Horizontal lines between floors

[Christiaan]

These things are a bane. I'm adamant that these walls are physically aligned, yet I'm getting horizontal lines in hidden line render. More galling is that fact that these appeared only after changing the colour of a unrelated texture; no geometry changes were made anywhere in the model.

Any ideas what else I should be looking out for? Should I mention that this is a Layer Import ref of the model?

[PVA - Admin]

Is that a viewport? If you render it in just Hidden Line alone with no textures, does it draw the same intersections lines, behave correctly or draw a different set of them?

[Christiaan]

That's intriguing, they don't appear in a hidden line only render Jim. What does that mean?

[PVA - Admin]

If it works in Hidden Line that normally indicates there isnt anything wrong with the 3D geometry at all, it would narrow down the focus to a rendering anomaly (which would be verified by restarting your machine and re-rendering the same renderworks viewport with lines in the foreground and getting different results than before the restart) or something unusual with the textures applied to those objects.

If its something to do with textures, usually rendering with renderworks colors white as the background and hidden line as the foreground will also not show the anomalous lines. Sometimes doing this then rendering again with your desired settings will fix it as well.

If not, send me that file and I can take a look and submit it as a bug if its replicable. It certainly should not be rendering those edges in some rendering modes and not others if both of the modes include hidden line.

[AlanW]

Hi,

Have found if you really can't get rid of the lines we convert the viewpoint to polylines and delete the offending lines and then use this over a openGL viewport or FQRW VP. We only do this when we are at the final presentation stage.

Edited March 26, 2015 by Alan777

[M5d]

This isn't the cause or a good solution for an error, but when I can't find anything incorrect in the geometry, I try adjusting the 'Smoothing Angle' up (15º, 30º, 45º, 60º, etc.) for the Hidden Line / Foreground Render Setting and it often removes unwanted lines like these. Also, if you're using 'Generate Intersecting Lines' try tuning it off.

[zoomer]

Are these settings available in RW modes too, when lines enabled ?

Did not find them.

[M5d]

They are available for Hidden Line only renders in DLVP, and available in the 'Foreground Render Settings. . .' for layered renderings in the object info for sheet layer viewports.

Edited March 27, 2015 by M5d

[zoomer]

I meant the realistic RenderWorks render modes with GI where you

can overlay hidden lines. A setting in the render style since 2015.

Those look great but I have some problems like f.e.

that lines seem to ignore the file wide smoothing angle or that I don't find

control over edges between touching parts of the same materials ...

I'm used to render the cameras in view window directly.

I don't have viewports so far.

(I have about 30 cameras, render each in 2 styles and use all for several

geometry versions)

Edited March 27, 2015 by zoomer

[M5d]

I wasn't sure about your question above, so I edited my post to refer to DLVPs and SLVPs separately.

I can't see the option, you've mentioned, that layers two render modes as one in DLVPs, but then, I'm not familiar with working that way I've always stuck with Sheet Layer VPs.

Maybe someone more familiar with your workflow will be able to help.

[CipesDesign]

Silly question, perhaps, and sorry to jump in late, but I'm still unsure of the Render Mode of the original post??? Is it Open GL with Show Edges turned on?

[Christiaan]

Renderworks background, Hidden Line foreground Peter.

[Christiaan]

One possible explanation for lines appearing where they haven't shown previously is that increasing the DPI of a Sheet Layer to 300 DPI will pick up misalignments that 150 DPI doesn't. Could this be true?

[PVA - Admin]

It really shouldn't, viewport renderings should show the same geometry regardless of the DPI setting of the sheet they're on. If that IS the case however, I would then file it as a bug.

[Christiaan]

Okay this is a killer. What's happening is whack-a-mole.

I'll fix the angle of a wall at one end of the building which is unrelated, except perhaps that it is connected by a series of other walls, and it will change the angle of the another (by 0.00000030 degrees or some such)

Sigh, some way some how Vectorworks always finds a way to screw with my deadlines at the last minute when it comes to render... so depressing.

[michaelk]

I've noticed this wall behavior too. When walls connect and disconnect the angle changes by an infinitesimal amount.

I commonly do reports of walls and their angles when taking over an existing project just to check for this. I often find wall that were drawn at a 1° angle accidentally.

But I also often find walls that report a very very small angle from 0, even when the OIP says the angle is 0. Setting the wall straight often breaks the wall join. Rejoining often recauses the angle problem.

[Christiaan]

But how does Vectorworks know I'm rendering on a deadline and throw up a new and wonderful problem each and every time?

[Jim Smith]

Could this have anything to do with Storeys and Wall Assemblies? I ran into a similar situation two weeks ago where the Storey and the Wall were not playing well together.

[michaelk]

But how does Vectorworks know I'm rendering on a deadline and throw up a new and wonderful problem each and every time?

And how do clients know which "last tiny little change" will be the absolutely hardest to draw?

[Christiaan]

Could this have anything to do with Storeys and Wall Assemblies? I ran into a similar situation two weeks ago where the Storey and the Wall were not playing well together.

Could do. It could also be related to 3D wall symbols, in particular ones with 3D hole components and maybe even ones with 3D hole components that extend beyond wall corners.

In any case I've isolated the trigger to one particular wall join and I can reproduce it every time so I'm going to nail this bug report right between the eyes!