how could this behavior have gone on so long without a change? How about rewriting this so the garage door outline springs to the interior of the building when a user pulls the door inward during insertion? Make them match. Thanks

Thanks, Peter, for the reply, especially your last tip. Tom

What is the best protocol for using this tool? (Vwks Designer 2013) I have a house plus property set on a slight diagonal. I've drawn the plot plan (site plan) showing buildings and setbacks to match the survey. My Main Story layer derives the house footprint and lot outline from the Plot Plan layer. I'd like to rotate the model + linework on this layer to a square-to-the-page orientation. I see that having used the Rotate Top/Plan tool to square the drawing, my original Plot Plan drawing has also rotated which was unexpected. I see also, in reading up on the tool, that all subsequent layers (and assumed prior layers) will display as rotated. Am I on a path to a problem or can I proceed to build my model and build out my planset in this manner, with the caveat--and a big one--that the site plan needs to be un-rotated prior to printing? If I can't effectively use the rotate tool in the above fashion, then what is it's true function? Thanks Tom

I have to agree with Matt. Instead of going all MC Escher with trying to imagine how to construct your project using Stories, just build it from scratch and skip worrying about having the model adjust automatically to any change elsewhere. It won't take that much time move your elements manually unless, at Matt says, you are working on a much more complex commercial-type project. The tool can't be more complicated than the task. Tom

I would just say, regarding the conversation on in-cloud rendering of lower dpi images in order to ease rendering strain; I can do that at home. Isn't the point of rendering images via the cloud to return print-quality renders (300 dpi)? Tom

Jim: I design entirely in 3D but find Screen View very important for this reason: Not all linework that defines a drawing must be in 3D. Great numbers of 2D lines are put down onto Design Layers. These are used to add detail to floor plans, framing plans and others and are better* done on a Design Layer than in annotations. These lines, often defining cabinetry, columns (simplified outlines), rafters and other elements work best in 2D and having them begin life in 3D--all at zero hight--needlessly confuses the drawing. Also, as a minor point, lines drawn in 3D default to zero elevation always, as I said above, and so even when you employ them on a site plan or plot plan to show detail around a 3D model, they often convey false information since they do not conform the the topography of the lot without taking other, advanced steps. If your lot is dead-flat, then it works OK. 2D Linework set to Layer Plane is a fine and necessary beginning to the process of extruding shapes but that is about it in my view. In closing, I'd say I always prefer my lines to begin in Screen Plane. I can change them to Layer Plane later if I want. Tom *I use 2D line-work frequently when defining structural elements between stories and layers. I send loci and other lines to other layers to mark important locations and conditions. This is not possible in Annotation mode. PS. JimW: your input is highly valued. Thanks again.

"I work almost entirely in 3D but have my plane set to Screen Plane almost exclusively." Same here. Tom

When selecting a wall to customize via Wall Preferences, each change can be implemented with a simple OK button on the bottom of the pane. But in closing, if you click the OK button on the bottom of the pane, as you did for all other choices, the wall dumps back to it's default style and your changes are lost. This is because you didn't click the Save Preferences as Wall Style way up in the upper right corner of the pane. This jump in pattern, where OK saves and then OK doesn't save, needs correcting. Please allow "OK" to bring up a dialog to save the wall to the job and while I'm at it, to place the wall in the user's custom wall folder so it will be there on the next job, not just this one, and if he or she doesn't have a folder already created, to create one. The disconnect between customizing walls and saving walls to the users customized folder is needlessly wide, requiring going to the Resource Browser, digging up the wall you just created, finding Export and saving it in that process. It's a work around that needs to be streamlined. But first I'd love for the Wall Preferences save function to be improved. OK? Thanks. Tom

I agree with Gytis and NorCalLights. And not. Yes, it's for professionals. But anyone who has been using Vwks for a time has noted the increasing load of technique that must be mastered to use the program. The load on the backs of newer users--those without guru's at their sides--is huge. Do what you can to reduce the load. Period. Customizing to fit workflow is of course important. Didn't say it wasn't. I'm looking for common sense here, not tough love. Tom

Your advice is good for advanced users as they will be at a place where modifying the workspace commands is not too far off their beaten track. Most others won't/can't rise to that level of fine tuning. But again, for such a basic command, there should be a stock key command. Then everyone can benefit. Tom

OK, Jon, appreciate that. By why isn't it part of the stock setup? Tom

Don't know but after seeing this video for T-Splines, a Rhino add-on, I'd be interested in going that direction.

..........tired of hunting under View every time I make a viewport. Want key combo to do same. Tom

Create Gable End Walls, while still being used by some I'm sure, is really an anachronism at this stage and so should be set to OFF by default on the Object Info palette serving the Create Roof command.

If you are not interested in 3D text or 3D logos--and you never said you were--simply add text or paste in your 2D line work onto the Sheet holding the image (the Viewport) of your Cafe rendering (and ignore my original response above concerning masks and so on.) Use the opacity sliders to adjust to suit the particular exposure of each rendering. My advice here presumes you have already rendered your scene as an image file of some sort, then added it onto a new Design Layer which you've then turned into a Viewport. Tom

What I did was, in a new file, turned the type into polylines, ungrouped, extruded each letter, filled the letters and tipped for 3D effect. I exported the image as a jpg and imported it back into the file of my interior rendering, directly onto the Sheet Layer holding the interior image. Once imported onto the Viewport, I can mess with the opacity slider. Most significantly, in the creation of the logo, after creating a jpg of the text, I made the text image into an image prop which gave me the ability to create a mask thus the logo had no white box surrounding the text. I've not done this before so may have missed an easier process. The process of creating the mask should be outlined but I've just been handed a deadline to meet. Someone else might fill in the blanks? Other ideas out there? Tom Vwks 2013 Designer