illustrationworks package

[grant_PD]

I'd like to see the illustration part of VW upgraded. With my workflow completely in 3d, I need a way to control the final presentation of models in the viewports.

Here's a desk I just finished up....two stacked viewports, each with a background foreground render (white card render, hidden line/dashed line). The back layer is cropped in an attempt to cut away and show dashed detail where needed. The front layer has a hand drawn outline and a middle weight line to pull away the top of the desk.

The technique of stacking viewports is cumbersome at best. Because the bounding boxes get in the way, one can never select the bottom stacked viewport without going to the navigator, selecting it, and then editing it. Stacked viewports should be layers in a single viewport, just like the foreground/background renders.

In addition, all foreground, background, stacked layers, need a paintable mask, not a polygonal crop. The polygonal mask is way too time intensive to create. I'll settle for a 2 bit (black or white) mask and then clamor for an 8 bit mask later.

There needs to be some way of outlining the objects quickly and automatically. The outline needs to have a controllable lineweight.

[PVA - Admin]

Not saying it isn't a valid request, but just to get it narrowed down and the request fleshed out a bit:

Could you extrapolate on the problems encountered if you were to just use class overrides in these viewports to get the different line types/weights?

The problems with converting the viewport to lines and controlling them all manually?

Edited November 20, 2013 by JimW

[Kevin McAllister]

I agree with Grant. Viewport controls need an overhaul to make good presentation graphics quicker and easier to create.

Stacked viewports are a problem to select. I always end up selecting the top one and sending it to the back, or selecting both with a marquee and then deselecting the top one. Its partly because viewports don't have handles, which they should.

I am often creating complex vector masks too. Not a great workflow there, mostly because the paint bucket mode of the polygon tool only works effectively in a hidden line only viewport.

And you almost always want a heavy line around the perimeter of an object, which isn't easily done in a perspective view.

And really there should be a mode to the visibility tool which allows for turning layers/classes on and off in a viewport in exactly the same methods used in a design layer (ie. the class elements get highlighted and the class name shows up in the tool tip). Using the dialog boxes is cumbersome and you're often guessing when its someone else's classes.

My two cents.

Kevin

[grant_PD]

The first would be to assume that everything is classed separately, which isn't always the case. In the example I showed, the entire object is outlined, an outline which travels across different objects in different places, and not always all of the same object.

Converting the viewport to lines pulls the viewport out of the workflow, negating its usefulness.

What we are really talking about here is the ability to make subjective adjustments to a viewport.

[PVA - Admin]

For it to cover all those bases, some sort of interface that would allow the direct selection of lines/geometry "within" the viewport itself that still maintained its link to the original objects, specific only to that viewport. A sort of advanced annotations function?

Sorry for all the questions, but this is something that would require a large amount of consideration here, the more info I add to the case, the better.

[grant_PD]

Yes. It's a way to easily put the finishing touches on a drawing that don't involve getting into the model.

[Kizza]

Would something like this address the wish?

Lineweight tool

It's a lineweight overide tool which you can click on existing lines to change their attributes.

So in a sketch rendered viewport you could set the attribute and click on the lines you want to change...

Needs to work in viewports so we can edit the lineweights of elevations...

[grant_PD]

It might be a good start. I get the sneaking suspicion that I'm looking for a more bitmap approach rather than a vectored approach.

If shading in a viewport renders at a specific dpi, then it's a bitmap of some sort. So in bitmap speak, what I want to do is:

Magic wand the outside area of the bitmap so I get a marquee around the outside perimeter of my drawing.

Stroke the outline with a controllable line weight.

I also want an alpha channel masking component that I can paint in so I can be very selective about what I see on the underlying layer.

[Kevin McAllister]

I think this is a good case for linked image viewports myself. They have been wished for before. Its possible manually but I think automatic would be a better thing to implement. It would also keep file size down and allow you to edit the images in Photoshop. Vectorworks would need to output a Multi-Pass TIF file that was smartly organized and included a mask layer. It would be pretty powerful if the implemented Alpha Channels and the Object Buffer function from C4D.

Grant right though. More precise control of the graphics is definitely needed.

Kevin

[Jim Smith]

+1

I think having a way to get a better sense of lighting would add to this request, ie. see a grey circle in Hidden Line view - control with a check box in the OIP.