Hugo

I have had several printer problems with Vectorworks 11.x in both Mac OS X 10.3.x and 10.4.x (client versions) that happen when the Vectorworks folder is inside the Applications folder. Moving the VW folder to the hard drive root brings back all the printers.

Here at the office we are having a continuous problem when sharing files between Macs and PCs. Almost every file drawn on a Mac will open with callout's text and text blocks mirrored horizontally and/or vertically, leaving files unusable for inmediate printing. One must re-flip all mirrored blocks, and it is a time consuming task. All drawings are simple 2D plans, using Arial font. All computers are running Vectorworks 11.5, PCs are running Windows XP SP2, and Macs are running a mix of Mac OS 9.2.2, 10.3.9 and 10.4.2. Any ideas on how to fix this issue?

murky, I have also noticed that. I thought Hardware Accelerated 2D Navigation and Vectorworks Caching were supposed to make the drawing process faster, but everytime I check them in Preferences, after some minutes Vectorworks slows down and I have to quit and reopen the program. This doesn't happen if both options are unchecked.

Wow! All this is great info for me! Actually I made several mistakes in a drawing splitting more objects than the single wall I wanted to edit. Glad to know the option key will save me from this. Thank you all for this very useful info!

Hello. I am running Mac OS X 10.4.2 and I get this message from time to time in my logs: In the Apple forums they suggested it is feedback for developers... 'VectorWorks(238,0xa000ef98) malloc: *** Deallocation of a pointer not malloced: 0xffffffff; This could be a double free(), or free() called with the middle of an allocated block; Try setting environment variable MallocHelp to see tools to help debug' Any ideas? Does this will help you to improve VW? Hugo [ 09-03-2005, 02:08 PM: Message edited by: Hugo ]

Jonathan, thank you very much. Great addition!

Mike, Again, thank you very much. Very useful help, exactly what I was looking for!

Mike, This is exactly what is happenning. I have connected walls. The procedure you explained works for me, but it is disappointing having to break the connection, then move the wall, and then reconnect the walls again. This could be automatic. Thank you for your input.

Katie, I have no shortcut for datum. It happens on any workspace. And it happens not only in this file, it happens in several ones. Thank you.

Katie, That preference is already off. Any other idea?

Is this possible, using the wall tool?

Hello. I am drawing a model, and several times, when trying to drag a wall, the smart cursor tells me "Datum", it draws a small circle, and the wall won't move. I have to fight continuously with this. Am I doing anythinh wrong, or this is the way it is supposed to work? I just want to drag a wall to snap to a line I just had draw. Thank you,

Kaare, Snap to object is on. That is why I ask.

I am experiencing trouble with snaps in 3D symbols and extrudes. I am drawing a polyline to recreate the section of a column I plan to extrude. This polyline has many vertex and points, it looks similar to a star. While it is a polyline, snaps work perfect. The cursor detects all corners, centers, midpoints and others. I can draw with absolute precision. But once I extrude it, it looses most of it's snap points. Only some vertex work, and I can't snap lines to center points or others. Do I need to change some preference, or this is the way it works?

Go to file, Document Preferences, and there choose the Resolution pane. Choose Full Resolution. Good luck!

I think this happens for a faster redraw of the screen. Your fonts will look fine when printed. I don't think it is posible to have the fonts with "real look" all the time. At least in Mac OS X, I think VW should have to be rewritten to take advantage of the Quartz rendering engine. Don't know in Windows.

Also, if anytime you consider adding a new computer to your setup, consider a Mac. They run Vectorworks like PCs and have the ability to create PDFs built into the operating system.

Thank you all,

Is it posible to use diferent units for dimensioning in different layers in the same drawing? I have one layer for general drawings at 1:25 scale, and another one for details at 1:1 scale. I would like to dimension the first one in centimeters and the second in millimeters. Is this posible? Thank you! [ 07-22-2005, 12:41 PM: Message edited by: Hugo ]

Thank you all. I will try the Duplicate along path tool.

Is there any way I can drag equidistant X copies of an object as I move the mouse in any direction? I know Archicad has a command like that, "Drag a Copy". Thank you,

On a tight budget like my office's, how would a G5 iMac behave with VW 11.5? Any experiences? Thank you.

I strongly disagree with Just Learning. The main reason you see Mac users complaining here more frequently than PC users is because most VW users are Mac users. PC users have the alternative of Autocad, Mac users don't. So it is obvious you will see more Mac users. Here at the office we have both Mac and PCs and most of the problems happen in the PCs with both Vectorworks and Autocad. In my experience Macs are much better and stable and less complex. By the way, I use an iBook G4 for VW everyday. While I agree a bigger screen is better, the iBook's TFT screen is much easier on the eyes than CRTs. So you have to choose. I think a Powerbook with a 15" screen or better would be the best choice. Look for a 128 Mb videocard and lots of RAM and you will have a great machine. [ 06-23-2005, 03:16 PM: Message edited by: Hugo ]

Hello. I had just lost 3 hours of work because VW 11.5 crashed suddenly while moving in a drawing with the pan tool. The file is unusable, I get an error when trying to open that says: -39 End of file reached during Read Attempt to read file - FSREAD Clicking OK gives me an almost empty drawing with a few lines, but all my work gone. What can I do? I'm in a hurry. Thanks. [ 06-07-2005, 05:48 PM: Message edited by: Hugo ]

Get a 12" iBook. Small, portable, fast and complete. You can even watch DVD movies in your trips.