domer1322

is it possible to use the VW wall styles to represent a wall that has different materials on the lower portion of the wall than on the upper portion ? That is ... what if my wall has a CMU veneer on the bottom 3 feet, and then uses regular clay masonry for a veneer above the CMU. It seems to me that the VW wall components are not allowed to "stack" on top of each other and must be in different vertical planes. I attached a sketch of a vertical section. If it is possible, please tell me how. I know I can draw 2 separate walls for the veneers, but this very cumbersome, especially when trying to insert a window or door. My goal is simply to be able to represent the wall correctly in both 2D and 3D views. I'm not concerned about the proper height for the cut plane for a floor plan.

jblock .... I sent you a message and repeat the main part here ...... I was very surprised to find from another test that VW2015 now DOES ACTIVATE on my old laptop using Mac OS 10.10.5. If anyone reading this cares, I now retract my earlier disparaging post about the lifetime of VW products. I don't know what happened, but for a couple years it definitely did not activate, and I now have no idea why it activates now .... but I'm happy.

I forgot to mention one other important factor why you can't keep using VW forever .... I try to use VW 2015 on my old Macbook Air, which also can not update to the newest OS nor browser. Since VW requires internet verification, when I start VW2015 it will not verify on the internet. The VW tech guys confirmed with me that the internet verification for VW2015 will not work, and thus, it will not start up. They have no intention of fixing it. I suspect this will happen to all subsequent versions of VW. Also ... there is no setting for which browser the internet verification uses, so I can't try to use a more recent Firefox browser. (setting the default browser differently makes no difference)

TomKen ... I just had to put my two cents in about one comment you made. I am retired and kept VW to do (mostly) charity work. I thought I could just keep it "forever" since it was not on subscription. This is proving to be a mirage. What happens is that I am now unable to upgrade my Mac OS because VW 2015 won't work on a more recent Mac OS. Since I can't upgrade my Mac OS, I can not upgrade my Safari browser. I'm pretty well constrained to use Firefox since some websites (like my bank) don't work with an old Safari browser. I figure the age of the OS and browsers will become intolerable within 2-3 years. Thus, my conclusion is that keeping the old VW running won't work anyone more after about 8 years. At that time I'll have to decide to buy a whole new computer system and VW, or give up on CAD work. (My other computer, a 16 year old iMac, still works really well as a music player and to show photos of project sites while I'm drafting on my late 2012 iMac.) This sort of constant-update cycle is exactly what everyone has complained about since Steve Jobs was working in his garage. No solution in sight.

thanks, but .... can someone confirm that the Attributes Mapping tool will allow changes to the mapping of an individual wall component ? I've been trying repeatedly to make it work, but it only works (for me) on unstyled walls when they are rendered "by object" and they don't have components.

This ought to be simple for anyone who knows what they're doing ..... in the attached image, how do I move the lines in the wall surface such that one horizontal line is aligned with the sill ? (right now it is about 4" lower than the sill) I tried using the attribute mapping tool to no avail. I suspect there must be something I don't know about the AM tool. I thought of the setting for textures that assigns a global 'Z' value, but it is grayed out on the OIP. The wall in the image is a styled wall with an outer component of plaster and I only want to move the texture on the outer component without moving the texture of the other components (although ... I can work around it if I must ... please tell me how to move the texture) I even tried reading the manual .... which doesn't seem to address how to move a texture on a wall. Thanks for any help .... (sorry, but I'm using VWA2015, so please consider if your advice is OK for this older version).

is it possible to develop a worksheet that lists objects based on the object size ? I tried setting the criteria in the data base line. First I set the criteria based on the class. But for the next criteria there are hundreds of possible fields, but none of them say "length" "height""depth" unless it is associated with a PIO like a window. In my case, I often design simple ADA ramps for charity, and I'd like to automatically do a material list when I get done. For example, I might have joists that are extrudes, or generic solids, or a solid subtraction, and I'd like to lump them together based on size, so I know that I have to order 16 ft long boards or 8 ft long boards, etc. Any help with a proper formula/criteria is appreciated.....

I have an old file (a 3D model of my own house) that I've been updating or changing for years. I notice that my door plug-in objects do not allow me to assign door hardware to them. That is, I click "settings" on the OIP then in the door dialog box I pick 'hardware' and the area where there is normally a list of all the available hardware sets shows an empty box. When I click on the box "include hardware" it makes no difference. I have some hardware sets already in the resource browser of this file. I tried to "update plug-ins" as well as "reset plug-ins" but it made no difference. I do not have this issue with other files. It seems to me I have to tell VW that there is a hardware file in the 'libraries' folder, but I can't figure out how do that. Help .... please .... (I'm using VW 2015 but I hope you'll consider replying even if I'm using old software).

Boh: thanks for the reply. I needed someone with real skill to verify that it isn't possible. I suppose sometimes the 99% technique might be OK, but I want to render it in OpenGL without seeing the line. Also, in RW the shingles don't line up. I found a not-too-complicated work around . It is a bit frustrating though ..... this roof shape is very common in my area for old ranch houses that are now being renovated. The roof tool let me down.

you could try this work-around: make the walking surface of your ramp as a slab or generic solid. Then use the extract tool to extract the edge of the slab as a NURBs curve. Use the NURBS curve as the path for an extrude along path with the handrail profile. Also use the NURBS curve to duplicate many balusters along a path. This will work if the railing and guards are not too complicated, but even small ironwork patterns can be duplicated along the NURBS path if you wish. I was doing this for a project when I read your inquiry and it is working for me. I hope this helps.

It seems I can't reproduce this very common roof structure and ask for your help. In the attached image, I want to make the plane of roof A be co-planar with roof surface B, as well as have that roof portion overhang a bit as shown. I understand it means that the bearing height of the wall shown with the purple line must be lower than the bearing height of the wall with the yellow line. However, when I try to reduce the bearing height of the purple wall, it will not allow me to fully lower it so that the planes are co-planar. It does allow me to lower the plane of roof A, but not enough to make it co-planar before I get an error message. I know that I can change the roof into generic solids and then make the change, but I don't want to do that, since I can't return it to being a roof object. Any help is appreciated ..... thanks

Ok .. thanks .... I'm just repeating the answer here so that I can find this thread in the future ... in case I forget again. The answer was to set the jamb to a class, and then hide that class.

At one time I knew what caused white lines to appear around openings when inserted into a wall, but now I forgot and I can't fix this. I ask for help ... look at the attached image and tell me how to get rid of the white lines that appear around the opening on the corner edges of the opening/wall. It occurs in OpenGL and RW.

UPDATE: I discovered that I can insert a window dormer from the VW libraries ... IF.... I click and drag it directly on to the roof. Whenever I first drag it on the drawing (but not on the roof) and then I drag it over the roof (in top/plan view) then it does not insert itself as a dormer. This seems odd to me. Is it supposed to work that way ?

thanks ... but I tried that multiple times. Perhaps I should have asked the question this way .... When I drag my window symbol over the top of my roof, and the roof does not high-lite nor show any indication that it will insert it, then what have I done wrong ?