willy

My wish-list would include some level of customization for the redline auditor. I've been a user since MiniCAD 4, so I have seen early incremental improvements result in some awesome tools that noone imagined by VW 10. Some of the things I would like to check might be easy for me, once a little capability is available. It would be a lot harder to tell you how to implement specific tests. Give it some consideration. Thanks! --Willy

Actually, I should have indicated the "redline auditor." I'd like to get more automation into the process of backchecking drawings. Examples of things I would like to check: Check opening for header callout, Check beams for incorrect camber (outside certain limits), Verify all details are called out somewhere (flag all unreferenced details, flag all callouts w/o details.), Check footing top elevation with slab bottom elevation and flag conflict. For many of these things, I would need to define object characteristics that could be checked with a list of standard error conditions. I've been thinking about doing it with PIO and Vectorscripts, but I was curious about how the redline auditor was implemented, and whether it could be given a set of customizing conditions. --Willy

Is it possible to customize the redline tool? It looks usefull, but as an engineer, I look for somewhat different things than architects do.

If you are buying through a dealer, make them set it up. No reason for you to take the risk. Otherwise, I get the best help when I ask about setting something up on an ethernet network or on a Unix network (assuming you have OS X). Unix has been around for years, and people are comfortable with it. Macs are viewed as unreliable fringe computers. I have to use both, so I know better, but no Wintel person will stick their neck out to tell you how to connect up your Mac. Concentrate on finding out how to put the OCE on ethernet with an IP address. The people you have talked to may mean to attach the OCE to a Windows machine on ethernet and then connect all the other PCs and Macs to ethernet. That would get everything on the network, and the OCE up and running. Then you need to transport the Mac files to the Windows machine for plotting. I don't know how the OCE queues up jobs for printing, so I cant help you there. Good luck. --Willy

Magness has the best answer I see, but I'd emphasize the liability issue. By using a plan drawn by a surveyor and e-mailed to you, the liability gets tracked to the surveyor. Not that you are totally out of it. Also, the lines on the paper may or may not be drawn correctly. The metes and bounds description can also be flawed. Sometimes easements cannot be located. If you have to draw it yourself, reference the documents used and provide a disclaimer. Be certain what you are doing does not constitute the "practice of engineering" which could result in fines of $10K in my state and permanent prohibition from ever being licensed. Just some thoughts about what a real engineer would do.

I'm running the same hardware. I am still running 10.1. No problems. I would try deleting all of VW and reinstalling (if you haven't already). --Willy

Well, my idea was to make an automatically updateable 2-D section of a model by defining the workplane and the line for the section cut and using DoMenuByText("Cut 2D Section) more or less. I have the script that calls DoMenuByText, but it requires user intervention to define the cut. This is similar to an AutoCAD feature that I have always wanted to see in VW. I'm a big VW fan, since MC 4, but I expect a lot from software so I find limitations frequently. Any ideas of accomplishing this would be appreciated.

I need to automate some menu operations. The 'DoMenu...' function works fine in VectorScript, but it then needs two points or a line drawn to complete the operation. How do I provide this input to VectorScript from within a script rather than sitting and waiting for the cursor to appear and doing it by hand? DoMenu... is a good idea, but it would seem like a big omission if I can't automate all the required steps of the menu command as well.

I need to automate some menu operations. The 'DoMenu...' function works fine in VectorScript, but it then needs two points or a line drawn to complete the operation. How do I provide this input to VectorScript from within a script rather than sitting and waiting for the cursor to appear and doing it by hand? DoMenu... is a good idea, but it would seem like a big omission if I can't automate all the required steps of the menu command as well.

Kevin-- I didn't intend to have other programs running, but FreeBSD has a lot of processes going all the time. I can't tell if VW itself is using both processors, just that both are being used, and approximately equally, when I run VW. I tried the 'experiment' because another family member is taking a computer architecture course and the subject of multiprocessors was discussed. I picked VW to test the system because I had heard they did not used DP systems. I was surprised by the results. The question for the VW programmers: "Do you compile VW to support multi-threading or do you disable the option?" Compiling for multi-threading will use as many processors as there are available without extra coding effort and without distributing different versions. I have no guess on the efficiency of the processor usage. --Willy

My 1.42 GHz DP shows approximately equal processor utilization when I am in Vectorworks. I think I would pick the G4 DP from your list. If there was a G5 that was 2 Ghz or more, I would consider it similar to the G4 DP. Just my opinion, I haven't used a G5 yet.