11/29/08
Serving the Seattle VectorWorks Users Group and Northwest VectorWorks users.
An archive of past newsletters can be found at http://converttolines.blogspot.com/
To contact me, please write to tomgreggs@comcast.net or call (206) 524-2808
In this issue:
• NNA (still) coming to demo Version ‘09
• New movie for User Group members
• Getting to converted line drawings while using Stack Layers
• Making promotional materials
• Misc. cautions, etc.
No meeting for December as usual but I had more than a few things to talk about so I’m getting this letter out hoping to have a running start when we return in late January. By then I hope to have a few hours under my belt using Version ‘09 which is due to arrive any day now.
............
Still time to register for the free demo of Vectorworks 2009, to be held December 11th, on Thursday evening, downtown Seattle. Please pass this on to anyone you know who uses Vectorworks. Thanks!
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/209798513
...........
We have a new movie provided by NNA for user group members.
Francois Levy, leader of the Austin Texas Vw User Group, has created a movie that shows how he uses the power of Vectorworks to design in 3d, then display model information throughout his plans. Levy has evolved a sophisticated approach to plan development. I think you’ll enjoy seeing him employ those processes.
http://download2.nemetschek.net/www_movies/user_group/Levy_Bim_small_project.mov
............
The following describes how to use Stack Layers to rapidly get four exterior hidden line views of your model, placed on new layers, rendered and converted to lines for ease of editing.
Reconciling old and new technologies within your Vectorworks workflow is a normal part of learning and advancing but can sometimes be a challenge when a technique you’ve used in creating drawings disappears. The direction we’ve gotten from NNA is that we should be using Stack Layers, along with Viewport Sections, to display our models. This is a natural evolution as new ways are developed to show information but as a result of this transition, we find tools such as Create Layer Link and Model View tool left off the main menus and sent into the Legacy folder. And yet there isn’t an official method—no developed alternative—for getting to the benefits of a traditional model-on-design layer using Stack Layers. For me, a big benefit of the past has been ease of converting a model into editable lines.
Stack Layers has become a key part of my drawing process and there is real advantage to seeing your model all at once while being able to isolate layers to correct various issues, usually related to textures or fills; errors that typically show up during rendering. Many of you have embraced Stack Layers and not looked back. When you’ve needed to edit-over unfinished or unwanted lines, you do it in Annotations mode after making a viewport of a model view. I find in my own drawings I do quite a bit of reworking of viewports, both adding lines, revising weights, or adding details, frequently because pushing the 3d model toward total completion didn’t seem practical at the time. These days I use Stack Layers to make viewport-based elevations of my drawing, typically in Hidden Line style, and I stay with these as long as possible, taking advantage of automatic updating of layers since projects change over time. But ultimately I want to convert my model to lines so editing is easier, really, much easier than staying solely with Stack Layers based viewports.
To start, assemble your Stack Layers model in the regular way by turning to visible any design layers holding 3d info. (Tip: indent the name of each 3d-holding layer by three spaces to ease finding them on your Layers list, then bunch them together). Make a viewport and send it not to a Sheet, but to a Design Layer. This is called a DLVP. Note that from this single DLVP you can rotate the model contained within to any view. Set your model to a side view, render in Hidden Line, then Convert Copy to Lines. Send the converted lines, using the OIP (or Object Info palette) to a new design layer we’ll name “Elevations”. From there it can be ungrouped and edited.
BONUS TECHNIQUE: before you render a second view, but after having sent your lines to the Elevations layer, select the Render Bitmap tool from the floating palettes (look at the Visualization palette sporting the light bulb and select the teapot icon) and drag it over the elevation such that it creates a full color image, perhaps using Custom Renderworks, which can be chosen from the Render Bitmap Options palette. Send this image to your Elevations layer and it will fall exactly atop the rendered lines. Obviously, we’ll want to send the full color rendering to the back so that the lines sit up front, accenting and highlighting the colored image. Repeat this process for the other three elevations but do the bitmap render first and the hidden lines second which places them in the correct order.
Make a viewport of each elevation, either of the line work alone from Hidden Lines rendering, or a composite including the Bitmap renderings.
From here you can annotate each elevation viewport, organize them on sheets and eventually print. If your model changes later, you can redo the bitmap render and replace the old with the new rendering. Same with the Hidden Line rendering. Having made a viewport of the line work from each face of the model, if the model changes you can turn the DLVP to visible, set it to match the original orientation, and rework your lines, assuming that the changes are small. If the changes are big, re-render as Hidden Line and Convert Copy to Lines again.
I found, in editing lines placed over a fully rendered model, that the result looked really good but there were many lines I didn’t want, lines that cluttered, rather than aided clarity. Among these:
•Muntin bar lines
•cable railing lines
•lines from objects with a heavy polygon count (people)
These can all be hand-edited out. With a little advance planning, you could class your cables and turn that class off prior to beginning Hidden Line rendering. I removed the image of the person from my line drawing by doing just that, since, with its high poly count, it rendered out as nearly all black. I turned that class back ON when rendering with Custom Renderworks, going into the dead lines VP and removing background lines that now overlaid and obscured my figure. The muntin bars can’t be controlled by class so manual removal is the only option.
If you use the Render Bitmap tool, be sure to set your dpi high, perhaps to 300, via the Render Bitmap Options palette found in the upper left hand corner of the Mode bar once the tool has been activated. Also, make sure you Edit the final Sheet layers to also show a 300 dpi setting.
More tips:
•DLVP’s can be duplicated.
•In assembling my 3d-containing design layers, using Stack Layers, into something usable, I will often employ the Camera tool to place a 3d loci into one of my 3d layers which can then be activated via the OIP or by clicking on the camera angle icon to generate a perspective view. If you find that your DLVP of a perspective view has lost its position and is now in Top View, go to the layer holding the camera loci (don’t forget which one) and dbl. click it. Now click on your DLVP. The correct setting should return. If you forget which layer you’ve placed the camera loci on, you can easily find it by using the Visualization palette and clicking on the camera reference which will restore the orientation.
•When you do a Convert Copy to Lines and send those lines to a new layer, an odd condition can occur when the receiving layer inherits the same 3d orientation of the original layer but the converted lines no longer contain 3d information. Hit Command 5 or Control 5 (or Top/Plan View) and your converted lines will appear.
•You have quite a bit of control of lighting using Custom Renderworks. In Custom Renderworks Options, look under the Adjust Lighting tab as well as under the Rendering tab.
•When using the Render Bitmap tool on a Stack Layers model, the bitmap will be created BEHIND the model and you won’t be able to see it. Turn off Stack Layers after the rendering is finished. You’ll see it then and be able to route it to the appropriate layer. This behavior doesn’t happen on a DLVP. If you render a few times in this fashion and know that the image is still selected, then just send it on to the appropriate layer.
•Add “DLVP” as a prefix to the front of any design layer containing a DLVP to help you recognize its unique status.
•There are two palettes within Vw named Visualization. OOPS, in my opinion. There is the tear-off palette containing a host of tools. There is also the palette available via the main menu under Window > Palettes that holds instances of light objects and camera views.
In the future, I’d love to be able to edit my viewports by reaching into the model, shift-selecting to hide lines or otherwise modify, ideally by using a keyboard command. Workarounds, such as I’ve described above, are no fun. And feature-envey is no fun either when you find a competing CAD app has just added the very tool you want. From the Sketchup 7 web site: “Right-click on any placed SketchUp model and choose Explode. Depending on how it was rendered, you'll get vector lines, raster images, or a combination of both. It's the easiest way to get vector geometry to edit directly, hands-down.”
Ok, NNA, the gauntlet has been thrown down. Everything old is new again!
I’d like to thank Kevin Keys for input on this topic and for Matt Panzer for starting the thread on the NNA Listserv. Any mistakes or misrepresentations in the above discussion are entirely mine.
............
Use Vectorworks to make your promotional materials. I created a job sampler recently which consisted of six projects. Four featured fully rendered perspective drawings including photographs of the existing residence prior to construction. One included PDF’s of parts of the working drawings showing isometric views of a detail from a ellipse-shaped eyebrow dormer. Two were rendered in hidden line set to Sketch mode. All had some amount of text defining the project. The lead sheet included a viewport of a title block. The final output was in PDF format.
To make something like this, you could start with the method outlined in the Convert Copy to Lines description above. In my case, I wished to finesse the 3d output in Photoshop, where I could stamp out aberrations and drop a sky color into the background and onto corner windows. To do this I made sure my Sheet layer dpi was set high and then I exported the images to the desktop as JPEG’s. To export line detail such as details from your working drawings, don’t use a raster process like a JPEG, instead create a viewport of the detail, place it on a sheet, and then export as a PDF. This keeps the vector-based lines sharp and avoids the jaggies. Once all these elements are on the desktop, start a new file, letter sized, and import each set of images to a single layer in the new file. The layer scale should be set at 1:1. Once you have all the images assigned to unique sheet layers and arranged to your liking, export all as a PDF (Batch) file.
Some like to export using TIFF or PNG since they lose less data, gain fewer compression artifacts and therefor look better when printed. File sizes may be larger to much larger versus JPEG. In testing one rendering, size grew from 692 KB for the JPEG, to 3.5 MB for the PNG, and to 6.7 MB for the TIFF. Test print to see what looks best for your particular output.
See Convert to Lines #31 for info on setting printing resolution.
..............
If you are using Vectorworks 2009, the advice I’ve read on the NNA Tech Board is to NOT convert an existing drawing into V. 2009 but rather finish in V. 2008 (or earlier) and start any new project in ‘09.
.............
That’s it for now. See you in the new year!
Tom Greggs
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Friday, November 07, 2008
Convert to Lines #31
11/2/08
Serving the Seattle VectorWorks Users Group and Northwest VectorWorks users.
An archive of past newsletters can be found at http://converttolines.blogspot.com/
Please contact me at tomgreggs@comcast.net
In this issue:
•NNA coming to demo Version ‘09
• Early word on 2009
• Animation continued
•Misc. cautions, misc. resources
•Adjusting preferences for printing
•More free advice
Greetings VectorWorks users! Join us Thursday, November 13th, 6:30 to 8:30 PM for the first User Group meeting of the season. We’re going look at using Stack Layers in Vw 2008 to view and edit, light and set perspective views. We’ll also want to share your ideas with the group and help with any questions you might have. I’ll have several 3D renderings to share of the planned remodel of the Wood Construction Center facility.
Our meeting will take place at the Seattle Central Community College Wood Construction Center lecture hall. The hall is located at 2310 S. Lane St. (intersection of 23rd Avenue South and South Lane Street). Parking is available in the gated lot off South King Street, just one block south of Jackson Street. The lecture hall is the building directly adjacent to the parking lot at its south side. Walk up the wooden side-ramp to the second door.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally back! Sorry for the long delay in writing but I’ve been waiting for a couple of things to happen. One was that the Vw’s update was about to arrive (Vw is the new shorthand) and I was expecting to bring it loaded on the laptop to our next meeting. That hasn’t happened--something about NNA not being able to ship my particular grade until quite late in the product cycle. I’m still waiting. The other reason, apart from outright entropy, was that NNA has been planning a Seattle tour to show off version 2009 and I was hoping to relay that date. I can say that Thursday, December 11th is currently being contemplated--tentatively contemplated--with the event site located in downtown Seattle. I WILL send out notice as soon as they determine their schedule.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Tech Board and List Serv comments have been very positive about the new version. The change to a better modeling kernel--Parasolid by Siemens PLM--may be the biggest advance. We should have far better ability to create objects in Vw ‘09, that in ‘08 and below. For instance, creating a handrail which follows an offset stairwell downward was not possible prior to this upgrade.
Siemens is a huge company with 5.5 million seats and 51,000 customers using various brands of their software.
Here is a URL to Parasolid if you’d like more info:
http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/open/parasolid/index.shtml
For Version ‘09, 60% of their kernel has been imported into Vw with the following 40% planned for inclusion in 2010. Walls will benefit as we’ll be able to create shapes that can then be subtracted giving us unique sills, for instance. Improved snapping has gotten raves. Another advancement that caught my eye was that we can now snap to points within imported PDF’s. Thus you can bring in a survey, place it on a reference layer and trust that the corner you’re snapping down to will provide an accurate reading. Having this option, versus problematic DXF files, could make using imported files much simpler.
Take a look at the NNA website tutorials for ‘09 if you haven’t already. There’s a lot to explore and ponder.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the last Convert to Lines #30, I talked about making flyaround animations. One of the important parts of the discussion left out was how to create a more circular orbit around your model. You may have found that your flyaround took a boomerang route instead of a round one. To fix this, follow my guide in #30 up to the beginning of the last paragraph. After creating a perspective view of your model as described (enclosed in picture frame), click-select the whole frame and ungroup. Then drag-select just the model and not the frame or any ground volume if you can avoid it. With this central mass selected, go to Model>Create Animation. Orbit Point should be on by default. Select Animation Options and click on Selection. (If Selection is grayed out, you have nothing selected within the picture frame.) The rotate amount should be 360 degrees. To test, run for 5 seconds and see if your flyaround is behaving. If so, render your model for the final orbit. Once rendered, set a fly time of 45 seconds which seems a reasonable viewing period. Note that your model will render based on its relative screen zoom. Zoomed out, you’ll get a small model and zoomed in, a bigger one. Larger images will cause rendering times to increase.
It’s a little more work to generate a perspective view versus the ease of creating a simple isometric style, but once you’ve gotten used to seeing your model in this more realistic state, you aren’t likely to settle for less.
If you’d prefer a more professional, foolproof approach, check out OzCad’s AnimationWorks. Look at all of the sample QT movies as each one is a unique example of what’s possible.
http://www.ozcad.com.au/otherproducts/vwaddonsAW.html
Jonathan Pickup, in his cadsupportonline.com issue 0809 covers walkthrough and flyaround animation. His description, while quite good, covers isometric model viewing, not perspective.
It should be said that having a module one step up from Fundamentals--Architect for instance, plus Renderworks--is the base setup for these modeling discussions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some misc. gotcha’s:
•If you set your model to Oblique view, OpenGL will not render with this particular representation selected.
•If you intend to import plants into your model, don’t name a Layer or Class “Plant” as this will cause any import of plant libraries to be blocked.
•When exporting an image of your model to a jpg format (File>Export>Export Image File), I find that I am prevented from increasing my dots per inch in the Resolution box which, on my Mac, typically reads as 72 px/in. If you look in the lower right corner of this dialog box, you’ll notice, at least in Vw 2008, that the default setting is for JPEG 2000.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG_2000
Note that if you change this setting to JPEG Image or PNG or another, you ARE able to increase the dpi in the Resolution box. Set dpi somewhere between 150 and 300, depending on your printer’s abilities, you ability to wait for rendering to finish, and the expected quality of the final printout.
Some misc. FREE models:
•Duravit does not have an online download option but you can order their free CD which has DXF models of their products. Scroll down the page to the Spec Manual to order:
http://www.duravit.com/service/catalogs/overview-useo6mangt.html
•Mr-Cad is worth checking out. Mostly a pay-per-model site, they have some free models plus textures. 3ds Format.
http://www.mr-cad.com/
-------------------------------------------------------
Adjusting printing resolution in Vw is confusing since settings seem to be all over the place. For instance, dpi settings can be set, under File>Document Settings, Document Preferences. But after creating a sheet layer, you’ll find dpi can be set there as well. Click on a sheet, then hit the Edit button found on either the Navigation palette or the Organization palette.
Which is more important? Do we need both? To find out, I took one of my fully textured models, rendered in Custom Renderworks, and tried setting dpi’s in both locations. I found that the best place to set dpi was on sheet layers, not in the Documents Pref’s. Printing on a Brother 5280DW laser printer, (capable of 1200 x 1200 dpi), I saw much crisper output when sheets were set to 300 dpi, with the Prefs panel set to 72, than I did when the Prefs panel was at 300 dpi and sheet layers were back at 72 dpi.
My advice, if you are using sheet layers, is to set your dpi there and ignore the Document Preference panel unless someone out there can give me a reasoned argument against this. One last observation: when the sheet dpi was set high, there was a marked improvement in the image on my Mac notebook screen (OS 10.5.4)
Play around with dpi to see what setting between 150 dpi and 300 works for you--assuming your printer can handle more that 150 dpi.
Note all of this assumes you are printing FROM within VectorWorks and not creating a JPEG or some other image file which would then be printed through another application. If you are more interested in exporting and manipulating rendered files in an image processor like Photoshop, then read my suggestion above under Gotcha’s.
--------------------------------------------------------
Some free advice. Well, everything here is free so what’s the deal? Only that you may be slowing down in your business, what with the economy and all, and that brings, along with less money, lots of stress. One of the ways to take control of a less than ideal environment is to train up to gain new skills. We always want to do this when we’re busy, so why not now when we’re slow? If I’ve described you, and you are working in 2D, I suggest blocking out some time to design something in 3D, something really, really simple, such that your investment is manageable and the reward-to-labor ratio high.
You have options for designing in 3D, outside of VectorWorks, as you no doubt know. I’d just like to say that the pay-back, in designing from the beginning in VectorWorks, in 3D, is that you’ll have all your work in one file. Thus small changes, such as property line setback adjustments or stud wall thickness changes, can be managed in a more holistic approach. It was Aristotle who said “The whole is more than the sum of its parts”. Yes, you can get good-looking 3D at the beginning of your modeling process using other software. But starting and ending the file in Vw means that you have a much shorter distance to travel to make adjustments, to check relationships within the model, and to provide accurate, finished drawings, than with a “sum of parts” approach.
-----------------------------------------------------------
That’s a wrap. Hope to see you this coming Thursday.
Serving the Seattle VectorWorks Users Group and Northwest VectorWorks users.
An archive of past newsletters can be found at http://converttolines.blogspot.com/
Please contact me at tomgreggs@comcast.net
In this issue:
•NNA coming to demo Version ‘09
• Early word on 2009
• Animation continued
•Misc. cautions, misc. resources
•Adjusting preferences for printing
•More free advice
Greetings VectorWorks users! Join us Thursday, November 13th, 6:30 to 8:30 PM for the first User Group meeting of the season. We’re going look at using Stack Layers in Vw 2008 to view and edit, light and set perspective views. We’ll also want to share your ideas with the group and help with any questions you might have. I’ll have several 3D renderings to share of the planned remodel of the Wood Construction Center facility.
Our meeting will take place at the Seattle Central Community College Wood Construction Center lecture hall. The hall is located at 2310 S. Lane St. (intersection of 23rd Avenue South and South Lane Street). Parking is available in the gated lot off South King Street, just one block south of Jackson Street. The lecture hall is the building directly adjacent to the parking lot at its south side. Walk up the wooden side-ramp to the second door.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally back! Sorry for the long delay in writing but I’ve been waiting for a couple of things to happen. One was that the Vw’s update was about to arrive (Vw is the new shorthand) and I was expecting to bring it loaded on the laptop to our next meeting. That hasn’t happened--something about NNA not being able to ship my particular grade until quite late in the product cycle. I’m still waiting. The other reason, apart from outright entropy, was that NNA has been planning a Seattle tour to show off version 2009 and I was hoping to relay that date. I can say that Thursday, December 11th is currently being contemplated--tentatively contemplated--with the event site located in downtown Seattle. I WILL send out notice as soon as they determine their schedule.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Tech Board and List Serv comments have been very positive about the new version. The change to a better modeling kernel--Parasolid by Siemens PLM--may be the biggest advance. We should have far better ability to create objects in Vw ‘09, that in ‘08 and below. For instance, creating a handrail which follows an offset stairwell downward was not possible prior to this upgrade.
Siemens is a huge company with 5.5 million seats and 51,000 customers using various brands of their software.
Here is a URL to Parasolid if you’d like more info:
http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/open/parasolid/index.shtml
For Version ‘09, 60% of their kernel has been imported into Vw with the following 40% planned for inclusion in 2010. Walls will benefit as we’ll be able to create shapes that can then be subtracted giving us unique sills, for instance. Improved snapping has gotten raves. Another advancement that caught my eye was that we can now snap to points within imported PDF’s. Thus you can bring in a survey, place it on a reference layer and trust that the corner you’re snapping down to will provide an accurate reading. Having this option, versus problematic DXF files, could make using imported files much simpler.
Take a look at the NNA website tutorials for ‘09 if you haven’t already. There’s a lot to explore and ponder.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the last Convert to Lines #30, I talked about making flyaround animations. One of the important parts of the discussion left out was how to create a more circular orbit around your model. You may have found that your flyaround took a boomerang route instead of a round one. To fix this, follow my guide in #30 up to the beginning of the last paragraph. After creating a perspective view of your model as described (enclosed in picture frame), click-select the whole frame and ungroup. Then drag-select just the model and not the frame or any ground volume if you can avoid it. With this central mass selected, go to Model>Create Animation. Orbit Point should be on by default. Select Animation Options and click on Selection. (If Selection is grayed out, you have nothing selected within the picture frame.) The rotate amount should be 360 degrees. To test, run for 5 seconds and see if your flyaround is behaving. If so, render your model for the final orbit. Once rendered, set a fly time of 45 seconds which seems a reasonable viewing period. Note that your model will render based on its relative screen zoom. Zoomed out, you’ll get a small model and zoomed in, a bigger one. Larger images will cause rendering times to increase.
It’s a little more work to generate a perspective view versus the ease of creating a simple isometric style, but once you’ve gotten used to seeing your model in this more realistic state, you aren’t likely to settle for less.
If you’d prefer a more professional, foolproof approach, check out OzCad’s AnimationWorks. Look at all of the sample QT movies as each one is a unique example of what’s possible.
http://www.ozcad.com.au/otherproducts/vwaddonsAW.html
Jonathan Pickup, in his cadsupportonline.com issue 0809 covers walkthrough and flyaround animation. His description, while quite good, covers isometric model viewing, not perspective.
It should be said that having a module one step up from Fundamentals--Architect for instance, plus Renderworks--is the base setup for these modeling discussions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some misc. gotcha’s:
•If you set your model to Oblique view, OpenGL will not render with this particular representation selected.
•If you intend to import plants into your model, don’t name a Layer or Class “Plant” as this will cause any import of plant libraries to be blocked.
•When exporting an image of your model to a jpg format (File>Export>Export Image File), I find that I am prevented from increasing my dots per inch in the Resolution box which, on my Mac, typically reads as 72 px/in. If you look in the lower right corner of this dialog box, you’ll notice, at least in Vw 2008, that the default setting is for JPEG 2000.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG_2000
Note that if you change this setting to JPEG Image or PNG or another, you ARE able to increase the dpi in the Resolution box. Set dpi somewhere between 150 and 300, depending on your printer’s abilities, you ability to wait for rendering to finish, and the expected quality of the final printout.
Some misc. FREE models:
•Duravit does not have an online download option but you can order their free CD which has DXF models of their products. Scroll down the page to the Spec Manual to order:
http://www.duravit.com/service/catalogs/overview-useo6mangt.html
•Mr-Cad is worth checking out. Mostly a pay-per-model site, they have some free models plus textures. 3ds Format.
http://www.mr-cad.com/
-------------------------------------------------------
Adjusting printing resolution in Vw is confusing since settings seem to be all over the place. For instance, dpi settings can be set, under File>Document Settings, Document Preferences. But after creating a sheet layer, you’ll find dpi can be set there as well. Click on a sheet, then hit the Edit button found on either the Navigation palette or the Organization palette.
Which is more important? Do we need both? To find out, I took one of my fully textured models, rendered in Custom Renderworks, and tried setting dpi’s in both locations. I found that the best place to set dpi was on sheet layers, not in the Documents Pref’s. Printing on a Brother 5280DW laser printer, (capable of 1200 x 1200 dpi), I saw much crisper output when sheets were set to 300 dpi, with the Prefs panel set to 72, than I did when the Prefs panel was at 300 dpi and sheet layers were back at 72 dpi.
My advice, if you are using sheet layers, is to set your dpi there and ignore the Document Preference panel unless someone out there can give me a reasoned argument against this. One last observation: when the sheet dpi was set high, there was a marked improvement in the image on my Mac notebook screen (OS 10.5.4)
Play around with dpi to see what setting between 150 dpi and 300 works for you--assuming your printer can handle more that 150 dpi.
Note all of this assumes you are printing FROM within VectorWorks and not creating a JPEG or some other image file which would then be printed through another application. If you are more interested in exporting and manipulating rendered files in an image processor like Photoshop, then read my suggestion above under Gotcha’s.
--------------------------------------------------------
Some free advice. Well, everything here is free so what’s the deal? Only that you may be slowing down in your business, what with the economy and all, and that brings, along with less money, lots of stress. One of the ways to take control of a less than ideal environment is to train up to gain new skills. We always want to do this when we’re busy, so why not now when we’re slow? If I’ve described you, and you are working in 2D, I suggest blocking out some time to design something in 3D, something really, really simple, such that your investment is manageable and the reward-to-labor ratio high.
You have options for designing in 3D, outside of VectorWorks, as you no doubt know. I’d just like to say that the pay-back, in designing from the beginning in VectorWorks, in 3D, is that you’ll have all your work in one file. Thus small changes, such as property line setback adjustments or stud wall thickness changes, can be managed in a more holistic approach. It was Aristotle who said “The whole is more than the sum of its parts”. Yes, you can get good-looking 3D at the beginning of your modeling process using other software. But starting and ending the file in Vw means that you have a much shorter distance to travel to make adjustments, to check relationships within the model, and to provide accurate, finished drawings, than with a “sum of parts” approach.
-----------------------------------------------------------
That’s a wrap. Hope to see you this coming Thursday.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Convert to Lines #30
7/30/08
Serving the Seattle VectorWorks Users Group and Northwest VectorWorks users.
An archive of past newsletters can be found at http://converttolines.blogspot.com/
In this issue:
• Animation made easy
• 3D fasteners
• What’s a slab object?
•3D collections growing like nonnative invasive species
•Changing your point of view
Greetings VectorWorks users! Here is a slimmed down summertime version of 'Lines' pruned to the essentials. I hope you’ve been able to take advantage of this amazing stretch of great weather and that all is well in your lives. I’ll check in with you again in late September. Meanwhile, on with the show.
.......................................................................
Let’s make a fly-around movie using VW 2008.
I recently upgraded my computer from an old Mac G4 to a new laptop and found that rendering times have dropped to the degree that fly-around modeling was finally practical for our typical projects. If you’ve improved your hardware and haven’t yet tried this essential tool, I suggest we do a simple test drawing to see the animation process in action.
To begin, start a new file and draw a large polygon to represent the ground. Extrude it some small amount like a sixteenth of an inch (Model>Extrude). Drag out another poly in the middle of our ground object and extrude it to a size similar to what you work with day to day, be it a room, a cabinet or something smaller. Don’t give any of these extruded objects a fill since unfilled objects will render faster and we don’t yet want to present you with a rendering time that causes you to leave your chair for some other activity.
Hit a corner key on your extended keyboard (1, 3, 7, or 9) to see your model in 3D. Hit 5 to return to a 3D Top view. We now will add a RenderWorks Camera to the view. Click on the Visualization palette--it’s the one showing the light bulb. With the palette open, click on the camera icon. Move the cursor, which has turned into a + sign, and place it somewhere outside of your model, click and drag toward your model, click to end and release. Accept the default settings of the 3D view shown on the Object Properties palette (unless you’d like to play with the settings to see how they vary the model’s position). Double click on the array of lines that represents the camera. This action should tilt and shape your model into a perspective view. We remain in the same wire-frame mode we started in but feel free to choose another rendering style, after giving your objects a fill, and let it render (suggestion: OpenGL). Only now, with the perspective view selected and the rendering method selected, do we issue the command to create an animation.
Go to Model>Create Animation. Select Orbit Point from the popup menu and accept the remaining settings. Click Save Movie to save the file to your desktop. This action starts the rendering process. If your computer has not bogged down with fills, try adding a light (sun) and then textures to each object. In our office, a typical whole-house exterior fly-around, containing a couple of light sources, 3D plants plus textures on all surfaces, will take between two to two and a half hours rendering time on the new laptop. A typical Quicktime file will be 35 MB and take 45 seconds for the model to rotate 360 degrees which is plenty of time to see details. Once the movie begins to play, note that you can easily start, stop and go in reverse to admire the details of your genius.
................................................................................
Want a bolt to show as a 3D object and not just as a 2D side or end view?
You’ll need Designer or Machine Design* to get it but even then the method of discovery is less than straightforward. Assuming you are drawing in some other workspace, go to Tools>Workspaces and select Machine Design. Click on the Hardware Inch/Metric palette. Click on the bolt in the upper left hand corner of the palette. If you draw this bolt it will display as a 2D view UNLESS you click on the (blue) 3D icon on the mode bar. If you go back and look at the palette that houses the original bolt icon, you will note that all the other icons for wing nut, eyebolt, etc. have a little black triangle adjacent to them. Click on the triangle and you’ll see that there is a 2D and a 3D offering for each of these. It would be nice if the bolt icon had the same notation and behavior as the other hardware types or visa versa.
*See alternative bolt plug-in below.
................................................................................
There has been grumbling for some time now over the fact that the Floor Object tool cannot accept a unique texture for the band portion of the floor. It is a helpful tool in that the palette that controls its settings has an input box for height (Z) but those of us that assemble our buildings with the outer edges of floors flush with the outer surfaces of walls find that our drawings won’t render correctly using this tool. One can simply Extrude a polygon to serve as a floor but these simple shapes lack Object Info palette options. Enter Slab Object, a free tool from VectorDepot.com. Once on the website, go to Old Links>Plug-ins>Slab Object and download. It’s free. Once on your desktop, unzip and add to your Workspace. I’ve added it to the Tool Sets palette, adjacent to Walls. (Scan the back issues of Convert to Lines to find a discussion on modifying Workspaces.)
Once placed into your Workspace, you’ll find a wealth of new options
including object extrusion depth, Z height options and automatically created classes for adding color or textures to the sides, bottom (ceiling) and top of the 3D shape. To add texture to a surface, select the object and click on the Organization palette for Classes (not via the Navigation palette) and dbl. click on one of the newly auto-created classes (Ceiling-Finish, Floor-Finish, Floor-Riser, Floor-Slab) and in the following palette called Edit Class(es), check the Use At Creation box, and at the bottom of the palette, choose Other and check the Textures box. Choose a texture to apply. So now you can show a floor that displays, when rendered, a carpet, a ceiling texture (popcorn asbestos) for the bottom, and a texture on the edges that matches the siding type.
Remember the VectorDepot site? If you don’t have Designer or Machine Design, you might also download the 3D bolt plug-in called Fastener. Find it in the main plug-ins folder on the the site, not in the Old Links folder. Once downloaded, manually move it to your VW Plug-ins folder, then import it into your Workspace. I’ve tried it in VW 2008 and it seems to work fine.
................................................................................
Need more (free) 3D objects for your drawings than VW provides? Of course you do! Google’s 3D Warehouse has been mentioned before for importing via the
Sketchup plug-in. But you might also take a peek at
http://www.max4object.com/wp/?page_id=18
Look at the left side of the page and scroll down until you see “3Ds Max and Autocad object,” below which you’ll see folders containing Humans, Trees, Kitchen, etc. Look in the Human folder and be sure and download your free copy of the Fighting Skeleton. Also take a look at
http://www.archive3d.net/
This site also features 3ds models--and there are a ton of them. Once you’ve selected your model, click on it to get the download screen to appear.
Want to dig a little? Many more sites listed here:
http://www.architecturalcadd.com/bsa/symbollibraries.htm
................................................................................
I want to add barge (fly) rafters, fascia or other trim objects to my roofs. One way to quickly orient your roof or any other object to a side-view position square to the drawing plane is to use the Set 3D View tool found under View. Looking at your model in Top view, click on the tool, then somewhere away from your model, click and drag toward it. If my roof face happened to be set at an odd angle, I would first draw in a guide to ensure my drag line would be square to the object’s face. Once this face was rotated square to me, I could then draw a polygon (might be a gable end barge rafter), extrude it, then going back to top view, drag the extrusion over and into place. This is a good one to note its keyboard shortcut and use it instead of hiking up to the menu bar each time an object needs rotating. This tip originated with Panthony from the VW Tech Board.
That all folks!
Tom Greggs
(206) 524-2808
Serving the Seattle VectorWorks Users Group and Northwest VectorWorks users.
An archive of past newsletters can be found at http://converttolines.blogspot.com/
In this issue:
• Animation made easy
• 3D fasteners
• What’s a slab object?
•3D collections growing like nonnative invasive species
•Changing your point of view
Greetings VectorWorks users! Here is a slimmed down summertime version of 'Lines' pruned to the essentials. I hope you’ve been able to take advantage of this amazing stretch of great weather and that all is well in your lives. I’ll check in with you again in late September. Meanwhile, on with the show.
.......................................................................
Let’s make a fly-around movie using VW 2008.
I recently upgraded my computer from an old Mac G4 to a new laptop and found that rendering times have dropped to the degree that fly-around modeling was finally practical for our typical projects. If you’ve improved your hardware and haven’t yet tried this essential tool, I suggest we do a simple test drawing to see the animation process in action.
To begin, start a new file and draw a large polygon to represent the ground. Extrude it some small amount like a sixteenth of an inch (Model>Extrude). Drag out another poly in the middle of our ground object and extrude it to a size similar to what you work with day to day, be it a room, a cabinet or something smaller. Don’t give any of these extruded objects a fill since unfilled objects will render faster and we don’t yet want to present you with a rendering time that causes you to leave your chair for some other activity.
Hit a corner key on your extended keyboard (1, 3, 7, or 9) to see your model in 3D. Hit 5 to return to a 3D Top view. We now will add a RenderWorks Camera to the view. Click on the Visualization palette--it’s the one showing the light bulb. With the palette open, click on the camera icon. Move the cursor, which has turned into a + sign, and place it somewhere outside of your model, click and drag toward your model, click to end and release. Accept the default settings of the 3D view shown on the Object Properties palette (unless you’d like to play with the settings to see how they vary the model’s position). Double click on the array of lines that represents the camera. This action should tilt and shape your model into a perspective view. We remain in the same wire-frame mode we started in but feel free to choose another rendering style, after giving your objects a fill, and let it render (suggestion: OpenGL). Only now, with the perspective view selected and the rendering method selected, do we issue the command to create an animation.
Go to Model>Create Animation. Select Orbit Point from the popup menu and accept the remaining settings. Click Save Movie to save the file to your desktop. This action starts the rendering process. If your computer has not bogged down with fills, try adding a light (sun) and then textures to each object. In our office, a typical whole-house exterior fly-around, containing a couple of light sources, 3D plants plus textures on all surfaces, will take between two to two and a half hours rendering time on the new laptop. A typical Quicktime file will be 35 MB and take 45 seconds for the model to rotate 360 degrees which is plenty of time to see details. Once the movie begins to play, note that you can easily start, stop and go in reverse to admire the details of your genius.
................................................................................
Want a bolt to show as a 3D object and not just as a 2D side or end view?
You’ll need Designer or Machine Design* to get it but even then the method of discovery is less than straightforward. Assuming you are drawing in some other workspace, go to Tools>Workspaces and select Machine Design. Click on the Hardware Inch/Metric palette. Click on the bolt in the upper left hand corner of the palette. If you draw this bolt it will display as a 2D view UNLESS you click on the (blue) 3D icon on the mode bar. If you go back and look at the palette that houses the original bolt icon, you will note that all the other icons for wing nut, eyebolt, etc. have a little black triangle adjacent to them. Click on the triangle and you’ll see that there is a 2D and a 3D offering for each of these. It would be nice if the bolt icon had the same notation and behavior as the other hardware types or visa versa.
*See alternative bolt plug-in below.
................................................................................
There has been grumbling for some time now over the fact that the Floor Object tool cannot accept a unique texture for the band portion of the floor. It is a helpful tool in that the palette that controls its settings has an input box for height (Z) but those of us that assemble our buildings with the outer edges of floors flush with the outer surfaces of walls find that our drawings won’t render correctly using this tool. One can simply Extrude a polygon to serve as a floor but these simple shapes lack Object Info palette options. Enter Slab Object, a free tool from VectorDepot.com. Once on the website, go to Old Links>Plug-ins>Slab Object and download. It’s free. Once on your desktop, unzip and add to your Workspace. I’ve added it to the Tool Sets palette, adjacent to Walls. (Scan the back issues of Convert to Lines to find a discussion on modifying Workspaces.)
Once placed into your Workspace, you’ll find a wealth of new options
including object extrusion depth, Z height options and automatically created classes for adding color or textures to the sides, bottom (ceiling) and top of the 3D shape. To add texture to a surface, select the object and click on the Organization palette for Classes (not via the Navigation palette) and dbl. click on one of the newly auto-created classes (Ceiling-Finish, Floor-Finish, Floor-Riser, Floor-Slab) and in the following palette called Edit Class(es), check the Use At Creation box, and at the bottom of the palette, choose Other and check the Textures box. Choose a texture to apply. So now you can show a floor that displays, when rendered, a carpet, a ceiling texture (popcorn asbestos) for the bottom, and a texture on the edges that matches the siding type.
Remember the VectorDepot site? If you don’t have Designer or Machine Design, you might also download the 3D bolt plug-in called Fastener. Find it in the main plug-ins folder on the the site, not in the Old Links folder. Once downloaded, manually move it to your VW Plug-ins folder, then import it into your Workspace. I’ve tried it in VW 2008 and it seems to work fine.
................................................................................
Need more (free) 3D objects for your drawings than VW provides? Of course you do! Google’s 3D Warehouse has been mentioned before for importing via the
Sketchup plug-in. But you might also take a peek at
http://www.max4object.com/wp/?page_id=18
Look at the left side of the page and scroll down until you see “3Ds Max and Autocad object,” below which you’ll see folders containing Humans, Trees, Kitchen, etc. Look in the Human folder and be sure and download your free copy of the Fighting Skeleton. Also take a look at
http://www.archive3d.net/
This site also features 3ds models--and there are a ton of them. Once you’ve selected your model, click on it to get the download screen to appear.
Want to dig a little? Many more sites listed here:
http://www.architecturalcadd.com/bsa/symbollibraries.htm
................................................................................
I want to add barge (fly) rafters, fascia or other trim objects to my roofs. One way to quickly orient your roof or any other object to a side-view position square to the drawing plane is to use the Set 3D View tool found under View. Looking at your model in Top view, click on the tool, then somewhere away from your model, click and drag toward it. If my roof face happened to be set at an odd angle, I would first draw in a guide to ensure my drag line would be square to the object’s face. Once this face was rotated square to me, I could then draw a polygon (might be a gable end barge rafter), extrude it, then going back to top view, drag the extrusion over and into place. This is a good one to note its keyboard shortcut and use it instead of hiking up to the menu bar each time an object needs rotating. This tip originated with Panthony from the VW Tech Board.
That all folks!
Tom Greggs
(206) 524-2808
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Convert to Lines #29
4/19/08
Serving the Seattle VectorWorks Users Group and Northwest VectorWorks users.
An archive of past newsletters can be found at http://converttolines.blogspot.com/
In this issue:
• April’s meeting date and time
• Applying custom paint colors to walls
• Strategies for creating and storing standard details
•BIM explained, simply
•Lots of Misc.
Greetings VectorWorks users! Join us Thursday, April 24, 6:30 to 8:30 PM for the last User Group meeting till fall. We’re going to cover two of the topics discussed within the newsletter but with the benefit of a much more thorough live walk-through. We’ll look at Workgroup Referencing for the individual, applying custom colors to walls as well as applying wood textures to doors. We’ll also want to share your ideas with the group and help with any questions you might have. If there is time left over, perhaps we’ll look at a backdoor method of using Section Viewports, as detailed later in the newsletter.
Our meeting will take place at the Seattle Central Community College Wood Construction Center lecture hall. The hall is located at 2310 S. Lane St. (intersection of 23rd Avenue South and South Lane Street). Parking is available in the gated lot off South King Street, just one block south of Jackson Street. The lecture hall is the building directly adjacent to the parking lot at its south side. Walk up the wooden side-ramp to the second door.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I had a client tell me they wished to have the same color of their old home applied to the new one which I’ve been designing. The original had been done in Benjamin Moore Texas Leather. To begin the process of applying custom colors, draw a wall or walls. Give them a siding using the Object Info palette under the Render heading. (Make sure you Unstyle the wall via the Object Info palette which unlocks its original library siding or color type.)
First you’ll need to use the Resource Browser to import Textures_Exterior Finishes from your VectorWorks folder. Use the Add New Favorite Files command on the top of the Browser and look for Libraries folder, then Textures, then Textures_Exterior Finishes. Once imported, scroll down the panoply of images. (Make sure they display on the Browser as Thumbnails, not as List.) You will see among the garish tones available to you, various white siding types. Choose one of these. Drag the image onto your wall. Once imported into the file via this dragging action, you can then use the Render side of the Object Info palette to attach the new white siding type to your wall. At this point, we should apply the Texas Leather tone to our siding sample.
To do this use the Object Info palette. Just adjacent to the siding’s name is a triangle. Click it and choose Edit Siding 10 White Resource (or whatever siding type you’ve chosen). Click on the edit button on the next palette adjacent to the Filtered Image radio button. The following dialog box, called Filtered Image, shows a pull down menu bearing a white color swatch. Check the Use Chosen Color just above the swatch. Pull the swatch down and you’ll see a typical color chart but with a small grid of color up in the right hand corner. Click the grid and the next box up--the Pick Color palette--shows a variety of commercial paint family choices on the left. Choose one. On the right hand side, choose a color from your selected collection. Click OK. Your siding now has a lovely new color on one side or another. On the Object Info palette, select the various sides to apply your new siding type. You may want to apply None as the color texture to the interior wall or at least until you have a better plan. You can also save and apply a new name to this siding type if you wish by using the Duplicate Siding 10 And Edit command in the OIP. Render all using OpenGL which has the benefit of being fast.
My client picked up a fresh-off-the-printer rendering today showing his new home done up in Texas Leather. Very cool.
Remember my earlier mention of the “garish” other colors for siding types--colors no one outside of Greenland would ever use? Those should be considered base colors onto which you can add a tint and thus arrive at your intended mix. Gray colored siding would also work this way. Now, with the advent of so many premixed commercial colors, these older primary tones are not your only choice.
...........................................................................................
What’s the best way to create and store plan details? In reading the NNA Tech board, Travis suggest that details be kept in a separate folder from the file you are working on. When you need a detail, you link to the folder>detail using Work Group Referencing. Once the detail has been brought in, you may then opt to break the WGR link which will allow you to tweak it to fit your specific situation. Breaking the link also ensures that you don’t apply new elements to your stock detail. After you have enough updated details, you may wish to place them into the Details folder for the next job.
You can do something similar when bringing in DXF/DWG files. Into a separate file, import the DXF detail. This keeps the AutoCAD classes from otherwise cluttering up your nice, carefully laid out set. Using WGR, link the DXF page back into your main file. The two hundred A’CAD classes remain in your referenced file, not your working file.
As far as creating details in the first place, create a Design Layer Section Viewport on a fresh design layer, then trace over. Ah, but you say that sending a Section Viewport to a Design Layer is not allowed in VectorWorks 2008 (If you knew this, go to the head of the class). I know a secret way of essentially using a Section Viewport as an updatable base for overdrawing and I’ll show you that method at this upcoming User Group meeting.
..................................................................................................
What is BIM? I’ve looked at various places around the web and read the White Papers on the subject at NNA and remained generally confused. I finally found this straight forward, jargon free comment and thought it worth passing on.
http://modocrmadt.blogspot.com/2005/01/bim-what-is-it-why-do-i-care-and-how.html
The author, Matt Dillon San, is an AutoCad guy but he keeps his biases pretty well in neutral. Here is one quote from the article that I found interesting:
“With Building Information Modeling, anybody who is contributing to the model will need to have a good understanding of how that building really fits together. The need for 2D drafters will become more and more a thing of the past. At the same time, architects who in the past may have shunned CAD and similar technologies will have to become more comfortable working in a digital world. Additionally, you may find that your current CAD support staff is inadequate to handle the expanded needs of an office involved in model-based design. “
Hey, no pressure, right??
............................................................................................
Miscellaneous tips:
Watermarks can be easily placed onto drawings in VW 2008 by making an object--your watermark text or grouped line work--and giving it a reduced opacity. Type some text and enlarge it. On the Attributes palette you’ll see a radio button showing “100%”. Click the button and, on the next palette presented, simply move the slider down to a shade that works for you. You can also place your faded object into a class such that it can be turned off when appropriate. Another option is to set opacity values on any layer. Use the opacity slider to lighten all objects placed within. You’ll find the slider for Layers on the Edit palette of the Navigation palette.
Google posted a new “advanced” search engine that allows you to find Sketchup-made models in Google 3D Warehouse. This may be handy for importing specific appliances into your VectorWorks layers.
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/advsearch
I’ve mentioned BIM. Google may be defining BIM on a macro, environmental level with their program called Google Cities in 3D which allows anyone to create Sketchup buildings matching existing city buildings around the world. Imagine visiting virtual Hamburg Germany using Google Earth, to view neighborhoods and, perhaps in 3D, the very building you’re considering for your lodging. Take the 3D tour yourself!
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwh/citiesin3d/index.html
Vectortasks is a site that offers seminars and private tutoring by L.A. based Pat Stanford and Dan Jansenson--two celebrities in the world of VW. The site has a few free movies on how to use VectorWorks. Short but sweet.
http://vectortasks.com/Movies/Movies.html
Our next Webinar should be available for download next week. “The topic will be 2D to 3D. In this demonstration you will learn the secrets of converting your 2D drawings into 3D models.” If you have not yet gotten the player for either Mac or PC, please contact me.
Polylines can’t be combined into a solid. Polygons can. If you draw two polylines with the second touching the end points of the first polyline, Modify>Compose and extrude, the object you end up with will accept no fill and will look instead like a fence. Do the same with two polygon lines and you will wind up with a solid object.
Try to use Saved Views more often in your work flow with the intent that you be returned quickly to key layers or 3D elevations. If you add or change classes, these won’t update to your existing Saved Views so get in the habit of updating (resaving) Saved Views when changes do occur.
Under Modify>Tile or Modify>Hatch, you can fill a closed polygon with one of the textures that you might apply to a patio or other surface such as a countertop. These are intended to be 2D fills but you can convert them easily into 3D. Just select the hatch, ungroup and, under Modify>Convert> Convert to Polygons and then extrude. The Hardscape tool in Landmark will give you many more editable, textural options and will also provide an extruded slab if asked. Julian Carr provided this tip via the VWks Listserv.
OK, I’m done. See you Thursday!
Tom Greggs
Office (206) 524-2808
Serving the Seattle VectorWorks Users Group and Northwest VectorWorks users.
An archive of past newsletters can be found at http://converttolines.blogspot.com/
In this issue:
• April’s meeting date and time
• Applying custom paint colors to walls
• Strategies for creating and storing standard details
•BIM explained, simply
•Lots of Misc.
Greetings VectorWorks users! Join us Thursday, April 24, 6:30 to 8:30 PM for the last User Group meeting till fall. We’re going to cover two of the topics discussed within the newsletter but with the benefit of a much more thorough live walk-through. We’ll look at Workgroup Referencing for the individual, applying custom colors to walls as well as applying wood textures to doors. We’ll also want to share your ideas with the group and help with any questions you might have. If there is time left over, perhaps we’ll look at a backdoor method of using Section Viewports, as detailed later in the newsletter.
Our meeting will take place at the Seattle Central Community College Wood Construction Center lecture hall. The hall is located at 2310 S. Lane St. (intersection of 23rd Avenue South and South Lane Street). Parking is available in the gated lot off South King Street, just one block south of Jackson Street. The lecture hall is the building directly adjacent to the parking lot at its south side. Walk up the wooden side-ramp to the second door.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I had a client tell me they wished to have the same color of their old home applied to the new one which I’ve been designing. The original had been done in Benjamin Moore Texas Leather. To begin the process of applying custom colors, draw a wall or walls. Give them a siding using the Object Info palette under the Render heading. (Make sure you Unstyle the wall via the Object Info palette which unlocks its original library siding or color type.)
First you’ll need to use the Resource Browser to import Textures_Exterior Finishes from your VectorWorks folder. Use the Add New Favorite Files command on the top of the Browser and look for Libraries folder, then Textures, then Textures_Exterior Finishes. Once imported, scroll down the panoply of images. (Make sure they display on the Browser as Thumbnails, not as List.) You will see among the garish tones available to you, various white siding types. Choose one of these. Drag the image onto your wall. Once imported into the file via this dragging action, you can then use the Render side of the Object Info palette to attach the new white siding type to your wall. At this point, we should apply the Texas Leather tone to our siding sample.
To do this use the Object Info palette. Just adjacent to the siding’s name is a triangle. Click it and choose Edit Siding 10 White Resource (or whatever siding type you’ve chosen). Click on the edit button on the next palette adjacent to the Filtered Image radio button. The following dialog box, called Filtered Image, shows a pull down menu bearing a white color swatch. Check the Use Chosen Color just above the swatch. Pull the swatch down and you’ll see a typical color chart but with a small grid of color up in the right hand corner. Click the grid and the next box up--the Pick Color palette--shows a variety of commercial paint family choices on the left. Choose one. On the right hand side, choose a color from your selected collection. Click OK. Your siding now has a lovely new color on one side or another. On the Object Info palette, select the various sides to apply your new siding type. You may want to apply None as the color texture to the interior wall or at least until you have a better plan. You can also save and apply a new name to this siding type if you wish by using the Duplicate Siding 10 And Edit command in the OIP. Render all using OpenGL which has the benefit of being fast.
My client picked up a fresh-off-the-printer rendering today showing his new home done up in Texas Leather. Very cool.
Remember my earlier mention of the “garish” other colors for siding types--colors no one outside of Greenland would ever use? Those should be considered base colors onto which you can add a tint and thus arrive at your intended mix. Gray colored siding would also work this way. Now, with the advent of so many premixed commercial colors, these older primary tones are not your only choice.
...........................................................................................
What’s the best way to create and store plan details? In reading the NNA Tech board, Travis suggest that details be kept in a separate folder from the file you are working on. When you need a detail, you link to the folder>detail using Work Group Referencing. Once the detail has been brought in, you may then opt to break the WGR link which will allow you to tweak it to fit your specific situation. Breaking the link also ensures that you don’t apply new elements to your stock detail. After you have enough updated details, you may wish to place them into the Details folder for the next job.
You can do something similar when bringing in DXF/DWG files. Into a separate file, import the DXF detail. This keeps the AutoCAD classes from otherwise cluttering up your nice, carefully laid out set. Using WGR, link the DXF page back into your main file. The two hundred A’CAD classes remain in your referenced file, not your working file.
As far as creating details in the first place, create a Design Layer Section Viewport on a fresh design layer, then trace over. Ah, but you say that sending a Section Viewport to a Design Layer is not allowed in VectorWorks 2008 (If you knew this, go to the head of the class). I know a secret way of essentially using a Section Viewport as an updatable base for overdrawing and I’ll show you that method at this upcoming User Group meeting.
..................................................................................................
What is BIM? I’ve looked at various places around the web and read the White Papers on the subject at NNA and remained generally confused. I finally found this straight forward, jargon free comment and thought it worth passing on.
http://modocrmadt.blogspot.com/2005/01/bim-what-is-it-why-do-i-care-and-how.html
The author, Matt Dillon San, is an AutoCad guy but he keeps his biases pretty well in neutral. Here is one quote from the article that I found interesting:
“With Building Information Modeling, anybody who is contributing to the model will need to have a good understanding of how that building really fits together. The need for 2D drafters will become more and more a thing of the past. At the same time, architects who in the past may have shunned CAD and similar technologies will have to become more comfortable working in a digital world. Additionally, you may find that your current CAD support staff is inadequate to handle the expanded needs of an office involved in model-based design. “
Hey, no pressure, right??
............................................................................................
Miscellaneous tips:
Watermarks can be easily placed onto drawings in VW 2008 by making an object--your watermark text or grouped line work--and giving it a reduced opacity. Type some text and enlarge it. On the Attributes palette you’ll see a radio button showing “100%”. Click the button and, on the next palette presented, simply move the slider down to a shade that works for you. You can also place your faded object into a class such that it can be turned off when appropriate. Another option is to set opacity values on any layer. Use the opacity slider to lighten all objects placed within. You’ll find the slider for Layers on the Edit palette of the Navigation palette.
Google posted a new “advanced” search engine that allows you to find Sketchup-made models in Google 3D Warehouse. This may be handy for importing specific appliances into your VectorWorks layers.
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/advsearch
I’ve mentioned BIM. Google may be defining BIM on a macro, environmental level with their program called Google Cities in 3D which allows anyone to create Sketchup buildings matching existing city buildings around the world. Imagine visiting virtual Hamburg Germany using Google Earth, to view neighborhoods and, perhaps in 3D, the very building you’re considering for your lodging. Take the 3D tour yourself!
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwh/citiesin3d/index.html
Vectortasks is a site that offers seminars and private tutoring by L.A. based Pat Stanford and Dan Jansenson--two celebrities in the world of VW. The site has a few free movies on how to use VectorWorks. Short but sweet.
http://vectortasks.com/Movies/Movies.html
Our next Webinar should be available for download next week. “The topic will be 2D to 3D. In this demonstration you will learn the secrets of converting your 2D drawings into 3D models.” If you have not yet gotten the player for either Mac or PC, please contact me.
Polylines can’t be combined into a solid. Polygons can. If you draw two polylines with the second touching the end points of the first polyline, Modify>Compose and extrude, the object you end up with will accept no fill and will look instead like a fence. Do the same with two polygon lines and you will wind up with a solid object.
Try to use Saved Views more often in your work flow with the intent that you be returned quickly to key layers or 3D elevations. If you add or change classes, these won’t update to your existing Saved Views so get in the habit of updating (resaving) Saved Views when changes do occur.
Under Modify>Tile or Modify>Hatch, you can fill a closed polygon with one of the textures that you might apply to a patio or other surface such as a countertop. These are intended to be 2D fills but you can convert them easily into 3D. Just select the hatch, ungroup and, under Modify>Convert> Convert to Polygons and then extrude. The Hardscape tool in Landmark will give you many more editable, textural options and will also provide an extruded slab if asked. Julian Carr provided this tip via the VWks Listserv.
OK, I’m done. See you Thursday!
Tom Greggs
Office (206) 524-2808
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Convert to Lines #28
2/16/08
Serving the Seattle VectorWorks Users Group and Northwest VectorWorks users.
An archive of past newsletters can be found at http://converttolines.blogspot.com/
In this issue:
• When are we finally meeting???
• Webex info
• New Service Pack for V. 2008 available
• Thoughts on viewports and design layer viewports
• Stack Layers thoughts
• Scaling freak-out
• Converting a steel beam symbol into 3D
• Misc. Misc. Misc.
• Repetitive stress answers from our readers
Greetings VectorWorks users! Join us Thursday, February 21, 6:30 to 8:30 PM as we explore designing in 3D while using the rejuvenative powers of viewports. We’ll take you through some basics that should provide a means toward advancing your VW skills. Whether your designs fall between avian domiciles or skyscrapers, turn out and empower yourselves.
Our meeting will take place at the Seattle Central Community College Wood Construction Center lecture hall. The hall is located at 2310 S. Lane St. (intersection of 23rd Avenue South and South Lane Street). Parking is available in the gated lot off South King Street, just one block south of Jackson Street. The lecture hall is the building directly adjacent to the parking lot at its south side. Walk up the wooden side-ramp to the second door.
...........................................................................
The next Webex presentation is on NURBS surfaces. If you are new to using NURBS, in preparation for this session, Nemetschek recommends you visit
http://www.nemetschek.net/3dpowerpack/
and maybe
http://www.nemetschek.net/3DPowerpack/tutorials.php
and if you have time
http://www.nemetschek.net/3DPowerpack/qtexamples.php
In march, the movie will cover Design Layer Viewports and in April, 2D to 3D.
.................................................................................
NNA has announced the release of a new Service Pack which fixes several bugs and introduces a few new items. VW 2008 users should first start VW and, assuming you have a live web connection, click on About VectorWorks and click again on “Check for Updates......”. VW will check to see if you need this Service Pack. If a web connection is not available, you can download the updater from the Downloads department on the NNA website. Be sure to read the PDF describing the changes. Of particular interest is a new context/right click command that makes getting in and out of edited viewports easier.
................................................................................
NNA added, within the last couple of years, a game-changing feature to VectorWorks called viewports. I’ve not been happy about the name since it seems to imply motion, as though you were embarking on a journey to a portal or through a black hole. If I could change VW, I’d wish up another name, perhaps a term less new-agey but more descriptive of something solid, like “snapshot”. I make a snapshot of my design layer and send it to a sheet. I can understand this immediately because it is something like my wife does when she puts pictures of the kids into our family album.
The problem many users of VW have is that the viewport process puts a big fat hurdle of dialog boxes in the way of their work flow. Not only that, but one is now supposed to put dimensions and text on a special sub-snapshot. Going back and forth gets confusing. (Imagine that to look at the Family Holiday Album, you have to constantly go into the next room.) The reason to stick with it, however, is that you’ll be paid back in spades once you change anything on the original design layers. Pages and pages will update and not only that, updating reduces error substantially since the change you would normally do manually, with all the potential for trouble, is guaranteed to show up in the revised view exactly as drawn. But to get the benefit you must incorporate this tool into your workflow and then wax on, wax off, again and again, until travel between the annotations pane and the crop pane and the design layer pane becomes second nature, becomes painless.
Another other big change in VectorWorks Version 2008 has been the invention of viewports-on-design layers or VPDL’s. This is where a viewport is sent not to a sheet but to another design layer where it is then used as an underlay representing some other part of your or another’s project. But I don’t like this name either. Who’s going to remember what a VPDL is? Change the name to Reference Layer* and I’m waymore happy. These references/VPDL’s are weird in their way. For instance, you can’t copy and paste viewports from a design layer to another design layer. They have to be created anew and sent using the Create Viewport dialog box. But once you get an underlying VPDL, you can reset its attributes--line type for instance--and change its look substantially.
In my own usage, I create a VPDL of a Main Story and send it to an Upper Story Floor Framing layer where I then can lay in my 2D work. To simplify the underlay, I reset the VPDL using the Object Info palette to show the walls as dashed lines, with windows and doors hidden. You DO have to create classes to help you with this process so I make a class for windows and one for doors called Hide Windows, Hide Doors. Once I make the class invisible, I have a much simpler template over which to embellish. Change the location of a window on the primary design layer and it slips to the correct location on the reference layer giving you an opportunity to move your header symbol and any notes and dimensions. I’m looking for NNA to make this process simpler over time. For instance, walls take a fair amount of massaging to get them into a stripped-down form. And file size can zoom if you use many of these. While I have described a fairly simple use of VPDL’s, there is a world of opportunity in how you or how you and your design team might use them.
*The term "Reference layer" was suggested first by a writer on the VW Tech Forum.
..................................................................
Messing with the Stack Layers command in V. 2008 can be confusing because it is fundamentally different from the earlier, pre-viewport system of making a model. For instance, when you wanted an old-school, layer linked model, you first had to designate a design layer onto which your 3D model would appear. When you create a model comprised of the newfangled stacked layers, it sits out in space somewhere with no design layer to call its own. Only after you make a viewport of the model is a tangible entity created. But half the fun of using stacked layers is the easy assembly of parts (more on that below) and the quick and easy generation of isometric views. In short order you can model assemblies and adjust and correct in 3D on the fly. This process is the future of VectorWorks. Using the old system would be much, much slower.
But the coin gets flipped when it comes to creating sections. The old school Cut 2D and Cut 3D Section is much quicker as the cutting action automatically creates a new layer to accept the cut. You can measure immediately, not having to go to an annotations layer to regain an accurate scale (versus 1:1). You won’t have the bells and whistles of the graphically rich Cut Section Viewport, but sometimes dirty beats pretty. If you don’t know where to find Cut 2D and Cut 3D Section, they can be located in the Legacy folder within the Workspace folder within the VectorWorks folder and imported back into your workspace by using the Workspace Editor. Yes, a hassle, but worth it in my opinion. Note, to make things easier after your cut, select it and go to Modify>Convert to lines>render in Hidden Line, then ungroup.
Note that when you first begin using the Stack Layers command, be patient when you click to assemble. VectorWorks needs time to bring up the layers and it will seem as though something should have happened by now but hasn’t. If something STILL hasn’t happened, it is likely that your view of the layers is set to Active Only. Visit the pull down menu on the Navigation palette, just atop the list of layers, and reset to Show/Snap Others or Gray/Snap Others.
...................................................................
I had imported some engineering PDF’s into a large VectorWorks file--a wonderful process that eliminates many irritants that used to attend the only other real option, that of Import DXF/DWG. I imported one PDF knowing it was slightly out of scale. At the end of the design process I tried to rescale the PDF to its correct size. Sometime later, it was discovered that in scaling the PDF, the ENTIRE FILE was rescaled with it. Not only that, but any associative dimensions--most of them--reset their numbers to match the now slightly shorter walls, since that’s what associative dimensions do. My whole plan, walls, dimensions, locks, stocks and smoking barrels, had shrunk. The good news was that this error was caught in time. The bad news could have been a finished file sent out for bid. The lesson? For me, I’ll only adjust a PDF BEFORE I import it into a drawing file. That, or ask my source to correct and resend. (Note that the scaling error was entirely my doing and not because of some issue with VectorWorks.)
...................................................................
If you want to include a 3D I-beam or other steel shape into your drawing, go to the Detailing tear-off palette and select your member. Stamp it onto your drawing and adjust its size via the Object Info palette. Flip your drawing into a Front view or any other assuming you want the member to have a horizontal orientation. Locate the I-beam and Modify>Ungroup. Then Modify>Convert>Convert to Polygon. Then go to Model>Extrude and enter a length. The beam extrudes toward you so duck if necessary. Give it a solid fill and move it into position within your model. Basic idea contributed by Gytis on the Tech Forum.
islandmon of the NNA Tech Forum recommended making the converted polygon into a NURBS using Convert to NURBS. The reasoning is that they demand less space in the file although they render the same. If you have a lot of these shapes in your project, say you design structural steel frames for a living, NURBS may be the way to go.
...................................................................
Clicking on X will drop you out of any tool you may have been working with and back to the 2D Selection Tool (indicated by an arrow with a little cross next to it). To get out of the Text tool, clicking on X gets you an X. To click of of Text, for Windows or Mac users, left handed or right, use either the Escape key in the upper left hand corner of your keyboard, or the Enter key on the far right side of your keyboard.
....................................................................
Borrowed from the NNA Tech Forum: If you use Apple’s Mail program, you can send PDF’s of VW to others lightning quick. While in your drawing, click Command P, on the next dialog box, lower left, click PDF. On the next box click Mail PDF (or FAX PDF). Mail comes up showing the VW image scaled correctly. Hit send. Time elapsed; couple seconds max. Note that you can create PDF’s through the print process from any application.
In Windows + Outlook, select Alt-Print Screen and copy to your clipboard which you can then paste into an email window. But it’s not a PDF. Faststone Capture is a $20 screen capture tool that will make your image into a PDF.
http://www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm
Office 2007 has a downloadable add-in, Save as PDF or XPS.
.....................................................................
VectorWiki is a new site you should visit for anything having to do with VectorWorks. This is a community that wants to be helpful. Take advantage of it.
www.vectorwiki.org/
.................................................................
You’ve likely seen this one by now but if you haven’t, here’s a link to a very positive review of VectorWorks.
http://aec.cadalyst.com/aec/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=482165
Cadalyst says VW “highly recommended”.
.................................................................
How-to movies are proliferating at the location listed below. As seems typical, they are designed to show off the talents of VW2008 but but in this case, teach at the same time.
http://www.nemetschek.net/training/library.php?movie=2008movies
.....................................................................
For a discussion on roof creation, follow these Tech Board links:
http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=9&Number=93005&Searchpage=1&Main=19894&Words=+panthony&topic=0&Search=true#Post93005
.......................................................................
I’d mentioned in my last post that I was suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome. My issue seems small, being confined to overuse of a thumb. Still, with a heavy workload, I could see problems on the horizon if I didn’t take some kind of action. I was delighted to receive several suggestions from readers.
Forrest German wrote to tell me about a great mouse he’s used now for years. You hold it vertically and not in the typical palm-down position. Try this: hold a CD or a paperback book between your thumb and fingers with palm down. Now rotate the object to vertical. Quite a little change in stress through the elbow. The Vertical Mouse 3 includes a Windows driver--not a Mac--but there is a link to several third party Mac drivers. The Evoluent Corp. also offers a palm rest and an interesting keyboard which, for right handers (or lefties like me who keep the mouse on their right), places the numeric keypad on the left side of the keyboard thus allowing one to keep their mouse-hand more directly to the front rather than angled out.
Check out their URL and accompanying testimonials.
http:/www.evoluent.com/
For Mac users, see Steermouse:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/drivers/steermouse.html
Anna Nissen likes vitamin B-6 or the more expensive coenzyme (predigested) variety as a means to buttress connective tissue. I’m finding that adjusting my diet these days is having a big impact on how I feel day to day. This sounds worth trying.
Here’s a link on B-6 that is short but informative:
http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/2355.html
Lack of general conditioning plays a role. Dalton Gittens said he’d regained strength in his hands by simply doing a kind of reverse-pullup, snugging his briefcase handle into his palm as he walked from home to office, office to home. I visited Zenith Supply and bought a handball made from a rubber that feels like a big gummy bear candy. It is impossible to have it in your hand and not squeeze it repeatedly. It’s no coincidence that I barely kayaked at all last year, a favorite pastime of mine that is really good for the hands and shoulders.
Mark Pickerell said poor posture caused big problems. According to Mark, people roll their heads toward the computer and this stress will lead to the upper back and neck tightening and thus pinch nerves running down the arms. Simply put; keep your ears over your shoulders and shoulders back. After reading Mark’s suggestions, I found that I did have my head slung forward while viewing the monitor.
Also good; use different types of mice and use them in both hands to halve the stresses in any one hand. Even if you are not having a problem yet, use both hands. Lastly, he recommends this book; Pain Free by Peter Egoscue.
I have a tip too. If you wear glasses, get a fixed focal length for computer use only. This keeps you, from having to hold your head/neck in one position to read the screen; a rigidity that graduated lenses or bifocals encourage. A fixed-focus lens allows one to shift their head to any position and still read text and see line work in focus. I can look down and read text on the desktop perfectly well with my fixed-focus glasses but you may have a different result. As for an eyeglass provider, I had good luck with eyeglassesdirect.com. Frames and prescription lenses can be had for about $75 provided you don’t pile on the options. Base your lens design on a relatively recent prescription and ask your optometrist to give you his notation, then transfer it to the online form.
................................................................
That’s all for now! See you this coming Thursday.
Tom Greggs
Greggs Building Design
(206) 524-2808
Serving the Seattle VectorWorks Users Group and Northwest VectorWorks users.
An archive of past newsletters can be found at http://converttolines.blogspot.com/
In this issue:
• When are we finally meeting???
• Webex info
• New Service Pack for V. 2008 available
• Thoughts on viewports and design layer viewports
• Stack Layers thoughts
• Scaling freak-out
• Converting a steel beam symbol into 3D
• Misc. Misc. Misc.
• Repetitive stress answers from our readers
Greetings VectorWorks users! Join us Thursday, February 21, 6:30 to 8:30 PM as we explore designing in 3D while using the rejuvenative powers of viewports. We’ll take you through some basics that should provide a means toward advancing your VW skills. Whether your designs fall between avian domiciles or skyscrapers, turn out and empower yourselves.
Our meeting will take place at the Seattle Central Community College Wood Construction Center lecture hall. The hall is located at 2310 S. Lane St. (intersection of 23rd Avenue South and South Lane Street). Parking is available in the gated lot off South King Street, just one block south of Jackson Street. The lecture hall is the building directly adjacent to the parking lot at its south side. Walk up the wooden side-ramp to the second door.
...........................................................................
The next Webex presentation is on NURBS surfaces. If you are new to using NURBS, in preparation for this session, Nemetschek recommends you visit
http://www.nemetschek.net/3dpowerpack/
and maybe
http://www.nemetschek.net/3DPowerpack/tutorials.php
and if you have time
http://www.nemetschek.net/3DPowerpack/qtexamples.php
In march, the movie will cover Design Layer Viewports and in April, 2D to 3D.
.................................................................................
NNA has announced the release of a new Service Pack which fixes several bugs and introduces a few new items. VW 2008 users should first start VW and, assuming you have a live web connection, click on About VectorWorks and click again on “Check for Updates......”. VW will check to see if you need this Service Pack. If a web connection is not available, you can download the updater from the Downloads department on the NNA website. Be sure to read the PDF describing the changes. Of particular interest is a new context/right click command that makes getting in and out of edited viewports easier.
................................................................................
NNA added, within the last couple of years, a game-changing feature to VectorWorks called viewports. I’ve not been happy about the name since it seems to imply motion, as though you were embarking on a journey to a portal or through a black hole. If I could change VW, I’d wish up another name, perhaps a term less new-agey but more descriptive of something solid, like “snapshot”. I make a snapshot of my design layer and send it to a sheet. I can understand this immediately because it is something like my wife does when she puts pictures of the kids into our family album.
The problem many users of VW have is that the viewport process puts a big fat hurdle of dialog boxes in the way of their work flow. Not only that, but one is now supposed to put dimensions and text on a special sub-snapshot. Going back and forth gets confusing. (Imagine that to look at the Family Holiday Album, you have to constantly go into the next room.) The reason to stick with it, however, is that you’ll be paid back in spades once you change anything on the original design layers. Pages and pages will update and not only that, updating reduces error substantially since the change you would normally do manually, with all the potential for trouble, is guaranteed to show up in the revised view exactly as drawn. But to get the benefit you must incorporate this tool into your workflow and then wax on, wax off, again and again, until travel between the annotations pane and the crop pane and the design layer pane becomes second nature, becomes painless.
Another other big change in VectorWorks Version 2008 has been the invention of viewports-on-design layers or VPDL’s. This is where a viewport is sent not to a sheet but to another design layer where it is then used as an underlay representing some other part of your or another’s project. But I don’t like this name either. Who’s going to remember what a VPDL is? Change the name to Reference Layer* and I’m waymore happy. These references/VPDL’s are weird in their way. For instance, you can’t copy and paste viewports from a design layer to another design layer. They have to be created anew and sent using the Create Viewport dialog box. But once you get an underlying VPDL, you can reset its attributes--line type for instance--and change its look substantially.
In my own usage, I create a VPDL of a Main Story and send it to an Upper Story Floor Framing layer where I then can lay in my 2D work. To simplify the underlay, I reset the VPDL using the Object Info palette to show the walls as dashed lines, with windows and doors hidden. You DO have to create classes to help you with this process so I make a class for windows and one for doors called Hide Windows, Hide Doors. Once I make the class invisible, I have a much simpler template over which to embellish. Change the location of a window on the primary design layer and it slips to the correct location on the reference layer giving you an opportunity to move your header symbol and any notes and dimensions. I’m looking for NNA to make this process simpler over time. For instance, walls take a fair amount of massaging to get them into a stripped-down form. And file size can zoom if you use many of these. While I have described a fairly simple use of VPDL’s, there is a world of opportunity in how you or how you and your design team might use them.
*The term "Reference layer" was suggested first by a writer on the VW Tech Forum.
..................................................................
Messing with the Stack Layers command in V. 2008 can be confusing because it is fundamentally different from the earlier, pre-viewport system of making a model. For instance, when you wanted an old-school, layer linked model, you first had to designate a design layer onto which your 3D model would appear. When you create a model comprised of the newfangled stacked layers, it sits out in space somewhere with no design layer to call its own. Only after you make a viewport of the model is a tangible entity created. But half the fun of using stacked layers is the easy assembly of parts (more on that below) and the quick and easy generation of isometric views. In short order you can model assemblies and adjust and correct in 3D on the fly. This process is the future of VectorWorks. Using the old system would be much, much slower.
But the coin gets flipped when it comes to creating sections. The old school Cut 2D and Cut 3D Section is much quicker as the cutting action automatically creates a new layer to accept the cut. You can measure immediately, not having to go to an annotations layer to regain an accurate scale (versus 1:1). You won’t have the bells and whistles of the graphically rich Cut Section Viewport, but sometimes dirty beats pretty. If you don’t know where to find Cut 2D and Cut 3D Section, they can be located in the Legacy folder within the Workspace folder within the VectorWorks folder and imported back into your workspace by using the Workspace Editor. Yes, a hassle, but worth it in my opinion. Note, to make things easier after your cut, select it and go to Modify>Convert to lines>render in Hidden Line, then ungroup.
Note that when you first begin using the Stack Layers command, be patient when you click to assemble. VectorWorks needs time to bring up the layers and it will seem as though something should have happened by now but hasn’t. If something STILL hasn’t happened, it is likely that your view of the layers is set to Active Only. Visit the pull down menu on the Navigation palette, just atop the list of layers, and reset to Show/Snap Others or Gray/Snap Others.
...................................................................
I had imported some engineering PDF’s into a large VectorWorks file--a wonderful process that eliminates many irritants that used to attend the only other real option, that of Import DXF/DWG. I imported one PDF knowing it was slightly out of scale. At the end of the design process I tried to rescale the PDF to its correct size. Sometime later, it was discovered that in scaling the PDF, the ENTIRE FILE was rescaled with it. Not only that, but any associative dimensions--most of them--reset their numbers to match the now slightly shorter walls, since that’s what associative dimensions do. My whole plan, walls, dimensions, locks, stocks and smoking barrels, had shrunk. The good news was that this error was caught in time. The bad news could have been a finished file sent out for bid. The lesson? For me, I’ll only adjust a PDF BEFORE I import it into a drawing file. That, or ask my source to correct and resend. (Note that the scaling error was entirely my doing and not because of some issue with VectorWorks.)
...................................................................
If you want to include a 3D I-beam or other steel shape into your drawing, go to the Detailing tear-off palette and select your member. Stamp it onto your drawing and adjust its size via the Object Info palette. Flip your drawing into a Front view or any other assuming you want the member to have a horizontal orientation. Locate the I-beam and Modify>Ungroup. Then Modify>Convert>Convert to Polygon. Then go to Model>Extrude and enter a length. The beam extrudes toward you so duck if necessary. Give it a solid fill and move it into position within your model. Basic idea contributed by Gytis on the Tech Forum.
islandmon of the NNA Tech Forum recommended making the converted polygon into a NURBS using Convert to NURBS. The reasoning is that they demand less space in the file although they render the same. If you have a lot of these shapes in your project, say you design structural steel frames for a living, NURBS may be the way to go.
...................................................................
Clicking on X will drop you out of any tool you may have been working with and back to the 2D Selection Tool (indicated by an arrow with a little cross next to it). To get out of the Text tool, clicking on X gets you an X. To click of of Text, for Windows or Mac users, left handed or right, use either the Escape key in the upper left hand corner of your keyboard, or the Enter key on the far right side of your keyboard.
....................................................................
Borrowed from the NNA Tech Forum: If you use Apple’s Mail program, you can send PDF’s of VW to others lightning quick. While in your drawing, click Command P, on the next dialog box, lower left, click PDF. On the next box click Mail PDF (or FAX PDF). Mail comes up showing the VW image scaled correctly. Hit send. Time elapsed; couple seconds max. Note that you can create PDF’s through the print process from any application.
In Windows + Outlook, select Alt-Print Screen and copy to your clipboard which you can then paste into an email window. But it’s not a PDF. Faststone Capture is a $20 screen capture tool that will make your image into a PDF.
http://www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm
Office 2007 has a downloadable add-in, Save as PDF or XPS.
.....................................................................
VectorWiki is a new site you should visit for anything having to do with VectorWorks. This is a community that wants to be helpful. Take advantage of it.
www.vectorwiki.org/
.................................................................
You’ve likely seen this one by now but if you haven’t, here’s a link to a very positive review of VectorWorks.
http://aec.cadalyst.com/aec/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=482165
Cadalyst says VW “highly recommended”.
.................................................................
How-to movies are proliferating at the location listed below. As seems typical, they are designed to show off the talents of VW2008 but but in this case, teach at the same time.
http://www.nemetschek.net/training/library.php?movie=2008movies
.....................................................................
For a discussion on roof creation, follow these Tech Board links:
http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=9&Number=93005&Searchpage=1&Main=19894&Words=+panthony&topic=0&Search=true#Post93005
.......................................................................
I’d mentioned in my last post that I was suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome. My issue seems small, being confined to overuse of a thumb. Still, with a heavy workload, I could see problems on the horizon if I didn’t take some kind of action. I was delighted to receive several suggestions from readers.
Forrest German wrote to tell me about a great mouse he’s used now for years. You hold it vertically and not in the typical palm-down position. Try this: hold a CD or a paperback book between your thumb and fingers with palm down. Now rotate the object to vertical. Quite a little change in stress through the elbow. The Vertical Mouse 3 includes a Windows driver--not a Mac--but there is a link to several third party Mac drivers. The Evoluent Corp. also offers a palm rest and an interesting keyboard which, for right handers (or lefties like me who keep the mouse on their right), places the numeric keypad on the left side of the keyboard thus allowing one to keep their mouse-hand more directly to the front rather than angled out.
Check out their URL and accompanying testimonials.
http:/www.evoluent.com/
For Mac users, see Steermouse:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/drivers/steermouse.html
Anna Nissen likes vitamin B-6 or the more expensive coenzyme (predigested) variety as a means to buttress connective tissue. I’m finding that adjusting my diet these days is having a big impact on how I feel day to day. This sounds worth trying.
Here’s a link on B-6 that is short but informative:
http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/2355.html
Lack of general conditioning plays a role. Dalton Gittens said he’d regained strength in his hands by simply doing a kind of reverse-pullup, snugging his briefcase handle into his palm as he walked from home to office, office to home. I visited Zenith Supply and bought a handball made from a rubber that feels like a big gummy bear candy. It is impossible to have it in your hand and not squeeze it repeatedly. It’s no coincidence that I barely kayaked at all last year, a favorite pastime of mine that is really good for the hands and shoulders.
Mark Pickerell said poor posture caused big problems. According to Mark, people roll their heads toward the computer and this stress will lead to the upper back and neck tightening and thus pinch nerves running down the arms. Simply put; keep your ears over your shoulders and shoulders back. After reading Mark’s suggestions, I found that I did have my head slung forward while viewing the monitor.
Also good; use different types of mice and use them in both hands to halve the stresses in any one hand. Even if you are not having a problem yet, use both hands. Lastly, he recommends this book; Pain Free by Peter Egoscue.
I have a tip too. If you wear glasses, get a fixed focal length for computer use only. This keeps you, from having to hold your head/neck in one position to read the screen; a rigidity that graduated lenses or bifocals encourage. A fixed-focus lens allows one to shift their head to any position and still read text and see line work in focus. I can look down and read text on the desktop perfectly well with my fixed-focus glasses but you may have a different result. As for an eyeglass provider, I had good luck with eyeglassesdirect.com. Frames and prescription lenses can be had for about $75 provided you don’t pile on the options. Base your lens design on a relatively recent prescription and ask your optometrist to give you his notation, then transfer it to the online form.
................................................................
That’s all for now! See you this coming Thursday.
Tom Greggs
Greggs Building Design
(206) 524-2808
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