alanmac

Think you've got it in RW 12 David, and more it looks like. Alan

quote: Originally posted by michael john williams: I have had my VW architect and render works less than a year [4 months] and now version 12 comes out! A bit annoying having to upgrade already. Yes, but VW11 has been out for some time, a lot longer than your time in upgrading to it. You don't "have" to upgrade you know, I'm still running VW10.5 happily at home, but looking closely at what this new "Designer" edition has to offer. Alan

If you want to scale in pro but are happy to go by the data feedback for size rather than entering a precise dimension hold the shift key down when moving the mouse the same as Photoshop. I just tried Matt Panzer's vsm, which is great, but as far as I can see only works on 2D objects. Alan

Michael Don't forget to download the pdfedit program as well, part of the "Suite" which will allow you to combine several pdf's into a multipage pdf. So you could have a complete proposal as one pdf document, all your plans, quotes, and other documents as one easy to send and read pdf. It combines pdf's but you don't lose the original documents, it just makes combined copies. As you are aware for a small sum you can remove the sponser pages from appearing, but its never annoyed me unduely. Alan

Michael You don't have to be an IT expert. If you have printers of any sort in your office, then its as simple as installing the software for one of those, no I tell a lie, even easier. I had to reformat my hard disc (Windows- ggrrr) and reinstall my software last week. Once downloaded from the pdf995 site the software was installed by simply unzipping. Of course, as with any software you will have to look at the settings, but that's so if you wanted to print to a physical printer, or indeed export to your jpeg, bitmap export option. It really is a "no-brainer" as they say, and provided you watch and do not tick options like the "fit image to page size" type options when in Acrobat Reader you'll get correct scale drawings every time. I don't know how you ensure the jpeg image is to any given scale when exporting, gave up on that jaggy line big file (compared to pdf) output years ago. I'm no IT guy, far from it - I just want to plug the stuff in and get work done !! My Mac in the office has even more appeal after last weeks episode. Alan

quote: Originally posted by michael john williams: We are pc based and do not have the full version of acrobat and so we usually save the VW drawing as an image or use vw viewer, but I think save as / import / export pdf should be added to the wish list. I'm amazed to see this post, considering the lengthy reply I gave to you on pdf creation some months ago. Could you not be bothered to read it. Creating pdf's is used through the printing dialog because the pdf creator is installed, just the same as a printer. I even gave you the name of a reliable, and now much used by other vectorworkers, program which is totally free. Prints up to AO sized pdf's easliy, in fact I created and sent some only last week to my local printer via email, drove down to the shop and they were ready waiting for me. Clients get them all the time and view or print out using Acrobat Reader, and it even reduces to fit their printer/page size. Your comment for need to add export to pdf to the wish list shows you still do not understand the principals of pdf creation and why you could and should be using them. VW Viewer is simply not required unless the need to view the file in its VW state.

You say you are backing up the tracing sheet. Are you using a tracing paper? If so this is making your task much harder. If you need to work with reference under your sketching area you could try a thin white paper I used when drawing visuals by hand. Either a Letraset Marker Pad or a Layout Pad will be white and give some transparency, even more if you have access to some light source under the image, such as a lightbox or even a window as I have done at a pinch. I used Coreldraw/ Photopaint years ago and can't remember much about it. In Photoshop you can correct the image contrast easily. A series of eyedroppers are used to determine the lightest and darkest points in your image. Get the lightest one on the background to calibrate that to the lightest and it goes instantly white. Hopefully there is the equivalent feature in your Corel package. Have a browse through the manual under colour correction, contrast etc. Alan

Nicholas is right in that with most scanners the software is different from one manufacturer to another, even one model to another. You'll probably import it via the scanner into Corel and use its tools to colour correct the background anyway. If you use thin graphic quality paper to sketch on I'd back that up with another plain sheet of white when scanning. As an alternative you could consider getting hold of a Wacom type tablet and a sketching program, many are free or even bundled with the Wacom, and sketch on the computer. Not as intuitive as the "real thing" I know but it would get over having to scan stuff in. You may find you'll put it to use in other ways such as retouching photographs etc. instead of using the mouse. Alan [ 10-03-2005, 08:38 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

You cannot install your VW Mac version on a Windows PC using the same serial number and dongle. You are sold a platform specific licence. You'll need to contact your Vectorworks dealer. Normally cross grades are available when you upgrade only. So its going to cost you I'm afraid whatever you do. At least you can change at upgrade time, some software insists you buy a new licence !!

You could scan in a few fingerprints to put faintly on the edges and get your old tom cat to contribute to that "lovely" ammonia smell my old copy shop had to complete that genuine retro feel. ;~)

With many of the dual core processor machines on the Windows PCs, introduced some time ago, these are single socket motherboard machines, so they are not like the Apple current range, two seperate processors and I would imagine that Apple would adopt the same style of motherboard. From what I've read it helps most applications in the same way as a dual processor machine does. If your application uses dual processing such as Renderworks then you'll see two render lines as each processor works on part of the render. If your application does not support dual processors then it uses one processor but does leave the other to perform other tasks without effecting another programs performance. So you could surf the net whilst burning some files to disc for example. If they take the current confirguration of motherboard with two processors but put dual cores in each that would really give Apples the boast in speed over windows stuff Mac users have been dreaming of, but I bet it won't be cheap. It's so close, according to rumour, why not wait and see what comes out, and its pricing, after all you've waited till now, another month or so isn't going to matter is it. Also if you wait you could pick up an old configuration model at a greatly reduced price !! We brought a brand new Dual 1.8 G5 a weeks or so ago as a office server in our small set up, for ?650, thats half its price when current. Sure it's been on display with some grubby fingermarks on the tower but a quick wipe with cleaner and it was new again. Years warranty etc. Alan

If you only use one font why worry Grant, after all if that is set in your default document or preference its always going to be that font unless you actually change it. This of course excludes imports of files from other people of course, but you expect by the very act of importing to be doing some work on that file. I'm sure this does not slow VW down in any way, to have these fonts available if that's your worry. I know what you mean though, mines full of all the fonts on my computer but in reality I use less than two in my day to day working and only any of the others for creating extruded signs etc. Alan

quote: Originally posted by John Oualline: As a PC and MAC user, I suggest using PDF as well - go to Adobe Acrobat and buy the Adobe Acrobat 7.0 software. Then, you can make a portable document format (PDF) file. Acrobat is great for any circulation of file types between MAC and PC. Only if you need the increased capabilities that it offers, otherwise pdf995 or similiar will work just fine and save you a lot of money. I regularly send pdf files created with pdf995 to both Mac and PC users alike with no problems. Of course the program itself is Windows only, but that's fine because so is the original poster, but there are options on Mac as well cheaper than Adobes program. Alan [ 09-20-2005, 09:00 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

quote: Originally posted by timpower: ouch - one of the reasons i bought the mighty mouse was to gain sideways scrolling in vectorworks - hoep it comes soon I think this must be a Apple issue, because my Microsoft Cordless Mouse with the tilt/scroll wheel will scroll left or right in Vectorworks 10.5 running on Windows XP if I tilt the wheel either way. I know the new Apple mouse works with XP, well according to Apples site it does. It would be ironic if the Apple mouse scrolling in all directions worked if used in Windows/Vectorworks but not Apple/Vectorworks. Alan [ 09-20-2005, 06:16 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

I'm sorry Paolo but this sayes more about the lack of capability of the print bureau you used than the implementation of pdf's. Don't let their lack of knowledge or experience put you off using pdfs in the future. You'll find that apart from people perhaps not getting correct setting organised in the printing to pdf its a excellent, almost foolproof method of printing files. Alan

quote: Originally posted by Ramon PG: Some print bureaus are not familiar with it since most PC users can't readily make PDFs like Mac users. I doubt very much if any "professional" print bureau had not heard of PDF, or does not offer printing from PDF. I think you'll find despite the fact that Windows in its OS does not have a built in facility to print pdfs in the same way as OSX, the many free pdf creators available such as pdf995 actually give superior results in Windows than the Mac OS version anyway. There has been several posts concerned about the changing of line thickness on diagonal lines in Mac created pdfs. There are workarounds for the Mac user as also discussed using postscript options. amacbabe, your choice is much easier and simplier. Just go over to www.software995.com/ grab yourself a copy of not only the free pdf creator but the free pdf editor which allows you to combine pdfs into a multipage pdf and you are set to go. You'll also find that pdf is a great way of sending files to other people to look at who you want to show your drawings to, but not work on them or import into another cad program. Beats sending jpegs etc. Alanmac [ 09-15-2005, 01:53 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

Roger I'm not sure after reading your posts again if you are trying to connect using the connect tool in the tool pallettes. Sorry if I gave you any slightly misleading info in that regard, but the zooming is not wrong, as you have seen. I seem to get compose and combine muddled in reading posts, but I believe they may well do the same thing, hopefully others more knowledgable will let me know. I was just making sure that my lines were touching, then I was using the "compose" tool in the "tool" drop down menu, in version 10.5. to create my solid 2D object for extrusion. Alan

Roger At the zooming level I got down to I found the nudge tool worked great for moving and getting the lines together, but it can be tedious because at this magnification you have to zoom out again to select the other line to move that if you need to. Bear in mind at this sort of magnification you are only really effecting VW's capability to perform the combine action. It won't really show in your drawing or object information pallette because of the small increments of movement. Well that's what I found anyway. Alan [ 09-10-2005, 02:56 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

Hi 64 bit is not worth it at the moment as Windows 64 needs the program written for it to work correctly, otherwise it will run a 32 bit application, but in emulation. I understand dual processors are used by Renderworks,not the Vectorworks part though, so you could go dual processor. On the Windows side we had the introduction a while back of dual core, two processors in one. Intel's version is a bit of a compromise on this, with AMD getting it right. So you have a dual processor but its only a single socket item. Funnily enough cheapest dual processor machines in the older sense at the moment is the Apple range, but are you open to platform change. The machines will be faster than your current Windows setup but not as fast as potential Windows setups you could buy. The difficulty on Windows is the diverse range of machines, components and manufacturers as well as the self build option of course. Self build has the potential to save you money over a ready built manufuctured machine, and you can get exactly the bits you want or feel you need, but are you happy sorting computer related equipment and software issues out? Some work on the machine spec by setting a price limit and then seeing the best combination for the money. In the 3D world such as users of Maya etc. many manufacturers of kit optimise their set ups to work with these applications, Boxx Computers is one that comes to mind, but I don't know of any that does this sort of thing for Renderworks. Perhaps Renderworks is not that fussy and as long as you get the fastest processor/s and plenty of ram, (1.5 gb is about right these days, 2 gb even better,) you're in a winning situation. I have read that a 256 mb graphics card is only of value in top end games, and a 128 mb with a faster ramdac memory is better (that's how they get the 256 mb card down in price, slower ramdac) You could try looking through some of the sites to see what the word is on good systems. One to try is the Technical and Hardware forum over at cgtalk.com You need to set a budget figure really - not a case of whatevers best either, when the price comes in at twice what you thought, it means half of what they say is what you really want to pay and that's your budget ;~) Happy hunting Alan [ 09-10-2005, 02:46 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

Roger To avoid the missing sections is why you need, as suggested before, to use the combine tool. I'll admit it is not always successful, but that seems to be for all the reasons propstuff outlined I couldn't get a very simple series of arcs and lines to join, it was only after zooming in very, very, closely could I see the lines did not meet, overlapped,etc. Once edited all worked okay. I thought they were touching etc from the smart cursor feedback, but zooming showed otherwise. I also had better luck with combining some of my objects in pieces rather than the whole object at once - don't know why !! Make sure that once you have combined the setting is solid in your atttributes before you extrude otherwise you will get just the outline. I think it goes to solid by default in combine but its worth checking. Of course, as you know it will only show solid as an extruded shape once you do a render, hidden line or any of the others. Tried to look at your sample but i've only got 10.5 here, 11.5 at work so can't see your file. Alan [ 09-10-2005, 02:14 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

I'm curious also as to why you use the PC to print? Alan

Kim The only other way to get round this is first print to pdf then print from Acrobat Reader. I use pdf for sending files of all types to clients etc, and when I need plans bigger than my 1220c can print I will create a pdf and send it to my local print bureau. Grab yourself a copy of pdf995, its free and with the edit program available, also free, you can put together several pdfs into one pdf. http://www.software995.com/ I also when printing in Vectorworks set my print pages to one of one, not the number of copies, but the number of pages. For some reason, maybe my printed area, seems to screw up VW's printing, ending up with four A3 pages with the file printed a piece of it on each one !! Alan [ 09-01-2005, 05:21 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

Kim I've got a HP1220c at home connected to my Windows XP machine printing from VW10.5 just fine. It also prints across from my other network connected Windows machine fine using the shared printer option from within XP. At work I have a Apple dual processor G5 with the same model 1220c connected, again printing VW files from VW11.5 fine. It did not seem to work when connected to an older emac but now is fine and funnily enough other connected Macs seem to print to it okay as well. I did hear some people express the opinion you needed something like the Jetdirect print server to get it to work, which is what happened at my last employment with a HP 1500PS. The only time I had print jobs fail, was on an older machine with only 512 mb of ram and a very small hard disc, using the forerunner of the 1220c, the 1120c. The print job would go to the Windows print spooler, so it looked as if it was processing-only to disappear. The clue was in the print spooler. If you did not see a mb reading for the file with another next to it showing the amount processed then it failed to print. It never once gave me any indication of not enough disc space on the swap file etc. to process the 50+ mb files, just never got beyond spooling! Moderators are here I believe to ensure good conduct, relevant posts, no illegal software etc is placed in the forum, not to judge if a post should remain top of the list or recieve attention from others. It's natural selection on that score I'm afraid. If people don't post, or there is nothing to say then it just goes down the list till it disappears off page one, only seen again via a search by people looking for relevant info. I'd say if you can print to any other printer then the signs point to a problem with the 1220c printer set up, be this due to its setup as a printer or how it works in a network situation. If you can't get VW to print to any printer at all, connected directly to your machine, then it's a problem with VW. A short term but not ideal solution if feasible is to just use the USB connection, I'd use that anyway not the parrallel port, and with a good length of cable just plug in to who needs it at the time. Not ideal but may get you out of trouble till you find the answer. Hope you get it sorted. Alan [ 08-31-2005, 05:49 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

quote: Originally posted by islandmon: Just offset the Fractals row by row. And then create a solid 1/2 to fill in the end conditions. End of story... Not quite end of story EJ but that is very good, easy way of thinking. Better if the solid half had half a hole in it to be really accurate and done easily as the other ones you created I'm sure. Must try this method when I've got some time. Well done. Alan