Vectorworks Landscape 2020 design cannot be exported DWG or otherwise.

[Curtwitt]

Hello all,

 

I am several months into working with Vectorworks Landmark 2022.  I have just completed a first 2D landscape design on an imported DWG base plan.  Everything has gone well and I have recently developed 4 sheets with a variety of viewports and imported an imported spread sheet.  When I went to export or publish the viewports, only two of the 4 exported successfully as PDFs. The other two froze and crashed my iMac.  I ended up printing them to PDFs instead of exporting or publishing them.

 

Now I am to the stage of exporting a DWG for the Architect to use to finalize the plan.  I cannot export in any of several formats I have tried (DWG, DWF, PDF, etc.).  It always freezes at an object very late in the process (somewhere around 7720 of 7760 objects.  The program crashes and has to be force quit.  I have let it sit for an hour with no resolution.  

 

I can export another simpler drawing I am used as a tutorial.  It was an imported DWG that I modified as well.

 

I am working in OS 12.4 Monterey on a late 2015 iMac with plenty of RAM but just standard vRAM.  I have also tried the process using the same file on a more recent M1 iMac running Monterey and has the same experience.Any help with this is welcome.  Deadlines are approaching.

 

[Jeff Prince]

I have had this happen before due to a bad object from the dwg import which I started a project from.  I ended up purging the VWX file of unused things and that resolved my problem, perhaps this will help resolve yours.  You might also look at your DWG export settings, perhaps you have it configured in such a way that it is causing the problem.

 

If those tips don't resolve the issue, I could take a look at your file and see if it has any problem objects or oddities in it.  I've got some time to kill, setting up a new computer at the moment...

[Curtwitt]

16 hours ago, jeff prince said:

I have had this happen before due to a bad object from the dwg import which I started a project from.  I ended up purging the VWX file of unused things and that resolved my problem, perhaps this will help resolve yours.  You might also look at your DWG export settings, perhaps you have it configured in such a way that it is causing the problem.

 

If those tips don't resolve the issue, I could take a look at your file and see if it has any problem objects or oddities in it.  I've got some time to kill, setting up a new computer at the moment...

Hi Jeff,

 

I really appreciate your response.  My problem is that being so inexperienced with CAD and Vectorworks, I have no idea what to look for in terms of configuration or oddities.    I'm happy to share the file for you to look at (see attached).  I am just using the default export options. Please forgive any amateurish mistakes, of which their must be plenty. The DWG originated in AutoCad and then was modified in Dynascape.  If you have the time I appreciate any effort you expend on it.  If you see any likely issues, please share your insights.  

 

Thanks,

 

Curt

Herbst-Knott Residence w-Trees and Shrubs.vwx

[Jeff Prince]

@Curtwitt I had a chance to review your file and here are my findings:

 

Probable Cause

The Tile "Aggregate- 1 Image Fill TF", though I did not investigate how or why you are using it or how and why it is causing the problem.

 

Solution

Browse your file in the Resource Manager, find the offending Tile definition there and delete it.  When prompted to replace it with something else, don't.

Purge the drawing to clean it up.

Proceed to use Publish to make your PDFs, Export to DWG to make the file for sharing.

 

I was able to successfully produce the attached.  The PDF opens in Preview and Acrobat just fine.  The DWG opens in AutoCAD just fine too.

 

Anyhow, a relatively simple fix, but challenging to solve if you do not know what to look for or how to autopsy a file 🙂

Hopefully this helps you achieve what you need to.

 

 

 

 

Herbst-Knott Residence w-Trees and Shrubs-deleted image from tile-tile deleted.dwg Herbst-Knott Residence w-Trees and Shrubs-deleted image from tile-tile deleted.pdf

[Curtwitt]

28 minutes ago, jeff prince said:

Probable Cause

The Tile "Aggregate- 1 Image Fill TF", though I did not investigate how or why you are using it or how and why it is causing the problem.

 

Solution

Browse your file in the Resource Manager, find the offending Tile definition there and delete it.  When prompted to replace it with something else, don't.

Purge the drawing to clean it up.

Proceed to use Publish to make your PDFs, Export to DWG to make the file for sharing.

Jeff, thanks so much.  

 

Fantastic!  I have no idea how to discover that.  I searched in the Resource Manager, saw two occurrences of that Tile and managed  to delete one.  That did the job indeed.

 

We didn't use that resource so I presume it came in with the original base design.  

 

I presume if you could have explained your approach simply, you would have so I'll thank you and leave it at that.  Sounds like it is not a common problem so hopefully I won't be bothering you with more of that anytime soon.

 

Thanks again,

 

Curt

[Jeff Prince]

My pleasure, glad it helped.

 

My approach is systematic, maybe a bit complicated, but it boils down to a quarantine procedure of each design layer into separate files.  Since the problem occurred while publishing sheets and exporting design layers to DWG, the problem was most likely going to be found in a design layer.  The publish problem usually points to heavy graphics or scale issues tripping VWX up when it is trying to build a PDF representation.  The usual suspects.... Tiles, Gradients, and Hatches are always a good bet as to where the problem lies.  So, when I noticed a particularly heavy tile in your file that used circles and images in it that I did not notice while browsing your sheets, I was pretty sure I had found your monkey wrench.

 

These types of issues are not unique to VWX.  Similar things happen in AutoCAD, etc.  If you have a graphic that would be a pain to draw by hand, there's a good chance the computer will go on strike over the same thing.  They plot against us and time their protests whenever deadlines are looming 🙂