New camera object is fussy and does not play well with interface

[grant_PD 178]

First off, we need to have dynamic camera stands that allow the camera object to raise and lower.  It's useless to place a camera, on a stand, with a lens, and have control over it EXCEPT how high the lens/body is.  

When I place a camera, it is very difficult to get out of it once I am viewing through it.  I look at the camera palette, and if I have clicked off of it, it does not show as active.  It disappears from the OIP.  But if I change the view with standard view modifiers (number pad), the camera object takes those views as its new setting.  What's worse, it disappears from the model and is replaced by a locus.  

Why does it not show as active in the camera palette?  How can it be active when I've deselected it?  I have to click on the cropped view (which does not show up as blue as per the video in the help file) and then click the deactivate button.  

This is not intuitive. 

[leecalisti 9]

I see someone else has problems with the Renderworks Camera - no response yet. Here is today's issue with it.

Below are four images or a series of actions with no other in-between clicks, keystrokes or commands. Is this a bug?

1. I set a camera

2. I activated the view

3. I clicked "Fine Tune View"

4. The view jumped to this odd view.

 

I have to move on to something else today. Please help.

 

 

[Mike Wright 31]

I too find that 'Fine Tune Camera' does not work.  It doesn't jump like above but the controls do nothing and the whole tool slows down VWX

 

VW2020 Windows 10

[grant_PD 178]

I find they either don't work, or they are jumpy.  I pretty much avoid using them and try to stick with the 3d flyover/perspective controls.

[leecalisti 9]

I used to use Saved Views and then create a rendering with the batch rendering tool. It worked well, but often took a long time. That view could not be altered and the image did not appear in a Viewport. I did like that the output was a JPEG image cropped to the image boundary.

 

Vectorworks and VW users loudly claimed that the only way to go was the camera object - and then they added photo editing features. I trained myself to start using them with a Viewport. Overall it works well, but fine tuning the view is far too difficult for me and I've been a VW user since 1995 and MiniCAD 5.0. Perhaps I'll go back to my old ways.

[grant_PD 178]

IMO,

Any viewport selected in the OIP should show all of the various cameras in the file as part of the drop down for choosing the projection.  That would relieve us of the confusion as to what happens to the camera object when you link it to the viewport, as we do now.  If you don't want to see the camera object in your drawing, put it in a class and turn it off in the viewport settings.  That shouldn't disrupt the cameras' functionality.  OR, make them like light objects: Visible Always/Only in Wireframe/Never.  

 

The new camera object, with its lenses and stands and bodies, is a great idea.  I can see why it makes sense to have this information available to the user so that event companies can accurately depict the gear they have in stock.  But if that's going to be the method, then I would like to have a checkbox for all the bodies/lenses/stands that allows the users to just go for it and get the beauty shot they want and have complete control over: focal length, camera position/angle/rotation, near/far clipping, horizontal/vertical lens shift.