Matthew Giampapa

I have been trying to reproduce this problem but have not had any success. When the workspaces vanish, does the actual workspace file disappear from the Workspace directory? If they are disappearing, on the next reinstall, use the windows explorer to navigate to the c:\program files\vectorworks 9.0.1\workspaces\ directory and right click on each workspace. Select properties, and at the bottom of that dialog box there will be a check box marked read-only. Check that and hit ok for each workspace. This will lock them so that no changes may be made. If they still disappear there may be a more serious problem at work and you should consider disabling other software running at startup by means of the msconfig tool. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by mnelson: OS: Win ME Apps: VWA 9.0.1 Office XP Corel Suite 9 Background: Norton Anti-Virus Dell Music Match Logitech Mouse Outlook Direct CD This problem is totally random and does not orrur under any specific command.

Fred, I believe that all of the bugs we knew about with a few small exceptions were fixed for the 9.0.1 release. There is a list available on our web site (http://www.nemetschek.net/downloads/vectorworks/9.0.1_fixes.html) which details all of the bugs fixed in 9.0.1 There are still some outstanding issues. Most notably, under windows 95/98/Me. We are doing our best to get all of them out. But at this time I would recommend either windows NT or 2000 as the preferred windows platform. Speed is another issue we are trying to improve in the 9.5 release. Unfortunately some of the changes in version 9 mean that the program will have to be slower. 64-bit floating point math is a lot slower than 32-bit integer math. You can not continue to use the same hardware and expect a program from 2 years ago to perform identically as one written to take advantage of the specifications of computer available today. We would be severely limiting the program if we were not allowed to change our hardware requirements with major releases. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by besancon: Did the 9.0.1 update fix the majority of the bugs associated with the first realease of the program? I noticed that when VectorWorks 9.0 first came out there were issues with speed and graphics compatability. Have these been resolved? My office wants to make sure that upon getting the program, we spend more time drafting then fixing software bugs. Thanks for any input, Fred

This update is only for the Macintosh version of RenderWorks. A .sit file is a Mac compression format similar to a .zip file. The problem that it addresses is not present in our Windows software. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by Ohran: I downloaded the update and it shows up as a .sit file. Which I dont know how to use. I am using a PC Windows 2000. Is the update for Windows?

Hmm.. With Windows 98 there can be a lot of factors at work to lead to a system freeze. Here is a a sort of general list I would normally go down if this was happening to me. 1. Update your video driver... Lots of VectorWorks problems can be tracked down to a cranky video driver. (Since you have a nVidia card you will probably even get a few more FPS of performance out of the card. nVidia has a habit of releasing better performing drivers when the competition catches up) 2. Get a resource meter open. Windows comes with one as an optional component, but I prefer a program called freemem pro. Its available at all the popular shareware sites. If you are running out of resources, GDI or main memory you can freeze. 3. Do you have a printer enabled? Yes we have seen printer drivers crash VectorWorks. 4. Run the msconfig utility. On the far right hand tab you can turn on and off other programs which load at startup and otherwise have no other interface or signal that they are loading. 5. Check the device manager, are any of your hardware devices reporting a problem? 6. You could always try and wait for 9.5 to come out, it has a number of stability and other bug fixes that should help on the Windows 95/98/Me platform Matthew Giampapa Technical Support

Ok, there is defiantly something going wrong here. AFAIK the workspace files should never be renamed to anything but a .ovl .sta or .vww extension. If the Architect workspace is being modified in this way something is probably failing in the modification of the workspace. In the sessions before this has happened have you used the Workspace editor? The only times these files should be written to is when VectorWorks makes a change in the editor, or when the program exits. Are you running any other system utilities such as Norton Crash Guard, Clean Sweep, or Uninstaller? In the meantime while we do a bit more research here, next time you reinstall, just make a backup copy of the Workspace directory. If they vanish again replace them from the copy. This should save you the uninstall, reinstall process. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by mnelson: OK - Just Crashed. Here's what happened. Closing VWA 9.0.1 the via the Close botton at the top-right of the window caused an "Abnormal Termination" followed by the message " VectorWorks caused an error in MDC42.dll" Upon re-opening VW, the Architect workspace was missing from the Workspace menu. Architect.vww is missing from Program Files/Vectorworks 9.0.1/Workspace folder and but Architect.vw2 was there with the following properties: Vectorworks.vw2 Opens with: Unknown Application Created: 05/09/01 Modified: 05/09/01 Accessed: 05/19/01 Attributes: Archive

First, make sure that all of your layers and classes are set to visible, and your layer options are set to show/snap/modify. It may be that there is a redraw problem and that they should be hidden at your current settings. When you click on one it could be refreshing and hiding itself. If this does not solve the problem you can email the file to tech@nemetschek.net and a technician here will attempt to determine the problem. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by wnbrandt: I have a file that I have been working on for quite some time with no problem. I opened it today and suddenly when I try to select a door in a wall it disappears. I can not seem to select any of the door or window tools. I opened a new file and it does not have this problem, and when I paste from the broken file into a new it works fine. I have a lot of layers and time invested and do not want to have to manually transfer all my layers over. HELP

If for technical reasons VectorWorks 9 will not run on your system, we may be able to do something. Sales has made exceptions in the past in cases like this however we may not be able to provide technical support for version 8 after 18 months since the release of version 9. Please write our sales manager Mike Pacylowski at mikep@nemetschek.net and explain your situation. He may be able to accommodate your request. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by greenmeadow@mac.com: I need another 8.5.2 license. VW will only sell VW 9. There must be other people out there with the same need. I certainly support the need to improve 8.5.2 drafting abilities (All I ever wanted was a CAD program that could do every thing I was taught in high school wood shop) but VW 9 "improvements" are focused mainly on non-drafting issues i.e. 3-D, construction management. What am I supposed to do now?

Viewports, or viewport like functionality is currently being considered for a future version of VectorWorks. Currently VectorWorks is limited to 1 main drawing window. You can create a series of layer links to view a model from different sides, but there are cropping issues that cannot be worked around. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by peter jones: Although vectorworks 9 imports from Autocad 2000 in model space it does not cope well with viewports. Unfortunately 90% of Autocad Users have now adopted viewports for most drawings - does anyone know it there are any workarounds / techniques to deal with viewports ?? [This message has been edited by Matthew Giampapa (edited 10-03-2001).]

There is a patch available for this problem on our website under RenderWorks downloads. http://www.nemetschek.net/downloads/renderworks/RenderWorks%209.0.1a%20Updater.hqx Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by Travis: I can't seem to print (or export an image file) a Renderworks image. OpenGL and other options work fine. I notice that the checkmark remains next to Wireframe (View>Rendering>whatever) even after one of the Renderworks options has been selected. Other selections (ie OpenGL) move the checkmark to themselves. HELP. I've been forced to pack my laptop along to show clients shadow details that I can't get out on paper. I'm on a 733G4, 1.5gb, OS 9.1, 700mb for VWA. Epson 1270Photo printer. [This message has been edited by Travis (edited 08-25-2001).]

I suspect this is a problem which has been fixed in 9.5, assuming its the large image size texture problem. If changing your texture size to something smaller than 12 inches does not resolve this please let us know at Tech@nemetschek.net and well will research this further. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by Hannes: Yep! same here on Win 2000, VW-RW 9.0.1 Just today i wasted hours with this behaviour, i encountered following: This happens with solid substractions and sweeps. They won't receive any light except the >layer ambiente<. AFAIK it happens only with textures based on large images. Say you use a large image and set the texture size to maybe 1500 mm you will get this outcome. If you use the same texture and set the texture size to something about 10 ( i think the values alter with the size of the image) and scale up the Texture in the object's texture mapping dialog it renders right. This happend also in RW 8, i submitted the bug a while ago. Kind Regards, Hannes

There is a patch available for this problem available on the downloads section of our website. (http://www.nemetschek.net/downloads/renderworks/RenderWorks%209.0.1a%20Updater.hqx) This should resolve the problem Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by Deane Rykerson: I cannot use renderworks 9.01 on my Mac. I always get 'one or more operations aborted due to lack of memory. increase partition size'message. i have increased ram to 384 and still the same. this means i cannot do solar studies which is my main purpose for using renderworks. any ideas?

I have seen this before in documents converted from 8 or that have had version 8 textures applied to them. In your document, open the resources pallet and at the top pull down menu select your current document. Now double click on the texture in question to edit it. Once you are in the edit texture dialog box, check each click to open each of the shaders to see what the numerical value is. If the phong value is set to 65555 or some other absurd value try resetting it. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by grundy: Hi guys. I'm a student in Australia, I'm at school right now, and I'm having a strange problem with rendering. I have a 3D Manager object in VW 9.0.1 and I have a plain coloured texture on the object, the texture also has plain transperancy and a low reflection. The problem is that when I render, strange blobs of unwanted colour show up on the model. I found that when we dissable the transperancy the problenm dissapears. But I dont want to have to do this. Can anyone help?

I have been told that this is a problem with the rendering engine we use. The problem has already been fixed for the 9.5 release. Matthew Giamapap Technical Support quote: Originally posted by Hannes: Sorry, i have really no idea why.. ;-) The solid substractions only receive the layer ambiente light, no other light source. strange... :-) -Hannes [This message has been edited by Matthew Giampapa (edited 09-19-2001).]

Mike, The 9.5 code for this is much more robust. We are always looking for instances when out code will break so we can add it to our testing package. If you have an insance that is not working email it to tech@nemetschek.net, and put attention Matt in the subject and I will test it against the current fixes we have implemented. If it does not pass it will be sent to engineering where we will attempt to generalize the problem and fix the code. In past cases we have usually had a fix internally as soon as the next day. The best results can be had when you define a NURBS path yourself. When using other types of objects to create a path they are internally converted to NURBS paths which due to the nature of the conversion induce control points which can cause problems. 9.5 will convert the objects differently, but we can not always think up everything a user will send at it. If you have examples we would really like to see them. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by MikeB: Matthew, Unfortunately, I for one can say I do not love the extrude along path tool. I can hardly ever get it to work properly. 75% of the time I get an invalid path or object message on both mac's and pc's. Now I tested this and i'm talking about really simple polygons for both objects. I've seen some other posts about this. I am really excited about nurbs surfaces but they just don't do much for me in 9. So I guess I love the idea, but I just can't get it to work. (I do understand this could be user error but its fairly consistant on different platforms and different objects.)(on second thought the common denominator is me I suppose ;^)

It's not paranoia when they really are out to get you. I think that in our situation we are probably justified. Yes, we know there were far more issues with the 9.0.0 release then there should have been. We are working on more thorough testing to prevent this in the future. The open beta will also help bring any additional problems to light earlier in the development cycle, and effect faster fixes for those of us who like to live on the bleeding edge. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by jnr: You guys sound as paranoid as the CIA. You're assuming "other" software companies won't be stopped by the justice department or a judge, which as I understand, is still in the realm of possibilities. I also hope that you exercise more rigor with regards to beta testing than was performed with 9.0. We as users have expended too much time (money) and effort, not to mention the overworked tech support department, performing as guinea pigs. The current scenario of crashes, bugs, re-installs etc. is untennable and does not bode well for the reputation of the software.

Dave, We don?t officially support this type of an operation, but we do provide the tools to do so. The best approach I can think of would be to model the different sections of pipe and joints you will be using in the final product. This way you can create symbols for each piece and assemble them like virtual legos. In VectorWorks 9, there is the ability to define a path for the pipe in 3D space, and then extrude the profile of the pipe along the path. There is a 3rd party tool mentioned above which has similar functionality for VectorWorks 8. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by DaveHi50: Im trying to draw a 3d model of a part that is basicly tubing bent to different shapes. I have never done this but am certain its possible . I believe I need to extrude along a path but cant figure how this is accomplished- Im useing VW8.5.2-- any tips would be greatly appreciated. Aloha, Dave

VectorWorks 9 is just the beginning of much more extensive NURBS support. If you have any VectorScript questions, you can write to vs_support@nemetschek.net to get help. Also, there is a large number of VectorScript resources available on our website. (http://www.nemetschek.net/support/custom/index.html) There are a large number of new things you will be able to do in VectorWorks 10, which will have much more developed NURBS capabilities. Right now we feel that our current level of NURBS support is a valuable addition to the program. (Hey, who can say they don't actually love the extrude along path tool?) Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by Davide: Nurbs are finally supported in VW9, but how do you really create a Nurb surface that is not just the result of extruding a nurb curve along another? Nurbs would be incredibly useful if there was a sort of skin tool(see Microstation '95!), where the user creates 3d curves representing sections of the shape and then a tool would create a NURB surface (any order) passing thru them. That way you can create free form objects, cars, people etc. What's the point of having just Nurbs curves? I can convert a polygon based model to Nurb, but that doesn't allow me to create something organic with constantly variable sections.

I know I?m not Robert McBride and there may be a better answer from someone higher up on the food chain here at NNA, but normally we have focused on supporting the hardware that is readily available to the majority of our customers. Right now, the 3D graphics card market is being dominated by the smallest number of companies ever. In fact I would think that 90% of our VectorWorks 9 customer have either a nVidia or ATI based graphics card. As such, we will likely focus our support in these areas. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by jnr: Mr. McBride: Thank you for your response. I think I understand your analysis of the problem. Given the difficulty and magnitiude of the task at hand to coordinate drivers + cards with stability, why would NNA not certify compatibiltiy with one or more graphic card manufacturers? As noted the company seems quite willing to get in bed with architectural product manufacturers, why not hardware vendors? If you are unable to comment on this would you be able to pass this message along to someone in the food chain who could respond? As users we are simply asking for a product which is stable, functional, and fast. We really hate to spend time diagnosing problems. It cost us too much money.

Well officially I cannot speculate, in fact I'm not allowed to say anything on the matter of release dates. What I can say is that there will be a public beta of 9.5 available because the MacOS X compatibility needs as much testing as we can give it. The other good news is that it will be available very soon. I can't say when you see, but it may end up being linked (timing wise) to other important software releases by another company. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by jnr: Anyone care to speculate on a release date for 9.5? Sure could use those bug fixes . . .

AFAIK, the trim tool will be brought back in version 9.5. However, at the time of my last inquery the extend tool was not slated to make another apperance. It has been replaced with the single and dual object connection tools. Like the Trim tool, if you give us enough feedback about it we may be able to convice the powers that be to bring it back. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by broesler: Bring back, O bring back, O bring back my trim and extend tools to me.

What type of system are you installing into? Windows 95/98/Me, or NT/2000/XP? If you are installing onto a NT based platform, you will have to have local administrative privlages. Try seeing if VectorWorks is able to run while windows is in Safe mode. If so there is somthign else conflicting with it. Calling Technical Support may be a better option in this case as troubleshooting the problem interactivly will be much faster. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by star2000: I have installed vector works 9 and 9.01 and architect. Everytime I try and run software vectorworks caused an exception 10 h in module vectorworks.exe at 0167=008453a7. I have installed the software uninstalled everything 3 times and the same error keeps coming up.

1. As Robert said, the "One Page" selection in the Set Print Area dialog box takes teh margins of the printer into account as reported by the printer driver. It is not pysicaly possable for most printers to print all the way to the edge of the paper. 2. The scale options in the print dialog take effect after everything else. You are effectivly telling hte printer, here is my page, now shrink or expand it by this percent. Rescaling the layer, or creating a new layer + layer link is the perfered way of printing at a different scales. Layer Links can display a single or group of layers at any scale. 3. The grey border you see on the screen is what VectorWorks intereperates as the page boundry. You can move this around with the page move tool. It is in the 2D tool pallet and in a submenu with the page grab tool (the hand). 4. Print Preview has been requested by a number of users, however the page boundry on the screen is effectivly a print preview as you should see exactly that output. Some printer drivers provide their own preview, but this is up to the manufacturer. Also, MacOS X has the ability to generate a preview in it's default printing system. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by Noidge: I seem to be having a few difficulties with printing, or more specifically matching print area to page. 1. If A4 selected as Print Area, this will print as 4 pages, using printer set up for A4. Selecting One Page as print area is smaller than the required A4. 2. When A2 drawing was scaled, using VW printing scaler (48%), the printed drawing was considerably smaller than the screen displayed (relative to page border on screen). Rescaling layers and printing at 100% scale was more consistent. 3. Selection of specific area of drawing for printing seems to be a bit.... cumbersome. 4. Print Preview? While I detest ACAD, I do find the printing setup and selections to be more precise and predictable (only thing in ACAD that is) and would like someone to assist, or indicate that I'm not alone here and that these issues are on the wish list. VW9.0.1 Win98SE 296M

The viewer will not support textures. Matthew Giampapa [This message has been edited by Matthew Giampapa (edited 09-19-2001).]

There are a number of things which can cause a slowdown in VectorWorks 9. Mac OS 9.2.1 and 9.2.0 has a bug that when the Mac wakes from sleep it will run very slowly. To avoid this disable power saving so it never sleeps Disabling Virtual Memory has given a slight performance increase to some users. Make sure that nothing else is running in the background which could be holding up the computer If you have a large number of identical plug in objects such as doors or windows, consider turning them into a single symbol with multiple instances. Don't work in a rendered mode while drafting. The solid based renders do not scale linearly with document complexity. Try working in wire frame or OpenGl. Try setting you number of Undos to a lower number. There are also other bottle necks in the program which can only be fix by changes to the software itself. We are working on improving performance in many areas with the 9.5 release. Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by jcaia: I have installed the new VW Architect 9.0.1 - there are lots of improvements, however, there is STILL the delay (working under water feeling) after certain commands i.e. joining, undo etc. When is this going to be fixed? It is really getting old. I am running a G4 400 with 384 megs of ram.

The patch for this problem is available from the NNA website under RenderWorks downloads... Matthew Giampapa Technical Support quote: Originally posted by MikeB: Also you shouldn't need your VM. My VW 9.0.1 (w/ RW) allocation is 150 Mb w/ VM off, and I dont have any memory problems. G4 733 384 Mb Ram Vm off Good Luck