Curves display as jagged polygons?

[akoudlai]

Hi,

I opened a model I have been working on today and some circles and curves (including extruded circles and other curved solids) in the model display as polygons. This also occurs in viewports that I create. I have anti aliasing on. It is really bad. instead of a cylinder I have an extruded 10 sided polygon.

Any help? Im sure this will be an easy fix in some setting or another however after searching for it I was unable to find any info except on anti-aliasing which I have turned on.

This has never happened before, just now at random when I opened this file that was fine the last time I worked on it.

Thanks,

Andrew

[Pat Stanford]

Check your Vectorworks Preferences, Edit tab and make sure the 2D Conversion Res is not set to Low.

Similarly in the 3D tab is the 3D conversion res setting.

[Benson Shaw]

Andrew, similar experience:

A few curved 3d elements in one of my drawings go jaggy sometimes. Only in this file (so far), so not likely a problem with the prefs. Rather it is some momentary corruption. It fixes with changing the view or zoom, heading to a different layer and back, or sometimes close/open the file, relaunch VW or restart OS. I never found the cause. Seems like it kind of self heals if I work on other things in the same file for a while.

-B

[akoudlai]

Pat, All my settings in VW preferences were properly set so that is not the issue.

Benson, That is very strange. I wouldnt think that it would self-correct, although it did self corrupt. I even saved the file and opened it on my other computer and it had the same issue.

I don't know if this makes a difference but the polygon VW is simplifying my cylinder to is actually an octagon not a decagon (as i originally posted).

Also, I don't know if this is related but at the same time as this started happening, my concrete and other exterior textures stopped rendering properly and now render as pure black. (this isn't a huge issue but thought I'd mention it in case if it could be related.

Perhaps reinstalling VW would be the best course of action?

[akoudlai]

Ok, so just in case someone searches this problem and runs across this thread I thought I would post how I solved it although I'm not sure why this remedied the problem...

I right clicked on the extrusion and selected properties. Then I checked the render tab BUT DID NOT change anything and exited out of the properties window. upon exiting, the extruded octagons became extruded circles again. Strange!

However i had to do this process one by one to every curve in the model.

Also, my missing textures began to render although I had to change all those objects to the appropriate textures one by one as well.

[AndiACD]

Andrew, also check that you set your OpenGL settings to Max and Resolution in the Document Preferences i think was suggested to set to 300 in both dialogues instead of 72.

The OpenGL part usually solves all issues.

[VincentCuclair]

It's also good to know that all objects in the none class render very jagged.

[bcd]

It's also good to know that all objects in the none class render very jagged.

Very interesting - I haven't seen\/noticed before where a class could have this kind of influence/control

[VincentCuclair]

Perhaps I meant this issue from 2011:

http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=29762&Number=145450#Post145450

Edited December 5, 2011 by Vincent C

[Benson Shaw]

OK bit of an update. I saw jaggy extrudes in an old file and recreated the problem in a new file. Problem object is extruded circle with smaller clipped out circles. For comparison, a 2d circle on the layer plane does not get the jaggies. These are both new objects, not pasted in.

JaggyScreenShot.png shows the problem

1. Jaggies diminish and ultimately go away as zoom is closer, but are still apparent at page view=126% Zoom.

2. 2d & 3d Conversions are set to Very High. But lower settings do not make this worse. Quartz and Anti-Aliasing are enabled.

3. Maxing out screen resolution does not clear these jaggies, lower settings do not make it worse.

4. Both Print to PDF and Export to PDF show relatively smooth shapes. Does that indicate hardware related?

-B

[Bruce Kieffer]

These type of problems occur when you extrude a clipped object. Clipped objects are great in 2D, but not good in 3D. Instead, create the circle and holes as individual extrusions, and then subtract the holes from the cylinder. I updated your file and it is attached.

[Benson Shaw]

Thanks, Bruce

I wonder if this is same situation for orig post by akoudial? Post describes extrudes.

Or if Vincent's class settings discovery is in play?

This could be a reason for me to drop my reluctance toward solid additions. I usually have better stability and performance with NURBS, extrudes and other solids.

But - I made two new files, one with the extrude (jaggies), one with a newly created solid addition (no jaggies).

Ran a Duplicate Array in each file 10x, 10y, 10z.

File size for 1000 extrudes = 250MB.

File size for 1000 Solid Additions = 133MB.

But if closer zoom can defeat the extrude faceting, why shouldn't there be a way to avoid it completely?

Oh well, time to add this to the wish list for better functioning of existing features.

-B

[Kevin McAllister]

Benson,

I used to feel the same way and avoided solid additions, especially multiple additions or subtractions nested into each other. I have found that in the last few versions of Vectorworks solids operations have become much more stable. I too have changed my workflow accordingly.

Kevin