MullinRJ

bertb,The first word 'INTEGER' was making your code inoperable. I took a few liberties and streamlined your code, and I also changed the comments a little. I hope this makes it readable to you. Most code is adapted from code that already works so your scripting talents will grow from practice. Have fun,Raymond Procedure COT;{ Make all the attributes of the selected object the active attributes }VAR X, Y :REAL; h :HANDLE; Red, Green, Blue :LONGINT;BEGIN GetPt(X, Y); h := PickObject(X, Y); IF (h <> NIL) THEN begin { Make H's layer & class active } Layer(GetLName(GetLayer(h))); NameClass(GetClass(h)); { Set Fill Pattern & Colors } FillPat(GetFPat(h)); GetFillFore(h, Red, Green, Blue); FillFore(Red, Green, Blue); GetFillBack(h, Red, Green, Blue); FillBack(Red, Green, Blue); { Set Pen's Size, Style & Colors } PenSize(GetLW(h)); PenPat(GetLS(h)); GetPenFore(h, Red, Green, Blue); PenFore(Red, Green, Blue); GetPenBack(h, Red, Green, Blue); PenBack(Red, Green, Blue); end;END;RUN(COT);

This question is to VW tech support: What is the TYPE definition of <CRITERIA>? [ 06-11-2002: Message edited by: MullinRJ ]

grantvz,Try this little script, it's fun. It works best for Center justified text, but it can easily be modified to change the justification as well. Raymond Procedure FlipText;{ Author : Raymond Mullin }{ Toggle the TextFlipped attribute for all selected Text objects on a layer. } VAR TxtHnd: Handle; B :Boolean; X, Y, Ang :Real; BEGIN TxtHnd := FSActLayer; while (TxtHnd <> nil) do begin if (GetType(TxtHnd)=10) then begin GetTextOrientation(TxtHnd, X, Y, Ang, B); SetTextOrientation(TxtHnd, X, Y, Ang-180, not B); end; TxtHnd := NextSObj(TxtHnd); end; { end while } SysBeep;END; { End FlipText }Run(FlipText);

On the issue of objects changing type when edited, the Reshape tool always changes a Rectangle to a Poly. It would be nice if a reshaped Rectangle retained its Rectangle identity when the Rectangle's shape remained Rectangular. The same could be said if a Rounded Rectangle is edited similarly, that is, the right or left sides moved in the X-axis only, and/or the top or bottom sides moved in the Y-axis only. In the case of a Rounded Rectangle having one vertex or one side moved in two axes, the type should change to Polyline and the corners/vertices set to ArcTo with the same radius as that of the Rounded Rectangle. Just a thought, but it would be nice. Raymond

Katie,I too use the Reshape tool for lines and rectangles, in addition to poly vertices. It is a great way to move parts of many objects at once, especially with the Move command. You cannot get the same behavior by dragging an endpoint of a line when multiple objects are selected. Not only do all the objects move, but they rescale too. It would be a natural extension of the tool to work on Rounded Rectangles. One pet peeve I have about the Reshape tool is that you cannot select or deselect lines or rectangles with the tool, only Polys. You must change tools to the 2D Select tool, make your selection changes, and then change back to the Reshape tool. Then you can edit Lines and Rectangles and Polys to your heart's content. Raymond

defjef,This is a long shot, but when it happens again, reset your view to Top/Plan, the first menu item under the View menu. For reasons unknown to me, sometimes my snap-to-object ability goes out the window. If I have the 2D selection tool enabled I may notice the 3D view icons on the data bar, but with other tools selected the lack of snap-to-objects is the only symptom. Why? I haven't a clue. I've noticed no pattern of when it happens. My workspace is set up entirely for 2D drawing. This never happened in MC6 or earlier, but it happens often enough in VW852, about once every day or so. I am on a Mac, so I am curious if the 'feature' is also on the PC. If this solves your problem, the solution is painless and easy. Reset your view and don't look back. HTH,Raymond

I have two wishes for the Custom Selection process. 1) With objects already selected, I wish to refine that selection further by running 'Custom Selection...' on the current selection list only. Refinement should include deselecting objects that meet new criteria, or leaving selected only the objects that meet new criteria (which is the same as deselecting objects that don't meet new criteria). This might be easier for a user to implement than designing the PERFECT filter statement that executes in one click - especially at 4AM. 2) Have the 'Custom Selection...' dialog box REMEMBER the last selection, or the last N selections. Previous choices could be made available through a Pop-Up menu. Thank you,Raymond

Brad,There is am Extend Tool that will extend objects you click on to a previously selected object, but it is manual. I know of no automated way to achieve your goal. It is possible to write a script to do it, but it would be tedious at best, and unless you are going to do this task repeatedly, you can do it manually in a lot less time. Just zoom in and walk your perimeter. Keep your Snap to Object constraint on, but be careful when editing groups of lines, if more than one line is selected, dragging a handle acts like resizing a group. This means that all the selected lines will move, so you have to resize lines one at a time. Editing polygon vertices is a lot easier, only the node(s) you intentionally drag move while the rest stay still. Another method to consider if your point count is not too overwhelming, retrace the outlines of your building with the polygon tool. You will be guaranteed that all vertices are closed. Use another color for the poly and you'll know when you've gotten all the walls retraced. Good luck and have fun,Raymond

Hi Brad, Select the lines of one enclosed area, ungroup them if they are grouped, and use the 'Combine Into Surface...' command under the 'Tool' menu. You will get a paint bucket. Click anynwhere inside the lines with the paint bucket. You will get an additional Polygon object on top of your lines. Voila! You may now edit to you hearts content. if it doesn't work, make sure all your lines are touching end to end, or crossing. The path has to be perfectly closed for the tool to work. Use the 'Snap To Object' constraint when drawing or editing. Happy drawing,Raymond Mullin

Well, if you don't want elegant, here's a short script to plot a polynomial. You can edit the equation to your heart's content. Have fun,Raymond Procedure PlotFofX;CONST Interval = 50; StartX = -0.5; StopX = 2;VAR I :Integer; X, Y, Inc :Real; function FofX(X :Real):Real; Begin FofX := 2*X^3 - 5*X^2 + 2*x + 1; End; { FofX } BEGIN X := StartX; BeginPoly; MoveTo(X, FofX(X)); Inc := (StopX - StartX) / Interval; for I := 1 to Interval do begin X := X + Inc; Y := FofX(X); LineTo(X, Y); end; EndPoly;END;Run(PlotFofX);

It sounds like your layer options are set to "Gray Others". Make sure you at least have "Show Others" selected. It is in the "Organize" menu under "Layer Oprions...". Raymond Mullin

Not easily, but possible. You would have to plot (X, Y) points in a range of function values and connect the dots with short line segments. 3D functions would be exceptionally difficult. There are many math programs that do this function well. If you have a Mac, it ships with a Demo version of "Graphing Calculator" which is pretty astounding. It hadles 2D, 3D and even parametric equations. If you want to have an interactive calculator in VectorWorks, you have a lot of programming ahead of you. Best wishes,Raymond Mullin

PLC, You are right, I do know about the arrow keys, but it is not the same and requires that I move a hand to an inconvenient area of the keyboard. I find the old style of panning very comfortable as I keep one hand on the mouse and the other on the left side of the keyboard. I draw and edit LOTS of polygons and change constraints often as I draw, so moving either hand is a major impediment to my work flow. I can pan with just the flick of the wrist. Trying to place the cursor on the drawing window edge is MUCH slower. Also, the pan distance is different for the arrow keys and dragging off the screen. I like that feature too. I think a preference would be aptly suitable here. RJM

I use the auto-pan feature a lot when drawing, but hitting a 4 pixel wide drawing edge is too tedious for me to call it an improvement. Would it be too much to ask for a preference to control how the document behaves? It is really irksome to see old features disappear as the software "progresses". After 12 years of living with your software I don't want to see ANY of the old features retired. I don't mind new features, but I would like a choice as to whether or not I will adopt them over the old tried and true features I have grown to love. Thank you,Raymond Mullin

When I have run Norton Disk Doctor, I have gotten messages for corrupt resourse forks for Font files. I don't know if Norton for the PC checks fonts like it does on the Mac, but if you are on a Mac, try it, it catches lots of potential problems before they become serious. Raymond Mullin [ 05-07-2002: Message edited by: MullinRJ ]

What a wonderful concept, from A 440 to Green. Rummaging through my cranium I dusted off a few latent brain cells to see if I could find the constant of which you speak. Using some elementary physics (it was elementary when I was younger, now it's definitely physics) I laboriously derived the frequency vs. wave length relation, and though it looks quite mundane now, I definitely needed that dusty gray matter of which I spoke. Multiply A 440 by 1.25 x 10^12 and you will get the color Green. (The GREEN CONSTANT = 1,250,000,000,000 - unless you hail from the other side and then it is 1.250.000.000.000) On a lighter note (pun intended), I too wanted to HEAR a CAD file, and I laughed audibly when I read Joe's first two posts. Thanks Joe, I thoroughly enjoyed that. Raymond

Joe, I find your comments very interesting as I have had exactly the opposite experience. In the 12 years I have used this software I have only lost one file, but not while I was working on it. It was one I went back to later, so I always attributed it to a disk error. MiniCad/VectorWorks has always saved my data without a flaw, which I find quite remarkable when I think of it. It has been so reliable that I don't even keep backups (tape backups, yes; duplicate files, no). I do admit to saving a lot, as I have a twitchy left hand that hits CMD-S often, a habit I picked up working on a Mac-Plus years ago. As you can tell, I work on a Mac (once I went Mac, I never went back), so I cannot speak to the PC side of the equation as it relates to the original question of this post. I do hope your experience is the exception to most VW user's. Best wishes,Raymond Mullin

Count me in. I do most of my major processing on text dumps of VW files. Real database links to drawings would be an incredible step forward. Would VW files have to be open to be accessible to the database engine or would it be possible to query closed files as well? If the latter case were possible, I could envision having library folders/directories of VW files at my beck and call, yielding their contents to my programmatic whims, Muahahahahahahaaaa!!! - One can dream, can't one?

If you can't set the resolution higher, set it lower and then back again. Setting it lower will have the effect of draging everything near the edge of the screen toward the center. You will need to be running VW at the time you do this, or launch it when the screen is in the lower resolution state. Good luck,Raymond Mullin

I would find it helpful if there was a VS function to ignore locking, (i.e. - IgnoreObjLck(True); & IgnoreObjLck(False) . The first command would have the effect of temporarily unlocking all objects to the end of the script, while the latter would return to the normal mode of VW operation.

With all the boolean preferences you can use a one line script as follows: SetPref(16, not GetPref(16)); { Black Bkgnd } This will toggle the current value of the preference to the opposite value. Click on it again, and it toggles back. I use the following a lot SetPref(9, not GetPref(9)); { ZLT } to toggle the ZERO LINE THICKNESS preference on and off. You can find the Preference numbers listed in a table at: VectorScript Reference - Appendix

There used to be a global preference "Show Other Objects While In Groups" in the Vectorworks Preferences menu behind the Display tab. If you find it, make sure it is unchecked.

Jeremy,The answer you seek is a complicated one. The process is simple, but the experience level needed is high. You will need to export your drawing to another format (EPS, JPEG, TIFF, Photoshop, etc...) and import it into a program that does color conversions. PhotoShop, Pagemaker, Freehand, Illustrator are just a few. Now comes the hard part. Making the conversion is easy to do, but the results you get are based on the settings of the program making the conversion. These settings need to be adjusted for the type of printing you intend to do and the output will be affected by every variable involved in the printing process, such as, your choice of paper, type of ink, press type, ink coverage, dot gain, undercolor removal, etc... In a nutshell, what you see on the monitor is NOT what you get on paper. My best advice at this point is to hire or consult with a graphics prepress professional. The money you spend here will be much less than the money you spend doing the job over (and over, and over). The odds of getting it right the first time by guessing are comparable to your odds of winning a lottery by playing one number. If you like, I will gladly recommend the person I use. Drop me a line and I will connect you. Best of success,Raymond MullinMullinRJ@aol.com

I noticed this a few days ago, the clock for this BB is 1 day behind. Anybody check it lately? Unless I am in a time warp, all my time pieces show it to be the 18th of March 2002, yet this post is showing up on the 17th. Happy St. Paddy's Day (again),Raymond

David, Are you using a PC or a Mac? There are some free Gerber viewers on the web for the PC. I use VW on a Mac, but view the Gerber files on an OrangePC card in my Mac running Windows. The viewer I use is ViewMate and the website is at www.lavenir.com If you get it installed, I would still like to try a translation for you. It would help me see if I have any glaring holes in my code. So far, I am very happy with the results I am getting, especially being able to use fonts from my system. If you have ever seen Gerber output from a PC CAD system, you will know that it leaves a lot to be desired. Best wishes,Raymond