Jim Smith

I may not be looking hard enough, but is there a 3-D Pipe Fitting tool similar to the HVAC tools?

Sheesh! I know I'm often easily confused & wondered about TBE's somewhat; may I say, ascorbic view of things 'Merican when his location is listed as Florida. DUH! It's FI (or fi) not FL! BTW TO is also -10? (Option + Zero)

Have you tried Workgroup Referencing the Old File into a new blank one?

Clients have been asking about 2 & 3; I would like to be able to do this rather than what we do now.

Thanks Robert, that is something that may be happening however; it is not the case with the same file when it opens in VW 2009 - on the same machine. This is a VW2009 file Batch Converted into 2011, & upon opening Sheet Numbers are created & these Sheet Numbers are the same as the Sheet Titles - so no matter what, my stacking order is messed up. Guess I just have to budget rebuilding my Templates as well as my Workspaces into the timing consideration of when to purchase software updates.

I note the addition of Sheet Numbers as well as Sheet Titles to the Navigation Pallet. This has messed up my template. I have ALREADY NUMBERED my Sheets Titles starting with the letters A,E,D,L,M,S, I also have an 11x17 sets with the same titles but I add an underscore (so A-201 becomes _A-201) I do this so11x17 set is at the end of my Navigation Palette. For some reason, these sets with underscores now are at the TOP of my Navigation Palette (sigh!) if I reverse the stacking order I now get Sheets starting with S, then M etc. Forgive me if I don't see the point of messing with something that works, but okay this may be seen by some as an improvement - sometimes 2x's the work makes one 2x's more productive. But did ya have to mess with the Sheet Titles? If someone has a fix for yet another so-called improvement that eats into my (non billable) time please let me know. BTW, does anyone actually test this tin lizzy before they take it out on the Queen's Highway? Sheesh!

Petri, I am guilty of only North American experience - although in the Great White North we do use SI - for the most part. (Always amuses me to make an Imperial set for GC's who were born & educated in their trade in Europe!) What I would like is the ability to show something in plan that looks somewhat like what is drawn by hand in about 2 minutes (including calculations). This is not just about McMansions, something given our work in Social Housing, Heritage & Libraries is not something we work on. I did not know the rest of the world only use open tread stairs, don't use conc. pan stairs, like to show both the stair edge & the nosing above break cut line, don't like to show a dash line for nosing below the break line, don't also like to show railings in plan & must not like break lines that, well, look like break lines. Takes all kinds to make the world go round. To me it goes over like a Lead Zeppelin, ;-) Christiaan, I love the Cadimage's interface, the old interface has its own bugs, anyway when I attempt to add it to my tools, I instead get a nice red X rather than a tool.

Is it me or since VW2008 have the screen hints also seemed less available? Used to be one could find, say the mid point of an object & drag across the drawing to use that point; can't seem to do that anymore.

Yeah, Once again they've Effed things up

Sigh, Why is the Stair PIO a thing? This tool just gets worse & worse, rather than more intuitive it becomes less. Rather than more like GRAPHIC STANDARDS it moves further and further away. I spent the best part of the weekend (save only to watch THE 98th GREY CUP) Effing with this piece of junk. Seriously, this thing is more of a work-a-round than the last work-a-round. Specifically: - Break Line - or lack there of - DOES NOT LOOK LIKE GRAPHIC STANDARDS!!!!!! - Nosing - Dear 1st year drafting students: Never EVER! Draw a stair that looks like this! EVER! Draw some lines that represent a stair & be done with it. - One can't have 2 stairs on the same layer if one is copied from the other - perhaps that is what is meant by 2x's faster drawing (old VW joke) - One can't customize a stair that is not a straight run without becoming an Effing brain surgeon. - One can't have an inside & outside radius for a circular stair. - The tool does not build perhaps the most common steel stair The Steel Pan stair!! ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME!?? - Tool does not make a closed tread stair with an outside stringer - Tool does not allow for changes on the fly (in the Object Info box) I could go on but the hour is late & I'm going tell all who ask: " Should I upgrade?" NO!!! Stay away! Only upgrade if your OS will not let you work in this media. The only reason to continue with VW is lethargy. VW has become the Gestetner Machine of CAD. EFF! I have to find an alternative.

Bruce, Yeah, did that. I also attempted to move the zipped file, & move it to a portable drive, I've never seen this before.

Hi, I've just updated the latest service pack & wanted to update the other machine using VW2011. When I attempt to move the file to the other machine or copy to a portable drive all I get is an Alias copied not the file. Will I have to download the service pack again to the other machine?

Thanks Static I do have a boat load of such symbols, I generally don't use PIO's because they generally are a pile of crap the pendant for example looks nothing like anything in GRAPIC STANDARDS. - just wondered prior to loading VW2011 this weekend - if it this PiO was still just that. VW folks, I love your software dearly but for the love of Mike, can you not: 1-Go out and buy a jeezless copy of Effing Graphic Standards, cost like 500 bucks including the CD 2-Look at all the pretty pictures 3-Have a meeting & ask all the kids who work there: "Do we have any PiO's that make these pretty pictures? 4-If the answer is: "Yup you becha" give every one, I dunno, till a week before yet another so called update to get the GD PiO thingies to make stuff look like, well what one sees in Graphic Standards? Pretty Please? With Sprinkles? Cause you know what? I have to make work-a-rounds for EVERY PiO so they look like something someone who DRAWS for a living would give to a client, so I generally don't use em. In case I'm not being clear: Your PiO's are not very good as graphic objects, & that is the business I & others are in - communicating with GRAPHICS. Sorry, but you update this thing & we skip an iteration or two & only update because we update hardware. EFF!! You guys are the British Cars of Software, you really, really are.

Seems to me the incandescent PIO does not properly show standard incandescent fixture symbols, at least the ones I'm used to seeing (ie a circle with a cross, & a dot in the centre etc.). Is this the standard that continues in VW2011?

Coolest. Product. Ever.

We had this issue with an older upgrade. Reimporting the jpeg fixed the problem.

StaticDos, We keep two folders on the desktop, SOURCE & DESTINATION. If we need to open a file in an older version, a copy is put in the SOURCE folder then we BATCH CONVERT it. ChrisD I have a project started in 2004 that is under construction but we still need to reference the drawings (CO's, Si's etc.). On OS10.6.4 VW10 acts like this project acts as if it is full of glue, slow, crashes etc. The result is I work on this file on my old MacMini-works fine. I have Batch Converted the file, & imported some standard details from the 6 year old file & added them to a new Document on a MacBook (10.6.4) and the brand new file in VW11 seems to work fine. If we can, we always work in a file in the iteration of the software it was created in. If it is manageable, (ie design development) we'll WORK GROUP REFERENCE a BATCH CONVERTED file's info into a brand new template. I have not yet installed the upgrade on all machines but we have started the upgrade. One of the things I noticed when we upgraded to VW09 was legacy WORKSPACES gave us real problems so as we upgrade we do not import legacy WORKSPACES nor do we copy WORKSPACES but build new ones on each machine. We have tended to skip a release & upgrade every other year (..... VW10, VW12, VW2009, VW2011) I tend to think this avoids some of the problems as some upgrades work better with the OS changes. We also keep some boat anchors around to access some older files.

Hmm, I've never seen this happen, whenever I've found something odd or going away has been a result of me missing something. I ALWAYS bring objects or drawing elements into a file by referencing them, sometimes breaking the link, sometimes not. I guess I must lead a sheltered life. (sorry pun intended)

Chris, why do you say "...a bit of a black art." ?

I see all of these issues when I get an ACad drawing from a consultant. I often have to tell the consultant to bind the drawing so the x-ref information can be imported. Many ACad users don't know how to do this, so I have to walk them through the steps. I have also noticed a real lack of precision with many firms who use ACad & have drawings all over the place. I also note that despite the lack of 3-D often lines from ACad get imported as 3-D lines with ZERO as the thickness. Back in VW10 or 12 one could just double click on an ACad drawing & VW would do the import & open the drawing. I liked that feature.

The more I use it, the more I find I like it. VW 2009, does not take full advantage of the tool, but what it does use I'm finding useful, two clicks to lock a viewport to one's finger for example. Here is how it is evolving for the three in our office: - VW is now loaded on MacBooks with a large additional monitor, a mouse & extended keyboard. - The MacBook sits to the right, monitor to the left, keyboard in front of the monitor, mouse between the keyboard & the MacBook. The mouse is still needed when drawing some things but what we are finding is one tends to use both hands much more & not just for typing. My feeling at first was this ain't that great, but I think as we get more practiced, we shall also become more efficient as a result of this device. Frankly it is changing the way we draw. If we find we need a bigger machine for rendering (we have talked about this) then I will insist we get trackpads.

Tami, I know, it can be fussy. One of the reasons we tend to create a layer for walls/windows that are visible on two layers.

RIght Peter, I find this can be a helpful way to find the correct point I'm looking for especially if I'm drawing at 25,000 ft or without my reading glasses. ;-) BTW Q, Just a thought, what is you display preference set to? If you are in Zoom Line Thickness this may also make choosing stuff difficult. One may toggle back & forth to preferences with Command comma ( , ) I never draw in Zoom line, but will use it from time to time.

Michael, Do you mean VW 10 or VW2010? Also, how new is this Takeoff software?

Another help is using the zoom command (the Z key). Unlike Zooming In one is taken to a small window that is zoomed in & one is then magically transported back to where one was when the object is selected or one Clicks on the drawing. To echo bcd's comment, I had issues before I resized my Selection Box.