phased

hi all, i've had this issue as long as i can remember. generally only noticeable when i export small scale (1:5000, for example). hopefully the attached is self-explanatory, but when exporting to PDF i experience wonky lines - or wonky angles, i should say. i've played around with the resolution settings (up to 300dpi, which should be more than sufficient) in both the export options and sheet options but i'm not sure the answer lies here, as the same sheet exported in .eps format does so just fine. the issue seems to be localised to PDF exports. am i doing something wrong here?

false alarm. created x-ref through the viewport function and all works well.

in the past i've only really used the navigation - references section to import pdfs. this has worked just fine. now i'm looking to x-ref a large site drawing - a .vwx file - into my current file. i'm running the same process as above, and the file, site_01.vwx, is listed as a referenced file but i can only view it when i have its particular layer active. as soon as i make 'design layer 01' active, for example, it disappears from sight. even if the referenced layer is supposedly visable. this is inconvenient as i need to work on a layer that doesn't contain the referenced file but still have it visible. am i doing something wrong here?

^ good eye. i was in that particular instance. but at a round 270deg - doesn't explain the arbitrary 77.55deg line. it's definitely referencing the adjacent line. changing to (non-rotated) top / plan doesn't solve the problem. thanks, though.

example attached. should this not read 0deg?

Hi all, Working on VW 2012 (but also remember it happening to me in 2011) . Whenever I now go to draw a line at a particular angle, it references the angle of the line I'm drawing from. Let's say I have a line at an arbitrary angle, if I then want to draw a true 45deg angle from that, I have to do the math. Otherwise it calculates 45deg from the existing line. I just want to draw the true 45deg angle. I've obviously toggled something on / off by accident, I just want it back to normal. Cheers, Thom.

thanks again, guys. lots of useful information here. another q - is there any way to draft in colours, a la autocad? for those of you familiar with autocad, is it possible to replicate the whole layer (or class) = a different colour in the model space? it just makes it really simple to see under what layer (class in VW) things are under, without having to click each individual item. i can get a little slack when i draft, but by having each layer colour coded, it generally keeps me in line as i get instant feedback on what is being drawn and where. tia!

some very useful tips here, guys. many thanks. i think the whole drafting in lines vs. shapes really hit the nail on the head. i gotta relearn the ways in which i create my drawings. and yes, i do occasionally find myself typing in commands a la autocad! a couple of things are stretching me as of today.. classes. presumably one should class objects they want sharing the same line weight together? what's the easiest way to alter line weights on a class? i tried doing this through the class settings, but whilst i wanted all these objects to share the same line weights, i wanted some filled and others empty, etc. so, this route didn't really work out. hatches. is there an simple way to rotate/reorient hatches? so far i'm resorting to editing the hatch file. pretty painful if i have to do that a couple times per drawing. and to the person questioning my use of 'convert to lines' - 'explode' would had to be one of my most used commands in autocad. can't believe no shortcut exists for this in VW?! and yes, i'm in architecture. and yes, it's very handy to be able to turn on line weights in the drawing space.

in the past autocad has been my drafting tool of choice, but my new office is all about mac and vectorworks. i'm trying to get my head around vectorworks, but the similarities (or should i say, the slight variations) are killing my workflow. are there any tips or tricks i should know in making the cross-over? any useful tutorials floating about aimed at the autocad user? the tutorials that came with 08 were pretty much useless for me. i'm using this as a basic 2d drafting tool. perhaps somebody could be so kind as to quickly explain, in lay man's terms, the difference between groups and classes? and more importantly, when to use one and not the other? also, is there an explode command? ie. breaking polylines into individual lines. an extend command? thanks, guys! i may be an autocad guy, but i do like this program. i'm just slow as hell for the moment.