Kevin

Hi Mike I am glad that you have not experienced these problems which makes me wonder how you can have such a trouble-free experience while I can hardly get the program to work. I have used it on both OS10.2.4 and 10.2.6. I have used it on both a G4/466 and Powerbook G4/1gHz. Both computers have 1024MB of ram. I am open to suggestions.

I have Renderworks version 9.5 on Mac OS10.2. I rarely use it because of the following problems. Have these been fixed? 1. On animations the program freezes requiring a forced quit. It seems to be able to do 100 to 200 frames but over 200 frames is not possible. It does this on both orbit and walk-throughs. 2. Glass does not render predictably. Some glass renders transparent and green tint. Other glass renders opaque and white. It is bizzare to have one window transparent and the other opaque and of a different color. 3. On static rendering, the program freezes requiring a forced quit. Sometimes it freezes and sometimes it does not. For these reasons I do not use Renderworks. For me Renderworks is like a convertible sports car with shorts in the electical system. It has the promise and temptation of wanting to be driven but when I do try drive it the car fails to start. If I do get it to start it often leaves me stranded by the side of the road. In the end it is less frustrating to leave it parked in the garage.

I have a 455CA but am using VW9.5.3, OS10.2.3 and Gimp Print 4.2.4. I have not had any problems. You might try using 4.2.4 instead of 4.2.5 and see if there is an improvement.

BaRa; Very nice work on your website. You say that C4D does not handle NURBS. On your site you show a model titled Crosslite that says is modeled in VW NURBS. You then show the same light under your C4D gallery. Could you clarify this for us?

Cloud: What program created that second sample rendering that you show, the one in the desert-looking scene? Dave: No matter how much time we put into Renderworks, I do not believe that we can hope to achieve the realism of the reference rendering Cloud has shown. Personally I am very disappointed with Renderworks and in fact have given up on using it.I have spent around 50 to 60 hours trying to generate a rendering of a modern house and I still do not have a proper rendering. Some glass renders as glass but some renders solid white. The program frequently freezes on renderings and always freezes on animations. The 50 to 60 hours represents the time spent on one project. That is in addition to the countless hours of trying to learn the program. I would have interest in using Renderworks if it were a stable program. It reminds me of a vintage British sports car. It looks great and promises to be great fun to drive if only you could get the car to start and stay running. In a recent post on this board about C4D, the author was disappointed in the Vectorworks C4D Plug-in performance. The promise of the Plug-in is seamless integration of VW with C4D. Dave, I would love to hear your comments. I will also look forward to the results of your tinkering with Cloud's dome house file.

I agree with Jim. Your entire project is based upon that site plan. Inaccurate dimensions will produce an inaccurate product. These days it is common for surveyors to do their surveys electronically. They can provide you with a paper plot but can also provide you with an DXF file that you can import. Though I have not done it, it should be possible to take a surveyors electronic file and create a DTM from it. By the way "Real Architects" will have a note on their plans that says "Do Not Scale These Plans".

Mike: Your rendering is very nice, (as are all of your renderings). I seem to remember that you are creating these renderings from models that you build specifically for the rendering as opposed to creating a model for working drawings and then rendering that. If you are so inclined, I would love to hear from you how you create this rendering. Your analogy is very appropriate about the guitar. My analogy is that my guitar has a short circuit in it and sometimes it plays and sometimes it does not. It is tough enough trying to learn to play music without having to troubleshoot the inner workings of your instrument.

Katie: Where can I find an explanation for all of the cursor cues. I understand "arc end", but what of all the other cue names? As an example, when I try to dimension a floor plan I often end up dimensioning other dimension lines instead of the corner of the building. As always, thanks for your help.

Jim: Thank you for your info on doing a copy of a screenshot to clipboard. I have been using a Mac since 1989 and did not know you could send a screenshot to the clipboard. I have used shift command 4 for years, but in OS9 it gives you a PICT file and in OSX it gives you a PDF file. Adding the command key opens a whole new world for me. I also did not know you could import a PDF to VW. Thank you again.

I could not find a way to put PDF files into vectorworks unless I converted the PDF to an image file such as TIFF. So what I have done is to do the opposite. I put all of my PDF information into a PDF file. I printed a VW title block to PDF. I then open it in Acrobat, (full version, not reader). I can then paste tear sheets into that sheet. The downside so far is that the process is amazingly slow. It can take the computer 10 or more minutes to paste a letter size PDF. Editing text in the PDF is also agonizingly slow. There has got to be a better way but I am not sure what that might be. Right now it would be faster for me to print tear sheets to paper and paste up those paper images on a Arch D sheet and then make prints from that. This is a topic that needs to be addressed.

Phil; I have been using Gimp Print on a HP 455CA. using OS10.2.6 and OS10.2.3. It works fine, but does take more time than the HP RIP under OS9. It is a free download. Good luck.

Applefan; That is some great information. Where I get frustrated is in screen redraws. If I have a lot of information on the screen and make a change to anything, the whole screen redraws. This can take a lot of time. Draw a line wait 3 seconds then draw another line. i am talkin about plan view in wireframe, not a rendering operation. Do you, or anyone, know what i need to speed this up? Is it CPU or perhaps is it the video card?

Willy Do you have other programs operating at the same time? It has always been my understanding that VW does not support dual processors. I would like to hear feedback from others on this topic. I posted a similar topic a few days ago and the feedback that I got was that the faster the CPU the better. I do not have a DP machine. From what info I have gathered so far, it seems that the G5 would be the fastest.

For those of us who do traditional architecture, window and door muntins are a big deal. What would be great would be more options to control the muntin location. 1 Double hung window with divided lites on upper sash but a single lite on bottom sash. 2. Casement or fixed windows with a single row of muntins at top of window. 3. Muntin contol over radiused top windows allowing variations of a sunburst pattern or a horizontal and vertical grid. All one has to do is look at what is being built today to see what styles of doors and windows we are and will be designing.

I have a HP plotter that is 5 years old, 455CA. I am now operating under OSX and Gimp Print. While I do not have experience with your model, it sounds like HP is using the same method as mine. Laserwriter makes a postscript file and then the HP software rips it. My experience with HP tech support is excellent. They always wanted to help even if we are on the phone for 90 minutes trying to solve the problem. The hardware has been excellent, the software has been mediocre. It would act up every few months and need some trashing of files to get it going again. 1. Overlay-I believe that transparency is not supported. Katie in tech support can confirm this for you. I just tried transparencey last week and it did not work. 2. Rotation- In my old HP RIP there is a rotation button. This is a confusing subject, but with trial and error you figure out how to get the results you want. 3. Crashing-Don't know about this. As I said the software is mediocre. HP will not support OSX on my model so I am forced to go to a third party for software. 4. Epson- You will see a posting on this board from Kurt Magness. He has recently purchased a 42" Epson. It sounds like it is working fine for him. Perhaps he will respond to this post for you.

Us Mac users will soon be faced with the opportunity to buy a new G5. The question comes to mind of where best to invest ones money. The new computer will have several video card options available. I think it would be valuable to all of us users if the NNA engineers could comment on where we would get the most "bang for our buck". Is there value in getting the top of the line Radeon 9800 Pro? Is there a better choice from another manufacturer? Or are we better off spending our money on a faster CPU? With the option of installing up to 8 gigabytes of memory, is there a point where "more is not better"? Some thoughtful responses now might save us all grief in the future when we plunk down our hard earned money for these bright shiney new computers.

Us Mac users will soon be faced with the opportunity to buy a new G5. The question comes to mind of where best to invest ones money. The new computer will have several video card options available. I think it would be valuable to all of us users if the NNA engineers could comment on where we would get the most "bang for our buck". Is there value in getting the top of the line Radeon 9800 Pro? Is there a better choice from another manufacturer? Or are we better off spending our money on a faster CPU? With the option of installing up to 8 gigabytes of memory, is there a point where "more is not better"? Some thoughtful responses now might save us all grief in the future when we plunk down our hard earned money for these bright shiney new computers. [ 06-26-2003, 08:41 PM: Message edited by: Kevin ]

Thank you Robert, that helps a lot. Just one question. I am using VW9.5.3. Does that "joist/beam" exist in this version and if so where is it?

Am I correct that the joist/beam object is 2d only. Several references are made to making "horizontal" beams. My experience is that the tool places an outline in whatever view you are in. In plan view it shows as a column. In my details it shows as a horizontal cross section. Does this tool have some 3d component that I am not aware of?

Is there a way to globally make a change to saved sheets? I just added a new wall class. In order for that to show up on all of my saved sheets I have to go and edit each sheet individually making that new class active. Is there a way to do this only once instead of opening 15 saved sheets one at a time?

Hi Kurt. Thanks for the input. I may do that as a last resort. Other people have had this problem and Katie said that the engineers would look at it. I am anxious to hear the outcome of that investigation. I know that with the animation there is a bug. I don't know if this is the same.

Thanks Kurt. That is a good idea. Yes that is the first thing I did. I quit all programs and ran the disk utility, first aid. Unfortunately that did not solve the problem.

Under VW9.5.3 with Renderworks and OS10.2.5 while doing a "Convert Copy to Lines" the program freezes. it stops rendering and i get the spinning beach ball. Computer has 1024MB of memory, processor is G4/1Ghz. Freeze occurs before and after a computer restart. I have the number of undo's set to 1. The file size is 46MB. it was frustrating enough not being able to do an orbit point annimation, but now I cannot even generate an exterior elevation sheet for the working drawings. This was a topic on this board before. The final post was that NNA engineers would look into it. Has a solution been found?

I came across this new product this morning. It claims to work under OSX and support many printers. Wide format Epson printers are among those listed as supported. I have no experience with this product. Take a look. http://www.easysw.com/printpro/

Here is a post that talks about IP Address setup. http://techboard.nemetschek.net/cgi/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=22;t=000127