Kaare Baekgaard

You may consider to use the connect/combine tool. It will connect or combine not only two lines, but also two arcs or a line and an arc.

I second that question: When is the next release expected?

I have the same problem. After reinstalling system 10.2.6 on a dual processor G4, I installed vectorworks in full i order to get the dongle driver working. During installation I got this message: "The installation of Mac OS X dongle drivers failed because the installer could not achieve full administration privileges on this machine." The log in and password were correct and I do have admin privileges. What is wrong? PS Duby: I can still use VW under Classic - perhaps You can too until it is fixed.

Me three:-)

Try out AnimationWorks from OzCAD. Its simple, inexpensive and good, and it will do the trick.

Oh yes and one more thing: The ability to resample a texture within the texture dialogue. It is really cool, that I can import a Photoshop file directly into a texture, but often they are too big. To cut down on rendering time it would be nice, if I could downsample the texture after import. Thanks again

The included textures are just fine. I believe most of us put a lot of time into making custom textures, so I think it would be better to make this task easier, than to include more stock textures with Renderworks. The ability to cut, copy and paste within the texture dialogues would be cool. Also the ability to convert any imported, pasted or dropped image in the workspace into a texture (using its present size as the default size of the texture). The ability to quickly preview the texture from within the dialogues would sure save me a lot of time: How much ambient, specular & refraction is just right? Thanks

Not so: Select the objects, you want rendered, and use the comand "Convert copy to lines". This will produce a 2D hidden line rendering. If you want to copy and paste it into another program, I recomend, that you scale up the 2D representation before copying ? to compensate for the inacuracy of the clipboards vector-format. Or you can export it into any format.

My co-worker, is using FormZ (traitor:-). This program has a very cool feature, that I need to have in VW: To disable an objects ability to cast shadows (To still recieve shadows is OK). Why is this so cool? - Here's why: When I am rendering an interior, I want all furniture to cast multible soft shadows on the floor. In VW this is quite difficult to get just right. I need to use many point lights with distance falloff, and this is heavy on rendering time. But if I can disable the roof and walls ability to cast shadows, I can get all the shadows I need from just 3 directional lights. If you include this feature in the next version, my arms will go up and stay up all day.

As an industrial designer, Vectorworks is not really the obvious choice. But I have stuck with Vectorworks / MiniCad since version 2.0, because it is so easy to use. However, I do miss the advanced modelling features that other 3D programs offer. The 3D powertools improved this situation considerably, but not profoundly. I resently purchased Cinema 4D from Maxon with Vectorworks exchange, in order to improve my rendering capabilities, and I have since then trained in this program in order to learn it. No doubt this program is extremely advanced, but the interface is strangely unfamiliar, and I don't really care for it. But the modelling features of Cinema 4D are so much more advanced, that it fills me with a sense of loss, when I return to the somewhat inadequate and unstable 3D powertools of Vectorworks. Especially the concept of "hypernurbs" and "weighting" impressed me. Now ? with the new joint ownership of Nemetchek & Maxon, I imagine that one of the benefits could be the transfer of technology. Is this in the plans for the future development of Vectorworks? Just as you have made special editions of Vectorworks (Spotlight - Architect - etc) I would greatly appreciate an edition for designers. The core feature of such a package should be improved modelling capabilities. Is this a dream that could become reality?

quote: Originally posted by tvetter: How does one customize right click? In the workspace editor.

I had a similar problem. When the program runs out of memory, I get no warnings at all - which I used to get under system 9.x. I found out, that the most memory-consuming for Renderworks is rendering with multible shadowcasting lightsources. When I turned off the shadows for most lightsources (all except 1 or 2), I had no problems.

-been there too. I found a workaround by dragging the colour I wanted down into the field, that allows you to save a colour setting. Then I selected it again by double-clicking it. The program now accepted the new colour, and I got the result I wanted.

I've had a similar problem - it seems I fixed it by opening the edit dialogue of all textures, and closing them again without making any changes (exept from where the reflectivity was set on phong - for some reason this setting did not translate correctly). Try it - maybe it works for you too.

Thank You Mike. The difference is subtle but important: With mask transparencies, I get a transparent area in any object using that texture. Behind the objects that are asigned these transparent textures, I see whatever objects and surfaces, that shows through the transparency. With "alpha-texture" I open the resulting file in Photoshop - and any area designated the "alpha texture" show up blank - with holes knocked through the entire image file. All I see in those areas are the background checkers, that indicates a transparent area in Photoshop. U see? Unless I have misunderstood some part of the program very fundamentally, the kind of transparency, You are describing is the first.

I have expressed myself poorly: What I would like is not to get transparent objects, but to get transparent areas - or alpha channel-masks in the resulting file - to help manipulating the rendered image further. Its a bit like using bluescreen when shooting video. If You think about it, this could be very useful.

When I make a complex 3D solid or -nurb object, I have found that it updates rather slowly on screen, when I move it around. If I create a 3D symbol from that very same object, the screen update is almost instant. So if some of You experience slow-downs using the program, try to transform some complex objects into symbols. This will make the program work a lot faster.

Well today's a quiet day, so here are two more hot wish list items for renderworks: 1: The ability to disable one or several objects ability to cast shadows. This would be great for rendering interiors - by disabling the walls and ceiling from casting shadows I can use 1-3 sunlights to create all the shadow effect I need - and do it fast. 2: The ability to apply a texture called "Alpha". Any object with this texture will create transparent areas in the rendering - or a separate alpha channel in the resulting image file.

I used to use Strata for rendering, but I have now replaced it with Renderworks - and overall I save a lot of time now on projects even if I have to let go some advanced features. The trick of rendering is not to get the fastest rendering engine possible, but to know what to render: Geometry is slow, textures with transparencies are fast. Image props are fast. Multible lightsources are OK, if only 1 or 2 cast shadows. Use symbols as much as possible, etc,etc. The rendering below is part of a full 3D environment with interior and exteror. Nothing is omitted from the layer. It renders in screen resolution in 35 seconds on a 2x1Ghz Mac.

If You have acces to Illustrator - try exporting the graphics as DXF as Illustrator reads this format. With the latest version of Vectorworks and the latest version of illustrator all graphics - even complex bezier curves are translated very nicely

Thanks - I know, I can use copy n' paste, but Your reply made me remember yet another request: I would like to be able to cut, copy and paste within and between all "edit texture" sub-dialogues. Kind regards Kaare

Importing images into a vectorworks document is time consuming. Creating new textures is also time consuming. In fact the majority of time spent on a project goes into creating & mapping textures. This is time lost from creative tasks. I would like to see the following improvements in the next version of the program: I would like to be able to drag & drop image files into vectorworks. Then I would like to be able to ctr-click any image, and transform it into a texture, automatically using its present size as the default size of that texture. I use a lot of transparency in my texture. They are almost allways created as mask transparencies reusing "this textures colour", and with white as the transparent colour. It takes a lot of clicks, however, to get to this result. So I would like to be able to have this option as a default "package" in the pull down menu. (or the ability to create such a "package". I often have over 50 textures in a single document. So I would like to be able to place them in folders - similar to the symbol folders. I would like to be able to organise symbols & textures into folders by drag-and-drop. I would like to be able to separate the texture mapping palette from the object info palette. And finally: I would like to be able to include animations into a rendering batch. As it is, I have to make them one at the time. Thanks for listening, and thank You for a program, that has become a true benefit to my professional life. Regards Kaare Baekgaard

I have tried every combination of format, I could think of, but I cannot get the program to accept using the alpha channel of an image file for transparency. I'm using system 9.2.2. Is there something I have missed? Regards Kaare

I have been testing the powerpack for some weeks now. Thank You Nemetschek. It works great. Here are a few items for the next version: 1. Form-Z has a tool in their new version, where one can smooth a 3D solid several times - and get from a basic shape to an amorpheus shape in a very intuitive and appealing way. 2. A "multible-extrude along path" would be really cool! 3. The bump-map feature of renderworks does not work very well. Its hard to control. 4. A preview of the textures in the ressource window thank You. 5. Take a look at the old Strata Studiopro 1.5.xfor an unsurpassed way of mapping textures onto objects. Here mapping is linked to the current view by default, and textures can be scaled independently on the X- and Y- axis from within the mapping dialogue. If You "steal" a few features from this method, it would be a great improvement. 6. I used to get an indication of the volume and measures of solids in the Object Info Palette. I understand, why it had to go, but it would be nice to have this feature as a menu item, so that I can get calculations of enclosed volumes. 7. I have requested this before - but it would still be VERY nice to be able to tab into the object info palette! (alt-tab?) 8. It would be very nice to be able to import/export worksheets including formulaes. 9. And last, but not least: I would like some format - any format, that allows me to import & export geometry along with its textures. Does it exist? Thank You Kaare Baekgaard

You use the wrong tool. First you find something in your drawing to measure. Then you select all objects, that you want to scale. Then you use "Scale Objects...", and in the dialog choose symmetric. Then in the field you enter the number 1 divided with the measurement from your drawing multiplied with what the measurement should have been. For instance 1/3*345. Vectorworks then scale all selected objects 115 times. If it won't do it, you need to change (increase) the "Layer Scale...", so that the scaled objects will fit into the drawing space. regards Kaare