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Converting Fills


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Hi all,

doe4s anyone know of a global way, via a selection script or otherwise, to change all of the objects fill foreground settings in a drawing to match pre-determined pen foreground settings?

I use C4D, so I normally set my pen forground colors for export purposes, and leave my fill color white. This way I can render 'white models in Vectorworks, and export by pen color to Cinema 4D.

I'd like to change a complex model's fill foreground to match the already set pen colors, and do some rendering right in Renderworks foir some quick studies.

Is there a global way to do this without manually changing every fill to match the pen? [Confused]

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Those were the good old days before symbols, groups, classes, layers and parameters when global parameters were in your face. Efficient programming requires use of embedded symbols. Changing symbol parameters requires classes. I would suggest the easiest way is to export the file to Vectorscript then use a text editor to find and change all instances of the parameters. However, importing the script results in the symbol placements being inadvertently changed by locating them at the 0,0,0 coordinates. Which is what a 'selection script' is supposed to do but often doesn't becuase the symbols have nested groups of boolean class options. I haven't checked if v11.5 finds a way to addresse this 'thorny' problem. Be careful of what you wish for !

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Alan,

Its really just the workflow I developed. I use my classes as 'layers' of objects or 'all furniture', lighting, etc.

The C4D Export Plugin effectively freezes a material attribute associated with the class, and the elements in my classes are multi-material oriented, so I got in the habit of using Vectorworks to previsualize as a white model, and C4D for the final visualizations/animations.

The pen foregraound color seemed like the logical parameter that allows me to set a color (in VW) close to the final texture /color in C4D that I desire, and yet still render a clean white model in VW.

I would use classes as the export, if I could alter the objects material settings on the C4D side. I also typically like to select objects in C4D by their material attribute as an object, versus only being able to grab a group of objects as a class.

Anyway..... It seems to me there has to be a way to simply tell VW to change every fill color to match every pen color in a drawing , for each object. I appreciate your idea (islandmon) on the Vectorscript, but it is beyond my abilities. I've never gone that deep into the scripting side.

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Hi Andrew

thanks for the response. I suppose we all come to things in our own way and get the job done.

I'm in the same line of work as yourself, exhibition and display design, and find classes not a problem. Unlike Artlantis, Cinema has no low limit on classes so even and object containing many classes exports fine.

Also I find it no drawbacks in say naming all the chrome frames of chairs, tables etc, in fact anything chrome a chrome class and applying the shader to it as one once in Artlantis or Cinema.

I can assign walls different classes and apply shaders to these in the same way. Any wall I want different I just rename as in class stockwall-special rather than the class stockwall. The fact you can have up to three section names per class allows almost unlimited class structures.

I don't know anybody that does not do it the same as me. I'm not saying either way is better, it's what gets the job done at the end of the day that counts.

You know the pressures and deadlines as much as I do no doubt.

All the best

Alan

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Thnaks for the thoughtful response, Alan. Ahh the exhibit business. I am sorry to hear you have the affliction as well. ; )

I am going to have to dig into class use a bit more. Your methods seem to make sense, but I admit, I dont have the understanding of how to use classes as you've described. One of my disadvantages is that I have very old MiniCad habits combined with 8 years of FormZ, so I am not quite the VW expert these days.

That being said, your message gives me a sense that there is a better way. I very much appreciate the guidance.

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Hi Andrew

Anything to help.

The other good thing about classes, (making sure the desciption is not to long, there is a limit to charcter numbers)is you can name things in a meaningful way such as plinth-top, plinth-carcass, plinth kicker.

Or you can name a class black and assign this to all things you want to apply your black shader to that class when in C4D etc.

Also a neat trick I've learnt is just before you export, keep the class visibility as "none" change the visibility in the organise menu, class visibility to "active only", then you can see anything in your drawing not given a class.

Change it to the class you want, watch it disappear and you know jobs done. Of course objects grouped with classes will have the none class applied to them by default, but thats the group not the objects in the group.

I should point out I keep "none" as my default class all the time and change the object class in the object attributtes pallette once its been created. Then group the parts together.

Good luck. Best regards.

Alan

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