matto

It's "Uber" good news

Any rendering improvements would be welcome but really what benefit would 64Bit be? Wouldn't it just make the programme larger for no real improvement?

I use alot of the standard keys, and do edit snap options a fair bit during any given operation. It reduces the amount to things VW wants to snap to and improves accuracy. That said, i do tend to change a lot of other keys to try and get a better access to the commands i use a lot, i hate key combo's of more than 3 keys. Mainly i try to match keys combo's in groups, so that shift or option relate better to the main key combo's. Oh and i'm a massive fan of the mode bar (u,i,o,p,[,]) a great thing to learn about will really speed up your work.

Maybe i'm miss understanding 1. But in worksheet drag over a number of rows or columns and then insert cells and you'll get that many extra rows or columns. Inserts cells seems to react much the same way Excel does.

Christiaan, Try spotlight on some of the more obsure information in a test file. Not sure if it matters which way you make the pdf, I've found it flag the file if you search for job info or even text from notes in the drawing.

Ok, sheet layers are only really a layout space for your drawing work, as such everything on the sheet layer is a sized by page size, or as if the layer was 1:1 scale design layer. (confusing i know as model space in other cad is also sometimes called 1:1) One of the advantages of this is elements that are pure page graphics like titleblocks can be drawn at the size we want them on page. No more scaling them up to allow for them to be scaled down. Your options here are resize your titleblock back to page size, or use a viewport of a design layer with just the titleblock on it, so that it shows up at the right size. Viewports are when used to bring views of the design layers on to the printed page. Viewports have a layer within them called the annotation space (double click the viewport to enter this space) objects in the annotation space will move if the viewport is moved. They are "drawn at scale" so objects can be dimensions and will read the correct value. Each Viewport has it's own class visablities which you can check Object Info Palette. You will probably find that the dimension class is not visable in the viewport in question. Hope that helps some what. Matt

Petri, i know this is going to sound like a workarround, lets just call it a proof of concept if it works. (yes i'm not a fan or workarrounds) Walls can already have openings (windows, doors) that the wall framer tool works with and knows to frame up for them. these openings can be controlled by locus point in the symbol if you want a structural opening bigger than the symbol or to get the wall to draw in if the symbol has say trims built in. the locus points can be classed out and only effect the wall if that class is visable. so if your in wall cistern object had loci in say a "opening-structural" class to block out the area needed cistern in the wall and another set of of loci in a class "opening-finish" for the access panel. Then in theory the having only the structural classes on on when you run wall framer should produce the right result. Now smarter wall types would be great if we could class componets of the wall so they automatically responsed to the loci combos(or another way of blocked out 3d space)in the symbols or plug in objects then we would have a lot of the function you are after. So for basin the the loci could be placed to make sure there is a stud in the right place for the brackets,and the area left clear for plumbing. for a plumbing or service riser loci would would tell the wall no structure in that area, yet the lack of finish loci would tell the any linings or finishes to sail right past. I guess if we are really smart we could work out what the IFC class names would be and use them off the bat. well just a though thanks for reading Matt

Ok based on couple of offices i've worked in. It's ok to work across the network (almost required if you are using workgroup references), a few things to keep in mind. Don't leaves files open overnight as most backup systems will either just skip the files and can cause ocassional file corruption. Hardware side, i've seen offices up to 40people running on old G4 towers it's not really processor speed thats an issue even these machine rarely got over 20%, fast drives (and try and keep them with lots of free space) and lots of memory seem to be the bigger issues for the server. good network connections also much needed, use switches not just hubs. You should look at power supply as well, having battery backup power on the server and switches will stop any network drop outs due to rough power. That should get the ball rolling, i'm sure others will add more.

I understand that in Leopard apple are moving to multi-threading OpenGL seeing as all of the interface relies on OpenGL. If true the system will be aware of when it can move some OpenGL processing from the video card and over to one of those spare 8 cores. I guess we will have to wait and see.

Hey all, neat idea certainly one to keep in the memory banks. Just wondering if it would be worth making a PIO(plug-in object) to do this? That way the PIO could take a symbol or path polygon in plan, as well, as information about the wall like width and height to produce the 3d parts. save lots of work especially for raked walls. That is if you do this enough.

Your best bet would be PDF. Hopefully the iPhone will have either Preview with simlar features to the Web browser or the web browser itself will show pdf files. Have to agree it would be very cool.

Having tried several bad choices with Virus software, i would suggest that all are more trouble than worth. That said we do have filtering(virus/spam) on the email channel.

Have you had a look at roof planes? Draw the plan shape you want. Then define it as a roof face, assigning angle then. You can even go back and change the plan shape at any stage. [edit]: Roof Face not Roof Plane.

Waylon, In the object info palette, does the veiwport show crop : true when you have these missing crops? Also have found at time that is the class the crop is in is not visable in the viewport itself then it can't be edited when you go in to the crop edit. Matt

Good to note the third highest method used in the poll was Pencil/Pen and paper.

Why have a standard at all? I mean can't we wait until the technology becomes mature enough to be useful before we lock down an other layer of crud to our lives. BIM is all nice in white papers and software demonstrations, but i've yet to see a system that in everyday use provides less furstration than it solves. For the most part the whole thing seems to lock down creativity and make systems that become restrictive on our work(it's bad enough dealing with real councils and building codes) . Either that or become very adept at what ever scripting language is required. To me VW has shown a good balance between Freedom and BIMishness, better still keeping that freedom as it becomes more BIMish.

Seems to be two parts to this. The first is keeping the information in the file so it can be exported. Vectorworks does this by default, if you export a file to DWG then all the required information needed in the file will be there. The second part seems to be the issue of locking, or restricting editing? not sure about this one not having used AutoCAD i wasn't aware this was possible, i know we get consultants to bind DWG's before sending them to us so we have all the information, that has never locked the info so it can't be edited (not that we would).

Try Object Info Pallette with the veiwport selected. Advanced Properties down the bottom there is an option to show hide wall cavities.

We are just about to replace our Canon Wide Format Printer (don't call it a plotter or the service department hangs up on you) that is less than 3 years old. Maybe our machine was special but we have had nothing but trouble, almost every part has been replaced at some stage in that time. We have a number of Canon machines, and all have minor issues, yet all business scale machines do. If you can try and speak to other local users so you can judge how good the service department is at solving problems as they crop up.

I understand that this is now an option in Vectorworks 12.5, including a whole PDF engine on both Windows and Mac. I know on Mac it will do everything you are asking.

The tech board here is an absolute dream compared to most australian council websites we have to deal with.

Is there any rules about where you buy your version? With VoIP the main issue of buying local, for local support is negated. So why not just buy from a region that doesn't use the dongle? Your local distributor would no doutb change policy if one or two major customers even said they would take this step, at the next upgrade. BTW: The distributor for Australia New Zealand is great. and no dongle.

If you use the eyedropper tool with the "pick up set defaults" option ticked, then this will copy the componets of your un-styled wall into the wall preferences where you can save it as a named style. As i understand wall styles are like any other resource and you can import them into another file from the Resource browser. THe other thing to look at, have a look in the Vectorworks-->Libraries-->Defaults folder. The files in here hold all the content that appears in the in various places in the application, from hatches to wall styles it all here. You can create a file of your own walls styles drop it in the walls folder then those styles can be used in any file you like.

Only advise is test drive a real project. Sales material and training are good and all but nothing beats a deadline to really test if software lives up to expectation. I think you'll find the 80/20 applies just as much to Revit as it does Vectorworks, just a different 80 and 20. To me any BIM isn't just there yet to be jumpng at, but that is purely a personnel opinion. With Intel Mac then the windows switch becomes less of a hardware investment issue, as you turn over equipement, and more of a people issue (wetware). Oddly someone in our office suggested we should move to windows, and half a dozen staff told me on the side that they had worked with windows before and wouldn't be going back there. Your staff are a bigger assest than any software, so be sure to include them in any discussion of a change. You wouldn't want to have a big staff turn-over issue while changing OS and CAD package. To us Vectorworks has always managed to stay one step ahead of our companys growth both in terms of people and experince with the programme. Although, It does pay to keep an eye on options and how to get there.

The other option would be the sweep command. Which sounds like a similar low tech option to the spiral. But has the advantage that it sweeps the profile in one go. and you can go back and edit the profile or the sweep settings at any time