Kevin McAllister

I checked this symbol out for curiosity sake and all I can say is wow. As Michael says, I could easily have been made with a few simple solids. I downloaded the DWG file thinking it might be an easy way to explain how to build a symbol on your own. Unfortunately its not any better. All of the curves are made up of facetted line segments. Its amazing to me that files are posted in this essentially unusable condition. I suspect they don't work in either Vectorworks or Autocad and have only converted files as a "convenience" for the end user. Kevin

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but here goes - - draw the whole face frame as one piece. There are various ways to do this. I drew the individual rectangles and used the Add Surface command under the Modify Menu. I noticed the vertical stile in the middle is set back and separate so I drew it separately from the frame. - extrude the face frame. extrude the stile. -fillet the face frame. Fillet the stile. -cut the face frame back into individual "boards" using the Split Tool in the Split by Line mode. Kevin

I wish we could select a Bitmap Object in Vectorworks and convert it to an Image Resource. See various options described in my question below. Kevin

Thanks Ray. I suspected as much but it never hurts to ask. It seems that you should be able to convert in Vectorworks.... Kevin

Ok, so today I discovered the Fine Tune Camera dialog. This is one of the most intuitive things I have ever found in Vectorworks. It is awesome. So the wishes - (1) to be able to select a Camera as the source view for a Viewport (yes I know there are ways to do this, but I would like the Viewport to be directly linked to the Camera, so when the Camera is updated, so is the Viewport). (2) to be able to adjust a Viewport view using a dialog similar to the Fine Tune Camera dialog. Kevin

This may be a very dumb question, but is there a way to convert an bitmap element within Vectorworks (ie. a cut and pasted image, an imported jpg image, or a bitmap created with the Render Bitmap tool) into a useable image resource (useable as a texture, fill image, image prop etc.)? It seems like there should be an easy way... but things aren't always what they seem.... Thanks, Kevin

Preston, I think I know what the problem may be. Go into Vectorworks Preferences (Tools>Options>Vectorworks Preferences), click on the Display tab, and then click on the Edit Font Mappings button. If there is a list of Font Mappings, delete them. I suspect you may be mapping some fonts to Arial.... so they don't show up as themselves, but as Arial instead. Kevin

I would tend to agree. The overall interface could use a lot of tightening up. And as new things are added, there is no consistency. Vectorworks has a little bit of everything going when it comes to interfaces - drop downs, tabs, pop ups, etc. - almost as if whatever was in vogue when the feature was added became the default. Kevin

Preston, After your step 4, duplicate the shape you've created. Extrude the duplicate. Then select both the original 2D shape and the extruded 3D shape and proceed to step 6. This will give you a symbol with both 2D (the original shape) and 3D geometry (the duplicate you extruded). KM

Preston, You can't insert a symbol into itself. When you are entering the symbol (when you right click to edit), you must have already had the symbol tool active. The easiest way to fix your problem, in my opinion, is to right click and choose edit 3D. Draw your position again in 2D, tracing over the existing 3D geometry. Alternately, you could duplicate the existing 3D geometry and then choose Modify>Convert>Convert to Lines as a quick way to create some 2D geometry. When you exit the symbol, it will become hybrid (have both 2D and 3D versions). Good luck, Kevin

I think the molding PIO is a great idea. There seems to be a work around for everything, but this is supposed to be the forum for innovation :-)

This thread may help - http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=128142#Post128142 KM

Thanks Peter. Submitted. K

I've played with this a little more in a clean file. It seems to be a bug. I have attached an example file and a PDF of what I'm seeing. If someone can confirm they are seeing the same thing in the file, I will submit it as a bug. Thanks, Kevin

Can someone else try this and see if they get the same result - - add some custom dash styles (I cut and paste some lines from another file) and edit the order of the dash styles under File>Document Settings>Dash Styles - choose one of the moved styles and assign it to a Class as the default By Style line type I am seeing that while the drop down in the Class dialog shows the correct line style, the objects in that class still display the old, pre-move style (ie. the old style that was 4th down from the top, instead of the new style that is now 4th down from the top in the drop down). Hopefully that clear enough. Thanks, Kevin

Mike, Having recently built a library of theatre related stuff, I would like to point out something I discovered. Its not actually true that any PIO object can be made into a useable red symbol. If the PIO is a path object type of PIO, it will always want you to draw a new path if its inserted as a PIO (red symbol) instead of retaining its saved shape. It was something of an unexpected discovery on my part. Cheers, Kevin

Is there a way to set the texture by class back to None once its been set to something else? I would like to override back to seeing the true object colour in some viewport instances. I suspect the workaround is to create an empty texture. Thanks, Kevin

So I started out writing the wish below, but now I think I would like to change it a little. After some messing around I think what I really want is consistent viewing of resources. As an example, where you choose Renderworks Background in the Object Info Palette, the backgrounds are almost entirely useless as a list, but would be very clear as thumbnails like in the Resource Browser. How about a thumbnail of a symbol in the included in the Resource Browser when its selected. Clear, graphical and to the point. Kevin

This would be awesome. Its so frustrating to make all the pieces and then have the process fail unexpectedly. Kevin

Ironically in my case the modelling from scratch is the easy part, since that's mostly what I do anyway. Thanks again, Kevin

Thanks Peter. I appreciate the assistance. It turns out the transoms require the "sidelight" texture to be set as well..... :-S I still have yet to figure out how to make the bottom panel solid and the top panel glass in a single door.... While I love Vectorworks, its these interface challenges that really need to be cleaned up. Cheers, Kevin

Ok, I'm sure there's a obvious solutions. I've never really gotten into the door and window tools in the past. I've been building an office interior and decided to give them a try. Is there a reason that, while windows default to clear in a basic render, the door does not when the leaf type is glass. The transom is solid as well. Next I have to discover how to make a two panel door, where the top is a window and the bottom is solid..... Kevin

Think of the path and the duplicate object as separate objects. If you place the first duplicate in relation to the path, its orientation is taken as the starting point. Place the first duplicate in a neutral, unrotated position and try again. I've attached an example. The initial duplicate is the single small vertical line at the bottom of the image. Kevin

You need to set an appropriate layer scale for working. It looks like it is currently set at full size. The quickest way is to right click and choose Active Layer Scale. Kevin

The new gallery has a nice modern feel. I wish that the interface was a little better. The navigation buttons shouldn't move with the resize for each image.... you should be able to leave the mouse pointer in one spot and just click to move forward....clunky... KM