Totally lost doing a 3D remodel

[Robb]

I am new to VW and have been through the Core Concepts and the Architect Tutorials (painful as they are for a newbie). When all is said and done I think I can do a 2D drawing OK. But am at a loss to generate a 3D view using my included RenderMan. Is there a tutorial I am missing, chapters I need to read, or am I being too optimistic that I can learn to do this in 15-20 hours.

Thanks

[mike m oz]

Robb, try looking at the Residential Product Tour and Commercial Product Tour movies in the Online Video Section. These will show you how quickly and easily a 3D model can be created. http://www.nemetschek.net/training/library.php

[Robb]

WOW, the Residential Product Tour was better than the entire Architecture Tutorial Set! I am hesitant to purchase ANY more of their tutorials after viewing Architecture series.

Now to put to work what I saw. Thanks for pointing this out to me, you may have saved Namestshek a sale.

[Jonathan Pickup]

it?s a shame that you didn?t use my manuals, it would have saved you the frustration...

[Robb]

Perhaps, but it does not speak well for VW if you need to spend another $200+ on books written by other people to simple use there poorly documented software.

I went to you site but you do not seem to have a PDF download verison for sale. Pitty that, I am in the US and my evaluation time is going to be exhausted come Monday or so.

[Jonathan Pickup]

the PDF file has embedded movies and is several 100Mb?s, so i didn?t think that downloads were a good idea. Most of my customers like the hardcopy...

NNA?s stuff is not poorly written, but mine is writtten in a different way... I?m sorry I couldn?t help you.

[Jonathan Pickup]

if this helps at all...

treat stories of the building as layers, then break up the parts of the building into classes

[Robb]

I have finally been able to draw a simple 2 room house with doors windows and some furnature. Ok, that was painful but progress is being made.

Rendered the image from inside the living room and I have a nice view to my sky background (yup figured that out) through the slider, the ceiling and the floor. Finally a castle in the clouds!

I then add to add spaces, gleaned this from the manual, and I used Walls --> spaces command. OK, got that. This AEC command must be ran everytime I move my walls. Oh, and remember to move the spaces to back so I can see what I am doing.

Now I need to add a floor. Yet another polyline and AEC floors. This creating poly lines for everything can't be right. I mean how do you maintain this drawing....

Anyway I render and the floor is solid. No more plumenting to the ground. But the ceiling is still open to the elements.

I selected my outside walls and AEC'd a roof. Looks good on plan view. But when rendered no roof, no ceiling. Hm... maybe the roofing contractor is on break.

How do I create a ceiling so I can test renderings? I hate asking for such basic help but the manual is lacking in such details, or I cannot find it. Any tutorials or documentation I can refer to would be greatly appreciated. I have a good chunk of time this weekend and the budget has been exhausted with VW so funds to buy basic training is greatly limited.

[mike m oz]

Robb

- Your roof probably ended up on another layer.

- Have a look at the Attic option on the roof for adding a ceiling.

- Ceilings can also be modeled with an extruded polygon elevated to the correct height. You can also use floor objects for this if you wish. You will need to control the visibility in the various views using classes.

[Robb]

First of all thanks to all those that are trying to help me. A special thanks to _mike m oz_ who has really tried and get me past some rough edges.

I have a basic 1 story house that has a floor and appears to have a roof in 2D view. But in 3D view the ceiling and roof are gone. I have tried making layers visible but no luck in getting that ceiling to show. I loaded the drawing of the residential tutorial (completed version) but I do no even see the floor.

I am ready to admit defeat. My gut tells me VectorWorks is powerful and can do whatever it is I desire. The ability to do 3D CAD (I like this and it makes it pretty easy to model whatever it is I need) is grand. My experience tells me it will be a VERY long and expensive (in terms of time and training materials) to get there. The designer series is just not ready for a beginners like me and I lack the time to learn enough low-level 3D CAD to compensate. I have seen glimpses of hope but they were always dashed to bits. I suspect the designer packages are really scripts/macros that make it easier for EXPERIENCED VectorWork CAD users to do their job. They are NOT tools for beginners, unlike what their advertising implies. Or at least there is no or little VectorWorks supplied help for these.

I have learned over 15 programming languages, a spline based 3D modeler with bone/kinetic animation, POV rendering, Chief Architect and numerous desktop publishing packages. But VectorWorks has me worn down. It feels more like how I hear AutoCad described than a tool for an interior designer or small builder.

I can hardly express my disappointment. I really wanted to generate some of those wonderful renderings for my new kitchen. I will take a break from this for a few hours and perhaps the muses will grant me enlightenment.

More details of my experiences can be found at:

http://www.lab.canfield.com/node/203

[mike m oz]

Robb. my apologies for leading you astray on using the attic function to create a ceiling. I never use it and therefore hadn't picked up that whilst it shows in wireframe it will not render in OpenGL or Renderworks (It does in Final Shaded Polygon though). You can model your ceilings by selecting the exterior walls and then choosing Create Polys from Walls on the AEC menu. Make sure this poly has a white fill and then turn it into a 3D object with 3/4" depth with Extrude on the Model Menu. Then move it to the same Design Layer the Roof is on via the Object Info Pallette. Check that it is at the correct height. If it is not use Move 3D on the Modify Menu to elevate it to the correct height.

Did you use Model Setup to create the various Design Layers, Classes, Sheet Layers and Viewports for your model. If you did you will find your Floor and Walls are on one layer, and your Roof is on another Layer. The Viewports on the Sheet Layers will give you views of the whole model.

You can create a floor in the same way as you create a ceiling. Create a polygon from the walls and then turn this into a Floor Object via Floor on the AEC Menu.

If you want to see your model as a whole in a Design Layer (so that you can rotate it and set views from any angle) you will need to create a Model Layer for this via the Layers dialog box (set its visibility to Not Visible). Once you have done this change the Layer Visibility to Active Only. Then using Layer Link on the View Menu select each of the model layers in the dialog box that opens. You will then have a complete model ie. it should have all of your 3D information in it. (It would be worth you reading up on Layer Linking before you attempt this.)

You don't have to use Spaces. If you know what you want to draw they are not required.

Edited August 6, 2006 by mike m oz

[Robb]

Working on you suggestions. I am very confused about the complexities of floors and ceilings and concerned about their maintenance. I have sent you a private message as well.

Thanks again for you help!

[Robb]

I am still learning how to edit my floors and ceiling as quickly as possible. Right now I have to create a floor and ceiling for any room that will have different finishes (I am required to provide a render of the interior design). I am working to find a better way to do this when the walls need to be changed (remodels do that more often than one might imagine, or should I say the home owner does that during a remodel).

Missed 20-20 in my evals, but it looks VERY expensive! Bathrooms and kitchens are a prominent part of the work. But not all of it by any stretch. And you are right CA does this quite well.