Jump to content

Travis

Member
  • Posts

    808
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Travis

  1. Not only insights into VWA, but also client-handling techniques--how increasingly valuable is this board! (Chris, I'm still smiling some ten minutes later) Robert, I'll try your approach. If it works to keep the "lower" roof in one piece, that will solve the insert-dormer problem. I've only ever created holes in roof faces, never yet in a roof object. Thanks, both.
  2. Robert, I'm having the same slope issue as Kristen. I can enter 6:12 but the roof is actually created at the angle in degrees that the dialog had defaulted to upon opening (generally 30? in a new document). It's not until I (we, apparently) enter the slope ratio during editing that it's actually accepted.
  3. I'm currently working on a roof with dormers. When I select the roof object I see Dormer Wall and Roof Thickness boxes appear in the Roof OIP. I change the Dormer Roof Thickness to match the main Roof, and all looks well. Hope this helps.
  4. Mark, I too have recently added an assistant drafter and another designer on staff. I "hear" your strugglings, as it were. You might read Chris' response to my earlier post (different subject, same general objectives) @ VWA BB. The key for me has been determining exactly what I want as output, and then working backwards. I understand that part of what you're asking has to do with productivity, but productivity has to ultimately produce finished work. I find that we're all very creative in finding ways to produce the desired results once it's clear what's desired. It's required a measure of discipline, including some written protocols, that I didn't need when working on my own; but the results have been gratifying. Sorry for not adding much meat to the discussion. Best success.
  5. This would be very helpful to me as well. It seems likely that roof elements have volume data associated. If the volume was known, it could be divided by the thickness to produce area. Charles, yet one more solution lurking?
  6. I need to be able to create a compound pitched-roof, such as a gambrel (the one I'm working on is the obverse: it's steeper coming off the ridgeline and flares the last 16' or so). I know I can do it with roof faces, but the edges don't seem to bisect well. Also, I can't add dormers to roof faces. . .and the dormers cross the line where the pitch changes. Right now my "workaround" is to create the shallower-pitched roof, add dormers, then break apart and reduce the size of the roof faces. Then I can add the steeper, central roof faces, touch-up the dormer intersections and extrude "boards" for the fascia to hide the non-bisecting edges of the roof faces. Heaven forbid that the client should ask for a third dormer! Any simpler ideas?
  7. Thanks, Kristen, I'll do that. That should also solve the texture scaling issues, that I hadn't even mentioned yet.
  8. We frequently use wood-grained textures. Is there a way to have the textures render with correct orientation--meaning the woodgrain runs the long direction for frame/stile/sash/jamb, etc? All I seem to be able to get is the grain running one direction: "horizontally" OR "vertically", but not both as req'd to reflect reality. Any help would be appreciated.
  9. I generally handle this issue by showing the plan layer (sometimes "greyed out") beneath the section layer. Then I can actually snap to plan points. I've often temporarily enlarged the plan scale to the detail scale to make everything work a little faster. Just make sure you set the plan layer back to it's proper scale before printing. Regards, Travis [ 02-20-2004, 11:25 AM: Message edited by: Travis Tolman ]
  10. I echo both 1 and 2 above. Excellent points. However, Anthony, I think you'll find the Wall Type dialog is linked to Classes already created: but only to Classes that begin with Walls-whatever. [ 02-19-2004, 12:56 PM: Message edited by: Travis Tolman ]
  11. I'm a little unsure where best to post this, so here goes: It would be very helpful to be able apply a hatch to an elevation of a 3D item: say a brick or siding hatch to a house elevation so that it can be output with dim's, as a part of the build docs. I know I can convert the elevation to polygons and then apply hatches. But is there not a way to use a hatch pattern as a texture, so I don't have to convert to 2D objects? I can think of two possibilities: 1) Allowing a hybrid object to have a 2D element in two planes. Both 2D elements could then accept a hatch or other fill and be visible depending on the view. A programming impossibility? 2) A more likely solution possibly already exists: Import a VW hatch as a texture. Can anyone steer me in a good direction?
  12. -Charles I implemented the column VS you sent and discovered that it calculates a column's length with a formula based on volume. Since I don't understand VS terribly well yet, I'm curious why? Is there not a way to simply reference the column's length directly? (I see the term "height" seems to have different meanings, so I'm calling the long dimension in a column the "length".) Also, you mentioned that Joists can be hatched if 2D is set to Width or Width w/Centerline. I don't seem to have success getting a hatch to show. It's not terribly critical to have hatches just now, but if there's something I'm doing incorrectly, it'd be nice to know. Would you please double-check the functionality and comment?
  13. The only "translate" tool I can think of is Translate View, which is on the 3D pallette. Can you describe the function?
  14. VW 10 changed many of the default keyboard-command equivalents. Are you by chance trying to initiate Clip Surface from the keyboard using an "old" (but familiar) key combination? If so, you need to modify the workspace. . .with which I assume you're familiar. [ 02-16-2004, 05:02 PM: Message edited by: Travis Tolman ]
  15. Thanks, both, for your help. Will implement the script and hope to learn how as well. To all at NNA, thanks for your excellent product and this wonderful board. I'd be even more lost without them both.
  16. We waited until December to upgrade to 10.5.1 (VWA) It is considerably more stable (we used to track 9.5.x crashes by the hour, not the day!) and seems slightly more robust for our work-flow. One caveat: bringing 9.x.x files into 10.5.1 is yielding some odd printer behavior under OSX.3 There are a couple of posts on the Printer board, including mine, that you might like to pay attention to. Old files brought forward printed falsified, ie dimensions didn't scale accurately, while new files created in 10.5.1 printed true. VWA or OSX.3? Who knows? Other people have had postscript problems. We simply go back to 9.5 to print old files, problem solved. Good luck.
  17. Thanks, Chris, for your encouragement at least. I give VWA a significant portion of the credit for our business growth over the last 7 years because we can virtual-build a structure for the client. As I'm sure you know, most people can't visualize mass and scale, let alone 3D. But they're not likely to give us the go-ahead for a gazebo costing more than a new Mercedes without a pretty clear idea of the ultimate outcome. We find ourselves constantly pushing the limits of VWA's built-in capabilities. I guess one of us, at least, is going to simply have to dive in and learn the customizing processes. If anyone happens to have already written a custom object(s) for timberframe components, I'd be happy to buy them. Thanks again.
  18. We design & build timber-frame structures. I'm trying to streamline things by having VWA generate material lists. I need to be able to track the lenght/width/thickness of individual timbers to a worksheet and ultimately calculate boardfeet as well. I find the column object to be very useful for the vertical elements and like the way it "handles" in both 2D and 3D. If I create a column by drawing a rectangle and then selecting AEC-Column, it doesn't seem possible to have the objects' dimensions translated through to a worksheet. I know I can set up a new type of record and enter the data on each object, but that's pretty tedious. Is there a way to have the record "capture" the necessary info from the object? In addition, I don't find the Board object to be nearly as useful *graphically* (in 2D or 3D) as the column. It does seem to track the dimensional information, but one obviously needs both parts: the graphic and the data. Since a column can't be rotated. . . Hopefully my explanation is reasonably clear. Does anyone see a more elegant solution than using columns and then entering the dimensional data manually for each object? I've played around with the Rafter and Joist objects. They're much closer to what I need, but don't work in wireframe, plan view, with a hatch like I'd wish; they also can't "do" vertical. Perhaps I wish for too much! Thanks, Travis [ 02-05-2004, 01:20 AM: Message edited by: Travis Tolman ]
  19. I've used command-. (period) for years to escape rendering--but it doesn't seem to work anymore in 10.5.1 I'll try the escape key. I too find myself needing to "bail out" on a render command once I discover it's taking too long.
  20. To add clarity to the confusion: I opened a new blank template, drew a box, added dimensions and printed directly from VWA. Scale is true. Two files that we're just finishing for clients (one is 17.2mb, the other 4mb--if that matters) were begun on VWA 9.5.1 and then updated. Both files print falsified, but ONLY to the 2200. Go figure. We'll use the PDF work-around for the remainder of these two projects, and trust that new work in process won't suffer. Seems all is good. Thanks Katie, and Richard, for your help. Travis
  21. Richard, Yes, all Page Setup scales are set to 100%. Katie, Followed your guideline and discovered a Page Scaling pull-down in Acrobat's print dialog box that defaults to Fit-to-Page. Changed that to None (no scaling) and it prints true-to-scale. Even if using the 2200 as the designated printer when saving as PDF. Still, however, falsifies when printing directly from VWA. Perhaps I'll try rebuilding the printer.Would rather not have to work-around, but at least the scale is true! Thanks, Travis [ 01-21-2004, 10:52 AM: Message edited by: Travis ]
  22. Katie, Created PDf file from the Print dialog box (Save as PDF...) then printed from Acrobat 6.0 Is there another way? Still falsified, but the other way: finished document is slightly smaller than scale, rather than larger. Sending "pieces" of the page to our HP Laserprinter (Postscript) yields correctly scaled output. Still looking for ideas.
  23. I'm running VWA 10.5.1 on a 1.8G5 with OSX.3.2 When I print to our brand-new Epson 2200, I don't get 100%-sized image. Resulting prints couldn't be scaled accurately (1/4" page scale prints at about 7/32") Every dialog box is set to 100%. BTW, when printing to Epson's 1280 under OS9.2, everything scaled exactly. Same version of VWA. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
  24. I would second the vote for having the Yes button highlighted. Or, at least have the dialog respond to a typed "y" so I don't have to mouse my response.
  25. Garry, Actually glad you started this thread--I've learned a trick or two from the other suggestions. The limit I see with everyone's notes so far has to do with how precise the valley rafter needs to be. (Will it be copied and placed in another sheet with dim's for shop fabrication, for example?) The way I've found to be that accurate (seat cut depth & location, tail & backcut angles, etc.) is to create the roof using the VW Create Roof from Walls (or Polygon). This gives the option to control eve, vert cuts, etc. Then I rotate the drawing so the valley/hip is parallel to either the X- or Y-axis and change to an elevation view. (I find this simpler than changing the working plane.) Now I can see the top of the wall corner, the ridge location, etc. Using the polygon tool, I click the points to create a 2-D version of the rafter. Then extrude and verify location from Plan View. You can always go in and copy the 2-D polygon, paste to another sheet for detail dimensions. By the way, I use the same approach for purlins and jacks?tho purlins can generate the occasional brain cramp with their compound bevel and miter!! We're a small design/build firm that does a fair amount of unusual timber framing (6 & 8-sided gazebos, pavilions, front entries, etc.) and with this method we have just a little bit of fine tuning during field assembly with a chisel or sanding block. Good luck! Travis
×
×
  • Create New...