Travis

I have a tapered wall (under a set of stairs) joined to a full height wall. Both have same wall type, attributes & class settings. In Viewport, I can see both walls in isometric/wireframe, but any type of rendering makes the tapered wall (only) disappear. Ideas what I should check?

Louise, We have an Epson 7600 that we use for all our larger plots (also doubles as an excellent photo printer for exhibit-size output). It requires no server, per se. We have it connected to one of the older, lesser-used Mac G4s running OSX. We have an even older Mac running a legacy database server (that we run our business on) under OS9.2.2. We've never needed to print from the 9.2.2 machine, but if you've not yet resolved your issue?and if you'd consider the Epson option?I'd be happy to download the OS9 driver from Epson and test that setup. It seems I know of a similar situation (one of my photog buddies, or somewhere) that's working well. Good luck,

1) If all visible layers are set at the same scale and layers options are set to Show/Snap/Modify, you can select anything you can see. 2) Selected items can be assigned a class together via the OIP. 3) I don't know a way to specify certain types of object and/or their attributes. There are those among this community who are exceptionally good at scripting, you might try searching/posting the VectorScript board. Good luck,

Peter, Thanks so much. I had carefully checked everything I could think of, including your #2 & #3, but I never use the constraints pallet . . . the snap to object was "unchecked". I've been trying to learn more keyboard shortcuts (to improve my speed) and have sometimes finger-fumbled the wrong keys. I suspect there's a keyboard shortcut to toggle that constraint that I triggered inadvertantly.

OK, maybe it's not a "sound" problem (isn't evidence of a problem also evidence of unsoundness?!). What seems to be missing are some of the smart cursor cues. I'll describe: In the offending file, I go to a blank design layer & draw a rectangle. The only cursor cues I get are the corners (no center cues). If I draw an intersecting line, I'll get the object/object cue, but no angle (30/45/60) or other anticipated cues. All cues work properly in other files, even when opened concurrent w/the problem file. Perhaps I'm just out in the twilight zone by myself on this one.

Yes, I am using the sound for snapping purposes and I do understand the view/layer scale requirements. The point I'm trying to make is that the behavior, in this file only, is different from two days ago than today. I guess I'm hoping there's a file, not a global/VW, toggle that I've inadvertantly changed. I just can't seem to conjur it up! Thanks, as always, for your help Katie. Best regards.

Katie, Yep, sound is turned on . . . works fine if I open another file, just not in this one. To further refine the issue, I just discovered the sound works fine in Top/Plan but not in any of the isometric views. (I've been working on roof/fascia/soffit details for several hours without needing to switch to plan view much). Again, I can open another file simultaneously, go to Front view and get the sound cues. Just not in the current file, and just the last day or so. ??????

I seem to have lost the sound cues in one file. Yesterday I closed the file and reopened it and the sound came back, but today it doesn't seem to matter. (I didn't realize how much I relied on those cues to speed things along.) Other files work fine, but I went ahead and trashed the VW preferences and ran Disk Utility (both verify and repair). Any ideas?

Mike, Thanks so much for this detailed explanation. I was only vaguely aware of the effects of Options B & C. As much as I've used VW over the last ten years, it's always good to learn a little more.

If you're just trying to add a few additional graphics why not create them in VW (using the imported, albeit low quality, image as guide), then delete the imported image and export the graphic? Add it to the .pdf file in Acrobat. Print from Acrobat instead of VW.

Is there a straightforward way to center an item on the page (as currently selected in Page Setup)? I'm thinking specifically of when I place our titleblock symbol. . .it needs to be centered.

Is there a way to revise the Issue Manager field defaults? Our titleblock is a symbol and when placed on new sheets, it'd be convenient to have the defaults specific to the project. Also, is there a way to reorder the sheets in the Issue Manager? It would be more intuitive, when changes are necessary, to have the sheets in the same order as the Sheets menu, for example. How is the order derived in the first place? (Just curious) It seems that new sheets show up in random places in the order. Is there a trick to having the newly inserted sheet show up first (top/head of the order) when the Issue Manager is next opened? Also, I find (in the current project) two references in the Issue Manager to Sheets that have been deleted from the file. Is there a way to delete the reference as well? [ 01-24-2005, 11:22 AM: Message edited by: Travis ]

I echo Jonathan's sentiments about "automatic", but I see that the Setup Commands are significantly more elegant than when we first set up our project templates, probably under 8.5? Markus, you might work your way through the Setup Commands, entering the asked-for info and generate a package of sheet, layers and classes. Then edit that package to suit your needs and save as a template. Later, as you better understand the program, you'll likely alter the template and eventually have several that reflect your style of work. As we like to say on the construction site, especially when there's a big day of some sort of heavy lifting . . . "if it were easy, they'd have the daycare kids out here doing it." (Or variations thereof . . . ;~) Good luck,

To my knowledge, Markus, there's no way to "tell" VW to wrap text in the title blocks (and some other remote-entered types of text blocks). I work around this by copying a carriage return from a text block and then pasting the CR in the entry field of the Issue Manager (or dimension text, or ID Tag, etc) to force the text into two lines. Obviously you have to pick the point in your title where you want the CR. This isn't terribly intuitive in these days of auto-wrap--kind of like going back to a manual typewriter, but at least it shows up as two (or more) lines. [ 01-20-2005, 04:38 PM: Message edited by: Travis ]

Peter, Cool trick. I knew there had to be some good use for offsetting duplications!! Thanks,

Another option occurs to me: Set a locus on your reference point, select it and your properly located circle, group them. Now you can duplicate, or copy/paste, as often as you need and simply snap the locus onto the remaining reference points--the circle will remain at the consistent offset from the locus. (I feel a little like the journeyman making suggestions to the master--read your other post re your longtime CAD experience. Perhaps if I also knew ACAD, I'd not only better understand your question, I'd know an approx equiv here in VW.)

Dave, I'm a little unclear as to the relationship between points A, B, & C. Two shots in the dark may be helpful, or not: 1) Can you use Duplicate Array to accomplish what you need? 2) If you want Circle1 to be the same distance from more than one point, you could: Place C1 on the first point, invoke Move (keyboard equiv: Command+M), enter Cartesian or Polar coordinates, click OK. Then duplicate C1, locate it on second point, invoke Move, previous coordinates are recalled by default. Might have better suggestions if I understood your desire more clearly. Good luck,

Robert, That's only mostly true (a little like being mostly dead, I suppose): You can only snap to points in the Viewport that have their class turned on BOTH in the viewport settings AND in the Classes menu option. It's possible to see the objects in the Viewport (the viewport class is turned on) but not have them "snappable" (they're turned off in Organize - Classes). If Jonel has his sheet layers set up as saved views, and the necessary classes aren't all turned on, he'll get really frustrated because he can't snap to the points that he can see. (Should someone submit this as a bug?) [ 01-18-2005, 06:46 PM: Message edited by: Travis ]

I knew it would be simple. . .never connected that checkbox with a function before. Thanks so much.

Jonel, I'd suggest skipping steps 3 and 4. Set up your viewport on your elevation sheet and do all annotations there. You're just doing extra work and creating a somewhat larger file than necessary. Good luck.

Can't seem to get the stair text (#risers, riser height) to read correctly. When I get the stair flipped and rotated around to the right orientation, the text reads backwards along the arrow line. I suspect there's a fairly simple answer (please tell me it's NOT to turn off the arrow) but someone who uses this tool more often than I do will have to clue me in. Help. [ 01-18-2005, 04:58 PM: Message edited by: Travis ]

Eddie, Do you have the correct classes turned on? In both places? Interestingly, if you have the class turned on in the viewport you'll be able to see the object; but UNLESS the class is also turned on under the Classes menu, you won't be able to snap to the object. Hope that helps,

Eddie, I'll take a shot in the dark at your problem. Sometimes when I go to dimension an element in VP Annotation, I can't snap to the point I need to. If I close the Annotation and then reopen it, everything snaps as expected. I can't seem to get it to repeat regularly, so I haven't submitted it as a bug. . .yet. This assumes, of course, that you've got the correct layers and classes turned on in the VP. (But if you didn't, you probably wouldn't be able to see them to know you weren't able to snap correctly.) Perhaps this'll help. [ 01-15-2005, 02:33 PM: Message edited by: Travis ]

If the document was created on another workstation, the defaults are probably still set to the previous (now non-accessible) font(s). . .so VW is still "guessing". With the 2D pointer arrow active and NOthing selected, use the menus to set a default font/size/style. Now select the Alpha tool (or dimension, etc.) and verify that the font you just set as document default has "stuck" with the tools that actually use fonts. The font you've selected should have a small checkmark next to it in the pull-down menu. Hope that helps, [ 01-14-2005, 02:13 PM: Message edited by: Travis ]

Ditto.