Petri

Yes, Charles - thank you for the article. I'm probably missing the point entirely: at least a PIO with this script is useless. PROCEDURE SimpleIFC; VAR h1, h2 :HANDLE; b :BOOLEAN; BEGIN BEGINXTRD(0, PHEIGHT); Rect(0, 0, PLENGTH, PWIDTH); ENDXTRD; h1 := LNewObj; h2 := CreateCustomObjectN('IFCEntity', 0, 0, 0, FALSE); b := SetCustomObjectProfile(h2, h1); SetRField(h2, 'IFCEntity', 'GUID', CreateUUID); SetRField(h2, 'IFCEntity', 'ifctypestring', 'ifcSlab'); END; RUN(SimpleIFC); (Memo to Orso: "SetCustomObjectProfile" is not highlighted in TextWrangler.)

Well, there is this Hungarian firm that produces ArchiCAD...

Let me guess: it moves boxes to firms that move boxes? Considering the UK market size, it should do a lot of things. Providing a Plant Database and some Wall Styles to NNA for inclusion in the Standard Issue Installation is, IMABHO, rather lame. Doesn't CU anyway organise seminars and stuff like that? Do trade shows & fairs? Oh, BTW: being a person from a NESB, thank you for referring to an incorporated firm - PLC - in singular form! The plural may be suitable for partnerships like Messrs. Hungerdunger, Hungerdunger, Hungerdunger, Hungerdunger and McCormick, but not for Nokia or General Motors - despite the "s" in the name of the latter.

Katie, Does this mean that RW can't be used in "fancy image mapping", like e.g. putting Warhol's "Marilyns" or Wood's "American Gothics" to entire elevations? (I've done this kind of things in ArtLantis.) What's the maximum size of a texture image? (Actually, I prefer Riff Raff & Magenta to Wood's original image, but that's another story.)

This is true for some plug-ins, not all. In many PIOs, strings cover only a tiny part, but changing both "alternative" parameter names and strings does a good deal more. Full translation with these easy methods is not possible. The process also needs to be redone from scratch for every new version. (Actually, even ordinary users have access to strings and alternative names. It's not easy, but not hugely difficult either. Mostly it is laborious and boring.)

Yes, Charles did that... I just had another go on the subject of buttons in OI and am now making progress. No thanks to NNA's documentation, altough these is some in the on-line version. Anyway, even in this "better" VS-documentation there are plenty functions that are undocumented and marked "For NNA use only" like: vstAddButtonMode Tool Events (1100~) Declaration: PROCEDURE vstAddButtonMode(inIconID :INTEGER); Description: For NNA use only. Used in the initialization of an event-enabled tool, add a mode bar button. I know I'm paranoid, but to me this sounds like an attempt to maintain competive edge over independent developers - a measure needed because the NNA engineers can't compete on a level playing field.

Fascinating... Lucky for me, I don't have too many scripts that draw in the "drawing space", mainly PIOs. And thanks for the insight! With my hit rate of finding stuff in VS-documentation, I probably would never have found that vector conversion thing. But, Gerard - do I understand correctly: you have had problems editing PIOs in VW 2008, too?

A dialog is not the same thing as Object Info.

Mike, It is equally easy to demand that an independent developer donates his intellectual property to NNA. Now, most of my PIOs are not useful outside Finland, so making them available elsewhere would be pointless. As comes to inadequacy, in addition to the shortcomings I encounter, I am talking with several Finnish architects and have witnessed their problems.

Possibly. This could be useful for perhaps 10% of current users and 1% of new users. Just do it! There are at least 200 different Dormer Windows (whatever they are) in the scripting language so there must be useable Gable Walls, too. No? Dear me...

Is he really? Were they concurrent?

Actually one presumably can invoke a dialog from a PIO. Not that I would know how to use the undocumented "for NNA use only" functions & procedures that provide "widgets" and "gadgets" to Object Info: the Great Helmsman can be the Recognized World Leader only by suppressing information. EDIT Now, let me see. A company lead by a certain Mr. Gates has been fined by a few hundred million euros for not allowing competition and suppressing information...

Yes. But that is not what users want to do. If they create a 3D model, they expect to be able to utilise it, instead of "drawing polygons shapes" or "using the fill bucket mode".

Please provide sample files of this working!

http://www.nemetschek.net/company/history.php Notably Responsive to Customer Needs Our capacity for listening to users is widely recognized. In fact, Macworld's crediting Nemetschek N.A.'s "nearly fanatical devotion to responsiveness to customers" has been evident from the start. When the very first version of VectorWorks (then called MiniCAD) shipped in 1985, it was the only 3D CAD program targeted at the engineering market. Yet, it immediately attracted users in the architectural field. In response to their requests, we released a version of our CAD program which added a 2D module-later that same year. As our CAD program's popularity continued to grow, so did the importance of input from our users. OK. Summary Each day, VectorWorks products are put to work in more than 85 countries in 14 languages. Besides English, VectorWorks products are currently available in Chinese, French, Dutch, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, and Turkish, Bulgarian, Czechoslovakian, Finnish, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese. Nemetschek N.A. has had increasing success over the past 20 years, becoming an internationally respected leader in CAD software for the personal computer. Its flagship program, VectorWorks Fundamentals, has won many industry awards and has long been the best-selling CAD program on the Macintosh. With the release VectorWorks, the program stands as the new standard in the under-$1,000 CAD market. The merger with Nemetschek AG insures that the product will continue to be a global CAD leader. Global leader? Hah! Well, let's for a moment assume that would be true. Does that mean that designers globally have to accept the U.S. practices and nomenclature? EDIT The NNA propaganda must have been written in North-Korean. First they say "14 languages", then they list products in 16 languages. And what, prey tell, is a "product"? If I offer one of my PD scripts or PIOs in Finnish, does that make NNA a Global Leader? EDIT 2 They say "insure", not "ensure". So, my rave & rant is misguided. NNA does not promise to be a global leader, it only has an insurance policy by the Germans...

In honour of the great Linux van Torvalds: Welcome, Great Muntin! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Pumpkin

You're welcome, Paolo. (Hah - it did work!)

All of them rather disappointing. (Including those by yours truly.)

Multiply my angst by the number of countries where VW is supposed to be used. We have a critical mass. (Whatever THAT means... Am I the High Priest of Criticism, performing a Mass? Maybe I am!)

There are no class names that would be meaningful in every country, language and architectural practice. Editing the lists should be made easier!

It seems that the good programmers at NNA have been too busy implementing half-Gothic (what an apt expression!) windows with Prairie-style muntins and various types of shutters etc. to worry about the usability of the object. The pop-up lists need a totally new approach.

Yes and no. If you use styled walls, you can replace one style with another of different thickness and choose between centre, left or right. Otherwise, no. For unstyled walls it could be (easily even?) scriptable. Unfortunately, we do not have a persistent control line as walls in ArchiCAD do.

Maybe the combination of Get3DOrientation, Get3DInfo and Set3DRot would work?

I believe it just assigns new names.

In Plug-in Objects, one can have alternative names for parameters. If this concept would be applied also to class (and layer) names, many of the problems of importing and exporting would go away. Many users give strange names to "their" classes so that they would be "at the top". So, there would be the "true name" (used in export & import) and a name that makes sense to the user. Of course it would not be mandatory to have two names. Nevertheless, the proliferation of classes outside user's control by PIOs should also be separately addressed (including easier editing of pop-up lists). Even if we could "rename" Sills to something less silly, we don't necessarily want such a class at all.