Sources for image props...AI?

[BartH]

5 hours ago, bcd said:

Developing this very interesting point, I assume the AI engine ingests and stores all the VW designs we feed it and can repurpose those at will forever.

I don't think this is necessarily true. The big AI models are trained and somewhat fixed. Estimates I've read is that it costs around $100,000 (US) to train each iteration of a Model like Stable Diffusion or OpenAI's Dall-E. Users can influence the main model with LoRA's that take a collection of images and then bias the main model towards those images. 

I believe VW uses the Stable Diffusion model and a custom version of the Comfy User interface. 
 

So the question is, does VW have access to all images generated through the AI studio, and can they use those to train LoRAs that could help influence the future outputs based on certain goals of the company?
 

 

[Dave Donley]

On 2/1/2025 at 9:13 AM, bcd said:

Developing this very interesting point, I assume the AI engine ingests and stores all the VW designs we feed it and can repurpose those at will forever.

 

We absolutely do not hoover up your data to use for later, in any way.  The text and images you send to Vectorworks Cloud Services are used to generate the image and are then deleted.  We are not using your data to custom train the model.

 

[rDesign]

On 1/30/2025 at 11:27 AM, Landartma said:

Attached is a plant pic I removed the back ground on via GIMP then turned into an image prop.  It worked great but its super time consuming.   

There is a free website Remove.bg which automatically removes backgrounds from images, it might save you some time in making your image props. Worth a shot.

 

[bcd]

23 hours ago, Dave Donley said:

We absolutely do not hoover up your data to use for later, in any way. 

Thanks Dave, this is reassuring.

[Landartma]

Thanks for the tip at @rDesign.  Not sure if I mentioned it I went to AdobeStock and found a bunch of decent stuff but got desperate for a few things, reviewed all my pics from the past 20 years and dug up some pretty nice stuff.   

[Jack Wallington]

On 1/29/2025 at 10:50 PM, Dave Donley said:

Hello @Landartma just a note that the AI Visualizer in Vectorworks 2025 Update 2 has alpha channel support and this is specifically to make it easier to generate image props with alpha channel.  It can sometimes be a fight to get the image generation to give you specific views of plants, this is an area we are interested in improving because it makes so much sense for our users.

 

https://youtu.be/XLs9QhMVBkU

 

Hi Dave, the AI Visualiser is great for plant props, it's a bit trial and error but I have managed to create a number of usable plants already. This is a novice question, but what is the name of the PNG it creates? I've managed to create a good plant bmp and it's in my model, but when I go to create plant prop, I can't see an obvious name for it

[Dave Donley]

Hello @Jack Wallington do you mean for create image prop command?  The name at the top of the options dialog is used to create a texture with your name something like "Name Prop Texture".  

[Jack Wallington]

23 hours ago, Dave Donley said:

Hello @Jack Wallington do you mean for create image prop command?  The name at the top of the options dialog is used to create a texture with your name something like "Name Prop Texture".  

 

Hi Dave, if I save the AI image as Create Bitmap Object, it appears in the file like this:

 

 

When I then create 2D plant style, within the menus I go to Create 3D from image but I only have a couple of textures in there, I can't find the image that has just been inserted into the file. 

 

It does work if I Save to File, naming it, import the image into the file and then create the model from that. 

 

I was wondering if I can skip that, and add it as Create Bitmap Object?

 

Hope that makes sense, I might be asking something silly. 

 

Here's a cow parsley I made from an image, which is pretty good really, although I seem to have too much shadow on it - I haven't found any umbels on Globeplants or elsewhere yet. The leaves are more parsley like, and I've still not cracked how to generate the base of plants well. But overall, I can imagine this tool be invaluable soon. 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 21, 2025 by Jack Wallington

[Dave Donley]

For 3D there will be a texture resource created and then applied to a 3D polygon or to an image prop object.  Although you could use a bitmap object on a non-ground working plane that would be very limiting.  For 3D it should be an image prop.  Look in the resource manager for textures, they may be in a subfolder.

 

[Landartma]

I found a bunch of decent stuff on Adobe Stock for around $30.00.

[Nico_be]

On 1/29/2025 at 10:21 PM, Landartma said:

I'm working on my plant library and need more images.  I've used up what I have for pics and ran them through GIMP.  I'm convinced there is a way easier cost effective way.  Is anyone using AI to generate or using AI generated images to import into VW for image props?  I found some stuff on Shutterstock, CG Trader, and Adobe Stock.  Some of the stuff appears to be photos and some AI generated.  It seems like a good service could save a ton of time.  Interested to know what others are doing.

 

I'm digging up your topic from a year ago. I had the same problem of wasting time every time I created a plant in 2D and 3D. AI can help us in this regard. In my opinion, it's very useful for these functions where "clicks" take too much time. To this end, I have created thousands of plants. See the link below.
 

 

[Dave Donley]

On 2/21/2025 at 11:17 AM, Jack Wallington said:

 

Hi Dave, if I save the AI image as Create Bitmap Object, it appears in the file like this:

 

 

When I then create 2D plant style, within the menus I go to Create 3D from image but I only have a couple of textures in there, I can't find the image that has just been inserted into the file. 

 

It does work if I Save to File, naming it, import the image into the file and then create the model from that. 

 

I was wondering if I can skip that, and add it as Create Bitmap Object?

 

Hope that makes sense, I might be asking something silly. 

 

Here's a cow parsley I made from an image, which is pretty good really, although I seem to have too much shadow on it - I haven't found any umbels on Globeplants or elsewhere yet. The leaves are more parsley like, and I've still not cracked how to generate the base of plants well. But overall, I can imagine this tool be invaluable soon. 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello again @Jack Wallington I think you are seeing a bug I noticed with the new Remove Background.  If you copy to clipboard or create bitmap object the alpha channel is not coming through.  But save to file, create texture, create image prop use alpha correctly.  We are fixing that bug ASAP.