Radio J

I have actually used Vectorworks briefly with an earlier beta of Vista and it installed and worked well. I didn't use it extensively so I have no idea how stable it really is for longer periods of time.

I had been using a Evga 7800 GTX for awhile but the 3D labs card still feels smoother and looks a little nicer in my opinion. The amount of texture memory doesn't really matter unless you do alot of rendering. If you plan on doing any sort of gaming stick with the nvidia or ati solutions as the 3d labs cards are horrible for that.

I'm currently using a 3d Labs Realizm 100 with great success with vectorworks. I've used a quadro as well but am more impressed with the 3d labs card. In general I believe ATI has better drivers for their cards than does Nvidia. The 3d Labs card is very stable and quick, I would buy another.

We are using Avant Garde just fine with v12. Make sure the font is installed in your system, I don't think Vectorworks comes with fonts. An alternative is to use Century Gothic, its very close to Avant Garde.

I too have posted the same query here: http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=005471

What OS version are you using? Windows XP - Service Pack 2 (same as my coworkers, none of whom are experiencing this problem) What version of the driver do you have installed? Currently I have downgraded to NVidia Quadro4 750 XGL 3.0.8.2, but I first experienced the problem with 6.7.2.2 and rolled back down to see if that would fix it. (Again, none of my coworkers with similar settings are experiencing this problem; they're running 6.7.2.2.) ETA--I went to the NVidia Website and installed version 7.1.8.4 b/c it was Nemetschek certified for Allplan...still getting the same problem!!! What happens when you try to do the tasks? Do you get an error message? No error message, the tasks simply won't happen. I could go to the Window Menu all day long and try to switch to a different open document, try to open a worksheet, or try to open/close a palette and nothing will happen at all. Could it be memory-related? My computer has older memory than my coworkers. Do you think it's a hardware or software problem? I can't replicate it on the other officee machines. I can take my workspace to any other computer and it works fine. [ 11-07-2005, 09:16 AM: Message edited by: JX1BR59 ]

Yes, this problem occurs in the Standard, Landmark, and my own customized workspace. If you have any idea what may be causing this--is it memory-related, video-related, etc--I would be extremely grateful. My firm is about to buy 12, but we would like to have problems like this fixed before we upgrade.

PS...This problem occurs only with Vectorworks. Any other software (Illustrator, Photoshop, Etc) works fine, even with very, very large files.

I am currently running VW 11.5.1 with a Nvidia Quadro 4 750 XGL Video Card (I have encountered this problem with all versions of the video driver); this problem occurs in all files that I open. I am now unable to do the following tasks in any workspace: Open/Close Additional Palettes (Specifically troublesome when dealing with the 3D Tools Palette), Switch between Multiple Drawings from the Window Menu (can still do it from the File Menu), Open a worksheet from the Window Menu (can still navigate to the appropriate layer & double click to open a worksheet). I now have 2 workspaces that I switch between when I work in 3D vs. non-3D because I cannot open additional palettes. I was only able to make the workspace with the 3D tools by opening a coworker's copy of the program with my workspace and saving a copy of the workspace after opening the palette... I've reinstalled VW & my Display Drivers, but nothing remedies the problem. Is there any other solution I can try? Does anyone even have a clue as to what the issue might be? Please let me know ASAP!

Windows xp 64 bit edition just became available this week, free if you trade in your existing copy of xp. Vectorworks will probably not benefit the slightest bit from this but you may get better overall system performance which could indirectly make vectorworks run better, except than some 32 bit programs run a little slower on the new 64bit os until the drivers get a little more mature. Either the xeon or the opteron is a better option than a regular p4 and a processor capable of doing 32 and 64 bit is definitely the way to go.

I'd like to see the added option of being able duplicate an object with the rotate tool.Kind of like the offset tool except rotating. an example of this being useful would be drawing parking lines on a radius. Click once in the center, then click wherever you want a new line. This would work better than the duplicate array command.

Anybody looking for a good alternative that is 2D only should try Smartsketch by intergraph.Dont let the name fool you its a wonderfully streamlined piece of software that does alot, and it works. From what I understand it is the 2D conponent of SolidEdge.It has viewports, it supports interactive excel worksheets, symbols, everything. I can do everything I do with vectorworks with this program.Pay attention to the constraints, that is how they are supposed to work, same goes for the detail blowup tool, that is a viewport.I can't say enough good things about this program.Free download to try at the intergraph website,same price range as vectorworks.Vectorworks programming people should all go and download this program immediately.Sorry, no mac version.

Although I haven't tried the experiment, I've had to endure using vectorworks for 6 years now and can confirm that it is a very poorly written piece of software that is at best buggy,I've experienced the problems in the experiment in actual practice, daily.I use only the most basic tools in the package because I find most of those "cool new tools" in every release work only part of the time if at all.Its not my video driver, its just crappy software. Why would you keep adding new features when the core features that are basic to any 2d cad package are totally unreliable, specifically the trim commands and the filet tool, those are the worst but the others freak out for no apparent reason on occasion too.(I can say the line tool has been pretty reliable).Fix the basic stuff, then add new cool features, thats how I would do it.Forget about the 3d, make the 2d work flawlessly,Cinema 4D is a wonderful piece of software, just use that for making 3D models, isn't there a plugin for that? Wait, that broke when 11.5 came out, my bad. (Sorry, I started to rant here, very cathartic) The term "polishing a turd" comes to mind when I think of vectorworks.I use it because thats what my employer has chosen for us to use.I currently use vectorworks on a windows machine but also used it on the mac platform for 3 years as well,I find it to be less of a problem with windows.I could go on for hours but I'm tired.Read my follow up for a wonderful alternative.

To add to my last post I also had a spontaneous reboot while working in vectorworks 11.5 too.That is very unusual behavior, as in never before.Don't know if that's related but chances are good.

I have noticed most if not all of the crashing I am experiencing is while I try to edit text in any form.Doesn't matter if I'm in a symbol or worksheet or just placing text.I can select the text tool and pick a point to begin a text line but everything then slows to a crawl and vectorworks just dies, I get the microsoft error window. It happens pretty quick.There are two others in the office that have experienced the same problem.We are using quicktime 6.5.1 as recommended, sp2 is installed which hadn't been a problem at all before the 11.5 update.My system has 2GB RAM and the others have just 1GB.Oh, and of course, we have the latest video drivers,Which I might add sometimes cause more problems than they solve.All systems are amd64.

I've had similar problems, usualy when vectorworks would quit in 11.01 or earlier you would get the standard runtime error and it would just close down, now it seems to be a compatibility thing with windows because I'm getting the windows error box( the one that asks if you would like to send a report to microsoft). It seems to be a memory related thing.I have 2GB registered ECC memory installed.Is this so we can just now blame microsoft for vectorworks problems?

If you are going to upgrade, going to an athlon 64 system is a really good choice. I use an opteron 250 with 2gb memory with a realizm 100 video card which does real well with rendering,vectorworks flies pretty well. The good thing about the athlon 64 or opteron systems is that when dual core processors are out you will be able to upgrade to those with just a bios update.The opteron is better because is uses registered ecc memory that costs more but you can use more of it, I can get 16GB on my motherboard.Regular memory can start to have problems once you start to use more than 1gb, more errors that lead to stability problems.Vectorworks has enough stability problems on its own.The advantage with this type of system is huge compared to what you are using, redraw speed is much much better even compared to a regular p4 system.Spend the money.

If you are using a postscript printer driver, printing time goes up considerably, I'm not however familiar with canon printers, just hp.

The print edge is still 11x18. To add to your experiment. Create a new layer at 1:1, switch your old layer back and forth between whatever scales you want but when you measure the 11x18 page, do it on the newly created layer that is at 1:1. The page will always be 11x18 (inches), but if you measure on the scaled layer the size will appear to change but is really just relative to the scale you have chosen. On the layer you set at 1"=1', you measured 18'.On the layer you set at 1"=2', you measure 9'. The 1:1 layer should measure 1'6" or 18". More confused yet? 1:1 = inch:inch, 1"=1' = inch:foot Hope that helps a little.

I've had the same problem with v11, some referenced layers are italicized and others are not. Win XP VW 11 opteron 250 2G Ram Wildcat Realizm 100

Thanks for responding but I think people are getting confused. A dual-core system doesn't mean two individual processors, It's One chip but with 2 processor "Cores" inside. Here's a link for the apple version http://www.thinksecret.com/news/antares.html PC Version http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,117654,src,ov,00.asp I'd just like to hear if the vectorworks software people are going to support these things. I'm not sure if the app needs to be multithreaded to take advantage of the new processor design, but if it does, nemetchek people need to get busy as it sounds like all future generations of processors are going to be dual-core quite soon. thanks all.

According to AMD, Intel and IBM, the processor markets seems to be going dual core in the near future. That means vectorworks would have to support multiple processors to take advantage of this new technology coming right around the corner. Right? Anybody hear anything about this? Can vectorworks support a dual core processor as it is? I've heard before here that vectorworks will never support a dual processor system. Could someone push this issue so that when the time comes and we all get dual core systems, vectorworks won't be the only program that completely ignores these new processors. Thanks. My system: IWILL DK8N W/OPTERON 250 2G MEM 3D LABS REALIZM 100 WINDOWS XP PRO

If anyone is interested, I recently discovered that with a new logitech mx1000 mouse, clicking the scroll wheel and rolling it to and fro enables zooming in and out within vectorworks, I haven't found the default screen scrolling (which this mouse can do as well) to be very useful. As a side note to this, microsoft has a keyboard out now that has a zoom slider that provides the same function and most importantly also works within vectorworks. My System: Opteron 250 Iwill DK8N 2 GB MEM 3D LABS REALIZM 100 video

Don't know if this help but I have noticed stability problems with Nvidia Detonator drivers in VW 10 with a Quadro 4 750 xgl, maybe other cards as well.Revision 30.82 seems pretty stable but still has the docking problems.ATI Catalyst 3.0 has no docking problems at all(that I've noticed) With a Radeon 9700 Pro.Hope that helps.