form-z dxf's to vw

[c weir]

this might sound stupid but...

i've been having troubles importing fz3.5.2 hidden line renderings into vw 8.0.1. i've gone through the correct protocal of first copying and pasting the selected view from a fz modeling window into a fz drafting window and then exporting a dxf/dwg (r14 or lower). from here i open vw and import the said dxf. vw asks me to set a scale and gives me lineweight options and then... poof... nothing. i'm left with a blank screen; nothing to select. there is a layer named "imported" and some class information but nothing i can actually use.

i've been doing this procedure for the past couple of years on my personal system going between fz 2.9.5 and vw 8, so i know i this procedure is possible. i'm wondering if there's anything to watch out for when using this newer version of fz. the guys at auto-des-sys told me to ask you as they use "industry standard libraries for exporting dwg format."indicating that this might be a problem on the vectorworks end of things.

[Donald Wardlaw]

A few points of the post puzzle me. It reads as if the goal is to import a "rendering". That would be imagery, not vector geometry. If that is indeed the goal, I would suggest a different method, which I use all the time.

Export the rendering as an image file (tiff for example).

Import the image file into VW.

I would only use dxf/dwg if I wanted to send or receive the vector information. I am using Z3.1.4.

Donald

[c weir]

for future reference i solved my problem by downloading and installing the free vw 8.5 update. i don't know what difference is but i can now import hiddenline renderings directly into vw from fz as dxf's.

on that note when a hidden line rendering is copied from a fz modeling window to a fz drafting window it is understood as vector based information. from that drafting window you can save the "rendered" view as a dxf and import that into vw. select some lines and edit at your will. in my experience using vw to edit these "renderings" is easier and faster than using the fz drafting function or illustrator.

-chris

[Guest]

The problem reading FormZ meshes was fixed in 8.5.0. It's always a good idea to get the latest possible update (8.5.2 in this case).