[V12 C&V Zoom Tools]

Check the "Mouse Wheel Zooms" setting

in the Vectorworks preferences

[polylines vs polygons]

Do you have "snap to grid" on?

this will make the snap point on a grid

by turning it off along with the others

you would only snap to objects.

[viewport]

you can create an object such as rectangle/polygon in the design layer covering the area that you want on the sheet

leave the object selected and create a viewport

it will ask if you want to use the object

if there is no sheet created already you can create a sheet

in the dialog scroll up to see New sheet.

close dialog and the cropped VP shows up on the sheet

[scale]

Under document preferences - Dimensions

change Dimension standard to ASME to get dual dimension

the set the primary and secondary Dimension Objects under the Units dialog

Primary is set via General Display

you can have acombinatin that could be

feet and inches

metric and imperial

or make your own custom dimensions with whatever.

[scale]

in windows version (12.0.1)

Ctl-Alt-U bring up the Units dialog box

change the units to meters (.001 for decimal)or mm (no decimals) depending on the units on the drawing

then enter the numbers

[Changing walls with patterns]

because the attributes of the wall

when first drawn was not set to the

attributes showing set to class

it was set to something like solid/pattern/hatch

sometimes one does not want all the walls on a layer/class

to have the class attributes which is why it will not change.

you can change any wall using the eyedropper tool

[No objects can be selected in any layer]

what settings are the classes and layers?

if both are set to

show/snap/modify others and

turn all classes and layers on

and you can still not pick anything then

you should submit the file as a bug

[VW12 architect soooooooooooo Slooooooow]

we are running a 3 station network

with the slowest PC running 3.0Ghz, winxp sp2 with 1 gb RAM

and there is not slow down as you mention

we have been using it for 6 months

you may need to check out the Vectorworks preferences on the slow computers.

things like vectorcaching and 2d accelaration

there was no mention of the specs of the slow computers

and settings of VW and WinXP virtual memory settings

[Tapered Batt Insulation]

create the batt insulation with the smallest height

convert to group (ctrl-K on win version)

edit the group

delete the rectangle

use 2D reshape tool to stretch the tops of the polyline to the slope you want

save as a symbol for different soffits and slopes

[Anyone know how to create non-printable items?]

Are you trying to create this grid on a sheet layer or on a design layer?

for setting them up first on a design layer

you can create the grid on a layer i.e gridlines

you then create a class called non-plot

you turn off the non plot class when setting up viewports on a sheet layer

but the easiest way to line up Viewports on a sheet

is to use the full cursor (the colour changes when nudged in place)

[Perfect PC]

Look at a 2 screen setup

2 x 17" LCD is about 30" diagonal -

we have the low end LCD's and they work fine

with a 300 gig drive not really a need for dual DVD drives

as you can image the content on the hard drive

Dual Core Intel processor or AMD dual core at 3.0 ghz is the best dollar (or pound) value

if you are running a network, use the other drives as your backup there are Sync programs that only backup the files that have been modified

http://www.2brightsparks.com

[Best graphics card for VW12?]

this was discussed in another forum where renderings were the issue.

it was concluded that more RAM rather than a video card

upgrade is what was best suited for VW12 -

that said the video card should also have something like 512mb to start with.

if you want the best dollar value get a card that has dual DVI outputs and run 2 17" LCD monitors

[setting preferences]

when VW opens

the drawing that is uses is called default.sta (windows version)

if you want the preferences of that initial drawing to be as you like it

you first make changes to the drawing called

untitled1

then save as template

and replace default.sta

in the Template folder

[Need help recovering a damaged file ...]

Did you have your backup file turned on with create in a folder

if you did then there is a subfolder that contains the file

open that file

and make sure you save to the folder you are working with

because it will create another backup folder etc...

do not use open recent file when you are doing this kind of clean up as the file names are the same

[dimension tool]

you need to create a new custon dimension set

you select Custom

New and name it

then edit

a dialog box open and shows all the diferent setting

you may have to change to the numbers more than once to get

the result you are looking for.

then open a Default drawing

change to the new dimension set

and save as template

[Version 13 I dont think so ?]

If they take a cue for Corel

their latest products are called X3

[dimension tool]

to have a default text

you need to have no object selected

and the active icon needs to be "2D selection tool"

then go to Text

Font select the font

Size select the size

this should then be default when using dimensions

[Leader Lines]

you can manipulate the leader line to just about anywhere.

either by numbers/direction on the OI Palette

or draggin the control points in edit mode.

In vw12 you can have an arc or bezier instead of lines;

but not totally recommended yet since there is a bug when you use Sheets and VP's

the text of the call out does not scale correctly if you have different scales from VP and design layer

OK if they are both the same.

[cannot export to AutoCad 14]

at 62 mb you probabably have lots of sheets

our biggest drawings are never more than 6 mg

Try exporting each sheet (saved as view) as a seperate file.

set invisible classes not exported

so that only information for that sheet is exported

and do not expect fonts to export -

version 11 does support font exporting but for acad 2004 only from our limited testing

[File left open and serial no.]

running 4 serial numbers of VWA 11.0

2 on XPPro and 2 on win98se

all the mcd files are stored on 1 hard drive which is shared as 1_Shared CAD files

the shared folder is then mapped as a drive on each box

1. do I need to enter all 4 serial numbers on each box? and

2. We have 1 file that gives error

-49 ......-FSOPEN when trying to open with only 1 license open at a time.

to recover I copied the file to a new folder

and it opened

tried to "save as" using same name - and got the FSOPEN error

"saved as" with a new name and it worked.

I can we avoid the FSOPEN problem???

[Problems printing at 200% from windows]

Instead of using the printer scaling factor if you use the "Scale Object" under "Tools" and

turn on the "scale text" it may work better.

or

if on the sheet there is only has one scale

change the scale for all layers again with "scale text" turned on.

then close then drawings without saving or use "revert to saved" if you to do more work on the same file.

[Mac & Windows?]

all you need is a good email package at each end

we use netscape on win

and eudora pro on mac

mac has to save files with mcd extension for win to open or it has to be rename before it will open

a 56K modem is all you need

winzip works fine for zipping

when saving attachment in netscape use control C to copy the file name and control v to paste in the second dialog box

quote:

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Originally posted by abrodin@alaska.net:

What software, hardware, etc do I need to be able to effectively work across platforms between designer (Mac) and drafter (windows) and offices in different towns. Email drawings? ZIP drives? CD writer? What works and what doesn't?

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