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Turboman

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Everything posted by Turboman

  1. Dear Moderator, Understood. I will do as you suggest and see what happens. Since I've recently started working in 3D, there's probably a lot of tricks I need to learn. One of the things I've noticed when converting extruded 3D shapes to NURBS surfaces is that the extruded surface of the 3D part appears to become somewhat irregular. While this might be okay for "art work", it isn't going to cut it if your objective is to generate a 3D model for export to a CNC g-code generating CAM package...which is MY objective. As such, I'm still a bit concerned about loss of precision when converting from precise 2D geometry to 3D NURBS geometry in VW. Going back into the 3D model and manually tweaking control points isn't going to cut it. Are my concerns justified? Best regards, Tom
  2. Dear Moderator, If the observed surface irregularity is merely a screen resolution type issue and not a representation of the underlying mathematical model, then that's what I needed to know. Many thanks!! Best regards, Tom
  3. Dear Moderator, You are correct. I originally generated the airfoil profiles for 2D use only, so NURBS was not an absolute requirement. I'm not familiar with the NURBS "fit points" command. Is this available in v9.5 or must I upgrade to 10.5? Best regards, Tom
  4. Ron, Thanks so much for the excellent tips on precision 3D modeling in VW. You've convinced me to fork out the $$ for the upgrade to v10.5. However, what little I've done with NURBS in v9.5 leaves me less than satisfied. For example, I need to loft a precise airfoil surface using 2 or more section profiles originally entered as 2D loci. While the 2D "compose curve" command does an acceptable job converting the loci to smooth curves, the subsequent "convert to NURBS" (required for lofting the 3D surface) introduces too much distortion. How might one go about this in 10.5 to obtain an accurate NURBS airfoil profile from a 2D locus? Please note that the airfoil has a nonuniform chord length, so a simple "extrude" or "tapered extrude" command will not work. Thanks again for your help. Best regards, Tom
  5. P/BaRa, Many thanks for the quick reply. It "appears" that v.10.5 includes smart cursor functionality as in 2D. What I was thinking of was the ability to view the object from the +x,+y or +z directions and then have the smart cursor provide 2D moves in constant x,y,z planes respectively...perhaps same approach also for working planes for manipulating non-orthogonal parts/assemblies. Can anyone here explain how well the new 3D smart cursor fucntionality actually works? I still can't even export to DXF format after months of Tech Support "assistance", so am skeptical about NNA's marketing claims. ;( Best regards, Tom
  6. Hi, I've been using VW for 2D mechanical design work for some time and am very pleased with the results. I've recently begun trying to build 3D models of a machine I've developed and am running into some problems...perhaps due to my ignorance. I'm presently running VW 9.5.3 Mechanical on Mac OS 10.2.5. My problem is this; In 2D, it is easy to locate objects with high precision with respect to part edges by editing object coordinate values in the Object Info palette. However, I have not found a similar capability in the 3D workspace. 3D coordinates are not provided in the Object Info pallete. Nor do Smart Cursor cues seem available for picking up edges and centers. Short of dragging and/or moving, I cannot find another way to locate 3D parts precisely. (Any precision move MUST be made with respect to an edge or center of the part.) I've figured out how to make some nice looking 3D shapes, but due to lack of control over precision, these cannot be used for engineering purposes. If this cannot be done within VW, then VW is not the right program for what I need to do. Am I missing something here? Thank you for your help. Tom
  7. I'm running VW Mechanical 9.5.1 on OS X 10.2.6,...and can't even export a simple, 2D drawing from VW to DXF format. When I export the file to DXF and then import it again, the title block is "double exposed" by the default values. Latest word from NNA is that it's a genuine bug....not something I did on my end. I raised this issue a few weeks ago, but nobody responded, suggesting it was an isolated case of "newbie error" Has anyone else here experienced this, or can you replicate this on your system? I really don't want to upgradeto v10 to fix a fundamental portability bug like this, which should have been fixed many versions ago. If i can't export to basic DXF, then VW is guilty of false advertising.
  8. I'm running VW MECH 9.5.1 under OSX 10.2.6. While the drawing and border exports just fine, the title block is "double exposed"...the default field values are overwriting the drawing-specific values. Tech support is looking into it, but now I'm really in a serious bind as I cannot deliver drawngs to my clients. Please help, as I'm losing rapidly losing faith in VW.
  9. I'm running VW 9.5.3 under OSX 10.2.5 on a 400 MHz G3 Powerbook w/ 384MB RAM. Everytime I try to export an image file...any image file, the image is being cropped. The image dimensions in the Export dialogue box do not match the drawing image size. All I'm trying to export is a simple B&W 2-D drawing. i've tried different drawings of different scales, eg. 1:500, 1:50...no luck. I've read Katie's previous advice re: cleaning up the drawing, but it doesn't help. Furthermore, I don't think I should have to pay more $$ to upgrade to v.10 in order to fix a serious bug in something I've already paid for. I don't need any of the new functionality in v.10.
  10. Does anyone have any experience exporting 3D geometry files from Vectorworks 9.5 or VectorworksMechanical to CAM programs which generate G-code for CNC machining? Most CAM software will accept DXF files, but I'm not yet convinced that Vectorworks DXF is the same in this regard as DXF generated by AutoCAD. I'm buying a CNC milling machine and hope to be able to use Vectorworks for generating part geometry. I'd be grateful for any helpful advice or suggestions.
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