Anybody use viewport elevations?

[Ken]

Kudos to NNA for improving horizontal wall seams (where two walls meet on the same plane) -- they're now invisible in Hidden Line render!

However, there are still other types of seams that remain visible when undesired or invisible when desired, making viewport elevations rather useless.

One type of seam that's still visible yet undesired occurs when a wall have to be shifted vertically due to a split-level building configuration. If there's a line, the graphic message is that there's a corner, which is incorrect and unacceptable, making the entire viewport approach to showing elevation drawings moot. So I have to use the old Convert Copy To Lines method, which makes the entire sheet layer approach less worthy for all its trouble.

Another type of seam that's desired but remains invisible is when a roof is intersected with a vertical surface such as an extrude. Lines can always be drawn over it in the viewport annotation, sure, but sometimes the geometry is complex enough that a CAD program is required to show all its facets and angle cuts in a side view. How nice if VW could do that!

Any secrets or workarounds -- or should these be (again) wish list items?

[panthony]

Arch.Ken

Absolutly! I use viewport elevations for 2d and 3d views. Go to http://www.optimumve.com/Downloads/ where you can see a project that I completed about a month ago.

I noticed that you are having collisions with your roof planes to your wall and chimney. Did you cut your roof around all penetrations. I have found VW to work excellently in this area, however the model must be correct for the viewports to work as I want them . I spend many hours building the model in order to have my elevations work right.

I will be uploading a new project tomorrow that uses BIM techniques very efficiently. I will post to this board when complete.

Pete Anthony

[Jonathan Pickup]

as Pete says, make sure you cut the roof to match the chimney, then you will get the roof/chimney intersection that you want

[CipesDesign]

Yes I use them more or less exclusively, with generally great results.

[Robert Anderson]

Pete, I downloaded your file. Very nice work!

[Andrew Bell@NV]

One type of seam that's still visible yet undesired occurs when a wall have to be shifted vertically due to a split-level building configuration. If there's a line, the graphic message is that there's a corner, which is incorrect and unacceptable, making the entire viewport approach to showing elevation drawings moot. So I have to use the old Convert Copy To Lines method, which makes the entire sheet layer approach less worthy for all its trouble.

Are the walls aligned properly? The code should be eliminating that edge if the faces line up, but just a small offset will result in it leaving the line. Can you send me a sample file if they are aligned?

Edited July 17, 2006 by Andrew Bell@NNA

[Ken]

The outside faces line up, but because of the difference in wall thickness, I had to use the L join then the T join with an interior wall. I now realize that if the exterior wall was a consistent thickness, using the T join alone would have eliminated the visible seam (nice improvement, by the way!). So this problem is actually more of one about differing wall thickness.

[Ken]

Pete, I was able to download your drawings (PDF of Jarvis house?) after navigating back to your home page. They look nice. It seems you don't have shifted wall seams.

I also notice you're taking the line weights however they appear, instead of highlighting the foreground with heavier lines, receding trim and muttons with lighter lines, etc. This is the other gripe I have about viewport elevations. I wonder how much 2D drafting (tracing over with proper line weights) you had to do in the annotation of each elevation drawing viewport.

[Ken]

Yes, careful and neat 3D cutting for the digital model helps.

I will have to search through my drawings again to find examples of where such careful cutting is not possible or too time consuming -- where in rendering modes other than hidden line they look fine -- where the edges and intersections is best left to the CAD program to portray properly in side view. Albeit they were in older versions of VW. I'll try to post an example.

[Ken]

Are you using them as construction drawings, where every line has meaning, where the elevation drawings "read" better with proper line weights?

I would love to see your drawings.

[Ramon PG]

... I would love to see your drawings.

Me too. I also miss the clarity line weights can give a drawings.

Ram?n

[panthony]

Arch.Ken

Ramon PG

Please go to http://www.optimumve.com/Downloads/WallJoins.pdf

and

http://www.optimumve.com/Downloads/WallJoins.zip

to find my take on the multiple walls with shifted wall seams. I provided several cases were wall joins can and do not work. Take a look at the PDF and also the ZIP file...it contains a VW file called WallJoins.mcd which I have the wall types displayed.

In reference to the line weight issue on the elevations and plans I produce...I am still experimenting with VW. The Jarvis project is using Class Attributes to assign the weights universally. My next project will seperate them individually. Hope to have it posted soon...you know clients come first.

Thanks for your comments...every bit helps.

Pete Anthony

[Ken]

Pete, thanks for taking the time to make those four examples. You missed the most workable version -- when the intersection is first L-joined, then T-joined as I mentioned above. I hope you're taking advantage of the combo join solution. In plan view it's perfectly acceptable, better than your 4th example (no joins). Good for exporting, too. However, in hidden line render, which hopefully is the best mode for a viewport elevation drawing, sometimes there's a seam, sometimes there isn't. I don't know what causes it. Then exacerbate by vertically-shifting one of the walls and NNA programmers got their hands full yet again. Seam becomes always visible. Hold off on adding new features! This is part of BIM! Fix this first!

(I'm still eager to see CipesDesign's "great results." Hopefully his line weights look fabulous)