Jump to content

BIM and correct workflow for elevations


Recommended Posts

I trip over this topic over and over again. I'm now working on my second bigger project in BIM and generally happy with how vectorworks handles things. plans and sections both work rather well. what I'm still having issues with are visible lines behind sections and especially elevations.

 

what would be the ideal way to create an elevation from a model? right now my workflow is to create a viewport of a front view in a design layer and choosing only visible lines as foreground render mode while opengl is used as background render mode. this works most of the time but sometimes random lines are missing or lines that shouldn't be seen are rendered. this is a problem of quality and control which I'm confident can and will be improved in future versions of vectorworks.

 

the second (and this is a big problem for me) is render times. the project I'm working on has 5 stories and rendering a facade in 'only visible lines' takes 5-10 minutes using only 100%/1 core of my machine. Is there any way to improve these render times? this really breaks my workflow and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

 

or am I missing anything?

Link to comment

hi matt

 

thanks for the input! I tried that but I lose a lot of detail/lines like this, at times symbols aren't rendered at all. not sure if my model is too complex maybe? I'll try to post some images later...

Link to comment

ok these are my results and settings: the red elevation is simply using front view while the grey elevation is a section. render times are around 7 minutes for the front view and about twice that for the section. this is unbearably slow unfortunately... if the project was even bigger I'm not sure it would finish at all. vectorworks is using around 50 gb of ram right now.

front view viewport.png

section viewport.png

Link to comment

I'd guess that it's your terrain model that is slowing down the renders.  Have you tried turning it off and seeing how that affects the performance?  Sometimes we use the terrain as an underlay for overdrawing in the elevations, and then turn it off for formal elevations. 

 

Link to comment

thank you for your input. I experimented a little bit more and I think I have found the issue now: I have a lot of meshes in the interior of the building, mainly in the bathrooms (toilets, bathtubs, sinks). if I hide this class render times a reduced to around 20 seconds. the terrain on the other hand does not impact render times very much.

 

so... do NOT use mesh objects in elevations :).

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Interesting.  Meshes are often problematic. 

 

You can also convert the meshed restroom fixtures to hybrid symbols with 2d elevation linework that replaces the hidden line 3d Geometry.  That could also speed up render times in sections.  

 

Also adjusting the depth of render in the section will also reduce the amount of geometry being rendered. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Guest Wes Gardner

For me, I'd use the "Create Section Viewport" command and set the section cut line outside and looking at the building.  This will generate an elevation that is COORDINATED within the set.  The markers for that elevation can then be shown "automatically" in any of your plan views by going to the elevation on the sheet layer, making it active, going to the OIP, scroll down to the bottom and find "Section Line Instances".  Select the "Viewports" tab and then place check marks next to the plan viewports you wish to have your elevation or section markers appear in.

 

Seems you've discovered some of the issues with modeling/meshes/etc. and how to limit the view and/or turn off classes in the viewports to decrease rendering time.

 

 

Screen Shot 2019-06-05 at 10.52.16 AM.png

Link to comment

For elevations I turn off all the classes of objects that are inside the building,  plumbing fixtures, millwork, walls interior etc.

Also when I know my elevation has become static I sometimes generate a PDF of the elevation and then paste that back onto a sheet layer,  that way I don't have to regenerate viewports.

Capture1.JPG

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...