PeterT

Is it possible you are just noticing the behavior change in the option duplicate function that came along as of version 9? If you option click drag a duplicate from an original you must still be holding the option key when you release the mouse to get the duplicate. This is specifically different than the way it was in version 8 and before. Previous to version 9, the duplicate was made as soon as you clicked the mouse while holding the option key, then you could release the option key and move the duplicate to where you want. Actually, since version 9, you can drag the object to the new location without even holding the option key, and just press option right before you release the mouse, and the duplicate will be made. This change in behavior still haunts me today, even after using version 9 for at least a year. It is hard to break finger dexterity habits you have been using for seven years. (the change of "nudge" from command-comma to shift-arrow is another example of a habit that was hard to break)

It sure would be nice to be able to trim a curved wall with a line using the command-"T" It would just be nice if the round wall tool functioned the same as the straight wall tool in all regards. Just as command "T" does not trim a round wall, command "J" does not join round walls. These are basic shortcuts for the straight wall tool that do not exist for the round wall tool. Also, it is very frustrating that round walls seem to AutoJoin, even though the AutoJoin preference is disabled. And I agree, the tool would be much better named the "Curved" wall tool. To me, a round wall is a column. I have posted to this board about the shortcomings of round walls before, but they do not get any attention, so I guess I will have to convince my clients to stop putting turrets in their floor plans as they are just too difficult to draw with my CAD software.

Katie, Perhaps what DaveF is looking for is a wishlist item. Why could there not be a "Page" vs "World" unit setting in the "Create Symbol" dialog similar to the one in the "Create Hatch" dialog. Symbols created in "World" units would act as symbols currently do, they would use the unit values of the layer the symbol is placed on. Symbols created in "Page" units would display at the same relative screen size no matter what the scale of the layer thay are placed on. Ideally, this could be a toggle button on the insertion options pane of the symbol dialog. We all have symbols we wish to appear at the same screen size no matter of the layer scale. For example, I want my detail bubble to be 1/2" diameter on the screen no matter if I am placing it on a 1/4" scale layer or a 1/8" scale layer. Currently, I have to have two symbols, the one for the 1/4" layer drawn at 2'-0" diameter, and the one for the 1/8" layer drawn at a 4'-0" diameter. Another example would be a detail symbol which you would want to appear at 1/2" scale no matter what layer you place it on. I admit, 99% of my symbols I want to scale with the layer they are placed on, but there are a handfull of symbols that a "Page" unit would be very useful for. These are mostly drawing markers, note blocks, detail symbols, drawing borders etc. Maybe not an easy task for the engineers, but I would sure like to see this in a future release of VectorWorks. Regards, PeterT

Your object is assigned to two different classes, the one you drew it in, and the one you assigned it to in the info palette. Unless both these classes are visible you will not see the object. When you set the class options to "Active Only", there is only one class visible, therefore you will not see the object. To avoid this, create your new "truss" class first, make it the active class, then draw the truss in this class. Now change the assignment of the truss to this class in the info palette. Now your truss is both drawn in, and assigned to the same class. If you make this class "Active Only", you will see your object.

I am still curious about this. Does anyone else use the Round Wall Tool?

ga, Are you using a custom preset in the Print Dialog? If so, try plotting using the "standard" preset. If you do not get the error message on the standard preset, delete all your custom presets and recreate them from scratch. This cleared up the problem for us. Custom presets seem to get corrupted when the OS is upgraded. Hope this helps, PeterT

Why is it that round walls seem to auto-join to other round walls even if the Auto-Join preference is turned off? Is this a bug, or is there another location for the round wall auto-join preferences? Thanks, PeterT

Katie, Thanks for clearing that up. I thought I was going blind. I didn't realize the the industry series products added additional modes to existing tools. I thought they just added additional tools. Regards, PeterT

I'm still not seeing it. I have only four icons in my mode bar, the ones I already mentioned. Where is this little pair of tables icon? On my mode bar, to the right of the lasso icon is the mode description text string, and to the right of that, the mode bar is blank all the way to the right edge of the window. Are we all talking about the 2d selection tool in the VectorWorks base application version 10.1.0 running on a Mac version OS 10.2.4? That is my configuration. I have thrown away my 2d selection tool twice now in the Workspace Editor and re-insrtalled a new one, and still, only four modes. Does this mode choice only appear under certain conditions, or is it supposed to be there all the time? Since my mode bar looks exactly the way it looks in the description of the 2D Selection Tool on page 79 of the VW 10 user guide, I will assume that my tool is correct , and that everyone else magically has an extra mode. [ 04-04-2003, 06:15 PM: Message edited by: PeterT ]

This thread has me a bit confused. In VW 10.1.0, I just moved a wall, and it did not stretch the wall it was joined to, so I don't understand the original question. Also, when I choose the 2D selection tool, there is no mode for "Enable connected walls". My selection tool only displays four modes, "interactive scaling", "wall insertion", "rectangular selection", & "lasso selection". So I guess I do not understand the response to the question either. Is this feature in the base prorgram, or is it perhaps in the Architect module only? Thanks, PeterT

My copy of FileMakerPro 5.5 which is a carbon application also shows the memory configuration tab in the info window of OS X. I am fairly sure it is just a matter of who writes the code as to whether you can see it or not in OS X. In VectorWorks, you can see the configuration, but the entry boxes are static, and cannot be changed. In FileMaker, you can actually change the numbers in the boxes. But either way, I am sure the configuration only applies to OS 9, since in OS X, memory is assigned automatically.

Charles, We have the same plotter and the same setup. In OS X, if you create custom page sizes, you need to do your page setup for "Any Printer" to see the custom sizes you created. Then, in the print dialog, you select your printer. If you do the page setup for "DesignJet 800PS", you will only see the default sizes that the HP driver offers. Also, the HP printer description file handles margins differently in OS X than it did in OS 9. If you describe the page size as exactly what you want, 420 mm for example, when you print, the driver will add the leading and trailing margin dimensions to the described size and cut the paper too long. The leading and trailing margin sizes for the 800PS are 17mm each, so it sounds like it is adding about 34mm to your page length. The way we found to work around this is to describe the paper size just a little short. Try 419 mm for example. For some reason, if you describe the size just under the desired size, it will not add the margins to the length and will cut at exactly where you tell it. I don't know if Apple or HP have changed any of this since I set up my custom page sizes , but it took me about a week of trial and error to get my custom page sizes set up, and once I did, I have not had any problems since. As funky as it is, I'm not going to question it further as long as my paper cuts at the right length. Good luck, PeterT

Actually, there is a way to control which version of VectorWorks opens a file in OS 9... sort of. Which version of VW opens a file depends on which version(s) of VW are currently running on your Mac, and the behavior is different depending on which application is launched. For example, if neither application is running and you double click a version 8 file, it will open in version 9. But, if both version 8 and 9 are running on your Mac , the file will open in version 8. In fact, when both versions are running, if you double click a version 9 file, it will try to open it in version 8, and you will get the unrecognizable file dialog. Also, if only version 8 is running on the Mac, a double clicked file will open in 8, and if only version 9 is running it will open in 9. In a nutshell, if you want files to open in 8, make sure only version 8, or both 8 and 9 are running. If you want files to open in 9, make sure neither version, or only version 9 is running. If you can't deal with all this, or don't have enough Ram to leave both applications running, then just put alias' of both applications on your desktop, and drag and drop files to open them. By the way, one nice thing about OS X is you can now assign what application opens a file in the "open with:" tab of the get info window in the finder, so all this goes away. Hope this helps, PeterT

Katie, For additional information, I just realized the troubled file was a file converted from VW version 7 to version 9. The other thing that is happening with these converted files is that any walls with cavity lines display a very heavy lineweight (30 mils or so). Checking the lineweight of the wall itself or the lineweights of the cavity lines, they are all normal, but the wall lines (not the cavity lines) display so thick that the wall looks black. I think this is the first time we have converted files from v7 to v9, so I don't know if this is expected behavior. Thanks, PeterT

In the "Print Dialog" there is a checkbox for "Rotate", and you can save different setups for the print dialog settings. In OS X, it does not seem to matter whether you describe the page as 24" x 36" or 36" x 24", the HP Driver always sees it in portrait orientation, so to get a landscape plot, you must check the "Rotate" box. In our office, we save a Print Dialog setup with the "Optimized for CAD" box and the "Rotate" box checked. When we print to the plotter, and want Landscape orientation, we choose this preset before clicking on "Print". Of course, the exception to this is if you are hand feeding media in Landscape orintation you do not check the rotate box. You only check it for roll fed media. Hope this helps, PeterT

Katie, So far it is only this one file. As this was my co-worker's file, I'm not sure if the glitch occured during the conversion or later. This file has been opened and closed many times since the conversion and the problem was only noticed when the user chose on of the bad sheets for the first time. I f we notice it again I will send you the file before re-saving the sheets. Thanks, Peter

We just had an odd thing happen with one of our VW 9.5.3 files that was converted from an older VW 8.5.2 file. The file contains four saved sheets and two of these sheets have become non-functional. The names of the saved sheets still appear in the pull up list, but choosing them does not switch sheets. Next, I opened the "Saved Sheets" script palette and all four sheet names were still there as well, but if I option double click the two bad sheets to open the script editor, the editor is blank, the script has been wiped clean. It's an easy fix though, I just re-saved the sheets and replaced them for the bad ones, but I have never seen this one before. Has anyone else? Thanks, PeterT

I agree with you David it would be nice to have that feature. But here is a work around that may be easier for you than what you are now doing. Highlight the object you want, then go to the "Layer" pull down in the Info palette and change its layer to some other layer. Now you can switch to that layer, cut the selected object, switch back to the original layer and paste in place. Your object is now on top. Still a bit of work, but maybe useful.

It would be great if while in text edit mode on a block of text there could be a separate set of command key shortcuts to choose text styles similar to what most text editing applications offer. For example, command "B" for bold, command "U" for underline, command "T" for plain text, etc. It would seem to me that VectorWorks could recognize when the user has entered a block of text and could offer offer alternative command key equivalents similar to the way it does if you enter the layers dialog. In the layers dialog, command "T" takes you to the top layer instead of invoking the trim command. Couldn't something similar be done for the text edit mode?

The Modify Layers/Classes command is a great feature, and deleting unwanted classes after they have been brought in to a drawing is currently how we have to clean up our drawngs. But I wish for a preference that would prevent the unwanted classes from being imported in the first place. We do not always know the name of the unwanted class before it appears and it may be different every time, so mapping and saving a list of class names is not possible. And cleaning up the classes after they have come in is time consuming, because as soon as I open the classes dialog delete the unwanted classes and exit the dialog, I am importing some other object and new classes are brought in. I have to now go back into the classes dialog....etc., etc. I guess I just don't like the fact that importing an object can affect the structure of your drawing. I spend a lot of time getting drawings set up just the way I like them, then in the course of everyday work the file structure gets all fouled up. Anyway, its just a wish. Thanks, Peter

Greg, In OS 9, we use the HP JetDirect EX Plus to get our DesignJet 230 on the network. The JetDirect box has a parallel port to the plotter and a 10 Base T Ethernet port to your network. Works great, we never had any problems with the connection. For a driver we use MicroSpot's Graphic Pak raster driver. Always had great results with this driver too, but we found the upgrade path a bit pricey, and don't like having to use a dongle. In OS X, MicroSpot's product Xrip, is a direct USB connection to one Mac. I talked to them at MacWorld and they say they will have a networkable solution "soon" for OS X. We recently got an HP 800PS and that is what we use in OS 10, as we can use HPs OS X driver, although not without issues of its own. I also saw the GimpPrint driver for the DJ 230, but we have not tried it yet. Best of luck, PeterT

I would like to have a preference to toggle on or off whether an object copied and pasted from one drawing to another brings its class along with it. The preference could work such that in the "on" position, a pasted object would retain its class and add it to the target document if not already there(the current way it works), or in the "off" position, the object would be moved to the "none" class in the target document and the class structure of the target document would be unaffected. Despite the huge advantage and power of using classes in a drawing setup, we do not use classes in our office. The sole reason for this is the class management nightmare that ensues when moving objects of differing classes from drawing to drawing. In our office we do a lot of re-use work, and we are constantly moving objects or groups of objects from one drawing to another. We deal with class problems on a daily basis. Objects you know you pasted into a drawing seem to vanish, or worse yet the objects are visible but cannot be selected because their class is set to invisible. Other times, a simple paste evokes the "rename class" dialog because there is already an entity in the drawing of the same name as the imported class. Many of the problems we are having stem from class names we created years ago in MiniCad 6 or 7 which we now regret when upgrades to the software have changed the way classes are treated. We have thousands of symbols we created a long time ago with embedded class names we no longer use. The preference I request could make problems like these go away, and bad decisions we made years ago would not continually haunt us.

I also miss the extend tool and wish to see it come back. But I never used it for extending multiple lines with one click. I am also curious what version of Vectorworks allowed this behavior. The extend tool existed in version 8.5.2, but I just sampled it in both the offered modes with all different combinations of lines selected, and I could not get it to extend more than one line at a time. Either way, I would certainly like to have this ability in a future version.

Katie, Thanks for the Apple link. I am not sure that that article is specific to our problem though. We have the problem only directly after Plotting with the driver, not just the installation. And the sluggishness goes away if we quit VectorWorks and re-launch it. Also, we are still having the problem in OS 10.2.3, not just 10.2.2. It is encouraging though that other possibly related problems are being identified, and that engineers at HP and Apple are working to resolve them. I'm sure all these driver issues will be resolved over time, and then we can benifit from what OS X offers instead of griping about what it lacks. Regards, PeterT

That's interestring, I guess they need to update thier website, because at the bottom of the GimpPrint page their is a link to the supported printers page, and the 800PS does not appear on that list. Good to know though as a backup driver. Now that we have the PostScript error message solved, I will see if GimpPrint will take care of the performance slowdown (Rubber Band cursor) we get after plotting with the HP Driver from VectorWorks. Regards, PeterT