Mark D Shermeyer

Thanks for the tip. Any one have any tips on a way to automate this process? (AppleScript, etc?)

Not having a copy of the VW 11 software, my question is how does one do this? Does it require two separate installations of VW 11--one for OSX and one for Classic? (This is how we currently do it with VW 9 & 9.5)

We are considering upgrading from VW 9.5.3 to VW 11. Since the MacPlot HPGL/2 drivers are only yet available in OS 9.2.2 or Classic, is it possible to install and use VW 11 in OS 10.3, and also plot VW 11 files from Classic using the MacPlot drivers?

When using File -> Preferences -> Document Preferences... -> Display -> Black And White Only many of the lines revert to white and are essentially invisible (don't display). This is the same for VW 9.5.3 and also for the VW 10.5 viewer. If the Pen Fill is set to class style and the Pen Color and Pen Thickness is set to something other than class style, the line does not display. If Pen Fill, Pen Color and Pen Thickness is set to class style, or all to something other than class style, the lines display properly as black. Objects in groups don't display, and dimension lines don't display, although dimension text does display. Assistance would be appreciated on this!

Austin, I just posted a private reply also to you, asking if you could share contact info for the firm. I would be willing to purchase their VectorScript and adapt it to our uses. (I have difficulty with the time required to write a script that gets everything inside of groups, etc. and back again.) Thanks.

Thanks, Peter. I have been trying to use GIMP print, as Microspot X-RIP only allows color or greyscale printing (!), and for a product costing what they charge, it seems like a big oversight! (Especially when MacPlot prints black & white fine!) GIMP print does allow black & white printing, and drivers for similar HP DesignJets work fine (ex: 450C), but only objects (text, lines, etc) assigned a black pen or fill color print when black & white printing is selected. Nothing else prints! Greyscale, however prints everything. Back to my original question: does someone know of a combination of settings in GIMP print that might work? For example, can you print in black & white with GIMP print and what are your settings? Or, does this somehow relate to the VectorWorks bug where changing the document display preference to "Black & White Only" doesn't display some objects correctly (some turn to all white)? Your ideas? :-)

Checking the Zoom line thickness box does not work: when zoomed out, the lines weights we use display at the same size (negating this function), and when zoomed in, they display way too fat and "cartoonish" to edit precisely. We commonly use line weights relating to technical pens: 0.13mm, 0.18mm, 0.25mm, 0.30mm, and 0.35mm commonly, and 0.50mm, 0.60mm and 0.70mm less commonly. 1.00mm is used in title block borders. The line weights above 0.35mm display in such a manner as to distinguish themselves a little better without the color code. "Old AutoCad convention" or not, the fact of the matter is that when a 24x36 inch or 30x42 inch sheet is displayed on any monitor of any size, color coding is needed to distinguish line weights! There is just not another way around this! We have a technical staff of up to five, producing a lot of output. Plotting must often be done right before meeting with clients on a tight schedule. Editing drawings and changing "some things that go white" to black is not feasible, and is extremely time consuming (something else which we cannot afford to have our technical staff waste!) This is an unworkable solution, especially for what appears to be a bug in the program. Also, when changing black & white displays back, all line weights revert to display in mils, not mm--another bug which requires yet another step. I have drafted exclusively on different CAD systems in many different offices since the 1980's. No office has been any different, and no A/E office can afford time consuming edits to drawings just to plot. We do use white screens and don't use full screen cursors. Some changes make sense, others do not. Early CAD convention or not, mapping line weights to colors is absolutely necessary in technical architectural/engineering drawings on CAD, with fine pens necessary for precise drawings, with even today's best display technology.

Yes. The problem is that when changing the Display Document Preference to Black & White, some items, apparently those in groups and assigned a "class stlye" pen line style attribute, turn to all white and don't display at all! I don't klnow if this is a software bug, but it makes this solution unworkable. Having to change this preference every time we want to plot is an inconvenience, especially when it was handled in the plotter driver (and still could easily be). We could use it however, if it worked, but it doesn't with this version of the software. Most architects don't plot color on technical drawings; others must have encountered this plotting problem...

We are currently using VW 9.5.3 on OS X 10.2.6. I am owner of an architectural firm which generates large format plots (commonly 24x36 or 30x42), black line with multiple line weights on an HP DesignJet 350C plotter. We use multiple line weights on our VW drawings, but have a color assigned to each line weight in order to track it on our screens while zoomed out. Our only plotting solution to date seems to be opening the drawing files under VW 9.0.3 in Classic and plotting with MacPlot.(Cumbersome!) I have examined the X-RIP demo and discussed the issue with Microspot. The X-RIP driver offers no black & white option (MacPlot does!), only greyscale. The Gimp Print drivers (our plotter is not supported directly, but similar ones are) offer dpi monochrome and black and white options but there is a problem: when selecting black and white, only lines and text assigned the pen color black plot, nothing else plots! When selecting greyscale, everything plots, but the greyscale lines do not give the crisp, pen and ink line appearance we need and are accustomed to. Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas? (These plotting issues have kept us from upgrading to VW 10 and further. We can't get what we need out of the plotter under OS X!) Thanks.