Chris D
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Posts posted by Chris D
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1 in 10 men are colorblind to some extent, myself included. (The figure is 1 in 200 for women). I have difficulty in seeing the colors on the color palette, especially as the swatches are quite small.
It would really help if there were SCREEN TIPS that gave a simple R,G,B value when you hover over the color.
I would then be able to work out whether I'm picking a brown or a green without trouble.
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I'd like to be able to change the size and color of the grips/handles that show selected obects.
Easy one?
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Further to Donald's reply to my post:
quote:With respect to having more than one scale on a page, this is incorrect. It is in fact very easy to have as many scales as you want. It is very easy since the program allows the saving of sets of layers and easy access to them. Those sets are the drawing "sheets" that you see in the final product.Not true. Unless you design the objects on your site so that they fall in the right place on your layout sheet, the only practical way to arrange drawings on your sheet is to layer-link them through to the sheet, whereafter you can unlock them and position them to suit the sheet. Layer linking ignores the scale of the Model layer you are linking from, so that all objects on the sheet are at the scale of your title sheet.
The only workaround for this is to layer link the objects to a blank layer, position the link on this layer, and then simply allow this layer to show on your title sheet. THEN you've still got to mask out what you don't want! It's a real pain, and to compare this process to the simplicity of using viewports is preposterous.
The other headache of not having viewports is that your title sheet is not at 1:1. Instead you have to have a prepared title-frame for every scale you might wish to use in your office.
Wake up guys. VW has its good points, but burying your heads in the sand over its shortfalls is pointless.
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I mostly used AutoCAD (and AEC/ADT) for 10 years before switching to VW 6 months ago when I moved to an office using it.
I'll stick to 2D AutoCAD for my comparisons. (By the way, AutoCAD LT is inexpensive and if you're only using it for 2D you don't need full AutoCAD.)
VectorWorks has it's plus points:
- it's FAST, because you draw with walls, windows, doors etc, rather than lines, arcs, circles, even when working in 2D.
- it's COLORFUL, because all objects can have a solid fill color, unlike in AutoCAD (except in the very latest version). In the AutoCAD world we used to export to Photoshop and do colorfills before producing presentation drawings - whereas VW does it 'out of the box'
- it's CHEAP, you get full 3D and rendering, which are quick to grasp and fairly easy to use, for the price of a 2D package.
VW also has it's downsides:
- There are no PAPERSPACE or VIEWPORTS. You just plonk a drawing sheet on a layer in your model. Without viewports there is no way to have 2 different scales on the same sheet (without great trickery), nor can you just show one part of a plan and not the rest - you have to manually mask it out - painful!!
- There is no rotatable UCS for 2D, meaning if your building isn't square you're gonna have trouble working on it. Unlike AutoCAD, you can't rotate your view, you have to actually rotate the building - which can be disastrous if you're the one producing the site setting-out coordinates later!
- The way is displays SELECTED OBJECTS is very crude. Unlike AutoCAD which clearly highlights every line of anything you select, VW simply highlights 8 grips around the object, which don't even rotate with the object. This is more akin to a kiddie paint program than a professional CAD package.
These are just some of my gripes with VW, though I had many with AutoCAD too. My answer would be to you - if you're drawing small projects, housing etc, then you'll probably like Vectorworks, especially its value for money. If you're working with other consultants (swapping drawings etc) on bigger projects, with complex geometry, AutoCAD is a no-brainer.
The office I work in is somewhere between the two, and to be honest we struggle with VW's limitations. The trouble is you couldn't really do a mixed environment of the two, especially as we use Macs, and AutoCAD isn't available for Macs.
A note on conversion - VW IS NOTHING LIKE AUTOCAD. Your staff will have to learn a lot from scratch. I've also used Microstation, ArchiCAD and Revit, and I find VW to be most like ArchiCAD, though not as sophisticated.
Hope this helps.
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The last posting on the above thread was:
"Thanks Katie, Does this mean it will be fixed in the future? Or does Apple need to work on its end?"
Can Katie from NNA give us an answer?
It seems this is a common problem on Macs. Has anyone submitted it to the bug fix list?
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Anyone know why having CAPS-LOCK on disables the right-click (or control-click)???
All the machines in our office have the same issue.
We're on Mac OS X (not Panther), VW 10.5 on a range of G4 machines, with Microsoft optical mouses.
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Since my initial enthusiasm, the plug-in I made for 'show other objects while in groups' has developed a tendency to crash VW more often than not when I use it, especially if I toggle it while already in group edit mode.
Any common errors to look for in the script?
I'm on OS X (not Panther), VW10.5 on an eMac
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Thanks. All very easy...even for a novice. I've now got this added as a further display toggle on my right-click.
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Thanks. All very easy...even for a novice. I've now go this added as a further display toggle on my right-click.
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Where did you find the 'show objects while in groups' plug-in? I couldn't find it at Vector Depot.
I've got the others installed, which are fantastic. I've got them in a 'Display Toggles' sub-menu on the right-click of my mouse.
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I've got 'cues' and 'eight handles' turned on but not the sound, which I turned off.
What you don't seem to be able to do is Tab through all of the options for a particular point..is there a way to do this?
[ 11-26-2003, 03:51 PM: Message edited by: Chris D ]
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I didn't realise you could get localised versions. All of the defaults including the large array of standard Wall Types are all for North American construction and with imperial units (if that's what you guys call non-metric).
I should probably contact the distributor, unless there's a way to do change the setup at the user end.
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I'm on Mac OS X (not Panther), with a Microsoft wheel mouse and VW10.5
I'm aware of the space bar + left button pan, but it's a two handed operation which you can't use for instance while doing a copy.
The ALT key is the modifier that makes the wheel zoom on a Mac, but again it's a 2 handed operation that means you can't copy (for instance) at the same time, without great dexterity.
We need a setting in VW (which you don't have to use after all...) that can make the wheel pan when pressed, and zoom when scrolled, WITHOUT modifier keys. Maybe this works with a Logitech mouse on certain op systems, but it's neither documented nor supported by VW.
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This is definitely a problem. I thought it was to do with VW's woolly snapping, but it's much more of a problem on this specific tool.
You should avoid the measure tool and use the dimension tool, which anyway gives more info, with both the X and Y values as well as direct distance. Simply hit ESC after noting the values.
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Thanks, looks useful.
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A more thorough implementation of wheel-mouse functionality.
At the moment, wheel-zoom is supported, but only by holding down the ALT key, which is used for many other things, including copy, which can lead to mistakes.
Wheel-pan (press the wheel and drag) is not supported at all.
Native wheel scrolling currently performs a not-very-useful screen scroll, which would be redundant if wheel-panning was supported.
If you need a good example of wheel functionality, see ArchiCAD, AutoCAD or Revit.
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I might be wrong but you don't seem to be able to specify which object snaps are on. E.g. have endpoints on, but not midpoints.
My main aim is to be able to turn the general 'object' snap off (which acts a bit like 'nearest' in AutoCAD), while still being able to snap to endpoints and intersections.
I belive this to be the main cause of the 'woolly' snapping that new users experience particularly when switching from AutoCAD.
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Hidden away in preferences, you can of course change (at least) two major display toggles:
- Zoom Line Thickness
- Display Black and White only
I switch between these frequently, but can't assign keyboard shortcuts to them.
A Display Toggles pop-up could allow quick switching.
It would also be useful if both of these settings could be saved in 'Saved Sheets'.
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I might be missing something, but it seems you can only set your screen background to black or white.
The addition of a light grey would help. I often find myself working on other people's drawings that have white borderless fills which I can't see when working on a white background. I've tried black, but it's not easy on the eyes.
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Oh how I miss my UCS!
Why can't Working Planes work in 2D? Surely the basic navigational premise of a CAD program is to 'build' an object and then move your viewpoint around the object.
If i wish to look at my plan upside down, I either need to turn the plan upside down, or turn my monitor upside down!
I all seriousness, I find it difficult to work on a building that has a wing at 32 degrees, because my cursor and the tools all snap to the screen orientation.
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The ability to choose any predefined hatch for use as a fill within Wall Type cavities, rather than just the pre-set ones, none of which are useful to UK architects.
Autocad vs. Vectorworks
in General Discussion
Posted
Further to P Retondo:
My sheets do have multiple layers. However, I never let the tail wag the dog, so when drawing my models I never give regard to the title sheet - after all one model could be used on several sheets. My elevations all have real world Y values, i.e. they're all drawn on one level so that a query of a spot height returns a value correct according to the site benchmark. My plans all sit on top of each other so that I can be sure that walls and services are in the correct position.
Now when I come to lay these out on Title Sheets, they are of course not in a convenient location. For consistency, the ONLY method I use to add model views to title sheets is to layer link them in, unlock them, arrange them, and then mask them. If I need to use more than one scale on the sheet (often from the same model layers...) then I have to layer link the model layers through to a blank layer with the scale I want, arrange with regard to the sheet, and then allow this layer to show through on the title sheet layer.
If you know a better way, I'd be glad to hear from you.