Carl Burns

Just a possibility: If this terra cotta capital is in Seattle, it might well have been made by Gladding McBean (Terra Cotta) in California. They still exist and have retained some of their historic molds. They may have other resources (2d,3d?), or know of people who've had to recreate molds / casts of same or similar capitals. Gladding McBean Corporate Headquarters 601 7th Street Lincoln, CA 95648-1828 Phone: 800-776-1133 Manager, Architectural Products: Jamie Farnham E-mail: jamie.farnham@paccoast.com - Carl Burns

From a google search for "pdf writer best", one web site had this list of favorite programs: Dane Prairie Win2PDF? www.daneprairie.com $35; free evaluation Jaws PDF Creator? www.jawspdf.com $79; free evaluation Fine Print PDF Factory? www.pdffactory.com $49.95; free evaluation PDF995 www.pdf995.com $9.95; free evaluation with advertising Robo PDF? www.robopdf.com $49; free evaluation activePDF www.activepdf.com $79; free evaluation Carl

P : (you wrote):"...How to select and fix (en masse) objects that have been inadvertantly "misclassed" and are members of a container object is a thorny problem. It would have to be possible to edit these objects without entering the group. While code could be written to allow this, it would contradict one of the normal and desirable functions of groups, which is to disallow access to the individual member objects unless we are in the "edit group" window." IF...classes can be thought of as "tags" or "labels" which assign an object to one or (maybe unfortunately as you say) more groups, why can't there be a command, or a query which would result in display of all objects with tag "x", regardless of how many other tags the object also carries? I guess I'm wondering if it's really necessary to edit the object without entering the group...I just want to know it's there, and mis-classed so I don't lose a vital something in a set of drawings. I don't mind in this case editing in the same old fashion. Jan, Thanks I do remember the guideline option, though I haven't tried it since I started with VW. I only vaguely remember that I didn't like the look and function of them, and perhps(?) you can't print them when you do want to...I'll have to try again. Carl

I'd like a quick good way to find mis-classed objects in a drawing: I have a class or two which are routinely turned off when printing because they're guidelines (class: gl). And while drawing, they're sometimes the active class. So, objects which should be visible sometimes end up in "gl". However if they're anything more complex than a simple object they have multiple classes and won't display with: Organize/Class Options/Active Only and "gl" the active class. Does anyone have a good way to do this? Failing that, I'd wish for a Class Options/Show non-visible objects only. Another possible: A Class Option which displays everything with Active Class regardless of other classes attached. Thanks for your thoughts, Carl

For the next time: NNA tech suppport suggested keeping an exact copy of the workspace, as this is where palette location/size info is stored. When you lose a palette, use the copy of the workspace and toss the old one/make a new copy. I once had luck with changing monitor resolution. Carl

>port scans that were coming from the machine. >It seems to be coming from VectorWorks. After the recent virus/worm attacks we installed norton antivirus and firewall, and had the same experience: the firewall reports on all attempts to communicate in/out, and it sometimes reports VW attempting to send an "outbound UDP packet". Oddly, though I've been using VW(A) 10.1.2 the attempt to send is from VW 9.5.2, still installed. Tech support at NNA didn't have any answers so the communication from VW9.52 is "blocked" with no ill effects. Trying to call home? Carl

I enthusiastically agree: the more one can manipulate elements graphically (vs mathematically) with immediate visual feedback the closer the software comes to really fitting and assisting the earlier stages of the architectural design process. The ability to set elements with precision is also useful of course. Maybe the dash creation tool(?) is an example of a tool which is more graphically successful than precise...it could be improved in both aspects. Carl

Has anyone worked out a method to move spreadsheets around between VW and ACAD? VW to ACAD - It took a while to understand that Excel runnning inside ACAD only displays 1 page at a time, regardless of file size. So, the file (if originating in Excel) has to be broken into 1 pg bites for import into ACAD. ACAD back to VW - If the information has been brought into ACAD as an Excel spread sheet, a .dwg import into VW doesn't bring the spreadsheet along. Is there a way to "demote" the embedded spreadsheet (like convert PIO to group), so VW finally sees it as simple text or bitmap, or other? Thanks for any ideas, Carl

quote: Originally posted by Kristen: Carl, maybe I'm misunderstanding, but isn't this again something that you can do with a saved sheets? You could have five saved sheets, each with the brick class active, along with whichever other classes which belong in design alternate 1, etc. Well yeah, I think so. And I'm pretty happy with the way VW works... I've yet to come anywhere near fully exploring it, using it sporadically as I do. Carl

I wonder: What if one could assign any number of classes to a single object? After all these classes simply enable one to "connect" objects within a group. A single object in a building for instance can actually belong to many different conceptual groups. And it might be useful to be able to call up each different group (all bricks, design alternate 1, thermal envelope, structure, brick type A...ad nauseum)without creating seperate objects. In this case one would then directly assign the "attribute-determining class"... or not (attributes could be individually determined as now). If the confusion between attributes and classes is dealt with directly, it allows one to think of classes more flexibly, just a database tag. No doubt this would create a level of complexity which would drive me back to pencil and paper. Carl

Just to rule out the simplest possibility: are you moving the referenced image in the target layer? It then reverts to its original position at next opening. Carl

"...I now have two instances of the floorplan in the cross section- the reference and the linked layer from the reference..." Turn the referenced layer off. Carl

"In the floor plan file, I created a linked layer 'CS03' which I then unlocked and rotated...In the cross section file I attempted to workgroup reference the floorplan file selecting only the linked layer 'CS03'..." Sounds like in this case you want the floorplan as the reference; section as the target file. Set up the Workgroup reference first (floorplan to section); then in the target file make a new layer, and in that layer create a layer link of the referenced layer. This you can move, rotate, etc. and it should remain as modified the next time the file is opened. Carl [ 02-19-2003, 07:16 AM: Message edited by: Carl Burns ]

Great idea. There is the simple option of setting line weight to zero. This does allow snapping for dimensions, without creating unwanted detail. Carl

I think you're describing a feature not a bug...if you mean revisions to the reference file made from the target file. Although from the target file you can seemingly revise and move the reference file and it's objects, it won't really "take". Revisions have to be made from within the reference file. You can "permanently" move the referenced image location using a layer link in the target file. - Carl [ 02-10-2003, 07:50 AM: Message edited by: Carl Burns ]

I'd like to get some input from NNA and other VW users on this. I think there are only 3 possible strategies for archiving old files: 1 - Easiest: save them and forget them and try to keep appropriate VW version running to access these files. This requires cooperation from OS and equipment, and is probably a doomed effort in the long run. 2 - Never forget or "deadfile" old files. Continually convert them into newer VW formats as the versions come out. This appears to have risks as well, as the conversion process seems to entail losses, changes in data sometimes. 3 - Save in the most universal and durable format one can find, .pdf, .dwg, ...other? And of course, it's possible to do combinations of these, even doing all 3! Thanks, Carl

Sometimes (not all times..this is strikingly erratic): I click on ?solid fill color? box in the attributes palette. I promptly get a runtime error (multiple runtime error dialogues) and crash. This has occurred most often in one particular file, but now in others as well; it has occurred once in the template I use most often (and for the file where this became evident); so far I don?t think it has ever occurred in a clean / bare file. I?ve discussed w/ NNA tech support. Suggestion 1: Perhaps a conflict with video card driver. I installed the latest driver. No change. Still intermittent crash as described Suggestion 2: Cut/Paste drawing info into a new file. I haven?t done this yet, and now I've experienced the runtime error in other files as well, though based on the same template. I've submitted this to bugsubmit also. Thanks, - Carl Burns System: VW10.0.1, Win XP, Dell Pentium 4, 512 Megs RAM, Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX/MX400 w/ driver v. 4.0.7.2 (date: 9.27.02) [ 02-03-2003, 10:04 AM: Message edited by: Carl Burns ]

The default short-cuts keys are thoughtfully grouped together, so it's real easy...boom, boom...to turn off the constraints that way (See workspace editor) - Carl

I think that this thread is a little more evidence that (some) users continue to care about improvements to 2D tools. These tools may be old-fashioned and counter to the single model ideal, not interesting as a programming challenge, and insofar as they mimic ACAD, (extend tool, "fences") they may even contribute to loss of program character. But, they are efficient and useful for certain tasks. - Carl

quote: Originally posted by P Retondo: Sean and Katie, Perhaps you are somewhat misled by the way we are characterizing the use of the extend tool. With the old extend tool, you select the line to be extended to, select the tool, then click once on each of the lines to be extended. N.B.: the line to be extended to does not have to be in your view! It can be hundreds of feet away, and you can zoom in to see the individual lines to be extended, which may be inches or less apart! So besides one click for each extend, no panning and zooming between clicks. This is what we miss. Better than just bringing back the extend tool, it would be great if there were a second mode where you could select multiple lines to be extended, then hit enter to extend them all at once. Yes, clearly said. It's the "out of view" ability which makes the tool so useful, and a "multiple line" version would be more so. - Carl

"Modify (ie Map) layers/classes" can do what you want I believe...and very easily. - Carl