Jump to content

Making viewport lines feint / really light


Recommended Posts

Hi All,

 

I've made a simple 3D of a garden I'm working on in VW Landmark. I want to PDF a viewport and then print this out to hand render over the top.  The image is below.

 

3D garden viewport.pdf

 

The issue I have is that the thin black lines around the edge of everything are too dark and heavy. They show up too much. I can't find a way to reduce them. I've tried reducing the pen opacity, colour and weight. I've tried playing around with background render settings and image effects. Nothing changes the lines. I'm wondering if there is a minimum line weight etc that VW needs to display a 3D image.

 

If anyone has any ideas, I would be really grateful.

 

Thanks very much.

Edited by Devonshire
Link to comment
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Might you be able to share the actual Vectorworks file so that it’s easier to make Vectorworks-related suggestions?

 

Aside from that, I’m wondering if perhaps your printer has a setting to print lighter than usual… maybe a “draft” setting that would give you lighter lines to hand draw over.

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Hi Neil,

 

Yes, happy to share.

 

3D garden for hand render.vwx

 

Good idea about the printer. I'll have a look at that, but I also want to be able to send a PDF to others to render and don't want to be reliant on printer settings.  Any VW based fix would be really helpful.

 

Just to say that I'm working on the latest version of VW with the latest service pack installed, on a M1 MacBook Air running Monterey.

 

Many thanks!

Link to comment
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Thanks for sharing! being able to work with the exact file you are using makes providing recommendations MUCH easier.

 

I see that you have already done several of the things I was thinking of suggesting, such as using Shaded (rather than hidden line), with no colours, Ambient Lighting up to 100, etc. This is a good start.

 

I tried some additional tricks with greyed layers and PDF output, adjusting object/layers/class opacities, etc but none of these got where I was hoping to go.

 

A couple of techniques that did make for lighter edge lines...

- On the sheet layer, apply image effects to the 3D view viewport and slide "Shadows" all the way to the left. That will effectively lighten the "dark areas" (i.e. the lines) as much as possible. (This one lightened the edges a little bit.)

- On the sheet layer, a white-filled rectangle set to 80% opacity over the entire 3D view viewport. (This one lightened the edges a lot and you can adjust the opacity of the rectangle to suit your needs.)

 

Hopefully one of these techniques will work for you. 

 

3D garden for hand render - Images effects Shadows to 0.pdf

3D garden for hand render - White mask set to 80pct opacity.pdf

 

Link to comment
  • 3 weeks later...

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...