J.Fildes

As of right now the plan is to keep a seat of VW running and convert on an as needed basis. I was just really hoping (regardless of how futile it may have been) that there would be a way I could at least convert everything and then massage the necessary changes into each file as required. Sadly it appears that this will be an on going project of mine for probably the next 5 years.

Hello all, I'm wondering if anyone can help. We have just switched to AutoCAD/Inventor here at our office and I'm hoping there is a solution to convert all of our drawings to dwg or dxf quickly. i can do them one at a time but this is not the optimal solution when you have roughly 5000+ drawings. Is there any way to do a batch conversion, or does anybody know of a 3rd party solution that could help?

TA is Technical Analysis. You can just Google "TA and stocks" to get more info. Of course you would mock the innovative use without knowing a thing about it. Again you show your character! :grin: With all due respect Ken you are mocking the intelligence of every user on here and you are showing your character by discrediting those who are trying to help you. V-G is absolutely right in comparing what you are trying to accomplish to drawing a site plan in powerpoint. Possible but absolutely wrong tool for the job. In my honest opinion, I think you should look elsewhere instead of trying to turn a drafting tool into a stock ticker.

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. I'll have to tinker around with it and see what i can come up with. It's probably an easy thing for others to come up with but as it is my first script it's going to take some time but i'm hoping to one day get it working and understand scripts better.

Hello all, I've been wanting to add a little vectorscript of awhile now into some templates I have. I have templates of various sizes and when i create a new drawing I use these templates and have to go through the normal routine of editing the drawing title, editing the date, editing the drawing number, and editing the ECN number. I would love if i could make a script that would pop up a dialog box that would ask for the various pieces upon opening these templates (but i worry that when this drawing gets saved if every time it opens it would do the same process as this would be unnecessary). i have they various pieces of text named "Title", "Date1", "Date2", "Drawing Number" "ECN". These are all text objects. Now as far as scripting goes, i have variables set as dTitle,dNumber, dDate, dECN all as strings. am i correct in assuming that i need a dialog box asking for these variables and then setting each of these variables with settext() to each of my handles? I'm new to this so any help would be appreciated

Just curious, we all know that VW haas the option of using a white background or a black background. I'm just wondering if there is a way to throw a blue background in as well some how? I'd like the idea of working on a blue screen with white lines, kinda like MS Word.

I have a question. I am in the process of creating a parts library and I would like to be able to create symbols that can be inserted into any drawing as needed. I have a main resource drawing that will house the various folders and symbols. My question is how do i create a symbol in which in can select which view i want to use on insertion? similar to when you create a screw or a nut you can select the view you would like to use (top, front, rear etc.) i would like to do this with our parts to so that if you are inserting a symbol you can have multiple copies but different views. does anybody know how to accomplish this? any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello, I'm hoping you guys can help me confirm a suspicion I have. I have a drawing the requires me to use a certain font (Helvetica LT std, bold) and i have the font installed. When I give the text this font, it doesn't appear as it should (i.e. it's Arial instead of helvetica) I went into VectorWorks preferences and made sure the font mappings were correct. I actually had so many fonts referencing Arial that i just started from scratch and removed the font mappings thinking this would help. I accepted the changes and the dialog box popped back up and showed me the helvetica is mapped to arial. I then changed the mapping for helvetica from arial to helvetica lt std, bold like i needed. however it would not display correctly and still appeared as an arial font (even though the font said helvetica). Here is my suspicion, the font i'm trying to use is an Open Type font, where as arial is a True Type font. Does VectorWorks only like true type fonts? And is that because of the TrueType to polyline command? Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.

Wonderful, I wasn't aware of the True Type to Polyline command as i've done little modeling and this worked great, thanks!

Is there a simple way to convert text to a 3D surface? For example I have an overlay for a machine I'm trying to model and i would like to show the text on the overlay. Is there a simple way to convert the existing text to a 3D object or am I going to have to trace the text with a polyline?

I was able to import both files easily and had no real trouble with any crashing or anything like that. I opened a new standard drawing and went to file > import > import dxf/dwg... I selected the autocad drawing and set up custom import options. The custom options i set up were fit to 1:1 scale, center after import, map colors to line weights, set colors to black and white, and convert dimensions to groups. It took maybe a minute or so but it imported succesfully and I moved everything to fit with in the paper space with no problems. The only issue is that the files are too large to post.

I ended up doing the parabolas in an old fashioned way by using the directrix and the focus and plotting points then passing a polyline (cubic vertex) through all of the points, the result looked ok, I just wish I could find a script or lean more about scripting to generate the result without spending that much time on it. As for hyperbolas I went back to a manual drafting technique. I drew a circle from the focus to a vertex and drew another circle from the opposite focus to the same vertex. Then i offset each of the circles multiple times by 1 unit (in my case .25"). The point where these circles intersect formed the curve of the hyperbola. Using the polyline with cubic vertex again a very nice looking curve was generated, i then mirrored the result for the opposite curve. I'm attaching the drawing file to show the results for anyone who is interested.

Are you referring to the "plotfile" scripts? I am trying them out but no such luck yet. there has to be something out there or some easier way to generate than slicing a solid cone. maybe I'm wrong. I'll try some cone slicing at some point today.

i looked on Vector Depot as you suggested propstuff, but no such luck unless i overlooked them.

I had searched under those topics and they were helpful in constructing a parabola using 3 known points (which i used as the vertex, and end points of the latus rectum) but i was wanting some way to verify that what i've drawn is correct as well as extend the parabola past the latus rectum. it would be great if there was a script in which you could define the equation and achieve the resulting parabola, or give a location for the directrix and the focal point and achieve the resulting parabola.

I need some help creating conic section geometry. the circle and the ellipse tool are no problem, the trouble I'm having is in creating parabolic and hyperbolic curves. i think i can draw a parabolic curve by using the polyline tool and selecting the end of the latus rectum, the vertex, and the opposite end of lR. however how would i extend this curve past the lR? Is there a script i can use in which i could enter in the standard equation and get back the parabola/hyperbola/ellipse/circle? like i said really ellipse and circle i could care less about since they are simple, I'm far more interested in hyperbolas and parabolas. Any information would be very appreciated.

We looked back over the original formula. It reads N= SQRT[((4Lt)/(PI))+d?]/(2t) It should read N= SQRT[((4Lt)/(PI))+d?]-d/(2t) that revised formula actually solves the problem. so if anyone is curious you can use that equation to solve for how many turns the length of some object would make when creating a spiral. so long as you know the core diameter, the length and the thickness of the material you can derive the number of turns from the solution. likewise you can use Lt= (PI/4)(D?-d?) to find D. Thanks to all who contributed to this post. Thanks to Bill here at the office for the equations.

Does anybody know how to calculate the number of turns in a spiral if we know the length, the thickness of the material, and the core diameter? I've been searching the internet for a formula but nothing seems to fit or there is heated debate over the subject. Imagine a roll and we know the entire length of the "tape" and how thick it is. And we wrap it around a core. How many turns that is in the final roll is what i'm looking for. For illustration sake lets make the length of the tape = L the thickness of the material = t the core diameter = d the final diameter = D the number of turns = N L= 125" t= .125" d= .5" we've thrown some equations around here at the office that perhaps it should look something like this Assuming that the area = (PI/4)(D?-d?) and area also = Lt Lt= (PI/4)(D?-d?) where D = d+2Nt Lt = (PI/4)[(d+2Nt)?-d?] or N= SQRT[((4Lt)/(PI))+d?]/(2t) Any corrections or incite would be appreciated and welcome

Thanks Ray, I appreciate it. Looking through the pieces and it isn't quite what I'm looking for but it will help and I'll be able to use some of them. Thanks again.

Thanks Tom, however I cannot view these files. I'm running Vectorworks 2008, is that why I'm not able to open them?

I'm looking for a library of hydraulic symbols that i can insert to create schematics. I can't seem to find them in the included libraries, is there a library of symbols for hydraulic components available?