Trimble Business Center

 View Only
Expand all | Collapse all

Siteworks And VCL Files

  • 1.  Siteworks And VCL Files

    Posted 09-10-2020 07:22

    Simple question: Can VCL files be used in Siteworks without going through Worksmanager?

    Thanks,

    Marshall



  • 2.  Re: Siteworks And VCL Files

    Posted 09-10-2020 07:38

    Yup. Nothing too special about the WorksManager exported ones versus ones that are manually exported from TBC.  There's a chance the non-WM ones will have some extra source data in them, but otherwise there should be no significant differences between the export methods and the behavior in Siteworks. 



  • 3.  Re: Siteworks And VCL Files

    Posted 10-19-2020 15:27

    I wish there would be. We have massive issues with VCL files and Earthworks. Since they keep all the dependencies the VCL files are much much bigger than exporting it the old way into the ProjectLibrary. You end up with lots of unnecessary data on the machine. If a surface was made from lots of triangles they will end up in the VCL. We have to manually break all dependencies by exporting/importing as TTM or using the offset macro (which has its drawbacks as well). Please consider a special VCL format for Worksmanager-Upload that is automatically breaking dependencies and is just sending the data to the machine that was selected on the design definition page. I just need the surface on the machine, I don't an additional 200000 line work triangles.

     

    I've got i.e. a design that is 64 MB for Earthworks and 0.8 MB for GCS900.

     

    Our Worksmanager folder for Earthworks machines is 470 MB, for GCS900 machines just 90 MB. The biggest EW designs are up to 64 MB. We'd have to do a lot of unnecessary manual data prep to keep the VCL overhead low. The new workflow should be easier than the old one, but right now it seems the opposite.

     

    The latest EW 2.1.3 does not to seem to be able to cope with either the design size or the VCL format in general, I can't change to our project, EW is completely crashing. We've also got a CAT Next Gen with 2.1.0, its software doesn't crash but it takes 4 minutes to change the design. 

     

    Also, model Type "Road surface" won't show a cross section in Siteworks if using .VCL. The old way with a .pro file it does.

     

    We have absolutely no issue with GCS900, the model size is normal and it usually looks as intended. Siteworks also shows a lot of unnecessary data but at least doesn’t crash or slow down.



  • 4.  Re: Siteworks And VCL Files

    Posted 10-19-2020 15:36

    Hi Ronny -- I am looking into generating a lighter version of VCL that will only include the objects selected and nothing else (well, maybe some additional meta-data that will glue things together). I have started preliminary research into this. This is on my radar, and I have heard it enough times now to know the pain that the current, all-encapsulating-vcl-file is causing.

     

    Sanjeev



  • 5.  Re: Siteworks And VCL Files

    Posted 10-19-2020 17:00

    Hello Sanjeev,

    that is very good to hear. Fingers crossed that you'll make swift progress.

    I just had to set our second Earthworks machine to manually synch and have to prepare data separately the old way on a USB stick for now. I haven't found out yet why and which of our models crash EW.

     

    Cheers

    Ronny



  • 6.  Re: Siteworks And VCL Files

    Posted 09-10-2020 09:45

    Steve: Thanks for the quick reply.

     

    So I just create a Design folder in the site and drag in the VCL manually (as opposed to using "Create Design" and "Design Manager" in TBC? Siteworks will pick it up once synchronized?

     

    We are off to a location with no cell and no internet so adding cloud-based utilities like Worksmanager/SynvManager aren't any help.

     

    Thanks again.

     

    Marshall



  • 7.  Re: Siteworks And VCL Files

    Posted 09-10-2020 12:50

    Yep that's how you can do it.  Also you can create the design right in

    Siteworks and then just navigate to the VCL file and select it as the

    "design file".

     

    On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 10:45 AM marshall.cant@outlook.com <