VW to C4d Export .... Stuff

[Horst M.]

Hi,

today I was working on a relatively Simple Stage Layout for a Conceptual Disussion.

---> a few Curtains, Seating Layout, some Booms, a couple of Trusses.

and some Space Objects to show what would be cool to have for a Studiostage.

And besides the headache the Space tool was giving me, it went quite fluent

The VW File is ? 14MB

Then I exported the File to C4D ==> the resulting C4D File is ? 500MB!!!!.

That made the Manipulation even in C4D very bulky.

I mean with a lot of patience while trying to find the right view I got some simple renders done.

Is there a Way to avoid, that Symbols are converted to Groups instead of instances?

The way the Conversion is now, only the Chairs are ~100MB

I wish this gets some serious improvement. Symbols should be Converted to

one Parent Group and Instances with the correct position.

I f have the vague idea, that this has something to do with Objects Origins in VW and how they

are exported to C4D, because when they come from VW all the Object origins are on 0,0,0

but the object components are on their correct Position in the Model.

Will this be changed in the Future, or is it due to some

"deep in the System(s) Filestructure missmatch" so that we have to live with that?

Sometimes VW Symbols are represented by C4D instances, but unfortunately they are not

put on the C4D Layer, so i can't switch them of by the Layer Tool in C4D.

Will this be changed, or is it for some reason that I don't see?

Horst M.

Edited February 21, 2012 by Horst M.

[Dave Donley]

Hello Horst:

Currently only symbols that are not flipped are made into C4D instances. If the symbol has been mirrored then it is created as a C4D Null object rather than an instance. It must be that a lot of your symbols have been flipped. HTH

[Horst M.]

Thanks Dave for answering.

I did some further research. While I did it first, I was kind of in a rush, to get the Papers out.

Also.

The seating was originally made with the seating layout tool, and the VW Libraries Folding Chair.

Anyway.

If the whole seating is made of Null Objects for every Chair each filled with the Chair Geometry, they are "just" 46MB

(File 01... to FIle 02... of attachment)

The curtains are no Problem (300kB), but the Trusses made with the VW Truss tool and

copied several times made 440MB!

(File 03... to FIle 04... of attachment)

After that I modified the components in the VW FIle.

1. Made of one Truss, each lenght as Symbol and copied these several times, as before.

(--> File 05... of attachment; after export: 138MB)

2. Made the Seating layout new with the same Chair Symbol

(--> FIle 06... of attachment; after export: 92MB)

not too bad, and way more handy.

Now all the Seats in the Seating layout Object are instances. :-)

--> With the Axis already inside the Component! Like that.

The Problem is, that Flipping Symbols with the Mirrortool or rotating them is a very important.

(round seating; Projectors on a Circular Truss)

and I would like to have rotated and mirrored Symbols as as well as Instances, and not being forced to make extra Symbols.

I hope that will come soon.

Regards Horst M.

Edited February 22, 2012 by Horst M.

[Jershaun]

Revit's connection to 3D Studio Max is far more professional than vw's connection to C4D. Dave, this (and the connection in general) needs to be seriously re-looked at.

[grant_PD]

C4d also has no export back to vw option. You have to use 3ds or some other format.

[Monadnoc]

C4D really, really needs a "Send To Vectorworks" command. Or at least offer a better option than an old legacy format like .3ds.

I have recently been modeling plants in Cinema 4D using Xfrog and trying to get them into VW using .3ds. It has some very big drawbacks, the three biggest being all polygons are triangulated, all source texture image names have to be 8 letters or less, and tiffs with transparency come in as grey blanks. The biggest issue of the three is polygon triangulation. Polygon count is important in all 3D programs, but in Vectorworks it is extremely critical, as it bogs down/crashes/spins it wheels with high polygon models like Xfrog plants. I'm developing some low to medium poly plants in C4D but the polygon count doubles by translating them through .3ds (every single rectangle is split diagonally into two triangles). Not good. All three issues create a lot of extra work and jumping through hoops to get any model from C4D into VW. Not to mention lower quality models. Hopefully the next release of VW and/or C4D will be able to exchange files back and forth, both ways.

Monadnoc

[shibo82]

Hello, you lot seem to know your stuff, but sorry if I'm in the wrong place:

I have cinema 4D r13 on my mac pro.

I have Vectorworks 12 on my laptop, as in the 2005 version. I can't install it onto the mac pro because it's a power pc application and mac pro is an intel.

I can't afford the new Vectorworks just yet, so for now I'm going to have to export my Vectorworks 12 file as something onto my memory stick, and open it with cinema 4D on my computer. Total pain in the arse but seems to be my only option.

What do i export my Vectorworks model as in order to open it in cinema 4D, classes and all?\

Please help!

[Jershaun]

Hi shibo82

You have to use the plug-in found on the maxon site to create a *.vw4d file from vw. Then you import the *.vw4d file into C4D.

HTH,