ionw

same problem Design Web Format

...And the process he was suggesting is so different for other versions of Vectorworks.

Phil, I would definitely look at the memory installation then. It sounds logical, but I believe it is incorrect, even if the machine is recognizing it. Look at this install document to see what I meant. Again, it may have nothing to do with it, but.... Early 2008 Mac Pro (800MHz) The article refers to the 2008 800MHz machine, but I verified that the older 667 MHz machines have the same requirements. HTH, Ion

Also, I am sure someone will correct me if I am incorrect on this, but I believe that I read that on the PC VW can only access 2Gb Physical RAM, and Mac VW can only access 3Gb. Which means with 6 Gb available, you won't get any benefit from adding more. Another thought, I don't know who installed the RAM, but there is a very specific sequence to adding RAM, it sounds like you have 2 1 Gb Chips and 2 2Gb Chips. If they are installed correctly the two 1 Gb chips will be together in the first two sequential slots on one of the Memory cards, and the two 2 Gb Chips will be on the other card in the first two sequential slots. HTH, ion

Except that if you aren't hitting tab twice, the data bar will be displayed, but any entry will be interpreted as a shortcut. you have to hit tab twice to enter the data bar. I wasn't suggesting he wasn't in the line tool. I was saying that he had selected the line tool, but had not clicked to start a point. Because if he had clicked to initiate a line, further key-presses would not have switched to new tools, and only clicking again or the escape tool would have terminated the active line. In the end one tab press will activate the data bar, and it looks like things should happen, but key entry will activate shortcuts, it takes two tab presses to activate the data bar, and start editing the fields. Also, you don't even to use the enter key anymore, the tab will move you from field to field and accept the value.

This reads to me like someone who is choosing the tool, and then expects to create the object and location entirely by keyboard entry. Like say in AutoCAD, invoking the line command, typing in start point, length etc...

Jan and Ray, if you look at the first post, you notice he is using the normal numeric keys, (above the QWERTY row) and that is switching tools. If he uses the 'fake' numeric keypad nothing is happening, which is what appears to happen when you are drawing entirely in 2D and you use a standard numeric keypad. The view changes, but the 2D elements stay stuck to the screen plane, so it appears like nothing is happening at all. it is either 2 presses of the tab key, or as I suspect that the tool is not being initiated, and he either needs to click on the drawing to start the tool, and use tab to get to the data bar, or if what he wants to do is entirely by coordinates, to double click the tool icon, or the keyboard shortcut to enter the appropriate values to get an object.

You know, I am finding the same here. the problem was I was using the Debugger to make sure that everything went to the right place, and the script steps through, but didn't step into the equality test, and nothing happened to the objects. When I pulled out the Debug call, and started using messages to see what values were being passed around, then it started working. can we say too conservative.... The extraneous VAR statement was when I was assigning the test line weight to a variable so I could see the values of the tested objects in the debugger. I was on my way back to this post, but you beat me there. Well it appears that I am off and rolling. thanks for the input, and the checking. ion

Thanks Pat, that is what I assumed too. However, the when I step through the code using the debugger, it collects the appropriate attributes in the main body, the function call jumps to the appropriate function, but the test for line weight (the only current test in the function) fails. If I declare a variable within the function to verify that the function is getting the correct line weight, I find that it is, but the equality test still fails. Well since the documentation and you support the concept, i am going to break it down a little further to see if I can find the problem. thanks for your input, ion

In answer to your question, look at the settings for the window. See that attached image for clarity

when I reread your original post, I may have seen the issue. When you say activate the tool, do you mean selecting say the line tool, either by clicking the line icon in the tool palette (or the appropriate keyboard shortcut) and then hit tab to start entering the parameters. Or do you select the tool and then click on the drawing to set the start point of the line and then hit tab to bring up the data bar? If it is the latter, then my original answer at the bottom of the post should help. If it is the former, continue reading for what I think will help. if you want to perform both the placing and the sizing without using the mouse to specify the start point, then either double click with the mouse on the tool icon, or hit the keyboard shortcut twice. That will allow you to specify a start point, and the appropriate dimensions to your object. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Below is my first response, then I reread your first post. I think it is because you have two settings that are interfering with each other. In the top right of your window, are two triangles pointing to the right. Click on the lower of these, and you will see the data bar options. I am going to guess that you have your options set this way: "Use floating data bar only when tab key is pressed" "Do not allow numeric keypad entry for instant data bar activation" Even though the second specifies the numeric keypad, it appears it also interferes with normal numeric entry in the manner in which you describe. To make it work with the settings as you have them, hit the tab key twice, or until you see the first value in the data bar highlight, then start typing. to fix the problem, set the second option to: "Allow numeric keypad entry for instant data bar activation" as of right now, that will do two things for you, one, it will allow data entry after hitting the tab key once. The other, once you have memorized the order of the data bar, you can simply start typing the appropriate value (e.g. Length for lines) and it will start editing it and bring up the data bar.

I am in the throes of attempting to write what is essentially a Custom Selection eyedropper tool. i.e. you click on an object and it will select like objects. I had this tool working well (based off of a script I found on Vector Depot [shamsul Adnan's GDP Suite] Unfortunately, the way 2008 handles colors, I have no guarantees that an index item will catch all like objects for the four color options(PF, PB, FF, FB). Regardless of the Who, What, Where & Why, here is my question: It appeared in the documentation that variables that are declared and defined in the main block of code are available to sub-routines. The issue I have, is that it seems that while the variable is available to the sub-routine, the data assigned to it in the main body of code is not available. I really don't think it wise to pass 20 variables of worth of data when performing a ForEachObjectInLayer, way to much overhead. I also do not want to pass a handle to the clicked on object, and retrieve the attributes for each object that FEOIL comes across for the same reason. Should I pursue looking for ways to make the data available globally, or the other thought I had was to use a criteria selection without any color checking to make a "base selection" set, then use ForEachObjectInList to verify color equality, that way I am reducing passed variables to 12, and only passing data for the objects that meet the other criteria, reducing the overall number of checks. * =-=-=-=-=- edit=-=-=-=- I failed to mention, that the code below, is simply proof of concept. Thus in the Functions I am only checking one parameter for the moment, the remainder of checks will be added when I finalize the process. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Procedure Selector; {$DEBUG} VAR x, y : Real; OHan : Handle; ClassName : STRING; lineweight,linestyle,pattern : INTEGER; pfr,pfg,pfb,pbr,pbg,pbb,r,g,b : INTEGER; ffr,ffg,ffb,fbr,fbg,fbb,objType : INTEGER; Function Selection(h :Handle):BOOLEAN; VAR BEGIN IF GetLW(h) = lineweight THEN SetSelect(h); END; Function Deselection(h :Handle):BOOLEAN; BEGIN IF GetLW(h) = lineweight THEN SetDSelect(h); END; BEGIN GetPt(x,y); OHan:=PickObject(x,y); if OHan = nil THEN DSelectAll; if (OHan<>nil) THEN BEGIN ClassName:=GetClass(OHan); pattern:=GetFPat(OHan); lineweight:=GetLW(OHan); linestyle:=GetLS(OHan); objType := GetType(OHan); GetPenFore(OHan,pfr,pfg,pfb); GetPenBack(OHan,pbr,pbg,pbb); GetFillFore(OHan,ffr,ffg,ffb); GetFillBack(OHan,fbr,fbg,fbb); IF (SHIFT = FALSE) & (OPTION = FALSE) THEN BEGIN DSelectAll; ForEachObjectInLayer(Selection,1,1,8); END; IF (SHIFT = TRUE) & (OPTION = FALSE) THEN ForEachObjectInLayer(Selection,1,1,8); IF (OPTION = TRUE) & (SHIFT = FALSE) THEN ForEachObjectInLayer(Deselection,1,1,8); END; END; RUN(Selector); * As I type that, I am thinking that is a good avenue to pursue regardless. The only issue I see with it, is that I want for people to add or remove to existing selection sets, and I will have to be very careful on how I use the criteria selection....

Are you complaining that Nemetschek is going to charge you to crossgrade? Meaning you own a license for one OS and you now want to switch to the other one. I haven't found a company yet that will do that for free, less expensive than buying new, but not free. good luck,

Mike, maybe it is a stupid question, but instead of compensating for the center offset, can't you edit the profile of the E.A.P. object and move the point of reference of your frame profile to the origin? I have used this method to reverse an extrude that went wrong, as well as choose what part of the profile is my reference point. HTH, ion

I have to say that I have had people at our office have the issue you describe, both the problems with the crop and the Viewports on the wrong class. I have always had the operations suggested by Mr. Ouellette work without fail. We have 2008 running on everything from a 1.8 GHz G5 to an eight core 3.0 GHz Mac Pro, without any of the oddness you are experiencing. Hopefully things will start working for you shortly, I know the frustration of things not working as intended. ion

If I was to take a guess, the bolt has a none fill.

Bonus, if you have the Offset Duplicates set in Vectorworks preferences, then Option dragging the first copy the offset you wish, or simply hitting your shortcut for duplicate, and dragging the resultant copy to where you wanted to to land, then your proceeding key presses for the Duplicate command will duplicate and offset by that amount. Elegant? No. Does it work? yes. in any case, HTH,

Gerard, It appears that I am on the right track now. I think I had two issues when I was trying to make it work: I was using textFlip(); and I was not using setobjectvariableboolean(); I need to come up with some rules for text placement based on mirroring, but it is a great head-start. One question, I attempted to find out what Enabling Font Style (object setting 800) did for the tool here, and was unable to find out anything other than it is a boolean switch, what is this setting actually doing? Many thanks for your help, ion

Thanks Gerard, this is essentially the structure of the code I am using, when I am in the office tomorrow I will make sure the syntax and order are the same. For some reason I thought this method was failing because it was a 2D object. thanks for the input, and I will post my results

I am assuming this is not a possibility?

I have made my set of custom Annotation PIO's. One issue that has cropped up, is say for a roof slope indicator, the easiest way to lay it out is to place one and then use the mirror & duplicate tool to place the indicator on the other side of the ridge. What happens is that the mirrored version does not display correctly. I am looking for a way to see if the PIO has been Mirrored and then reset it so that it reads correctly. I found ways to mirror, ways to see if something is flipped in a wall, but nothing to deal with a mirroring action. Thanks in advance for any help that can be offered. ion

Hi Christiaan, you are correct in your memory. in 2008 if you are using the 2d reshape tool and marque around a series of vertices on a polygon or polyline then hit the delete key all enclosed vertices will be deleted. HTH, ion

Another place to check, though it probably isn't the issue is Units. I had an instance with a civil drawing I was working with, where I had set the units to a grosser value than it had been created at to ease work in a specific instance. I found that even though I was changing only a single value of the info palette (Z) VW was rounding the X&Y values upon acceptance of the new Z value. My thought for your situation is that someone created the drawing accurate to the .0001 or similar and then someone is working on it at .01 for example. again, this is probably not the problem, but worth considering only because it is a very simple check. HTH, ion

Thanks Andrew, if I could be a little more trouble, I know how to get the layer handle an object resides on, but how do you get the handle to the viewport an object is going to be displayed in? Thanks for your help! ion

I can tell you it is not my view. I am a huge proponent of utilizing classes in an office that sees them as an unnecessary complication to the drawing. I am slowly bringing them around, but at this point even one more class is a large percentage increase in the class list. If it is possible to avoid adding it I would prefer to do that. The other advantage is that there is never the excuse of not knowing the information existed so that class was not turned on or off. In addition to classes I am a proponent of making tools that simply act as they should based on their view. Exactly like Wall components now. You can hide wall components based on scale regardless of classing, I want to include the same ability in our tools. All of that said, using a class that is named something like enlarged detail and is used in all PIOs that have multiple view options may be a solution.