rdrines

Ok on the strategy. It sounds like you're on your way out frustration. This morning I kept getting update notices to update Quick Time Player when I clicked on a web site's QT link that spelled out the CAPTCHA code required for access. Each time I clicked, it would crash FireFox 2.0.0.14. This meant I needed to upgrade to QT 7.5(861). QT's Upgrade link kept crashing in 7.4, so I went to Apple's QT site and downloaded a complete QT w/o iTunes install and that went fine. As soon as the version install finished, I tried VW2008 SP2(Build 83388) and that went fine as well. So far I don't see a problem using QT 7.5 and VectorWorks 2008. If anything relating to this issues shows up, I'll post it here. Good Luck,

My VW2008 Installation is working fine with QT 7.4. After all this hassle with trying to get this to work and not succeeding, you might find that the problem isn't with QT or with VW2008, but instead with another program that is running on your computer. It could also be a problem with the Windows' registry, or a problem with a faulty MS patch installation. I'm mentioning other things here because I succeeded in making the process work after it failed. Here is the posting where I explain what I experienced and did to solve the issue: http://tinyurl.com/5qu3ln With all that said, Windows XP PRO has an Event Log where you can find what might be going on with your installation. If VW or QT is trying to start and failing, there should be details in the Event Log you can communicate to Tech Support to help you get over this hurdle. Another approach you should consider is to remove both VW & QT from the computer, restart it and then re-install both again with QT being the first process to be re-installed. Once you get QT working, and you know because you tested with some QT movies that play without any problem you'll be ready to install VW2008 again. Should you consider following the above, turn off any Virus software after you do a complete Virus scan. With the Virus scan done, do a SpyBot scan to clean up any potential gremlins that might be operating. When you know everything is clean, then turn off any Firewall type software, like ZoneAlarm or others, before you do the installations. Also, if there are other programs running in the Lower-Right portion of your Taskbar, terminate all the NON-Windows-Operating programs so you'll know there won't be an installation conflict. Where this is pointing you is to get the operating system as clean as possible before making another attempt at it. While you might not be able to emulate a new Windows XP PRO installation without the help of a skilled technician to also cleanup any problems in the registry, this should get you as close as you can get to what is called a "Clean-Boot" with technical person helping you with probable Windows issues. Report back your results as this has been a puzzling post to follow and there may be more we can suggest if we know more. Good Luck,

After I re-installed my QuickTime I had received the same message, but it allowed me to continue working and it didn't affect the operation of VW-2008. At least not that I've noticed. At this stage of the game, I would first be sure that QuickTime works by running some type of QuickTime file with it. If that test of QuickTime proves successful, I would then try running VW-2008 again to see what happens. It is crashes this time, it is time to remove it from the computer and do a fresh install of VW. In my note referenced in my previous posting, I found myself replacing VW because it wouldn't start because of the bad installation of QuickTime. In my case my attempts were with a brand new drive with almost nothing but the WinXP-PRO_SP2 installed. Even with that little on the computer, the process of doing a complete and fresh install got messed up for some reason. Because it got messaged up I removed and installed VW-2008 a few times because I didn't know QuickTime was causing me the trouble. From what you've written here, that seems to be the only thing that is different than what I did to get running. My message here is don't give up yet as the combination to this issue might be close if you can keep at it. Which means Uninstall VW and then re-install VW after a Shut-Down after the uninstall.

I reported similar problems in a posting above that can be reviewed here: VW-2008 QuickTime Problem My QuickTime installation works fine most of the time, but it will sometimes crash when it checks to see if there is an update. A few minutes ago I noticed they are showing 7.4.1 on their web that I might try using to see if the update crashes will stop. At a minimum, if I were in your shoes I would remove all of QuickTime and only install a fresh version of QuickTime with iTunes after you get happy with VW-2008. Short of that it seems like you'll be frustrated until Apple gets a better version released. I would also try to grab a fresh copy of QuickTime as well so you can be sure your download didn't get messed up during download. Good Luck!

Good news on getting yours to work as well. I've noticed that QuickTime 7.4.093 isn't as stable as I had seen previous version demonstrate. For example I'm noticing it will occasionally crash itself when it tries to check for updates. This crash isn't too big a problem, but it does stop everything and it requires the user to deal with the "Send This Report" to Microsoft Error Dialog. Hopefully QuickTime will publish an update soon and I'll be able to reinstall to stop this distraction

I recently had a similar problem with VW2008 right after it was installed on my computer. In my case the problem was associated with a bad installation of QuickTime. If you go to this link and scroll to see my postings, you'll see what I originally posted and what I finally did to solve the problem. In summary, I have QuickTime version 7.4 working fine with the latest release of VW-2008, although I've not had much experience with VW-2008 as it was only recently made operational.

I've been able to solve this issue. In a few email exchanges with VW Support, they mentioned what the minimum QuickTime version needed to be and that comment lead me to the solution. In my case VW & QuickTime were not previously installed on this disk because of the disk crash required a disk replacement. Because QuickTime wasn't present, VW-Install forces the installation of QuickTime. For reasons I'll not understand the QuickTime installation wasn't done properly and that was keeping VW from running. Because the problem was caused by QuickTime, uninstalling VW and reinstalling it again didn't change the problem condition. To make it work, QuickTime needed to be removed from the disk and installed again. In my case, I didn't trust the QuickTime installation process on the VW-Install CD so I went to the Apple site and downloaded QuickTime. Unfortunately, Apple bundles iTunes with QuickTime so they both get installed together. I have no need for iTunes and was able to uninstall it after the bundle installation completed. Once QuickTime was installed I tested it with an old QuickTime file and it worked fine. At this point I tried the last VW-2008 installation and VW appeared and seems to be working fine, although I've not spent much time in it yet. My QuickTime version is 7.4 and VW sends up a Flag that it doesn't match the needed version of 7.2. This is a concern, but I've not been able to find an earlier QuickTime version on the Apple site and I don't trust the version installed on the VW-2008 CD. Hopefully having a version that is two tenths higher than the recommended won't come back to haunt this installation. This problem tells me that VW is overly dependant upon QuickTime. Having an important piece of software like VW so dependant upon a third-party doesn't make much business sense to me when the applications major functions don't need QuickTime to function. What was very trouble in this case was the lack of error reporting that created an excessive amount of down time because of how the QuickTime dependancy is handled and because VW doesn't say why it refuses to execute. Down time was also extended past what it could have been had the first person in support known that when VW refuses to start on a new windows installation, that the user should be checking to see what version of QuickTime is installed. Hopefully this issue will shed light to NNA Engineering and any VW users who find themselves with the symptoms I show above.

Here is the same story different place. Today I installed VW2008 Designer for the first time into a fresh install of Windows XP PRO SP2 with all the current updates except for IE7. During the installation everything went fine and no Event errors were reported on screen or recorded in the computer's Event log. Even the registration went without a hitch. After the registration completed, I tried to execute the software so it would run, but nothing happens. Really, nothing happens no error messages, sounds or any visible signs of life on the screen appear during any of the attempts to run VW2008. Not knowing what to think as this type of problem is rare here, I rebooted the computer and tried again. That didn't work so I found the VectorWorks2008.exe file in its install location and tried to run it directly. Same result, nothing. Opening the Windows Task Manager to show the applications and processes to watch what might be happening, and nothing ever appears in either the processes or applications tab listings when the exe is executed. Hmmm, this is a puzzle. No event error and no running program. Opening the Properties tab of the EXE shows a product version of 13,0,1,83388. Computer here is a workstation running 2 XEON 3.2 Nocona CPUs on an ASUS NCCH-DL motherboard. Video Card is NVidia 7800 512MB with the latest drivers and seems to work well with another CAD package. Memory is 2-Gigs and nothing else is running when these attempts to run were tried. Can anyone help with a solution?

I've never found the VectorWorks SketchUp Plug-In to be useful. In its place I just export a DWG/DXF file from SU and import that into VW and go through the process of assigning materials and colors in VW.

Don you might be right. I just went to the download page and it sports a new look, so they might have dropped the reasons for version 2 of the 12.01 update. In its place it shows a date of Feb-21 over the Download button for the MAC, and no date for the Windows version. My windows version shows a file date of 16-Feb so I might need to update as well. This is the page where this is listed: http://www.nemetschek.net/downloads/fundamentals/version12/12.0.1.php In any event it will be interesting to see what you find as the problem. Good Luck,

After reading your message, I was reminded about a message I believe was on the NNA download page talking about the initial release of the Update had a problem with files and users should download the repaired update. If you haven't been to that page recently, poke around on it to see if you can surface any clues as to whether I'm working too late on Saturday evening, or if the message exists. I find responses from NNA often take any where from a few days to a week. I'll bet they don't have enough people to handle the spike of a new release and this latest one seems to be generating a lot of questions. Good Luck,

Hello Don, I'm sorry it didn't work. I had hoped it would be hiding in the Workspace Editor's listing under a category that didn't seem relevant and you could pull it out to the Import menu. I guess with it not hiding in the listing, you might be at the point where you'll need to chat with Tech Support. Good Luck,

Have you tried to follow the PDF instructions to see if the Plug Icon in the Menu is all that is wrong? http://www.megapathdsl.net/~rdrines/VW/images/ImportSketchUp-PDF.gif

Hello Bruce, I'm not sure if you're referencing my post, but I have the VW-12 CDs. I really wish the training CDs were intended to provide a solid training foundation by covering a broad range of topics, but that hasn't happened yet and it isn?t possible with one or two CD disk trying to cover an industry. Click on this link to get a glimpse of what I think would give VW a significant boost in sales and customer satisfaction: Training by Topic Categories This topic list covers a lot of ground in how to layout a design in residential construction drafting and 3D illustration. In all there are 9-CD disk providing 30-hours of training just for this one industry. To get a sense of how I use the other CAD program?s CDs, this morning I needed to look up some information for dealing with a terrain issue. To get there I double-click on the terrain topic and a video appears explaining various details for me to consider in solving my issue. This on-demand training ability provides a tremendous resource of information and only cost $395 from the CAD developer. It is my belief that VW hasn?t had the internal talent to focus on user education and this is really unfortunate because VW is a great CAD program that is important here. However, in the field of residential architecture, and all of its other industry based approaches, it doesn't provide enough training support to drive it sales because VW is so extensive in its abilities, there isn't anyone internal driving education or management hasn't listened, that new and migrating users find learning to be overly error prone and slow. This lack of training is so obvious from the questions that are being asked by the new and existing users on this forum that I hope VW finds the resources and interest necessary to get serious about helping new, migrating and current customers become really proficient in VW.

Beginning with version 8 of VectorWorks I?ve had the training CDs sent with the upgrade. When the upgrade arrives, I?ve methodically worked through each CD making notes of what is different and which lessons I want to understand better. When I?m finished I usually have an outline of the changes I want to try again and go back and replay the associated videos while I try different models using the approach used in the video. My CD exposure has shown they are good videos for getting a general sense of how to work with VW. Each year there isn?t much change in the videos so if I missed a year I?m not sure it would hurt much. If I hadn?t had previous VW experience, then the videos certainly wouldn?t be enough to learn VW as they are far too general and limited in scope to give anyone a good understanding of how to work with VW, but I still recommend them because if you don?t know VW, you need some place to start and they do provide that level of understanding. Because you are coming from AutoCAD, they?ll give you some insights on how VW is different in how it works with models. Most notably is VW?s use of Classes for group segregation and Layers for Class grouping, which is significantly different for an AutoCAD user. What these videos don?t show is how to do specific modeling task that are most often the basis of my questions. This is unfortunate because understanding various approaches for laying out a foundation, building floors, aligning wall, modifying doors and windows, designing out sprinkler zones, cut and fill, terrain layout, etc. go unanswered until you ask the question on the forum, and then you only get a problem limited approach that often leaves a lot of information out. As for accuracy, there are some places where the video is misleading and the information needed to approach a topic has changed, and there is a missing file that is necessary, and a corrupt file that can be worked around. There are also some areas where topics are covered quickly that should have been provided as tutorial lessons, but in general the video lessons flow fine. For the missing file, send Katie a message, or drop me note and the file will appear. If I could dream, the VW video collection would expand beyond being general introduction movies, to being real a tutorial resource on how to approach the various challenges that each industry faces. The videos would be organized into short learning sessions that would be designed so that chapter topics could easily be identified and accessed through a digital table of contents a user could easily double-click to look up something quickly. Another CAD developer has used topic based training videos and I find it so easy to go and review information that I?ve copied all of the CDs onto my computer so they?ll always be available. Learning VW is a process that takes patience because training material is so limited, and because the program is so capable and extensive in its ability that a handful of videos just don?t do it justice, but they are better than nothing.