unearthed

What is the object/space? Who has to read dimensions? e.g. if a landscape a gps file for surveyor/builder to set out from, if it's an engineered part make a grid with x,y coords back to labelled points. As my work is mainly landscape I usually turn non-radius curves into curve/straight-line segments and dimension those, or a show centreline with offsets.

@jeff prince Agree completely, I never get into discussions with clients over what gear I use, it seems completely irrelevant.

Just export as .dwg and you should get a folder of all the objects including images

@P Retondo Many have asked for this very essential tool to be maintained and updated - it also needs topological editing / auto updates on surrounding property lines. Also has a total lack of control over information. IDK about later versions but I can't get a superscript 2 for square metres. I did a 60 lot sub with it once, tottal nightmare really - and really something that we all need to do - vw seem to think we're all doing single gardens that float in space.

IDK but there was a fascinating discussion about a tool to do with this recently -

You might more replies if you change your title to Topography - topology is something else - and put your version number and OS in your profile.

@Tamsin Slatter VW should promote/suggest users needing a GIS to use QGIS; QGIS is a mature platform suitable for professional work. It is open-source, free as in free-lunch, and easier to use than ArcGIS (which almost no-one owns as so, so expensive) and has a user base in the millions, it also integrates with many other platforms - Excel, R, Python....

@taliho there's another discussion running here right now that you may find useful -

Suggests there is stuff in side you don't need. Can you explode it and throw away the rubbish? It's what I usually do. Just make a new class, Ctrl K (windows), ungroup and start tossing out.

@halfcouple My workfow and a couple of things about data and formats foirst VW doesn't clip the viewport, i.e. image files that extend outside the vp are included in the export even tho' they don't show. .pdf's are composite files and VW does unknown things when writing .pdf's which may or may not add size. As VW seems an inefficient CAD (in terms of file size) I would expect .pdf encoding to be likewise. 3D data in the model will add to viewport and hence .pdf size. I too often send an graphic outline / brief along with the quote, altho' as at this point the money isn't in the bank I keep it very simple (bubble diagram etc), which is usually <800Kb Rasterising is counter-intuitive, sometimes adds size, sometimes decreases it. Depends on whether the program sees the data as complex or just complicated, if the former size will likely be smaller, if the latter probably a lot larger. Have you tried other image formats? e.g. ,png for simple graphics - also does vw now do .heic as it is ~50% smaller? Image type should match content type I normally layout pages with all vp's (I normally put images in vp's too). I keep image viewports separate from linework viewports. When it comes to .pdf-ing I export an image from the page of the image content only and re-import that as the image content. This gives me page sizes of around 1Mb

Just a thought, if object was non-coplanar you could get this effect. Also I had a drawing a few years back where I'd imported some linework and vw decided it would put an (onscreen invisible) line thru a polygon that appeared to be flat and the line printed. Took ages to find the object and explode it and remove problem. I know nothing of rendering in vw tho; so YMMV.

All of the above, plus kerning and markdown please. Then it would be almost perfect.

I often do pieces of hatching for similar reasons, but just in a polyline, and with edge switched off. If you use a curve towards the interior of a space/or away from an edge, you get a more natural fade effect. Put them in a new class and you can play with effects/styles.

I was just editing a rectangle last week and hit the wrong key and saw a line show focus around the OIP object move/translate dialog. I didn't think this was accessible via keyboard and once in I could do everything I wanted. BUT how to get into to the OIP without mousing would be great. Is there a way? as keyboards are so much faster than mice.

Thanks Pat.