MKingsley

Final quality renderworks as well as custom renderworks trying both shadow options. I did a custom radiosity render which was lighter but the colors were so far off I didn't have time to experiment with adjustments there.

In the limited time I've been designing with VW, I've found that my clients absolutely LOVE being able to see the building or product in three dimensions with colors and textures and placed into an actual photo of the site. If that's what the client wants, then that's what my business NEEDS and I appreciate Nemetschek for making their product one of the many out there from which to choose.

I'd like to post an scanned image of the print and then an image taken from the file to show you the difference but I'm not sure how. I don't have a website from which I can post an image. Is there any other way?

I may be asking too much of my HP All-in-one officejet, but I'm trying to get a quick rendered perspective of a building on an 8.5 x11 sheet. The only problem is the image is very dark. It's like every color has some extra black pixels in it that I can actually see. Anybody know of a way to improve on this? Turn off the black somehow?

"and I the text file on the Mac where you can edit the roof framing members without starting VectorWorks." Jonathan, could you explain that a little further?

I'd say it's just like any other NEW software product out there. They all demand a lot, as much as the hardware can give. It's always a game of leapfrog with the hardware and software. Not sure what you mean by "huge hard disc footprint". VW12 is a smaller (less MB) application than Photoshop and Adobe Reader, Filemaker 7, SketchUp 5, Toast 7, and most of my "i" applications on the Mac (I don't have much else). Ram is relatively cheap and accessible if your hardware is "up-to -date". I would say that in most cases it helps everyone IMPROVE their workflow if your doing more than "lines and boxes with some shades and fills". It IS backward compatble to previous versions, just not that far to v8. Is it really running slower doing "lines and boxes with some shades and fills'? What's a much faster machine? I can understand the frustration when expectations aren't met especially after spending a lot of bucks and you're under a lot of pressure at the office. It just don't think Vectorworks is the goat here. I think you personally may be better off with your previous set-up and just need to find an easier and less expensive way to get files in v12 back to v8. I have a freind who's business is in film, doing corporate films, independant, weddings and the like. On a Mac, he is perfectly happy with the old system OS9 and the software versions that work with that. As soon as you upgrade one piece of the pie, for the rest of the pie (or eaters) to be happy, the rest of it should follow suit.

At least you have a 5 next to your G. I'll probably wait another year for the MacBook Pro and the software to get up to speed, so to speak, with eachother. Maybe by then I'll have saved enough money to make that happen.

I think it's unfair to lable VW12 a "dog" just because it doesn't fit what you do on whatever equipment you have. Maybe you could have upgraded just one computer and software to do the converting back to VW8 for the rest of your machines and save some $. It may not be too late to return your upgrade under the NNA return policy. Here's the paradigm as put by someone else: New hardware + new software = Good New hardware + old software = Bad Old hardware + old software = Good Old hardware + new software = Bad The difference between old and new here, of course, can be a couple of years or less.

I don't know about PC laptops, but on my PowerBook you can hold down the function button (fn) and then the numeric "keypad" is activated amongst the letters U,I,O,J,K,L, etc. I also have a mini USB keypad for just this purpose as well as easier one-handed numeric entry.

Thank you, Matthew! Very helpful. I'm liking the Create Roof command better already!

So just how are they fabricating curved gutters these days?

I'm always wishing the roof commands could be more precise in the eaves and gable ends as well. Granted, I'm a relative novice with VW, been with it sporadically since v8, but I've never been happy using the "Create Roof" command, even in v12. If I have to change anything, or try shortening one side of a gable, forget it, go back to "Roof Faces". I like your idea, the way I see it anyway, and as long as you're ready for the final product it would work fine. You could "white-out" the offending lines with the pen color. How do other people handle the traditional stick built roofs where the insulated part of the roof is a full 2x12 rafter which is then ripped down to 5 or 6 inches at the eaves? Same at the gable ends where the roof is not a full 12" deep? (The new rake option in the soffit accessories doesn't seem to work) Separate roof faces? The sections show up inaccurately otherwise. All we need is one more "thickness" parameter for the eaves in the Create Roof dialog and I may force myself to use it somehow. And why not have some these options in the Roof Face command as well. I'm sure there are still a lot of us out there still building funky but chic roofs that rely on the Roof Face.

I'm always wishing the roof commands could be more precise in the eaves and gable ends as well. Granted, I'm a relative novice with VW, been with it sporadically since v8, but I've never been happy using the "Create Roof" commandl, even in v12. If I have to change anything, or try shortening one side of a gable, forget it, go back to "Roof Faces". I like your idea, the way I see it anyway, and as long as you're ready for the final product it would work fine. You could "white-out" the offending lines with the pen color. How do other people handle the traditional stick built roofs where the insulated part of the roof is a full 2x12 rafter which is then ripped down to 5 or 6 inches at the eaves? Same at the gable ends where the roof is not a full 12" deep? (The new rake option in the soffit accessories doesn't seem to work) Separate roof faces? The sections show up inaccurately otherwise. All we need is one more "thickness" parameter for the eaves in the Create Roof dialog and I may force myself to use it somehow. And why not have some these options in the Roof Face command as well. I'm sure there are still a lot of us out there still building funky but chic roofs that rely on the Roof Face.

Yeah, it's almost too intuitive...not to be snide, but often we are given to look for some dialog window to accomplish any bit of editing.

Don't you mean double-hitting the V key to zoom out, like you still have double-hitting the C key to zoom in? You can add it back in through the workspace editor.

I don't think I did anything in particular. I have the "Mouse wheel zooms" checked in the VW preferences. Does that work for you? I had a previous issue with a mouse and scroll wheel not working with SketchUp and the techies from SketchUp told me to uninstall the driver software that came with the mouse, Logitech in that case. They said with Macs you should be able to plug in the mouse right out of the box and have it work properly. I guess the drivers aren't compatable with what's in certain applications. There should be an uninstall option on the install disk that came with the mouse if it is a third party mouse. I use a Bluetake Bluetooth mini mouse and the wireless Logitech trackball in separate locations. HTH

Click and hold the mouse wheel and the then move the mouse or trackball to the desired location.

You can add the zoom out tool to the basic tool set in the workspace editor and then assign it the V key. I missed it at first too, kept hitting the V key and nothing happened. In the meantime I've grown use to using a mouse wheel to zoom in and out and also using the wheel-click to pan the drawing is great.

Or can't you set that layer to Gray? Whatever component you don't want grayed would go in a "parallel" (same z value) visible layer.

You can only edit walls that have a wall style from within the resource browser. Un-styled walls can be changed from within the OIP. I hear this will change with the next update.

You may have figured this out already but if you have "auto-classing" checked in the Standard Naming dialog, it won't let you change the class from what it was given at creation. Unchecking that will let change classes for that object HTH, Michael

Are you saying you place the dummy geometry above the wall w/ windows and doors in it, so in essence stacking two walls, one flat on top and the other fitting to the roof? Not sure I follow the concept. Michael Kingsley VW12 AR, Powerbook G4, 10.3.9

"Second, If I replace the wall type, move the wall, or look at the wall cross-eyed, it loses the geometry I spent so much time giving it." I put in a call to tech support about this issue, sent them the file for them to check out, and have yet to hear back about it. This seems like a bug to me that I hope is fixed in the next release. Very frustrating and a real time waster. Michael Kingsley VW12 AR, Powerbook G4, 10.3.9

Hello all, I'm using a custom door leaf on a door that was created using the VW12 door tool and then converted into a symbol. What I can't do is give that door leaf a custom color. I can access that door leaf symbol in the file's collection of symbols in the resource browser and edit that to the color I want using styles in the classes window. In the symbol edit window the door then renders as I want. I then go to choose that door leaf from within the settings dialog of the door symbol created earlier and all the "special classes" in the "view" settings are as I want them. Everything works fine except for getting the door leaf to render using the choices in the special classes. It just renders to a putty color with the glazing clear and not blue like I want. Am I doing this correctly or is this not possible using the custom leaf choice. TIA, Michael Kingsley VW12 Arch+RW, PowerBook G4 1.5, OS 10.3.9

I really like the cordless trackman mouse from Logitech. I use the one with the thumb operated ball and can have the thing in my lap and go all over the screen with ease by just moving my thumb. It took a little getting used to at first by I now have two for the two locations I take my laptop to. My four year old daughter prefers it as well over the typical mouse. Michael