Add Solids? Not every time!

[Dario]

I've noticed that "add solids" doesn't seem to work all the time.

I get a "...geometry" error frequently.

Here's the situation:

I'm using VW 11 on a PowerBook G4 1Ghz with 768Mb RAM.

1-created a crown moulding profile with the polyline tool. The line is connected to itself (closed).

2-copied and pasted three times to end up with 4 pieces.

3-extruded two of them to 100'.

4-extruded the other 2 to 50'.

5-3d rotated to get them all in top/plan view.

6-split by line cut all the ends at 45 degrees.

7-checked all views to make sure all 4 mouldings were on the exact same plane.

8-put 2 of the 45's together and zoomed in as close as possible.

9-selected both pieces and "add solids."

8 times out of 10 this results in a "... geometry" error (don't have VW on this machine so I forget the exact error message) and it won't add the solids.

Am I missing something or doing something wrong?

I have also tried making a 3d box and using it to subtract at a 45 but that doesn't seem to work for this situation either.

Read the manuals as well as the Visual Quick Start guide (for version 10), no luck.

[ 10-11-2004, 12:52 AM: Message edited by: Dario ]

[alanmac]

I found this happens if you have already edited the object along its "history" in some way before you got to this stage. I think it's a case of not being able to connect in with those actions because it was in a different plane or position. not entirely sure but this is what I believe it to be.

You may have to go back several stages or think about changing how you create your object to achieve what you want.

You also find this being the case also if you have grouped objects. You'll get an error message saying something about illegal objects being deselected, you have to either go into the group and do what you want or temporarily ungroup them. Hope that makes sense.

Alan

[tom kyler_dup1]

Dario, I know this isn't the questions you're asking, but as an FYI, you can just draw one crown molding profile, then draw a rectangle and select both, then use the "extrude to path" command. Then you will have crown molding that essentially goes around a ceiling.

Initially, the crown profile is swept around the rectangle about the middle of the crown profile..and so you have to double click your new 3D crown and opt to edit the profile. When you do, you'll see that the center of the coordinate system represents the rectangle that your crown profile was swept around (or think of it as the corner of ceiling and wall) and you'll have to adjust your crown profile down and to the side a bit.

I couldn't say what your problem is, I've repeated your process many times with no problems. There's several things to look for along the way. Try copying your extruded profiles after you've extruded them, and then use them, and do not cut the extrusion from the very end, leave some "leftover" like in woodworking and I believe you'll have better success...maybe use a locus or two lines to help you set your cut line.

But if you're doing crown molding, the "extrude to path" is the only way to go.

[alanmac]

I agree with Tom on the method you should use. Just pointing out a possible reason for your problem before.

It depends what version of Vectorworks you are running but as you are asking questions now I assume you only recently purchased Vectorworks that its one of the latest versions , VW 10.5 or 11, as this function is not available in older editions.

I for instance upgraded from 8.5 to 10.5. Because of other issues not related directly to Vectorworks I still do some work in 8.5 as well as 10.5 and its not available in 8.5.

Yours will include it and you should make full use of this excellent tool.

All the best

Alan

[Dario]

Great suggestions and it seems extrude to path is the proper way. I'm on 11 by the way.

I'd love to solve the inital problem just to get a better understanding so I'll experiment with that a little bit too.

On thing I didn't mention was that the pastes of the copies that I was using for the short sides, pasted on a different z plane. When I looked at "right" view they were quite a bit higher than the long sides so I had to bring them down. Perhaps this was part of the history problem.

Thanks.

[mike m oz]

For those who don't have versions of VW with extrude along path there is a simple work around for this problem.

Create corner units for the profile (internal and external if you need them) by:

- Taking an extruded section of the profile and cutting it using the Cut 3D Section command to get one half of the corner.

- Using the Mirror Tool to get the other half.

- Grouping them together so they are a single unit (you can also make them a symbol if you wish)

The advantage of this method is you can place the corners where you want them and then stretch a piece of the profile on the drawing to connect them.

It works for any profile without adding to the 'size overhead' of the drawing and 'slowness' which results from too many solid additions and/or subtractions.

The result will render up fine in OpenGL and RenderWorks. The only time it becomes a problem is in Hidden Line Rendering. For working drawing this can be overcome by converting a copy to lines and editing out the unwanted lines.

A general comment about solid additions - due to the way they add to the size and slowness of the drawing only use them when you have to. Often a grouping will achieve exactly the same visual effect without any of the problems.