Keith W

jimW, I might not be the only one that looks forward to your report-backs on how this goes. I'll be particularly interested if you succeed Keith

Bump: these are the scripts for the webinar today

Thanks for a helpful thread. I'm just looking at stories for the first time, after not even looking at VW for more than 6 mo. Yikes. My head is exploding. What I seem to already be tripping over is essentially split-level stuff. That is, I've got a project with an old basement, a new basement (18" deeper) and a crawlspace (5' shallower). I THINK I should create stories for each of those, since I can't create more than one "Foundation" (say) level type per story... but then the layers' that I try to create on the various stories overlap, which is apparently not allowed. I suppose I could create more level types, but that seems like a broken approach to the stories paradigm. Is there an obvious approach I'm missing here?

Getting Started Fundamentals, etc: is there an errata somewhere? Seems useful. I notice, for example, on p.19 it lists Alt as the key for move/copy on Windows, but I do believe it's Ctl.

For the record, I asked tech support about this. Pretty simple: I had the sheet layer page resolution set at 72 dpi. I can go to tools/organization/sheet layers/edit, and change the dpi (300 is probably fine, though I played with 1200 and it does matter on zooms, as far as I can tell, but that's probably just a screen thing, not a print thing, assuming you've got your scales right). Anyway, just wanted to set the record straight. This is painfully obvious once I actually look at it.

So for the record: I just talked with tech support. Apparently, some video cards have some kind of problem with GDI+ functions, if I understand correctly. I had to turn off GDI+ features on tools/options/vw preferences/display. The sheet layer page boundaries showed up immediately. The support guy said I might have some problems with transparent objects on printing, which I might or might not ever notice (or remember this relationship), and that it's all due to my video driver/card. This is a little unfortunate because this is my new(ish) desktop with ATI Radeon HD 5770 video card, and he seemed to indicate that the only thorough fix would be a different video card, but since I may never have any problem, I'm not going to worry about it. I haven't played with card drivers or anything yet. He also said that I could just turn on GDI+ when printing, and then problematic screen effects would be unimportant. Why am I adding all this detail to a solved problem? So I can search for it here when I forget how I solved it the first time! Oh, and maybe it will help someone else. Keith

Thanks! I never would have thought to look there. Honestly I can't imagine why it would be there. That machine is off so I'll have to check later, but I know Unified View was on, so that makes sense. k

In 2011 on my desktop, I can't see the page boundaries, and the option is greyed on the Page Setup dialogue. Obviously it makes printing sort of a PITA. I can add a sheet border, but I don't always need one (for quick sketches, for example). In any case, I ought to be able to have the page boundary on. Any thoughts? Keith

I'm just doing some 3-d object editing, and finding the same problem but MUCH worse: I've added/subtracted extrusions several times, and the jaggedness is severe, pretty much making the sheet layers useless. Maybe I've missed some other setting, but I think I've set everything to high, etc. Fast machine with good graphics. The problem crops up even on-screen in sheet layers, so it's not about pdf output or anything. It may be that it "recorded" the quality settings while the objects were being added/subtracted, so subsequent improvements to quality don't matter. I don't know: did anyone else figure anything out about this? Keith

Well, this is probably something simple, but... Open new file, create new sheet layer, and try to EITHER Page Setup OR Doc Settings/Doc Area (which takes me to the same place I think) and "Show Page Boundary" is grey, which means I can't easily place items on the sheet view (though I can add a border as a workaround). I tried adding a new printer in case it had something to do with that, but it doesn't seem to. It's probably something painfully obvious, my mind has been on other things and I've probably forgotten something basic. Thanks for any help.

I may be about to get a new system. I'm surprised I don't see more about system compatibility/advantages here, so.... Does VW2011 play well with Windows 7 64 bit? I THINK I know that it doesn't particularly utilize multi-core processors, or do I misunderstand that? I assume memory size is one of the most important issues, though I don't work on huge files... any recommendations? Finally, graphic cards: any thoughts? Memory issues? Thanks for help, sorry I can't frame more coherent questions, I'm still sorting things out. I'm considering an Intel Core i7 machine, probably between 4 and 8Gb of memory. I might be a moving from a laptop (all I've ever used VW on) to a desktop... Keith

I'm no expert, but... That seems like a tragic waste of the abilities of Vectorworks... Even if you don't model in 3d (which someone at your office should perhaps develop skills in, just to determine how useful it would be in your context), there's simpler integration when everything is in one file, I think. I don't know if you're using referenced viewports or what, now, but I don't really see the value of the separate documents. Design & Sheet layer viewports are simpler to use in a single document, it seems to me. I might be missing something, though. Things have changed a lot since VW12, and it was already pretty different than AutoCad (of that generation), though I didn't use either back in those days... Keith

So I assume that you don't use it, then... is that because it doesn't work well, or because you decided it wasn't useful even though it does what it's supposed to? Is there any way to fine-tune it's features? I can't tell if it's broken, or if I need to reinstall the driver or something.

I thought I'd seen people talking about use of some of 3DConnexion's products with VW: either SpaceNavigator or SpacePilot, for example. Anyone out there have any such experience? Is there any kind of interface/hook to enable? Keith

Wouldn't it be slick if the Viewer was available as a Google Wave extension? Realtime interactive online document review. I just wanted to float that idea out there. I think Wave is pretty interesting, haven't had a chance to use it yet, but it seems like there's a lot of potential there. However, that potential is basically dependent on the extensions available. Just sayin'.