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nick@e8urban

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Posts posted by nick@e8urban

  1. Incorrect.

    I like specifying actual page sizes that exist in the real world and are understood by graphic designers, print shops et al. across the globe. Having worked peripherally to these industries for my professional life I understand that the printable area is a clipped area within the bounds of a standard page. What is not helpful is infinite different 'page sizes' based on the printable area of every printer in the world. especially when those infinite 'page sizes' all refer to the same size page standard (i.e. in this case A3).

    A3 should always be expressed as 420 x 576mm, halved to A4, doubled to A2 etc etc etc.

    Do you think its better the way it is in VW? What benefit could it possibly have in communicating to anyone else in the world but a VW user?

  2. mm. I'm super happy setting up A3 pages that are 407.4mm x 284.3mm.. I've obviously been operating under some false ideas of standard paper sizes.
    Hint. Generally (i.e. every other package) paper sizes are set to standards, and margins are subtracted from it based on printer settings. Foolish humans, obviously its best to specify pages by printable areas rather than industry standards. It makes for hilarious conversations when trying to teach others.

    • Like 2
  3. One of the reasons I find vectorworks forums and the software itself so frustrating is that I am able to troubleshoot AutoCAD, the entire adobe suite and almost any other package I am proficient in, for others, over the phone. This is because I have a lot of experience with these packages and the software always behaves consistently or at least with an identifiable logic.

     

    I am yet to have that experience with helpdesk or the forums for vectorworks. The answer is always "upload the file", which I assume is because there is no consistency between one users issue and anothers. This is reflected in the software where a tool will either work, or not work, based apparently on the whims of the gods, or an internal random number generator.

     

    I fixed the issue myself.. What it turned out to be was a layer with half a dozen polylines. All the polylines looked normal and appeared normal in 'object info'. However, I couldn't select more than one object without the software falling over (now that, it does consistently). I finally managed to delete these objects by deleting the whole class (??), saved the file, which immediately dropped from 280Mb to 20Mb, and purge activated immediately. I'm pretty sure this is not an issue with the files, but rather with how vectorworks builds objects. Still, its interesting to note that 6 polylines can require 260Mb of information, and make a modern computer use all its resources to select and/or delete.

  4. Since starting to use this program I have been having problems with the purge command.

     

    I currently am refining a .dwg I have imported into VW and having put the objects I want to keep into the correct classes, deleted the unused lines, I am now trying to purge the old classes that came in with the .dwg from the file. The file was 280Mb when I saved it just prior to purging. I started the purge command at 10.30 this morning and it is now 2.30pm. So 4 hours + is what VW thinks is appropriate to recognise the handful of unused classes etc.

     

    Before everyone says, "upload the file"; this is NOT a file related problem. This is absolutely a vectorworks problem as it has followed me through 3 full versions of VW, probably 9 Service packs, 3 New template files and every single file over 10Mb I have used. However,  I know I am the only person to experience this as I only get condescending comments from tech support and there is nothing discussing purge slowness in the forums.

     

    Help?

    • Like 1
  5. I just found out the best way.
    Exporting massing models to .3ds is awful.. The geometry is incredibly inaccurate (???). Export to .3dm (rhino) is no better.
    The cleanest way I have found to do this is Modify>Convert>Convert to 3D Polys, then save off as a .dwg in perspective view. The geometry is clean and accurate. None of the points stray from their positions as they always do in the other export options. I have struggled for over a year with different ways of getting Massing model geometry out into Rhino and this is the only option I have been satisfied with.

    • Like 1
  6. Hi All,

     

    I am trying to export some 3D massing models (pitched roofed house models for context to a site model) to rhino but I cannot get any consistent results. I have tried most of the 3D export options, but VW either flattens the 3D down to the 2D plane, or tears the 3D model into individual planes and then centres them on the origin. The only conversion that gives me approximate 3D house style shapes is the 3DS export option, but all the geometry goes a bit wonky.

     

    Does anyone know a workflow I can use to export 'massing models' into usable 3D geometry I can import into another program.

     

    Thank you.

    Nicholas McLeod

  7. Hi Josh.

    Got it.. I understand this, but when I select a single 3d polyline it allows me to enter a z-value for the whole object (which I assume is the lowest point of a '3D object'), but when multiples are selected I don't have this option. I guess your answer above is the reason why.

    I'll take your first suggestion though. I'll just be careful.

    Thanks again.

    Nick.

  8. Hi Josh,

    Thank you for your reply. I was looking at move3D, but I wanted something to set the z-value to a definite value. Otherwise I could accidentally run the script twice and ruin myself by compounding mistakes.

    Otherwise, I could do this and just be careful, but thats not really my strongest suit..

    y'know?

    Nick.

  9. Hi All,

     

    I'm trying to work through a bunch of contours imported from GIS information. These contours are all sitting on z=0 and all have an elevation value in their records, but there are thousands of separated lines so elevating all by hand is a large job.

     

    I have set up some scripts to select these contours separately, but I would like to add to these scripts, by adding a line that sets the z-value of the selection to the elevation value in the record. I don't need it to be smart or anything.. I just want to know a script that can specify a z-value to multiple 3D Polylines.

     

    Help?

     

    Thank you in advance.

    Nick

    Mac OSX 10.11.6
    Vectorworks Architect 2016

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