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Floating Plants


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I am using Landmark 2012 & have a complex site model with textures & texture beds, etc and when rendering in a 3D view some of the 3D plants disappear completely and other groups float above the site model. Strange thing is that in some groups of the same plant, some of the plants will sit on the site model while others float. Some groups of plants do however sit on the site model. I have tried selecting the plants and sending them to the surface, but this hasn't worked either. I am wondering if maybe its a problem with my graphics card as I am also getting 'performance alerts' saying that 100% of CPU is used??????

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hi Philippa

Have you by any chance changed the Z value of your plants? If so, change it back to 0. The 3D plants automatically send themselves to the surface of the model, so it's not necessary to move them up onto the model manually - that's usually the cause of floating plants.

Hope that helps

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Has the model changed (with site modifiers) since you added the plants?

Try this:

Use Select Similar to select all your plants, and change something on the Object Info palette - something like turn all the tags off or add polygon display. It will take a while to update them all. You can then change it back to how it was. This will cause the plants to update and place themselves back on the model hopefully.

If not, I am happy to have a quick look at the file for you if you can get it to me:

tamsin@vectorworks-training.co.uk

All the best

Tamsin

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Sort of OT, but had a similar problem once with a vehicle.

Funny because it was on an entry plan, and my draftsman emailed me the pdf (project was out of town) and I printed it at Kinko's, where I discovered the floating SUV seemed to be heading right to the retaining wall we had proposed, rather than simply turning into the entry drive.

Funnier still were views from behind the wall back out to the street, which still showed the truck flying off the ground.

Luckily, the client did have a sense of humor.

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Thanks Tamsin, but it didn't work. I will try to email you the file but it is 300MB - hope that's not too large to make it through!

The other thing that happens with this file is that when I create a view port and render it in final quality renderworks, some plants disappear completely, but if I render it in opengl, then they are all there. Any ideas as to why this is????

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

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300 MB is too big to post here, but there are several free email file transfer sites. You upload the file to the site. They email a link to your file to the intended recipient. Recipient downloads your file.

I use Large Files ASAP. No spam so far.

http://www.largefilesasap.com/

Not trying to take guru Tamsin's place here- she's the best, but off line for now. Here is something to try in the meanwhile:

Eliminate as many variables as possible. One idea is to copy/paste your contours into a new, blank file, create a DTM, then copy/paste one of the bad plants to the new file. Send to Surface if needed. Does it misbehave? If yes, email this new file or post it here if it's not too big. If no, add more of the plants, pads, buildings, hardscapes, texture beds, etc several at a time until the problem recreates. You may find a corrupt object or process.

-B

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Thanks Benson - that's excellent advice.

Phillipa, you can try using Dropbox to get the file to me... it's a free service and really easy to install and use.

If things a disappearing during rendering, I suspect memory... how much RAM does your computer have?

I will be away until tomorrow night but I will take a look when I get back.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hi Phillipa

I have sent you an email too, but thought I would follow up to say I have had a look at your model, and I can see the problem. I can't see anything wrong with your plant setup, so I assumed it had to be the model.

First point: Your site model settings allow site modifiers on "Visble Layers Only" to change the model, but you have many design layers invisible. I noticed that these design layers do host many modifiers, so this could be part of the issue.

Second, and more important: I can't update your model at all. Vectorworks just hangs. So, I had a look at the source data for the model and there is nothing inside the model. I wonder what has happened to the source data? Clearly something not good. I suggest the best course of action is to delete the model, reinstate the original source data, and create a new site model. I hope your plants will behave themselves then.

If not, well, I guess it might have to be a job for technical support... But if you need any help re-building the model, just let me know.

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Just came across this today, I seemed to be having similar problems, only with floating buildings.

They where referenced files that I was trying to accurately place onto the site model, but the ground floor slabs floated above the ground, even though the buildings had been given the same Z height as the model.

It turns out that there where values within the design layer elevation and wall Ht columns. (I don't remember adding values to them!!) but once they where set to zero the model started to behave itself. Hope your solution is as simple as mine!

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Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

I changed the setting on my site model to 'All layers'. That has helped heaps. Thank you Tamsin! With the site model, I was able to find the source data, I think it was invisable due to me turning off the class 'Survey-Levels'. The few plants that float still do so, but I have individually selected them and entered a z value manually. Looks heaps better & would have re-created the site model if I had time, but I have already spent way too much time on this project!!!!

With the plants being invisable when rendered in final quality renderworks - I think this is a issue with the 3D plant image props I used. I tried to render these plants in a blank file and they would only show up in openGL, but not if rendered in Final Quality Renderworks. The plant image props come from the library file 'Aus Plant Image Props 2012'. I'd be interesed to know if anyone thinks these image props are faulty or if it's me & my computer???

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