Jump to content

VW Walls ruin my C4D Exchange


zoomer

Recommended Posts

I think working with standard Generic Solids is quite safe.

But for my ever design-changing clients :

 

- editing Extrudes does corrupt and not refresh their Textuer Mapping (UVW)

(I work against it by changing Projection and "use world Z for ...")

- Rejoining, editing or worst, changing Layer assignments of Walls

does either create double Walls (previous and after version) or completely

missing Walls. Edited Walls with Materials by overall Wall sides will be separated

to individual Meshes after exchange. UVW's get mad + non-helpfule Phong and

Normal Tags are added.

- Inserted Windows and Doors being moved in a Wall will disappear and or lose

Wall Cuts.

 

The only workarounds for me are,

either, in C4D, try to find and delete double Wall Objects when you miss cutouts,

or delete the raleated Objects, exchange again and it may re-appear healthy,

or delete the whole VW import geometry folder and import from scratch.

(With all Layer or Material re-managing)

Link to comment
  • 3 weeks later...

@zoomer

 

Hey Zoomer

 

I no longer use C4D (dropped it a long time back) but I am interested in the thread.

 

Are you saying that you turn your walls to solids before export or do you leave them as walls? (I found that making windows and doors solids was a must).

 

When the walls are in C4D are they tris or quads (tris I suspect as VW only exports tris). If so do you then make them quads?

 

Either way (solid or wall object) do you have internal faces at the corners or is each wall (right and left in VW terminology) separate? (I guess separate). If separate do you leave them like that or join them in C4D to help with UV mapping?

 

If you do make them solids in VW you are a bit screwed if you have to have a change back in VW so I guess you would then make solid and keep a copy of the original walls. Any changes in the VW file will mean a refresh of the UV map of course so from this pov the whole process is a manual pain.

 

thanks

 

 

I was talking to a C4D guy the other day and pointed out that you can add loop cuts to create a hole in the wall and imagine if you had the two rectangles on either side of the wall you can select both faces and bridge. This will auto remove the faces and create the 4 quads to bridge the wall all in a single operation. 

Edited by barkest
Link to comment

I won't renounce of Walls in VW.

Modeling Solids is too cumbersome.

 

I don't quite understand why other Objects work fine with C4D Exchange

but Walls (and maybe other PIOs) will lose Windows in Walls completly

because I did changes and moved them a few centimeters.

Or Walls disappearing after I moved and rejoined them to other Walls.

 

I think here Exchange does not work as designed.

 

My only option is to delete Parts or All from the VW import Folder,

save file and restart C4D to reload the Exchange content.

With all re-setting work that may be required.

 

No problem with Triangulation with C4D or FBX to C4D for me.

Everything as Quad-ish as possible.

Also both formats bring each single CAD Object as an own Mesh with

proper welded Vertices.

(Good for Manipulations and Repairs, but millions of small Meshes in tons

of groups, are tedious for OpenGL and Handling, in Mesh Modelers)

 

Of course each Wall is a separate Object, so joined Walls will have

2 "unnecessary" Faces where they touch,. when you want to combine

them (Like needed for Bevels at Wall Edges)

In this case such Faces have to be selected and deleted before

welding both Meshes.

Otherwise Face Normals will go nuts.

Link to comment

Interesting deciding which walls (objects) need welding together for UV mapping. If you are doing internal views then adding the internal walls then putting the external walls on the same map unless of course they belong to other areas of the space than need putting together etc. etc.

 

I find that making the windows and doors single objects in VW,  so ungrouping and making a single solid solves the issue (most of the time) but then I have to look out for internal faces and normals are easy to handle as I always fix as required as well as optimising. The issue is that I have to keep the windows and doors are original objects in VW incase I have to change them.

 

The other option is to make all windows and doors openings and then import the windows and doors (as solid objects) separately. This way moving windows/doors can be done quite easily after export which saves me heaps of work.

 

Biggest manual effort is UV Mapping and honestly that is down to working out how best to join the objects and arrange the islands.

 

 

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...
On 7/30/2019 at 10:40 PM, zoomer said:

WTF

 

Tough if you just renewed your MSA

 

Anyhow, recently Trimble (Sketchup) announced subscription based licensing, of course Adobe did it a long time back, now Maxon......who is next?

 

Seems like its not a popular option for existing users as you no longer own the software but it does allow new entrants so depends where you sit I guess

Edited by barkest
Link to comment

You can still get a perpetual license, but only for what is now the most expensive option (i.e. no longer a basic version for just rendering) and if they are going to pull an Adobe it will be interesting to see for how long a perpetual license option will remain available. Oh well... like with Autodesk and Adobe there will probably be some competitors gearing up to provide perpetual license alternatives for those who don't need all bells and whistles (esp. if they are not needed for ones area of work) claiming that with them rental is optional.

Link to comment

I understand that I will get, at least, a perpetual R21 Full Version

as my MSA renewal was done just a few days ago.

(Could be even an R22 next year if my MSA last that long)

 

You can still buy a perpetual C4D Studio in the future but

that makes only sense if you will not upgrade.

And if they go mainly subscription only, they may skip annual

releases anyway.

So like for Modo, that means you could buy a perpetual C4D

as it is at that time but don't get any updates or service packs

anymore.

Or you go subscription, then there is no need to buy any perpetual

license before.

 

I think in my case I will get that R21 C4D Visualize to C4D Studio upgrade

for free, just because there are no more lower versions.

If I "would" want to switch to subscription, there would also be MSA fee refund

and other funny offers.

 

C4D subscription is basically the anual MSA fee for C4D Studio,

which I think had the majority of users.

So totally ok for Studio users.

Even better for C4D starters as they don't need to invest in a C4D

packages before.

Just more expensive for formar C4D Broadcast/Visualize and even

C4D prime version users with MSA.

 

Link to comment

My understanding is that with a perpetual you don't get Cineversity, you can't use plugins and you have to log online every 14 days. Something along these lines I think

 

Also the monthly cost is way higher than the annual when taken over 12 months.

 

Even more interesting for me is that Blender 2.8 has massively got its act together and the recent influx of high profile investors, and then of course Autodesk announced Max and Maya at $250 per year (£275 uk) for a full version if your turnover is < $100k. This is a 1-year trial to see if it works. If that continues where does it leave Maxon?

 

Blender == free, Autodesk == $250, Maxon is significantly more. Autodesk announced it a day or so after the Siggraph presentation from Maxon - go figure

 

 

Edited by barkest
Link to comment

Yes, licensing got much more complicated now.

Could be that I stay with R19 because of that anyway.

(R20 had no important features for me and is still buggy

or has issues, R21 also has no new features ....)

 

As C4D does not support Linux,

and never will now since under Adobe,

I don't know why I did another MSA renewal this year anyway

but it was meant again as another last renewal.

 

Blender may not yet be a complete package for my ArchViz

workflow (I am not sure how far) but currently it is the most

interesting 3D package with most innovation.

So I watch it intensively and even try to learn it.

 

For Linux my current workflow option will be Bricscad and Modo,

which I still upgrade regularily also. That is my agenda until 2020.

At the end, in 5 years, it could be finally FreeCAD + Blender under

Linux.

 

But maybe I will still go VW + C4D in a Windows VM on Linux,

for another few years,

because I am lazy 🙂

 

 

 

Link to comment
  • 5 months later...
On 6/7/2019 at 10:40 PM, zoomer said:

- Inserted Windows and Doors being moved in a Wall will disappear and or lose

Wall Cuts.

 

 

I think the problem is,

in such a case of editing Door-in-Wall's positions,

VW Doors (from Revit imported) that have their whole geometry from using an inserted Symbol only,

when exchanged (by updating) into C4D,

the Render Instances in C4D will lose their assignment to the original Door Symbol !

 

I can manually go in and select all Doors one by one and re-assign the correct Symbol,

then all Doors will reapper.

Tedious of course.

Link to comment

Second,

 

when Exchange-Updating my VW Geometry in C4D,

when I changed Objects Classes (and so Attributes) which where inside a Group,

those (attribute and Material) changes don't find their way into C4D at all.

 

Did not try, but maybe ungrouping all Groups and later assign a new Group would help.

(I did corrections manually again in C4D, to not risk my deadlines)

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...