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Ah, yes. But for me it is always important to be able to assign extra buttons App specific for all 3D and CAD Apps. So I usually need the driver suite bloatware. It is easy if for standard Apps like browsing, mail and such. I could even use the magic mouse for this comfortably. But as soon as drawing on screen, I would need bettertouchtool for extra cursor speed without acceleration. And still never reached a satisfying MMB or "scroll wheel" click. (I really admire all Mac CAD and VW users staying with their magic mice)

If you need RW Rendering, Cinema Render Engine is needed and I am not sure if it is a good idea to try to pull it out in general ..... I noticed that lately Cinerender stalling too here, but not every time. Usually for me it stalls "checking license" .... And am not sure if you can really trust the loading screen infos. I haven't even installed VW 2024 so far on Windows. So I do not know how long it starts. But generally VW for me was always one of the slowest starting Apps. In an office in the past I was told, first you boot your PC, start your CAD and then you go and grab your cup of coffee ....

Thanks for your clock in the video. Now I know that VW 2024 here on my M1 Mac Mini takes 36 seconds until the Home Screen appears. Do you have large workgroup files on a slow server connection ? And I saw it stalling loading Cinerender for about 20 s ?

Hmmh, I read about Cineware loading issues in the past. So in case I watch VW start welcome window, I usually keep an eye on Cineware. But usually that doesn't take exceptionally long for me. I am more used that the License check is slowest. But when I started today and accidentally watched the welcome screen, I had to notice that VW looks stalling quite a while with the Revit plugin (!?) Overall start time of course much longer than agreeable as usual, but Revit took definitely longer than Cineware here.

So I come to the question of what is the best way of Lidar scanning ? For my first Point Cloud scan attempt I heavily moved around with the iPhone and behind and under all things to avoid "data shadows". It looks like the disadvantage is that this way, iPhones location/position awareness may suffer and you end up redundantly scanning some important Faces like from Walls again and again. And for me it looks each time Lidar adds another layer of points over these Faces. And is it is not super accurate, these Layers do not happen on the same plane. If I watch my cropped cloud in a top view, I can see that for some Walls I have five or more planes of point layers. Therefore I did another test, trying to "mimic a Leica Station" or gimbal. Means I tried to not move around (impossible), only rotate the iPhone and scanning only radial. And I tried to avoid scanning things again. The result looks a bit more accurate and file size is much smaller but I have relatively few points. Which I would think is a good thing. But interestingly, planar face detection in Bricscad was even harder and planes less accurate oriented in space. Are there any other experiences and best practices ?

When importing USD files from VW Nomad iOS App, (which are deeply hidden in a nested group orgy) I would love to see Component Edit Palette to appear - wherever on screen VW decides .... But unfortunately CEP does not happen to help managing deep nested grouping

I absolutely love Room Plan. I think dimension accuracy is pretty decent. But my problem is the quality of the Meshes. I mean the simple boxes from furniture are good. But everything more complex, like 4 touching Walls of a room or a Wall with a Window opening are a Mesh-mess. There are simple inaccuracies like Wall "connections" not meeting at the same point. More annoying are that the "boolean-like" construction of a Wall with a Window opening has slightly non planar component faces. And the organization of the Meshes itself. Some Meshes include a set of independent Volumes. I am not able to create any Solids from these important Mesh Elements, like Walls. And I had hoped that Room Plan would do an "idealization" and simplification of the scan. Like forcing everything reasonable rectilinear into a XY, XZ or YZ plane and round ugly numbers to a full cm and such. Is there any room for improvement from VW/Nomads side, or does Apples API not allow better Meshes ?

BTW, does VW run well directly on real Windows for ARM devices ? If, then the rest would be just Parallels or VMware not offering proper GPU faking support. DirectX in that case. My VM Ware and Parallels experience is a bit dated. I ran my Microstation via VMware and later via Parallels (2007-2009 ?) to avoid Bootcamp and be able work on OSX. At that time it was still OpenGL. But my experience was that VMware was super slow in general and OpenGL support was not enough to run Microstation reasonably enough, while Parallels was much faster generally and offered sufficient OpenGL performance for realistic 3D working on larger projects. But what did not work nevertheless ... older legacy OpenGL features like e.g. full screen crosshair cursor did slow Microstation down unrealistically. (Unfortunately I worked that way for half a year until I finally figured that out ...) So I think for support, running VW on Windows a) on a VM and b) with an extra ARM X86 emulation may add some extra layers of unreliability.

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 .....

I don't think these are much of an issue. I would just care about Unified View enabled with correct Settings. I thing the only nuisance about screen plane objects is when using a 3D Iso or Perspective View and some 2D Objects will jump off ground and stick to your 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.

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)

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.

Really !? Why not just assigning a XY, XZ or YZ Plane by keeping the 3rd Axis zero ?

I didn't really use VW (2024 SP2 on Sonoma) so far .... But I also notice some lags when opening, beside my current file, just another empty new file from a template. (No matter if my own migrated or a VW blank template) And playing with a bit between medium/max GUI option finally needed a VW restart as I got 3 non functioning ghost palettes of my (auto)collapsed Resource Manager and all palettes looked undocked and overlapping each other .... Just going to Home Screen or closing and restarting the File did not help.

I think click to select and DEL or BACKSPACE. But maybe you do not need delete it. When Selected you can set it temporarily to invisible in object browser or just move it downwards. But if you check object browser, you should already if your VW data came in or not. EDIT : I read you already see the data in manager, but not on screen. And if I got that right your DTM should be at a positive Z height .... Then it might be a different problem. Not sure if I ever exported a VW DTM to TM so far.

Usually when nothing is there it is geometry sub Z 0,00, which will just be occluded by TM's default ground plane at Z 0,00. You can delete that default ground plane and check if your geometry was below or is really not there.

Before I think too much, my keep it simple stupid approach would be - Rectangle Tool - first point at building corner - holding SHIFT to force a square rectangle - snap to known side/desired distance - Reshape Tool/parallel mode - snap to rectangle - delete rectangle Maybe a Circle would be faster but I would need to first search for the circle Icon in my custom palette. (I never need Circles) I do it all the time that way ... like placing a helper cube to get an auto plane for location and orientation of the rotate tool or such things.

I would love to have a all in one App. Around 2009 I did so for some larger projects by doing all in Modo. That was a great and enjoyable time. I was already fit enough in Modo to be fast. No more lossy export/imports, redundant 3D Models, .... But somehow I really have a love for CAD and missed it again. Volume Modeling, Precision, .... And in 2014 I switched to VW and was even more intrigued by parametric Modeling with VW PIOs. So I switched from Modo to my redundant Cinema License because of better exchange with VW. And when C4D Exchange finally worked after a couple of VW releases, lossless Exchange was reality anyway and VW + C4D a no brainer. But what I would miss in VW and Cineengine - without a C4D, is NOT so much the missing or limited C4D Renderer and Material features .... (AFAIK Archicad does offer the full package since they also integrated Cineengine) It is the standard Visualization comfort features of 3D Apps. Things like being able to easily save a screen rendering. Or the flexibility of C4D's Render Takes System to batch render and "publish" versions. Or the ability to calculate and save images at a certain resolution by a given Pixel amount, and all such things. In VW this all is still a pain. Paper oriented, Imperial driven, DPI thinking, inaccurate Paper Sizes, ... So I do not see that happen for VW. And C4D personally deprecated since years since being subscription only and latest experiences with my last C4D R21 and VW 2022 (?) and newer weren't very good with Exchange anymore. I think Enscape Plugin would offer great "Exchange" with VW, since it has Mac support. But that is now Chaos Group and subscription only, so deprecated even before being released too 🙂 So for me it will also mainly lead to VW to Twinmotion (or Unreal). But I do not have tested enough if Datasmith Exchange would really work reliable for me. And if I ever need to go for an All in one App, I think I need to go to Blender(BIM). Which would cover both of my priorities, BIM and VIZ.

AFAIK there was already another Thread about this, which I also upvoted. Everything that does not necessarily needs an opened file should be also available from Start Screen without any file loaded.

I misunderstood, I thought you have to manually have to open each file you want to "batch" convert. That would be not ideal .... Yes this makes sense. This should absolutely be possible from start screen without opening a file. I think I filed a feature request for this in the past for my other CAD. So that the menu is accessible for such operations like changing App settings and such ....

And any "Extrude" I have ever seen in 3D or CAD is usually just a 2.5 D object. A 2D shape that is pulled up for a 3D appearance from an initial profile. I can't imagine the shown geometry to be created by a simple extrude anywhere .... I can see it as a "Mesh" object in a 3D App or a Solid in a Volume Modeler like CAD or Mechanical CAD. I do not really understand why the CNC program insists of "Extrudes" - other than that the CNC is limited to a 2 or 3 axis movement and not able to move or rotate to cut the insets shown in the screen shot (?)

Yes, I also first thought about that nice Fog and Bloom in Eevee. But Camera Exposure is a great feature for me. I hope that setting translates to different Saved View Setups. And a Eevee-like nearly real time screen space GI would be the killer.

I have a Windows 11 PC too. But also do not really know how to make a screenshot on Windows. On Mac there are the mentioned short cuts, I read about them everywhere but can't remember them. For Mac I bought a nice App that allows me to set Projects that I can use from a list from Macs top Menu Bar. Each has its own custom file type, file path, screenshot type and auto naming options setup .... So on Windows, I would look for something similar in Windows Store. EDIT, Now that you said, AFAIR I use a Windows built in App for Screen Shots (and similar task options ?) but I can't remember its name and do not want to boot into Windows now. (something like "Ausschneiden" in my German language setting ?) It also does most basic screenshot things. At least the marque frame option, which I use 99% only.

Well, after playing with it, I have to admit that for me VW SubD is not as enjoyable as I thought. And it seems to hate Triangles and wants Quads only. Working with Meshes in VW is much worse as I thought to remember from the past. What is still in there is that Meshes still unwanted get selected when you just come close with a Selection Marquee (without holding ALT !) I think my memories about working with 2D/3D Faces, Polygons and Meshes in VW was somehow mixed up with my past Modo or C4D experiences. So VW thanks for pushing me to Blender. I am not used to Blender but I found all needed tools and workflows pretty easily. In this case I started with a Plane Object, extruded some edges to extend that object in various directions, triangulated it by adding new internal edges by connecting vertices. Then moved some Vertices around to my liking. (Hard to blindly pull around when you have no design intention or content 🙂 ) Finally I just added an Extrude Modifier. Means that I could go back editing the geometry as much as I want without losing my e.g. 24 mm Extrusion for plywood or such things. Could be brought over to VW by a 3D Export like OBJ or as an IFC.