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Hardscapes, and some other vwx objects, display faceted edges from smooth 2d source curves, eg bezier and spline. In the case of Hardscapes, Top Plan view does not show facets. But 3d views show a facet at each curve vertex. A workaround is to convert the source polyline (with curves) to a polygon. No curves, but probably lots of vertices which can slow down redraws and renders. Vertex count in this revised source can be reduced via Modify>Drafting Aids>Simplify Polys. Workaround is only a few steps, and helps the display at close zoom. But new edge is difficult to edit. Often easier to draw a new source polyline with bezier or spline points with subsequent and conversion and simplify. Big effort if lots of changes to several edges over design life. So save the original source poly! It might come in handy. Anyone have a better process? Example starts with 8 vertices. Convert to polygon produces 1027 vertices. Simplify Poly takes it down to 31. Facets nearly invisible at 31. But edits probalby best as do over. -B PS - this is not a 2d/3d conversion pref issue or render quality setting (both Very High), or layer raster resolution (300). Hardscape facets.vwx

I have not seen this before + have no idea what's caused it... Yes. Nomad generates a 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.pts' version of the point cloud which is designed to be viewed on Nomad (because it is oriented correctly) + a 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_VW.pts' version which is the one you are meant to import into VW (which is upended when viewed on Nomad). Make sure you name your scans + save them to a dedicated folder as you create them as it's a nightmare trying to find the files you just created otherwise! (the names Nomad gives them are completely random + they can't be arranged in date-created order... And for the life of me I can't see how you rename them or move them into new folders after the fact!! That could be me though...)

Vectorworks 2022 SP6 Macbook Pro M3 Pro 18GB MacOS Sonoma 14.4.1 Asus ProArt 4K Display PA279CRV as main display connected over USB-C Terrible lag when especially when dragging view when window fully maximised (not full screen), but improved when window slightly minimised. Also improved if the Macbook is closed without being extended display. Previously used 2020 M1 iMac and this starting to not feel like an upgrade.

must resist switching to 2024.... I just experienced this great update today while coordinating a set of plans with 6 different enlargements used across 24 sheets. Salvage, Hardscape, Planting, and Irrigation. Nicely done Vectorworks! I look forward to doing more with this tool.

Or if you look in the same place, Vectorworks > Preferences > Interactive Click on Interactive Appearance Settings… is General - Background - 3D Views set to bright green?

Thanks for posting the image. That IS bright green. Never seen that before. Do you have any Renderworks Backgrounds? Look in the Resource Manager under Renderworks Backgrounds.

What function reference are you looking in? I can't find those functions in the version shipping with VW2024 nor in the on-line Developer version.

His post is nearly 9 years old, perhaps things have improved a little? @htranbos necromanced this thread and had a different concern. I don't know how C4D does things, but Vectorworks has a rudimentary stacking of transparency that actually exports pretty good, see video. What would be nice is to have by object and z-buffer exporting, but I can't fault VWX for not having those given it's purpose and audience. allmixedup.mov

Taking the Plan rotation into account has been a little more challenging but I got it to work now: Checks if Plan is rotated: plan_rotated := GetPref(92); Returns Plan Rotation: PlanRot := GetPrefReal(93); Then a little math: theta:= Deg2Rad(PlanRot); rotX:= X * cos(theta) - Y * sin(theta); rotY:= X * sin(theta) + Y * cos(theta);

@Jeff Prince It does support an alpha channel. But what it doesn't have is the object buffer system like C4D. Where you can render out multiple alpha channels for different objects. When I speak of alpha transparency export, that's what I am referring to. So to @Kaare Baekgaard's point, I read that as what he is wanting.

In the function list in Vectorworks there are the commands CE_TransformVector and CE_invTransformVector. They appear to be meant to transform a vector using a matrix (Matrix multiplication). It also says it requires the Handle of the transformation matrix (But I don't know how I can get the handle of a matrix). Has anybody ever used these commands? I can't find anything about them online. I think this might be quite a useful feature if it would be working somehow.

Thanks, duly noted. This is generally working pretty well. I've added a popup parameter to choose the number of colours required from one to three, which creates the same number of named classes to assign colours to, and the same number of colour cells in the tag. Only downside over a data tag is that a new position value in the truss won't trigger an update of the tag. I guess that is where things move in to event enabled, so I'll come back to that. Also, is there a way to force single-click insertion rather than click position > set rotation please? No big deal if not.

It's bright green in all 3D views. Custom, orthagonal, etc etc.

@aclymer Welcome to the forum. I'm assuming that you must be in a perspective mode in 3D? If you look at the top left of the VW window there will be a pulldown for view that will say something like Custom View or Right Isometric. Just below that is a view menu pull down perspectives. Yours probably says Narrow, Normal, or Wide Perspective (?). If that's the case the green you are seeing is the default "ground" for perspective views. To test this try setting the the view from a Perspective view to an Orthogonal view. If this makes the green go away then that the issue. You can either work in Orthogonal view or change the color of the ground in perspective views. To change the color of the ground in perspective views: Vectorworks > Preferences > Interactive Click on Interactive Appearance Settings… If you are sorting ascending by Interface Element then General - Background - Perspective Horizon Ground will be about the 7th from the top. There are color pickers on the right side to change the colors. If that's not it, take a screen shot and post it here.

I just got Vectorworks Architect 2024 today. When I go into 3D, the entire work area of the screen is bright green! I cannot find a way do turn this off. If you hold down the ctrl button and the mouse wheel to fly around, it briefly turns off. But when you let go, it goes right back to florescent green. My eyes can't take this. Can anyone help me turn this feature off?

Convert to 2022.zip

@Andrew Lees This is what I've found to make point clouds from Nomad work successfully. 1. Use a recent, pro version of the iPhone to get better LIDAR. 2. Smaller scans. Only do one room at a time. Maybe two if they are small. The issue is drift. The larger the area of scan the more likely that it will "drift" a little. That's why you are seeing some walls duplicated on a different axis. 3. I like to scan around the other side of connecting wall openings to get wall thickness and to help line up adjacent scans. It's important to always have objects or architectural features that will appear in at least one other scan to help line them up later. 4. Watch the screen as you are scanning. There is a slider on the bottom of the screen. It only controls pass through from the camera to the screen while scanning. It has nothing to do with what gets recorded (AFAIK). Try turning it way down so you are seeing primarily or only the points that are being recorded. Sometimes you will see a "jump" happen while recording. I can't prove it but I think that's the scan losing its place. Discard that scan and start over. 5. In the VW drawing, lay out all the rooms from individual scans. It takes a little while to rotate them all to the same direction. I've found that if you use the _VW.pts version of the file, the floors will be level, but not necessarily at Z=0. But they appear to be close to the same - usually negative - Z value. If you've got one scan of a hallway, then it's easier to align the scans of the rooms off the hallway using the door openings. If you keep each scan on a separate layer it makes it easier to work with and you are less likely to select the wrong scan by accident. 7. When you have all your room scans laid out, use the clip cube to cut the top and bottom so you only have a sliver showing about 3 or 4 feet above the floor. Try looking at it in top/plan view as well as top view in shaded rendering to see what shows up better for you. That will give you a floor plan that looks like all the wall lines are about 5/8" thick. You sort of have to draw it not too zoomed in. The closer you get the more you see the spaces between the points. You will quickly find the sweet spot. 8. Once you draw your walls, guess at window and door sizes and locations. Select one wall, turn on the clip cube and set the visibility to wireframe. Now it's really fast to use the new drag handles on doors and windows align them with then scans. 9. It also works outside. I've had pretty good success using it to get eave overhangs, roof pitches, hardscapes, external columns, existing tree sizes and locations. About half the time on a building the size you are working on it will hold together long enough to scan the exterior of the entire residence well enough to get an accurate footprint. I haven't tried this yet, but I've heard that using a tripod for your iPhone that rotates around 360 and scanning several times in the same room produces better results.

But now the issue started again, crashing sometimes when sending to printer. Arg!

Hi all! Is someone able to help convert a VW2024 file to VW2022? I have attach it to this thread. Thanks! Archive.zip

I am new to Vectorworks and this is my first attempt to use point clouds captured with Nomad. Now, my scan of this floor plan seems to be a bit of mash-up, but that is not my main issue right now. I have seen a VW video on this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cQv1da242Q) and the point cloud model shown in that seems to behave somewhat differently than mine. In the video the presenter is able to zoom in and trace the point cloud - which looks great. When I zoom in however I get two problems: The density of the point cloud seems to decrease - to the point of it being too vague to find hard edges to trace once I get close. I have a grid pattern superimposed over my point cloud. The size of this grid (which is manifest as gaps in the point cloud) gets denser and more obscuring the more I zoom in. The attached images show progressive zoom-ins as described above. This is an orthogonal top view (not plan view) with section box cutting the horizontal slice. For info, the point cloud was imported at 100% points resolution. Suggestions? Thanks

Not really. 10 years ago I put 4 lights on separate circuits, 3 of which had the same unit number but different positions, on the same channel to make a path. Happens rarely, but does happen. Position and Unit Number would be unique, and would have the additional advantage of telling you where the fixture is. That doesn't matter with this problem, but the use of channel numbers to identify fixtures drives me crazy. Where the #$@&! is channel 203? It's not coming on, and the programmer wants me to troubleshoot it.

I don't think so but be interested to know if this kind of thing is scriptable. This kind of relates I think to what I posted about here i.e. being able to more easily switch between the fourth + whatever other mode of the Selection Tool you use rather than having to toggle through all four modes: It would be great to just be able to toggle Transform Mode on + off.

I am having the same problem. Would be great if VW2024 allowed mapping of class-assigned textures, as previous VW versions have done.

I'm experiencing the same thing. Would love an answer to this question.

I sense a disturbance in the Force