domer1322

well .... now I've tried putting the "default" template in the templates folder and starting up ...... it didn't work. Am I doing something wrong ? Did anyone else try that and get it to start up with your designated template ? (I tried it on both Windows and Mac versions VW2011 ... same result... no joy)

OK ... but I think maybe Pat has the right answer. I knew I could save templates, but my question was ... how do I get my template to open up AUTOMATICALLY every time I start the program (instead of the "standard" empty document) Thanks for your help .....

Upon start-up, is there a way to make VW 2011 always open a blank document that is formatted according to the "Architect" template instead of always opening up a new document that has the wrong (for me) scale ? (I know i can do it myself .... I want it to happen automatically each time i start up.)

Can someone help with this .... I imported a pdf formatted aerial photo. Then I drew a 3D building on top. Then I switch to an isometric view. When the rendering view is in wireframe (unified view), the photo shows up nicely in the isometric (3D) view. When I switch to Renderworks, the building renders nicely, but the aerial photo become invisible. Is this expected behavior or is it operator ignorance ? I'd like to see both the bldg rendered and the aerial photo in the same view. (This was done using VW 2011.)

I switched compression back to png ... problem solved. All is well. Thanks for the help.

Me too .... I changed it back to jpeg and all my problems in life went away .... (slight exaggeration) Thanks .... PS: I am still getting used to VW2011 but there are some great new things.... good job on the new release.

Dave: I did change the default compression to jpeg. Tonight I will verify if changing back to png fixed it (not typing this from my CAD computer) ... I hope ...

thanks for the info .... I really liked the QTVR files .... small and great for emailing interior concepts to clients. I guess any client with a modern Mac will be out of luck ... therefore, I'll have to stop making them .... eventually.

I forgot to mention .... everything renders just fine in a normal design layer .... it is only the viewports (and section viewports) having trouble.

I am having similar problems. I tried changing to standard workspace with VW 2011 ... no joy. I can't get my viewports to render in RW. The same viewport renders OK in wireframe and OpenGL but not RW nor Artistic RW. I tried this with a new file, that has only a wall and a door and a light source .... no joy. Could this be related to QT ? I had to download latest QT 7.6.6 in order to try making a QTVR panomaram (that didn't work either) using Mac OS 10.6.3 iMac 27" i7

I can't render any 3D viewport in Final RW mode. The same viewport renders OK in OpenGL and hidden line, but not RW nor Artistic RW modes. Is this just my problem ? Can anyone confirm if this is happening to you ? I tried it on a brand new file, with only a wall and a door ... same results ... the viewport just turns uniformly gray. Using VW 2011, Mac OS 10.6.3

thanks .. I thought you might be on to something ... but it didn't work. I had to upgrade to Mac OS 10.6.3 in order to upgrade Quicktime Player to version 7.6.6. Then I opened QT and then picked file>open but I got the same messge. Any other ideas ? I also noticed that I can't render a section viewport in final RW ... but the smae viewport will render in OpenGL and in hidden line modes. Are these issues related ... or a bug ? Also: based on the situation, it sounds like Apple isn't supporting the QT VR format anymore. Is that true ?

can anyone else confirm that the Quicktime VR panorama does not work on VW 2011 (Mac) ? I've tried it with different settings, from a VW 2010 converted file and a newVW2011 file, using RW final. In each case, it seems to work, but when I try to open the file and view it, I get a dialog box that says "The movie could not be opened. This file is not a movie file." Using Mac OS X 10.6.2 on an iMac 27" i7 with quicktime player 7.6.3 (Interestingly, the "get info" box says QT player 7 is actually version 10.0 ---- puzzling)

I noticed my RW render times with 2011 was about the same at 2010 on a 3D model converted from 2010. I guess i should read the promotion accurately .... it says "indirect Lighting" is 4 times faster. I guess direct lighting is not faster. If anyone is keeping track ... the VW 2011 "Custom Stair" tool does not render the top railing in 3D (you just get a nurbs line, not a 2" dia railing) .... but the "stair" tool seems to work fine. What is the differnce anyway ?

I'm not quirte sure ... but I think the solution was to go into the Mac "get info" box of the default door hardware file and change it to allow all users to read and write and I also unlocked it by cliucking the little icon in the lower right corner. After i did this .... it works ... but I'm not sure why. PS: "display default content" was definitely not the answer. PS: my profile is deceptive ... now using VW on a Mac .. will fix soon.

I must have messed something up and I can't figure this out: when I go to the door settings and try to pick a door knob/lever to assign to the door, the default hardware shows nothing. I checked in the library folder "defaults" and the door hardware VW default file is in there. What is wrong ? ... or better yet..... how can I fix it ? second question: I now notice that when I go to the menu bar and pick "help" the drop down menu has the Mac system help topics but there is no Vectorworks help option. How do I fix that ?

APE Design Ctr: I guess I'll try and help .. send your file to rocket1322@yahoo.com ..... but I think yahoo restricts file size to 5 Meg. If your file breaks my iMac, can I get some free playground equipment from you ?

is there any info about the PC system requirements for VW 2011 ? I need to figure out if my Windows XP machine is an antique yet.

I have a 27" iMac i7 (2009 version but bought recently), 4G RAM and I am not experiencing any 3D rendering issues. I mostly use final RW (not OpenGL)

my two cents .. I just bought a 27" iMac i7 (refurb) and I love the screen size ... except everyone is forgeting to mention that the higher resolution makes all the icons, pallets, and menu bar items be smaller and you have to have good eyesight and more accurate mouse movements to hit the icons. (I never got around to memorizing all the hotkeys). You can make the resolution smaller (and the icons bigger) but that defeats the purpose. I was anxious about the screen reflections and that turned out to be no problem ... even when lighting is bad, somehow my eyes adjust so the reflections don't bother me. PS: don't forget the standard iMac comes with a keyboard that doesn't have a numeric keypad .. a slight irritant. I was not able to get used to the "majic Mouse" (trackpad) and went back to my older "mighty mouse" (scroll ball) PS: to see the i7 render a 3D image is a thing of delight (and speed) .... eight cores (4 virtual) all going at once.

I just got a 27" iMac and one issue is the size of the icons in all the tool pallets are too small. Is there a way to make all the VW 2010 icons in all the pallets be bigger ? (I know I can change the resolution of the monitor, but that seems like defeating the purpose of the big monitor by reducing the pixel count)

your response gave me encouragement. I struggled with this (off and on) for a couple hours. Next thing i know, the mighty mouse works the way I wanted it to, on the Mac side. I have no idea what I did. I suspect changes I made before didn't take affect without a restart ... otherwise .... there is no explanation. Typical computer glitch ..... at least in the old days, I could tell when my pencil was broken ....

Anyone notice this .... If I use bootcamp to operate VW2010 on Windows XP on a new 27" iMac, then I am able to push down on the scroll wheel of my older Apple mighty mouse and turn VW into the pan function. This is very handy since it allows the scroll wheel to serve both for zooming and panning. However, with the same equipment, if I try VW on the MAC partition, then the scroll wheel can not be used to activate the pan tool. I've tried to program a five button microsoft intellimouse but it doesn't really work the same, since pushing the wheel down can activate the pan tool, but you still have to click something else to pan around. Any suggestions ? (PS: so far, I do not like the new magic mouse for VW ... are there tricks to make it better ?)

I'm puzzled about this: I have an office floor plan in 2D with file cabinets. I can see them on my screen, in a viewport. When I print the page directly from VW, the file cabinets do not show up in the print output. However: if I export the same viewport into a pdf file, they show up in the pdf file and will also show up when I print the pdf file. What could cause this behavior ? (Usually for me, it is operator error ... but in this case, I don't think so) Even more puzzling ..... most of the file cabinets disappear, but not all of them. This was an old file started in VW2008, now its in VW2010 ... could that be a problem ? if so how do you solve it ? VW2010 Designer WinXP

I'm almost ashamed to ask this simple question .... In 2D drawing, when two objects overlap, is there a way to select the lower 'back' object without first sending one of them to the back (or front)? I've tried many key combinations, no luck .....