converting geometry (3d mesh) to walls?

[alextoevs]

the background is that i have a hard time modeling in 3d in VW, therefore i am testing the use of a 3d modeler and export dxfs. i got a clean import and it appears as a 3d object with the type of mesh. if i want this geometry to act as a wall how do i convert from mesh to wall?

[graz]

I may be wrong, but I didn't think it was possible to convert an imported mesh (or any mesh) into a parametric primative. Once it's a mesh, it's only a mesh.

[Petri]

A wall is an intelligent, high-level object with behaviour, inheritance and so on. A mesh is a low-level primitive, ie. a data container. You can't convert this way - the only way is from intelligent objects to dumb data containers.

[alextoevs]

weak... with the sketchup import it will create wall etc...

basically, i am working with a form where the floor slab fillets or curves up becomes a vertical wall then curves again to become the roof slab.

in modo i can either bevel then extrude a hollow form or i can draw the horizontal and vertical components and use the bridge command.

i tried drawing a roof slab and wall in VW and it would not "fillet" the surfaces together...

i will try to get an example pic up

[alextoevs]

here is what i am trying to do...

and thanks graz and petri for the replies

[islandmon]

Per your image ...Looks like a basic extrude or NURBS >Extrude Along Path or even a simple Loft.

Definitely NOT a parametric object problem.

[BLINK Design]

alextoevs. a core strength of Vectorworks are it's intelligent walls that allow objects(3D doors and windows etc.) to be plugged into it while at once calculating volume and area with on the fly adjustments to width and height. This same object has both a 2D graphic and an independent 3D aspect that accepts unique textures for rendering that are linked to classes or it can be independently managed. VW is incomparable to sketch-up. Most modeling programs are not specifically for the building industry. It's inabilty to convet your object to a wall therefore makes sense to me.

You can work with the 3D objects in VW to create you own openings for customized doors etc, but it's less efficient and does not perform the intelligent tasks noted above. You can also create a plug-in object (say a custom wall opening) which plugs into walls.

Walls and 3D objects happily co-exist in a VW model, but they do not interact too well together. As I recall though, you can cut an opening in a wall object with a 3D object but the edge modifications for example do not work on walls. On the other hand, get a VW wall the way you want it and convert it to 3D.

[alextoevs]

so i can take a wall element and a roof/floor element and extrude them along a path and maintain their high level intelligence?

attached is a picture showing before and after what i am trying to figure out how to do in VW...

[alextoevs]

i understand both sides of the problem and it looks like there is no easy solution to be had. i hoped that i would be able to use an intuitive 3d modeler to model in and then import it to VW. i guess if i want the power of intelligent objects have to use the VW 3d engine... unless someone knows some tricks...

alextoevs. a core strength of Vectorworks are it's intelligent walls that allow objects(3D doors and windows etc.) to be plugged into it while at once calculating volume and area with on the fly adjustments to width and height. This same object has both a 2D graphic and an independent 3D aspect that accepts unique textures for rendering that are linked to classes or it can be independently managed. VW is incomparable to sketch-up. Most modeling programs are not specifically for the building industry. It's inabilty to convet your object to a wall therefore makes sense to me.

You can work with the 3D objects in VW to create you own openings for customized doors etc, but it's less efficient and does not perform the intelligent tasks noted above. You can also create a plug-in object (say a custom wall opening) which plugs into walls.

Walls and 3D objects happily co-exist in a VW model, but they do not interact too well together. As I recall though, you can cut an opening in a wall object with a 3D object but the edge modifications for example do not work on walls. On the other hand, get a VW wall the way you want it and convert it to 3D.

[Pat Stanford]

Your best option depends on what you need to do with the shape.

If you need to put doors and windows into the vertical portion, then you will need to create walls. If you have the vertical portion already modeled, you might be able to use the extract tool and convert to poly to get a polygon that follows the inside or outside edge of the shape and then use the create walls from polys (need to add to your workspace [or convert poly to spaces and then convert spaces to walls.)

If the top is truly horizontal, use the slab tool to create that. If it slopes, use a roof face. Again if you already have a 3D object, you may be able to extract a poly and use that as your base geometry.

The curved portion I would draw in profile and then extrude. To keep everything together, select the three parts and Group them. You will have to enter the group in order to insert doors and windows.

If you don't need doors and windows, just create the entire profile as a polyline and extrude that. The extrusion will be a smaller (more memory efficient) object and much easier to modify that the mesh that you currently have.

Pat

Edited October 17, 2007 by Pat Stanford

[alextoevs]

thanks pat! i figured out how to extrude the profile from some 2d fillets. i got to say that VW 3d is not very intuitive compared to something like modo. v14 needs modo as the 3d engine

and thank you to everyone that has replied!

tomorrow i will see if anyone can make sense of my shattered sketchup imports (modo -> sketchup -> VW)...

[graz]

It's true, VW's 3D component is not very intuitive. Coming from Cinema 4D, I find it to be quite primative and somewhat dis-jointed.

I too hope that this gets a major re-work in the next major version.