Dimensioning Objects in Viewports / Issues and Questions regarding how i am supposed to do it

[palix]

I am new to using Viewports.

I have modeled an object on a design layer and have now begun building viewports on sheet layers.

When i attempt to dimension objects in the viewports (after first double clicking the viewport to edit annotations) i encounter the following problems;

   1. If i want to show the angle of something, i find i first have to draw two lines over the objects and then use the angle tool to get the angle of those 2 lines.

   2. Similarly, if i want to use the radius tool on a curved piece of geometry, i have to find it's center, and draw a circle out to it, use the radius tool on the circle, disassociate the dimension from the circle and delete the cir    cle so that it doesn't show up in my drafting.

  3. anything curved seems to be a real problem for viewports, displaying it properly, (increasing the 3d conversion resolution in Vectorworks preferences) and as i said above dimension-ing it, finding it's center.

So is this the way these things are supposed to work? or am i really missing something?

I've been using V-Works for about 9 years now, having started with V-Works10 / moving up to 2009 / 2011 and now a big jump to 2016. I work in the entertainment industry, drafting scenery for movies and TV, not alot of standard doors or windows, lots of curvy sci-fi things, typically i am building the objects myself, but now I have to draft them for others, love the idea of viewports, but feel i am missing something as relates to dimesioning and displaying them efficiently.

Thanks for reading this.

Paul

 

 

 

[Kevin McAllister]

Hi Paul,

2 hours ago, palix said:

  1. If i want to show the angle of something, i find i first have to draw two lines over the objects and then use the angle tool to get the angle of those 2 lines.

   2. Similarly, if i want to use the radius tool on a curved piece of geometry, i have to find it's center, and draw a circle out to it, use the radius tool on the circle, disassociate the dimension from the circle and delete the cir    cle so that it doesn't show up in my drafting.

This is how I work too. I have a special class to put these "guide" objects into so they disappear (no fill / no line) and I can adjust them if needed later. Its slowly getting better and you'll find some objects dimension without guides. Are you working in 2d or 3d?

2 hours ago, palix said:

3. anything curved seems to be a real problem for viewports, displaying it properly, (increasing the 3d conversion resolution in Vectorworks preferences) and as i said above dimension-ing it, finding it's center.

What render modes are you using for your viewports? I see faceting once and a while. It usually occurs with large geometry (size) or solids will a lot of history. Usually I can fix it by adjusting the render settings (detail level & crease angle for OpenGL / smoothing angle for hidden line / quality level for curved geometry in Custom Renderworks Styles / Advanced Properties>Display tab for Section Viewports (these options really need to be all brought together somewhere.....its so complicated) ). Maybe post an example image and a little info about how you're rendering it and we can try and help further.

I'm drawing similar stuff to you and have used Sheet Layer Viewports exclusively for creating drawings since 2009.....

Kevin

[Kevin McAllister]

@JimWI tried to bring this comment above to your attention - (these options really need to be all brought together somewhere.....its so complicated) but the (at) function failed and made the post not edit properly. There may be a bug with the (at) coding using Safari on a Mac.

KM

[palix]

Hey Kevin,

Thanks for your feed back.

Honestly drawing the lines on existing things to get the angles isn't that big of a deal, just seems dumb that you have to do it that way.

I think I need to bite the bullet and turn some of my more complicated geometry into generic solids and get rid of all the history, i hear that helps with render time too. I just worry that i'll need to go back and edit the piece and won't be able to, maybe I'll just have to have an editable copy somewhere for that occasion.

I render the viewports with final quality background and hidden line foreground (i like the way that looks) and for the most part it looks pretty decent. I just have to develope my workflow for drafting with viewports a little better, in the past I pretty much ignored all the parts of the program that help that functionality (ie: classes, sheet layers, rendering settings) pretty much everything I was doing was going from my computer to the CNC machines.

Unfortunately due to NDA agreements that I have signed, i cant post anything that i am working on.

Thanks for responding.

Paul

 

 

 

 

 

[Kevin McAllister]

I'm not sure if converting to generic solids helps render time. It will help with file size though. I usually keep the history because I often need to edit things later. Changes are the nature of the business 

I render in the same way, though I use a Render Style for the background. I use the same class structure for all of my projects and drag/copy viewports to economize on how much time I spend messing with viewport class settings. I also turn most of my scenic elements into symbols and put a copy both in the full site model and on a layer of its own. The copy on the layer of its own is used to generate the construction drawing for that piece. I centre it on its layer and then setting up the viewports for it is easy - its layer turned on and the others turned off. Its the way I teach students to work because its fast and means once I have a 3d model of a show it only takes a few hours to create construction drawings.

Let me know if you want to know more about this workflow.

Kevin