Blissab

Hello Johnathan, I purchased your Vectorworks Essentials tutorial book and I have been "holding down the ALT key just before you click" for the past four hours with zero success, in an effort to create a hole in a plate. I wonder if you could offer any advice. I believe I have followed your tutorial correctly...step-by-step, but this basic function just doesn't work for me. Thank you, AB

Thanks Phil, I've seen this video, but I just can't seem to get the subtract solids to work. I've been working on this function for four hours. I believe that I am following the procedure correctly, but I am having zero success with this simple function. Vectorworks to me is not even remotely user-friendly or common sense, as compared to Revit. I follow the tutorial, watch the videos and I can't remove material from the plate. Ready to give-up...none of my projects are going to have holes in them! AB

Hello Everyone, Substract Solids. I just can't get this function to work. Tutorial Project: Plate with holes: 1. Activate Instant Push/Pull Tool 2. Click and drag circle through plate, while holding down Alt Button. 3. While still holding ALT button, click to complete the extrusion. This is suppose to create a hole within the plate. I drag the circle below the plate and I drag the circle above the plate and I still seem to create a solid circular extrusion. No hole! Does anyone have some advice? Thank you, AB

Hello Alan, I just figured-out the Automatic Working Plane activation. You have to be within one of the basic tool commands to activate the Automatic Working Plane in the Active Plane pull-down. I was mistakenly trying to accomplish this prior to selecting one of the basic tool commands. Its a matter of sequence. Thank you, AB

Thank Alan for your response. I am following along with a tutorial, which is placing holes (circles) in a steel plate. In the tutorial video of this process, the creator indicates the Automatic Working Plane within the Active Plane pull-down. In my process of placing holes (circles), Automatic Working Plane does not exist. I have been careful, to follow the process step by step. AB

Hello Everyone, I'm working my way through a Vectorworks tutorial and as part of the 3D modeling section of the tutorial, I am modeling a plate bracket with some 1/2" diameter holes. Both the tutorial book and related video has directed me to access the View Bar and activate the Automatic Working Plane(when activated, the bracket model highlights blue when the cursor touches a surface), before modeling the holes. When I go to the Active Plane pull-down menu I only have "Layer Plane", "Screen Plane" and "Options" available and no "Automatic" working plane. When I toggle the Backslash key, I receive the message: "Automatic Working Plane mode is not available in current context". What does this mean? I don't believe that I have missed any steps in the process, so I am confused as to how to active the Automatic Working Plane. The tutorial has no indication as to how to make this activation, when the Automatic Working Plane is not available and the Vectorworks help section does not discuss how to activate this. Can anyone help. Thank you, AB

Thanks Kevin, I did finally figure the paperspace scale out...very different to that of the Vectorworks tutorial book that I have. I basically disregarded the scale pull-down menu located within the CREATE VIEWPORT dialog box. I ended-up setting 3"=1'-0" for a scale in the OBJECT INFO dialog box. I also didn't start with the front elevation (as the tutorial suggested), which gave me crazy scales. I started with the plan view to set the correct scale and simply copied and edit each subsequent view in the OBJECT INFO dialog box for the different views...completely bi-passing the CREATE VIEWPORT dialog box (as suggested by the tutorial book). This took literally the whole day of frustration to stumble upon this. This method is completely contrary to the tutorial book that I have, but it is the only way that I was able to accomplish a correct drawing with titles and dimensions. I'd like to post the drawing that I created, but I don't seem to see an insert button anywhere here. How does one insert an image herein? This has been an entire day of stumbling around in the dark. Not liking Vectorworks! AB

Thank you, On the CREATE VIEWPORT dialog box, there is a pull-down menu for scale selections, which include all the various architectural scales, such as, 1/8"=1'-0'' all the way to 3"=1'-0". In my case, I would like the scale of the paperspace viewport to be 1/4" = 1'-0" in order for the 33.5" object to fit on the 8 1/2"x11" border sheet. Is this not how one sets the finished scale of the drawing? I am following the tutorial book that I have to the letter, but I'm not getting the results. AB

Thank you for your response. My viewport page size on my tutorial is 8.5"x11". My tutorial object (a bollard) is real size: 33.5-inches high. I set the scale to be 1/4" = 1'-0'', therefore the size of the object on the viewport page should be 8.45-inch in height, so as to fit on the page. I am using the CREATE VIEWPORT and NEW SHEET LAYER dialog boxes. I seem to be locked into UK sheet layer selections? Thank you, AB

Anybody?

Hello, New to Vectorworks and working my way through a tutorial. Question: When creating a viewport and drawing border of 8.5"x11" in size, I would like the drawing scale of the object to be 1.5" = 1'-0". After creating the viewport, the scale is not correct, but the Object Information Dialog Box indicates the correct scale. What am I missing? Thank you, AB