Neil Barman

I absolutely love my Evoluent Vertical Mouse 4. (I had v2 (wired) for years and opted to get v4 when it came out earlier this year. My v2 is still here as a backup.) I'm hooked on the handshake position that it lets my hand remain in, rather than having to twist my forearm as is the case with most typical mice. The many buttons map well to VW keyboard shortcuts and the adjustable tracking speed can be quite handy too. An added bonus is the vertical mouse is so strange for people to use at first that the tend to avoid using your computer. http://evoluent.com -Neil

Bingo! Thank you so much Dave! I had not tried that format, and I likely wouldn't have for a while so you just saved me some valuable time. COLLADA (.dae) files do seem arrive in Sketchup Pro the way I need them to. VW Groups & Symbols are ignored when importing into SU, but I can certainly work with this for my purposes. -Neil

Hello all, A potentially simple question here... What is the best way (file format & settings) to export 3D data from VW Arch (2013) to Sketchup Pro? Ideally I need the objects that arrive in Sketchup to be editable/workable/modifiable. I have a tried a few exports from VW (DXF, 3DS) but I could spend all day doing this with or without success. I'm hoping that someone here might be able to share a Best Practice solution for this. Thanks! -Neil

Modifying the default workspace is definitely safer, and not really that difficult. It may seem a bit daunting to have to go back and remember all the shortcuts & settings you had adjusted, but there is a fairly easy way to do it. This is what I recommend (at least on a Mac, where you can scroll a non-active-but-still-visible window)... 1) In the version of VW you're coming from, where you have everything set as you like, go to Tools > Workspaces > Workspaces Editor. 2) In the next window, choose "Edit the current workspace" and then OK. 3) In the lower right corner of the next window, click on . Save that file to an easy to locate spot. (Then Cancel out of the Workspace Editor.) 4) Leave the old VW you will be departing and open up the new VW you are about to set up. 5) Go to Tools > Workspaces > Workspaces Editor. This time choose "Edit a copy of the current workspace" and below that name the new workspace something that identifies it as yours. 6) With the Workspace Editor window open, also open up that text file you saved in Step 3. Move the open windows on your screen around so that you can see the text file open and then go back to the new VW's Workspace Editor. 7) Gradually scroll down the non-active text file window (but don't click on it) and compare its list to the items in the Workspace Editor. Change the default shortcuts to the ones you're used to using. 8) When you're done, save the newly edit workspace by pressing OK. Now you'll have a workspace that is definitely compatible with your new version of VW but still incorporates all your familiar shortcuts. You may even find, as I have, that while editing the new workspace you notice a tool or command that you hadn't seen before and you can add another weapon to your arsenal. -Neil

I have been working on a project since VW 2011 SP1 and just discovered that now, in SP3, moving a Space (that is in the annotation area of a viewport, on a sheet) crashes VW SP3. This did not happen prior to SP3 (believe me, I've moved these Spaces many times before and all has been fine until SP3.) I thought this might be a glitch with older files (that is, made in VW 2010 or 2011 SP1) being used in SP3, but I made a brand new file in SP3 and the same thing occurs. Can anyone else move the Spaces made in these two files without having VW SP3 crash? Alternatively, If I can accomplish a room-name-and-dimension-label-that-relate-to-a-room-sized-polygon type of thing another way, I'm open to suggestions. (And if I am using the Space tool in a sadly archaic way, please forgive me. I just recently spent many years at a firm where VW is hardly being utilized for more than digital pen on paper. I'm in rehab now.) Thanks, -Neil

I'm not sure it's the same bug you're talking about, but for what it's worth, VW crashes for me consistently when I click the "Get Plant Data..." button in the Edit Plant Preferences window. -Neil

Ah ha! So you can draw the crop right into the VP! I knew both of your hints but I didn't realize you could draw the cropping object right into an existing SVP. (I have been drawing the cropping objects (for plan VPs) _before_ creating a VP.) Thank you Peter! (And I'll take care of the signature in a sec. I've been meaning to do so, so it's good to know how useful it can be for others.)

I am a longtime VW user (in 2D) and I'm now, finally, trying out the Hybrid/3D features. I'm fairly well versed in dealing with viewports and have just tried using Section Viewports (via View > Create Section Viewport...). I can make them and do most things with them that I can with plan viewports, but I can't figure out how to crop them. When I try to edit their crop, there is no crop box to adjust, and the section viewport's Object Info says it's not cropped. So, how does one crop a section viewport? Thanks in advance. -Neil

I sometimes do a similar routine with the eye dropper tool, if I'm just drawing something quickly and want to assign it attributes afterwards.

Understood. Thank you for the clarification. -Neil

So, if I read you correctly, I can't activate a Tool, then choose another Tool (ie. Line) then click in a drawing? I had originally created menu commands for the scripts, but I can't get one key shortcuts with those, which is what I am my staff would very much appreciate. However, if what I'm trying to do simply can't be done using VS, then I would imagine they could live with "chorded" shortcuts. -Neil

Hello, I am a longtime VW user but have not done very much with VS so far. I am trying to make a Tool, to put in a palette (and eventually give it a keyboard shortcut), of a little custom script that I've used for years in a script palette (but has always of course lacked keyboard shortcuts). The little script, when double-clicked, quickly changes the pen colour, weight, etc. I have a few of these scripts for when I'm not drawing in a Class. Here's an example of one of these scripts: ------------- Procedure CustTool; VAR Name:STRING; Result:BOOLEAN; BEGIN FillFore(255); PenFore(213); PenSize(79); END; Run(CustTool); ------------- This script has worked well for any line, circle, polygon, etc. However, when I made a Tool using this script (and put it in a palette and such), clicking on that tool doesn't have the same effect. The Tool button can be pressed, but then when I choose to draw a line, circle, etc the pen colour, size are not what the script should have told them to be (basically, they don't change as they are supposed to). So, am I trying to do something that isn't possible (that is, asking a tool script to only set pen colour, size etc without telling it to also draw a line, circle, polygon, etc)? Or am I just missing a bit of script that will do what I am looking to do? Thanks, -Neil

Hello All, I'm in a fairly new office of 8 people that is using VW2009 Architect. As such, there hasn't ever been a "symbol" or "resource" library (A "Favorite" file) established before, so the task is now mine. This library would have our custom hatches, custom symbols, our vectorscripts, etc. As it is a work in progress, it will be changing and growing for quite a while. In VW2009's Preferences, I have found that one can specify "Workgroup and Project Folders" on a shared hard drive (our server), so I am planning on building a file there that has all of our custom resources, then pointing everyone's VW at it. The file that I am building would have all of our resources, available in the Resource Browser and divided up into folders wherever possible for easy sorting & locating. By having it as a shared file in a "Workgroup folder" any changes I make to it would be available to any user each time they restarted VW, so I wouldn't have to install the new additions/change on each machine individually. Does this overall approach sound like a good way of setting such a shared resource? If not, what would you recommend? If it does sound like a good way of doing such a thing, might you have any tips as I'm building this file? Thanks! -Neil

Thanks for the reference link... I'll take a look through the problems people have been having. As for the 4 things you found in the promo information, those are exactly the kinds of things I am looking for, thanks! Hopefully more will turn up, since they are certainly not going to want to dish out a few thousand dollars for a handful of truly usable improvements. Anyone else?...

I'm in an office of about 10 VW users. I've got everyone up to VW 9.5.3 (running in Mac OS 10.2.6) but I would like to upgrade the office to VW 10. Almost everyone here draws extremely basically, ie only with lines, using the occasional symbol when they realize they'll be using the same window/door a lot. (I know, it's painfully antiquated, but that's how they insist on working. I am just thankful they are even working with CAD rather than still using pencils.) I am curious to know if anyone can shed some light on what are _real_ differences between vw 9.5.3 and vw 10.x? I don't mean fancy-schmany differences like Digital Terrain Modelling or anything 3D really... I'm talking about down and dirty basic stuff, like double-clicking to get into groups/symbols/text to edit them. New/fixed features that they could take advantage of right away without changing the way they draw significantly. Stuff like that. (I'll work on getting them into the Wall Tool and such later.) I need to know this, from other real world users, because if they don't see the advantages to upgrading, they won't. And frankly I can't blame them. It's fair chunk of money -their money- for all of us to go to VW 10 and 9.5.3 *runs* in OS X, albeit not always so smoothly. Any and all thoughts would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!