jbrhwy

I am starting a new post for this item in General Discussion as there has been no response to my previous post. "Does the new arc tangent mode solve a long standing problem with Vectorwork for 15 years I have been requesting an additional vertex method that would insert a symmetrical curve between two intersecting lines that is not constrained by an artificial mid-point. The current problem is if the tangent distance of 1 curve is greater than 1/2 the distance between the intersection points , VW moves that vertex (disaster)". As a road designer arc polyline objects are the basis of my work; most drawing objects are parallel offsets from the design road centre-line (curbs, sidewalks, pavement, etc & these objects are combined to create a filled surface). Because of the limitation above, the only way the correct arc can be obtained is by regressively adding a vertex at the mid-point, very tedious exercise & has to be done for every offset polyline so they remain parallel. I will not comment on the nightmare that occurs when I have to revise the design road centre-line. All I want is the ability to place a symmetrical arc, change it's radius when necessary, between intersecting lines. This is how roads are designed. Road design & COGO software are not controlled by a mid-point vertex. I have posted & sent tech support numerous drawings with this problem, I will post another file demonstrating this problem if needed.

Does the new arc tangent mode solve the long standing problem with Vectorworks ie "For 15 years I have been requesting an additional vertex method that would insert a symmetrical curve between two intersecting lines that is not constrained by an artificial mid-point. The current problem is if the tangent distance of 1 curve is greater than 1/2 the distance between the intersection points , VW moves that vertex (disaster)!"

The ability to georeference our drawings to orthorectified aerial photograph & cadestral composites could move us into the 21 century. Our survey work is now done using GPS & most of our clients are requesting design drawings that are georeferenced. Our Regional Natural Areas Atlas (http://www.crd.bc.ca/maps/natural/index.htm) allows users to upload shapefiles to the mapviewer.

He is still around, just not playing with us on this board.

Kriegs My VW road design files are in the 50 to 300 mb size because I use 30 cm resolution aerial photos (imported as PDF, JPEG or TIFF) as a background & I want to retain the resolution so I can view detail when zoomed in. Just printed 117 MB file on a 24" x 36" sheet of my road design at 300 dpi with the aerial photo printing at near photo quality & it took 5 minutes. More assistance could be provided if we knew what your set up was ie computer, OS, VW version & printer, this can easily be added to your signature.

NatureBoy Sorry, I am using Charles Chandler's Land Planning Tools (http://scs-inc.us/default.php?page=products&subPage=products/land%20planning/Default) & 1 of the tools is "Stake List.vso" a tool that shows a list of all of the stakes on the same layer & exports them to a text file. Both Charles & Raymond Mullin (www.SiriusSolutions.net) provide great tools that greatly enhance Vectorworks for me. Raymond's Reshaper tool is great & it has an azimuth mode for angle display.

I export VW stake objects for laying out with TDS Survey Pro Robotics. Have used dxf files as a TDS BaseMap, but I only switched to TDS recently so my knowledge is very limited.

IanH "Create informal curves using circles and joining them with lines at a tangent" again not sure what you want to accomplish. Are you creating round planting beds & joining them with tangents or are you creating circular beds that may have tangents between the arcs? If the second case, why not use the polyline tool as you start with the tangents & place a symmetrical simple curve between the intersecting tangents. "Locking it to some underlaying geometry", the underlying geometry in my case is the point of intersection. For 15 years I have been requesting an additional vertex method that would insert a symmetrical curve between two intersecting lines that is not constrained by an artificial mid-point. The current problem is if the tangent distance of 1 curve is greater than 1/2 the distance between the intersection points , VW moves that vertex (disaster)! My geometry is quite precise because in my case the layout of curbs requires a greater precision than planting beds, therefore, a robotic total station is used which probably is more precise than a piece of string. If you are using a pole & string to set out the arc radius, how do you establish the centre point for the radius & the point of tangency?

Why isn't the polyline tool with arc vertexes acceptable? The additional benefit of polylines is they can be converted to objects such as roads, hardscapes, walls, linear materials, property line, etc. I use coordinates of the vertex & the arc radius to set out all points & stations for roads, curbs, sidewalks, drainage, planting beds, etc. After the laying out the project, I import the surveyed points as stake objects to check that the layout is correct.

45. How about the ability to place an arc with a defined radius between 2 intersecting lines where the intersection point remains the control point, the basis of all manual & digital road design. Most importantly stop the mid point between vertexes from controlling the arc radius that can be inserted. This request started in 1992.

Added feature of VW2008?

While they are at it please fix the arc polyline tool, after 10 years of submitting bugs etc, it still doesn't work without a lot of workarounds.

Islandmon Doesn't work if one of the arc curve's tangent distance is > than 1/2 the distance between the intersection points (the VW midpoint).

I couldn't find an online copy of the manual for Leica Power Site software, but there must be an option to save as a point file (point number, northing, easting, elevation, point descriptor) in text format as every other survey software has that option. I assume you are exporting using the built-in " ?Direct.dxf? functionality, data can be read directly from the instrument in dxf-format and read into AutoCAD? on a PC without any intermediate steps. Coordinates and point numbers can be stored in different layers."

Pat & Ray Thanks for the reminder about the scale of dimension markers in Viewports.

Thanks Charles "Modify > Edit Polyline command" never noticed that this new command was added in VW2008. "the Edit Polyline command allows changes to a polyline such as adding, deleting, reshaping, and extracting holes". Charles is this really an improvement, group that isn't a group & adds an extra step when you have to use the OIP to edit the vertices! In the example above when a grass median was added inside the curbing & the file converted to VW2008, the grass median appears totally over top of the curbing until it is sent back?

Rob There are add-on Vehicle Turning Templates for AutoCad, but none for the Mac. I have never come across any true "minimum vehicle turning path dimensions", AASHTO, ITE or TAC standards (municipal standards appear to be derived from the national ones) assume vehicles turning at a minimum design speed of 15 km/h (actual operating speeds are higher). How many "Slow to 30 km/h" curves can't be negotiated at 50 km/h or higher! In attempting to design & build residential roads that are "Liveable for All Users" it was necessary to determine actually minimum standards that would constrain the speed of motorized vehicles to the "Design Speed" to attempt to increase the safety for non-vehicular users. Attached is file "LFR SU9.pdf" that shows the actual minimum turning dimensions of a particular vehicle. I have created symbols of various other vehicle turning paths & use them to check my designs.

Take a look at the attached file "VW Median Curb Error.jpg". The closed polyline (concrete median curb) was created from the 2 dashed polylines that have a total of 20 vertices. When the reshape tool is applied to the concrete curb the OIP only shows 10 vertices. The inner boundary of the concrete curb can not be selected or edited with the reshape pane. After 15 years of submitting polyline problems as bugs, tech support questions & demonstrating at trade shows the same problems remain. Since most objects created are polylines & over 50% of those are arc polylines, thousands of hours have been wasted trying to get mathematically correct geometry. Can any one suggest software that handles arc polylines correctly, HighRoad (road design software) internally does it correctly, but only exports arc segments.

VW only works (partially) for simple single width road, beyond that dedicated road design software is required, try HighRoad (http://www.interstudio.net).

File "Non-compose Arc&lines v2008.vwx" with the UTM coordinates or transferring to 0 origin will not compose with Combine to Surface, Add Surface or Compose. A new file with objects pasted at 0 origin Compose & Add Surface work, but Combine to Surface doesn't work?

DWorks for the file "Non-CombinePoly.mcd" if you decompose it, goes from 2 objects to 27 objects (with VW12.5 & VW2008). It is a nightmare of lines, arcs open & closed, & can not be recomposed into the same shape as the original 2 objects because of the addition of corner vertexes. If anyone is able to correctly compose this file, would you post the new file or email it to me. Thanks

Thanks Ray, originally tried using compose & add surface with UTM coordinates, but that doesn't work. Tried using compose with paste near 0, didn't work, but just tried now tried with add surface near 0 & it did work, except if you look closely at the new object where they join a new corner vertex has been added, therefore, the new object can't be edited by changing the radius (same old problem for me). Tried the original file with UTM coordinates on my Mac & Add Surface doesn't work with VW 12.5 or VW2008? What results do you get with the other file "Non-compose Arc&lines v2008.vwx?

Ray, just checked file "Non-combinePoly.mcd" & it doesn't combine even near 0 or in VW2008, thanks any ways.

For items that you want a response send to tech@nemetschek.net

Ray all my work is in UTM coordinates (northing & eastings). Nemetschek had advised in the past that UTM coordinates are not a problem for Vectorworks. To cut every polyline, past into a new file with additional locii to ensure it can be properly located back into the original file is time consuming & in some cases depending on the complexity, of the polylines doesn't work. Some times your suggestion works, especially on my simplified examples when pasted into a new file. VW will not allow a radius when the start of the curve is greater than half the distance between the two vertexes & absolutely goes nuts when the delta angle is greater than 180 degrees.