Jershaun Posted September 22, 2003 Share Posted September 22, 2003 That?s it. I?ve had it with this program. I?ve changed from autocad to vw and I know I can change to another program again. I?ve had enough of this nonsense. Vectorworks is just wasting my time. Its time for something better. From the beginning of vw10.0 and every update thereafter I have been asking for the transparency bug to be sorted out and with the release of vw10.5 it looks like this problem will stay with vw. At least in vw8.5 I could get transparency (eg. grid transparency) with soft shadows. I challenge anybody to put an image prop (of a person) in their presentation as well as rendering with mapped (soft) shadows. I mainly do presentation drawings and this feature is critical cause mapped shadows looks better and is faster to render. Vw10.1.2 allowed me to also have my buttons docked between the OIP and the drawing window-vw10.5 doesn?t. Vw10.1.2 kept my undocked 2-column button palette in tacked when I docked it-vw10.5 makes it single column. I?m scared to explore this stupid program for finding more hassles. The amount of problems that this program has and the lack of fixes are unbelievable. I used to enjoy vw but it is now becoming a pain. I wish you all good luck with this bug-laden program and in this waste of time bulletin board where nothing gets noticed and nothing gets achieved. Quote Link to comment
Bart Rammeloo Posted September 22, 2003 Share Posted September 22, 2003 Have fun with your new, wonderful, bug-free and user-friendly application. Oh BTW, if you happen to find such a thing, would you be so kind to let us know what it's called ? Seriously, neither ACAD nor VW are presentation packages in the sense you describe (now that I come to think of it: none of the existing CAD-solutions produces high-end 3D visuals). Yes, there is something called RenderWorks. And yes, we all know that it cannot be compared to any 3D animation solution. It's meant for simple visuals, not for high end results. If you want high end, get the according applications. I can advise C4D from personal experience. And no, it doesn't cost a ton. Cheers, BaRa [ 09-22-2003, 04:19 AM: Message edited by: BaRa ] Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Dave Donley Posted September 22, 2003 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted September 22, 2003 quote: rom the beginning of vw10.0 and every update thereafter I have been asking for the transparency bug to be sorted out and with the release of vw10.5 it looks like this problem will stay with vw. At least in vw8.5 I could get transparency (eg. grid transparency) with soft shadows. I challenge anybody to put an image prop (of a person) in their presentation as well as rendering with mapped (soft) shadows. I mainly do presentation drawings and this feature is critical cause mapped shadows looks better and is faster to render.Hello Shaun: The LightWorks rendering library that underlies RenderWorks cannot give you transparent shadows without rendering the shadows using raytracing - hard shadows. Soft transparent shadows have been requested to them as a wish list item. We cannot provide them if the rendering library does not support them. If you're using directional lights, you could create several of them with angular offsets from each other. The result of the multiple lights would produce a soft edge to the shadows. [ 09-22-2003, 02:06 PM: Message edited by: Dave Donley ] Quote Link to comment
MikeN Posted September 22, 2003 Share Posted September 22, 2003 quote: Originally posted by Shaun: I wish you all good luck with this bug-laden program and in this waste of time bulletin board where nothing gets noticed and nothing gets achieved. You'll come crawling back sooner or later... Quote Link to comment
Jershaun Posted September 23, 2003 Author Share Posted September 23, 2003 BaRa - I respect you and your work however I don?t agree. I can accept a few minor bugs but not TONS of major ones. And if vw is a cad package then why add a rendering solution and try to make it a presentation package as well? They market renderworks as a presentation package-if one wants to go there, one should not go in half-heartedly. BTW I am not asking for rw to be a high-end presentation package, all I am asking for is ONE feature that was used before in vw 8.5 but has now been dropped i.e. transparency with soft shadows. Is that too much to ask for? I also think that you might be right about the C4D route but I have reservations because the people that own C4D owns vw. But C4D is definitely and option. Runtime Error ? Maybe I will, maybe I won?t. There has to be one MAJOR jump in technology in vw for me to come back crawling. If everyone has low standards and accepts bug-laden programs then maybe that?s why we have buggy programs. Personally I need a program that will grow with me and keep up with my pace. And Dave Donley-If you can?t even understand what I said then I can understand why vw is the way it is. I don?t accept that excuse about LightWorks rendering library. Vw 8.5 used it and there was no problem. Why does vw 8.5 give transparency with mapped shadows and vw 10.5 doesn?t. Is it your goal to make vw go backwards? Quote Link to comment
Administrator Pharr Posted September 23, 2003 Administrator Share Posted September 23, 2003 Hi Shaun, VectorWorks 8.5 used a QuickDraw 3D based rendering system and RenderWorks was built on this. As of RenderWorks 9, we transitioned to a completely different implementation of RenderWorks, and the qualitative change in shadow behavior you mention (I'm assuming it is as you describe) was related to this. Your report of this issue last November is the only reference to this change in behavior in our database. We are aware of it, but as it is related to library functionality over which we don't have complete control, we have not been able to resolve it yet. I'm sorry this has had such impact on your work with VectorWorks. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Andrew Bell@NV Posted September 23, 2003 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted September 23, 2003 quote: Originally posted by Pharr: VectorWorks 8.5 used a QuickDraw 3D based rendering system and RenderWorks was built on this. As of RenderWorks 9, we transitioned to a completely different implementation of RenderWorks What Paul doesn't mention, BTW, is that Apple dropped support for QuickDraw3D in Mac OS X, which led to NNA needing to find a replacement renderer for VectorWorks. As you've discovered, this replacement is not a superset of the old renderer in all situations. Quote Link to comment
jnr Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 Hey Shaun: I feel your pain. Based on the topics and volume on this message board, it looks like 10.5 is also, like before, not without its problems (I had to go back to 10.1.2 since .5 doesn't work with W2k). I too have been extremely frustrated with the lack of product stability. It does not bode well. Perhaps trying to be too many things to too many people is not a good market strategy, especially if it doesn't work half the time. I would switch if I wasn't such an old dog. I can't really comment on the shadows issue, I don't have time for super high-end renderings so it doesn't affect me. As for other apps, try Archicad (if your working on buildings). It has OLE support (vectorworks does not), dynamic sections (they update as you change the plan)(vectorworks does not), and with version 8, Art-lantis built in. I hear from my freinds who use it, it sounds like it is very stable. Its 3 times more expensive, but then ask yourself, how much time and money do you lose trying to get Vectorworks to work as promised? You might come out ahead... Good luck. Quote Link to comment
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