canarch

are you still having problems - still slow? i'm thinking of buying the T1100 for our office - all Macs running 10.5 with VW 2008 any thoughts would be helpful thanks Alistair Kirkwood, B.Arch. Northgrave Architect Inc. Toronto, Canada

Hello, just wondering if you did upgrade to the T1100 and how it's working for you. we are currently looking to do the same - currently have old HP 750Cplus (a workhorse but now too slow) any thoughts you could provide would be helpfull our office is also all Mac running 10.5 and VW 2008 thanks Alistair Kirkwood, B.Arch. Northgrave Architect Inc. Toronto, Canada

Hello All sorry if this is posted in the wrong forum but hope someone might be able to provide me with a symbol i can use for a Handicap Accessibility Scooter (those battery powered chairs) for VW 11 i've looked in the various symbol libraries on this site and others but nothing. currently working on 5 retirement homes and the client wants to see a layout of the scooter charging room complete with (you guessed it) scooters symbols thanks in advance. Alistair

i've also notice that you cannot use the angle dimension between a line and a line that is contained within a group. but as you said i too do not use this tool much so drawing a few extra lines does not take up too much time, but it does appear to be a major flaw. thanks Alistair

i do have this problem but had thought that it was due to a large file size, or because of my speedy mouse work. actually i've seen it happen on two machines in our office, not checked the others but again thought it was due to file size and older machines My machine G4 800 1.5 Gig Ram OS 10.2.8 VW 11.0.1 Other machine G4 400 1 Gig Ram OS 10.2.8 VW 11.0.1

quote: Originally posted by CipesDesign: Sorry, one more thought: Boy are we spoiled! Up until a few years ago it would have been totally unrealistic to expect *any* of this from our computers/software. Look at how far we've come (and of course, the long road ahead...)! again i agree, and for the most part what is offered with VW has been sufficient in the past. but once you add a few very highly paid planners, urban designers, and of course Lawyers you need to know exaclty what's happening. telling a hearing that "my computer produced the image" is obviously not an option. same issue if you use VW to create actuall Shadow Diagrams we have to prove that the information inputed creates the correct shadows by referencing back to charts. something that I have done successfully in the past (thanks VW) i guess with the increase in computer technolgy the expectation of accuracy has also increased (probably quicker than the technology) guess we'll wait for VW 20 which will include a Virtual Reality Plug in and only run on Mac G12's with a terrabite of Ram. ;-) Alistair

Thanks Peter i have already entered the manual's description into our evidence, but had hopped for a little more info. your right lets hope someone from programming or tech support can help out. does anyone know how the values work in the custom settings? other than what is stated in the manual "Type the custom perspective value in the PERSPECTIVE field, and then click OK. the lower the value entered, the wider the angle of perspective." does this relate to camera angles? thanks Alistair Kirkwood, B.Arch. Northgrave Architect Inc.

quote: Originally posted by Kaare Baekgaard: If you have not yet done them by hand, perhaps you should try that.. It is a surprisingly exact method. How very insightful. instead of actually using VW do a hand sketch. in the historical view mentioned above the view included an area of ?3km and about 2000 buildings, CN tower and the entire Toronto Financial District. if you can draw this perspective and ensure that all the buildings are set at their correct Geodetic heights within a week your hired. quote: Originally posted by Kaare Baekgaard: If you are confident and speak with authority, they will accept it. i believe this is why i was asking for the information. other 3d modeling and Cadd software allow the user to chose camera lenses which then provide credibility to the evidence when submitted in court. simply calling the perspective NORMAL will probably be thrown out, much like your hand sketch would as you would not be allowed the time to demostrate your method. perhaps the short answer is i should not be using VW which is not the answer i am looking for.

of the three standard perspective views that are offered in version 11 (Narrow, Normal, Wide) i assume that Normal is the closest to the human eye. is it? how can i find out the viewing angles or corresponding cameras that best match these settings. it is generally undersood that a50mm camera lens is closest to the human eye for perspective purposes. the other question may be in the custom perspecive what numerical value can be added to achieve various camera angles or the human eye. is a chart of these values available anywhere. this has become an issue for us as we present 3D views at Planning Hearings, the credibility of the program is now being questioned. any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks Alistair Kirkwood, B.Arch. Northgrave Architect Inc.

Alan, what we are preparing is realistic views of our building within a city context. it becomes more of an Urban Design issue of illustrating the fit of our building into the surroundings. we purchase a piece of the City's Model (toronto) and then import our own design. we then produce views from various vantage points and show the "true" impact our building will have on the city. the vantage points obviously vary from project to project, i'm currently dealing with a 21 storey building where the city is less interested in height but rather wants to see the pedestrian impact at grade on the neighbouring streets, and buildings previously this summer we had a project that was within a protected view Zone from a historic house. we had to ensure that we would not obstruct the view of the downtown core from a certain viewing balcony. thankfully we were simply the Architects and an urban Design Firm handled the Models for this court battle. as for the Camera vs Eye issue. the majority of Urban design consultants that we deal with feel that when using this tool the use of a 50mm camera is close enough to the human eye that it gives legitamacy to the prepared image. it also allows us to import our buildings into an existing picture if we know the exact spot the photo was taken we can then set up a rendering of the building from the same point and merge the two. in the past this work has been handled by other (some successfull some just not worth mentioning) we are constantly asked to prepare these types of images and i'd like to be able to within VW but obviously need the info as stated above. hope this answers your question and intrigues others to answer mine. Alistair Kirkwood, B.Arch. Northgrave Architect Inc.

just out of curiosity why in VW 11 does it assign the active class to the group when in previous versions it simply assigned the group to none class. can this be changed back to how it was in 9.5.3? sorry if this has been asked previously but i have just today upgraded from 9.5.3 to 11 trying to find all the quirks that will confuse the rest of the office before i let them all at it.

thanks for the responses, i to am on a mac and have switched the button's on my mouse what i've found to be the most difficult is all the key short cuts and while i know i can assign them to whatever i want i was curious if someone had done this and found a comfortable set up (not necessarily saying the base VW is comfortable but does seem to utilise the left side of the keyboard) alistair

anyone out there using VW with their mouse in their left hand. i'm suffering from a broken right hand, and the splint / cast renders my right hand useless for the mouse so i've switched to the left. not easy going as most would appreciate but if anyone does use this configuration i'd appreciate any input, specifically on keystroke keyboard shortcut setup etc. wishing for the impossible i think alistair

no error message, and yes i have control of the mouse although the little timmer does not turn. i realise this probably means the computer is thinking about opening the drawing but after leaving it for about 1/2 and hour and still nothing i decided to re-start the computer (force quit does not work) do you think it will open if i give it enough time? thanks Alistair

considering my computer freezes when i try to open i have tried the resart approach, even purged the ram etc. i've also tried upping VW's memory to 750,000kb with a minimum of 600,000kb still no luck. i've tried opening the file itself and opening the program then the file still no luck. is there a magic file size-to memory ratio that is not allowing the drawing to open? i'd try a variety of other options ie do tiff's not work but j-pegs do but i'm drafting with a broken right hand so my left hand mouse co-ordination is a little slow, may take me 4 weeks to sort this out (cast comes off then) unless anyone has another idea.

i created a file that has layers of vector drawings and an image (tiff or j-peg) on a separate layer. i worked on the file, printed and saved. now i can't open the file. i've found this problem before but have worked around it. this time i can not. Any suggestions as to how to open? Anyone else experienced this? FILE SIZE: 68.5mb VW VERSION: 9.5.2 MEMORY ASSIGNED: 500,000kb OS: 9.2.2 MACHINE: G4 800 quicksilver RAM: 1gig VIRTUAL MEMORY: off

Don't forget you neighbours to the North, Sitting here in Canada i've never had to have a dongle and i've been using since version4. I to will be waiting to see how this board responds to the new release, and how upgrades and patches are released before upgrading the office. quote: Originally posted by Katie: [QB Previous versions of VW required dongles for versions outside of the US.[/QB]

so i guess we will start to see a few names from this board on the next list of credits. i'd list them now but fear i'd forget someone who has helped in the past. quote: Originally posted by Katie: TS We give credit where credit is due, always.

interesting that this is now a bug! i've always had this problem but thought i was just the way it had to be, more of a quirk in the process. G4 - OS 9.2.2 - VW9.5.2

katie thanks,i should have been more specific i was referring to the menu option under the tool menu, rotate, flip vertically - flip horizontally next to the text there is a diagram showing the word flip on either side of a horizontal or verticle line. it is this diagram that has changed to a microsoft icon? i should also note that there is no consistency between machines they all display various combinations. i'll try finding extension conflicts but was more curious if anyone else had experience this before, and if it will cause more serious troubles in the future, as nothing new has been installed on these machines while others in the office don't have this problem. alistair

i've just become aware that a number of mac's in our office running vw 8.5.2 have some corrupt icons within vectorworks specifically under the icon associated with "flip horizontally" , and "flip Vertically" they have somehow changed to be either the Powerpoint icon, Excel icon, Windows media icon. all look like those found from office 2000 package. has anyone else experienced this? is this corruption at it's finest or have i inadvertently uncovered a link between nemetschek and microsoft? think i best re-install to be on the safe side.

Fred, thanks for the link however it does not seem to work????i too was a bit shocked at what "BASIC" tools were removed from VW (primarily the property line tool)as an architectural firm we use vw for 2-D drafting primarily thus no need for the full ARCHITECT package (as advised by sales) until we tried to do our first site plan? another question off topic is i note a lot of referrences to the next release of VW to fix bugs, incorporate new marketing schemes, is this going to be vw10 or a patch onto 9.5 it would seem to me that a number of people are really dissappointed in 9 so far and to expect us to upgrade to a new version is a little over the top. in our office we have 10 licenses and i am the only one who uses 9.5 this is primarily due to lack of printing support so while you may state that vw is bug free the entire process for digital file to hardcopy is not. my 2centsalistair

nope and just to make it more interesting pressing the space bar a number of times is not always the same for the next line. i always have a hard time alligning text this way regardless of wether the next line is within the same text box or a separate piece of text it will not allign simply by counting the number of space bar hits. all i can say is good luck.

i have just had the same problem happen to me. and as much as i enjoyed reading this discussion i'm not sure an answer was ever achieved. (unless they now have to install itunes on there PC's!) anyway i believe it is a problem on the receiving end (PC) as i have tried sending just dwg files and zipped versions to the offending consultant. even when a zip file is opened they files appear to be music files. he did state however that the extension was dwg but that the icon showed as a wave file. it was discovered later that instead of trying to double click on the file which should then launch ACAD he had to launch ACAD and then open the file from within the program. that's the fix i came up with but if there is a setting i can advise the consultant of that would be great as i'm sure he'll have the same problem next time.