Walkthroughs

[Amelia S]

Hi guys,

We're trying to figure out if 3d walkthroughs are feasible for our office. Sorry for the amateur language (I've seen some posts that are way over my head). I am hoping someone will be able to explain the current state of saving and/or exporting 3D walkthroughs and flyovers.

1. I think I understand the walkthrough tool well enough. What I'd like to do is save what is going on on my screen. I'd be happy with saving it in VW kind of like a viewport or saved view or something. Do I need a plugin? A script? Some sort of screen recording program?

2. Is OpenGL the only rendering option?

Thanks!

Amelia

Using VW 2015

[Guest Wes Gardner]

Hi Amelia,

We use Screenflow for screen capture, I think it's Mac only. Easy to use and inexpensive. What's built into Vectorworks has not been updated for many a year and is therefore a bit sub-par. On the PC side, I think Camtasia is the capture program of choice.

For high quality animations I'd choose Cinema4D in a heartbeat.

Wes

[michaelk]

I can also recommend Screenflow. But if you have a Mac you can start right now with the built in software.

Open QuickTime Player. File > New Screen Recording > Click the red start button > choose full screen or define the recording area > click in menu bar icon to stop.

It's really lightweight and easy. If you don't need the cool editing features in Screenflow it works great.

hth

mk

[rDesign]

Amelia-

To the second part of your question regarding OpenGL, if you are looking to use a screen recording software while you navigate or 'walk' around your Vw model - then yes, OpenGL is your only option.

All rendering modes except wireframe and OpenGL will require recalculating & redrawing with each move of your mouse, which would make your screen recording really painful to watch.

Personally, I think the screen recording method would work well enough if you're just using it in-house as a design process tool.

But if your intent is to show the walk-through videos to Clients / End Users (outside your in-house design team), then as Wes recommended, Cinema4D is the way to go.

[Amelia S]

Thanks!

That's a lot of really helpful information.

I am using a Mac, and I'm playing around with the QuickTime now. I think it will do the trick for the time being! And soon I'll try Cinema 4D.

[Benson Shaw]

Erm - We should also mention the built in VWX Move Along Path Animations.

This allows Renderworks render modes. But can take a long time to render, as each frame of the video is a redraw.

It's a topic in VWX Help.

-B

[Amelia S]

Wow that's promising too. It seems to turn out smoother too. I appreciate the follow-up. Any reason other people don't like to use this method?

[PVA - Admin]

The main point of contention of this method is the control of the views that you move between. You have to set up a number of Saved Views and Vectorworks will automatically move your camera between them, you can control the speed at which it does so but not directly control the smoothness or the way it moves from point to point without creating MANY saved views along the path.

You are also limited to I believe 12 saved views per animation at the moment, so video editing software like screenflow is needed to stitch together longer segments.

Its very useful for showing off a room or a small area of a document, but makes a full walkthrough of a complex building or large area more difficult than one would want.

However, since you can use whatever Rendering settings you wish, the results can be GORGEOUS especially compared to OpenGL if you're willing to put in the time.

[Amelia S]

True, when I try to swoop around in the sky with the move along path animation, it kind of bounces from view to view and I guess that's something I won't be able to fix.

But so far I like it for walkthroughs where the viewer height is consistent. Also, with the screen capture method, the mouse pointer is distracting. (Can that be hidden?)