D Wood

Well, I suggest you email him anyway - I'm pretty sure I remember a seminar session with him when he demonstrated how to do an amazing free form roof, so a curve in 1 direction should be easy once you know how. The CD from the session may still be available.

Christiaan Next time you're in Napier, why not give Jonathan Pickup a call - that's his home town.

Mike You read CIA documents? And you believe them? Doncha think though it's kinda funny that the "world's greatest democracy" still uses the British Imperial system - do you think they know what the various units are based on? I guess they just can't bring themselves to use a French system!

Bea If you already do the following on a regular basis, my apologies, but Macs do seem to like a little maintenance, say weekly at least: Is your computer left on at night? There is a program that runs in the wee small hours, so if you turn the computer off at night, it doesn't run - download MacJanitor and run that. Repair permissions, including before and after adding/downloading software. Buy DiskWarrior or similar and run weekly. Check Software Updates (or better get it to run itself at a certain time each week) and update all available Mac programs. You might want to consider updating to OS10.4.xx, and current versions of Vectorworks like lots of RAM. I also do these before I do a backup - you are backing up, aren't you?

Felix I guess you are keeping an eye on the adjoining thread as well. The "nr" in the printer model number is supposed to denote wireless capability, but in my case at least this has turned out to be untrue, so be wary of those promises. It also doesn't print A2 size prints across the sheet - a flaw in the HP driver I believe. If you buy, make sure you get a new full size black cartridge thrown in to the deal (mine shipped with a small demo tank that ran out after only a few prints) and check that it prints proper crisp lines from the start - mine had a faulty black printhead which had to be replaced. It's quite noisy too, so I keep it switched off unless I'm printing. Apart from all that .......... it does print OK and reasonably quickly, it has separate colour tanks and printheads which are easy to replace, it takes A1 & A3 sheets as well as an A1 roll, so after the teething problems, I am now getting satisfactory results.

Nope, "the new firmware from HP" didn't work either, so they have taken the wireless unit away, and I am back to the umbilical cord. Sigh.

Mark I totally agree. I really liked the idea of separation that wireless offers, but not with the poor performance the system operates at - although I hate it, I'll try to get used to the draped cable across the office. There is obviously a spooling problem somewhere, probably in the wireless receiver on the printer, because my printer likes yours is flawless when cable connected. However - late development - a techie is coming over tomorrow to try something else - I'll keep you posted. It's definitely last chance though as far as I am concerned.

Nicholas & George Thank you for your considered replies - I have followed all the suggested links, but with all due respect, I remain unconvinced, especially by claims by anti-virus software companies (as Mandy Rice-Davies once famously said "They would say that, wouldn't they?") and that they don't cause slowing and interference with programs like VectorWorks, as found by the original poster. When and if viruses for Macs become common (I mean rather more than one!) I'll look again, but Christiaan's ClamXav just protects other people's PC's via his Mac - why should Mac users protect the unenlightened? Better by far to encourage them to cross over!

Like Mark, I run an HP (110plus nr) on a Mac system. The wireless component has been a huge disappointment, to the point where I am dismantling it and reinstalling a USB cable connection. I could rarely get more than 1 or 2 prints at a time before the printer would just stop - no warning, no message anywhere saying there was a problem. It became quite infuriating and a huge waste of time as I nursed the printer along by feeding it a sheet at a time. Again like Mark, no-one seems to know why, enquiries to HP or the supplier get no response. Wireless connection was a good idea - pity they didn't get it to work properly before releasing it.

The only reason for Mac users to have anti-virus software is to protect dark side users, which is what the program you recommend does, but it does nothing for your Mac. I prefer to just encourage enlightenment wherever I can ......

Christiaan Hold the horses with regard to HP: my Designjet 110plus nr can't print A2 across either, and I'm getting the old runaround too - you know, HP says it's either a Mac or VW problem, Apple says its either HP or VW, and VW says its a Mac or HO problem. Sound familiar?

Of course, if you used Macs, you could trash Norton, and you wouldn't have these problems.................

Larry Look at the roof faces from the side rather than Top/Plan. You can then draw sloping lines to find the point of intersection, and find the x distance from each face to that point. Then you back to Top/Plan view and edit each roof face by clicking on it twice and adding/subtracting rectangles or polygons using the x value. When you click Done your roof faces should be touching.

Just in case this is a Mac issue and not VectorWorks: Have you tried turning everything off and restarting? Is/are the computer(s) left on at night? If not, do you run MacJanitor or similar? Do you regularly repair permissions? Do you run DiskWarrior or similar regularly? It is surprising what a bit of weekly maintenance can do, even with Macs.

Andrew Following on from Peter: Go to a layer you suspect contains layer links, and SELECT ALL. If there are layer links, they will have grey handles. When you click UNLOCK the handles turn black and you can delete the selected objects.

Welcome to the Vectorworks forum. It would help if you could say what computer you use, and what operating system and version of VectorWorks you are using. The stair tool changed between v11 and v12, so the answer will depend on which version you use. Once you set up a signature you can reuse it each posting. Regards David W Auckland NZ G5 iMac, 1.5Gb RAM, OS 10.4.5 VWA+R 11.5 Epson Stylus Color 1160, HP Designjet 110plus nr

There is a movie (one of a series) on the new stair tool - http://www.nemetschek.net/upgrade/demos.php which is worth watching. I think investing a little time to understand a new feature, especially when it doesn't work quite the way the old one did, is more productive than firing off grumpy messages. Regards David W Auckland NZ G5 iMac, 1.5Gb RAM, OS 10.4.5 VWA+R 11.5 Epson Stylus Color 1160, HP Designjet 110plus nr

Similar solution to Peter C: If there are only 2 objects, you can CUT the front one, do whatever you want to do to the back one, and PASTE IN PLACE and the front one will reappear. The only caveat is that you must not COPY anything else in before you PASTE IN PLACE, otherwise you will lose the cut object. You could also remove the fill in the front object to make objects behind visible. Regards David W

Mike The house is 2 storeys with just a bedroom suite upstairs, and I had the roofs of the ground floor on the upper floor layer. I had a roof layer, but it only had the upper floor roofs on it. So I have done what you & Jonathan suggest - move all the roofs to the roof layer, adjust the 3D heights, and bingo - Fit Walls To Roof works perfectly on the ground floor walls. Regards David W Auckland NZ G5 iMac, 1.5Gb RAM, OS 10.4.5 VWA+R 11.5 Epson Stylus Color 1160, HP Designjet 110plus nr

Jonathan You are quite right as usual - moving the stair temporaily to another layer made no difference because there are other objects on the layer with the roof planes. What I will have to do is to move all roof elements to one layer (with nothing else on that layer) and adjust their z heights. It is cool however how the walls will fit around roof beams and rafters, so having them on the roof layer is a good idea. Regards David W Auckland NZ G5 iMac, 1.5Gb RAM, OS 10.4.5 VWA+R 11.5 Epson Stylus Color 1160, HP Designjet 110plus nr

Thank you for your reply. Moving the stair out of the layer will be a lot quicker. Are there any other objects that are likely to cause this problem? Regards David W Auckland NZ G5 iMac, 1.5Gb RAM, OS 10.4.5 VWA+R 11.5 Epson Stylus Color 1160, HP Designjet 110plus nr

Yes, the walls are on a different layer to the roof. Thank you for the offer to look at the file, I will email it immediately. Regards David W Auckland NZ G5 iMac, 1.5Gb RAM, OS 10.4.5 VWA+R 11.5 Epson Stylus Color 1160, HP Designjet 110plus nr

This is a brilliant tool - when it works. On some of my files, it will work instantly with one or more walls selected, on others I get the SPOD (spinning pizza of death), and have to force escape. There doesn't seem to be a pattern (ie files converted from an earlier version), so I am wondering if anyone else has the problem. Regards David W Auckland NZ G5 iMac, 1.5Gb RAM, OS 10.4.5 VWA+R 11.5 Epson Stylus Color 1160, HP Designjet 110plus nr

Well, if we're asking quick questions, why don't the walls in the cross section extend to the roof? Or is there a ceiling missing? Incidentally, I hope the kitchen is the "before" version. Regards David W Auckland NZ G5 iMac, 1.5Gb RAM, OS 10.4.4 VWA+R 11.5 Epson Stylus Color 1160, HP Designjet 110plus nr

Barry I am a bit puzzled by your comment about margins. I do all my A4 printing, and some A3 prints to my Color 1160 (in landscape mode), and it will print quite close to all edges, closer I think than you would really want with presentation drawings. Maybe you should try downloading the latest driver from Epson and trying it. I don't know about colour trueness, that seems to be a minefield on any computer/printer combination if other posts here are anything to go by. Regards David W Auckland NZ G5 iMac, 1.5Gb RAM, OS 10.4.4 VWA+R 11.5 Epson Stylus Color 1160, HP Designjet 110plus nr