[Create roof]

I run into this all the time. First I do what Peter suggests. Sometime that is the cure. The next thing I will do in simplify the roof. If I have bay windows I will eliminate those as I can simply make them separate from the main roof.

Or, I might divide the main roof in half and create each half individually.

Experiment and you will see what we mean.

[Project Scheduling]

Thanks Mike. That is good info.

[Project Scheduling]

Thanks RonMan and welcome to the Forum.

This topic is of particular interest to me as my Wife is about to start a project management consulting business. She thinks that she needs MS Project and a PC. She is under the impression that the business world uses PC's and therefore so should she. Her assumptin also is that MS Project is the default king of progect management. I am trying to get her to at least look at using a Mac. I do not want to be her PC IT manager :-(.

I would love to hear others perspectives on this. Neither of us knows anything about project management. She would be learning this business and the computer program from scratch.

[Constant Crashes]

On the Mac, I use Diskwarrior. Every week or two I run it. I am often surprised that it finds problems when I am not experiencing any difficulties. From this experience I know that my hard drive becomes corrupted without my knowledge. I would assume that when enough corruption builds up, the computer will become unstable.

My advice is to run Diskwarrior to both address known problems and to prevent future ones. I cannot say whether it will help in your VW crashes, but it certainly might.

[Project Scheduling]

Thanks Matthew. I know nothing about these programs, so I had no clue what you meant by maintenance. I guess you are saying that you have to keep an eye on MS Project as it has a mind of it's own and makes changes that you may not want.

[Project Scheduling]

We're looking at revising our office system for project scheduling. We typically schedule between 10-20 residential projects at a time. What software have you all found to be the most useful (without the constant maintenance needs of say Microsoft Project)?

Many thanks,

What exactly is it that you do not like about MS Project?

I am also in the market for a management program. I know nothing about them though. Several people have suggested MS Project.

By the way does it run on the Mac?

[Project Scheduling]

You might also want to consider AEC Software's FastTrack Schedule for Mac.

This software also runs under Windows.

[12.5 upgrade wipes out VW 12]

Before installing, I made a duplicate copy of my VW12 folder. That way I now have a VW12 and VW12.5 folder.

[Mac Wide Format Printers]

Thanks Drake. I look forward to your update.

[printing]

It is helpful to know what version of VW and system you are using. I know nothing about AutoCad, but I think that it links colors to lineweights. VW does not do that.

Simply change your document to black and white for printing. Do this:

File>Document Preferences>Black and White. Or choose black and white in the Batch Print Command.

[Printing PDF's]

When I print a 24x36 sheet from Acrobat, it give the option of fitting the document to the printer output size. It automatically resizes the large document to fit letter size paper.

[Printing PDF's]

First you need to have a printer description for that size and choose 24x36 when you print. Second you need to have One Page selected in page setup. Otherwise it will tile

[How to edit a texture]

...There is another way: render the model in hidden line, then use the MODIFY>CONVERT COPY TO POLY's command....

Hi Peter,

Why do you use Convert To Poly vs Convert to Line? I found that converting to poly created very large file sizes.

[How to make a NANA door in VW?]

Blink,

You are right, VW does not support these types of doors. It is something that I wish the program could handle.

Pete's recommendation is going to cost you some money. I may break down and buy WinDoor. I just keep thinking that NNA must be working on an in-house solution.

[MacFix It OSX Guru]

Thanks Islandmon

[Rendering Slaves?]

Apple's Xgrid, might serve this purpose. Is anyone familiar with this?

http://developer.apple.com/hardwaredrivers/hpc/xgrid_intro.html

[Saving Rendered Image]

I have not tried it, but there is a batch render function. This might help you render more than one view overnight.

[Ability to select more than one door at a time...]

Thanks George, good info. But of course, if I wish to change the dimensions of that trim, then I have a problem.

[editing doors and windows en masse]

Rule:

Every Door & Window Object should be inserted as a symbol !

Would anyone care to explain this further. I still do not understand this logic.

[Ability to select more than one door at a time...]

Thanks George. Yes symbols are wonderful when they represent more than one copy. However, even if I made all of my doors and window into symbols, I would still have 10, 20, 30... different symbols due to the different sizes and configurations.

A global change to a common attribute would still entail modifying many symbols. So while symbols can be a valuable tool, I do not see them as a solution to the stated wishlist topic/problem.

I need/want to be able to be able to select all of my doors & windows and make a global change to a common attribute.

[The ability to rotate the coordinate system/view]

I am glad to hear that NNA is working on this. Most of my projects are rectilinear where this is not an issue. However, I am now working on an angular design and the importance of this issue has become paramount.

My solution has been to select all layers and rotate them all at once to the horizontal or vertical. By mistake I once rotated just shy of zero degrees or ninety. Now I have a bunch of walls that are slightly off of square. At some point I will have to go back and redraw all these floor plans in order to keep the intended geometries, aargh!

Thanks NNA for listening to us. I await the day when you have a solution for us.

[plotting problems in 12.5]

The 455 is not officially a supported printer under the OS... Although Gimp Print is a supported driver for most printers, the 455 is not one of them...

Katie, are you sure? Under OS 10.4.7, in the Printer Setup Utility I find "HP Designjet 455CA - CUPS+Gimp-Print v4.2.7" This is what I use to drive my 455CA.

[VW Architect loads slowly]

SLIGHTLY LONGER?

It took 49 plus seconds to open a document in VW 12.5 on my MacBook Pro 2.0 GB laptop.

It took 10 seconds to open a document in VW 10.5 on my G4/733 Quicksilver desktop.

I'd say I have a valid gripe here!

It's a shame because I'm very impressed with the program and the job nemetschek did upgrading it.

Am I missing something here? Some programs take longer to open than others, but I don't feel a need to "gripe". Is this really an issue?

[Ability to select more than one door at a time...]

George's link refers to making doors and windows into symbols. This is certainly not the same. Multiple selection of doors and windows has been on my wishlist for a long time.

What if I want to globally change the dimension of my trim, or the thickness of various lineweights? I still cannnot make that global change. I cannot do it with symbols or PIOs.

[Roof Framer: support for trusses]

Agreed that it would be quite challenging to have the Roof Framer use trusses. However, I believe it would be very useful to have Truss Tools.

I have the two aforementioned Plugins from VectorDepot. They are nice, but limited.

I do residential remodeling where I am having to deal with existing roof trusses. It would be helpful to be able to model those existing trusses. It would allow me to better document and communicate the existing conditions.

For new construction, I always assumed that the truss design is handled by the truss company as shop drawings. How do those companies draw their truss designs?