jnr

I hate pink stairs. How do I modify the class default colors of "vert-trans-main" so that I don't have to change them each time I start a new project?

When I use the create standard sheets command, the scale (and number of sheets) for the floor plan is grayed out. You can't change your mind if you pick the floor plan scale. If I go back to the document setup, and change the layer scale, it doesn't change it there either. Where am I supposed to change plan scale? why is the option grayed out? Am I doing something wrong? Everything else in the standard sheet command is intuitive, why is the plan scale the exception?

Ray: Well if I didn't lose rendering, that would be idea, but if it costs $800 to do so, it wouldn't be worth it. Since I'm an architect, I'm looking at buildings and typically rendering with the provided textures. I spend too much time waiting for it to render, which I understand has more to do with clock speed on the CPU. However that being said, pan and zoom is not as fast with all of the real estate on two monitors. I would probably use more open gl for schematic design and quick studies if I had the card to support it. I mention the gaming card (I don't play them) simply because they are more readily availible and I would think be suited for using the animation capabilities of renderworks. Thanks for your input.

Ray: Thanks for your input, I was assuming I'd be looking at $360 to $400 for the ATI cards I mentioned! Workstation reviews I read said if you wanted performance, buy the NVidia, but that ATI had a better bang for the buck. I've got two Dell monitors, one 21" the other ,19" hung off one card. Are you doing a lot of rendering or manipulation of rendered objects in open gl?

I'm about to upgrade my matrox 450 dual head 32mb card to a new card as I can move faster than it can in vectorworks. So, based on other posts on this board, I went looking for new dual head cards. I'm looking at ATI cards and am wondering if the Fire GL Z-128 or T-128 (both 128mb) workstation cards or the gaming Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb or 9600 256mb cards would be the better choices. Is the question: How much does Vectorworks use of the on board memory of the video card? (thanks Andrew for the previous response-sorry to be a pest, but shopping for this stuff is very confusing!) Or is the question, given the different architectures of workstation vs gaming cards, is one better suited for Vectorworks than the other? I use Renderworks, a lot of 2D drafting, and would use more Open GL for design if my dual head card were capable of it, which is another reason for the upgrade. In the past,(version 8) this software did not take advantage of on the card memory, nor was it marketed towards the professional workstation market. Has this changed? If so how? Where is the point of diminishing returns? In otherwords, do you reap the benifits of spending more on a 256 mb card than a 128, or for that matter a 128 that is more sophisticated?

OK Robert, I'll make you a deal: I'll untie my the hand behind my back, and you all put this info in the manual. While were at it, do you think the concept of word wrap will ever make it into the worksheets? I include the specifications for my projects in the document sets (which I'm seeing more architects do by the way) and it would be increadibly useful for a spreadsheet function such as this, to have this capability.(I've seen window schedules in vectorworks sets runing all the way acros a page, which is silly) Currently I'm left with cutting and pasting from Excel to a document set which in the windows environment, converts the cells to a bit map, which then inflates the file size something fierce.

Unfortunately the only answer I have for this is to plead with NNA to make the worksheets "functionality" (schedules in this case) more robust. It is one of the lamest aspects of this software. I would like to use it to add my specs to my sets but I can't because it does not have the ability to wrap text. Furthermore, there is no way to spit the schedules into wrapping columns or sheets, which would solve your problem. There's a fabulous piece of software out there called EXCEL which does this. If NNA could get this software to accept a link to programs like EXCEL (go look at Adobe InDesign or Archicad for examples of how to do this), they would make the worksheets a powerful and useful tool. Until then, tie one hand behind your back.

Andrew: I think it would be really useful to a lot of people if this kind of general configuration information were avalible perhaps either as a link from the purchase area of the web site, or somewhere in the literature (of course by the time you get the software, you probably already own the hardware...). This would not violate company policy of not recommending specific hardware manufacturers or configurations (although the double standard of testing apple hardware is blatantly obvious-but that's another discussion). This would give prospective users (and upgraders) a much better idea of how to configure hardware.

Of course if you don't want to spend anything more than you have already, use the walk through tool built in....

Kristen: This was exactly my problem a year ago. Its a pain not to be able to control where the break happens, especially on short runs. I eventually had to blow up the stair (ungroup), edit to where I needed it, and then re-insert it as a group. All PIO info is lost, which is FRUSTRATING. NNA should go look at Archicad for how to control a stair. Its pretty good--lots of options.

The message appears after the license window appears (with the license # already in it). The message is something like, " This copy of vectorworks does not have a valid copy of Renderworks attached, please check the #'s and try again". The conversation in my head as follows: "OK you stupid machine, I know there isn't a valid copy, because I didn't buy one and its not required to upgade the software! Furthermore, I'm not going to give you the Renderworks serial # for the other machine because when I go to upgrade that machine, your going to find that # on the network and then tell me I don't have enough licenses!"

So I'm attempting to upgrade 10.1.2 to 10.5 then on to 10.5.2. I have two licenses on a network on w2k. One seat has VWA with Renderworks, the other, just VWA (no renderworks). I've tried to upgrade the non-renderworks machine with the downloaded upgrade, but it won't let me since it detects that the license does not have renderworks. What gives? By the way, I'm not going to upgrade the machine with renderworks until I know that you fixed the problems with scripted titleblocks that occurred in 10.5 in 10.5.2.

This is one of the least attractive features of the stair tool and it needs to be addressed in a future release. I feel your pain....

Andrew: Thanks for your response. So if I wanted to choose the ultimate PC configuration for this software, where would one put the money? You seem to suggest spending more on a video card does not necessarily improve rendering speeds for renderworks (which I use a lot because the dual head matrox card does not support open gl). So buy as much RAM as one can afford or go for clock speed? What is the trade-off of RAM versus clock speed? Can you clarify your comment regarding increases/ decreases vs cost? I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

I'm moving this back to the top in the hope someone from NNA will weigh in on this.

Fozz: When I've had this problem its because the window did not inset into the wall. The PIO is actually sitting on top of the wall. You have to screw around with it until it inserts. Then it will behave like the others. (look at the info palette, if it tells you you can flip it, it means its in the wall). If not, its not in the wall and won't render. Also, I use the glazing styles to control glazing opacity. If all your windows use the same style, they should render the same. I hope this helps or gives you some ideas.

To anyone out there, and especially someone from NNA: I'm considering new hardware, win XP. CPU: Does Intel's new hyperthreading technology have any affect on this software's speed and is it worth it? Video: I read a post swearing by ATI's new 9800 rage pro (128mb card AGP). Is this worth it? I currently have a dual head geforce 450 and it is slow and glitchy using 10.2.1. It used to be that Vectorworks did not take advantage of the capabilities of the technologies and memory of the newer video cards. Is this still true or has NNA dumped some of the video processing onto the cards? Any recommendations?

I'm considering new hardware, win XP. CPU: Does Intel's new hyperthreading technology have any affect on this software's speed and is it worth it? Video: I read a post swearing by ATI's new 9600 rage pro (128mb card AGP). Is this worth it? I currently have a dual head geforce 450 and it is slow and glitchy using 10.2.1. It used to be that the software did not take advantage of the capabilities of the newer technologies and memory of the newer video cards. Is this still true or has NNA dumped some of the video processing onto the cards? What are your recomendations?

Robert: Before I invest the time to upgrade to 10.5.1, can you confirm if the font problem in the title block was addressed for win2K? If not, I can't upgrade from 10.1.2. and no time to upgrade to xp right now.

Gregg: I have a 500ps on win2k. Vectorworks will not plot any grayed out layer without using the postscript driver. I don't know if NNA fixed this and it might become important as I understand OS 10 no longer requires PS to print. Vectorworks will not plot a rendered elevation (also layerlinked) without first using the bitmap tool to render the elevation, which in turn bloats file size dramatically. NNA says its a HP problem, Hp says its a vectorworks problem. I have not installed 10.5.1 yet to see if these issues were corrected or not. Typically they don't get fixed despite the large number of users who own this and the 800ps which uses the same driver. I would suggest you take a good hard look at the printing message board as well as to check to see if HP is using the same driver for the machines you are considering. Let us know what you find out. Good luck.

MY issue with cutting sections in Vectorworks using a tool similar to the marquee tool in Archicad is that it be dynamic . That is, I update the plan, the section automatically updates. Using multiple mod-3d layers if I'm reading this correctly, would not solve the issue. I would still have to recut the section. Also additional layers becomes quite cumbersome in a file with many layers (for example a three story house).

ga: I'm discovering this the hard way. I'm working on a three story, 3600 sq. ft. house. I have a set of plans,sections, details, specs,consultants plans etc., much of it referenced in. What a pain in the friggin' rear. Its a 70mb file! On top of that VWA won't print rendered elevations, so I have to use the bit map tool,render, print, delete bitmap. This adds another 30mb if I keep the bit maps! And since I want to include the specifications in the set (so the contractor will actually read them--a novel concept I know), and since the Text tool and worksheets are so juvenile, I'm then forced to import the spec text as a bit map, which inflates file size even more. This is stupid and insane. What is the point of a reference if if does not reduce file size? And forget saving, you have to go out for coffee and hope the power doesn't go off while your out while its saving. God forbid you crash this unstable software... Living la vida loca ...

I was trained on Autocad and have been using VWA since '97. Here's my take: 1. Training. Vectorworks is easy to learn and intuitive. With Vectorworks your employer can hand a new employee a set of discs and they can learn the program on their own. Autocad might require another employee to train new employees thus costing the firm much more than the cost of the disks or the program. Archicad requires taking seminars from the reseller (hotels, meals, travel). This gets expensive. 2. 2D. Vectorworks drawings have always looked better than its competition's. It is one of the easiest 2D packages to learn on the market. Assigning pens and line weight control in Autocad is a nightmare. Drafting in Vectorworks is more like drafting by hand, requiring less specialized knowledge to become productive. 3. Import/export. Choosing any other program other than Autocad, one is in the business of translation. As an architect, even when I was using Autocad, bringing in engineering drawings still required modification of the drawings. Every firm has its own way of doing things so manipulation of information is inevitable. Personally, I have little trouble importing and exporting structural, mechanical and civil engineering files, but what I do is not that complicated. I have friends who use the program and import massive site plans without much trouble. 5. This all being said, Vectorworks is a good deal for the price. There is less front end costs (the training black hole) and it is less expensive software. However it, like all software, does have its quirks and problems. New releases are unstable and are compounded by the cross-platform availibility (Archicad has the same problem). (This is a good time to buy as the most stable releases are .5 series). This can be frustrating and expensive at times as we as users end up as the test bench. The flip side is this company has some of the best tech support of any software company out there. I guess the most important advice I can impart is that you make sure everyone or at least the person writing the checks is convinced that if you are going to switch, that they are totally on board with it so that if (and when) things go haywire, your rear end is not the only one on the line. Good Luck.

R: Thanks for the update. Please let the engineers know we appreciate the fix. Also I would hope you would encourage them to take their time testing! We would all rather wait longer for a stable release, than a buggy one. It costs us the users a whole lot less if it works as touted. Looking forward to the upgrade...

"one or more of the pasted objects has become invisible because its class is set to be invisible" Mind telling us WHICH CLASS OR WHICH OBJECT"?