bcd

But it should be easy. I cannot draw two circles tangentially to each other without first defining their collinear radii. (shouldn't the Smart Cursor >Object Snap Settings>Nearest Point on edge acquire this point for us?) Even the Tangent Constraint will not find the tangent point for two arcs but finds the tangent point of one arc and the generating radius of the 2nd arc ; useful sometimes but not what's being asked. (try this: Draw a circle 1m radius. 4m away center and draw a second circle such that it is tangent to the first. Why is this so hard in VW?)

One way: Draw cross-section using Polyline tool - Make sure it is closed. Convert to Nurbs Move 3d to correct elevation Repeat for the full height. Select all Loft with no rail

I may have found the problem. The curved wings are not tangental to the center straight section. I redrew one half of it using tangent arc mode for the transition and got a result.

Ah - fantastic. thanks Guy. Confidence restored!

When I attempt to fillet an edge the OI displays eg. "extrude locked". The red highlighting of yore are absent although the green check will cause the fillet to execute successfully. Is this a bug or are my settings askew? Thanks.

Interesting problem for a rainy day.

I just extruded a rectangle 22" moved it up a tad and subtracted all your solids from it. It's just a couple of mb and takes no time. Must be something amiss.

It's a repeating pattern? Create one of the modules using solid subtraction. Edit> Duplicate Array. Delete the additional modules to conform to the floor plan. Select All and Model>Add Solids. Modify>Convert to Generic Solids AEC>Create IFC Entity

I use cmd 1 or cmd 2 to zoom in/out with spacebar to pan - it's very fast for me : might be a workaround for you.

Zooming with the trackpad has been a recurring problem. Have you tried with the scroll wheel on the mouse? The NVIDIA 8600 graphics chip is under a replacement program from Apple - it could be you have a candidate on your machine.

knew there'd be a better way

I'll take a stab. Create a new texture in RW - First mid grey in Photoshop -Add Noise - Distort - Blur - Motion Blur - Radial Blur - Levels - (adjust until you get a b&w swirl). Save as Tiff. In VW duplicate Aluminium Texture - edit the duplicate - Bump - Image Bump - use the tiff. etc. will take some tweaking but I expect you'll get what you need.

jeffroyer, It seems to me that you are getting virtually no contribution from the North & East windows. This may have to do with your glass reflectivity or the HDRI outside. You can estimate / calculate the contribution you expect from these and create an area light, angled slightly downward, hide geometry and place just outside the windows.

What happens when you try to render one of the smaller symbols on its own? Are the 3d polygons closed? Have you aligned your symbols with co-planar faces? Can you insert a small gap between or Ungroup the smaller symbols and Add the resulting Solids?

Photoshop

Has anyone noticed improvements in render speeds with 2010, particularly using Snow Leopard? I'm hoping the 'under the hood' changes will make for performance benefits and shorter coffee breaks.

Hover over the bottom edge of the font-submenu drop-down and it scrolls down automatically (on my system at least). There's a little downward pointing triangle. Or. Open the submenu - move the cursor over the drawing area - the menu stays open and you can access fonts by typing their initial and the arrow keys- enter to select.

Just a thought but could the Location Planning module resolve this. I know it's available for VW 12 whether it works for 2008 .....? http://www.nemetschek.net/downloads/fundamentals/index.php

Sketchup can do this.

Has 3D dimensioning finally arrived in 2010? I don't see it explicitly but by using the new Planar Graphics it seems at lease possible if not extremely cumbersome: a new working plane for each dimension plane.

There was a firmware update a number of months ago to control the mbp fan & core temp. You should find it on the apple site.

and found you asleep?

Your rational is correct.

By choosing to ignore layers you are missing out on one of the core (and distinguishing) features of VW. Entire layers can be easily turned on and off in Viewports - this affords a great deal of control both for presentation and rendering. For this type of work my Layers follow your Groups, with the exception that all Notes are Annotations within Sheet Layer Viewports. So Layers: Rigging Pyro Projection Video Lighting Audio Scenic Venue Also - Layers stacking order is arranged by drag and drop rather than alphabetically so the 0x system becomes redundant. You can use this and still use your detailed classing organization - you just get to simplify it by un-nesting it one level. Use View>Layer Options>Show Snap others in conjunction with Stack Layers to force all your visible layers to dance together nicely and use Ctrl+Arrow to cycle the active layer - or Force Select to jump to another layer. Finally - using Saved Views will enable you to quickly return to preferred Layer - Class visibilities, active Layers, active Classes, Zoom Factors, Viewing Angles etc.

in 2009?