Jim Smith

Okay, I have found more bad things with VW12.5. I won?t even start about PIO?s ?cause they just get worse rather than better with each incarnation of VW! Let me rather point out two other flaws. It would seem if a pallet overlaps the visible area of the screen, the pallet is frozen and the programme needs to be restated. I have had this happen to Attributes, Tools, Object Info, and Resources. Another problem I have noticed is that some imported graphics (logos specifically) that have worked fine in VW8, 10, 11 &12.0 now appear as boxes with an X in it. The graphics can be re-imported but when saved graphics revert to boxes. The first problem is a bother, the second is a serious flaw that requires a fix pronto, as everything that gets printed in this office has to one degree or another imported graphics. We did not upgrade to make more work for ourselves. VW12.5 MacMini OSX Tiger

Katie, FYI loaded 12.5 yeaterday and have not had a file go south; yet.

Do you have anything else running? After the error I noticed that Preview was still open, so once it was closed the installation worked, & the programme runs fine (need to rebuild my workspace). Stay tuned.

Katie, I did manage to send a file using a different EMail programme. This seems to be a very worrysome trend, I have another file corrupted again today! I would list this as the opposite of a good thing.

Katie, I have been attempting to send examples of the prob. files however; I have noticed the files are 0kb in size and my EMail programme informs me that no file is attached. So other than sending the AutoCad file, do you have any thoughts regarding this situation?

Thanks, I will send it over. It happened again today. The file was imported and saved, then opend several times without saving.

Any new tricks for fixing broken files? I have tried the Workgroup Reference trick but the original file is not recognized as a VW file. It may be something I am doing, but I am experiencing more frequent corruption of files in VW12. It happened again today. The file is fine one minute, and then when I attempt to reopen I?m informed the file is an older version of VW and a new file will be opened, but sadly the file is corrupted & will not open. It may be a coincidental, but the files in question all stated life as imported AC dwg files, but this is also what I have been working in (for the most part) since moving to VW12. (I updated to 12 why again?) What may also be a coincidence is I have been copy/pasting from one file to another. Copy/pasting from one file to another is a habit I broke some time ago & have been using workgroup referencing however; I?ve been a bit of a backslider of late. Any thoughts other than: ?suck-it-up ?by & rebuild the file?? VW12 Architect INTEL Mac Tiger OS

JHEarcht, Could this be as simple as a CLASS issue? When I import I use the consultant's classes, (ACAD layers) but select all, & change the colours to black in the attributes pallet, then set the attributes to Class attributes prior to exporting.

VW 12 on an Intel MAC's does work, buggy, but it works. I'm looking forward to the next update.

Katie, I am out of town right now but will be glad to forward files to you when I return in August.

Is the 3-D object a symbol or a group? If this is the case, perhaps the objects within the symbol or group have a different class.

I wonder, has anyone has found a simple way to edit the door symbol with sidelites? It appears as a PIO, but all info is gray I can bust it apart, & re-make the symbol but that takes more time than adjusting the PIO. VW12 intel mac OSX

We have been using VW12 on an intel MAC for 4-6 weeks. There are bugs, it is slower than VW11 or 10 on the olde MACs (even seems slower than VW 10 on OS 9!). Bottom line is, it does work; kinda, sorta. I think.

Katie, Just so you know: Almost every VW 8 file I opened in VW10, without batch converting, is either corruped or has funny little bugs. Batch converting seems to have prevented (most) of these problems. The bugs in VW12 notwithstanding, so far opening VW10files in VW12 by batch converting has prevented any corrupted files. This may be a causal connection, but it has worked, so far.

Okay, if you open a VW 10 file in VW12 you need to do a batch convert. This is just what you have to do. Otherwise bad things will happen.

Robert, when I said: "edit the 2-D group so it looks like it belongs on drawing produced by a professional who does this for a living. For EVERY ?plug-in? follow a similar set of work-a-rounds." I did mean this as a criticism of the graphic information that is inherent in ALL PIO?s. If one produces drawings for a living one must do so with some style and panache. The tool, VectorWorks, has a flaw. The flaw is: on one hand it allows one to produce graphic representations of ideas with a degree of style; on the other hand, keep the style linked to specific detailed information, the disconnect is the style goes only half way! The tool (VW) allows artistic freedom on one hand in things like the line tool, for example, and limits the graphic ability in E V E R Y PIO! To answer your question specifically, the reason I have two stairs ( I agree, one SHOULD do) is because the PIO is a POS (graphically speaking). A PIO?s graphic 2-D representation of a stair does not look like any stair one would draw. One cannot ALLOW the 2-D stair that is produced from a PIO to be seen by a client, it is as if a monkey was at the computer and produced the graphics with drunken spiders crawling forth from an inkwell! Some firms are only concerned with production, but that is not why I started with MINICAD3. I demand the flexibility to make beautiful, accurate DRAWINGS (gasp, he said beauty!). I know your motivation is to improve the software, more and more users want gidgits, but give me simple calculators, and let me draw! The reason many years ago I choose MINICAD over Acad & others was it gave me some accurate graphic tools, allowed me to do simple 3-D and really allowed me to make drawings more quickly. I feel that VW12 while well meaning, misses the point; I want to draw; give me the tools and let me draw, I find PIO?s to be a PITA! Now that you got me started, I don?t like this software anymore. It has gotten too big an bloated and buggy, I only use it because it have used it for so many many years. Perhaps it is time to go back to the drawing board (both you and me.) A colleague went to an interview lately regarding renovation to a college building. The drawings presented for review were two paintings. The architect more than 100 years ago was also something of a project manager and ?lived? on the site, but it makes one pause to think.

I was wonder'n; do you just open a VW 10 file in VW 12 or do you batch covert? If you do batch covert, GOK. I have found old files not batch coverted are, well, problematic.

At the risk of picking open a scab; what is it with the stair tool? In fact, what is it with most ?plug-ins?? It just seems that EVERY ?plug-in? is put on the earth to drive one crazy with frustration. I say this because EVERY ?plug-in? is very cool, & seems to make 90% of the task, say calculating a roof or a stair that much more easy; it?s that 10% that EVERY ?plug-in? does not do. Like a teenie splinter in your finger it just makes one crazy. There never seems to be a cute little gidget to allow one to make it ?correct?. The stair tool - SIGH! - what the hey, I really don?t think the VW folks have ever had to produce drawings. From the propaganda, I was given to think the stair tool had now become my friend. Funny ol? me! Don?t get me wrong, the stair tool does some cool things and I do use it, but like EVERY ?plug-in? I have a work-a-round: Use the stair tool, copy the stair, move the stair to a ?hidden? class (to be used in the 3-D model/sections), paste a copy of the stair, ?ungroup? the stair, edit the 2-D group so it looks like it belongs on drawing produced by a professional who does this for a living. For EVERY ?plug-in? follow a similar set of work-a-rounds. Just a suggestion for the VW13: Call it Vector-Works-Around. VW12.1 Mac Tiger Intel MinMac (like I said, Funny ol? me! )

P Retondo, perhaps I did not clearly explain. In the past, if one had a wall selected and wanted to rotate 90 for example, one only had to use the quick keys (apple "L"). This still works, but in some instances, it is as if one has to get the system's attention, first by re-selecting the arrow - or by clicking on the desktop. Too bad I gave my drawingboard to my daughter!

Katie, Thanks, I will ask my IS consultant to do this; just so you know this is a new box. Andrew, have you seen what a widget is/does? Christiaan, how do you tell when more than one item is selected? Gytis, if I wanted 4 handles, I would be asking about 4 handles. - No Thank you! The prob. is the nature (how the handles work) and graphic representation of the handles has changed; in my estimation towards the negative. It is a little nagging thing I know, in VW 11 & back to MiniCad if one had eight handles as a preference; as intersecting points were selected a change, all be it a subtle one, was visible, handles came and went. From what I see of VW12, BIG BLUE BLOBS appear, and don?t change. Furthermore, the BIG BLUE BLOBS seem to scale up and down, clogging the screen. If one wanted to select items when zoomed out BIG BLUE BLOBS cloud the drawing. - Thanks for the link, it was a topic of conversation before the upgrade to VW12 Katie, any way I can get rid of BIG BLUE BLOBS ?

Using VW12 for the last little while. Some nice features, some subtle improvements but & I notice some minor bugs: - The eight point handles have become some kind of big blue blobby things on the outside of an object! Big blue blobs make it impossible to tell if one has selected new objects without consulting the object info pallet (slows me down). I have not found a preference for ?get rid of Big blue blobby things? , does this mean ?learn to live with this unpleasant thing?, or can it be altered back to the ?proper? subtle handles? - My Boomerang don?t come back! (ie. does not work). - Programme freezes. It has happened twice in each case I was editing text in the same layer & class for a long period of time, say 30 minutes. When I changed tools; I got a beach ball for more than 5 minutes. Does this mean I need to ?keep the programme?s attention? ie. every few minutes change the kind of task I?m engaged in? (Slows me down.) Does VW12 use ?Rosetta? or is this not an issue? - Many times while using key commands one must ?click? on the drawing before the keyboard short-cut will work. (Sorta defeats the purpose for using short-cuts.) - A suggestion: Any of you smaty-pants thought of a Widget to bring me the latest posts to this great BB? Jim VW12 on 1GB Intel Mac Mini OSX Tiger

Having this feature would ROCK! Perhaps a "simple" way would be for VW to have a dedicated path into/out of Photoshop. Programmes like MAYA & Painter have this ability. I think the need to employ FORM Z( or other similar programmes) AND photoshop would be greatly reduced if this pathway existed.

I would love to be able to draw a wall in plan, assign a "Z" dim. then be able to rotate the wall about the "Z". What I mean is if after building the wall I then changed my view to "front" & rotated the wall to a 45, just like I now can with a 3-D poligon with the same shape.

Katie, Perhaps I didn?t make my situation clear. I?m not referring to class visibility like ?Grey others? or ?show all?. In older versions of VW I used ?sheets? (now saved views, I think) in a similar way to viewports. Let me give you an example: (VW10) Sheet A101 Basement Plan class CONC. BLOCK is visible only on Sheet A101. I make a mistake & select a door frame & some notes at the same time as the CONC walls and assign class info on everything selected. At a later date I want the same group copied to sheet S101. When I paste the group from A101 to S101 items in say ?NONE? class are visible, those in the CONC.BLOCK class are not visible. OK, I know this is the result of a hidden class, but since it was two weeks ago that I set the class visibility, I have no idea what class to turn on. So I choose classes from the top menu. The default visibility of this pop-up menu has the FIRST class listed at the top of the list, and it is highlighted. Scroll to the bottom of the list, hold the shift key down, select the last class, change the visibility of all classes (because they are all highlighted) and I can ?see? my missing object(s). I can now select the ?missing? objects, & change their class information to a class visible in this sheet. If I now ?relaunch? the sheet my visibility is reset & I?m good to go. (VW11) Same situation, but now I have Viewports A101 & S101 and copy & paste from one to another, & I am missing info. Again, I know this is a ?Class thing? & I want to temporarily adjust what classes are visible so I can find the little sweet beets. Temporarily adjusting the Viewport?s class visibility takes one to the Class list, but at the point of the ?Active? class. Helpful in other situations but not now because in most cases the active class isn't the first or the last listed class but rather some place in the middle. Scroll to one end of the list ,highlight the first class, scroll to the end, & follow the same process as with VW10. The result is one (or is it two) more steps. A faster route would be if I could (temporally) turn all classes on, then I could find those pesky missing things, change them to where they need to be. This is a something I use often when moving details from one viewport to another. Say I have a detail sheet that is just for millwork. The details may come from several sheets and can take some time to just adjust classes on the new sheet; er, sorry viewport. Hope this is a little more clear.

From time to time I will move a "Group" from one layer to another. Often the group will have class information attached that is not visable in the viewport I have moved the Group to. To find these objects, I need to turn all classes on by selecting all or most classes and turning these classes on. (This was faster to do in VW 10.) I would like to be able to "Turn on" all classes with a quick command, then go back to the viewport's settings once I have found the "missing" classes