Kevin McAllister
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Posts posted by Kevin McAllister
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I totally agree. I think I may have actually bug submitted this behaviour.....
Autosave needs a general overhaul anyway. It always seems to be in the way with the dialog popup. I also think it often causes the system to pause at the end of rendering viewports. As a Mac user I would prefer if full Lion versions / autosave was enabled in Vectorworks. That way Vectorworks would reopen into its last state automatically....
Kevin
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That's pretty cool.
Although I always wonder why Nemetzchek chooses to put toggle keys on the right hand side of the keyboard since most people would prefer to keep their hand on the mouse for efficiency.... (I know you can probably change it but...)
Kevin
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I agree. I think it would still be an elevation.
Its somewhat subjective. As an example, if you drew a car in Vectorworks facing forward when you choose Front view it would be a true front elevation of the car. If you then rotated the car 45 degrees and chose Front view it would be a front elevation of the model space or scene, but no longer a front elevation of the car.
To complicate things further, Vectorworks 3D space is a sort of cheat anyway. Since it doesn't incorporate perspective in the working view like other programs, all lines are parallel as you rotate the model adding to the confusion. Using the example above with the car positioned at 45 degrees and knowing the Front view doesn't include perspective, I agree with Bruce's observation that Front view is not a 3D view but actually a 2D projection.
Kevin
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The problem is that screen plane currently has better snapping. Snapping in 3D has improved a lot in VW 2012, but its not perfect yet. Once that gets sorted out things will be easier. I still use screen plane a lot for guide lines to make 3D objects.
The OIP also needs improvements for 3D (true positions). As an example you can't easily set the centre of a 3D object to 0,0 in top view unless you group it first. Once grouped, you can set its position in the OIP.
It sounds like the tape measure tool is still stuck between worlds.
Kevin
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Ride,
Canadian customers use the same version of VW as US customers. SP2 (or SP1 for that matter) never showed up when VW checks for updates. I downloaded it from the online link. You can find it here -
http://www.vectorworks.net/downloads/ServicePack.php?major=2012&servicepack=2
Kevin
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Ha I know. For whatever reason the Callout Tool doesn't seem to retain the last used settings like other tools. Perhaps this is a bug....
KM
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This is a great question! I am also curious if you can make the tool default to marker -> callout position instead of callout -> marker position.
KM
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Hi Chris,
Sorry to hear about your disappointment. Call me naive, but I would have thought with an installation that big your local dealer would be right in there with proper information and support up front.
I recently doubled my RAM from 4GB to 8GB and as you say, Vectorworks is not taking advantage of it.
The single core problem is a big one. Vectorworks would likely breath new life into itself by taking advantage of multiple cores. Even my laptop, which is a three year old Macbook Pro, has two cores. A new version that took advantage of that could extend its usefulness instantly.
I think it behooves Nemetzchek to start talking with users about these issues and giving us a road map for the future. That way we can make good choices about current and future hardware purchases.
Thanks for posting. I hope you get your challenges sorted.
Cheers,
Kevin
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I had this happen twice yesterday. Both times, the problem continued when I chose "Save As" yet the file still saved even though I was given the warning. After each occurrence I restarted my machine and found a Vectorworks temp file in the folder along with the original file. Upon deleting that, things returned back to normal.
I have seen this happen before but usually when the original file is moved or changed as bcd mentions. In my case, nothing was moved or changed, which makes me think this may be something different entirely....
Kevin
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I agree it these would all be great improvements.
With respect to Andy's original wish, you might give this a free trial -
http://www.benghiatlighting.com/software/products/savvy-symbol-key
I think it does what you're looking for and more.
Kevin
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Mark,
Aren't you going to have the same hardware issues with Autocad? I am assuming if VW2012 won't work on your current machine, neither will Autocad. It sounds like the first step is the machine, then you can give Autocad a trial run and perhaps also use the demo of Vectorworks 2012 as well.
VW 2012 runs fine under Lion. They advertise lots of improvements in the brochure but I find myself appreciating the lesser known ones. This has often been the case. I can't say I've used the new push pull stuff and I just find the automatic layer plane stuff in the way even though I work almost entirely in 3D. But I do appreciate the work with hidden line rendering (intersecting lines) and the amalgamation of many of the duplicate tools into a unified 2D/3D toolset. I experimented with Stories and it was fairly successful, though I don't specialize in architecture.
There is a lot more stability and functionality since VW2008. You can start to see the future with VW2012.
Kevin
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If you trace the rectangle with the polygon tool or the polyline tool you can create a shape that does what you need. Once you create the shape, double click on it to go into polygon/polyline reshape mode. Choose Hide or Show Edges Mode from the Mode Bar. Click on the centre of the sides you want to disappear. You can then add the hatch and delete your original rectangle.
Kevin
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Hi Carl,
It sounds like you are having similar frustrations to mine in this thread -
http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=32888&Number=162166#Post162166
Greyed out options have to do with which texture shaders are active in a particular texture. Unfortunately there isn't proper documentation anywhere that details what affects this (ideally there would be a table the showed when items would be greyed out based on shader).
Anyway, since there was no concrete solution I am still guessing just like you.
Kevin
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Thanks to everyone for the insights into their drawing practices.
Peter, what you describe is how I worked for years. Over the last two years, my process has migrated towards building a 3D model and then detailing it using Sheet Layer Viewports. Almost nothing is drawn in 2D. Other than the odd 3D dimension, I can't really imagine why I would be dimensioning in the model itself. There are one or two exceptions, but putting all of the notes and dimensions into the annotations of a viewport is a really clean, efficient workflow for my type of work.
Kevin
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I wish that either a Text Style (ideally) or individual Text Attributes (font / size / alignment) could be made "by class" like colours, line styles, fill, etc.
This type of consistency of interface would simplify workflow. Text Styles were a great idea when they were implemented a few versions ago, but they've never been carried through. An example of another unfinished idea....
Kevin
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I have often wondered about this. I've often been frustrated by choosing symmetrical, enter a value and have it pop back to proportional.
KM
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Not coming from an architectural background, I'd be curious to know a little more about your architectural workflow. Are all of you primarily working in 2D or 3D? Are you dimensioning in 3D?
Over the last year I've moved to a full 3D workflow. My dimensioning almost exclusively is done in sheet layer viewports. I think I would find dimensions in the design layers in the way.
Cheers,
Kevin
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I would save a copy of the file to work with. Using that I would toggle the Save Viewport Cache checkbox off in the Document Preferences. Resave, close and re-open the document. Then try updating the section viewport. Often dumping the Viewport Cache shrinks the file and solves some viewport regenerating issues.
What rendering mode are you using to render the section viewport? I often set problematic viewports back to wireframe while testing.
Kevin
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The easiest way to actually import layers from another file is using the new layer dialog -
- In the layer dialog, select New.
- choose Import Design Layers, select Choose and navigate to the file you want to import layers from.
- choose the layers
- make sure the Import Layer Objects checkbox is checked
- hit OK
Your chosen layers will be imported into your file.
Kevin
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There's a deeply ingrained culture in the VW community to blame the user: "you just need to learn it." But this isn't an issue of learning. I've been using VW for nearly 20 years. Three other experienced users, including yourself, confirmed that they couldn't do the stair. It took 60 seconds to create the stair in another CAD app, which I have perhaps 20 hours experience in.
I entirely agree with Christiaan here. I have been using Vectorworks for a similar amount of time and for years I've been a strong advocate. Now there are so many other user friendly packages at a comparable or cheaper price point. The competition may not have the complete overall package yet but its not far off. Vectorworks has unfortuately become a collection of old technology, half implemented ideas, user workarounds and beta versions.
Kevin
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If you're using the drawing label on a sheet layer, you need to put it into the Annotations "layer" of the Sheet Layer Viewport. If you double click on the Viewport the edit options should come up, choose Annotations. Alternately you can right click on a Viewport and choose Edit Annotations.
The drawing label is designed to show the scale of its current layer. The annotations "layer" is the same scale as the Viewport it is connected to so it shows the correct scale.
Hope this helps.
Kevin
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Their website gives you all info you need - http://www.pinkincdesign.com/pdfs/Pink_Specs_StdWW.pdf
I would download and import the PDF into Vectorworks (File>Import>Import PDF). You don't say what version you are running so this may not be possible. You might consider adding a signature to your forum profile detailing your Vectorworks version and setup (Under My Stuff at the top of the forum page). If you scale the PDF to the right size it gives you everything you need to build one.
Someone also posted this link yesterday which visually shows a variety of implementations of the various lofting and NURBS tools - http://www.youtube.com/user/Archimodul
Essentially you want to create three curves in 3D, as Jonathan describes and use the Loft Surface tool. You will need to use the second mode (Loft with one rail). Select the spine first, then the top and bottom curves. Note that it will not work if the top and bottom NURBS curves are not going in the same directions (Object Info Palette when the NURBS curve is selected, check the Show Direction checkbox to show the arrows and the Switch Direction button to change the direction of a NURBS). See the attached.
Good luck,
Kevin
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Yes, this would be awesome. I almost wrote a wish for dividers the other day. It would also be great if groups of layered classes could be opened and closed in the Navigation Palette, expanding or contracting the list.
KM
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The challenge is the cycle through key in the instance I am describing needs to be defined as a left hand key. I almost never use the U key because of this (and for some reason I've never reassigned it either). Part of an efficient interface is not having to continually remove your hand from the mouse....
Perhaps Tab as it currently is cycles through the Heads Up Display, CMD Tab or Option Tab to cycle through the tool options....
Kevin
Accurate Rendering Progress Bar
in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests
Posted
Please, make the rendering progress bars accurate and useful. It doesn't reflect anything remotely close to reality when rendering viewports. The bar is often all the way across and rendering isn't complete.
Please also add the progress bar to the Dock icon on a Mac.
Kevin