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laldenj

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Everything posted by laldenj

  1. I could have sworn that I had successfully accomplished this before but, in fact, I end up repeating the problem you're describing(quite patiently, I might add). If you're willing to give up the accuracy of the VW framing utility, you could simply allow your door wall to extrude into your 12" footing mass(created as Robert proposed)---making your door wall 12" higher than it really is and leaving the door elevation at 0"(top of slab). At least you'd retain the plug-in functionality and flexibility.
  2. I assume that when you say "put the foundation, floor 1," etc on a new layer, you are using the layer link feature rather than a copy/paste operation. It is very helpful to use the classing capability to distinguish between interior and exterior features. To the extent that you want to accelerate the rendering operation you should make all the interior 3D details class-invisible...on an occasional over-detailed exterior(curved elements are particularly processor abusive), I have even classed the unseen sides of the structure to go invisible. Ensure that your glazing class is set to some opaque fill so you don't pick up unnecessary interior or back-wall detail. Because I like to have shadows shown in my elevations, I also create a light object for each saved view and set its class to show up in the appropriate elevation. For what it?s worth, my elevation rendering choreography goes like this: To prep the main file, I review each of the linked layers to ensure that unnecessary detail is ommittable(by classing per above). I then save a view for each of the elevations with the proper class visibility options set. I create a spare file of the same format and scale and name it "Proj X Rends"(I like to create a new file specifically to handle my rendering output and manipulations.) I start-up a pixel-based rendering program like Painter or PhotoShop to run alongside VW. I go to my linked project layer and set it to "View-1"(or whatever I've named the front elevation with proper class settings). I perform the "convert copy to lines"/"hidden line rendering". I immediately cut that grouped output and paste it to the spare Render File. I then return to the main file with the view still saved and use the Render Bitmap tool to create a rendered bitmap with the shadows, roof textures, brickwork, etc., shown; I cut and paste that output to a second layer of the spare Render File, export it as a JPEG image(I wish I didn't have to do this but I can't do a cut and paste operation from VW to my pixel programs); when the export is complete, I delete the rendered image. Within the pixel program(Painter), I open the JPEG file just created, and use its filters to, initially, simplify the image(reducing unnecessary details and shade gradations, then I unsaturate the image(make it grayscale). I copy and paste the grayscale image back to my Render File on top of my earlier line render; then "send" it to the back and align the line and pixel images. I often use a third-party program-Doodle- to further work the line output to contribute a bit more interesting texture to the finished elevation while in this file. When I'm satisfied with the output, I copy the line/bitmap image group back to the appropriate sheet in my project file. I repeat this operation for each elevation.
  3. Sounds sickeningly familiar. Back in January(1/06) I posted my similar experience running on Wn2K and VW 9.5. You could search back to that posting thread to see if the symptoms match yours(search term: plotting problem, Architect discussion area). The bottom line was(is?) that the newest HP driver is not compatible with VW 9.5 and the HP 455CA. The new driver only works well with the newer plotters. You will need to remove every last trace of your current driver(the HP tech's held my hand through that process; do not try a simple uninstall). Then you should use an earlier driver as noted in the old post below: (from 1/6/02 ARCHITECT forum) "Just a note to update those interested in a fix for the Windows/HP Plotter problem(s)noted above. After several days of trial and error and help from VW and HP techs(HP tech support sets a high standard that others might try to equal), it seems that the newest HP driver(4.61) specified for Wn 2K Pro is in some way incompatible with VW 9.5. After purging all files related to previous HP drivers and related servers, we installed version 4.60(download file pl132en.exe) and all works well once again. Hope this helps others who wander into the same plotting morass."
  4. If you're on a PC w/ Wn2K and having this problem you should look hard at your plotter driver. Back on 1/11/02 I posted my experience with the same problem. After much trial and error, I found that cleansing the drive of all previous drivers and reinstalling an earlier, more stable, version did the trick.Below is my final post to that old thread: <<Just a note to update those interested in a fix for the Windows/HP Plotter problem(s)noted above.After several days of trial and error and help from VW and HP techs(HP tech support sets a high standard that others might try to equal), it seems that the newest HP driver(4.61) specified for Wn 2K Pro is in some way incompatible with VW 9.5. After purging all files related to previous HP drivers and related servers, we installed version 4.60(download file pl132en.exe) and all works well once again.Hope this helps others who wander into the same plotting morass.>>>
  5. Since we are wildly spending our $0.02s on this subject, I will once again spend mine(I will soon stop harping on this subject, I promise). I hearlily agree that NNA may be understood to have no good reason to recommend OS/VW/plotter mariages, but, then, why not at least give us the raw data that exists in this membership to better make our own decisions. I would like NNA to make their member's hardware profile database searchable by the members. Their are many combinations of hardware that work well and many that fail repeatedly. It seems a shame that we are forced to repeat other's mis-steps because we can't see the results of each others experience. Such a seachable database would not require a large NNA overhead; Once the search engine is in place and the data fields are defined, the price of a search might simply be to enter the searcher's own hardware/OS/VW version profile before any search results are provided. I would have liked to have enterred the search terms: G3/OS X/VW 9.5 and HP 455CA. I would have seen a huge dissatisfaction with that combination among the members that had tried it and would have saved, conservatively, one man-month of unproductive workarounds trying to get plots out of this basically unworkable combination.
  6. Actually, I think this last suggestion is incorrect. If you do a "TOOL/convert copy to lines(hidden line option)", the intersection will be absent a line showing the vector of intersection. It's about the only line that is missing(you can use that knowledge to snap the missing valley line to eave intersections and ridge end points). Otherwise, do a "convert copy to polygons(hidden line option)" rather than "line" and you will get 2D polygons that demarcate the valley accurately. (if you convert those polygons to lines, the accurate valley line will be there if you can find it). It's easier to just snap a line over the polygon edge that defines the valley, then "edit/cut" it for use in clipping the roof face polygons per the above instructions.
  7. Watching my plotting issues resonating here has revived an old plea: could NNA please create a searchable database of its members and their collective experience. The only feeling worse than finding your "new" hardware/OS/VW versionX is full of bugs is finding that member X went down that road and hit that tree days or weeks before. To my slightly addled brain, it would seem that we, collectively, have a wealth of experience which we hear of only in retrospect. Couldn't NNA provide a survey form that would enable this membership to enter a simple system profile(hardware, OS,VW version X, peripheral) and correlate that system with a score for speed(?), reliability(?), satisfaction(?)? Then, with a simple database search engine, we could examine the relative satifaction that our membership has realized with various mixes of equipment and software. That would allow NNA to avoid recommending hardware or software(which they understandably refuse)but would enable we unwitting upgraders from venturing down a road filled with known potholes. At least we could improve the likelihood of an "upgrade" resulting in upgraded productivity.
  8. Regarding the status of my Mac/HP plotting problem(s), I tend to agree that no usefull solution exists that will let VW9.5 work with directly with any HP RIP. I have regressed to VW 9.0.1 to enable my plotting to the HP. For this workaround to work, though, I have regressed the CarbonLib extension back to version 1.2.5. Otherwise, this extension will conflict with the RIP. Also, and again I don't know why, this setup works only with 9.0.1 originated files. Files which I created or even modified within VW9.5 seem to bear some kind of bug which prevents interaction with the HP455. If I must create files within 9.5 from the Mac side of my office AND plot them(seemingly a reasonable ambition), I save my files on my Mac and then open and plot them from VW 9.5 on my LAN networked PC workstation.
  9. Just a note to update those interested in a fix for the Windows/HP Plotter problem(s)noted above. After several days of trial and error and help from VW and HP techs(HP tech support sets a high standard that others might try to equal), it seems that the newest HP driver(4.61) specified for Wn 2K Pro is in some way incompatible with VW 9.5. After purging all files related to previous HP drivers and related servers, we installed version 4.60(download file pl132en.exe) and all works well once again. Hope this helps others who wander into the same plotting morass.
  10. Wondering if anyone might have insight into separate plotting problems I'm suddenly experiencing on each of my two platforms: MAC G3(OS 9.04) and Dell Workstation(Wnd 2000 Pro)while printing from VW 9.5 to my previously bulletproof HP 455CA. 1)from the Mac platform, I get a crash and "Fatal Postscript Error-bad address ox2coo5cf8" after about 10% of the print file has been completed. Have tried alterring the HP RIP memory allocation and tried re-installing the RIP with no improvement. At this point, I am only able to plot from VW 9.0.1 with files untouched by VW 9.5. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. 2)from the PC platform, I seem to get two types of plotting errors(no crashes): the first is no recognition of layer visibility(grayed layers plot in full visibility) and fill patterns are not recognized at all(any pattern is plotted as black fill). I've downloaded the most recent HP driver(4.6.1) and experimented with seemingly every combination of printing preferences with no luck. Again....Help! Tech support suggests that problems vis a vis VW 9.5 and HP plotters is a known(and serious) issue but I have not seen an abundance of posts of late and, so, I question if my problem is, in fact, typical or perhaps singular. In any case, it is a major hardship plying a trade with no ability to produce product. Thanks for your thought and patience in this too-long post.
  11. I wish for some sort of utility that would ease the manipulation of time-log data. A simple Excel macro might do the trick.
  12. I suspect that every VW user, at some point, teeters on decisions of CPU upgrades, accellerators, operating system changes, etc., and finds an understandable yet hugely frustrating lack of advise from the tech folk at NNA. Could a database be compiled by the hosts of this forum which would summarize the collective experience of this membership? For a start, a rating of 1-10 for aspects like stability, speed, frequency of crashes correlated with factors like platform, processor speed, ram, operating system, and video card would provide a bias-neutral way for we users to navigate toward improvements in our hardware/software which will have the most promising effects; and minimize the real nightmare of expensive hardware overhauls only to find that that the consequence is reduced productivity at greater expense.
  13. This "party line" defense misses the point. THIS RELEASE FEELS CARELESS AND RUSHED. Most users can overlook a few obscure file translation bugs or the ever present(at least in the Mac world) inter-app. extension conflicts that attend any major new program release. What is galling about VW/ARCH 9.0 is that many of its probems seem native to the program itself and, rather than being irritants to its use, are disabling: ie: can't succesfully print/plot; can't manage memory, can't render properly, can't even convert back to 8.5.2 without corruption. Users are not merely inconvenienced by occasional workarounds. Users are losing their work! My impression was that the old Diehl organization featured a value-based program seemingly built by users for users. Amid the splashy gaphics and nifty marketing, NNA, on the other hand, is stressing "spin" over substance. It's a disconcerting shift of emphasis.
  14. "not well in denmark"..... Ditto your experience. My initial relief that NNA had the foresight to install an "argh!....convert-back" utility(to return to the relative safety of 8.5.2) was extinguished with all the problems that've been noted. A couple of workarounds that allowed me to use the re-converted 8.5.2 file: I had luck re-installing my old borders by doing a purge of unused classes, records, and textures; deleting the problem title boxes from their sheets, then copying very same box from the corresponding sheet on the last saved(not converted) file. Also, I found that my re-converted title block tool was corrupted in the voyage to 9.0 and back but its problem was easily corrected by revising the scale parameter from the "1000-7000" which the conversion inserts back to "1".
  15. Sorry to say, I'm back with 8.5.2 also. Originally thought my 9.0 problems might be attributed to conversion problems---files originated in 8.5; then converted---since that has happened in past transitions. However, after much experimentation, I feel too many bugs remain in this release for a reliable work application. Renderring is a nighmare, printing is problematic, the entire program seems sluggish and unresponsive with any more than a single active layer. Very dissapointing.
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