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VW 12.5 Breaks C4D Export Plugin


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I've been checking the Maxon site daily - nothing yet.

I got this email response from Maxon support on Sep 13:

"Greetings,

Unfortunately an exchange plugin for VectorWorks 12.5 has not yet been made available yet. When it

does become available, it will be posted on our website at this link:

http://www.maxon.net/pages/download/download_plugins_e.html

Regards,

MAXON Technical Support"

George

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  • 1 month later...

can someone tell me what is the file extension of the installer of the exchange plug in. I had requested my brother to order the plug in the states and he has been trying to e-mail me the installer. he is on a PC and i am on a mac. The file does not have a extension and is showing up as a unix executable. I added the .app and .pkg extensions to it but in both cases it failed. when i add .app the shows up as a classis application. can someone help me out here.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This plug-in doesn't work with 9.1. I dont' care who's fault it is (Nemetschek NA or Maxon) but they have not treated their customers very well. It's been about 4 months now and no working plug-in. Why does Nemetschek NA fix something thats NOT broke and why doesn't Maxon fix their plug-in for all versions instead of forcing users to buy a new version just for rendering. This is bullsh**t.

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I use C4D 9.1 and it worked with VectorWorks 12. Now NNA has fixed 'something' and it doesn't work anymore. Maxon tech support replied by saying there will be no plug-in for 9.1. Now because NNA has changed something in their programing language, it will cost me a bundle for getting my workflow again.

I want to have the latest VW.

I don't want to use renderworks (slow and bad quality campared to C4D)

I want to use C4D for rendering.

My 3 options are.

1. buy C4D 10 (money I don't have)

2. Go back to VW 12.0 and don't ever upgrade

3. Buy another CAD program and rendering package

Maybe NNA can give me another option sinse they have caused this problem and in my opinion they are 100% to blame cause they have changed something to the extent that Maxon can't fix.

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You shouldn't need to replace any files you just place the contents of the new exchange folders into your exsisting Vectorworks & Material Exchange folders in the plugins folder in Cinema 4d. This should replace what is existing .

If in my case something went wrong I had to remove the Vectorworks and Material Exchange folders from C4d/plugins and reinstall these folders from the CD with your vectorworks plugin on. Then update with the new exchange plugin. There are pdf documents telling you what to to do.

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parella: Thanks for letting us know of the update. I would never have found it there.

G_Hannigan & David Ormsby: Thanks for your help but before reading this I got it to work but don't ask me how.

It was exporting from VW fine but Cinema had a problem reading the new export. I tried various things including replacing the cdl file only to re-instating the original file but nothing worked which led me to believe Maxon support was right-there will be no plug-in for 9.1. After posting my last message I tried again in Cinema. I split the viewport into 4, added a camera in top view, went back to perspective viewport, then chose the camera and waala, problem fixed.

I thought I'd share this info if anyone else was having this problem.

However, I think this will be the last time I will upgrade VW cause it will disrupt my workflow again cause NNA will break the export again and I don't want that. I have other rendering engines working with Cinema (Maxwell and will have the upcoming Vray) and they are more important to me than VW at the moment.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Shaun, I think it's a bad asssumption that as you say "NNA will break the export again". For this version we had to change the development system of the SDK plug-ins because of having to change for the Apple Intel architecture. Unless Apple is planning to make another such fundamental change, I wouldn't expect this to happen.

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Thanks for your reply Mr. Anderson.

Forgive me if I was wrong in my assumption. VW11.5 broke the plug-in. VW12.5 broke the plug-in. The pattern I saw being created was VW 13.5 doing the same thing.

How come the "change to the development system of the SDK plug-ins" only effect Cinema4D and not my other plug-ins. IMHO it seemed that NNA didn't like users using Cinema instead of RenderWorks. NNA wanted to show users a problem of rendering out of NNA.

Anyway, I apologise if my assumptions are wrong and IF VW doesn't break the export in future, I'll upgrade.

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Some thread! Firstly whilst NNA and Maxon are part of the same group they are completely different companies. Both companies are relatively small. Cinema 4D is only developed by a handful of people. That a plug in breaks is to be expected when software is upgraded. At the time NNA were working on 12.5 Maxon were working on c4D v10 - ask yourself what you would be working on? 12.5 was a free upgrade from 12. C4D 10 was a paid for upgrade (as was 9.5). I suspect the revenue for Maxon from the VW plugin is tiny compared to say the revenue from AllPlan or other plug ins.

Then there is the issue of quality of rendering. Well before we start throwing the toys out of the pram again we should look at the reason for RenderWorks being there in the first place. RenderWorks is a rendering solution built into VW. Not a plug in. It is about workflow. RenderWorks integrates right through the classing structure, into the viewports and beyond. No other plug in does that.

Cinema 4D and Artlantis are great apps - but for most architects they are too time intensive to learn. As well as being more expensive.

RenderWorks is part of VectorWorks so it will always be compatible.

Finally, I looked at the visuals Christian posted and to say fast radiosity doesn't cut it is not a valid comparison. Sorry, but for external visuals radiosity is not really needed. In 12.5 you can use an HDRI as a light source and I guarantee this will give you better results that those images posted.

In terms of ultimate quality apps like Cinema and Artlantis might have the edge over an LightWorks application like RenderWorks but the benefit is intergration of workflow.

At the end of the day you pays your money and makes your choice. Personally, when the chips are down I don;t have time to mess around moving between applications - the integrated approach works best for me.

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Your complaints should be sent to Maxon. They sell & support the plugin. NNA, in the middle of converting to Intel Macs, intentionally disabled the plugin? Not likely.

As I understand the process, Maxon and Abvent (Artlantis) get the plugin from the same outsource. I can't believe that Maxon is making much money on a $95 plugin that is only useful to VW users.

These plugin problems are common and not confined to VW/C4D, take a look at the Artlantis and Maxwell forums.

http://www.abvent.com/support/forum/liste.php?fid=atl_import_us

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I can't believe that Maxon is making much money on a $95 plugin that is only useful to VW users

I suspect the revenue for Maxon from the VW plugin is tiny compared to say the revenue from AllPlan or other plug ins.

Keep in mind, without the plug-in, Maxon cannot sell copies of C4D.

That a plug in breaks is to be expected when software is upgraded

Not during a version release. With 12.0 you can open a 12.5 drawing but not with 11.5. During a program?s ?inter? versions, ALL should be compatible.

RenderWorks is a rendering solution built into VW. Not a plug in. It is about workflow. RenderWorks integrates right through the classing structure, into the viewports and beyond. No other plug in does that.

Cinema 4D and Artlantis are great apps - but for most architects they are too time intensive to learn. As well as being more expensive.

I have RenderWorks but I don?t use it anymore to present to clients. Using textures assigned with RenderWorks (among other ways) can be imported to C4D. If you have used C4D, you would know the workflow is seamless, extremely easy and worth the cost.

Finally, I looked at the visuals Christian posted and to say fast radiosity doesn't cut it is not a valid comparison. Sorry, but for external visuals radiosity is not really needed. In 12.5 you can use an HDRI as a light source and I guarantee this will give you better results that those images posted.

Yes but C4D is about 5-10x faster.

In terms of ultimate quality apps like Cinema and Artlantis might have the edge over an LightWorks application like RenderWorks but the benefit is intergration of workflow.

At the end of the day you pays your money and makes your choice. Personally, when the chips are down I don;t have time to mess around moving between applications - the integrated approach works best for me.

C4D does have the workflow. C4D, Maxwell and Vray has better quality. C4D is faster and Vray is even more faster. I like to give my clients the best and RenderWorks, although does the job, just doesn?t cut it.

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