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NickB

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Posts posted by NickB

  1. That is amazing. How the did you do that, or would I need an Engineering qualification to understand? What's a NURBS fractal, and how can I get an introduction to using phi functions to create geometry? I see all these great shapes and possibilities, but have no idea how to get into it. Can you recommend a good book? Do you do it through a worksheet or is it VectorScript? Sorry, don't mean to hijack the post, but that's got me really excited.

    [ 11-12-2005, 05:01 PM: Message edited by: NickB ]

  2. Thanks islandmon,

    I think I've got it figured out now. The X,Y insertion centre can be defined by a click on some part of the symbol. The Z insertion centre is always based on the Z height of the symbol when you create it.

    ie a 3D symbol positioned 13" below Z=0 when it is created will then be positioned 13" below Z=0 when it is inserted. The centre of insertion click is irrelevant for the Z value.

  3. I think the confusion is between the column command (Model>Architectural>Column...) and the column PIO object. Drawing a polygon and then defining it as a column with the column command does indeed allow walls to join to it.

    hope that helps, Nick

  4. Hi all,

    I am drawing a tower block with many repeating elements.

    I am defining the elements as Hybrid (2D/3D) symbols.

    When I place the elements into the drawing I want the 3D sybol to go in at a certain height - specifically facade elements that are positioned 13" below the Z=0 of each layer.

    I have tried to do this by setting a 3D locus 13" 'up' within the symbol as my insertion locus. In practice though this only serves to position the symbol in 2D. In 3D the position seems to be determined by the lowest point of the symbol sitting on the Z=0 of each layer.

    Is there a way to determine the height that a 3D symbol goes in at? I would rather not have to move each one around individually.

    Thanks in advance, Nick

  5. One issue I have found is that if you open help twice from VectorWorks (ie you have used it once, not closed it and then opened it from VW again) you get two 'sessions' of the help running and the second one will behave as Peter explained. Closing the second one (or quiting Safari and starting again) resolves the issue.

    Annoying, but in my experience it does work.

    Nick

  6. Hi Raymond, it did occur to me late last night that I was trying to deal with ridiculously fine line weights, so I can't really blame VW for that kind of tolerance.

    Thanks for taking the time to explain it though. I was worried that I was going to be limited to only one or two fine lined hatches which would have been a problem. Anyway, it's really nice to understand what's going on.

    Thanks Nick

  7. Thanks Peter, I suspected #2 might be like that.

    Bear with me on #1 though.

    I create a hatch called "0.03" and edit the line weight to 0.03mm

    I create a hatch called "0.04" and edit the line weight to 0.04mm

    I create a hatch called "0.05" and edit the line weight to 0.05mm

    BUT, the line weight in hatch "0.04" spontaneously becomes 0.05mm as well. Editing it back to 0.04mm spontaneously changes the line weight of hatch "0.05" to 0.04mm as well. Repeat ad infinitum...

    It's quite odd. So far the problem doesn't seem to be there for thicker line weights though so I guess I'll just have to work round it.

  8. Might be answering my own question here, but is this related...?

    I am trying to create a particular hatch for each class, but I'm finding that I can't give my hatch the same name as the class.

    Eg. if I try to create a hatch called Nolli-2 for a class called Nolli-2 then VW automatically (without warning me) renames the hatch to Nolli-3. Is this normal behaviour?

  9. Hello all,

    I am trying to set up hatches to give the impression of various shades of grey.

    To do this I have created a standard hatches with an offset of 0.8mm then I try to edit the (black) line weight to get different darknesses.

    I want to use a line weights of 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08

    But I set up the first hatch, then the second, then the third, but when I look back at the first hatch it has taken on the line weight that I set for the third. Somehow the line weights seem linked even though each time I set up a new hatch from scratch.

    I hope this is understandable. I am trying to create a drawing that looks like an etching (in the style of Piranesi) but this issue is stopping me doing this.

    I realise this is a bit of a particular issue, but any thoughts would be appreciated, Nick

    VW 11.5 on OS X 10.4

  10. Hi there Cat,

    the drawing you have posted on the website are not ".dwg" drawings. They are vectorworks native format ".mcd".

    So first off you should change the extension at the end of every file name from '.dwg' to '.mcd'

    Because they are VectorWorks files you will need some form of VectorWorks to open them. I opened "classicBPpulllarge.mcd" without problems in VectorWorks 11. If you don't have the full version of VectorWorks you should be able to open the files in the VectorWorks viewer. But, the viewers are fussy, they don't like opening files from previous versions. So VectorWorks viewer v.11 won't open VectorWorks v.9 files for example.

    You can download viewers back to v.9 from http://www.nemetschek.net/downloads/fundamentals/index.php There never was a viewer for versions before v.9

    You will just have to try v.10 and v.9 (I tried version 11 and it didn't work like you said in your first post)

    If it's pre version 9 you will have to find a friendly person with the full version of VectorWorks.

    If it does open in viewer v.9 or v.10 then what you might be able to do is to print the file as a pdf and then open that in Illustrator.

  11. I have imported a scan of a plan and I want to scale it to match the plan that I have already drawn in Vectorworks.

    What I want to do is:

    1) align a point in both drawings

    2) use the 'fixed point resize tool' to click on this point

    3) click and drag another point on the scan to snap to a point on my drawing

    I can 'fixed point resize' an empty rectangle, but can't do it to an image. Is this a known issue?

    Thanks for any ideas on this, Nick

  12. Chris, I haven't used Pagemaker so can't compare the two, but InDesign is very capable. It ties in with Photoshop and Illustrator almost seamlessly which eases problems with eps and tiffs etc. The only drawback I have found is that it might have a few limitations for producing technical documents. I wanted to use automated endnotes and footnotes at one point and had to do it manually in the end.

    As for line weights, follow Jacques' link, it looks interesting.

    Nick

  13. Chris,

    In my experience with Quark and InDesign, DTP software likes to use a pixelated 'placeholder' image for on screen display. It does look like hell on screen but screen redraw is kept quick. When it comes to printing, the original vector graphics are substituted back in and the output comes out razor sharp. In InDesign, under the View menu there is an Overprint Preview option that attempts to show exactly how the printed page will look. This option reads the original vectors and so shows the razor sharp images. Performance does suffer though, especially on a complicated document.

    Jacques, how do you produce your PDFs?

    Nick

  14. Travis,

    Thanks for the reply. It's true it's all dots in the end, but I want to be a bit purist about it (and remove resolution worries) by maintaining a vector drawing as vectors for as long as possible.

    If I want to adjust my paper format (larger) at a later date it would be ideal if I didn't have to go through and re-render my drawings all over again at a higher resolution.

    I must admit I hadn't though of going via Illustrator, but that's a good thought.

    I am also interested just to hear how others do it.

    PS. I use Illustrator 10 on OS X 10.3 and it will open a 2000/1/2 DWG just fine.

  15. Hi, as NNA has just published Images of CAD I reckon someone round here should have a good answer to this.

    I am working on a book/brochure for a project I have done and I'm laying it out in InDesign 2.0 with text, footnotes, page nos etc. What is the 'best' format for placed VW line drawings?

    should I print the drawing as a PDF and place that, or would exporting a high-res TIFF be better? What about going via DWG/DXF?

    Ideally I would like the drawings to be vector graphics for sharpness/resolution independence/file size. Any tips that people might be able to give are most gratefully received.

    Cheers, Nick.

  16. converting to lines, composing etc. only works on a 2D basis. The procedure gives different results depending on which angle you are viewing the NURBS curve from, and so this rules it out for NURBS with double (non-planar) curvature The 3D polygon option also doesn't seem to have a length option. Is there any chance, that this currently slightly annoying bug will be patched?

  17. I have modelled a french caf? style table in VectorWorks 11, and it worked well. It was a relief to work in VW after struggling with Amapi Pro and Maya. However, when I took the drawing to the metalworker he wanted to know how much metal rod he needed to buy to make the base.

    What I would like is for VW to tell me the length of my various NURBS curves (the paths for my extrusions) along the curve. Can it do this? I can't see the feature anywhere, and interogating the curve only seems to deal with curvature.

    Please point me in the right direction. Thanks Nick

    [ 02-22-2005, 11:20 PM: Message edited by: NickB ]

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