Travis

February 11, 2005

Not if VW is running under OSX. I take it from your comment that you're running OSX. What version of OS and which version of VW are you using?

It might pay you to read up a little on how OSX handles printing and printer creation and selection. Basically, every print driver you have loaded shows up under the pull-down menus in the print dialog box--the box you get whenever you select Print. If you don't see your printer in the Printer pull-down, the driver isn't correctly loaded.

Keep diggin, you'll get there.

February 10, 2005

Buz,

Is the door actually "in" the wall. When placed in a wall, the OIP will show "Door in Wall" otherwise it just shows "Door". Obviously, the "use wall depth" will be unuseable until the door is actually in the wall.

Good luck,

February 10, 2005

What OS are you using? Sounds like 9.x. Are you sure you downloaded the correct print driver?

If you're able to select the printer for use by one application (Illustrator), it's got to be equally available for other applications. This isn't an application problem, the issue still lies at the OS/print driver level.

Good luck,

[ 02-09-2005, 11:38 PM: Message edited by: Travis ]

February 10, 2005

The 2D Reshape tool is intended to change a single 2D shape (rectangle, polyline, etc.) by grabbing one of the control points and moving only that point. All of the items you mention are basically groups of shapes--the tool can't "reach" the individual points inside the group. (Try drawing two rectangles. You can select and modify either rectangle, but if you group them together the 2D Reshape won't do anything.)

If you want to move items around, you'll need to use the 2D Selection tool rather than the Reshape tool.

Good luck,

February 10, 2005

You can customize a drawing border and then use Issue Manager to help automate the text blocks specific to each sheet. Please review the manuals, but the most straightforward method I know is to place one of the Drawing Border tool's options on a blank sheet and then modify it to suit your needs. DON"T modify the titles that will be later filled in by Issue Manager.

Once you have a suitable border defined, save it as an object. You can then import it from one drawing to the next. Or, better yet, get all your standard classes, layers, hatches, objects, etc. set up on a blank document and save it as a Template. Then, to start a new project, you simply open a blank template that's already to go.

To the issue of this specific thread, you'll find the text blocks you need to create that hold common information (logo, company name, etc.) will be manipulated into multiple lines as expected. It's when the time comes to issue multi-line titles via Issue Manager (ie, an individual sheet title) that you'll need to use the CR trick I outlined before.

Good luck,

February 9, 2005

Ed,

I hadn't noticed the "pre-change" in the OIP before, but I'm getting the same behavior. Try changing the font in the OIP and hitting Save. Seems to "stick" better.

Looks to me like we ought to get this submitted as a bug.

February 9, 2005

Lawrence,

We have excellent success with our Epson printers and generally use Photoshop/InDesign/Illustrator and VW on a daily basis. Their drivers are not Postscript-based, unless you buy their Postscript-RIP which only runs on a PC and supports a limited scope of their printers. Postscript happens to be a fairly efficient computer-to-printer language for vector-based data, but it's not the only way to convert what you see on the screen to tiny dots of ink. Photoshop only recently began to use vectors at all, and therefore benefits from Postcript relatively little.

The real question is whether you can get a good driver for the operating system/printer combo. We don't use the CX6600, but if Epson supports whichever OS(X?) you're running, you'll be able to print. If you're running OSX, you might also check out GIMPrint.

February 9, 2005

Are you using Issue Manager?

February 9, 2005

Mike,

What if one were to type the required lettering out horizontally and then draw line segments to the center of each letter. These segments might then become the basis to create the radian guidelines per your suggestion. (Regretfully for this purpose, VW's text tool is pretty limited, but maybe a word processor could be helpful to adjust spacing and kerning.)

BTW, this obviously has become a mental exercise for the two of us. It's late, I'm off. Have a great day!

February 8, 2005

Mike,

There are a couple drawbacks to your method: accounting for letter-spacing and kerning. To look "good" to the eye, different letters require more or less space between them and their neighbors. This is separate from the width-of-letter issue (a "w" is wider than an "i"). I suppose a lot depends on the font used and even more on the level of presentation required by the client.

This is why we use Illustrator or Freehand. They're both very, very good at letter manipulation. You might consider using a graphic designer to take care of this part (an hour would likely be plenty of time) and then import his design and work over it.

[ 02-08-2005, 06:31 PM: Message edited by: Travis ]

February 8, 2005

Ed,

I've been so confident about font issues, I've even posted advice here. BUT, not today. Even I've had troubles getting the font I want to remain the "default" font.

Supposedly, (and even most of the time for me) the default process works like this: with the arrow selection tool active and NO objects selected (OIP is blank), pull down the Font menu and select your preferred font. A small checkmark will appear next to it. Do the same for alignment, style, etc. Then double-check this change to the default settings by selecting the dimension or text tool. Pulling down the font-related menus should reveal the checkmark.

Trouble is, sometimes the previous default somehow overrides my settings *and* I can't get it to repeat predictably! After a few times of resetting the dimensions or the text I've typed, the new default finally "sticks" and everythings fine for the rest of the session.

Go figure and good luck,

February 8, 2005

I don't know how to do the letter alignment/spacing efficiently directly in VW. We've often designed signage however, and have generally done the letter spacing/proportion work in Illustrator and then imported it into VW. (Illustrator will export .dwg or .dxf files that preserve their vector capabilities upon import.)

Good luck,

February 7, 2005

Create a blank text block (using the Text tool, draw a rectangle), hit your Return key . . .you'll notice the cursor jumps down one line. Edit-Select All (or command-A, from your keyboard) will highlight everything in the text block, which is only the CR. Edit-Copy (or command-C). Now you have stored a CR that can be Pasted wherever you like.

Good luck,

February 4, 2005

Brendan,

Try grouping the specific objects you're working on, say one detail. Then "enter" the group through the Edit Group command. You'll only have the items you grouped on screen, and thus much less overhead for your video card to keep redrawing.

When you're done editing, Exit Group and go on to the next one.

Good luck,

February 4, 2005

On your roof elements point, would there be a way to have the Chain Extrude tool recognize the edge of a roof? Then we could design the profile (stepped fascia, gutters, corbels, whatever) and have them extruded around/along whatever edges of the roof were designated.

February 4, 2005

Leonard,

The only way I know to have text wrap in Title Block text blocks is to copy a carriage return (CR) and then paste it where you want the lines to return.

I've posted this solution before and no one has suggested any other alternative. Thankfully, I don't have to deal with multiple line title blocks (Sheet titles, mostly) very often.

Good luck,

February 3, 2005

Mary,

If you'll think carefully about where you actually want the drip-line of the roof, you may find the walls change direction (recess for an entry, say) and jog in and out but the drip-line doesn't necessarily follow every turn and jog. You might go look at some actual roofs. (No disrespect intended.)

25 yrs ago, I got my start in construction framing large, cut-up, complex roofs. If you think drawing them is a challenge. . .

That all said, you need to simplify the geometry that VW is using to create the roof. You might draw a somewhat simpler polygon than the outline of the walls and use that as a base to create the roof from. You may then need to add dormers and other details to make sure the water gets to the edge.

I find the roof resources in VW to be amazingly useable, tho I know some others have a different reaction. I've not yet visualized a roof I couldn't create in VW, so keep working at it.

In addition to Peter's excellent primer above, there are some good training resources on this subject available. Check out http://www.archoncad.co.nz/, even if all you do is download the architect sample.

Good luck,

[ 02-03-2005, 11:56 AM: Message edited by: Travis ]

February 3, 2005

If you're looking for the letter omega, commonly used to denote diameter, it's found on your Mac by holding down the option key and typing the letter "o". For larger version, also hold down the shift key. This assumes the font you're using includes that symbol (most do).

Under OS9 (and earlier) there was an Apple menu item called Keycaps that would show the layout of the keyboard and when you pressed one (or more) of the modifier keys, the layout would change accordingly. I'm unaware of something similar for OS10. Anyone else?

[ 02-02-2005, 12:27 PM: Message edited by: Travis ]

February 3, 2005

Please have the joist-hanger options also available for I-joists, like solid wood joists.

February 2, 2005

In this case it was any of the rendering options. . .tho I tend to use OpenGL less because of the issues you raise.

I couldn't get the wall in question to render in Hidden Line, Shaded, etc. . .it would appear just fine in wireframe only.

?????

Thanks again for your help; on so many issues here on these boards.

February 1, 2005

Mike,

I hadn't tried converting it, but I have used all the workarounds in other situations. Thanks for the suggestion.

The odd thing is, just before reading your post, I was fooling around with the same drwg. Unwittingly, I "unjoined" the two walls. When I rendered the Viewport, I noticed they weren't properly joined and then realized I could see both walls! I went back to the design layer and joined them--everything renders as expected now! Go figure.

(I've got to get an update to my gremlin feeding protocol, they're getting restless again!)

[ 02-01-2005, 10:41 AM: Message edited by: Travis ]

February 1, 2005

I'd echo this request.

January 31, 2005

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