jan15

Kevin: I've used Sketchup quite a bit for 3D studies and renderings, and even for 3D sketches while field measuring existing buildings. I use VectorWorks for construction drawings, 2d sketching, and presentation graphics. I've never exported 3D models from SU to VW. In fact, I've never done any 3D work in VW. I tried it but couldn't stand the waiting. It reminded me of my nightmarish pre-Vectorworks life, drawing in Autocad on old machines, with long regeneration times when zooming. I once exported an SU model to 3ds, and someone else did a rendering from that. The rendering came out very well, and I didn't hear any feedback about problems with the export, but I didn't really ask for any feedback. I've exported VW plans to SU via DWG, but there were always problems with angles being slightly off from 90 degrees, which threw the model off terribly. Eventually I realized it was just as easy to sketch the plan in SU. It became standard for me to start a project in SU, and then later export 2D projections to VW (via DWG) for construction drawings, which worked with no problems at all. What's Doodle?

Kaare, is that like "carpal tunnel syndrome" or "repetitive stress injury"? Or something new? What are the signs? Is it caused by all mouse use, or primarily by clicking the buttons? I once had a mouse with buttons that required a lot of force, and that became painful to use. You said you would prefer a Shift-tab combination. But I always thought it was the key combinations that caused the most problems -- they're painful to me if I do a lot of them in the course of a day, especially long-reach combinations such as Ctrl-P. Don't they bother you? I do try to use the keyboard in place of the mouse as much as possible, but as simple keystrokes, not combinations. I never use tool icons, and rarely use pull-down menus, and I avoid other palettes as much as possible. I try to use the mouse only for clicking on points in the drawing window.

A Spline is the same as a VectorWorks Polyline by Cubic Spline Point. They're easy to edit in Autocad now, at least when moving spline points. I don't think there's any way yet to add spline points in the middle, as we can in VW with the 2D Reshape tool. I can think of 2 things that might help your correspondent. 1. Autocad can display regular polylines (all straight line segments) as if they were Splines. That can be undone, and the polyline, even when displayed with curves, is much easier to edit than a Spline. So maybe it would help to provide only polylines with straight line segments, and let the engineer "Fit" the splines to them in AC. 2. AC Splines, when offset, acquire many more points than the original, as do VW Polylines with spline points. BUT AC polylines with only fillets (curves defined by radius) and straight lines DO offset properly (unlike the same in VW, which have the same problem when offset as do spline curves). So maybe it would help if you draw curved polylines using only straight segments and fillets.

If they really were dimension objects in the Autocad file (not exploded into just lines and text), they should import as dimension objects. You can select all of them at once in VectorWorks using a Custom Selection (Type = Dimension), and then change their Dim Std in the Object Info palette. Change it to the one you use to create dimensions in VW. For a list of Dimension Standards, and the option to create or edit any Custom Dimension Standards, pull down File > Preferences > Document Preferences > the Dimensions tab.

1. File > Workspaces > select the current workspace seems to do this for me, though I'm a little unclear on why it does. I don't think I specified in the Workspace Editor which palettes are to be open, and certainly not where they're to be located. Maybe it's just reverting to the way that workspace was configured when I started up VectorWorks, or maybe after the last workspace editing session. 3. Can anyone tab into the OIP? Tab normally moves into and through the Data Display Bar, which I think most people wouldn't want to change. I don't use the tab key for that, but I also don't ever take my hand off the mouse except when typing a text object.

David: 1. Assuming you mean using the AC Fillet command with radius = 0 to trim 2 lines to each other: VW has a "Join" command for that purpose. But it's not needed very often because it's so easy to just draw the lines already trimmed correctly, or to just grab one that's already drawn and drag it or drag-stretch its end to where you want it without any command. It also has a Fillet tool for actually filleting - creating a curved corner between 2 lines or between 2 sides of a polyline or polygon. 2. Assuming you mean using the AC Offset command to lay out geometry because entering coordinates in Autocad is so slow and frustrating, with the @ symbol and the comma: In VW there are many easy and quick ways to enter coordinates, so we don't use the Offset tool for that. I personally lay out geometry using rectangles, hitting the numeric keypad Enter key once, then the X value, then Enter again, then the Y value, so my hand stays on the numeric keypad all the time, touch-typing without looking down at the keyboard. And I use the Add Surface, Clip Surface, and Intersect Surface commands to combine those rectangles into more complex polylines. And you won't believe how easy it is to revise polylines with the 2D Reshape tool, not only grabbing a corner or bezier or arc control point and dragging it to where you want it, but also adding or removing points or hiding segments. I only use the VW Offset tool for actual offsetting - when I want another line or polyline parallel to an existing one.

Great work, Andy! You can also include the name of a particular forum, in quotes, such as "General Discussion", to get results only in that forum.

Hmmm... Maybe you could select all the circles with a Custom Selection, then Cut them, and Paste-In-Place on a new temporary layer, perhaps with Layer Options set to "Active Only", then create the symbol you should have created before and quickly run around Inserting it at the center of each circle, then do another Custom Selection of all Symbols, Cut them and Paste-In-Place back on the original layer, then delete the temporary layer.

Yes. There's a command called "Combine Into Surface" (in the "Tool" pull-down menu) which creates a new surface object whose boundaries are the nearest edges of all the selected objects. It also leaves the original objects selected (I guess in case you want to create more than one surface object from the same set of boundary objects), but places the new object on top. So after creating it you have to deselect all and then select the surface object.

I notice that AutoCad 2004 has this same problem with offsetting Splines. So maybe there's something inherently difficult about offsetting curves. But AutoCad Plines with arcs but not spline or bezier curve control points offset with the same number of lines and arcs. In order to solve the problem, it may be necessary to create a new VectorWorks object type, which has only straight lines and arcs.

I'm not sure what you're asking. Arrow head style is edited by pulling down the lower right corner of the "Attributes" palette and clicking "Edit". Dimension style is edited by pulling down File > Preferences > Document Preferences, then selecting the "Dimensions" tab and clicking on "Custom".

I had Windows 2000pro for a long time, and never had any problem with double-clicking on MCD files. I've never before used that "Advanced" button you spoke of, but I tried it after reading your post, and didn't see the word "default" anywhere. On my machine, the box labelled "Application used to perform action" (in the editing window for the action called "Open") gives the full path and filename of the .EXE file, all in quotes, followed by "%1" There was an earlier discussion of this at http://techboard.nemetschek.net/cgi/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=002539 but that didn't help me much. If I were in that position again I would just remove and re-install VW.

Can't you just save the template file as an MCD file so that it shows in the browser?

I always open VW files that way. It's set up automatically when you install the program. I haven't got v11 yet, but 8, 9, and 10 worked that way. You might be able to correct it by right-clicking on a .MCD file and selecting "Open With.." and then selecting VW from the list of files or by Browsing. If you check the box next to "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file", it's supposed to make all future double-clicks of that filename extension open with the selected program. But that doesn't always work with VW, because of an override they built in to handle the problem of multiple versions. When you have more than one version of VW installed, the program pops up a window to ask whether you want to use this version to open .MCD files. That choice goes away when you check "Do not show this dialog again", and unfortunately there's no way to get it back without re-installing the program.

Hmmm.... good question. I didn't realize till you asked that it's not available now. I found it on a CD called "Expert CD Fonts", which I bought about 10 years ago from the $10 software rack alongside the checkout lane at some computer or office supply store. I see that Expert Software was bought by a company called Activision, which appears to sell only games. And I can't find it at any shareware or font sites. If you're interested, I'll e-mail it to you. It's 29k when zipped. Send me an e-mail address by private message.

That font, "Architect", was also distributed as a TrueType font under the name "Write", and there was a separate font file for a bold version of Write, called WriteBold. If you select WriteBold as the font, and set VW's "Style" parameter to "Plain", it prints nicely and also is highly readable on the screen.

... or the Enter key on the numeric keypad, which also works with older versions.

Correct, as long as the plotter is close enough to your workstation to run a printer cable. There are supposed to be problems with cables beyond a certain length, around 10 or 15 feet, I think. If your plotter runs well with a USB interface you can buy USB repeater cables. They use some of the USB power to amplify the signal along the way, and the manufacturers claim that allows the signal to go farther without problems. But if you use a print server, it's a tiny thing either built-in or right next to the plotter via a 3' cable, and the network cable from the workstation to the print server can be any length.

To accomplish that now, you can change the color of the group to red before editing it, and back to black afterward.

I disagree. I like the fact that the new copy remains selected, so you can quickly make a lot of offsets at the same distance. To do what you want, just keep one hand on the mouse, and the index and second fingers of the other hand on the shortcut keys for Select and Offset.

The old way to do that was floppies. The new way is a USB flash drive. They're great to have around for other purposes, and you can get a 128 MB drive for $30: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=717116&sku=S153-2024&CMP=EMC-TIGEREMAIL&SRCCODE=WEM729S

To stretch a bunch of things all at once, you can make them into a Group (select them all and then issue the "Group" pull-down command), and then grab a handle of the group and drag-stretch it.

...or perhaps offer version 8, for the price it originally sold for? Zero development cost. Pure profit. And the grads could pay the upgrade costs to later versions as they're able to afford it.

It's just a bug. Which noone noticed until much later. Version 8 doesn't have the problem. It will offset as many times as you want and as fast as you want without moving the mouse.

wr, Please tell us what fixed the problem, so that someone else with the same problem in the future can do a search and find your post and solve it.