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Site model requirments


J. Wallace

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Hello

I am currently working on a site model which is approx 4 acres in size. The model has evolved over the past few weeks and due to some rendering challenges I upgraded our computer to better meet these needs.

I notice that our rendering abilities have vastly improved but I'm having some challenges with updating the site model after changes have occurred (additional pads, textures, etc).

With a model of this size do I need more ram to improve performance and stop or reduce the software crashing?

I currently have 6GB of ram with a 6 core chip.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

I fear that extra RAM will not help with this. Although Renderworks is now 64 bit, which means it can use vast amounts of RAM, Vectorworks itself remains 32 bit, so it can only address 4GB of RAM.

How was the model made in the first place? Was it from polygons representing contours? If so, you could try simplifying the source data to make it "lighter." The Simplify 3D Polygons command is under the Landmark menu.

If you have very curvy modifiers, again, you could look at reducing the number of points along those curves. The more "points" and triangles there are on your model, the longer it will take to update as it has so many more calculations to perform. Less data means less triangles and therefore less work. But you need to strike a balance between less triangles and accuracy of results from the model. And the quality of the visuals of course.

Hope that helps

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hi, j.

i have spent the last three years learning to build and design complex terrain models in vw. i slowly learned that most of the problems i was having were do to complexity. as tamsin said, no additional computer power, ram or processor can help that in vw's current form.

the bottom line: too many vertices, slow model updating, loss of functionality, poor rendering (mesh smoothing fails), and crashing...sound familiar?

the problem is cumulative, so you have to think about this from the beginning forward. use the "simplify 3d polygons tool" on contours. this will make a huge difference, with little noticeable effect in the site grading (but watch out for changes that may occur in the simplified geometry if you go really far-- it will usually be obvious.)

texture beds and pads...keep simple, and vw does not like polylines as site modifiers (at least in 2012) so, convert to polygons.

if you are importing dxf date, this is a big area for problems. in some cases i've managed to take dxf originated polygons from over several thousand vertices down to less than 100 with little noticeable loss. in a lot of cases, i find it easier to trace over the the original dxf lines with new vw polygons.

this is all very tedious, but doing this from the beginning will make the model a lot more workable when you get to design your project.

cheers,

ray

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Yes - you can indeed edit the source data. Just right-click on the site model and choose Edit Site Model Source Data. You can then simplify the 3D Polys. Note that when you simplify, the original data remains and the new polys are placed on a different design layer, in a group. So, you'll need to them get the new polys and place them correctly within the source data - and delete the original. Probably best to work on a copy just to be sure you get it right before introducing the data to your existing model. And take a backup!

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j.,

yes, the proper way would be to edit the source data. but, i often just create a new dtm and swap it for the old one...a slightly more straight forward process.

if you still have the original source polygons, separately--and i always save them somewhere handy just for this purpose--you can simplify them, but make sure you tell the command which file to put them in, for this step separate from your dtm layer. make a site model from the new, simpler 3d polys, then delete to old dtm and paste in the new. all site modifiers, etc, remain and will update with the new model. makes for a nice fresh start.

cheers,

ray

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