Layer Control inside Enscape

Whenever you encounter any issues with Enscape or your subscription please reach out to our dedicated support team directly through the Help Center or by using the Feedback button as detailed here.
  • I am an archicad user who uses Enscape religiously and while the visual outputs of a finished home for the clients are the icing on the cake, Enscape VR is also a very valuable tool to explain the structure of the build to contractors. As we model everything down to the joist hangers/bolts etc the VR navigation of a structure is invaluable to a contractor to get a full understanding of the layout of structural members & systems.


    As a part of this process I will often jump between the final home and the structural framing views using archicads layer combinations settings. While going from full view to structural views the change is pretty quick as layers (polygons) are being removed but the reverse process takes longer as I assume it is reloading the archicad polygons into the enscape engine??


    Can Enscape hold onto the polygon information of layers that have been initially loaded but then turned off in archicad? This would then mean that when the layers are turned back on again there would be no need to reload the polygons it would just be a visibility command function in Enscape. It would still need to review for changes I suppose, but in most cases where I need this functionality we are just viewing the model anyway so changes are not really happening.


    Even if Enscape held a 'scene' setting which held layer selections then I could load the full model and then just select the layers for each 'scene' from within Enscape.


    Obviously the Archicad model is translated into a different digital format within Enscape so I would assume turning on and off polygons would be much more efficiently done within the enscape engine. Having to adjust layers in archicad and translate the polygons to enscape every time is a bit arduous and time comsuming


    Thanks

    Gavin

    • Official Post

    Hey Gavin Pendergrast , be assured that your request has been noted! But, I have to add, that this is probably something which will not be implemented any time soon I'm afraid, mostly due to ArchiCAD restrictions.


    This would furthermore be something which we would like to implement for every supported CAD solution at once to keep things uniform, so if the demand is high enough in the future, for Revit, Rhino and SketchUp as well, we'll definitely consider adding this feature. :)

  • Thanks Demian, I agree implementing across all CAD solution would be a good idea but surely Archicad shouldn't be a restriction to this feature. Once the model has been converted into the digital format Enscape uses, it would be far easier & no doubt more efficient, to toggle visibility from within Enscape rather than removing then reloading polygons from archicad (or trying to sync archicads layer settings). Even if the layers were just brought through from the CAD solution being used and then all the toggling was done within Enscape that would still be far quicker than what we have now. If the polygons are loaded into the Enscape engine then visibility is all that is being queried and we won't have to wait for any regeneration unless changes are being made to the model.


    One of the coolest features in VR is the world being able to change right in front of your eyes so instant visibility toggle would make this a reality. Our PC's are more than capable of holding the polygons on our cards.


    Thanks

    • Official Post

    Gavin Pendergrast , I'm afraid, such an implementation is not as simple as it may seem, but be assured that your further feedback will be forwarded to our developers.


    Micha , your voice has been heard, the topic received a further upvote. :)

  • +1 for this

    Also consider when switching between renovation states it takes even longer than it does with layers.

    If it takes 10 seconds with layers, it takes 45 seconds with renovation states (going from existing to new for example)

    • Official Post

    +3 for the topic, thanks guys. ;)

  • +1 for this

    Also consider when switching between renovation states it takes even longer than it does with layers.

    If it takes 10 seconds with layers, it takes 45 seconds with renovation states (going from existing to new for example)

    The renovation filter is slightly different in the fact that it alters the physical shape of the model elements as opposed to one big set of geometry data that is just toggled on or off based on layers. For example Enscape would need to load both the new and existing version of the same model into its engine so to be able to switch between with a visibility toggle. This would be a very cool feature though and if they develop layer control it should be possible to incorporate renovation status


    It seems like the Enscape engine is built around just reading the geometry supplied to it rather than managing the geometry once loaded. Which is far enough because its already way better than anything else at doing this!


    I don't think there is an issue with the engine holding the geometry in its memory, it's just the internal management of that geometry which is not something that Enscape has been built for.


    Good to see others giving their upvote tho. That can only help.

  • +1 for layercontrol inside Enscape. I am working on an animation where I need to show how a building comes up in stages. Would be nice to show or hide layers between the keyframes just like in SketchUp scenes.

  • I was just trying to do this. I would love love love to be able to send a client an executable that has the one of the views set up as a floor plan (I usually model by floor so I can turn them off as floors without using section tool) So when I am presenting using sketchup I can just go to a scene that has the upper floors turned off and walk them through the plan.. then go back to 3d. I would love to be able to do this in an enscape exe. instead of in Sketchup. But it would mean those views have layer control based on how the scene in skp set up. I can do it inside of skp with enscape running but would love it if the exe could mimic that.