Jean-Marc

SOrry for the double posting, it just occurred to me that this post would be better suited to the general discussion section than the landmark section. I am running Vectorworks Landmark 10.5.1 on Windows XP Pro on a Dell M70. My printer is an HP Deskjet 1220C, and is connected to the laptop via a USB cable. I've had my laptop for a couple of months and was able to print without any problems up until last week. At one point, I sent several pages for printing and the printer just quit on me midway through the process. Since that time, I have been unable to print any Vectorworks documents... when I try, I get a runtime error, or the application simply shuts down with no error message. I am able to print from other applications without any problem. I have been in touch with HP for a few days now, and they haven't been able to resolve the problem yet, and suggested that this could be an application issue. This is for obvious reasons a very distressing problem and any insight anyone can offer would be most appreciated. Thanks!

Okay, I am humbled... turns out that my class visibility was set to "show others". After all these years, I never realized that class settings had to be set to "show/snap/modify others"; I must have changed the setting by accident. Learn something new everyday.

All classes are set to visible, as are all layers. I can see the objects in the active layer, but I can't select them. AS it turns out, there are a few objects on some of the layers that can be selected. 5 minutes later... Without having done anything to the file, I can now select a much larger number of objects, though I can't select them all. THis is very, very strange... [ 08-14-2003, 10:42 AM: Message edited by: Jean-Marc ]

Thanks nic... no, thats not the problem. Even if I use the "active only" layer option, I can't select the objects that appear in that layer.

I can no longer select any objects in a current v10.2.1 file. It started with one layer, with just a few objects, and over the duration of a 30 minute work session, the problem has now spread to all objects in all layers. Let me guess... a file corruption? Or is my frantic deadline energy overloading the circuits. Usually, from what I can gather, you can salvage corrupted files by copying the document layers to a new file. Unfortunately, I can't do this here. Help would be most appreciated, as I'm just about ready to toss my computer out the window and take on a new career as a short order cook.

Although I do detect a very slight improvement with V10.1.2, I am still finding the going very slow on drawings with more than say 100 plant symbols, or if I have set up some vegetation lines. This is a serious problem, as some of my large scale landscape designs can include hundered or even thousands of plants. My productivity has been greatly diminished since going with v10.1. I guess I have to return to my original question. Is this a hardware problem (Win 98, 640 Meg, Pentium 3, 500mhz), or is it a software issue?

I actually went from 8.5 to 10.1, so it was a rather large leap. However, I only noticed the problem when I began placing plants via the plant catalogue and started creating vegetation lines.

Although I do detect a slight improvement with V10.1.2, I am still finding the going very slow on drawings with more than say 100 plant symbols, or if I have set up some vegetation lines. This is a serious problem, as I work on estate property designs where there can be thousands of plants to specify. I guess I have to return to my original question. Is this a hardware problem (Win 98, 640 Meg, Pentium 3, 500mhz)?

I've just returned to design work with V 10.1 after a prolonged period of field work, and I am once again facing the same frustrations I'd ecperienced previously. Namely, V10.1 turns into a turtle after I insert plant symbols and/or if I add some vegetation lines. For instance, I am currently working on a reasonably simple drawing that has approximately 250 plant symbols. Working with this file is now an aggravating experience; selecting an object takes several seconds for the handles to appear, and a couple more seconds for data to appear in the object info palette. If I make the mistake of running the cursor over the plants, it can take up to 10 to 15 seconds for me to regain control of the cursor (which starts to click and bounce from one symbol to the next). I've tried to turn of the plant classes and layers with plants, but it makes no difference. In a similar vein, I am currently in the process of setting up a new basemap drawing. There are only 15 or 20 objects in the drawing, and all was fine until I inserted a vegetation line to represent the edge of a forest that bounds the site. Now, as a result, the program has slowed dramatically. This has become such a problem that I have had to go back to V8.5 to draw more effectively and quickly. Is this a hardware issue? I am running V10.1 on Windows 98, a Pentium III, 500mhz, 640 mgs ram with an 18 Gig hard drive. Please advise.

I just tried this a couple of times, but it didn't work. Does the fact that I worked on and saved the drawings before using the plugin command compromise my ability to reset the objects? [ 03-11-2003, 06:33 PM: Message edited by: Jean-Marc ]

I just opened a 10.0.1 file in 10.1, and to my dismay, the settings and placement for all my text callouts have changed. As well, drawing labels have all rescaled. What the heck is going on? I'm looking at several hours to reset everything .

Is it possible to increase the number of search criteria in the PRD custom filter? Also, is there a reason why plant sizes are not a valid preset search criteria in the custom filter, and is there a way to add it ?

Am I likely to encounter problems with the plant catalogue if I try to set one up in a converted v. 8.5 file that had some old 8.5 plant symbols in it? I've set up 7 generic species in my catalogue, with 2d plant symbols only. However, none of the symbols are visible in the "edit plant catalogue" dialogue box, and the plant label that shows up in the preview box where the symbol should be doesn't correspond with the plant I've selected, plus, three of my plants disappeared. I've since deleted all the pre-existing plant symbols, but the plant symbols in the catalogue are still not visible, though I am able to place the plants in my drawing.

I just cleaned up the data via excel. The A1 cell had the wrong number, which I corrected, and there were two columns with missing dashes, which I also corrected. I then did one last check to make sure there were no blanks. Unfortunately, the same problem persists, last plant in my list shows up whenever I select any plant that I created with the duplicate button in the Utility. Any other ideas?

Anything new to report yet, Robert?

Is there a character limit to the size of notes that can be added to the Notes Database? I am in process of setting up a note database, and the notes I am adding (using the Add Note to Database command) are being truncated after about 3 lines.

I've followed your directions, got rid of all the duplicates, and re:exported to the PRD. Unfortunately, the problem persists - the last plant on my list shows up when I select some of my new plant entries... I'm certain the problematic plants are those I created with the "duplicate" tab in the Utility; those created with the "new" tab are fine. To answer your question, no, I am not on a Mac, but on a PC. Is the plant list not automatically saved in Mac ASCII format as required, or am I supposed to export my file in a special way?

I have gone through the document and deleted all the duplicates (and incidently, a couple of the duplicates came with the PRD). However, I am still having the same problem; when I select certain plants, I am provided data on the last plant in my list. The problem seems to occur with those plants that were created using the "duplicate" button in the Plant Database Utility. Any other suggestions?

That, Robert, is a good question, to which I can only respond "I didn't know any better". Up until about an hour ago, I was still stuck in the old v. 8.5 method of manually placing plant symbols. For some reason, I just wasn't getting how the place plant tool worked. But this symbol problem forced me to re-read the manual, and after a bit of experimentation, my problem is solves. I am now using the place plant tool and am thrilled with its functionality. Sorry for taking up your time with this one. JM

I haven't yet attempted your diagnosis (though I did confirm I am running 10.1), but since my initial post, I have triggered another runtime error by attempting to edit a plant symbol with the Organize>Edit Group command. I think this was the case for at least 1 of my earlier crashes. Have you run across this before?

Before I send the file, perhaps you can tell me if I the problem is in how I am using the place plant tool. To draw plant massings, I have been placing individual plants and/or copying and pasting individual plants, rather than using the "cluster" plant placement option. Consequently, it would appear that each plant has an invisible tag associated with it. The tag display is off, but when I select a plant, tag handles also show up. Might this have something to do with the problem?

By place/edit/delete, I am just referring to any attempt to place, edit, copy, delete, move, or even just select the symbols. I am not referring to editting the plant catalogue. Say I want to copy and paste a symbol using the Ctl key; for several seconds, the greyed outline of the copied symbol bounces and clicks around other symbols (with smart cursor cues poppiing up) wherever I have dragged my cursor until it finally comes to rest where I want it. (I might be wrong, but I think I might have seen a refernce to this problem elsewhere on the Board as the "rubber band effect"?) [ 02-26-2003, 02:59 PM: Message edited by: Jean-Marc ]

I've just started working with v 10.1. I encountered runtime errors three times in less than an hour until I finally closed a second untitled document; I've had no crashes since then. Was this not a bug that was supposed to be fixed?

Further to a previous posting, I am having a real problem with the placement of plant symbols. After I have placed more than a dozen or so plant symbols, the program starts to slow right down. I am working on a drawing that has only about 150 plants, and to add any more at this time is painfully slow; it takes from 5-10 seconds to place/delete/edit a plant symbol. When I attempt to select a symbol, my cursor clicks around through adjacent symbols until it finally locks onto the desired object. Styles are off, as is the 3d symbol. I'm running v10.1 on a Pentium 3, 500mhz, 640meg RAM.

Robert, I'm not sure what you mean by duplicates in the latin name field. I opened up the plant reference data in excel to see what was up. There are no exact duplicates in the latin name fields. There are, however, many plants that are cultivars of the same species (eg. Pinus strobus, Pinus strobus "nana", Pinus strobus "Pendula"). Please clarify. Thanks.