This file contains useful information and tips that are not included in the reference manuals, and information about bugs that we know of at time of product release.
When entering your encryption the first time you run Sketch! you may have difficulty moving from one field to the next with the mouse. To move between the fields, use the 'Tab' key and the arrow keys.
•Problem: After installation, when Sketch!Net Controls is turned on, it says it can't find Sketch!Net and shuts itself off.
Sketch!Net Controls relies on the system Desktop to find Sketch!Net, and the installation procedure cannot force the Desktop to update. If you go to the folder where Sketch!Net is installed and move the application out, and then back in, then the Desktop will be updated and Sketch!Net Controls will be able to find Sketch!Net.
•Problem: It seems to take a long time for the pictures in the Catalogs to be displayed.
The first time a picture is shown for a catalog entry, Sketch! has to calculate it from scratch. This can take from a second to a couple of minutes (usually, a few seconds). When the picture is produced the first time, it is saved to the Cameos folder of the catalog. Any subsequent occasion that the picture is shown, Sketch! only has to read it from the cameos folder, which takes less time.
•Problem: Text using small font in dialogs and palettes is cut off at the top.
If you are running software that changes the default font, or otherwise alters it (for example for 3rd Party monitor or graphics boards), text may appear incorrect in dialogs or palettes. Text can still be entered, but it's cut off at the top or it may be too small.
•Information: Compositing using Photoshop™ with Sketch!'s alpha information.
To composite images rendered in Sketch! with a black background and 'use alpha channel' switched on, ensure that you use the Black Matte option (in 'Composite Controls…' and/or Brush Window). Please refer to your Photoshop™ manual for details of compositing.
•Information: To alter the default window size and location and other variables.
The Sketch! Preferences dialog allows many of the defaults for Sketch! to be set. However it is possible to save the entire modeling window environment so that it is used as the default. To do so, open the "Sketch!™ 2.0 Prefs" file (in the Preferences folder, in the System folder). When you have finished altering the environment to suit your needs, save it. This process allows you to alter the default materials, the default wireframe and rendering smoothnesses, the default window size and location, etc. Note: if you include any geometry in the file, it will always be present when you launch Sketch!, or select File:New.
•Problem: Sketch! seems to slow down after a lot of modelling is done.
If you run a session of Sketch! for some time, especially if you do a lot of importing, deleting or Converting to Polygon, you may notice that Sketch! slows down. This is because (although the model you are working with may not be very large or complicated) Sketch!'s memory has become fragmented and, therefore, very inefficient. Save the model, and Quit Sketch! When you start Sketch! and open the model, Sketch! will return to normal speed.
•Problem: Commands entered from the keyboard are ignored.
Sketch! can get into a state where it appears to ignore keyboard entry (typically delete/spacebar). This is because Sketch! assumes that these keyboard strokes are intended to go to the last window/palette that was used. If the keystrokes are not meaningful to that window/palette they will be ignored. If this happens, try clicking the title bar of the main Sketch! window, and then repeating the keyboard command.
If you catalog an object with caps, when the catalog entry is placed back into Sketch, the cap objects will no longer be caps, but will revert to being normal faces. If you require them to be caps, delete them, select the object and Modify: Add Caps.
Note: the same thing happens if you copy and paste an object with caps.
•Information: Exporting to RIB format.
Curve-on-surface information in Sketch! is not written out to RIB as trims, so using 'Treat as Hole' cannot be transferred to RIB.
When you have spot or point lights in your scene and you write it out to RIB, you may encounter warning messages from some RenderMan applications (but will not stop it from rendering). MacRenderMan will warn about the "falloff" parameter, but NetRenderMan will not complain at all, and will give you a better match with the Sketch! rendering lighting effects.
•Problem: Update picture of Catalog item is incorrect.
If a catalog cameo is created incorrectly for some reason, you must delete the PICT file for that item from its cameos folder. Note: Cameos are created at the number of colors that your monitor is set to.
•Problem: A file saved when low in memory can't be read back
Sketch! needs a little extra memory to open a file than it does to save it. If the model almost filled memory when it was saved, it is possible that Sketch! running with the same amount of memory cannot open the file. Try opening the file using the 'Open' menu item instead of launching Sketch! by either double-clicking the document or dropping the document onto the application icon, or assign more memory to Sketch!.
When dragging a curve-on-surface, the object does not stay with the cursor. Try dragging the object very slowly, or possibly changing the view and trying again. Keep the cursor 'on' the object.
•Problem: Non-proportional scale of grouped objects has distorted results.
If you non-proportionally scale multiple objects that have bounding boxes at different angles, they all scale slightly differently.
•Problem: Lofting complex curves seems to loft to 'wrong side' of curve.
Sometimes when lofting complex curves (especially if imported from another application), loft appears to makes its continuous connection to the 'wrong' side of the curve. This results in the surface bulging in unexpected directions.
This is a side effect of the algorithm we use that creates smooth lofts in most cases. In general, the closer and steeper the profile curves are, the higher the bulge will occur. One workaround is to scale the profiles apart, do the loft, and then scale the result back. What this does is indirectly control the starting and ending tangency of the loft surface (because they are based on the steepness between each profile.)
•Problem: Putty changes shape of curve unpredictably.
If you putty a curve twice in a row, the second putty operation may be using the region of effect defined by the first operation. In some circumstances, this will cause the shape of the curve to 'jump' unpredictably, because the putty tool is attempting to constrain the alteration according to the region markers that you had not intended to define. To avoid this, reset the region to its default by deselecting the curve and reselecting it.
•Problem: Revolve tool creates object 90 degrees to intended direction.
The revolve tool calculates the angle at which the revolve will occur based on the point on the curve where you click. In some circumstances, if the click point is on a straight line, this angle is calculated incorrectly so that the revolve is lifted from the surface instead of along it. To correct this, try redrawing the straight line in the opposite direction, or clicking on a different segment of the curve that is not a straight line, or revolving the curve with another temporary curve that can be deleted afterwards.
•Problem: Sweep perpendicular flattens the object.
When the 'Profile perpendicular to path' option is chosen in the Sweep dialog, the point selected on the profile is aligned perpendicular to the start of the path, and the profile is aligned to be on the same plane as the path. If this does not give the effect you want, uncheck this option.
•Problem: Applying wireframe smoothness settings or changes through Object Info Palette on multiple objects only changes one of the objects.
The info palette is like a stack of cards, one for each selected object. If you make a change to an info window, it affects that object only. To affect all the objects use the pertinent Menu command.
•Problem: Creating curve-on-surface on more than one surface.
If you create a pen curve that begins on one surface, and then you make a different (non-flat) surface 'Live', the curve may not be drawn where you expect it to be. Curves-on-surface can only be created on single NURBS surfaces.
Sketch! 1.5 stored material references with its Assembly catalogs, although this information is never used. It is possible when reading in a catalog item that you will get a 'can't find file' dialog and the file found will be ignored. We advise, when placing assembly catalogs, if this dialog should appear, just press 'continue'.
•Information: The material catalogs contains several materials with the word 'alpha' in the name. These materials all have some attribute that can be set by the user. Usually the attribute is color; occasionally it is transparency. For example, the material "check w/alpha" uses an texture map of an 8x8 checker with a matching alpha channel. When this material is used, its color is black + the color of the material. By default it is black and white, but, for example, by changing that material's color to yellow, the checker will become black and yellow.
For more information on using alpha channels in textures, see Basics & Beyond and the Sketch! Tutorials.
•Problem: The 'Start at:' time in Render!Q on a Power Macintosh does not work correctly.
If you are running the Power Macintosh version of Render!Q, do not use the 'Start at:' control. This control will either not work correctly, or will constantly reset to 12.00am. Instead, use 'Start Delay:' with a suitable time delay in minutes or 'Start Immediately'.
'Start at:' works correctly on 680x0 Macintoshes.
•Problem: Object appears to float when rendered with soft shadows.
A limitation of the soft shadowing algorithm may cause shadows to be drawn slightly incorrectly. For example, an object sitting on a surface may appear to be floating slightly above the surface. The effect may be reduced by altering the lighting, or by raytracing.
•Problem: Black irregularities appear in rendering:
There may be several reasons for this:
a) the surface has been modeled with some sort of flaw in the geometry. This can happen when making lofts in extremely difficult conditions; for example, a very short loft between radically different curves. In this situation, try rendering with a higher rendering smoothness. Or remake the surface with simpler curves.
b) terminator limitation: you can resolve this by either increasing the surface subdivision, or edit your StyleGuide file to check for the terminator problem. In your render settings, add "checkTerminator = 1". See the StyleGuide Reference Manual.
c) surfaces are coincident. If two surfaces lie exactly on top of each other, the renderer may have difficulty distinguishing which of the two is on top. Move one of them slightly away from the other.
•Problem: Text will not render - displays the crossover geometry message.
Adobe's guidelines for Type 1 fonts explicitly instruct font-makers not to use crossover geometry when creating characters. However there are some fonts which contain characters with crossover geometry. The only workaround is to convert the character to a face, and then manually fix it using the Putty, Scissors, Pen and Pencil tools.
•Problem: The CMYK color picker changes colors.
For example, you enter 100% in any of the CMY or K field of the CMYK color picker then close the window. When you re-open it, the number has changed to 99%.
This is a function of CMYK. There are many values that can make up the same color and we display one of them. It may not have the same values as the ones you entered but it is the same color. Note. Sketch! renders are always produced in RGB, so a 1% change to a CMYK color will not be detectable.
•Problem: Sketch!Net runs slower than expected.
Sketch!Net can run with a relatively low memory assignment. However, this amount of memory may be unsuitable for the current rendering task. We advise you to assign as much memory as possible to all the Sketch!Nets for speed.
•Problem: Render!Q rendering has backdrop, but there was no backdrop when saved from Sketch!
The StyleGuide format does not save whether a backdrop is hidden or showing. By default, the current backdrops is shown when a file is loaded. To ensure that a hidden backdrop is not rendered by Render!Q, change the current backdrop to White in the Appearance:Backdrops… dialog.
•Problem: File doesn't render in Render!Q, but no message is displayed.
Render!Q does not display warning or information messages on screen, because they would pause the batch rendering until a user clicks the OK button to dismiss the message. Instead, Render!Q writes all messages to the "Render!Q rendering log". Open this file using TeachText or any word processor to see if there is any information that may explain the situation.
•Problem: Inaccurate message stating that there is 'Insufficient Disk Space' when beginning a render.
There seems to be an intermittent system bug that causes the System's temporary items folder to be lost. Sketch! makes use of this folder when rendering, and if unable to locate it displays an erroneous 'Insufficient disk space message'. This seems to occur more frequently on damaged Disks. Once this occurs your Macintosh must be Restarted for System 7 to create a new folder. If this happens frequently, we advise you to run disk diagnostic and repair software on the Hard Disk.
•Problem: When Backface culling is switched on, part of an object is missing.
Backface culling is an option offered for some objects in Sketch! to reduce their rendering time. Sometimes Sketch! incorrectly chooses to cull the front of an object instead of the back. If this happens, uncheck Backface culling for that object. For more information, see Basics & Beyond.
•Problem: When a tileable bump map is tiled, you can see the 'tiles'.
This can be solved by making sure that the "wrap over seams" checkbox, in the Material Positioning dialog is checked. This ensures that you will not be able to see the edges of bump maps that tile seamlessly.
•Problem: When a model is rendered, everything is in focus again.
The 'focus everything' flag is not saved if you turn it off and don't change any values. If you save this way and read the file back in, it will be switched on again to tell you that everything is still in focus. If you change any of the values, then the values and the flag will be retained.
•Problem: Distributed renderings look less dithered than regular renderings.
This problem is due to the fact that only 1 horizontal line is independently dithered (giving you dots and bands). This is due to the distribution process. Once completed rendering, the entire image will be redithered to give you better results. Note: the image is rendered and saved as 24bit, so if you are viewing it in millions of colors, you will not see any dithering.
•Problem: Hidden-line rendering cannot be distributed.
Due to the algorithm used, hidden-line rendering cannot be distributed to multiple machines. If you have set up distributed rendering and you choose Hidden Line rendering, the rendering will not be distributed.
•Problem: Colored shadows don't appear on matte objects.
If a light shines through a semi-transparent surface that has a color map on it onto a matte object, the shadow on the matte object is plain gray. The same light shining through the same surface onto a normal surface (not a matte object) gets a colored shadow.
•Problem: Central Point MacTools may cause problems when rendering.
In rare circumstances, running MacTools with CPtrashback turned on causes the rendering to crash.
•Problem: Sketch! Rescued Rendering files have incorrect colors.
The temporary rendering file created by Sketch! is slightly different between Power Macintoshes and 680x0 Macintoshes. If your macintosh crashes while unsaved renderings are open (because of power failure, etc.) the next time you run Sketch! a message will be displayed explaining that Sketch! has recovered one or more temporary files. These files will be renamed "Sketch! Rescued Rendering". These are RAW binary files that can be read by Sketch! (using File: Show Image). If you read a Rescued Rendering file that was created on a Power Macintosh into Sketch! running on a 680x0 (or vice versa), the colors will be incorrect. If you wish to transfer an image of this type, open it on a Macintosh with the same processor type as it was originally created, and save it as PICT, TIFF or PIX format
