Petri

1. Basic 3D colours of "first" & "last" component by class or component colour (yes, I know I'm dreaming...) 2. Maximum allowed (certified) height field (dimension) 3a. Internal/external wall Boolean 3b. Outside/inside sequence 4. Firewall Boolean 5. Certification code field (text); while in most cases the manufacturers have a certificate for their product, there are also generic certifications in which case the field would indicate the compliance requirement. 6. Elevation hatch (yes, I know I'm dreaming again...) In addition, each wall should have at least the Firewall Boolean as an option. At present, I'm processing the class name of each wall to find out whether it is a designated firewall, but this is "somewhat" error-prone as the user has to follow a syntax when creating classes. A toggle would also be easier than a class name. Why do I do want these things? Well, in not-so-smart-sized projects (= non-McMansions, intensely despised by the top brass of NNA as Too Hard), fire compartments are often a major issue. While there is value in forcing users to classify (sic!) walls, in a BIM context this seems to be counter-productive. If I'm not entirely wrong, an IFC wall is supposed to know whether it is a firewall. And when one surrounds a fire compartment with walls, they obviously should be marked as firewalls. And the compliance should be checked - even outside Singapore. And doors should assume fire ratings as stipulated by the local code. And so on and so on and scooby-dooby-doo. In short: the foundation (easy-to-use wall styles) is good. Now, can we get actually smart walls or should that be left to the industry leaders? Different CADs for different folks? Ohh, sha-sha!

You can change line weights in viewports, either by class or by a general factor. Your idea about thinner lines further away sounds good. How about also having a small gap between the "front part" and "back part" - on the drawing board I always used both these techniques. Yes, bring the hatches to elevations in the way Patrick suggests! It's been wishlisted and discussed tens of times and this proposal has the best implementation method I have seen.

(Memo to myself: learn to read.) In the Nav Palette? Yes, that would be cool.

I'm sure I've seen something like it there. Maybe by Katerina Panagiotakis - she has several utilities of this general kind (classes, I mean). Well, I guess I was wrong.

Is it? Here VW always exports in 1:1 scale.

Have you by any chance implemented A4 paper size, used by 95% of the world's population, or are you still assuming that the vast majority of VW users are happy with US paper sizes not available in their countries?

I don't do AutoCAD and have no idea of the units you are referring to. What is a (an?) "? In these parts of the world, scale does not make any difference.

1) Mirror, mirror on the wall... Actually, this would be good! 2) You wish... 3) I only wrong-click, but I think there are free utilities for the function per se[/] at VectorDepot.

I wish I knew how to do it... I have two demos to do on the subject tomorrow... So far, no success. Whatever. I'll just show them my own Plant Tool and get them to buy Fundamentals plus that. They'll save money, I'll make money.

There ARE classes for contour lines?

I think this "1:1" is useless voodoo. Pure santeria. Save the goats! Everything you do in VW is 1:1 anyway.

Ah, sorry. I forgot Microstation - yes, that was listed, too, as was ADT. I also only mentioned listed architectural programs, not engineering, No, they did not explicitly state anything about VW and used "eg." in the list, but so what. The Finnish construction industry does not consider VW as a BIM program capable of product modeling. Period. Just read the book, Mike! It is called "Tuotemallintaminen arkkitehtisuunnittelussa" ("Product modeling in architectural design"). ISBN-13: 978-851-682-798-1. Published in 2006 by Rakennustieto.

A quite recent publication by the ProIT research project. Allplan, ArchiCAD and Revit are mentioned, VW is not.

Finland may not be a mainstream market, but this is where American researchers on BIM come to do their research... It all happens here, but the leading local researchers do not consider VW a BIM-program. They must have a reason.

I have no idea what you are trying to say, Gerard. You must be deluded. Mike: It does. Now, eg. in Singapore code compliance is checked using IFC data. While the graphic presentation does not count (Gerard: I still don't give anyone a "credit" for eyeballing blueprints), the data description has to be correct. (Whoops. VW's IFC can't do it!)

While in principle I'm strongly against the idea that a less-than-mediocre designer should, especially by way of CAD software, be enabled to win jobs just because he or she happens to make nice drawings, while a budding - or even mature - Martha Schwartz just does Driveway Extensions, I'd also like to see Alpha-channel support. If not for any practical purpose, then at least to make Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons envious.

An OS X -rated movie? Let the record show that I've experienced screen flicker on a couple of MacMinis. Maybe it is not flicker: the entire screen went psychedelic, man! Was not in a position to investigate the details, but I'd say 10.4.10 or 10.4.11. I'd also say that this was mainly in OGL context - but, oh man, it was SOOOOH WILLLDD that I did not make notes! Just crazy, man!

It occurred to me that a "Level Benchmark Tool" that would work with model elevations may not be exactly a trivial thing: we do not have 3D text. I seem to recall that Julian Carr has a 3D text object so he may have the necessary routines. Computerworks is another one.

Well, don't complain, then! You do not support third party developers and encourage competition, so just suck whatever NNA gives you and be grateful.

In my "graphic standard", the title block has several line weights. When it goes through the meat grinder, they are lost. Essentially I'm of course only interested in the data, but the politruks make a lot of noises about these graphic standards.

For free? Why would I do that? I have already offered to sell you my door object, but got no reply. EDIT I must be a bit thick today. Here we have Mr. Copyright expecting that I translate copyrighted material for him - and I don't even notice! Anyway, the said standards can be bought from Rakennustietos??ti?.

H?rr Lundstr?m? Jag tror han ?r din man! Lundstr?m Design, Ekhagsv?gen 7, 104 05 Stockholm, Sweden Phone int-46-8-15 46 63, Fax int+46-15 82 85, E-mail: info@touchcad.com IP Phone numbers: Skype: touchcad, - iChat: touchcad, - AIM: touchcad EDIT Programpaketet? EDIT 2 Right. Obviously no longer them.

And they have not tried? Please do not make statements with which you do not have supporting evidence to back up.

And these features are...

Just a quick one anyway: how does one retain line weights?