Kevin McAllister

Also note that because Vectorworks is cross platform, they are dealing with transitions to both Snow Leopard and Windows 7 at the same time as rebuilding the core. The technology is shifting around them and I suspect timing is everything.... KM

One thing I've found really powerful is the ability to add a suffix to classes when importing them from a DWG. Its easily possible to place an entire DWG import on a single layer. I huge step forward from the old days. It is beginning to shape my own use of layers and classes substantially. I used to use an almost entirely layer based drawing style, with only a few classes. Now I am quite the opposite, very few layers and a lot of classes. There are some management issues with a lot of classes though. I do wish you could open/close groups of classes in the Navigation Palette so they displayed much like they do in the Classes drop down menu. Kevin

I would be curious to hear / see some real world examples of where to use 3D dimensions. I can't imagine how they would become a big part of my workflow but I'm sure I could be convinced otherwise. Are you imagining 3d dimensions as they relate to a 3D view in a sheet layer viewport or actual 3d dimensions in the model itself? Perhaps people would be willing to post / link to some examples of their use in other programs, describing what they like / don't like. Maybe it will influence the future..... Thanks, Kevin

Ironically its fine on my laptop at home (the system in my signature). The office system I was using is slightly different - Designer 2009 SP4 on a 24" iMac - and is the one that crashes. I converted the outline of the figure to nurbs as an interim solution. Thanks to everyone. Kevin

Thanks for the suggestion. I am more concerned that the symbol worked for a long while before it created problems and that it has created problems in two different, unconnected files around the same time. KM

Hello, I have a simple hybrid symbol that has recently started causing various Vectorworks files to crash. I have been using the symbol for months without trouble. It has not been edited or changed. Neither Vectorworks or my system have been updated in the interim. It also has not been shared between the files other than when they were initially created. I have now had two different files exhibit the crash. The crash occurs when the symbol appears in any viewport that is not in plan or top view when the render setting is set to hidden line. When the viewport is updated, Vectorworks will crash. I have attached an example file. If anyone has any insight it would be appreciated. The symbol is a figure so it is used in many of my files. Kevin

I noticed them the other day myself. I'm not sure if they are part of a standard workspace. You can add them to your workspace. Find them in the workspace editor, in tools, under text tools. KM

I've had it happen accidently, so I know it works. I just did a little test and I had to change the render settings for the viewport to Hidden Line to make it work. KM

One of the great things to know about the Polygon Tool "paint bucket" is that you can use it to add bounded areas to an already selected polygon..... hold down the shift key while "painting" into the adjacent bounded area. KM

You can also get a trial version of 2009 to give it a test drive......

Rhino for Mac is in beta testing. I have played with it a little (no Rhino experience before) and it has some nice features. It is, however, quite a different workflow. Its probably well suited for industrial design of products, but I can't imagine doing what I do (exhibits, theatre shows) completely in Rhino. Vectorworks is fairly powerful on the 3D side, but the interface is a bit inconsistent. Its taken me a while to get up to speed, but now I seem to be able to make it do much of what I want. More so than my colleague using Autocad when it comes to more organic shapes. KM

Here is a metric version of the file in 12.5 in case it helps. As far as I can tell all the tools I used are found in 12.5 I have actually not added a texture, its rendered in OpenGL, textures off, anti-aliasing on, draw edges on. KM

These are all good suggestions regarding the origin. I had a lot of trouble with a moved origin when I added some 3D to an existing drawing. Of course the 2D portions were arranged around the 2D origin, but the 3D origin was way off to one side. It seems to me that the Move Origin is a holdover equivalent in 2D to the Working Planes tool in 3D. KM

Here is a quick solution. If you change to a side view (right or left), select the object(s) and double click on the Rotate tool and rotate it 90 degrees you should get the result you want. I suspect you are having trouble using the rotate tool in the drawing window because all of your objects are 3D and your working plane is not in a useful orientation. Often if you add a 2D guide line and rotate it as well, it forces the rotate tool to work in 2D mode instead of 3D mode. Another way is to select the objects in a true side view, choose the Rotate Tool, go up to the Mode Bar and select the last icon (Rotate in Screen Plane). Now click into the drawing and rotate the object as you normally would in 2D. This is probably considered the proper way to do this, but it is an extra step. Kevin

I have been sharing Vectorworks 2009 3D files with an Autocad colleague a lot recently with very few problems. What version of DWG are you exporting to? Ask your engineer what version of Autocad they are using and export the newest version possible. Are you exporting Vectorworks layers or classes to Autocad layers? Often this is how objects get lost (something is turned off and not exported). Are you only losing 3D objects in the transfer, or are you losing 2D objects as well. My understanding is that Autocad sees everything as a 3D object (even though the 2D objects are flat on the ground plane) so it would be unusual to lose only the 3D objects alone. Another thing to be aware of is mirrored 3D objects. I have had some trouble in that regard. Often they can disappear or unrotate. Kevin

Ok, here?s a kick at an example with some instructions. I?ve concentrate on the shapes, not finishing or texturing. Note that I did everything in top/plan view or top view and then rotated the finished object. - the back panel is a straight extrude of the entire outline - the outer border was made by using the offset tool and then the paint bucket option of the polygon tool. I had to draw a horizontal guideline to contain the shape. It was then extruded and the edges filletted. - I did a 2D layout of the diamond pattern. I traced one diamond as a polygon and converted it to a nurbs curve. I then used the ?Create Surface From Curves? menu command (3D Power Pack I believe). In the object info palette I increased the U Degree and V Degree each to 2 (From what I can tell, 1 is a flat plane, 2 is a simple curve). With the nurbs surface still selected, choose ?Show Points? in the object info palette. Change the Move drop down menu to ?Vertex Only?. Using the point arrows, step through the points until the centre one flashes and is selected. Change its Delta Z height to make the diamond puff towards you. Note that this is the amount you are moving the point, not the surface itself (I moved about 4.25? to get the diamond just over an inch high). - I repeated this process to make the custom edge pieces. - I used the Move 3D command to move the objects into their relative relationships (ie. the diamonds and the border above the back panel) since they were all generated on the working plane. - I then duplicated the various diamond variations filling the upholstered boundary. At this point I also deleted by guide lines, except the outline for the entire inner panel. - I grouped all the diamond pieces and the outline of the inner panel I?d saved. Working in the group, I converted the outline to a nurbs curve. Using the Project & Trim tool and the outline of the inner panel, I trimmed all the diamonds at the edges. This process was a little fiddlier than I?d hoped. Because the outline disappears after each trim operation, pasted in place before each operation. I did all the pieces instead of only doing half and mirroring. Mirroring with nurbs will mean you need to reverse their ?normals? so they render properly. - I created a simple button using the Hemisphere tool. I had to play with its placement a bit so it didn?t disappear into the folds. I duplicated it using the Move tool. I have attached the finished file so you can see the pieces. I have found that modeling in 3D is actually easier than I thought. Most of my initial troubles came from not understanding the tools and when to use solids, when to use nurbs etc. Unfortunately some of this knowledge is not written down anywhere. It certainly could be finessed a little more and have textures added, but you get the basic idea. Kevin

That's an excellent tip. There are a few tools there (oddly I remember using them at some point). I have been working my way through Jonathan's 3D book and there is no mention of them in there either. Once you draw the 3D ellipsoid, you can use the extract parametric curves tool to get the curve you need and convert it to 2D. KM

I recently switched from using the Print>Save as PDF function to the Export PDF function. I like some of the additional options I have but I am wondering if there is a way to control the bookmarking feature. I don't mind that in multiple sheet documents it bookmarks each page (in fact I like it a lot), but I find that it adds a bookmark for each individual sheet layer viewport a bit too much. I often duplicate sheet layers and edit from there, so my viewport names are all over the map. I can delete these extra bookmarks in Adobe Acrobat, but I wondered if there was a more direct way to change this setting. Thanks, Kevin

One could also assume that Nemetschek's group of programmers are also focussing on Vectorworks 2010, including its Snow Leopard compatibility, before they will be looking back to 2009...... KM

I think it could be made with some nurbs objects. I've discovered that mastering nurbs is all about practice and learning how the tools respond. When I first started trying to reshape in 3D space it was a bit of a mind bender. I may give it a go over the weekend to see how possible it is. What size of bed do you need it for (width and height of the headboard)? KM

Were any of the troubled objects generated by mirroring? I have had some mirrored objects misbehave, especially when exporting. KM

From what I read in a review of Snow Leopard from Macworld, their Non Disclosure agreement expired last night (August 26) at 6pm. I suspect NNA was probably under the same NDA.... hence no formal comment until today. KM

Thanks Ray. This is good information to have. Clearly VW2009 is not compatible at the moment. Something I would not have wanted to discover after the fact. KM

I must admit I'm not entirely clear on what the "ribbon" interface is, but I do agree with a lot of what Chris is saying. While I wouldn't say its broken, there is a lot of duplication and room for streamlining and improvement. I customize my palettes so the tools are arranged horizontally across the bottom of the screen. I have done so for many version of Vectorworks/Minicad. With my OS dock across the bottom as well I find its efficient for most mouse movement and increases the usable space for the object info palette and navigation palette at the side. Screen real estate is at a premium when you are on a laptop. I used various workaround over the years to achieve this as the palette interface changes. Right now I find that the palette borders use up a lot of extra space. (My current experiment involves stacking the closest 3D equivalent tool above the 2D tool. My work is quite varied, so dividing the tools into categories as VWs does is not that efficient.) Additional duplications include the object info palette and properties dialog, which are almost but not quite the same as I discovered recently. And even I have fiddled with scripts to try and make the prime preferences Chris mentions accessible from the tool palette (black and white is another). Kevin

I discovered something new about this the other day. If the symbol is the only thing selected, a custom move dialog appears when you use the move command (VW 2009). I think that dragging only works in top/plan view. I see that you are using Vectorworks 12, so dragging may be the only option for you. KM