Jim Smith

I would like to have the centre of my drawings be the "same" on each sheet dispite the scale of the active layer. What seems to complicate this the title block. Is there a way to achive this with sheets?

A Worksheet is not exported as a graphic object. The best thing I know to do is export the spread sheet & have the person importing the DWG/DXF file to open an Excel document & import the exported Worksheet into EXCEL. The worksheet is still usable if this is done. If you want the information from the worksheet to appear on a drawing, you can export the worksheet as text, then open the exported text file, copy the data, and paste the Block of text onto your drawing. I suppose one could also copy & paste the information from each ?cell?; if there is not too much information.

I have not used Render Works since VW8. Now I am looking at it in VW11.5 and I do not see the same number of textures in the programme; am I missing something?

I have run into this term and don't know what it means does any one know?

Sometimes I will edit a roof's 2-D polygon & when I return to the 3-D model, the roof I have just edited jumps in the "Z" direction (sometimes seveal meters). Happily it does not happen all the time; I must be doing something to do this, any thoughts?

For what it's worth, VW has come a long way from MiniCad days, but as someone who trains new VW users I find that folks understand the interface and are up and running far faster than users of AC lite. I have three clients (all manufactures) who have taken the class, and bought AutoCAD LT only to have the software sit on a shelf! After a few lessons they are using VW to produce shop drawings, floor plans and in one case 3-D presentations for clients. (One client has even come over to MAC OS ; ) As for elevations & sections, no question this could be better. However if one uses the 3-D section tool to make 2-D sections and elevations this is far faster; and more accurate than starting from scratch. I have noticed that VW can in fact be MORE accurate than AC if one uses sheets. I get AC drawings all the time THAT ARE NOT ACCURATE! Why? because floors have been drawn so plumbing, stairs, windows and colums are not stacked properly, & this is because the drawing elements are not in the same 2-D space on the screen/sheet (but in different 3-D space thanks to layers) as they are in VW. And while we are at it, ever get an AC file with 800 coloured objects in it & have to mess with whatever this mean to a print file? VW drawings, the finished drawings, for my money, are generally a much more hansom presentation, and look a lot less "computer-ish" than the vast majority of AC produced drawings. Stairs, well this needs work (as noted by others), as do doors and windows. I would also like to see something like "Sketch-Up" to do mass model presentations, and/or a easy path into Photoshop similar to what Maya has, but as others have said; the price is a fraction of what Maya is. As someone who has worked in both the US and Canada, I like that the transition between Imperial & Metric is pretty well seamless. On another note, odd how the only country to still use the Imperial measurement system is the USA. Am I reading too much into this?

Jim, Thanks, the stylus was what I used with Painter, & it was really like "drawing". I will look into the Wacom. Kevin, presently I am using a mouse only. Many years ago I used a tablet with the "puck". (This was with VERSACAD on a Green screen DoS PC) . I would like to see if I can use the tablet instead of the mouse; failing that I would use both.

I stopped using the call out tool altogether. The reson is it took way too much time to fix stuff that should not need fixing (see above notes). The other frustrating thing is rather than text being editing right on the screen (like other text blocks) one must deal with moving to the info pallet; one more step for each call out. As well, the leader lines are a pain (back to the info pallet; ggrrrrr!!) and the appearance of the leader (marker) style is not editable, so drawings using this tool are not up to my standard.

Years ago I used a Wacom drawing tablet with a "puck" (similar to a mouse, but with a pointer with cross hairs on the front). I have been using Photoshop & Painter to make renderworks images look better. I liked using the tablet in the Painter course, but would like to know the best to use with VW on OSX so I can use the same machine with all three pieces of software. Any thoughts?

No I should check it out, if only for old times' sake.

VersaCad!!! Holy 80's Old Guy; you are, an old guy! 1st Cad & second software I ever used. As for the problem, we have had some problems lately; but importing DWG&DXF. Ridding the AutoCad file of all hatches seems to have worked, to make the file available in VW.

OK, so here?s the deal: a ?Lexar? 35mg USB drive is what I used. The files were saved in OS9 . I have moved files to and from other systems in the past (both OS8 and OS9). From both of these old systems one can open files from the drive. The files were not available in OS X. The drive?s contents were saved to the hardrive and moved to the desktop on the OS X machine; still no work. So is it the drive, or is it some ?issues? between VW10 and 11? My suspicion is the drive & OS X; but then why would it mount and show ?greyed? files? Confusion, thy name is Jim.

Once the file was loaded on the desktop I double clicked. I do think there was a VW icon, nor was there a PDF or JEPG logo. I also attemped to open the file from the programme, without success. Thoughts?

Thanks, but I did load the files to the desktop; is this an OSX thing or a VW11 thing? I was not able to launch the PDF's or the JEPG's either.

So I maybe dumb but I would like to know what is happening. I load samples onto a portable drive, VW 10 files, PDF's, JPEG's. I take the drive to a prospective new client, the drive mounts via USB in the G5's keyboard, the files are all there but; everything is grey! I load the VW files onto the desktop, they don't launch! I try to open the files from the programme (VW11 on a G5 OSX): nothing! try a batch convert; NOTHING!!!! What the %+@# is going on? I have never been so stuck in the eye by a computer problem. Files made in VW10 on a G3 with OS 9, try to open in VW11 on a G5 OSX.

G-Pang, If I understand, this means one would use page scale to "trick" VW into providing larger output.

I have to plot a part of a drawing at 1:1 scale. The rub is the thing is 42'-0" x 2'-6". I know I could tile the thing but is there a way to "expand " the drawing size larger than the "set print area" will allow? VW 10, Mac G3 OS 9

If you assign the XYZ value to a symbol as a Record, the Database will collect this information. This means however; one would have to have a symbol for the "same" object at different XYZ coordinates. The information collected from the Database can be exported/imported to EXCEL.

... At the risk of too much information; Jim, you posted:?? ?? ?? ? ?? ? ? ?? ?? "....yes, and use the 'workgroup reference' tool! you would have a reference file you work in, and a target file for printing only." Workgroup reference is a great tool, the problem with it is if you attempt to use the move page tool "odd" things happen to workgroup referenced objects when the move page tool is used. The reference needs to be "broken" prior to the use of the move page tool. This may be fixed in 11(?) but up to VW10 it was a problem that requires a work around.

If you are not using 11, the easist way I have found is to set a mask around your title block, and use the "move page" tool. You can set datum points as guides to prevent duplication.

Are you using sheets or viewports?

Thanks, for the post, but this is not really what I am talking about. Often a window, or a door, needs to be positioned in relation to something in a room, an opening in an opposite wall, a kitchen sink or another window. What you describe works well in rare cases. What I use now is a rectangle as a "place holder" to align the chosen symbols, the problem is, one must remember to "stack" the place holders ?behind? the wall and the symbol or the symbol ?jumps? out of the wall. To get the symbol to align precisely to the place holder is fussy (read: a pain in the @$$) it would be nice if the symbol within a wall would act similarly to a symbol before it has been inserted into a wall.

Thanks, works like a charm

It would be really nice if one could either "nudge" symbols within a wall, or move the symbol by a given distance. What I do now is use a rectangle of a give size to align symbols, this is too fussy. Any tips on how else to do this? VW10 MAC G4 OS9.5

I have a few VectorScripts that really save me some time, but sometimes they seem to "go missing" from the resource pallet. It would be nice if I can assign a "Hot Key" to the Script, this way I could just keep a list of these hot keys and use them rather than the resource pallet. Can this be done? VW 10 MAC G4 OS 9.5