Site Model 3D mesh no fill + spikes

[Benson Shaw]

@JHEarcht3  Thanks, but I meant OIP of the site model to see the options available for control in v2013. No worries if you have had enough of this.

[JHEarcht3]

7 hours ago, jeff prince said:

can you do that in VWX 2013 though?  I thought that was an added feature with some past OIP enhancements.

Yes, I can step through the hundreds of vertices individually. But why can't I set all at once, by simply giving the whole contour an elevation? Does VW have a Maxwell's demon, arbitrarily switching the elevation of random vertices?

[JHEarcht3]

13 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

You said you moved a few vertices. I don't remember the 2013 settings, but in VW2023 (and I would assume 2013), there is a possibility to have things snap to the Layer Plane (which would normally be zero). So when you thought you were moving the points in 2D you were actually moving them in 3D.

I never changed any vertices intentionally. I only selected each contour and gave it an elevation.

 

When I discovered that some vertices were almost on top of each other (groups of five), I did delete a few. But that was only after the contour spikes were showing in perspective view. I was guessing that vertices too close together (fractions of an inch at 1 : 240 scale) might show up as spikes.

[JHEarcht3]

11 minutes ago, Benson Shaw said:

Thanks, but I meant OIP of the site model to see the options available for control in v2013. No worries if you have had enough of this.

Is this what you meant by "OIP of site model"?

[Jeff Prince]

1 hour ago, JHEarcht3 said:

Yes, I can step through the hundreds of vertices individually. But why can't I set all at once, by simply giving the whole contour an elevation? Does VW have a Maxwell's demon, arbitrarily switching the elevation of random vertices?

 

You need to use the tools properly, the software does what you tell it to.

I was able to import your .dwg survey as 3D geometry because I configured the import to preserve 3D objects, I suspect you did not.

 

The first thing you should do after you import a 3D files is use the FLY AROUND tool to view the model in 3D.  This is the quickest way to visually evaluate the import, see if your contours are in 3D, and identify possible errors in elevation.

[Kevin K]

@JHEarcht3 I opened your 3d trial file in VW 2022 and found , like other had mentioned, that several of the individual vertices on the continuous 3d Polygons had a z height of zero.....I just tweaked them all to have the correct values. That was why you were getting all those spikes.

 

Here is your beautiful site model!!  🙂

 

Just an image...

 

[Jeff Prince]

@JHEarcht3

 

Here's a video showing the steps to import the .dwg you provided and the result.

You'll note that the errors are not present in the .dwg and a few tricks for inspecting and cleaning these things up before building a site model...

 

 

 

[JHEarcht3]

20 hours ago, jeff prince said:

You need to use the tools properly, the software does what you tell it to.

I was able to import your .dwg survey as 3D geometry because I configured the import to preserve 3D objects, I suspect you did not.

I don't see anything in the VW2013 Site Model Settings to "preserve 3D objects". Why wouldn't the tool do that automatically? Maybe you have a later version with that option.

 

I just imported the DWG file into a blank drawing, using the Import Survey tool. It had no setting for "preserve 3D". The file came in as a viewport, and when I went to the original it was at 1:1 scale. (see image Import Design Layer) When I selected a contour it had Z = 1.7'. So I scaled it by 240 to 1" = 240'. This time the contour labeled 495' had  Z= 179.36'. So I gave up.

 

I tried again, using the File/Import DWG tool, as I did originally. It reported that "file had bad data on line 1" and stopped.

 

So, for now, I'll go back to the contours that I converted to 3D polys, and set manually. It will be very time consuming to find all the vertices on each contour, such as 495', with Z = 0. But maybe I'll at least have something to work with. I only have to fix the contours near the waterline. I'll still have to learn how to make it look like a real site with trees & such.

 

BTW. These 3D glitches are the reason I stopped using VW2013 for perspectives, and used SketchUp instead. Now, I only have the free version of SU, so I can't do Site Models. That's why I'm trying to make VW work.

Edited July 27, 2023 by JHEarcht3

[Jeff Prince]

12 minutes ago, JHEarcht3 said:

I don't see anything in the VW2013 Site Model Settings to "preserve 3D objects". Why wouldn't the tool do that automatically?

 

Did you watch the video I posted?

Did you see where I imported the dwg, hit the "advanced" button, and made sure the Conversion settings were such that it Convert Object = 2D & 3D?

This is what I am referring to.

 

You gotta do some training man, the forum can only do so much for you.

[JHEarcht3]

20 hours ago, jeff prince said:

Here's a video showing the steps to import the .dwg you provided and the result.

You'll note that the errors are not present in the .dwg and a few tricks for inspecting and cleaning these things up before building a site model...

Thanks. But the video seemed to have the sound turned off, and even at full-screen I couldn't read the dialog boxes (although the moving perspective text was readable) I saw enough to realize that your Import Tool has lots of  options that mine doesn't.

[JHEarcht3]

47 minutes ago, jeff prince said:

Did you see where I imported the dwg, hit the "advanced" button, and made sure the Conversion settings were such that it Convert Object = 2D & 3D?

I tried it both ways : "2D & 3D" as the default setting, and "3D only" as an option. The latter did have 3D data for the contours. But the elevations were wrong, as noted in a reply above.

 

I appreciate your help, and apologize for taking up so much of your time. I'm living on Social Security, and can't afford to buy a new subscription to VW. I'll keep fiddling with this project, as a learning exercise. But I may have to let someone else do the actual paying work.

[Jeff Prince]

45 minutes ago, JHEarcht3 said:

I appreciate your help, and apologize for taking up so much of your time.

My pleasure, I had the time to give 🙂