Kaare Baekgaard

Hi Nicolas I don't think I have an option to place the HDRI map as it is set to surround the entire workspace. The shadows seem to come from several sources - and are not of equal strength, but they still have sharp edges in final quality renderworks. I suppose they are calculated to emanate from multible sources based on light areas of the HDRI map. I have made a routine for interiors, where the ceiling and all objects placed above the furniture cast no shadows - sometimes I also set some of the walls to cast no shadows. That way I can use global directional lights to create shadow footprint(s) of all interior furniture. I just loaded a HDRI map into such a scene and deleted the directional lights, then started the renderer. The resulting image displayed toned surfaces correctly according to the HDRI map. These tones had 'burned' through walls and floors so seemingly most of the map does not produce shadows. (Just like when you set a global coloured light to cast no shadow - the colour burns through objects, that would block the colour, if the light were set to cast shadow). But I got strange shadows on the walls and ceiling, that I have not yet understood - perhaps from windows, I don't know. When I learn more, I will give you an update.

Here comes the first wish based on 12.5: HDRI works great for outdoor scenes and product design. For indoors it is quite promising, but not quite there yet: I get strange shadows all over the scene. I can cure it somewhat by setting textures to not cast or recieve shadows, but it will be quite a puzzle and probably not worth the efford when you are on the clock. Too bad really, because without the shadows, the overall effect is quite nice. So I wish there were some way to turn off shadowcasting for HCRI maps.

Well a days work is lost anyway - but not from the installation problems but from the EXCITING new possibilities :-o A special thanks for the HDRI and the Smooth Mesh function to everyone at the NNA!

Found out to fix it myself. Go to http://www.aladdin.com/support/hasp/hasp4/enduser.asp Download the Hasp Installation. Run the installer as described.

I downloaded the updater for 12.5 and installed it. Now I get the following message when I try to run the application: 'A VectorWorks dongle could not be found. Make sure that the dongle is connected and that all required drivers have been installed. VectorWorks will now quit.' Needless to say, the dongle is attached - has been all the time, the serial number is correct an I got no error messages while installing. Did I do anything wrong here? So now a days work will be lost... Please answer a bit fast, somone at NNA.

Imageprop is still better. Make the 2D banner in Photoshop or other program - or even in vectorworks (take a screen dump of the finished graphics. If you've got photoshop, you can add the shadows needed to make the banner look 'live'. Imort the cropped imge file as an image prop. Disable auto-rotate towards viewer and constant reflection, enable make plug-in object - then you can scale the prop freely without worrying about mapping.

Imageprop is better.

Pat it is OK to have it smeared acroos the objects: The texture is simply not rotated correctly. You do this by clicking the mapping button of the third tab of the object info palette and rotate the texture into position. (Click show texture axis, then use align to face, then the other tools as needed)

Raymond Hey, you are right about that! Thanks. Actually it will default to interactive in the second and fourth mode - but to marquee mode in the first and third - and this goes for all the drawing tools.

I've never seen this happen Kaare. Is it often? If you mean the nails: I carry a lot of scars... If you mean the zoom tool: Every single time I use the tool in boomerang mode, it jumps to interactive mode.

If I understand you correctly, you need to make a single solid object of all the top surfaces. Just select and add solid. After selecting texture, change map type to plane.

If you have many transparent objects behind each other, this will occur. The way to fix it is to use custom renderworks and set a higher recursion value, than used by the final quality renderworks (don't know, but I believe it is 5 in final quality renderworks). This will slow down rendering, but eliminate them grey rectangles. Oops - sorry Ray, thats probably what the link is all about.

I know, it has been mentioned before. But if VW 12.5 still defaults the zoom tool in interactive mode all the time without me saying so, I am going to hammer a nail into my forehead and run screaming out into the streets.

Just give the floor a slight thickness.

In general: Just draw - don't convert geometry unless you have to, but do use symbols/convert to symbols, where ever you can - often symbols renders faster than the same geometry represented as non-symbols. Image props renders faster than modelled objects Transparency maps renders faster than holes modeled in 3D Other than that, it is pretty obvious, that more complex objects renders slower. Why would you care about file size? Harddisks come cheap these days.

The locus needs to be exactly aligned to- or further out than the leftmost- or rightmost part of the profile object. No particular reason to this, I guess - that's just the way it is. Try using the align menu item.

I second that wish. - It does seem a little ridiculous, that you can do stuff with 3D nurbs curves (weight), that you cannot do in 2D.

The only major improvement in 2D presentation does not come with Renderworks, but with the industry series, where presentations can be rendered in sketch mode, giving it a handdrawn appearance.

Working with hybrid symbols and objects, you get some of the same challenges as with pure illustration aplications. You have to deal with stacking order. It would be very nice to have 'paste in front of-' and 'paste behind' selected objects commands. These would also have to paste any object in the same location as it was cut from. I sometimes have to do 15-20 'Send Backwards' commands in a row with several objects in order to get the stacking order right. This is pretty tedious.

OK, good idea, but please stop shouting ;-)

Yes, that is a flaw. Same goes for Floor objects. They render textures on the top and bottom surfaces, but not on the sides. Also: If you accidentally ungroup a floor or pillar object, it looses its 3D information, and becomes 2D. This is bound to happen from time to time, so it would be nice, if this was not a part of their behavior.

Would an image prop of the rendered poser figure not fulfil your purpose?

My machine is rendering now, so I havent checked this out, but isn't there an option you can check in dxf export, where you export only 2D objects from a plan view?

Oh - and by the way: Perhaps it woulld be a good idea to disable Cast Shadows in the texture used for the image prop.

'another solution is set up multiple light sources very near the object and shining on it to lighten only that area.' This is render-heavy, though. Here is a simple trick, that I have just recently discovered the full potential of: http://homepage.mac.com/kaarebaekgaard/.Pictures/Test_glow.JPG Notice that one wall is evenly grey - but the other has a varying whiteness. No lighting is involved except the global lighting of the scene: An imageprop has been placed slightly in front of the wall. The image is all white. The settings are: Disable Lock Aspect Ratio - Use Mask/Create Mask/Import Image (use a gradient image as shown below)/Source for Mask: Greyscale Pixels - Click OK and disable Crossed Planes - enable Constant Reflectivity - enable Create Plug-in Object (enables you to scale imageprop freely) - disable Auto Rotate to Viewer - enable Create Symbol Here is the colour file - If you want a warm glow, make it slightly orange. http://homepage.mac.com/kaarebaekgaard/.Pictures/glowcolour.jpg Here is the mask file. The whiter areas will glow, the darker will be transparent and allow any texture of the wall to be seen. http://homepage.mac.com/kaarebaekgaard/.Pictures/glowmask.jpg The imageprop has become part of the symbol folder and can be scaled and reused for all walls on an individual basis. This effect can actually emulate radiosity to some degree - but it is lightening-fast to render.