jckii

jan15: What is stupid and inefficient about using color to identify the thickness of a line? I prefer to draw with "zoom line thickness" turned off, (for accuracy reasons, because the snap accuracy of VW leaves much to be desired) and find it extremely handy to have all line-thicknesses "by class" and thus "by color". Most ACAD users I know use v2000 or later and none of them use color to assign plotter lineweight. They do, however, have the ability to use lineweight to assign color, so to speak, regarless of class or ACAD layer. That''s something VW would do well to develop. Lastly, maybe you should try being a bit less stupid and inefficient yourself, by not wasting time brainlessly slagging off hardworking, intelligent and dedicated people who choose to use excellent, industry-standard software that happens not to be VW.

Oh, and I'm on Mac OSX using VW 10.5, in case that's any help to Tech Support....

I have inadvertantly hit something on my keyboard which has invoked some or other drawing status in which I cannot edit anything. Cannot select any tools but the pan and zoom in/out, and most menu items are grayed out. Error message received when trying to select any tools other than those above, is: " Only Pan, Zoom In, Zoom Out, Flyover Tools are Permitted Here". Where is "Here????" How do I get out of this? VW won't even respond to "quit" in this mode, and the only way out seems to be to "force quit" and crash the program. Any suggestions?

Thank you, Petri, you chose to edit out of my post the most important issue with VW, which is drawing exhange among consultants. If VW was able to come up with an export-to-DWG function that did not result in every one of my consultants (ALL of whom use AutoCAD) calling me up with problems with unusable files, what you're sayng might hold some water. Don't give me that old line that "This is a common reaction from people who try to use VW in the same manner as AutoCAD" - I have gone by the book, and beyond, from day one with VW, and regardless of how you use it, VW is riddled with problems that I never had in AutoCAD: the snaps are lousy, dimensioning is inconsistent and inaccurate, window, door and other parametric tools are hopelessly unreliable and inflexible, not to mention tricky to manipulate, workgroup referencing is cumbersome, obtuse and slow, and the very fact that the program has a "nudge" tool is testimony to the fact that accuracy is compromised. VW is fine for graphics, and maybe for small, one-person boutique projects - for accurate drafting and extensive documentation of large projects, forget it. Add to that the fact that many intuitive, obvious drawing tools one would expect as standard in any decent CAD program are only available as "plug-ins" that one has to buy or download from somewhere else, and then install, or worse, that you have to write scripts for yourself. We are architects, not computer geeks, and the last thing I want to worry about when drawing, designing, managing a building project is how to deal with, or expand, the ridiculous limitations of my software. Your trainees most likely use AutoCAD to do the parts of projects that VW cannot handle!

No. I don't know Landcadd, but do not buy VectorWorks if you can help it - in other words, if you're not on a Mac. Get AutoCAD LT: it costs about the same (OK, a little more), it references decently, is way more accurate and intuitive, and you won't have constant file transfer and co-ordination issues with all , or most of, your consultants who also use AutoCAD. There's a reason it's the industry standard: it is simply the best. I have tried hard to love VectorWorks, believe me - but it is simply a second-rate option with major deficiencies in some pretty key areas. Pity my office is log-time loyal to Mac, and are reluctant to make the switch to AutoCAD friendly PCs.....

SUCCESS! Thanks you guys, you've been very helpful. Off to play with my fun new VW tools....

Mike - did you drop the plug-ins "loose" into your 10.5 plug-ins folder, or did you leave them in the "GDP Folder" in which they were downloaded and "unstuffed"?? I am on a Mac - maybe this has something to do with it. Still getting nowhere....

Yes indeed - from vectordepot.com. See my previous post and subsequent replies: http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=004229

I just downloaded a recommended ed collection of plug-ins for use with VW 10.5, placed it in the plug-in folder, restarted, but they still do not show up in my workspace editor. Any suggestions? [ 11-09-2004, 02:29 PM: Message edited by: jckii ]

AutoCAD has a great pair of tools for instantly turning off, or "freezing" a layer by simply clicking on any object on that layer. Is there a quick, simple and direct way to do this in VW?

Thanks for a very helpful reply. I find zoom line thickness 'on' is just a hazard to accuracy and better suited to more graphic applications of VW. Right now line thickness "by class" is generally how I draw, and when I override this, it's a two step process to change the line thickness, and then its color. This is so I can always tell what a particlar lineweight is just by its color. A little tedious! Appreciate your laymans' explanations of macros - sounds like this would be the way to go. Can you recommend a particular macro utility that works well with VW? What happens once one has created a macro - does it get its own icon, or pull-down item, or keyboard short-cut? Where does the macro actually "reside"?

Is there a way one can make lineweight directly determined by line color? Like change a line to color "cyan" and it automatically becomes 0.5mm thick? I would find this extremely useful when drawing with "zoom line thickness" set to off (a more accurate way of drawing)

Is there a way one can make lineweight directly determined by line color? Like change a line to color "cyan" and it automatically becomes 0.5mm thick? I would find this extremely useful when drawing with "zoom line thickness" set to off (a more accurate way of drawing)

Is there a way one can make lineweight directly determined by line color? Like change a line to color "cyan" and it automatically becomes 0.5mm thick? I would find this extremely useful when drawing with "zoom line thickness" set to off (a more accurate way of drawing)

That's not bad! Thank you. I wonder if there's anyway of automatically tying this command to the "Print" command? (Ie, so that invoking "print" simultaneously toggles to black-and-white) I'm certainly no script expert - but would this be possble?

Thanks for the info on VW 11. However I am generally working in 10.5 I have updated my printer drivers with the most current one available from HP (for the HP designjet 800ps). I still have no "print black and white only" option in the printer dialogue. Why would this setting option disappear from my printer driver? Could it be an OSX issue (I upgraded at the same time I upgraed to VW 10.5) Can you help me with the printer driver issue, if that is indeed what it is? Using the "black and white only" option in document prefs is tedious and unwieldy - color is essential to the draftng process, and changing the actual document prefs to black and white, and then back again, every time I need to print, doesn't make sense. There must be a better way.

That's exactly what I used to do. There was a black and white option under "Finishing" in the pull-down as part of the "print" dialogue. That was with v10 - or maybe earlier, like v9. Once we upgraded to 10.5, this option disappeared. But I'll try updating my printer driver anyway...

Is there a simple way to do this - without changing the actual on-screen display to black only, in "Document Preferences"? (I actually don't know if this even affects printer outpu...) In earlier versions of VW (like 10, and 9) printing black-line only was possible through a pull-down in the "Print" dialogue. in 10.5 and 11 the only option is to print color as grayscale, either on or off. Thus a blue line, for example, on a color plotter, will only print as blue or gray. This is no good - if items are colored by class, which they have to be in a complex drawing for effective class and lineweight control/monitoring, there has to be a way to print in black only. Any ideas?

krw - Thanks - yours is the most logical answer to my question and was the route I had thought of proceeding along too. So do you operate on a system of "a master plan", appropriate layers of which are referenced into separate files for each of sheets A2.1, A2.2, A2.3 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors? And then you reference the same "master plan" into another file for sheet A5.1 (Dorr Schedules) and again into A5.2(Window Schedules)? This is currently my proposed method and is similar to how I have use AutoCAD in the past - however VectorWorks experts warn me against this and advocate the "single file" method for which VW does, I admit, seem more ideally designed. Trouble is getting this to work for a project of 120,000Sf and a team of 10 people all needing access to at least some the drawings all at the same time. I'd be really curious to hear how someone in a larger office (as you seem to be) sets up their entire drawing set, and how this works for you.

I've had this problem too and figured out the solution - but what would be great, is a fast way to find the specific offending door or window with the record attached, that one wants to get rid of! Is there a quick way to search it out, without scanning through the entie drawing?

I want to create door, window and finish schedules from my floor plan / model drawing and then either reference or import them into a separate file, so that they are automatically updated in that file when I make door/window/finish changes in the original model. Anyone know how to do this?