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Keith W

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Posts posted by Keith W

  1. I'm just finishing putting together a site plan, which was a little frustrating because I had too much hope for outer boundary polygons, I think.

    Turns out, I can only use them on items on the current layer (which means I can't turn on a bunch of layers to use as a "trace" for the outside plan boundaries of the building), and I can't use it on symbols, which means that even if I go to each relevant layer, do an OB polygon on whatever's there, move it to my working layer, and then add all those, this strategy won't work for roofs or floors (which, I think for this purpose, are symobols, or for some other reason can't OB or IB polygonned).

    Does this sound right? Have I missed anything? Is there a better way to do this, rather than just turn on relevant layers and snap the perimeter, which would have taken 1 minute but where's the fun in that?

    Keith

  2. I THINK you're saying that you drew the elevation, from scratch, in 2D, in plan.

    And I THINK (being a novice) that you'll have to do a rotate-3D to paste it into an elevation. The paste function remembers the xyz orientation of the object (that's obvious if you think about it).

    Or, I completely misunderstood the problem.

    Keith

  3. Thanks so much for your help.

    Alas, I was missing a more basic skill than cutting holes in polygons: I didn't realize there was a polygon-by-inner-boundary or whatever improbable name they've given it. That was what I was looking for. It allows me to "pour" a polygon (and subsequently a hatch, pattern, or whatever fill) into an area, around windows and whatever other variations. Exactly what I couldn't believe didn't exist.

    I'm mostly adding this note so that, when I forget how to do this next week, I can find it on the forum ;-)

    Keith

  4. Hmmm. I'm not seeing what you're pointing to. Amongst the promising search results is a thread that points to this:

    http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=106644

    But the thread appears to be broken.

    And in another promising thread, there's this link:

    http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=106644&gonew=1#UNREAD

    But the (same?) thread is broken. This stuff needs to go into a FAQ or knowledgebase or something...

    It looks like they might throw away links (messages) that are more than 6 years old (according to advanced search). I don't know if that's the problem here.

    Could you possibly hint to me what you were referring to? I see an approach, by archoncad, with 2D-polygons that are filled and then applied to the model in 3D. That seems... tedious. I see another approach using textures, which is what someone showed at the user group, he had a very nice example, I'd prefer not to grind my rendering to a crawl by having to do renderworks every time I want to look at an elevation... Surely there's a better way? Or are those the two basic choices?

    Keith

  5. Hi there,

    At a recent user group I asked about filling a closed space with a hatch or pattern. Or at least that's what I meant to ask. I got the impression that there was a basic tool I'd missed (I'm still a beginner) and said I'd look it up myself. Hours later with the program and manuals, I'm still clueless.

    Here's the full question: I've got an elevation (say): it has lines, windows, annotations, etc. all over it. I would like to "pour" hatch into closed areas, so it "flows" around windows etc. Otherwise, I have to draw a whole lot of potentially complicated shapes: in fact, I don't even know how to hatch a wall that has windows in it, without creating a weird patchwork of tessellated hatched polygons with no fill on their borders, etc. Completely ridiculous. How do you do it? What am I missing here? None of the examples in the manuals seem to reveal it.

    Keith

  6. Thanks everyone. Yes, Wes, I ended up doing the same thing in another file: I deleted all instances of the symbol, recreated it, relinked it to the record, re-saved it to the custom title blocks file along with the record, and that seems like it might have fixed it. I think that's more or less what you did. Thanks for everyone's support.

    k

  7. One problem I can see is that the field linkages are incorrect: the address field is not showing up properly (this is on a different file, same title block).

    What I can't figure out wrt that, is how to edit the field links of a PIO, I guess. That is, if I click on the title block, there is never an opportunity to edit the 2D component: edit just gets me to the field contents. Having made a symbol, with field links, how does one go back and change/fix those?

    Keith

  8. Hi there,

    I use Firefox for VW help. The links within the main window never work, so if I wish to follow a link, I have to retype it as a search string and then click on the link in the results. This is exacerbated by the fact that they implemented this in such a way that I can't use tabs: this is not the way I prefer to work, even if this tedious linear approach worked!

    Anyway, I wonder if anyone else has had (and solved?) the link problem. Thanks!

    Keith

  9. I thought I had it working once such that, when I added the title block, it filled in all the project fields, and none of the sheet fields. Copy and paste won't do that. Now, that's really not a big deal, in fact it doesn't really change the workload at all. I'm just worried that if I'm missing some subtlety, there'll be a price to pay down the line, like the Issue Manager won't work or something (though I'm not using it yet).

    Keith

  10. Thanks both of you! Yes, the fields have default values, and I'd edited them in the one sheet, and everything was fine. I thought that somehow further iterations of the same title block would link to the same record (which is what I thought was the point of the P_ project fields vs. the S_sheet fields). But the cut and paste worked fine, so maybe I'll just always do it that way? Is that how title block info is typically "copied" from one sheet to another? For some reason I thought there was a different mechanism.

    I'm attaching a totally stripped version of the file (which is still 2.5M!). There is still some kind of problem: when I go to edit the fields by clicking on the title block, they come up blank even though I can see they're filled in. I notice I've got it linked to two different records, but unlinking either doesn't seem to help... maybe it's obvious to someone else.

    Keith

  11. I wonder if anyone could give me a hand. I'm having problems with title blocks. There's clearly something I don't understand about records.

    I have a sheet layer with a drawing border and (custom) title block that are working fine, with the fields filled in. It is linked (in the data tab of the OIP) to ESES_TitleRecord, which I created when I created the title block.

    Now if I add that title block symbol to a new sheet layer (let's say I add a drawing border and pick that titleblock in its' OIP), and make sure I link it to the same record, none of the fields are filled in. I don't seem to have created a new symbol, and it appears to be linked to the same record (though, even in the OIP, the fields of the record are not filled with the proper values).

    I've gone over the manual repeatedly. I posted here once before. I'm pretty sure it's something simple, but I don't see it. Anyone? thanks

    Keith

  12. Do you use jellybeans and icing on your gingerbread?

    Seriously, there are some great dome houses out there: are you the outfit (I thought it was in Texas) that does these? Ah, there it is, the Monolithic Dome Institute...

    keith

  13. Okay, I think I understood that though not in so many words. But how do I get the titleblock to use the same record? Can the new titleblock be "pointed" to the existing record, or do I need to create the title block/border in a different manner (dragged from RP/Symbols for example?)

    Keith

  14. I've created a new title block, which I've used on one sheet, filling in the appropriate values in the "edit title block" dialog, and leaving the "apply these values to all title blocks" checked.

    When I add a border/title block to another sheet, it asks me if I want to replace it (the title block symbol definition), rename it, or not import it. Then it doesn't utilize the content from the prior title block. What am I doing wrong?

    K

  15. I wonder if anyone has tried backing down the screen resolution and seeing if it seriously speeds things up. That might indicate a simple memory limitation, vs. driver problems, etc.... there might be no fix (short of new video card or computer), but at least you'd know...

    Keith

  16. I really like the z-zoom option, it's an easy way to fine-tune my snapping. But sometimes it doesn't "take", and I can't figure out why. It mostly seems to have to do with snapping dimensions, but that may just be when I notice it.

    What happens is, I "z" in to my snap point, click, and the zoom window disappears as if the click was registered, but nothing is selected. Any reason why that would happen?

    If I click on exactly the same spot (albeit less accurately) without the zoom, it works fine.

    Keith

  17. I haven't really started working with schedules/worksheets much, so this might be an ignorant question... Actually, I don't really even know what question to ask.

    I would like to link object data into a note or callout. For example, I would like to have callouts on my stairs section, showing the rise/run and tread number of the different flights in my drawing. I can't figure out how to get that. Do I create a worksheet, and then enter them with formulas? Obviously I could just hard-code it, this is something of a learning exercise.

    Keith

  18. The vectorworks approach is based on breaking multistory elements across multiple layers.

    In my opinion, it's a poor choice.

    Thanks for the clarification, I hadn't really thought out the implications. It seems like there'd be some thorns doing it the other way too, but I've never used a program that does it that way. Are there other drafting programs that do it that way?

    Seems almost like damned if you do, damned if you don't: if you draw the (3-story) atrium wall on the first floor, but then have it print by "co-spatial components" on each floor plan, it starts sounding a lot like layers, with the exception that you have one "wall" (viewed as a bunch of identified co-spatial components) vs. a bunch of different walls, equivalent to your co-spatial components. The conversation started with seam lines in elevations: that issue could crop up or be solved in either of these scenarios...

    Given that one can copy/paste-in-place the wall on as many layers as you want, and probably even OIP them all simultaneously if it came to it, I'm not sure I see the value of the co-spatial approach. And if there is an advantage, could it be met just as effectively by having some way of parametrically linking objects on different layers?

    I'm not trying to be obtuse, I'm mostly arguing the details since I like watching the devils run around. Oh, and it's educational, forcing me to think about the inner workings of VW more deeply.

    Keith

  19. I was just goofing around in response to another post, and created a long straight wall consisting of several colinear wall sections. Then I tried to "replace" the central wall section with a different wall style (which was also a different width).

    No matter what alignment I chose, it aligned the new wall section by center. I COULD NOT get it to align it to one or the other sides. I tried left/right options, with different elements in the lists chosen, I even rebooted...

    Oops: here's another clue. I just recreated the problem, and I think it only occurs if I replace a center section of wall, with a wall of different width, not anything on the end... Looks like a bug....

    Keith

  20. Here's what I'm saying:

    Vectorworks wants users to model a four story wall as four walls each on a different layer.

    That's why there are seams.

    Right, sorta: in the case of an atrium, for example, some walls might rise multi-stories, and right next to them the same "wall" might consist of a bunch of different stories. In the framing/construction, as well as the render appearance, these are not the same. Walls are associated with layers, but can be any height, so what's the big deal? A first floor wall can span to the top of a 3 story atrium... Which is, essentially, how it would be built, also.

    However: it seems to me that most of the time the horizontal seams go away in hidden line mode (don't know much about artistic modes), if the walls are aligned with each other. And given the very good snap tools, I don't see what the big deal about alignment is (am I missing something?). Why would you worry about aligning them "within" .001" or something: just snap, and they are where you want them. Move/snap them again if they aren't there yet... Can someone post a file (or explain clearly) that shows where that is not a viable option?

    The exclusive mapping of layers to floor levels is probably convenient from a programming standpoint, but does not reflect the organization of buildings.

    I don't quite get your point. it seems to me that people do build buildings one floor/wall at a time, even when those walls span multiple stories... and VW models that. But maybe I'm missing something.

    Keith

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