Viewport Updating- Why?

[dontevenjoke]

Can I ask why VP's have to be updated manually?

What is the benefit of having them un-updated?

Is there a Plug-in that updates them automatically?

Many thanks,

[CipesDesign]

There is reason for this. Some VP's (eg: final quality hi-rez renderings and even complex section VP's) can take a long time to render. If I only want to add an annotation I can enter the un-updated VP much more quickly. And if you have the "Save VP Cache" pref checked you can be looking at the VP as it was last/previously updated....

[Pat Stanford]

The other use for non-updating viewports is to do the same view with different lighting. Say a day and a night scene. If they automatically updated, they would both end up with the same lighting (and yes, I know there are other ways to work around this.)

In My view menu there is a command called Update All Viewports. That should do what you want.

Be careful though. It does exactly what it says. When I accidentally ran it on a file with 106 viewports over 21 sheet layers, I finally rebooted after 23 hours when only half the file was done.

[VincentCuclair]

Well seems like a nice wish list post: 'can we please have a little checkbox with the option 'auto update viewport' in every viewport OIP.'

[dontevenjoke]

Is there someone who can write a plug-in for it?

[dontevenjoke]

Cipes,

Surely with a render engine that is reportedly 7 times faster it won't matter how hard or complex it is to render?

[Dieter @ DWorks]

I always wished for the opposite. The problem I sometimes have is that 2D floorplans becomes so large (with 20+ houses) that the automatic rendering of those viewports are slowing down the process of editing that sheet layer. So I think the option for updating the viewport automaticly would be great, but for ALL viewports!

[Pat Stanford]

Cipes,

Surely with a render engine that is reportedly 7 times faster it won't matter how hard or complex it is to render?

It really depends on the types of renders and number of viewports. I have heard of 18+ hour renders for very highly detailed photorealistic scenes even on an 8 core machine.

I don't think there is anything anyone outside of NV can do to make this automatic. Use the bugsubmit link on the right and put [WISH] in the subject and maybe they will add it as a preference at some point. Probably after VW goes multi-threaded so that the viewports can update in the background rather than stopping your use of the machine while they all update.

[Bob Holtzmann]

Probably after VW goes multi-threaded so that the viewports can update in the background rather than stopping your use of the machine while they all update.

Another possibility with viewports is a preference checkbox in the OIP to make it Auto-Update with each drawing change, above the usual Update button. This way, the Final Renderworks viewport that takes all day and night won't auto-update, but the plans and elevations do.

And combining the above with making all rendering a background operation would be a great time-saver. Watching viewports update is very non-productive, because it stops the work process.

[doberman69]

So, Regardless of benefits of waiting to update or not. It takes far to long to update for hidden line, dashed hidden, and OpenGL views. This is why people keep asking for automatic updating. Yes if you automatic update it will bog down the computer but only because the render engine is taking too long to do the job. Never had these delays with other programs. I have to say that most of my time is spent waiting for Vectorworks to do it's thing. Just to day I tried to do a "update all viewports" and it wouldn't. I tried multiple times  and still nothing. I saved and closed the file. Then opened it and retried, nothing. I had to go page by page updating the viewports. Why? There are so many things like this. Things where I'm driving Miss Daisy. Like the bug where you have to move the OIP out of the dock and back again because it locks up the program. Why doesn't the Bubble drawing label have the scale bar as a option built in? Instead you have to go one by one putting them in and adjusting the scale bars because they keep changing as you place them. Why?

 

Point is instead of looking at the short term functionality and draw backs, look at the long term expenditure of each process that waists time.

[barkest]

On 9/16/2010 at 7:27 AM, Pat Stanford said:

I accidentally ran it on a file with 106 viewports over 21 sheet layers, I finally rebooted after 23 hours when only half the file was done.

 

You are not alone

[mjm]

4 hours ago, barkest said:

 

You are not alone

Ouch for the both a yez

[CipesDesign]

Interesting to relook at this thread a few years later. I am now of the mind that it would good to be able to set any individual VP to Always Update. With many smaller projects this would save me a ton of time.

[mjm]

5 hours ago, CipesDesign said:

Interesting to relook at this thread a few years later. I am now of the mind that it would good to be able to set any individual VP to Always Update. With many smaller projects this would save me a ton of time.

Gonna say yes, good idea ——— as long as there's a reliable way to interrupt any update for any reason.

[doberman69]

The problem is not "to update or not to update". It's that the update is sloowwwww. Either way you pay the time cost of updating. Either at the end or in the beginning or all along. I'm pretty sure that anyone who uses this program and uses it as a design tool where the end product changes as the design evolves then one will be making changes. Those changes equate to updates of the viewport. This is un-escapable. I will literally wait 10 minutes to update a few pages. Then I'll look at the result and see something that could be improved. I make the change and then wait another ten minutes because every time I go into the design layer, ALL of the views on the sheet layers have to be updated though the change has no effect on some. So then I have to re-update ALL of the views. I save out and close the file and go back into it. What do I find when I reopen? All of the views need to be updated again.

 

On another note. Updating views. I can understand how renderworks views with maps or skins can take time. It does for every program. Why does it take the same amount of time for just Hidden or Dashed Hidden. Those are just line drawings. No maps, no skins, no colors. If I use wireframe then the render time is immediate. Noone can read wireframe so.......Most detailers who use Vectorworks will use these last to view options. Those should be fast. The full color renderworks view styles should take time.

[NickMac]

I completely agree with Doberman.

I'm layering sections and elevations with multiple viewports to get the look I want. The most complex rendering method I'm using is hidden line, NO shadows. The most complex object in the viewports is a site model. So why does it take 10 minutes / individual viewport to update at an absolute minimum?
 

Over 20 years ago, I worked in high end 3D graphics on Softimage. I could render a highly complex NURBS based scene with transparancies, refractive indexes, ray tracing for accurate reflections amongst all elements, multiple lights, both volumetric and point / area lights. Similar resolution with production levels of anti-aliasing. I could get a render out of this in half an hour. On a machine that was designed and built in the 90's.. In the background so I can still work.

 

Wireframe, hidden line, NO reflections, shadows, lights, or anything and I'm still waiting for update to stop killing my machine and holding up my work.

It is outrageous that Nemetschek will heap loads of new un-checked, beta 'features' into the software, none of which work until SP3, but fail to consider the single biggest waste of time the software inflicts on us.

 

Seriously?