jan15

If what you really want is equally spaced centerlines filling an allotted space, there's a neater way to do that: - draw a centerline - while it's still selected, group it - go into the group by double-clicking on it - offset or array the centerline to get the number of centerlines you want (the offset distance doesn't matter, just so they're all offset the same) - exit the group by clicking outside it - drag-stretch the group to fit into the allotted space. And maybe drag-stretch it in the other axis to set the length of all the centerlines. Line Into Segments is good if what you really want is a line divided into segments.

Well I certainly missed the reference. What is it? The only yellow star I can think of is the one mandated for Jews by Hitler, but I don't remember any mandatory brown sportcoat.

I'm the same way. I've got a zero rating, but it's only because of issues people have with their mothers, due to severe toilet-training they received as children.

But where would we find someone like that?

Of course this same type of problem occurs when one AC user sends the DWG file to another. In case that's any consolation. In the Autocad world, the user does the heavy lifting. And that becomes a matter of workman's pride. Software that does the arithmetic for you is seen as effete -- like a car with electric windows.

Perhaps some indication of the future of SHX fonts may be gleaned from the fact that Revit, to which Autodesk has been trying to shift Autocad users, apparently doesn't support them.

There's an interesting hand-lettered TTF font called Handsf Single, downloadable as 24403_HANDSFN.ttf at this Revit forum thread.

Wouldn't it be better to do that with a bitmap image? Even in Autocad that would be easier to do and less likely to go awry. The only good reason for creating company logos in Autocad was that it didn't support bitmap images till about 10 years ago. And maybe because Autocad LT still can't attach them and has to use a huge chunk of storage space to put images into DWG files as OLE objects.

David, I don't understand what you mean about waiting for Autocad's osnap visual cues. On my not very high-powered system they appear faster than I can see them. They're a little slower in VW, but there's a trade-off in that they're more sophisticated, plus with all the other tricks VW has you're not so dependent on constraints as on AC osnaps. I'm a keyboardist, too, but I use just 4 function keys to control Autocad osnaps. Each Fn key gives me an osnap override combination in a single keystroke (with no space or enter). If no command is active (and therefore an override would have no meaning), the same Fn key instead sets my default osnaps. In other words, the Fn key has the same dual function as an osnap icon, except that each icon represents only a single osnap mode whereas each of my Fn keys represents a combination of one or more modes. Some of the modes play well together, not interfering with each other, so there's really never any need to make one of those the sole mode (except for your experience of the visual cues being too slow). And since it's a key instead of an icon, I can keep drawing with my mouse hand while issuing the override with my right hand. With that system, I found that 6 function keys would do everything I ever need with osnaps: 1. int, endp, mid, nea 2. per 3. cen 4. qua 5. nod, tan 6. non But I used 5 & 6 so rarely that I dropped them and instead use icons for those settings.

You don't have to pick just the bounding objects. You can draw a selection window around everything in the area, or use Ctrl-A or the Select All pull-down command. The Combine Into Surface tool will only consider selected objects it they bound the pick point. Just deselect any objects you want it to ignore. But in VW we tend to use surfaces instead of lines to create 2D geometry. That's not just because surfaces automatically come with a hatch or fill. It's also because surfaces were always very easy to create and edit in VW, and they let you control a whole bunch of lines as one object. Check out the Add & Clip Surface tools, and the many modes of the 2D Reshape tool.

The multiple lines on top of each other in Autocad might be related to its crude snapping system. For example, if you try to copy some objects with only Endpoint snap on, you could inadvertently duplicate them in place. Since Endpoint is the only snap that's active, the nearest endpoint of any object you click on will be used, even if you click in the middle of the object, or at an intersection with some other object. So if the first click point was that same endpoint, you'd get duplicates. And you wouldn't know that you'd done anything, because AC doesn't show handles on the newly created objects the way VW does, and it deselects everything at the end of every operation. But it's just as easy to get inadvertent duplicates in VW, by holding down Ctrl and clicking on an object. If AC users do it more often, it's only because they're not as smart.

There've been many threads on this topic in the past, including ACad user new to VW, just a couple of weeks ago.

GWS, do you understand that a viewport is just a window into the design layer? It shows objects that aren't part of the sheet layer. So of course the only way to give someone a file showing what's visible on a sheet layer with viewports is to give them the contents of the design layer also. The sheet layer gives them the window, and the design layer gives them the thing that's seen through the window. That's the way Autocad works, too. Do you want to give the Acad user a 2D drawing of what's shown in the viewport, like Sketchup's Export to 2D DWG? That's not something you can do just by converting VW to DWG file format. You'd have to create the 2D geometry in VW, and then export.

The Export facility is more for converting a VW file to DWG format, not so much for changing the contents of the file. But you can use it that way by keeping the things you don't want to export in special non-export classes. Then turn those classes off before exporting and opt not to export hidden classes.

VW Tools work like SU tools. VW Commands work like AC commands. VW Symbols are like AC blocks & SU components. VW Groups are like SU groups. VW Classes are like AC/SU layers. VW Sheet Layers are like AC layout tabs. VW Design Layer is like AC's model tab. If you're not sharing drawings with AC users, you can use multiple Design Layers, and you can give them scales other than 1:1 if you want. And you can combine Design Layers that have the same layer scale, making 2 or more of them visible at the same time. When combined, they have a stacking order, as do objects within each layer; that becomes important if you use filled polygons that can cover up objects behind them. Filled or hatched polygons are very useful in VW 2D work, especially when drawing elevations. Since you want to migrate to 3D, a good way to start might be to use the Wall tool to do your 2D plan drawings, with window and door objects plugged in to the walls. It's a good way to draw plans, plus whenever you want you can just decide to give those objects a third dimension; then your plan automatically becomes both a 2D plan and a 3D model, with some things visible only in plan view and other things visible only in 3D views.