[Keeping scale when printing Current View]

Neenm

The Current View button will shrink the drawing to fit the paper with an arbitrary scale. So as jan15 suggested, move the "page", which in this case is the gray box, over to the portion you want to print. Then , if the part you want fits within the gray box, you can print full scale.

If not, you may want to temporarily change the scale of the current layer, print, then go back to the original scale. Or, you can copy/paste the drawing to a new blank layer with a smaller scale, and then print from there.

In any case, be sure to UNDO the Move Page action immediately after printing, to avoid any surprises later.

[How do I read a dwf file?]

The providers of VectorWorks' DWG import/export module have a Free DWG Reader that will also open DXF and DWF files.

www.bravaviewer.com

[Wall Tool vs. Wall Type Tool]

JB

The Wall Type Tool is specifically for architectural walls with pre-set materials and sizes. However, the basic Wall Tool can be used for various non-wall objects. I often use "walls" to draw complex 2D storefront elevations, so I can use the "join" tools that don't work for polygons. You can also draw any kind of vertical rectilinear slab in 3D without the extra step of extruding.

JHE

[.plt]

Liek,

The OSX PDF driver seems to be a crippled version of Abobe Acrobat, and doesn't always produce high quality files. But don't waste your time with PLT or PRN files.

You can download a PDF maker called PDF995, which costs $9.95, and works like a printer driver. You must have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print. The PDF file should look exactly like what's on your screen. The Printer must also have the free AA Reader in order to print the files.

JHE

[import image file--slows VW down]

Markus,

VW11 offers JPG and PNG compression upon import of Bitmaps (User's Guide 12-19). If that's not enough to speed things up, you may have to use PhotoShop to "re-sample", reduce resolution, or reduce color depth. Contrast adjustments may be required to maintain lines and edges.

JHE

[Exporting To Dwg file and lineweights]

In my experience, AutoCAD lineweights just don't zoom smoothly as they do in VW. As long as they print properly, I just ignore the grossly fat or absurdly thin lines on the screen.

JE

[Connect/Combine Tool???]

G-Pang,

You can extend multiple lines to another line or object by selecting the lines to extend and hold the ALT or OPTION key as you click on the boundary object. See page 12-9 in the VW11 User's Guide.

JHE

[PDF on PC is whack]

BK,

The standard Adobe Acrobat is not setup to handle large sheets. Until I discovered that bit of information, I had experiences similar to yours. Three possible solutions: a) get AA Professional at great expense, b) buy PDF995 for $9.95, which does large sheets, or c) adapt your version of Acrobat to work with your drawings.

Go to Control Panel and click on the Acrobat icon. In the Print Preferences: Layout or Paper tab, click on the Advanced button. Set the Custom Page Size to your sheet size. Set the Print Quality to 300dpi. In the Properties dialog: Device Settings, increase the Postscript memory to 32,000KB. This works on my XP system, but you may need to play around with the numbers.

The key is to reduce the memory requirements for a large sheet with more pixels than 8 1/2 x 11. Also, the postscript memory seems to be based on the Mac where you manually allocate memory to certain processes. Good luck,

JHE

[Easy way to layout an odd shaped house?]

MM Oz,

It works the other way around. You make changes on the Design layer and they are immediately shown on the Viewport layer. You can add notes and minor specific changes on the VP, but it's best to make all general revisions to the Design layer.

JHE

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[Easy way to layout an odd shaped house?]

A "Rotate Sheet" command would be more intuitive than all these work-arounds. But, I suppose it would be slow, due to the need to keep track of two or more copies of every pixel. The third-party "Rotate Drawing" tools I've tried are slow and scary. I will again post a Rotate Sheet request in the VW Wish List. A creative approach should find a way to quickly, and accurately rotate every thing on linked layers.

I haven't had an occasion to try it yet, but in VW11, I think you could draw each wing on a separate layer, at the "normal" angle, and then join the pieces at their "final" angle in a Viewport. The "core" and "wings" should have a locus at several points so the parts will snap together, like a Transformer Toy. Drawing things that cross the joints will still be tricky, though.

JHE

[Rotate Sheet command]

Dear Santa,

I'm starting my Christmas Wish List early. Please send me, and all the good little boys and girls in the VW family, as many as possible of the toys and tools in this VW Tech Forum. Thanks a million. Yours Truly,

JHE

PS-- I have been very, very good. Just ask Katie.

[Roof Tool with 3 textures]

Another long-standing request on the Tech Board and Listserv asks for the ability to add different textures to the top, bottom, and edges of a roof object or roof plane object. In VW 1.5 perhaps? Thanks,

JHE

[SEND this behind that]

I often create drawings with several levels of overlapping hatches and fills and white-outs. Using the SEND tool is OK normally, but complex drawings take forever to find the correct stacking order. And if I add a new item, it may get the stack out of order.

I would like to see a new function for the SEND tool. I could select one object, go to "SEND THIS BEHIND THAT", and click on another object. Thanks for listening,

JHE

[Now Printing dialog won't minimize]

In VW11.1 the "Now Printing" dialog box has no "minimize" button. So I can't work on other things while the spooler is running. For some sheets the spooler can take 20 minutes to release the drawing back to my control. For example: brick hatches. I don't remember having this problem in previous versions. Thanks,

JHE

[Viewport Classes]

I would like for Viewports to automatically turn on their associated classes when selected. this would work something like the Save Sheets tool. The current situation requires a detour to find the invisible classes and turn them on. Thanks,

JHE

[Rotate Sheet command]

A current thread on the VW ListServ brings up the old wish for the ability to rotate a 2D drawing to work on parts that have a different orientation from the normal view. We can now do a crude work-around using viewports. But a Rotate Sheet command would be more intuitive and user friendly.

Available third-party tools are slow and complex and risky. I would guess that some combination of Layer Links and Viewports would allow us to temporarily rotate an angled portion of the drawing to the normal position. This would work sort of like the 3D working plane. Thanks,

JHE

[List of VIEWPORTS]

I agree. The OI palette should give the name of the current and/or selected viewport. Thanks,

JHE

[Printer driver for windows XP]

jonel,

Many VW users send Adobe Acrobat PDF files to their print services. You can obtain a PDF maker for as little as $10. PDF avoids problems with line weights, fonts, etc. You can search this Tech forum and the ListServ forum for recent discussions on this topic.

JHE

[Zoom function]

Heather,

I'm on a PC, but VW will zoom interactively when you hold the Command button and scroll the wheel. No setup is required. See page 2-47 in the VW User's Guide.

Another way to quickly zoom-in ( CC ) or out ( VV ) by double or half is to hit the "C" or "V" key twice.

JHE

[Does anyone know of a .ttf that resembles romans.shx?]

Sam,

Recent editions of AutoCAD have TrueType versions of their old pen-plotter fonts. After a brief search, I couldn't find anything similar except a non-TT sans-serif font. I'd just use "Arial" if an exact match is not necessary. But if you must have an exact match, email me and I will send you the Windows TT version of RomanS.shx. Or you could have a consultant send you the font file.

JHE

[Memory leak]

Viper,

I never got the techs to verify my theory, but MiniCAD used to slow down and sometimes crash due to "memory leaks". I haven't had that problem in recent versions of VectorWorks. However, according to several threads in this forum, VW seems to stumble over something in Windows XP service pack 2. For that reason, I'm waiting until VW 11.5 comes out before I install SP2.

JHE

[importing JPEGs]

David,

VW11 now compresses bitmaps to reduce the file size. Upon import, it gives you an option to use JPEG or PNG compression. JPG makes the file smaller, but may reduce quality (stray pixels). PNG compression should maintain the original quality, while still saving file space.

JHE

[Active symbol stuck on tree prop]

VWA 11.1 on Windows XP

I added a small VW standard low-res tree prop (tree 1 sm texture) to a building plan. Next I imported several more tree props into the Resource Browser. I double click or click "apply" to place some of the new props (tree 2, tree 3) but the active symbol doesn't change from tree 1. When I render the drawing in Open GL the correct tree (tree 2) displays in the OIP, but in the drawing "tree 1" is the only tree that will display. For some reason, the active symbol seems to be stuck on tree 1. Any ideas how to get it unstuck? Thanks,

JHE

[export to AutoCad 2000]

You don't have to export "layer by layer". But it is usually best to export sheet-by-sheet or view-by-view instead of a whole file. If you will setup "Saved Views" for each drawing sheet, VW will turn on all of the classes and layers associated with one drawing such as a Floor Plan. You can then export that sheet to DWG, and everything visible on the screen will export. Follow the same procedure for each sheet in a set. A list of Saved Views is available in the bottom scroll bar and in the Window menu. See page 3-30 in the VW User guide.

Good luck.

JHE

[Crashing problem??]

jonel,

My system is similar to yours. It's normally pretty stable, but I have had a Runtime error with no obvious cause. I also had a Blue Screen of death for no apparent reason. Both types of crashes are sometimes caused by video card or driver conflicts. I just downloaded the latest driver for my ATI GL X1 video card. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

JHE