Ledfether

I forgot to also include the fact that I downloaded the Spiral Stair Tool macro file from this site, but I have no clue where to put it or how to use it. There is no information or instructions with it and the email address for the author that is provided is no longer valid.

Thanks Hannes and Chris for the suggestions. I have been playing around with the circular stair AEC feature and it?s a step in the right direction. It seems very basic as far as the ability to detail the railings but I'm just getting into it. I'll have to see what the 3D duplicate array feature will help with regarding this. I don?t have a great deal of 3D drawing experience so I appreciate the suggestions. I downloaded the Spiral Stair Tool macro file from this site but I have no clue where to put it or how to use it. There is no information or instructions with it and the email address for the author that is provided is no longer valid. Thanks again for the suggestions.

Hi folks, I need to draw a spiral staircase for real shop drawing usage, not rough architectural rendering. Having not performed this task before and not being an incredibly trained detailer, I am searching for the best method for this. I do not usually draw in 3D but the Circular stair feature in AEC is pretty cool. I'm just starting to figure out how to rotate it for 2D views (typical plan and elevation) and I notice that the railing is a square shape. Is there any way to get the railings to appear to at least be a tubing or pipe shape? I'm working with steel tubing?s and extruded molding shapes and also need to show pickets (balustrading) as well as lower rail spiral members (a spiral member running just above the stair nosing's in tandem with the hand rail, for balustrading to connect to). I there any way to add more than one spiral railing type member? The info pallet only provides for one rail on the inside and one on the outside. Quite a daunting task but it is a fun challenge for a relative newbie like me. Ant help would be very much appreciated. VW version 8.5.1

Hi Stella, I need to draw a spiral staircase for a customer and have no experience in doing so. Would you be so kind as to elaborate on how you accomplished this? If I type "spiral" into VW help it basically ignores me! Thanks, Ken redmon@nexet.net

I have had several problems exporting for printing purposes. Because almost no printing shops support Vectorworks, I had to overcome commercial printing by printing to Adobe.pdf files which most commercial printers can read. Of course there is no color support. I have text boxes that disappear and line weights that change for some unknown reason. If I go back to the VW drawing and change the location of the text box and change the effected line weights to some other weight, then back to what I want, the re-print to .pdf, it usually fixes the problem. Sometimes it takes a couple tries. Seems like the solution for most problems is given as "upgrade to the new version". I'm using 8.5.1 also and do not draw enough to justify spending more money. Even Microsoft provides patches and fixes for flaws in their software. I havent seen that kind of support from Nemetchek, but maybe I haven't found the right spot on the web site or something. This probably doesn't help you but certainly lets you know that your not alone! It can be very frustrating.

Thanks for the feedback. The link Brian gave takes me to the same file that I have tried. For some reason when I unzip it and install it, it is not the HP755C but installs as the HP Designjet Color Pro CAD. This does not have print options as large as 24x36 but is similar to my HP 1220C that I already use that provides 13x19 and banner prints. There is no Arch. D available. The only reason I can think of that the driver does not load as the 755C is there is no detection of the hardware for the plotter. It is detecting my printer, which is similar to the Designjet Color Pro CAD. I'm clueless at this point. The zip file I downloaded is "pl121en". I've even tried this 3 times to be sure I wasn’t selecting the wrong plotter driver. I can’t explain it, but this is what is happening. I was suspicious of trying to create a "phantom" plotter when the service suggested it. I do understand the print area vs. Page size and was referring to page size in my original post rather than print area. I'm trying to achieve the ability to have larger formats printed without spending a lot of money. It seems that it shouldn’t be this difficult but I'm learning the hard way. I think the print shop did have me confused and over my head on file conversion issues though. If I could justify spending a chunk of money at this point, I would simply buy a used plotter and be done with it, or lease one. I'll explore the .pdf angle and see pricing vs. other options. Do you know of any problems with scale when printing from Adobe? The service was able to create a print for me already but the scale was corrupted. Scale is important as I am creating real drawings to build from. Thanks for all the help! I post back any results I find in case it may help someone else.

Thanks for the feedback. I have tried downloading drivers from HP and so far haven?t gotten one that will show a 24x36 page size. I downloaded the HP designjet 750c for instance it was actually a driver for a design jet color pro Cad. This printer apparently does not have size capability any larger than my HP1220c I already use. Other drivers I looked at did not have a simple Windows 98 application but only had NT type and AutoCAD specific drivers. This was also the recommendation given by the print shop and they actually gave me a few specific plotter drivers to target. Having no success in my first few attempts to acquire one that will work I thought an attempt at some tech support in this fashion may be a good idea. I was hoping for a non-printer driver specific solution such as file conversion, For instance the .ps Post Script Level 2. VW only gives an option for .eps extension. Do you have any knowledge about this format and how I may achieve conversion to it? You did in fact confirm an approach suggested by the printer however so I do feel more secure in trying this. I'll have to shop a bunch of drivers to see if I can get one to work. So far no luck though. My frustration is that there are more than just plotter specific methods to approach file conversion. This is clearly demonstrated in the VW export function. However there doesn?t seem to be any that will work well for this circumstance. It seems a little help from Diehl Graphsoft in the form of a downloadable assistance for either an owner of the program or a print shop could go along way towards providing more flexibility for VW to be used all over. Thanks a lot for your reply. Your help is very much appreciated! Led

I'm using VW 8.5 and need to have 24" x 36" prints performed by a commercial printing service. The most comprehensive service in town cannot print properly from any of the available export formats in VW. They have suggested using a .ps file format called Post Script level 2. Only .eps is available in VW and this will not print with proper scale through their conversion programs. They are not going to buy a copy of all drawing programs because they say if they do this people will constantly want changes to be made on site. I can understand this completely. Is there any help out there for this problem? It seems to me the Diehl Graphsoft should have already made a free reader that a printing service could use for this or at least a downloadable file that will provide for more forms of file conversion that is updated as life goes on. Yea, great that VW 9 has a reader but what of us people who are happy with 8.5 and don?t draw enough to justify upgrading every time a new product comes out? I cannot believe the 9.0 reader will not read any versions below the newest. A pretty hard-core marketing scheme if you ask me. I'm beginning to wish I had trained on AutoCAD after all. These customers seem to have no problem getting printing service. If VW is going to knock AC of the block they better start making it easier for the world to work with it. This should not be this difficult.

Does anyone know if there are additional patterns or hardware types available for VW up to 8.5? It would be nice to have patterns that look more like commonly used materials and to recognize that sheet metal screws are actually used quite a bit in the real world! How could anyone consider developing a hardware database that excludes wood and sheet metal screws? Minor oversight I guess, or my ignorance, one or the other. Am I missing something here?