Does this feature exist - manual walkthrough to nurbs curve/camera pan data.

[XtianAudio]

Not sure if this is something that exists, but it seems like something that would be incredibly useful. A manual walkthrough that captures path/camera key frame data and generates that path to allow a full quality fly through export.

 

A bit of background - I am very new to vectorworks (1 week). I have some cinema 4d and AutoCAD LT experience, and am reasonably proficient in After Effects.

 

One part of my new job role requires me to create floor plans and visuals for live events in Vectorworks. So far I have found it more intuitive and tailored to my industry (with spotlight). Certainly banging the vectorworks drum already!

 

One thing I noticed was after recreating a 3d space from a 2d floor plan, was the space could become difficult to get your bearings with (from a client perspective). I.e. after adding some LED walls, drape, printed sets and so forth, a still image render might require some corresponding information as to what position/angle that image is taken from. The easy resolution is providing the client a quick fly through render. Of course this comes with the usual caveats of time vs quality of export.

 

One thing I struggled a little bit with was timing. Having a camera follow a path and pan whilst moving along that path was difficult to make feel “natural”. This also wasn’t clear until I had rendered the footage out, so required some trial and error. Conversely, the manual walkthrough feature when in shaded mode felt very natural and easy to use.

 

I immediately thought how handy it would be to have a feature that allows you to capture the path/keyframe data of a manual walk through, and convert that to a path the camera can follow (including the camera pan information).

 

I appreciate the key frame data would be very detailed as the manual control of the camera when performing a shaded walkthrough is very smooth and therefore key frame heavy/too detailed. One solution to that would be limiting the speed to a few fixed steps. I just pictured being able to perform that walkthrough with the manual mouse control, whilst capturing and then converting that to a path with the speed and pan data locked in (or interpreted in a less key frame heavy version), and then using that to render a high quality version would be hugely useful, time saving and benefit that render.

 

Am I being lazy? Does something like this already exist? Or possibly am I thinking of something that would never be practical to implement? I’m happy to be told this will come with practice and is a non-issue, which I will gladly accept haha!

[EAlexander]

I believe What you are asking for does not exist currently, but I haven't played with VW Showcase yet.

 

I follow two methods for fly thrus:

For high quality animations when I have time, I export everything to Cinema4d and do the work there. 

 

For fast stuff, I export to Twinmotion and do Sequences there. The lighting isn't as good, but it's fast. I have also just flown around Twinmotion while screen recording. 

 

More and more, we're doing live Twinmotion sessions over zoom with clients amd producers and that goes over well. 

[Andy Broomell]

It would indeed be a great feature to have.

 

Unfortunately there aren't any good built-in solutions as of yet for flythroughs. A few years ago they replaced a bad interface/workflow with another bad interface/workflow, so it'd be great to have a better system some day.

 

My approach for now is to "do it live" meaning I use my Mac's screen record feature, set it to a record a particular area in my screen, then use my 3DConnexion SpaceMouse to navigate the scene.

 

Obviously each recording turns out a little different since it's reliant on me performing the navigation manually, but it's good enough in a pinch, and I'm pretty savvy with the SpaceMouse.

 

 

[E|FA]

39 minutes ago, Andy Broomell said:

I'm pretty savvy with the SpaceMouse

I'm not and therefore have an almost unused SpaceMouse set available for any reasonable offer.

[Andy Broomell]

13 hours ago, E|FA said:

I'm not and therefore have an almost unused SpaceMouse set available for any reasonable offer.

 

Really? I can't do without it! The very first day I tried using a SpaceMouse it seemed a bit out of control, but after a day or two it seemed pretty intuitive. I'd recommend giving it another shot.

 

Note that it's only useful in perspective, not in orthogonal projection. Plus there are speed/sensitivity settings in the 3DConnexion system settings which may need attention. In addition to those base level settings, sensitivity is also greatly affected by the Design Layer scale you're working in. Smaller scales may feel overly sensitive while larger scales may feel slow and cumbersome. I've tuned my base level mouse settings to feel good for the default 1/4" = 1'-0" design layer scale I typically use.

[E|FA]

12 hours ago, Andy Broomell said:

it's only useful in perspective, not in orthogonal projection

I don't think I knew that.  I'm almost always in orthogonal.  I may try again.  No need to hijack this thread any more...

[line-weight]

On 12/10/2025 at 2:39 AM, Andy Broomell said:

My approach for now is to "do it live" meaning I use my Mac's screen record feature, set it to a record a particular area in my screen, then use my 3DConnexion SpaceMouse to navigate the scene.

 

This is exactly what I do too. Obviously it can only capture whatever can be captured "live" so shaded view no renderworks.

 

I wish there was a usable built-in way to make basic walkthroughs/flypasts. The walkthrough animation tools in Vectorworks are truly terrible and I'd strongly advise people not to touch them with a bargepole.

[Tom W.]

18 hours ago, Andy Broomell said:

Note that it's only useful in perspective, not in orthogonal projection

 

I'm not sure I agree with this, unless the comment is exclusive to a spacemouse pro rather than the smaller spacemouse wireless which is what I have. I never use perspective on the Design Layer + found the spacemouse absolutely fantastic, until the macros + button assignments stopped working properly 2-3 years ago which remains an unresolved disaster...

[Andy Broomell]

5 hours ago, Tom W. said:

 

I'm not sure I agree with this, unless the comment is exclusive to a spacemouse pro rather than the smaller spacemouse wireless which is what I have. I never use perspective on the Design Layer + found the spacemouse absolutely fantastic, until the macros + button assignments stopped working properly 2-3 years ago which remains an unresolved disaster...

 

You're right; it certainly can be useful in orthogonal projection, it's not like it doesn't work. I should've worded that differently. In orthogonal projection it's mainly useful for "objects" that you want to orbit around as you model. However, once you have an interior space you want to navigate, such as wanting to create a flythrough like OP mentioned, then you need to be in perspective (which is true with or without a SpaceMouse, but this is the context where the 3D mouse really shines).

[Bluetones]

On 12/9/2025 at 8:24 PM, EAlexander said:

I believe What you are asking for does not exist currently, but I haven't played with VW Showcase yet.

 

I follow two methods for fly thrus:

For high quality animations when I have time, I export everything to Cinema4d and do the work there. 

 

For fast stuff, I export to Twinmotion and do Sequences there. The lighting isn't as good, but it's fast. I have also just flown around Twinmotion while screen recording. 

 

More and more, we're doing live Twinmotion sessions over zoom with clients amd producers and that goes over well. 

I currently use D5 Render, which is an separate program, but integrates well with VWX.

I can setup additional lighting effects, and setup flythru's that look great. 

Also, if I make changes to my file, the D5 file keeps all the flythru animation settings, so I can show the same fly thru with different options for clients to figure out what the &*()& they want!  😉

 

YMMV

[BartH]

Additionally/alternatively, get yourself a Quest VR headset. 

The render quality is not great, but nothing beats it for evaluating how a space is going to feel, spatially.