Jump to content

Kevin McAllister

Member
  • Posts

    5,191
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Kevin McAllister

  1. Thanks to both of you for your further advice. I will work through the various options and see where it gets me. Kevin
  2. Turn off the tangent snap (the icon looks like a circle and a line). KM
  3. Thanks Pat. I appreciate your assistance. I tried replacing CallTool with CallToolByName in the script that the Custom Tool/Attribute generates and I get: { Error: Cannot use a FUNCTION name here. } I see that one is a Function(CallToolByName) and one is a Procedure (CallTool). I guess there is a lot more to it than that. I must admit I am disappointed by the whole experience. The Custom Tool/Attribute menu command should just work for Nemetzchek included "tools". As a long time user I always imagined it as a hidden treasure trove. But upon experimented unfortunately its not. I actually considered submitting a Bugsubmit although I knew something deeper was going on. Even though there are various types of tools and plug ins, the documentation clearly differentiates anything in a tool palette as a "tool" and there are no exceptions noted in the documentation for Custom Tool/Attribute. I may get further into it to figure out how to make it work. I'm sure its probably mentioned in the archives somewhere. Thanks again, Kevin
  4. I have been trying to create a custom tool script which addresses the Drawing Label tool using the Custom Tool/Attribute menu command. The resulting script does not address the correct tool in either VW 2009 or VW2010. I looked in the Appendix of the VectorScript Language Guide but the Drawing Label tool is not assigned a tool number in the basic list. Is there a more complete list of tool numbers somewhere? Thanks, Kevin
  5. If you've played with the updated working planes in VW 2010 you can really see the connection. The interactive control interface it now has would be elegant but powerful if it was translated to object control as well..... (As a side note make sure you find the new Working Planes menu items buried in the menu bar and in the right click contextual menu) KM
  6. You could try the Grid tool, which is fairly adjustable and will probably give you something close to what you need. You'll need to play with it a bit and make sure you uncheck the default "Constrain to Page" box. The odd thing is it will only draw grids from their centrelines, so you can only make a grid with an even number of squares. But if you turn the bounding box off it will give you a ladder of sorts that you can add labels to. The great thing is you can made lines on a certain spacing heavier than the others (in my example every 4th), making it ideal for an on-drawing ruler. KM
  7. If you are a Mac user be aware of a known issue documented in the VW 2010 read me file: It has caused me some frustration in my first foray into 2010.... KM (PS. the feature itself, to be able to Command click on an object after selecting the tool is great though)
  8. Thanks to those who posted examples. I can certainly see the advantages in client based presentation views. Spaceclaim certainly looks powerful and has some impressive features. My impression is that it serves a different market. It probably also has the advantage of being built from the ground up on a more modern technology (ie. no legacy aspects to deal with). I also suspect it costs significantly more though the information isn't readily available on its website. Mentions of lease based licensing certainly imply this. I would be curious..... KM
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. 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
  18. You can also get a trial version of 2009 to give it a test drive......
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. 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
  23. 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
  24. 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
  25. 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
×
×
  • Create New...