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thinkingpencil

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Posts posted by thinkingpencil

  1. Someone once said there's no such thing as a stupid question...but this probably is one! And certainly lazy...I'm up against a very tight deadline today and need help with libraries. So:-

    In the Resources pallet I can see the usual full range of library folders. In which there's a texture I want to select via the editing dialogue for a class. So in the open file/class edit dialogue/textures I am trying to find my texture. But I can't see anything like the list of libraries as I can in the resource pallet. What I see just seems incomplete. This is baffling me. I've managed to save the file with the texture in it to favourites. But when I try to access that I seen nothing. I am a long time VWX user but a rooky on this particular capability. Any guidance would be so gratefully received. Thank in advance. And apologies for not trawling the board and help system. I just have to make some money today...

  2. I haven't found those triggers for crashing...but have found v24 less stable. It tends to crash for me when processing viewports. Maybe more to do with my graphics card, though that's quite recent and powerful.

  3. Thank you @Tom W.. I suppose I agree, in that if a tool can be better it should be. I guess simpler tools like claw hammers and bicycles reach their optimum earlier than complex ones like those Vectorworks. But to pick up on the bike analogy:- The advent of power assisted gear changing seems an unnecessary complication. I don't want to see its equivalent in our software...I agree that 2024 is relatively challenging, to say the least. For example, unless I've missed a fix, I am surprised the main drop down menus are still not stable between file opening by update 3. But maybe I need to update my workspace!

  4. I am also finding IFC export laborious. Seems bizarre that the stories in the IFC dialogue are not linked to the stories in the file. I wanted to export layers from the total of four stories in the file. I controlled the export by manually defining the number of storeys, 4,  and dragging layers into four of the six available ones in the dialogue (six because I had two unused stories which I had deleted but were not deleted from the dialague). Renamed them.  An import check shows the four stories were exported. This is not a normal workflow for me admittedly. I suppose it's normal for the several layers of a storey to become one "IFC" layer?

  5. Dear @Kerschbaumer I too started with Minicad 7 and in fact earlier releases. (and the very first drawing I did at work was two-layered, the front and back of a tracing paper, aged 21 in 1981). I was supported to learn M7, and received some training, within a large architects practice. Lucky. Now I work solo for domestic clients. I've forced myself to use as much of Vectorworks' potential as possible. And at times have spent many frustrated hours trying to understand and deply its existing and new capabilites. Hours spent learning and not earning! Over the years my micro company would have been far more profitable if I had stayed within my comfort zone. But I do respect any user's chosen use of this software. But I can only speak for myself in saying that I've been delighted by what Vectorworks can do. The team at HQ, and many external developers, seem to have a sharp focus on what we need out here in the field! And almost always the guys and girls here on the board, many of whom are exceptionally kind and generous with their expert time, have helped me undertand when I have got stuck. Particularly helpful when there's no one next to you in large office to ask. So I suppose this post is a "thankyou" to those fellow members and a gently respectful shout out for VWX in all its facets....

     

    ....one last thing....

     

    ....I'd welcome views on the whole concept of software development. We know there's a commercial imperative to release improvements and refinements regularly. But I ask:- Is there ever a case for an application to be regarded as "finished" at some point? Especially when the needs of users and their clients are not changing at the same rate of softward development. Comparing Minicad7 to Vectorworks is like comparing a village of thatched cottages to a city of 10 million people. But that city is getting hard to navigate at times...

  6. 2 hours ago, taliho said:

    Thanks for the link-

    I will continue my updates there.

     

    In a test file I systematically and cumulatively removed imported bitmaps, also tried deleting the title block,( since individual sheet exports to pdf were over 30MB, and the TB was the only common object). I changed the resolution in publish pdf options. all these steps reduced slightly. The biggest drop was when I changed every viewport to "solid"  - the resulting published pdf dropped from 103MB to 20MB.  However, back to the original file, when I only changed the viewports to solid, there was no change in the size of the resulting pdf....

    So many non-billable hours...... and no progress towards my deadline.....

    |I sympathise with those non-billable hours! Over the years I've found they do reduce as I've learned...often thanks to the regulars here who share their expertise to generously. If you are not already doing this :- I use reference files and try to limit the use of certain imported library objects for example catalogue furniture. Whilst the modelling of these is often very accurate they are necessarily complex and so add to file size. I offer apology in advance if I am stating the obvious 😀

  7. In one file, only, a full list of the file's classes is not available when trying to change the class of a wall component. Just a very few classes show up in the drop down list, as defined by one particular class-filter.

     

    I worked around by opening a file with the same total classes and imported the wall to be edited. Changed the class, then imported the edited wall back into the first file.

     

    So it's not a Vectorworks issue, but maybe some sort of document issue. But I cannot find any setting in Document Preferences which changes this strange behaviour. But whilst looking at  Document Preference settings encountered the same problem when trying to set dimensions to draw automatically in my preferred class...

     

    ...just wondering if any one else has encountered this?

     

    VWX 2024 Update 2.

  8.  I found the same problem whilst trying to change the header class of a door PIO (2D visualisation). Only a very limited and random choice of classes is shown (there are many more classes in the file. The classes shown all begin with "A" ?!

    2024 update 2.

    image.thumb.png.b88241ab80d26d6eb83d8343a6aa79aa.png

  9. BC, Glad it's not just me! Thank you for your commiseration. Returned 😀

    I think lighting has advanced actually, e.g. no limit on the number. And from another thread I know Domas, and other Vectorworks employees, are working on a fix for the palette issue. Lighting adds a lot of value for my clients even though to my eyes it's crude.

    Hopefully SP2 will solve the problem.

    Meanwhile I illuminated the model by selecting default light sources.

     

  10. Hello all,

     

    v2024 1.1

     

    I created a line-light from a line and an area-light from a rectangle (both automatically converted to a NURBS curve in the process). But neither are illuminating. A direction light is illuminating as normal.  Anyone having a similar experience.....? Or have a missed a setting?

     

    Incidentally there is a known issue also shown here, meaning Light-2 is on in the model, on in the OIP but not on in the Viz-lights palette. See separate thread....

     

    ....and I am not sure why the sphere isn't casting a shadow onto the slab, given settings in shaded-options?

    image.thumb.png.ebd9b9245523b3df8b828b9625008e38.png

     

     

     

     

    20231116 Lighting Trial.vwx

  11. Thank yoiu  Domas, really appreciate your update. All noted and understood. Makes sense to do the hot fix. Using Windows 10 I am finding v2024 1.1. quite stable. Although I've had a couple of crashes when updating viewports, they're no big deal to me (thanks to a 5-minute autosave!). The Visualisation/lights fix is welcome in due course. But, obviously, we are able to control lights directly until then. Meanwhile I've  attached a trial file illustrating the visualization issue and will post it to a new topic to discuss the failures(?) in line-light and area-light it seeems also to show.

    20231116 Lighting Trial.vwx

  12. Hi All,

     

    2023 SP7

     

    I made an extrude along path object (the lining and architraves of a doorway). Then, adding a 3D wall hole object, I created a symbol for insertion into a wall. ( I just needed a rough model of the existing doorway within an interior view which is why I didn't model a door in all detail with architraves).

     

    Despite all settings correct it was not possible to select the wall whilst making active the symbol....but when I deleted the EAP object (and added a simple extrude (a door threshold) to preserve the symbol) it inserted as normal.

     

    Has anyone else experienced this?

     

    Mark

     

  13. Tom, thank you so much!

     

    I really appreciate you spending time to explain. Of course I could see all detail as soon as I turned off 'Auto Display Detail Levels for Design Layers'.

     

    Not sure when I must have turned this setting on!? I will learn more about it.

     

    Anyway I am fee-earning again thanks to your alert kindness.

     

    Thank you again.

     

    Mark

     

     

    • Like 2
  14. Hello all, I am quite an experienced user ( currently VWX 2023 SP7 ) and rarely  baffled these days....but unless I am missing the obvious I cannot find a solution. I would be very grat eful for any comments...

     

    ...So after I've reviewed the settings of both component and container classes. All visible. Still, none of the wall types on layer 0-Ground Proposed A show their components or the hatches of those components in wireframe rending. They do render normally in Top view. In Top/Plan the components can be seen using the clip cube...

     

    ...I imported a wall with the same hatches from another file which also fails to show in this one. So it's a file problem as far as I can see.

     

    Both files are in fact started out from my primary template. So maybe copying is an issue.

     

    Thank you in anticipation.

     

     

    231017 289_02.vwx

  15. From these posts I know I am adding to the expertise of piping maestros! In my simple domestic projects I have drawn, for example, sanitary piping layouts in the annotation layer of view ports. Or sometimes on a design layer. In the MEP toolset the piping tool does still seem to be diagrammatic one (vwx 2023 SP5). So in the next project I shall draw sanitary pipework in 3d using the duct tool set to round.

    • Like 1
  16. I drew four sections each from its own section line. The section lines were joined at angles on plan different to 90deg so that they cut through the buildings on my block site model orthogonally (buildngs not orthogonal relative to eachother). I also drew a simple horizontal "reference datum extrude" across the  entire model to enable each viewport to be easily aligned in elevation. That  extrude's class is later set invisible in VP's, obviously. I drew a polygon from the section lines and pasted that into one of VP's annotations plane to help align them horizontally. Again set invisible afterwards. The model is accurate enough to render with conviction in, say , an aerial view. But messy in the sections. So the final composite of four VPs will rely on 2D graphics in annotations, with the messy graphics set invisible.

     

    ....so yes I am also waiting for a tool which draws a polygonal section line then creates one Section-VP. I'd be happy with just the information along the line. With no view of objects beyond or behind the cut plane. But that's because I seldom design buidlings without orthogonal plans. And the composite VP I have just made is of a simple site block model.

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