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When you have a Render Mode that calculates GI (could also be a real time GPU render mode with screen space GI or path tracing) you can light your whole scene with some emissive surfaces .....

Hi Jesse, I understand what you are doing here. But I think these are just misunderstandings or different use of definitions. Of course, if you extract Faces from a 3D Objects, these new faces use the initial 3D location and orientation. (if they are true 2D elements, I do not get why there is not offered any "flatten" command or set to "Layer Plane" ...) And I did not yet tried to let VW create 2D appearances from 3D Symbols so far ..... But I would have expected that I can edit these 2D front/side/top geometries, as I most times need to clean them up or sort them to LODs anyway, as always and just assign Classes, line weights and such ... If not .... not so good. But the essential principal of a VW "Screen Plane" is its difference to other XYZ or CAD Planes/UCS/WCS, .... that it is a dynamic Plane, that actually rotates and reorients to your View Screen surface whenever you rotate your View in 3D. The only reason for screen plane that is useful is like putting text/icon or info labels along your 3D Elements so they are always oriented to the Viewer and legible, whatever you navigate your 3D Viewport. Like a video of a 3D scene with 2D overlays done in a video editing software that always follow their parent 3D Objects .... (And some VW users make use of that in a very creative way) But that is as niche feature/usage which is seldom needed. Most times Screen Plane Objects just annoy in any 3D View. Their real location is not predictable or legible. So I postulate that users, and VW, misuse screen plane in many other ways than its "screen orientation". There is no reason to have 2D parts of Symbols or Hybrids to ever orient to monitor ! They have to orient perpendicular to a Section derived Viewport, which is usually in XY plane on your 2D Sheet Layer. Everything that is 2D only I would describe by XY coordinates first. Because it is has no thickness or 3rd Dimension. If any 2D needs to be seen in a 3D context - it is 3D ! and needs 3 coordinates. And I have not seen in any case so far where that Screen Plane is needed in any way that would not be possible to describe by just a much more adequate XY, XZ or YZ Plane. So just keep one of the 3 Axis zero and it is clear that it is 2D and should be flat. if it is rectilinear in 3D add a Z but keep the "same" for all these objects. I postulate that VW does use "Screen Plane" wrong in 98%. Either they take away that disturbing dynamic screen orientation feature and rename it to something like "our-special-2D-plane-that-makes-sure-that- content-is-2D-onlyand-oriented-properly-to-our-current-pupose-in-or- from-our-tool" or use proper coordinate systems. 2D that auto aligns according to purpose - or just proper 3D in 3D Space. And it looks like VW decided to get rid of this problem by deprecating that wired Screen Plane thing, which I highly welcome. But so far, in reality, there is still no chance to really get rid of Screen Plane. No chance to get Screen Plane out of all Containers like Symbols or Groups. But for all screen misusing workflows outside, I am 100% that there would be reasonable suitable plane definition or workaround that can offer at least the same functionality if not more and more consistent.

I think it will work via Custom Search. You should be able to filter by Plane. But AFAIK that will not help for elements inside Symbols (?)

While trying to follow .... I do not currently use saved views (I know I should, at least for exports and visibilities ....) I was searching for Saved Views dropdown in Top Bar ....I really needed 10-15 minutes to finally find it under a totally different style (Icon) all left beside the Plane settings, which I ignored so far. (Until I just tried Align Plane and it took another 10 minutes until I finally got rid of that Screen Plane again)

For the Auto Plane in Bricscad I can press SHIFT or such key and it locks the auto plane so I can snap to anywhere in 3D space from that. AFAIK in VW there is no such fixation for Auto Plane (?) I am not very familiar with UCS/custom Working Planes in VW. (because so far I rather just create dummy geometries to provide Auto Plane spenders where I need them next, like for rotation tool and such, because that is easier for me) But I think these might be an option for workarounds too. I think in this case I would have rotated my view. But offering the blue Auto Plane on one side but then not allowing to snap seems strange to me. So maybe a support request to VW would be useful nevertheless.

I think I should have added a 😉 With iOS Lidar you can easily getting a 5 cm deviation from plane, while the average distance isn't that bad. But you can also easily getting a second point plane 12 cm away, if you scan again over it a second time. At first I thought 9 mm is a lot for a professional laser scan. But probably the plaster thickness wasn't that even either, as it looks like an older house (?)

Well Screen Plane is deprecated, I can keep my files screen plane screen, but not get rid of screen plane from client imports or underlays ... But it is a good start. And for all that still need screen plane, you can bring it back easily or it is still there for migrated files that had it in use. But basically all trouble is about naming and dual use with the dynamic plane feature. (Hey, Image Props have another "look at Camera" feature, could be replaced by just Screen Plane. Would only need a rotate only about Z lock option)

I think the problem is that he wants to grab the lower - occluded - Auto Plane under the beams (?) This should (Auto Plane does only appear for visible object faces) work by rotating the view to look from the under side. Not sure why it shows the blue Auto Plane (like in a boundary detecting mode) at all - but will not snap to any vertices in this case anyway.

Would it be possible to ad a Home Screen "Link" : As an extra "File Tab", half width, at most left beside our File Tabs ? As I hardly hit the current Icon in Window's top bar or always hit the wrong Icon. And while I'm at it. I see on ARM Mac that Home Screen Opens a new external "VW" Window. Which shows some lag here. Also when I want to get back to Files I feel a bit uncomfortable to hit the red Close button. (As I fear I could close my VW session. Maybe there is an idea more integrated way to hold Home Screen.

I learned that you can do a custom selection for screen plane objects and convert them. Unfortunately that will not effect any objects inside Groups or Symbols (In my cases mostly 80+ %) And AFAIR you may select them separate by object type to be able to change to Layer Plane via OIP at a time. And AFAIR the number of found screen plane objects may have gone up again after converting them (?) As long as you only reference such files and bring them in by Design Layer Viewport mode, that should not be an issues. If you bring them in into your master file, it will have legacy 2D enabled now too, until you cleaned up again. AFAIR it was also not possible to convert screen plane objects hidden in Container Objects with any VW scripting. So you would need to explode/ungroup everything to really get rid of screen plane and all legacy 2D stuff.

I always hoped it would work for a 2D Viewport at least. I am just aware that a Viewport's Crop with 3D geometry, like a DLVP from a referenced File, will not work in 3D. Crop is caught in some "Screen Plane" Mode and will depend on your view rotation. So it may display anything else parts than what was inside your desired crop .... But that likely isn't your problem either .....

I also tumbled over this when I tried to produce some reduced and clean black and white plans. Like Screen Plane I think this should go .... But theoretically you can change (eliminate) that Ceiling-Main usage from 2D Settings in your Window and Doors Styles. A bit tedious but I was short of doing so for my Template Files ....

Since I started with VW 2014, I never understood for what at all I could need such a "screen plane" feature. I personally I am very happy that screen plane is now hidden. (no problem that users who think they need it, can unhide it again) And in any App before or beside VW I never saw any feature like screen plane and ever had the feeling I would miss something. So I am fine and will call a "screen plane" feature, hidden behind an "enable 2D Legacy" - deprecated (*) (*) In Apple definition, we told you years ago it is outdated and you should avoid to use it. OK, it is still there but will not get any further improvements. And it is official now - it will go one day, this is your last chance to get forward) But my problem was not that screen plane is deprecated. My problem was that certain bugs or misbehaviors of VW made me feel that maybe not ALL rests of screen plane were already found and worked over in all tools, so that in some dark VW corners there may be still traces of screen plane that negatively influence a now screen plane-free workflow in VW 2022. (Like when you edit Extrudes or Slabs in a 3D View and get an abnormal result - while it will work only when you switch to a Top Plan View) It is just my assumption, that these issues are related to the attempt to clean VW Tools from screen plane dependency. But my main question was, are still ALL mentioned issues in this thread still happening in VW 2022, or are there already some been fixed over the years. (In case someone from VW may be interested in fixing any still existing issues)

Although VW and BIM Modeling offer some more sophisticated options to create a 3D Model, like Story setups with Z reference Story Levels, which you numerically enter into your BIM Plugin Objects so you do not need to care much about the third dimension (Z) while drawing in a top plan XY plane and you can control your Plugin Objects by PIO Styles in a parametric way so that you can update, change and adapt your model later more easily ..... There is a basis of 3D modeling that hundreds of 3D App users (Max, Cinema4D, Blender, ...) have done and are still doing. You import or reference your 2D source files like plans, sections and elevations into your 3D App (already there in your VW file), clean them up, rotate them 90° upright and position them beside your plan drawings, which you vertically arrange to your Story heights in Z. Then you draw a polyline e.g. for a Slab by snapping to the plan reference and finally extruding it by snapping to the section reference. I would first play with 3D geometry in that way just to get a feel for it. Of course watch the 3D starter videos to get an overview of what it is possible and how it may be achieved. On one hand VW has some pretty legacy modeling tools (Move 2D/3D, Rotate, Scale, Extrude numerically, ...) on the other hand things like Auto Plane, Multiple View Panes, PushPullTool, .....). So the options are a bit overwhelming and usually there are multiple ways to achieve the desired result.

I would recommend Layer Plane. As long as you work strictly 2D only, you will do this usually in Top Plan View only. (Like we did on paper in the past. Like aligning your Sections and Elevations around the Top Plan so that you can snap to it) And in case of a Top View (=XY) ... there isn't any difference behavior between Top Plane vs Screen Plane. The special behavior of Screen Plane objects only happens in any 3D View. Like Isometrics, Side Views, .... In this case Screen Objects will be fixed parallel to your monitor screen, meaning they will always look at you, no matter you rotate the view. And in my personal opinion, there are very rare use cases where this Screen Space behavior makes sense. (Something like adding Screen Space Text Annotations to 3D objects, so you can still read them from all viewing directions (?)) I am not 100 % sure but I understand the new Screen Plane free workflows this way : When you draw any 2D Object, it will be drawn on Layer Plane. (Where Object Z = Z height of the Layer) As soon as you move it in Z or rotate it around any other Axis than pure Z Axis, it will change to 3D Plane. 2D Objects will also become 3D Plane when you draw 2D Elements while using a rotated UCS or by drawing Auto Plane, on Planes that differ from Layer Plane.

So far it is not. It is still called Screen Plane. But it is partially hidden from users now in VW templates or migrated files that do not contain Screen Plane Elements. That is what I mean by using Apples (OpenGL now deprecated ....) term. (OpenGL is still available on Mac ... just no development ... which wasn't that existing there before though ...) BTW I meant screen plane clean .....

(Beside that I am pretty known for wanting Screen Plane System to die completely) When I use Referenced 2D Source Data by Design Layer Viewports to draw over, that works fine in Top Plan View. But if I need a Crop for my VPs, which is forced to be defined using Screen Plane, and want to use my 2D underlay to model also in 3D, like in an Isometric View, That crop will be oriented different than my geometry in View (by Screen Plane so to say*) and so cut parts of my needed 2D Plan. That makes referenced Geometry pretty useless in 3D (*) the Crop is not oriented by screen plane in reality, it is just rotated in to screen plane's rotation. As it will scale/zoome and move related to my Geometry. Otherwise I could at least zoom in to re-visibilize the occluded parts of my 2D plan underlay.

I checked my (migrated) VW 2022 Templates and 2D Legacy is OFF. But my project File is not. I tried all Forum advices to custom search and reset screen plane to layer plane on my clients 2D underlay file too. But without success. a) some objects will switch back to screen plane after I tried to change anyway. b) most screen plane setups happen in Groups, no chance to open and edit all of these. Looks like VW 2022 automatically cares about SL Viewport Crop#s plane assignments. But my DLVP Reference's crop always switch back after I set them to layer plane. I also checked all Saved Views for Unified View OFF Settings (did not have these though) I think we have to wait for VW 2025 release that we will get a new Purge Option to get rid of any UV OFF or screen plane settings deleted/converted. But at least to know that Screen Plane in VW is officially deprecated, make me feel already better 🙂

I haven't managed that too. AFAIK there are already some threads. Maybe you have still some SLVPs in your Template (But I think they are save although they had screen plane crops before migration) I have to say that my Templates, re-done in VW 2021 (?) are 2D legacy clean. But not my Project File (also done already in VW 2021) Not sure about my referenced DLVP underlays ..... I can't switch their Crop Plane. It looks like I could switch but when I re-enter Crop it is back on screen plane. Also I am not able to even switch any screen plane-ed objects in my referenced source file, delivered by clients. If I do a custom search for (screen)plane, it shows thousands of screen plane objects. but it doesn't select any of these. And it looks like you would have to enter each Group manually to convert objects to layer plane- which is impractical in that case. I am even not sure if VW would accept me switching the plane reliably in this case. And so far I did not try if my Project File would allow me to finally deactivate 2D legacy, if I would delete the 2D legacy effected Reference .... If VW 2022 is advertised as ScreenPlane free + Unified View always ON (And BTW - I want "hide Layers with different Scale" to be OFF too as default of course) I want all my Files 2D Legacy Clean !!!

All geometry screen plane !? Are you working 2D only and Top Plan mode in YX plane (= Layer Plane) only ? Screen aligned Plane allowed you to draw 2D objects in e.g. a Front or Side View. (But AFAIK there was no control of the depth or 3rd dimension, at least for 3D objects) Now in VW 2022 where screen plane is deprecated (and hidden by default) there are 2 new Plane Icons in the Top Bar. The right one in pink, when activated works like screen plane did in the past for drawing. Although the result is that objects will be defined as using a 3D plane. That is how I understood. Maybe someone knows better.

I activated 2D legacy and Screen Plane and played with it. I still don't get how Screen Plane helps in any way. Indeed, the start point of a screen plane rectangle stays at its initial point. But no idea how this could help me with a helper 2D construction derived from 2D Top Plan View in a Side View .... When I activate the Back View of a Side View, the helper geometry will even appear mirrored !? Sorry, I think I am out at this point. I stay in my 3D space and layer plane for 2.5D. Screen Plane is now hidden for me, which I appreciate, while still accessible for all others, by 2D legacy activation, so I promise - to try - to no more question Screen Plane (Or Unified View OFF or Crop Perspective, or ...)

No chance here .... It finds thousands of screen plane objects but does not select them, so I can't switch them. I tried to switch options in custom search ON/OFF selectively already. No Selection. I deleted all Saved Views "preserve Unified View" in their Settings too. Also VW mocks about VP Annotations being Screen Plane. But I do not find any SP Annotations in my SLVPs. Maybe in DLVPs ? I think it is mainly about the referenced 2D underlay VWX from clients. But even when I open that file and try everything - I don't get 2D legacy away. I could select some individual screen plane objects there by Magic Wand in Plane Mode and switch these. But for me it looks like anything in hierarchic Groups is not accessible for Plane Mode switching - and there are a lot of groups in use ..... And it looks like I can't even reliably switch DLVP Crops to Layer Plane. They will switch back to Screen Plane when I select them again ....

File felt strange in View Navigation and had initial visible artifacts. So I thought it is far from VW's internal origin. But it was not (properly geolocated) So I Fit View and geometry went small and to bottom left of screen. Your file contains 3 Section Lines that sit veeeery far from the Model, so you may run into accuracy problems ... After deleting them the file behaved better. So it is worth to clean up and try exporting again.

By default, since VW 2023, Unified View is ON and Screen Plane is gone. If you would need it the old way, there is a Tab in File Settings : "2D Legacy" If you enable legacy mode, you get back access to Screen Plane and UV. Then you can again activate the UV Icon in Top Bar to switch ON/OFF if neded. Also if you open Files, that have any UV OFF settings or use screen plane, 2D Legacy will be activated automatically.

No, the migrated Templates seem to have 2D Legacy OFF. My current VW 2021 to VW 2022 file can't switch 2D legacy off. I have no saved views, I converted some screen plane Objects in Slab Modifiers to Layer Plane. Maybe I did not find all of them. I have a Referenced underlay File displayed with cropped DLVPs. in a 3D View I see the crop being screen plane and so not working as usual. I tried to convert my Crop Rectangles to Layer and OIP shows them by Layer, but when I go into Crop Edit again, they are screen plane aligned again. I can't even draw a new Crop Geometry without being Screen Plane only !? How can I get rid of that Screen Plane for all and ever ?