Monadnoc

After Walls are drawn, you should be able to right click the desired Wall Style in the Resource Browser and choose Edit, then you can change whatever you want. ALthough I'm not really following this conversation too well, so maybe I'm mistaken in what you want to do.

There are some at Vector Depot http://www.vectordepot.com/market/ down towards the bottom of the page. There are also some free ones on the Drawings page (in French, I think), and maybe something you could use on the Symbols page, too.

I beg to defer. In certain countries it's more expensive. When you compare price of vw to other BIM applications, you have to price VW Designer + Renderworks to have a fair price comparison. In Australia (the last time I checked): ArchiCAD = +/-$6000. VW Designer+RW = +/-$5500 Revit + AutoCAD + 3ds Max = +/-$9000. VW Designer+RW + C4D = $11000 In South Africa (the last time I checked): ArchiCAD = +/-R35000. VW Designer+RW = +/-R39000 So, vw is far from budget software. I agree 100%. I paid $3,000.00 (American) for VW Designer 2011 - hardly what I would call a budget app. I think the people who think of VW as a budget app are still influenced by the good old MiniCAD days, when it was a budget app. Kind of. If I remember correctly, I paid about $700.00 for MiniCAD 7 (the last version before the switch to Vectorworks). This was when Photoshop was going for about $400.00 or $500.00. Now VW 2012 is $3,370 and Photoshop CS6 is about $700.00. And Photoshop is certainly a professional app. I believe the huge price increase was part of their marketing strategy to get away from the negative connotations of a poorly chosen first name - "MiniCAD". It was always embarrassing to tell other people the name of the CAD package I used, and recommended they use. And I always wondered why in the world they chose it. Supposedly they were thinking it would compete neck and neck with "Micro", as in MicroStation and MicroSoft, but they bet on the wrong horse. Instead, we got "Mini Me" (I can just see AutoDesk saying to Richard Diehl, " I'm bigger than you and higher up the food chain. Get in my belly!"). So I was all for the name change. It was overdue. Then, unfortunately, but understandably, the next thing they did to be taken seriously by people used to spending $4,000 bucks a pop on Autodesk products, was raise their prices accordingly. Now (some) people would think they were getting a deal on a "professional" product. It actually makes perfect business sense. People often associate low prices with inferior products, whether it's true or not. Back in the good ole days when houses were still selling strong, I needed to sell my house quickly so I put a very low price on it, but had no success. I switched realtors and the first thing they said was raise the price, if it's too low people will think there's something wrong. I did and it sold. The realtors were right. People are not that smart. Myself included. The only catch is, people who spend $3,300.00 on a program are a lot less tolerant of bugs, glitches, and workarounds, then people who spend $700.00 on the same program. Even the people who are not that smart. My 2 cents.

I tried walking away from it for a day in the hopes I would spot whatever the problem was/is with fresh eyes. This morning I tired pasting within the same worksheet and also between two different worksheets (they are both in the same drawing - I haven't been trying to paste between worksheets that are in two different drawings). And paying close attention to each step I made. Strangely enough - it worked perfectly. I tried several times. It always worked. Then after about five tries it stopped working. I was VERY careful to make sure I was doing everything the same. Sometimes it works, and other times it just doesn't. I can't figure out what causes it to fail, but I will be working on these worksheets for a while, and hopefully I'll realize I'm doing something dumb, even though I don't think I am (wouldn't be the first time). But right now, it's looking more like a bug. I have noticed another oddity in worksheets - sometimes a cell will just "die" or "freeze" and return a zero. I double check. Triple check. Quadruple check. The formula is there. It is correct. I'll try entering a different, simple formula, like =8*2, and always just a zero. Then I will paste the formula into a different row's cell and it works. I've had this happen five or six times in the past few days. Aggravating. This is definitely a bug. I'm finding the worksheets in VW2011 extremely buggy when compared to how they behaved in VW 11. Not good.

Thanks for the response. At least I'm not the only one frustrated by this. After many attempts, I have (occasionally) gotten it to paste as a database row and keep the criteria and formulas when within the same worksheet, but it is not consistent at all. I am trying to figure out why sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. I can't get it to work between worksheets at all.

I am trying to copy/paste database rows between worksheets (or even within the same worksheet) but every time I do it reverts to a Spreadsheet Row and looses all of the formulas that were in the original row. So I have to manually change the pasted row from Spreadsheet back to Database, then re-enter all the criteria and formulas in every column field. Does anyone know how to copy a database row and keep it as a database row when pasted? With formulas/criteria intact? Thanks.

It is a complex problem, especially for interior wall finishes. I typically use one long wall for the entire exterior length of the building, but inside the building there are usually 3 or 4 rooms created by interior walls T-ing into it. What do you do for that? You need to be able to have several different interior wall finishes the length of one wall. Or else use short segments of walls butted together at the "seams". Not a good solution. Extract planer objects for each interior room space/walls? I haven't come up with a good solution yet.

Tamsin, Thanks for such a speedy reply. I tried your technique, but when I double-click on the created Landscape Area symbol in the Resource Browser I get an error message: "The plug-in tool "Landscape Area Tool" could not be found ..." Even though it is in my Site Planning Toolkit and also available when I right click and choose "Objects From Polyline". And they both work. Also, I tried drag and dropping (like a Hardscape) but that doesn't seem to work. But the eye-dropper tool did. Any ideas/suggestions? I've already created them all as Hardscapes anyway, which should work fine for my requirements. But since they are Landscape areas, not Hardscapes, a part of me just wants them to be Landscape Area objects. Thanks again.

Can Landscape Areas be saved, similar to Hardscapes. I have developed some standard ones for Mulch, Sod, Seed, Gravel, Bark, etc., with names, and want to be able to save them and then apply like a Hardscape, where the class, layer, name, etc. gets applied with one drag/drop. Is this possible? Thanks.

My guess is that they were using AutoCAD Civil 3D, and the topo lines were Civil "objects", which had to be exploded before they'd come through. I've had that happen several times with surveyors drawings, even when using AutoCAD. You may want to remind them of this if you do more projects with them in the future. Monadnoc

One of the first things I noticed on VW2011 was the selection resistent handles and the even more selection resistent micro-sized rectangle "boxes". Which now also annoying change shape right before you click. It's doubly hard trying to hit a moving target. Please put both back the way they were. Monadnoc

It could be the contour lines were special objects unique to an industry specific version of AutoCAD, like Civil or Land Desktop (old). I would sometimes receive files from surveyors who had used those programs and when I opened them in AutoCAD Architecture the topo lines would be missing. Without Object Enablers specific to the software, even other AutoCAD people can't see them. If this is the case, the surveyor will have to Explode any objects that are unique to Civil or Land Desktop, like topo lines. Then they should import OK (but maybe as a lot of little lines). Or else it is just a turned off class or layer, like bcd suggested. Monadnoc

I don't. But I noticed on the Autoturn website a "Turning Templates" offering which says it works in any CAD program, "Turning Templates operate in any CAD environment ..." So it might not be as good as using the actual program, but it's better than nothing. Monadnoc

Tamsin, Worked like a charm. Thanks. Monadnoc

I have just created a worksheet to calculate areas/cost of hardscapes. I've followed the directions in Tamsin's excellent book, "Residential Garden Design". I've created the initial report by using "Tools" > "Reports" > "Create Reports", then chose List Objects with a Record, and selected "Hardscape" as the object to list. I then added Hardscape Name, Main Area, Border Area, Main Unit Price, and Border Unit Price. I then selected "Summarize items with the same" and chose "Hardscape Name". Everything works as expected - it combines the three hardscape area with the same name as one item with one square footage (summed). Which is what I want. The problem is that it also sums all the Unit Prices, which I definitely don't want. If I have three hardscapes with the same name, with $15.00 as the Unit Price, it lists $45.00 as the Unit Price. Which is totally incorrect. How do you get it to list the correct, single, Unit Price? Thanks. Monadnoc

It is frustrating. VW doesn't seem to have UV Mapping of textures, which is why images applied to polygons don't scale and why tree leaves, etc. don't scale. But, as you pointed out, VW does have the ability to scale image props. So UV Mapping must be in there somewhere, but not fully implemented? Only half implemented? For it to work on everything, you would need an option in the render tab along with Plane, Sphere, Cylinder, Perimeter, that would be UVM. Every other 3D app I've ever worked with, whether free, cheap, expensive or otherwise, have this. It's pretty standard stuff. But I can't find it anywhere in VW. I've posted several times about it but never got a response from anyone. So I'm assuming it just isn't there and there's no way to do it. It really is a hurdle to developing 3D plants for use in VW. Or any other 3d models that use UV mapping of textures. Which is a very common thing to do in the 3D world. The lack of it renders many models available on the web useless, or at least limited. One work around, if you're dealing with .3ds models, is to set a scale when you are importing it, and (if I remember correctly) it will adjust the UV mapped texture during import (so again, it seems to be able to handle UV mapping, but just once, then you can't change it). So if you want several sizes, just re-imort it several times and use different scale settings. I'm not positive this will work, but I seem to recall doing that once with a .3ds gravestone I brought in. I really hope someone from Nemetschek will chime in here, and let us know whether it is possible but just not obvious, or if it isn't possible, tell us when it will be? It's good to see I'm not the only one frustrated by this. At least there's two of us. Thanks. Monadnoc

Exactly. And the Wall tool, etc. Monandoc

VW already has implemented this in the Slab tool, so figuring out to do it isn't the problem. They just need to incorporate it into all the other tools. Try the Slab tool if you aren't understanding how this works. The only thing is it doesn't have the option to not do it, which is a necessity for all the other tools. Monadnoc

I agree. Monadnoc

Checking the "close" checkbox requires you to interrupt your drawing, look across the screen, drag your cursor across the screen, then concentrate on aiming on a tiny checkbox and clicking on that, then going back to your original position to resume drawing. I could draw another polygon in the time it takes to do all that. It's speed as well as accuracy I'm wanting. Monadnoc

Well, I just turned down the two box sizes as far as I could get them (they weren't that far off, one or two units) and it is working much better. I was able to successfully snap to three corners that were in close proximity to each other without a problem. It used to jump all over the place before. It apparently is very sensitive, because I didn't change things that much. Thanks again. Monadnoc

Thank you. I will go fiddle with those and hopefully get it to behave like it used to for me. I have fiddled with those box sizes before, but thinking they were just for display purposes, and not realizing they were also effecting the snap radius. I probably screwed it up myself without knowing it. Thanks again. Monadnoc

Benson, Your comment about "adjust the snap radius" is no doubt why I'm having a problem (for the last year) snapping in VW. That's what I'm looking for - a way to adjust the snap radius. I've done a search in the Help files but there is nothing on it. I also read all the snapping parameters/settings for all the snap tabs and nothing there. Even did a Google search but not much help there either. Would it be tied to the Snap Box Size parameter under the Interactive tab? I would be forever in your debt if you could point me in the right direction so I can get useable snaps in VW again. (I always had a feeling it was more a case of user stupidity then broken snapping). Thanks. Monadnoc

To try and describe the "auto close" functionality a bit further. It isn't for closing existing polygons, but something you activate to fill in the last straight line/segment in any shaped polygon while you're drawing it. It's just the finishing touch. And simply does what you would manually do anyway - which is move your hand over to the first point you drew until you see a little snap hint and click on the first point to close your polygon. It just saves you that last step of hovering over the starting point. Nothing fancy or unexpected. It doesn't change any angles of any other points, doesn't extend anything, doesn't move corners. Basically, it's the same as if you do have an existing open polygon, and check the "close" box in the OIP. It does the exact same thing. Just fills in that last open segment automatically, from point to point. Only it does it while you're still drawing the polygon, instead of having to go check that box after it's done. And it doesn't do it unless you tell it to, either by hitting a key ("C") or double-clicking. If you didn't do either of those it would still work exactly like it currently does. Now I've probably made it clear as mud ... Monadnoc

I agree with bcd that auto close actually increases accuracy. I can understand your hesitancy, since it is an unknown thing for you. And we probably haven't described its function very well. The only reason I am all for it is that I have used it all the time for the last 12 years whenever I'm using AutoCAD. And I've never had it once do something unexpected. Maybe because I only use it for simple shapes and situations, where all I want is the last segment drawn between the last point clicked and the first point clicked. It's a great time saver and it increases accuracy. I would think the sloppy drawings you get are because, for some unknown reason, most of the people who use AutoCAD are very sloppy drafters. I've dealt with thousands of drawings from AutoCAD people, and I'm constantly amazed at how poorly drawn they always are. Gaps between points (probably because they didn't use auto close), bad angles, things almost, but not quite, lining up, objects on the wrong layers, you name it. I think one of the factors is that AutoCAD has the worst snapping I've ever seen. I can't count how many times it told me I was snapped to an endpoint and when I zoomed in it wasn't. I've learned to work way, way zoomed in when snapping in AutoCAD. Although I have to admit, one of the biggest disappointments/frustrations I have with coming back to Vectorworks is it's terrible snapping now. Just like AutoCAD. Must have had an ex-AutoCAD engineer redesign it. But I have a feeling it's just the default setting that is what's wonky. But I can't find how to adjust the sensitivity of snapping in VW. It always snaps to things I don't want it to. Anyone know where to set the distance from points before it will acquire them? (Not Snap to Distance - but the distance from an endpoint before the snap activates/grabs it). Ah, but I digress ... Monadnoc