Andrew Bell@NV

Get in contact with tech support. Crashes are almost never the result of user mistakes. It could be an issue with your machine, or it could be a VectorWorks problem, in which case we'd like to get more info from you so we can fix it.

Once the object becomes a solid, it is a 3-D object, and doesn't have the hybrid behavior where it has a hatch in plan. The solids code isn't smart enough to intuit exactly how you would want the hatch to behave in the general case, and I'm not sure that there's always a situation where it would. One possibility is to extract a curve from the solid that is the upper perimeter, convert it to a polygon, apply the hatch to that, and then combine the polygon plus solid into a symbol. (Or you can simply trace the upper perimeter with the polygon tool and hatch what you create.) In Plan view it will show the polygon, while in 3-D views it will show the solid.

If you have RenderWorks, you can use the RenderWorks camera to set up a view, and then display the camera view. I find it much easier to visualize views that way.

Under Document Preferences, check Save Viewport Cache . It'll save the rendering for all viewports with the file.

Go with an Intel iMac. Adobe is finally releasing Intel Mac-compatible betas of Photoshop. The developers here at NNA are almost all working either on Windows or on Intel Macs, so that Mac version is getting more testing. I suspect in the next couple of years, many software companies will start dropping PowerPC Mac support in new releases. (As usual, I can neither confirm nor deny NNA's plans regarding PowerPC support in future versions of VectorWorks.)

Is your Mac an Intel Mac? The SketchUp plug-in only currently works as a G5 app, thanks to Google not yet updating their library to be a universal binary. You can do "Get Info" on the VectorWorks app and force it to run under Rosetta for long enough to import your document, then switch it back (for performance) when you're done.

It's rather ironic, Petri, that you choose the bat dormer as an example of U.S. bias in VectorWorks. The origins of the bat dormer (and the other roof adornments) came from code Diehl Graphsoft purchased from a firm based in India...

It sounds like what VectorWorks could use is a paste command that adjusts for layer height, or an option to toggle between adjusting for layer height and not doing so. Which do you think would be more common? Do you tend to duplicate elements (in which case the height on the new layer should be the same as the old), or move elements between layers (in which case the height should be adjusted)? Or perhaps if you change the layer via the OI palette, the height should adjust, but not if you cut and paste?

Alternatively, have you tried using Kinko's "print to Kinko's" printer driver? Install their driver (PC only, I think), and it'll show up as a printer you can choose from the Print command. Might be dangerous though, I'd hate to accidentally print private info to the wrong printer. If you go that route, you would probably want to enable and disable it from the Printers control panel so you don't accidentally print to the wrong place. (And have to pay for having done so.)

You can also try creating a layer link and flipping that.

A lot of the Powerbook G4s have wireless, as do a lot of libraries (not to mention Starbucks, McDonalds, and others.) If you want to speed up the process over calling and mailing, perhaps a little quality reading time is in order.

You can do it by adding one more layer, ugly as that might be. Remove the reference to the old referenced file, but keep the layer. Go to that layer and delete everything. Reference your new layer in the new reference file. Then create a layer link on that emptied layer to the newly referenced layer.

For RenderWorks, the best possible hardware available isn't that much more powerful than your Core 2 Duo iMac. RenderWorks doesn't use the graphics card, so the x1600 won't be an issue. RenderWorks does make use of multiple processors, so the Mac Pro would be about twice as fast, but that would be about as good as you could get.

On a side note, what makes you prefer the polygon rendering modes? They have issues with complex models that cannot easily be overcome, so our development has emphasized OpenGL, etc. I'm just curious how you use that rendering, and whether the newer modes could be enhanced to replace them.

You can cut plan section viewports by creating a viewport in a front, side, or back view, and creating the section from that viewport rather than the design layer. Select the viewport you created and then choose the "Create Section Viewport..." menu item.

Pete, could you send me a file to the address below that demonstrates the problem?

Viewports can be converted to group, usually, and that data could be copied to a design layer for export. You may need to scale the group (to counter the viewport scaling) once you put it on the design layer.

Would you really use interactive resize of doors and windows that much? I would think there's a relatively small set of usable sizes that you would typically use.

Yes. In VectorScript, SetPref(33, true); will turn on auto-joining, use false to turn it off. Or, to switch it, SetPref(33, NOT GetPref(33)); This (and many other VectorWorks preferences) can be turned into a VectorScript plug-in and a key command assigned to it.

The Mac Aqua API is no more like X Window than Windows is, so having a Mac version doesn't help with making a GNU/Linux version. It might corner the market, but it's a pretty small market, one that tends to prefer free/open source software, and one NNA doesn't know that much about. Supporting two platforms is enough of a challenge already...

The new iMacs will support a second monitor (up to 1920x1200 digital, 2048x1536 analog), which is highly recommended for CAD work anyway. So unless you were planning on using one or more 30" dual-DVI displays, it's a pretty good choice for CAD.

"p" gets you the offset preferences, with the distance field selected. Enter a value and hit return, and the dialog closes. You then have to click on the side of the line where you want the offset to go. This seems like it's the same as the old tool, except p instead of i. Are you seeing something different?

Would you be willing to send me your test file and be reporter on a bug report? I found this problem and have a fix for it, but having a user report it as a problem and having your files to verify I fixed the cases you've seen always helps.

Are you expecting a faceted surface and getting a smooth one, or is your swan's neck disappearing, replaced by a simple cylinder?

What type of object is your original vase object?