Jump to content

FRED JOHNSON

Member
  • Posts

    268
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by FRED JOHNSON

  1. I'm thinking that I have one more computer / cad upgrade left in this life (age & stuff) and the only reason to upgrade at all is that although everything works fine now, for what I do (no rendering) its all old stuff (computer, plotter, printer, plot driver)and if any one element goes I would have no choice but to start from scratch. 12.5 seems like such a great upgrade it may be time to bite the bullet sooner than later.
  2. Actually, speed is relative..I'm using Architect 1.0 on a 450 mhz G4 tower with 512 ram and, for what I do, speed, in terms of response to command input, never has been as issue; started with G3. I'm getting older and spend more time as a spec writer than designer. I'm not sure what is meant by "speed", can someone shed some light on what "speed" means to them. I did notice the G4 was faster than the G3, but the time it took to produce a given set of documents did not seem to decrease with the benifit of the faster machine..I also price my services by the hour.
  3. Christiaan, Thanks for the info..guess a new intel Imac will be the way to go, I was probally just fooling myself. QSs?? not sure I know the term.
  4. I'm posting this here as I intend to upgrade my architect package from 1.0 to 12.5 (I know, I know). I have a chance of getting an Emac for a give away price and wondering if anyone was using this machine. It will run VW only and I will also have to update plotter driver. Specs: 1Gz G4 (133MHZ) 1 GB SDRAM Superdrive 17" display ATI Raeon 7500, AGP 4 x support, 32 MB DDR SDRAM
  5. I believe Petri is correct, the ceiling grid is a Hatch. I guess by combining it with the retangle, converting to poly and then to floor object it became my "floor object", and when copied to another layer, my "ceiling object". It would seem that any hatch used this way would correctly represent itself in isometric and perspective views although I don't understand how this should work. Perhaps a 3D ceiling grid object with options might be a good idea, or at least a 2D plug-in.
  6. Katie, Says "Floor". I used the same object, on another layer with wall delta z-height as "z" for the ceiling and inserted light fixtures. Good enough effect for my purposes.
  7. OK, this is what worked: 1. created a layer called floor, made 24' x 24 rectangle, hatched it using the architect 24 x 24 ceiling grid & bucket. 2. grouped the hatched rectangle and used "convert line to poly " command. 3. used the "floor" command to convert the poly object to a floor object with a thickness of 1". 4. made a new layer called walls with a delta z height of 8', drew 3 enclosing ealls over the floor object. 5. Created a layer called model and layer link to floor & wall layers. 6. 2 x 2 "floor" grid appears correctly in all generated isometric and perspective views. QUESTION: Is the ceiling grid tool in the architect toolkit an object or a hatch?
  8. I must admit that I use 3D usually to generate interior room sketch perspectives, which I usually print out and render by hand. Most of my vw stuff is straight 2D construction documents, although I will use walls, plugins, schedules, etc..The good thing about vw is that it has features you can grow with, I'm using Architect 1.01 and have not exhausted all of ITS features.
  9. Katie, Petri, I've manually added the grids for floor & ceiling as I have to get this sketch colored and presented. I will experiment over the weekend with the original model and report back. Thank you both for all your help
  10. Katie, Still don't understand..keep in mind my original post of still using Architect 1.0. The steps should work in that version right? Any steps regarding "viewports" I cannot do. Actually, what I do now is once the right perspective is generated I manually draw in the ceiling and floor tile lines using the floor pattern and reflected ceiling plans as guides. Time consuming but it gets the job done. Just looking for VW to do this for me. Fred
  11. Katie, Petri, You both seem to be saying different things. Katie seems to be saying that what Petri did was not possible?? Petri, I went to the site and saw your posted image..THAT is exactly what I want. Would if be too much trouble to explain in a little more detail how you do this; I am somewhat slow understanding some things.
  12. Jim, Thanks for your idea. Seems a little much just to get these into perspective view. I used a hatched poylgon for each on separate layers with different "z" hts and did layer links. Should work but doesn't. I'll try your method and see.
  13. I'm trying to generate room perspectives with a 12" x 12" floor tile and a 24" x 24" ceiling grid. How do I get these to display in perspective view. Using architect 1. I know, I know I will upgrade when I get new computer next year, still on 9.2.2 with G4.
  14. Try www.kalinassociates.com I'm sure they have just what you need.
  15. Michael and Travis, Thank you for you information and great advice. I am a licensed architect who, on occassion, have reviewed and stamped the work of a friend of mine who does nothing but residential work. She is an architectural graduate, has worked in offices with me but has never gone for a licence. I was seeking information for her as I thought there should be a LOT of fully qualified people out there doing just what she is doing. With your help I am encouraging her to join AIBD and get up to snuff business wise. (Now if I could only get her to dump autocad!) Thanks again guys for all your help and suggestions. Fred
  16. I was wondering if there are any residential designers (not licensed architects) out there, and , if so, if anyone can answer a few wquestions. 1. There is some sort of residential designers professional organization? 2. Do you use a form of agreement for services?3. How do you handle liability insurance issues? 4. If your work may require the services of a licensed architect or engineer how do you handle this with the A/E and client? Thanks for any help available.
  17. Jan, yes you are correct in terms of WYSIWYG in the viewport..then you work in 'floating model space" for dims & text, with dimscale set to viewportscale. Some offices work this way, others believe in doing all text and dims in paperspace..either way its much more convoluted than VW.
  18. I have to agree with jan a bit here..with paperspace tabs, which we did in release 14, makes having a whole job in one file (like VW) has made things easier (also no more setting limits!0 The real drawback with AC is there is no WYSIWYG, not that great things can't be done with it, with a little effort.
  19. All the best and we will be looking for good things from you in the future.. Fred Johnson
  20. One thing you might want to consider, vectordepot.com used to have an 'offset wall" tool available which works just like the offdet line tool. This has saved me lots of time in laying out floor plans. Fred
  21. OK a little long winded..my point is that we are in the business of graphic communication to convey an idea or series of instructions for a purpose. As such, we should try to be the best we can be at that endeavor, and try to master as many tools as we can to that end.
  22. My two cents.. the issue of learning to hand draw or more correctly, to think with pencil & paper should be an important one. How many of us have been in a situation, away from our computers/cad when we had to convey some sort of instruction or idea, or solve a problem on a construction site. In those instances a computer is useless (yes you can take a laptop but to set up to solve a particular issue can be very time consuming). the ability to convey your ideas graphically in a clear manner should be a skill that most should be willing to learn as a value in itself. I was taught to be able to study/plan a building and produce the necessary construction documentation using just pencil and paper, yes I've been in this business just short of 40 years and trained as a draftsman in pre technical pen days.
  23. One program you should seriously consider looking at is PowerCadd, which is mac only. In many ways it provides DRAWING TOOLS second to none.
  24. VWA 8.5, OS 9.2 Has anyone figured out a way to import more than one page at a time of a word document into VW? My specifications are in word format and, on smaller jobs, I import the spec pages into VW (paste as picture) and organize a sheet or two. Having to import one page at a time is a pain...I have even changed the page size in word to 8-1/2 x 22 (max. size) but no go..only one 8-1/2 x 11 come in..any help would be welcome
  25. You will need macplot graphic pak with has the proper usb to parallel cable to go from the mac to the 750c, and the proper driver. when you go to 10.x you will have to upgrade to Microspot X or use a gimp driver. A jet direct card would give you a local talk (serial connector) at the plotter and ethernet but is not necessary. Put your money into the driver which comes with the proper cable (and dongle!)
×
×
  • Create New...