PeterT

Katie and Rich, I have definitely figured out and resolved the PostScript error message problem on both my affected machines and I would think on any others. The problem seems to be with any preset setups you have created in the print dialog prior to the OS 10.2.3 upgrade. If a saved setup is chosen from the pull down menu in the print dialog and you print, you will get the PostScript error message. If you choose the standard setup however, the drawing will plot just fine. This is complicated though, because once you have encountered the error message once, you will continue to get the same message even on the standard preset if you are in the same VectorWorks session. To test this you need to quit and restart VectorWorks, plot with the standard preset (the plot will print), then switch to one of your preset setups and try again (the plot will fail), then switch back to the standard setup and try again (the plot will fail again). This explains why some machines in our office do not have the problem (we created the presets on these machines after OS 10.2.3 was installed) To resolve the problem, I deleted all preset print setups from the two bad machines and created them again from scratch. Now we are happily plotting again. I suspect this is a Driver/OS Upgrade issue, but for us it was only a problem in VectorWorks. I do not have any other OSX graphics applications to test though, and I would suspect it would be the same for other apps that send PICT data to the driver. Other than four hours of testing and quite a few yards of paper off our plotter roll, the problem seems easy to fix. I hope this solves it for anyone else, it worked for us. Regards, PeterT

Katie, At this point I have now started using Gimp Print to see if I can resolve anything. Here are a few tests I have run: 1. In MicroSoft Word, I typed in a line of text. I sent it with the HP supplied driver to the 800PS. The file plotted without any problem. 2. In MicroSoft Word, I typed in a line of text. I sent it to 800PS using the Gimp Print driver. The file plotted without any problem. 3. In VectorWorks, I opened a blank document and typed in a line of text. I sent it with the HP supplied driver to the 800PS. The file did not plot. 4. In VectorWorks, I opened a blank document and typed in a line of text. I sent it to 800PS using the Gimp Print driver. The file did not plot. I do not always see the error message when the plot fails, but sometimes the message appears and goes away so fast you do not see it. But consistently, I cannot plot to the 800PS from VectorWorks with either the HP driver or the Gimp Print driver. I would think that Word sends its data via PDF to the driver, so since VectorWorks sends it via Pict to Postscript, maybe that is where the problem lies. One more thing is that on Friday I had a Tech at HP email fresh copies of the 800PS driver to me, but they did not change anything after installation. For me, my computer is dead in the water as far as ploting from VectorWorks. It does not seem to matter if it is a new or old file as Rich seems to indicate. Any help appreciated, PeterT

I just upgraded from OS 10.2.2 to 10.2.3 this morning and now I get the exact same error message you are getting when I plot from VectorWorks: "can't open PSStream for stdoutERROR:pictwpstops-got an error closing PSStream=-50" I have the exact same setup as you VW 9.5.3 on OS 10.2.3 plotting to anHP 800PS. Yesterday I was plotting fine from OS 10.2.2 with everything else being the same. It definitly has something to do with the upgrade to OS 10.2.3. We have another machine in the office that has had this problem for a couple of weeks since he upgraded to OS 10.2.3. We also have another machine, however, that plots fine to the 800PS from VW 9.5.3 on OS 10.2.3. It is the total inconsistency of these problems that make them so hard to diagnose. I have posted this issue on HP's error message forum for the 800PS, but HP never responds to Macintosh issues. That is the third message I have posted to their message board and the Moderator just ignores them. At least Nemetschek tries to help. Thank you Katie, and the rest . Also, I just tried to download the latest driver from HP's web site and Explorer just hangs, nothing downloads. HP in a nutshell: great hardware, nonexistent support.

Katie, I am responding to your question to me. Sorry, too busy to respond sooner. No, we are not using Gimp Print now. We are using the HP DesignJet 800 PS3 PPD directly by the Print Center. I have downloaded and installed Gimp Print however, but I do not select it in the print dialog yet. I am trying to figure one thing out at a time, but I will be trying Gimp print soon, and I will let you know how it goes. We are currently having the ?Rubber Band? effect on all our machines after plotting, G4 467 MHz, G4 800 MHz, and G4 Dual 867 MHz. We have the problem on OS 10.2.2 and onOS 10.2.3 and it happens on any file. The Plotting issue is bad, but the general sluggishness and high processor usage issue (whether plotting or not) seems less noticable on the G4 dual 867 MHz than the G4 467 MHz, and was intollerable on the G3 267 MHz machines which are now in the CPU graveyard. I understand the concept that high processor usage issues will be less noticable on faster processors, but it does not seem that we should all have to buy the absolute most recent computer series just to work efficiently. Anyway, thanks for any effort you are putting into resolving any of this, and let?s hope Apple Computer is doing their part too. Regards, Peter

Katie, Thank you for the info. But my biggest question is still why Vectorworks would be using so much processor when there is not even a document open. Are these file reads and references going on even without a file being open? And why does the processor usage go up when I plot a file using the Mac Print Center, but does not go back down long after the plot is finished. We have to quit and restart VectorWorks to drop the processor usage back down. After plotting, our machines slow down so much that we have dubbed the event as " the rubber band cursor". You can click the mouse around the drawing four times rapidly and then sit and watch the cursor move from point to point with three seconds between each move. We have to restart VectorWorks each time we plot a sheet, and we are plotting sheets all day long. We are plotting from VW 9.5.3 in OS 10.2.3 now. We never had this issue with VW 9.5.3 in OS 9.2.2, but of course there we were plotting with MicroSpot's raster driver. There is something strange going on here that cannot be attributed to normal processor activity. Any help on this would be appreciated. Thanks, PeterT

Hugo, I have also posted the exact same question previously, but did not get any response from NNA. Maybe they are not understanding the problem, or more hopefully, still searching for the answer. Here is the link to my post: NNA Tech Board Regards, PeterT

Ion, Do you mean corrupted fonts, or bad font types? If it is particular font types that are causing problems, coud you please share with us which ones, so we could also avoid using them. Thanks, PeterT

Another important question is what software is running on your server? If you are running AppleShare IP 6.3 and Mac OS 9.2 on the server and OS 10 on your workstations you will definitely be having permission problems, and you will definitely crash when you revert to saved. (If you move a file to your local machine and open it from there you will not crash when you revert) We have this setup, and we have the two problems above, as well as some other problems I cannot necessarily attribute to the server. I look forward to upgrading our server to OSX server soon, and hopefully some of these issues will go away, Of course I have no doubt others will appear........ Regards, PeterT

I am trying to determine why Vectorworks 9.5.3 runs so sluggish in Mac OS 10.2, and have been using the utilities that come with OS X to try and find an answer. When running the Terminal application and using the TOP command you get a list of all running applications on your coumputer and the percentage of processor usage for each one sampled every second. When VectorWorks is the active application it seems to use no less than 50 percent of the processor and usually much more. Even when there is no document open Vectorworks is often eating up 65 to 75 percent of the processor, and with documents open it grabs as much as 85 to 90 percent, especially after plotting a drawing. If I check the same thing for any other OS X application the usage rarely goes above 50 percent, and when no documents are open, these other application show zero to two percent usage. When one application chews up 90 percent of your processor, it does not leave much left over for such applications as mail, dock, file sharing, or Finder, not to mention anything else you might have running in the background. I understand that a CAD application should use more of the processor than some other applications, but it seems that these numbers are a little high, and why would they be so high even when there is no active document? I am just trying to fine tune this application to run as smoothly as it used to and am getting a bit tired of the spinning lollipop after every action. Can anyone at NNA explain if what I am seeing is the expected behavior or is this a problem? Thanks, PeterT G4 466 MHz, 896 MB Ram VW 9.5.3, OS 10.2.2

Katerina, If you open the saved sheets script palette from the Window menu, double clicking each sheet will run the script for that sheet. However, if you hold the option key down (Macintosh) as you double click a sheet script, it will open the "Edit Sheet" dialog. (It may be the alt or control key on windows, I don't know) This is actually similar for all scripts, if you option double click a script, you will open the script instead of running it. In the case of saved sheets, it opens the edit sheet dialog, not the script itself. Hope this helps, PeterT [ 12-31-2002, 01:48 PM: Message edited by: PeterT ]

VectorWorks accepts math functions in the data entry fields, so if you want the array to fill a specified angle and you dont want to do the math, just enter the total angle divided by the number of copies in the angle field. I.E. If you want 3 copies in a total of 45?, and don't want to figure out that the angle between them is 15?, just enter 45/3 in the angle field, and VW will do the math for you. But I don't know how you could do this without first entering the number of copies. If you don't specify the number of copies, how would the VW know whether to fill your angle with 3 or 300 copies? Hope this helps, Peter

I just discovered an interesting work around. If you apply multiple styles to the entire text block first, it accepts the styles, then you can select the portion of text you do not want styled and put it back to plain text. The desired styles remain where you want them. Very strange, you can't do it by applying styles, but you can do it by un-applying them. Oh well, maybe by OS 11 and VectorWorks11 this developmental leapfrog will mellow out a bit.

Katie, Just tried it on a new blank document with the same results. Choosing a second style undoes the first style. I cannot do anything like this: NOTE: BLAH, BLAH,BLAH I can only do this: NOTE: BLAH, BLAH,BLAH or this: NOTE: BLAH, BLAH,BLAH This is true for every machine in our office, on any file, with any font, all running VW 9.5.3 on OS 10.2.2 Tried it on 466 Mhz G4, 400 Mhz G4 and 266 Mhz G3. Also checked it on VW 8.5.2 in classic mode. No problem there, multiple styles work fine. Peter

Katie, First of all, I am talking about only a highlighted portion of a block of text, not the entire block. If you select the entire block of text, you can make it Bold/Italic, or any other combination of styles. But if you highlight just one word in a larger block of text, you can first choose bold, but then if you choose italic, it accepts the italic, but loses the bold. If you then choose bold again, it accepts the bold, but loses the italic. You can then choose underline, and it accepts the underline, but loses the bold, etc. I just tested this behavior in Palatino, Helvetica, and Geneva. It is the same for all of them. This is not font related. Thanks, Peter

In VectorWorks 8, you can select one line of a multiple line block of text, and apply two or more text styles to just this one line. I.E. You could make the first line of a three line text block bold/Italic. In VectorWorks 9.5.3 (running on Mac OS 10.2.2), you cannot do this. You can make a portion of a text block bold or italic, but not both. Is this a bug, or just a limitation of OS X? Is this corrected in VectorWorks 10? Thanks, PeterT

When a symbol is inserted in an unselected wall, then the symbol is dragged back out of the wall, the wall remains unselected. Why then, when a symbol is inserted in an unselected wall, and you undo the action, the wall is now selected. This does not seem like a correct undo. Shouldn't undoing an action put you back exactly where you were before the action? The wall should remain unselected as it was before the symbol insertion. Could we put this on the bug list, or is there some reason for this behavior? Thanks, PeterT

I don't have X-Rip, so I am not sure how it acts with OS X, but we use HP's Printer description, and it sounds similar. If you are using the custom paper size in Apple's Page Setup Dialog, do the page setup for "Any Printer". There you will see any custom page sizes you set up. The custom sizes are saved with Apple's driver not your printers PPD. So, if you do the page setup for the name of your printer, you will only see the page sizes offered by your printer's description file, or the printer description provided by X-Rip. I hope this is helpful, but it may be different with X-Rip. All I know is that printing in OS X is not as simple as it was in OS 9 and earlier. [ 11-21-2002, 10:16 PM: Message edited by: PeterT ]

Vik, Is it possible you renamed the VW application itself prior to the upgrade? If you did, when installing the upgrade it will actually create a new application in the VectorWorks folder. Look in your VectorWorks folder for two copies of the application. If there is more than one, the one that just says "VectorWorks" will be the new one. The updater will only replace the original application file if the name is "VectorWorks", otherwise it creates a whole new application and does not delete the old one. If you have both versions,and you double click a document, it will launch the older version. [ 11-14-2002, 01:37 PM: Message edited by: PeterT ]

My Apple Software Updater just informed me that there is a OS 10.2.2 update available. Is there any kowledge of new issues with VectorWorks 9.5.3 running on OS 10.2.2? I normally install system updates instantly when they become available, but I am very leary these days about the delicate balance between VectorWorks and Mac OS 10, and upgrading either one is no longer a given. Can anyone at Nemetschek give us the "all clear"?

We plot to an HP 800 PS from VW 9.5.3 on Mac OS10.2 with pretty good luck. The issue in OS 10 is getting the correct page size set up. In OS 10.1.5 there is no custom page size setup in the print center driver, so you have to open the HP PPD in a text editor and edit one of the given page sizes to one you want, which is your nominal page size less the margins for your HP plotter. This is not so easy as the PPD document is 29 pages long. (Don't ask me why HP couldn't do this themselves, since it is their plotter documentation that gives you the page sizes anyway.) OS 10.2 adds a custom page size tab to the Page Setup dialog, so you no longer need to hack HP's PPD. but even with this, it took a couple of days of trial and error to get the right page sizes set up. With the OS 10.2 custom page, do not use HP's recommended page sizes or you will find your drawings getting clipped. I found that to plot a 30" x 42" sheet for example, I set up the custom page to a size of 29.99 x 41.99 with all margins set to 0. It doesn't seem to make sense. Either way, I wish HP and Apple could get together and just provide a printing solution to plot standard sheet sizes without having to spend exhaustive days of setting them up. All that said, however, once you get you paper cutting in the right place, and your image is not being clipped, the output from the plotter is great. Best of luck, PeterT

My wish is for a new release of VectorWorks that is stable, fast, with few or no bugs, and runs well on Mac OS X. I wish for no new features, no new add-ons, and no re-arranged palettes. I wish for no crashes when I zoom, or revert to saved. When I retrieve a document from the OS X dock, I would like the document to become functional. I would like to have my tool palettes always be visible, and not go blank randomly. I would like to have the data display bar be visible no matter which tool I activate from a tool pallette. When I get a snap cue to an object, I would like to really be snapped to that object. When I measure an object, I would like the data display to indicate the correct size of the object on the first try. I would like to be a productive Architect again, as I was in the days of MiniCad.

Katie, Thanks for the reply. Just had to make sure it was not forgotten. Maybe if I stop looking for it, it will show up. A watched pot never boils.... Regards, Peter

I patiently wait, and check the web site every morning for the final release of VW 9.5.3, but I do not ever see it. If the conflict issues with Mac OS 10.2 have been resolved in VectorWorks version 10, then why can those same resolutions be finalized in 9.5.3? Or am I to assume version 10 has the issues with Mac OS 10.2 that 9.5.3b2 has? If that is the case why was is version 10 a final, but version 9.5.3 a beta? Don't get me wrong, I think the development team does a great job with keeping the software current, but three weeks after the release of version 10, I am getting a bit frustrated not seeing a final release for version 9.

Katie, We are running OS 10.1.5. and we are working entirely in 2-D. (i.e. no light objects, and no rendering) This does not happen with any specific file, but seems to be randomly happening to most files. Actually, we are also having same problem in OS X native running VW 9.5.2. My co-worker just exemplified it for me on his machine( G4 800 Mhz, OS 10.1.5, VW 9.5.2). He selected an object, tried to nudge with shift/ arrow and nothing moved, he then immediatly chose a sheet from the choose sheet pull up menu, and got the " re-render all layers or switch to wireframe" dialog. I thought it might have something to do with our custom workspace, which is common to both versions of Vectorworks, but after switching to the "Standard" Workspace, my co-worker tried choosing a sheet and still got the re-render dialog. I can not figure this one out. Please help, Peter

Why is it when running VW 8.5.2 in OS X Classic Mode I get a "switch to wire frame mode" message every time I try to nudge something? This occurs when I am already in wire frame mode, and in top plan view. If I re-select wire frame mode anyway, it knocks me into orthagonal projection, then I have to re-select 2D plan projection, then I can nudge. I am also getting a "re-render or switch to wire frame" dialog every time I enter or exit a group, and sometimes when I choose a sheet from the saved sheets menu. What is up with this? PeterT