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P Retondo

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Everything posted by P Retondo

  1. I want to tranfer this discussion from the "Tech How To" board to get some attention to what has become a real difficulty for me. I find that it has become very inefficient to translate a 3D model into 2D objects once a certain level of complexity has been reached. My model is of a large single-family residence, with windows, doors and a very moderate level of trim detail. VW 10.1.2 Win2000/XP P4 2.2 G 1 G RAM Every time I take a 3D section and render it as lines (to get interior elevations), I am required to quit out of VectorWorks and restart. Otherwise, the program slows to a crawl. In fact, it usually refuses to quit in any reasonable (minutes) period of time, and I have to end the program using task manager. Any process of selection or de-selection can take seconds, escalating to minutes, after making the 2D rendering. I see two problems here. One must be a bug - the program shouldn't behave abnormally after doing some processing. Others have complained about slow operation, and this bug may be related. The other has to do with the way 3D sections are taken. There must be a better way than converting everything to a million 3D polygons. Also of note: I'm still getting multiple overlapping lines when generating a hidden line rendering from a 3D section. Is NNA aware of these problems? Is there a chance of getting fixes on a high-priority basis? I would suggest that solving the structural problem with 3D sections may start with a command to convert layer links to an actual copy of the objects from the linked layers. This may or may not be useful to many people in and of itself, but from there it might be possible to sort those objects into those to be thrown out, those in the background, and those actually being cut and which will require some kind of trimming. Even better: when using the 3D section tool, we are often not actually after a cut up part of the model - we are after a view or representation that we can't get any other way. If we could get that without actually copying and manipulating 3D entities, things might be done much more efficiently. For example, how about creating a plane that the rendering engines interpret as boundary between completely transparent stuff and visible stuff? If that view could be then converted to 2D lines with the hidden line rendering tool, bingo! [ 07-21-2003, 02:45 PM: Message edited by: P Retondo ]
  2. Erich, where do I get one of those 500 Ghz Macs? Seriously, I think there is some kind of problem with selection, at least, probably with moving too, in complex files. It has gotten to the point where I cannot effectively create sections and elevations, especially interior elevations, from a 3D model. I have to quit and restart VW every time I do a hidden line rendering, because the program takes seconds or minutes just to select or deselect a single line - not to mention the apparently normal amount of selection time involved in working with the vast number of 3D polygons that are created when a 3D section is taken. There has to be a better way!!
  3. Ti, I have found version 10.1.2 to be stable and a fair improvement over version 9. But I operate out of Windows, and there seem to be more problems on the Mac side. Specific complaints about the Window and Door PIOs have been cured, with a few wish-list items still out there. Speed issues with snapping under some circumstances have been cured. There are numerous small production-oriented improvements over version 9 that are all working, and which I find useful. I'm especially happy that the Walkthrough tool with OpenGL rendering works with 10, where it had been broken in version 9. If you are looking to prepare for the inevitable hitches, I would look to the issues that have been raised with regard to the Mac OS and to plotting glitches. Despite Katie's good work, I don't think there is a solid fix to the "scrunched text" plotting problem, which causes me frequently to dump the first in a series of plots. I'm supposed to look for a corrupt font, but I just don't have the time to fool with that - and no other program I use has a problem with my fonts, and a faulty plot always works properly on a second attempt.
  4. Don't have that problem here. VW 10.1.2 Win2000
  5. Arch 16, when you render the model before converting it to lines, do you see what you expect to see?
  6. We can import other items from the resources palette, but not saved sheets. I'm not sure why this is, but it seems possible. It is an important capability when comparing design variations. I'm trying to set up perspective views of three files containing alternative modifications to a project, but I have to go through a tortuous and inexact process to get the same perspective point of view in each of these three files. [ 07-10-2003, 12:43 PM: Message edited by: P Retondo ]
  7. There is some kind of memory management problem - a leak or a buffer that doesn't properly clear - with VW 10.1.2. This latest version cleared up version 10.1's very slow snapping on complex layers (possibly assocaited with layer links?). However, it still happens that after a long (3 minute) "convert to hidden line" rendering, simple operations, such as deselecting a line, can take several seconds to several minutes. Closing and restarting the program under these circumstances cures the problem. WinXP P4 2.2G 1G RAM GEforce4 titanium I believe that this memory problem, which shows up on my machine in the circumstance described above, may show up a lot more readily with slower computers or with less sophisticated operating systems. I wouldn't call VW 10 a "dog." I use it pretty much daily and find it very productive. But some problems still remain that shouldn't be there, and I would urge NNA's engineers to track them down.
  8. I have reported this problem previously with respect to window and door record data entry. vw 10.1.2 Win2000/XP
  9. I have a building full of windows with assigned ID's that were used to create a window schedule. Now I want to attach an ID label to each window so that I can see the numbers more easily. But, it seems that the association with the Window record ID field is one way only - i.e., the window record can be changed by the value in the ID label, but not vice-versa. Is there any way to get the label to accept the current Window ID value without entering it manually in the ID Label dialog box? Then I could see my ID number with two simple clicks per window.
  10. Thanks, Peter and Robert. That's what I thought. It might be a feature to consider adding in the future . . .
  11. Cut a wall with a line using the "trim" tool. Use "duplicate array" to create multiple copies of equally spaced walls. Easy to find these answers in the manual.
  12. Alternatively, you could create the horizontal beam, "ungroup" it to convert it to 3D polygons, then rotate it to a vertical orientation. BTW, it would be a great new capability to form columns using the beam/joist tool. I think the PIO-generated shape takes up less memory and less rendering power because it is simpler than the extruded 2D object, which has all of the fillets in it.
  13. Has anyone found a way to use the Window PIO tool to create a cottage style double hung window (where the lower sash is taller than the upper)?
  14. Katie, thanks for the offer. I fixed the wall by pasting it into a blank document (where it no longer displayed corrupted behavior). I made my edits there, then copied it back into my original document. Now I can't get it to give me the same problem, so I guess we'll have to wait until it crops up again. [ 06-01-2003, 03:59 PM: Message edited by: P Retondo ]
  15. Marc, I can see how in certain circumstances this could make work easier for you. For others, however, this feature might make work more difficult - it's a matter of the particular user's working system. In the past I have expressed concern about complication and contradiction involved in the use of the class attribute as it has been applied to container objects like groups. As we move more towards object-oriented concepts, sorting out this problem will become more and more important. How do the qualities of member objects relate to the qualities of the container object? I don't think we can continue with the concept that container objects are the equivalent of member objects.
  16. Charles, I would definitely favor allowing cased openings to be placed on the door schedule. Using the cased opening is sometimes a matter of representation. I occasionally use a cased opening to create an opening in the wall, and build a door object manually - for a special garage door, for example. By the way, because we are unable to edit these schedules, I have to export them into Excel and make adjustments. Someone has made the radical suggestion that, not only should we be able to edit cells in a schedule, but the schedule data could be made to interact with the drawing object. I.e., if a door is mistakenly set to 6-8, changing it on the schedule to 7-0 would change the drawing. If we want to insert a new door and not have its number be out of sequence, we could move the door numbers around in the schedule and the drawing would be updated to reflect the new numbering. Etc., etc.
  17. I see the problem. Are you working with version 10.1.2? With 10.1, I had to switch the fill attribute (using the attribute palette) to solid every time I created a window or door. That appears to have been fixed in 10.1.2, but the transparency you describe is still a problem. [ 05-30-2003, 01:12 AM: Message edited by: P Retondo ]
  18. 1) Windows are created without fill. Select the window (check the OIP to confirm), then change the fill attribute to "Solid." 2) Might be a problem on the Mac OS only. 3) Can't comment on this one since I rarely use the X join. VWA 10.1.2 Win2000 [ 05-28-2003, 02:10 AM: Message edited by: P Retondo ]
  19. Looks like a bug. I have the same problem. This is not good! Is it possible to issue a fix for this problem? I'll probably stick with 10.1.2 right now, since it fixed the awful slowness in snapping on a model layer, but it seems we sometimes get out of the frying pan and into the fire with these updates. I don't recall reading about any changes to the Wall Type function for this update - if someone has made changes, could you just recompile with the old code and issue a working version? VWA 10.1.2 Win2000 P4 2.0Gh [ 05-27-2003, 01:39 AM: Message edited by: P Retondo ]
  20. Michael, you didn't say what version you are working with. I believe the "join" tool is available in both 9.5 and 10.1. If you don't see it in your menus, go to the workspace editor and look for it under the "All Menus" heading, and add it wherever you desire. You can create the keyboard shortcut there, as well, so that it will behave as it did in version 8 (you might have to remove the ctrl+j shortcut from some other tool to make it work for the "join" command). I have gotten so used to the "connect/combine" tool that I don't use "join" anymore.
  21. Jim, for some reason the "Enter" key works differently on a PC.
  22. The data record for a door should work so that when you enter data in one field, pressing "Enter" will take you to the next field and make the text entry region active. It doesn't. One has to use the mouse or a complex set of tabs and arrow keys to navigate to the next field. This should be fixed so that data entry is not such a pain. Also, pressing "Escape" does not change focus back to the drawing space when in the Data tab of the OIP. Doors created from "Door" tool, VWA 10.1, Win2000.
  23. What I do is create a regular gable roof, ungroup it so that I have two roof planes. You can then edit one to change the pitch, and reposition it from a front or side view so that the ridge points meet.
  24. I believe that the "scale" feature of the "file -> page setup" utility was first introduced with VW v.9. It sometimes didn't work perfectly, but with v. 10 it works for me very consistently. If you are using v. 8, I think you are at the mercy of the printer driver's capabilities. Scaling with v. 10 does exactly what you would expect: it works like scaling a bitmap, scaling every element of the drawing, including lineweight.
  25. Don't know anything about the programs you currently use, but a quick browse of this bulletin board will let you know that the technical support for VW is outstanding. I've never been involved with software where access to engineers has been so easy and where user partcipation in improving the software has been so fluid. My experience goes back to version 4, so it's hard to judge what the current learning curve is like or how that may have changed over the years. I would say it's something like the cure curve for concrete: you can get a lot going in 14 days, but the rest of it will come at a slower rate as you get involved in the more complex aspects of the program. I personally would recommend not using the utilities that set up drawings with pre-assigned layer names and classes and preferences. You learn more by starting from scratch - like learning to drive on a stick shift instead of an automatic! I'm sure many others have tips on available resources for getting up to speed quickly.
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