CEA

I have noticed the same problem, particularly in worksheets. The problem does not occure within all worksheets in a given file, only with one or two. On the screen the affected worksheets are fine, only when printed is there a problem. The problem occurs with our HP 488CA plotter, our laser printer, or when saving as PDF using Acrobat distiller. Mac OSXFont : GraphiteVW 9.5.1 Any suggestions would be a big help.

I must admit that I know nothing about the "bit depth" of the image. As I recall, Photoshop gives you a choice of 2, 4 or 8 as the bit depth. I have just been leaving it at 8. Should I change it to 2 or 4? These images are generally printed on a plotter at 300-400 dpi. I'll experiment with the bit depth next time I'm using Photoshop, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

I purchased a Vectorworks add on called "Motivo" about two year ago that is great for creating hatches. You simply draw the hatch, select it, and the Program creates a hatch for you. Its very fast, and gives you a lot of control. Nemetshek should consider adding a similar feature to Vectorworks- it would be a great improvement. Coincidentally, one of the examples that comes with "Motivo" is a tile roof hatch.

Am I missing something here? Doesn't the "Black and White Only" selection under "Document Preferences" create a black and white print? I use the "Use Layer Colors" selection to create black, white and gray prints. Anything that I want to print as gray is on a layer with layer colors set to a specified shade of gray. All other layers have layer colors set to black and white. I have found this to be very flexible. I only wish it were possible to adjust the density of grayed classes. How about giving us control over the density of gray in the classes?

Thank you all for the suggestions. It is a good question why my files are so large. Perhaps I am doing something wrong? Most of my projects are residential, and a typical set consists of about 20-25 D size sheets, with perhaps 3-5 scanned and imported photographs or freehand drawings in the set. The Vectorworks drawings tend to be rather detailed, and contain hatches and rendering that seems to increase the file size. I have found that using the "Import PICT as Picture" command seems to result in smaller files, but I do not really understand the differences between the options for importing images. The images are first imported into Photoshop and converted to black and white.

I am interested in getting a new computer, primarily to run Vectorworks 9.5 with Mac OSX for architectural drawings. Does anyone have any suggestions? Will the duel processor machine offer any benefits? Would there be any benefit to ordering an upgraded video card?.I currently use a ?PCI graphics? 400mhz G4, with 512 MB of ram. This has been a great machine, but it seems to be getting a little slow with OSX and large files. My Vectorworks files are often 25-40 MB. I do not use Vectorworks for any 3D work. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

I don't own GraphicConverter, but I tried it out in an Apple Store, and I noticed that it offers an option of saving a file as a HP-GL file. Has anyone tried using GraphicConverter to generate HP-GL files from Vectorworks to send to a service bureau?

Symbols can either be made a part of the active class, or can have a class assignment integral to the symbol. To change the class assignment of a symbol, select the symbol in the resources pallet and then click edit. Select the "Insertion Options " function form the dialog box that appears, and then select "Default" in the class options for the symbol to be inserted as a member of the active class. I think thsi will solve your problem.

I have also had some problems with text using a Epson 1520. Some fonts are "clipped" when printing on the 1520- only about 3/4 of the width of each letter will print. In particular, this occurs with the graphite font. I think this is a problem with the Epson driver- the same files print well on my HP 488CA plotter.

Thanks for all of the input to my question. I ended up buying a Xante 3N laser printer, and it is working well in both OS 10.1.3 and 9.1. The Xante printers have Postscript 3 built in- most of the other 11X17 laser printers I saw had either Postscript 2 or Postscript emulation.

The existing wall tools have a few limitations for me. 1. Cavity Walls: It would be very helpful if it were possible to assign individual cavities, and their associated lines and hatches to a class that is different from the class of the wall's perimeter lines. I have classes set up for wall details (brick veneer, etc.) that are turned on for architectural plans but are turned off for structural plans, electrical plans and other plans. This allows me to show more detail in the architectural plan than in structural or MEP plans. This is a typical architectural convention, and it would be very useful if the cavity wall tools allowed the interior cavities to be turned on or off. 2. Joining cavity walls is frustrating in every cad program I have used. Would it be possible to design a tool that would function like the new Connect/Combine tool, but would allow the user to join individual lines in cavity walls? As an example, the user could click on one line of a cavity wall and then indicate a line from a second cavity wall, and the two lines would be joined. The user would then join each line individually to create the desired intersections. It seems this would be useful for conditions that do not join correctly using the existing wall join tools. The existing tools often do not function well when joining cavity walls of differing types and wall thicknesses.

These are great! thank you all very much for making them available. Could Nemetscek add an area to it's web site where other scripts could be posted?

These are great! thank you all very much for making them available. Could Nemetscek add an area to it's web site where other scripts could be posted?

Tara: I am also located in Washington DC, and I am looking for a reprographics company that can handle Vectorworks files. What company are you with?

Thank you for the input. Postscript seems to be one of the major differences between he HP laser printers and other manufacturers- HP provides Postscript emulation rather than true Postscript. I checked out the GCC web site, and their printers have Postscript version 2. The Xante printer has Postscipt version 3. As far as you know, does Postscript 3 offer any practical benefits for line drawings with some grayscale? One other question- the GCC printers are available with different levels of resolution, from 600 dpi to 12000 dpi. Is their a visible difference between the resolutions in line drawings with some gray fills? Thanks again for the helpful advice.

See the "Printer Solutions" topic in the "Tech Notes and How To Suggestions" discussion area. This has some good advice on creating PDF files. You can easily create PDF files from OSX, just download an OSX driver for the HP 800PS or 1055CM plotter and use it to create D size PDFs. It may be difficult to find an inexpensive plotter for the Mac. I have read that the Microspot plotter driver is now available in a beta test version for OSX. Until this driver is available, I think you may be limited to a few HP plotters under OSX.

I am considering purchasing an Mac OSX compatible laser printer that can print 11X17 sheets. The printer will be used for both text and line drawings. Does anyone have any experience with the HP5000N or the Xante 3N? Any other suggerstions? Thank you for your help.

Does anyone at Nemetschek have any ideas about the problem I have encountered opening version 8.5.2 files in V9.5? As mentioned above, the size of worksheets will change. How do you control the height of he cells?

Vectorworks Architect has a "Trace Bitmap" command under the "TOOLS" menu. I have not used this command, but it may work for you. I have used Adobe Streamline to convert scans to vector drawings. It works, but the quality of the drawings produced are obviously dependant on the quality and accuracy of the drawings you are scanning. For my purposes, it has been easier and more accurate to simply redraw the plans.

Thank you Austin Sloat for the useful information. How has your office been sending jobs to a service bureau for printing? Creating files from Vectorworks on a MAC for plotting seems to generally be problematic. We have been sending PDF files created using Adobe Acrobat to a service bureau; however, any gray tones are converted to a dot screen. The service bureau uses a program called "Ghost Writer" to create HP-GL2 files from the PDF file, unfortunately, this seems to convert the gray tones to dot screens. Does anyone have any advice? I know that the Macplot software will create HP-GL2 files. In my experience, I agree that it is best to buy a postscript plotter. We have a HP488CA that uses a software RIP. It is only two years old, and already obsolete. The software RIP has never worked properly.

I have had the same problem. When converting a drawing from VW 8.5.2 to VW 9.5 or VW 9 the size of the worksheet will change. This can create a good deal of work cleaning up and modifying the drawings. What is causing this, and is their a solution to the problem? It seems like the height of the rows is larger in the 9,5 worksheets than in the 8.5 worksheets. Thanks to anyone who can help. MAC G4, 512MB ram, OS 9.1.

I have found plotting to our HP488CA is also problematic (the 488CA replaced the 455CA). Matthew Giampapa from Nemetschek pointed out that the 488CA and the 455CA are NOT true postscript printers. They come with software that as I understand it converts Postscript files into a format usable by the printer. Unfortunately, in my experience, this software is barely up to the task, and HP does not update it. Because the HP software is not updated, it does not work well with newer programs and operating systems. I have been considering purchasing an HP800PS, he lowest cost HP plotter that is a true postscript plotter. It appears that HP might support these printer with updated drivers. Incidentally, I have found that using Adobe Acrobat to generate PDF files for plotting helps. Plotting from PDF files in Acrobat rather than directly from Vectorworks is much faster.

I believe that CipesDesign is correct, and that ATM will not work with OSX. Here is some additional information from the Adobe web site: "All standard Adobe western PostScript Type 1 fonts in the Adobe Type Library are compatible with Mac OS X in either native or Classic mode. However, Adobe Multiple Master fonts do not appear in the font menus of carbonized applications running under Mac OS X native." http://www.adobe.com:80/type/typeOSX.html Multiple master fonts allow you to make changes to the fonts appearance. If you do not need this feature, you may want to see if you can find a PostScript Type 1 version of Texton. I have read that Apple will eventually be providing its own replacement for ATM. Does anyone have any information about this?

If you are using a Macintosh, you will need to use an application like Macplot (?$500) to create HPGL2 files for plotting. Information about this program is available on the Nemetschek web site and is listed under something like ?Third Party Solutions.? I have also talked to people who have used Archicad?s ?Plotmaker? software to accomplish the same thing, but I do not believe this is as good a solution unless you already have a copy of Plotmaker. IF you are using a PC you are in luck. I think you will only need to download the driver for an HP plotter. If you are using a Mac and want to have plots made by a commercial printer, another approach for plotting is to use Adobe Acrobat to create PDF files for delivery to a the printer. This works well for me here in Washington DC.

I did a "clean install" of OS 9.1 which solved the problem for me. What could cause this? If you have not already done so, you could try checking to see if you have the most recent version of Adobe Type Manager. I believe I am using ATM versoin 4.6.1.