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Chris Fleming

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Everything posted by Chris Fleming

  1. Heather, I had the same problem you're describing. I found a slightly different solution than what Jim describes, although I just tried his method and it worked perfectly! I don't create section viewports on my design layers. Because I consider section markers to be a part of my presentation annotations, I create them on the sheet layer where I need the marker to appear. -I create a "plan view sheet" with my plan view viewport on it. -Then, on the plan view sheet, and WITH THE PLAN VIEW VIEWPORT SELECTED, I use the "create section viewport" command from the view menu. I then draw the section line where I want on my plan sheet. The "create section viewport" command will only work if you have the viewport you're sectioning selected. That may seem obvious, but wasn't to me. That gives me the section I want, on the sheet I want, and automatically leaves the section marker on the plan sheet as an annotation (editable from within the annotations portion of the viewport). The only real difference I see between the two methods is when and where you create your section. I don't annotate on my design layers much at all, therefore it made more sense for me to do it on the appropriate sheet layer.
  2. LOL! Dan, that is exactly it! It's crazy how simple it is if you only know what to do and look for! Thanks to all!!! Chris
  3. I double click my section viewport, and select "edit crop", but there is no crop outline or re-size handles. On any other viewport, I can re-size and move the crop to my heart's desire. Is there a preference setting I have set wrong? Thanks in advance for any input Peter!
  4. BCD, your method worked. I simply turn visibility off for all classes in the view path. Thanks! I should've been able to figure that out on my own! I'm not clear what you mean about a dimensional grid. Sounds interesting. Peter, it is a section viewport. Sections don't have editable crops do they, or am I missing something? I appreciate the help guys!
  5. I'm still using VW Arch 2008. Plan on upgrading to current and switching to the subscription model within a few months. Until then a question: Is there a way to create a viewport from within a section viewport? I need to be able to print molding details within my print set. The sheet shows a side profile of the molding in question, the side of the cabinet, etc. with dimensions showing the rise and projection of the moldings. I create my section viewports and put them on the appropriate sheets. The moldings are plainly visible. I then create a detail viewport from the section viewport. I can get what I want, but only if it displays in wireframe. Once I try hidden line, the objects in the drawing BEHIND my section fill in and block the view. I know it must be simple. I've tried the different settings for foreground and background rendering, all to no avail. I don't understand how objects behind the section are blocking the view of something in front of the section. Currently, I'm simply pasting in molding profiles and dimensioning those. The problem arises when a client wants to change the molding. I have to now go back and delete the old molding and paste a new one in and re-dimension. It would sure be easier if I only had to update the viewport in question and re-dimension the annotations. What am I doing wrong?
  6. Tails, I don't mean to speak for Christiaan, but he is indeed referring to the applications folder on you Mac.
  7. I think I can close this out now. We went with the tower and a 24" Apple Cinema display. You can see the final config in my signature. It really came down to our history with the good folks selling the MacPro Tower. Final price for all was $1,500, so a pretty sweet deal. I liked the idea of having expandability/upgrade-ability. I will be dropping another internal drive in soon for mirroring. I knew neither machine would would be a bad choice, and simply pulled the trigger. Next up is my VW upgrade! Thanks for input everyone!
  8. Thanks for your reply NatureBoy. I was leaning toward going with the tower, but I needed a nudge! I'll probably pull the trigger on it today or tomorrow.
  9. I need some help evaluating my current two choices for Mac based hardware to run VW2011 Architect/RW. I'm currently simply trying to decide between these two choices. Choice one(from Apple): Refurbished iMac 27" - 2.66Ghz Quad-core Intel Core i5 (one year limited Apple warranty) 4gb ram 1Tb hard drive ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics with 512MB memory Choice two (from very reliable power-user source): Mac Pro 3,1 Tower with 24" apple monitor. Both are approx. 2 years old. (no warranty - but source is reliable with well maintained hardware, etc. I bought his used mac gear in the past with a 100% reliability record). 2 x 2.8Ghz Quad-core Intel Xeon (8 CPU's) L2 cache share: 12mb 6gb ram 1.5Tb hard drive ATI Radeon HD 2600 w/ 256mb of vram. Both choices are within $100 of each other, so the cost is non issue. Thanks for any guidance that anyone may be able to give!
  10. Thanks for the input!We've got a pretty good reputation, so we have a high closure rate, but I know that good renderings would only improve that rate. Here's our site: www.lemontkitchenandbath.com Please update the thread once you've made your decision! Thanks!
  11. I've been seriously considering jumping ship to Chief Architect myself. I've had VW for several years, and while I think our drawings look fantastic, we've never tapped the 3-D side of it, nor it's rendering abilities. Our firm does what I'll describe as upper-mid to very high end turn key internal remodeling, with an emphasis on kitchen and bath remodeling. The fact they we do only residential work is a key reason for my consideration. Much of the work we do is highly custom, and I haven't been able to use Vectorworks' built in cabinetry and symbols for that. I need the ability to change the rails and stile widths of cabinetry doors. I need to extend stiles on face frame cabinetry. I need to be able to build custom cabinets with many different door and drawer openings. And of course, there are so many cabinetry doorstyles that need to be represented. At present we we hand draw perspectives for the client, and draw individual detailed cabinet drawings (in VW) for our various cabinet companies to use in production. I feel we need to make the next step to using 3-dimensional, rendered concepts to illustrate the finished project to our clients. We're not doing that now with VWArch/RenderW. While I sure it's possible, I haven't been able to produce any results that I'd be comfortable presenting to clients. Maybe I'm missing something? Is there a "catalog" available that offers customizable cabinets, etc. that may be available from a third party? I've searched and can't find one. Also, the lighting and rendering is so difficult to even approach anything that begins to look "realistic" that it's just wasted on me. I admit that I'm sure 85% of my frustration is user error. But when I see how easily chief Arch. renders I become very jealous. I don't want to have to export my files and use yet another piece of software to create my presentation renders either. I've also considered InteriorCad to use with VW to give me more of what I'm seeking, but it seems that Chief Arch may be exactly what I'm looking for pretty much out of the box due to our residential work. I realize that I may be living in a dream world, but I had visions (with VW) of being able to draw our projects accurately, and with enough detail to use the single item, a custom base cabinet in the design for instance, for all the views (elevations, perspectives, production detail). As I use it now, we do our plan drawing, then do detailed elevations separately, but within the same file. So if the client wants to change something based on the elevation drawing, we have to go back to each individual drawing and make the change. I absolutely need to speed the drawing process! And I haven't even mentioned attaching moldings and casework within the design! Can someone enlighten me?
  12. Daniel is exactly right. Also, if you double click on the preferences button of the cabinet tool (in the object tool palette), you can set all of the tolerances before placing your first cabinet. There after, all additional cabinets should have the same reveals, toe heights, etc.
  13. I just checked, and it says "door" in object info, not "door in wall". EDIT: Found it! Thanks for the clue. I was using the wrong method.
  14. I know this will seem basic, but I'm stumped. I'm trying to put a sliding glass door into a wall, for an exterior deck design. My problem is that when rendered, the door does not show up. It is there when highlighted, but the walls exterior siding "covers" it up when rendered. The only solution I've found is to offset the door far enough that both doors protrude from the wall. This looks really bad when rendered. I'm using VW2008 (SP2)(build82099) on a Macintosh. The wall I'm using is Ext-2x4-siding. The door is from the standard selection available when using the door tool. I'm using a slider door. I've tried it with "Use Wall Depth" both selected and deselected. I'm sure it is simple, and I'm overlooking the solution. I'd appreciate any help available. For what it's worth, the same happens with windows also. What am I missing?
  15. What I did was to use the custom units setting. I set it for 1 DXF unit = 8". So far, every molding import I've done has been correct to within about 1/64". That's more than accurate enough for my use. Thanks again!
  16. Thanks Pat and Jan! I did a couple of trial and error adjustments and was able to nail it. I would have not known where to look without your help! Thanks again.
  17. I've searched and can't find a thread addressing this, so here goes. When I import dxf files for my drawings (primarily moldings, etc.), they don't come in at the proper size (the size the molding actually is). The file says it is 1/8' scale. However when measured, the moldings are fractions of their actual size. For example, a 5" high molding is 5/8" tall in the file.I've tried importing into 1:1 and 1/8' scale layers. I've tried changing the layer's scale after import. Nothing seems to work. I usually end up grouping, then resizing to approximately the correct size to achieve near visual accuracy. But surely I'm missing something, and there is a way to have the files come in the correct size. Help!
  18. I've done some downloading of files, but we use many moldings from a small custom shop, so the downloading option is out with those. I've not had very good luck with the trace bitmap command. I find that the resulting poly has a very "hand-drawn" sketch quality to it. I'm looking to get a fine lined poly resembling the rest of my drawing. Maybe there is a setting I need to tweak? As for scanning profiles to be traced, can anyone recommend any settings (dpi, file type, etc.)? Sorry if this is very elementary stuff. I do virtually no 3-D work, and no rendering at all. (I wonder why I purchased Renderworks at all?! LOL. Dreaming of the potential I guess!). Thanks for the advice so far. This message board is an excellent tool! EDIT: Okay, I'm a simpleton! LOL! I took my traced object and, as was suggested above, used the polyline tool to draw over it. Fantastic results! It seems so obvious now, but you can't imagine how difficult I've made all of this! Thanks again!
  19. I'm looking for a way (simple?) to draw crown molding profiles, and other precise, curved items (2-D carved posts, for instance) to use in my drawings. I've been able to get by using polygons, then clipping them with various circles, arcs, and other polygons. It works, but seems VERY cumbersome, with much trial and error. I'm looking for suggestions or solutions?
  20. Maybe I misunderstand the issue, but I do the same thing. Draw in color and print to B & W printer. I didn't like the grayscale handling of printing the color drawing, so this is what I do. When I'm ready to print, I simply go to: preferences>document preference>display and check the "black and white only" box. After the print job has been sent to the printer, I go back and uncheck. Works great, and is simple. I'm pretty sure I've seen a plug-in script for doing just that. I just don't remember where! Hope this helps.
  21. In order for it to come up with the F1 key on a mac, you have to use fn+F1. You can also go to the help pulldown menu in VW, it comes up in Safari with no problems. There is a bit of a delay for java, but it comes up in a couple of seconds with no problems at all. I'm also using Safari 1.3 OS X 10.3.9 VW 11.5.0 [ 05-16-2005, 12:34 PM: Message edited by: Chris Fleming ]
  22. I use hatches to represent detail in wood panels (v-grooved, bead board, etc.) and tile back splashes. It allows me to have accurate fill detail without the need to draw all the lines, etc. I have two templates, one for 11 x 17 drawings, and another for 18 x 24 drawings. Aside from the size, ALL elements are identical (classes and class detail, layers, etc.). Everything works fine in the 11 x 17 template file. I'm not so lucky on the 18 x 24 file, however. In order for the orientation of the hatch lines to be accurate (centered) in the various rectangles representing the panels, I use the hatch command in the Tools pull-down menu. When using the hatch command I get wierd results. The vertical lines representing the v-grooves and bead board detail all have short lines projecting out at an angle (if you imagine a basic arrow pointer pointing down, you pretty much have the image). I have another hatch which represents wood lattice. When I issue the hatch command with this hatch the results are completely distorted triangles and boxes everywhere. If I apply the hatch with the attributes palette, or by double clicking the hatch in the resource browser, everything comes in fine (except, of course, that the hatch is not centered properly in the object). The graphic problem is only associated with the hatch command, and only happens in the template for the 18 x 24 drawings. I apologize for the lengthy (and probably cryptic) post, but I need help! Thanks!
  23. Sorry! I figured it out. In my 18 x 24 template file, I must've had the left arrow box checked in the attributes palette, when I did the "save as template". Duh! Working great!
  24. LOL. Thanks Katie. Sometimes the most obvious course of action is staring me in the face, yet I refuse to see it! I created a new blank document, and then imported the hatches just as I did with the template file, and it worked fine. I guess my course of action now is to create a new 18 x 24 template file and try again. Thanks Katie!
  25. Thanks Kevin. I'll try that, and post the result. Chris
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