alanmac

The trouble is that perforated sheet does not exactly come like this example. Each row is alternated to have its hole centres offset by 50% of the row above or below it. Guess you could still do it this way but would need to create a shape with a hole in the centre and a quarter circle at each corner, so when duplicated these become complete holes. Wonder how that would work on render times ? Alan

Hi I'm not in the US actually, but I believe the policy I quoted is worldwide, although of course pricing is slighty different, as is support due to localised version of the software. We, in the UK for example suffer the dongle as a security key to use with VW. Yes, it would appear Adobe want you to buy, and of course use all their software for your needs and make it almost pointless just buying Illustrator or Photoshop on its own. With the purchase of Macromedia I'm sure you'll find it difficult to see any studio not using Adobe for its graphical requirements. Back to VW. I'm running just plain VW, use other render programs instead of Renderworks, and for me about the only thing I wish for in the basic program is the Sketch facility. But don't want to increase my outlay to not only pay extra to get a industry module to obtain this feature, but it will also mean more money than the plain version come each upgrade. I'm not sure about manuals on an upgrade, but I think you'll find all versions are present on your install disc its just the regestration codes needed to be purchased and activated for these to be installed on your computer. I guess the people at Nemetschek are luckier than me and are not working over the weekend. Give them a call Monday or whenever, they'll tell you the costs I'm sure and be only to happy to arrange payment from you ;~) Good luck with it and welcome abroad. Alan

Hi strange you are having problems. As I understand it the upgrade cost will be the difference between the cost of each package. So if you go to the site were you purchased Mech + RW and take away the cost of Vectorworks Mechanical only from Industry that will give you your upgrade price.

quote: Originally posted by Ramon PG: Remember you can do a lot of undo's in VW. As a relative newcomer it's saved me tons of headaches. Unless the file has been closed and reopened, then you've wiped the undo history. So it's always good to just double check your file before you close it. That's not because I'm smart , it's because it's happened to me !!

Erich Although I use a wireless mouse I've never ever experienced the wired versions cord fouling or effecting the flow of the mouse. What I have found is because the cordless variety requires some form of power supply it is much heavier and as such after a days use can give me wrist pains which my old lighter corded mouse never did. Although I invested in two cordless mice some time ago for my computers, I'm going back to a high quality and lighter corded mice, or a Kensingtom Expert Mouse, Wacom tablet, or a combination of all three as variation helps with RSI I'm told. In my opinion, wireless mice have got more to do with a techno gimmick than of any real value, and as it's much heavier, is a contributing factor to any fatigue or pain suffered by prolonged computer use. Alan

Do a search on the forum, this has been discussed before, the latest only recently.

The problem is that for what you require you have to perforate the sheet in its curved state and to do this correctly you need to have each hole running parallel to the curved centre of the sheet. It's possible but involves a huge amount of work from what I can see. I've tried perforated sheet using two methods, clip surface then extrude and by subtract soilds method. Both slowed my computer to a crawl, tieing it up for great lengths of time as the calculations for each hole was worked out. I even tried it in stages but the more holes I added the slower the computer ran. This was on flat sheet. I imagine curved sheet would increase the computations considerably. Good luck Alan [ 08-22-2005, 07:56 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

I don't think it's so much as what's new as to what's been fixed. This I believe is a maintainence release rather than features as well, such as 11.5 was. I think I'm correct in saying anything that has a number after the second full stop (period) is a maintainence release i.e number.number.this one So if my statement is correct the next release to contain new features will be VW 12.0, so start saving those pennies now!! I believe somewhere posted is a list of the fixes 11.5.1 brings about. Alan [ 08-18-2005, 02:10 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

Clas-H I was refering to the methodology rather than the drawing coming from Autocad. Maybe somebody from NNA would care to comment but I'd have thought you should use classes rather than layers as you have been doing. In classes you can use up to three( I believe) sub levels so you'll never run out of descriptive class names to give your parts. For example Main, Main-front, Main-front-face, Main-front-case, Main-front-assembly, Main-rear- assembly, and so on. It's really a question of you creating the classes which suit how you want to describe and organise your drawings. It's then possible to group your objects by class and using visibilty see the "grouped" objects even if they had not been grouped in the normal way. Even across layers So the part has a name given by you , which if you make it a symbol will be listed in your worksheet, again this can be any name which helps describe the part. So a gear wheel could be called "Small front gear wheel" as a named symbol, but be part of the Main-front-timer assembly, so its class would be that. Custom visibilty will show all the parts of that group "Main-front-timer" (Class) irrespective of their part name, which are symbols, and your worksheet will list all the parts because you've used the symbol listing option. The other thing about a symbol is it won't let you give an object the same symbol name. You can of course have multi symbols in your drawing, such as Brass screw 10 symbol, but that object will be the same one for each. You can however assign any class to any object/symbol. By the way these classes will appear in alfabetical order in not only your drop down menu list under classes but in your OIP under the class section so it would be easy to change an objects/symbols class if that helps at all. With this combination of layers and classes, as I'm sure you are aware, you can create almost infinite variations of visibilty to show the parts you want to in different drawings. I have to admit I struggle at times to decide how best to plan this out, but only because of the great flexibility and potential VW offers from using these combinations of Classes, Symbols, Layers, and Visibilities. Somebody who uses 11.5 more than me will no doubt say that with Viewports that potential increases even more so. Apologises if you already know all this and I'm preaching to the converted. All the best Alan [ 08-17-2005, 02:23 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

Depends on your pdf creator and print settings with regard to quality. For example one of my pdf creators, an Adobe cut down version, Acrobat Elements, I got preloaded on my PC has settings from 1200dpi downwards. PLT file I believe is a Autocad plot file, and sounds too me like you need it to create one. Of course if your client was receptive to the idea you could persuade them to install Vectorworks Viewer (free program on your install disc or download) then they could view and print your VW files. Alan But that does means sending them a copy of your VW file, wereas with pdf its just an image of the drawing.

Don't rename the none class, even if you can, it's not wise in my opinion. I have it as my default class then as I create an object I give it a class. It's also my way of ensuring I have given everything their own class. Set visibility in the "organise" menu under the "class option" to "active only" then see what's left. Anything visible I know has the none class and as such needs a class given to it (so it works correctly with my render program) Once I see what I need to class I swith the visibility back to the "show/edit all layers/objects" setting. Why are you using so many layers Clas-H ? 120 layers is a lot of layers, and sounds like something from Autocad which has layers not classes as well, I believe. I tend to create with very fewer layers and lots of classes. Wow, watchmaking. Great to hear it's still happening in the days of electronic, we don't wind it up, just buy a new battery or chuck it away and get a new one, world we live in now. Alan [ 08-17-2005, 10:37 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

Hi Henry It appears, and I've not tried this with other programs, that if I open a VW file that is saved on a CD then Vectorworks always comes up with the dialog that sayes this file is read only etc. obviously because this is a CD and unless it went through the burning process each time VW can't save back, so it opens a copy. My assumution then is that, as we know VW writes or reads back to the file, and checks this functionality upon file opening. Because its opening a file on your server it can write back to it, hence no message. But the speed at which it writes back is determind by the network, settings, traffic etc. So it makes sense the file on the workstation is out of the network loop and read/writes quicker. When you open the file from the server, it's still on the server, not on your machine and hence the slow down. Maybe other programs operate a different way and actually create a temp file whilst you work on it only accessing the original when save is envoked, were as Vectorworks using its function of reverting back so many undo's etc.in preferences always needs to access the file original. So save to machine then back to server on finishing to get the speed up and any other issues. Not ideal but a workround. Just a thought. Alan [ 08-12-2005, 06:55 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

Hi David In a sort of related way I had some problems on using the Vectorworks to Cinema 4D export plugin and during the discussions I had with Maxon on this they said my poly count was way too high on the exported file. Not required. The high setting you mentioned was creating way to many "faces" which according to Maxon was unnecessary and the smoothing process of the render program would easily show the image correctly, nice and smooth. Tesselation quality I think they called it. I know in my Artlantis renderer you have a preference for this and I have my set on high. In fact going too high res would have the opposite effect in their opinion, and of course increase render times. I think its a case of, as you have found, experimentation with setting to get the optimum result/speed combination. I have found however that VW will break any curves into a given set of segments regardless of length and to stop the cuves appearing with visible facets in Artlantis I have to change these to lines to achieve a smooth visual curve. I think the setting question you raise also has to be taken in the context of what you are rendering. If its architecture, then unless you are doing a Norman Foster most of the shapes will be flat and straight whilst others doing say product design may find a high use of curves in their creations. Again its a case of trial and error I think. Alan

Shame to hear you are going over to Windows, if it was my company I'd be inclined to do it in stages, just to make sure it was the right decision, rather than a blanket switch. Why are you changing out of interest? I've had no problems with my work and I use Windows VW10 at one office and work on the same files at another in Apple VW11.5 I've only had the usual very minor file recognition problem going the other way, PC to Mac, not vice versa. But it's no big deal anyway and you just open from within VW. As for bugs and glitches, whilst you may not see any from the Vectorworks program perspective I hope you have good Windows IT people on board to handle the additional work, complexity, essential virus and firewall issues that a Windows network, I am led to believe, will involve. Alan

That's right it's a seperate mailing list that VW users use to converse with each other. Emails are sent to your mailbox and you post to the list your questions and replies for all to recieve on the list. I've found it a faster response method at times to this forum and everybody is very helpful. Alan

Technoflash What version are you running because I have Version 11.5 Mac and on your bug fix list number six on the list is not working on my machines at all, in fact exactly the opposite!! As regards number five, I've always found it works with " find the scale you want on the last face available" option permanently on and cannot find the tick box to change this. Alan

If your machine is not fairly new I would have said the advantage of greater memory use beyond the current Win 32 limit offered by Win64 is cancelled out by the fact you don't actually have the dimm slot capacity to install that amount of extra RAM anyway. Sure the vast majority using Win64 will happen one day but I'd rather wait till stuff is commonplace, clearly marked as compatable with both, the same way as hardware transition took into account users had everything from Windows 95 through to 98, ME and up to XP. I guess somebody somewhere is happily using Windows 95 and has no need or intention of upgrading, That is till the kit stops working or can't be repaired.

Each to there own and what they are happy with but I've been using VW8.5 for a few years and this last year moved up 10.5 and 11.5 and I'd never want to go back. The increased functionality I'd miss straight way, and because of the flexability of VW I know that a little time spent customising my workspace I could get rid of the stuff I don't use or want. Double click editing, better zoom, improved increased keyboard shortcuts, easier nudge tool, palette docking, to name but a few I'd miss straightaway. I've never used, or want to use Autocad but I've always read that the difficulty that Autocad users face with Vectorworks is they want to work the "Autocad way" in it rather than start anew from a different perspective on how to work with a CAD program, maybe using their previous experience to understand terminology rather than work procedures. I think people used the old Apple marketing line of a few years ago, Think differently at one point. Nemetschek do a CD to assist in the transition I believe. Glad I'm only required to learn one CAD program. All the best Alan

Maybe you need to get the dealer to run a VW file through the printer to see. It's pushing it a bit but I guess if you had a laptop available you could take it along with VW and some work on then you could see if it worked, colour quality and speed could also be valuated. I know it will depend if you have the time, closeness of location and a dealer keen enough to win your business. At the moment it does seem that HP are in the lead as regards printer plotters in this middle ground, despite the Mac side being weak on support. If you are getting a we don't know from both the manufacturer and the dealer for the Canon, but getting plenty of Vectorworks users quoting good results from another make and model I know what I'd be thinking. If you've had nearly three years of continued daily use out of the Designjet 100 then that's earned its cost, been good value in my opinion even if it does go belly up in the near future. Good luck Alan [ 08-03-2005, 06:05 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

Firstly Autocad, well at least most modern version don't run in Mac. That stopped with version 12 I believe, so if it was on a Mac it would have been using something like Virtual PC an emulation program with Windows so as to run Windows on a Mac. This would be a Autocad file based in Windows operating system. So "Windows format" makes no difference or has no meaning in this instance as its a Windows only program these days. What you need is the files exported from Autocad as DXF or DWG files to then import into Vectorworks. I've done very little of this so leave it up to others to give you advice on this. All I would say is you'll need to supply the forum with greater detail to help in your "quest". What version of Vectorworks do you have? This will be important as to what level you'll be asking the file supplier to save the file to. As Vectorworks has moved on so has Autocad and you need to ensure they are working at at least or below the same level of dxf/dwg export/import. You'll need to supply some ideas of what the file contains so as to ensure the detail does not get lost in translation. Again this directly is beyond my scope of knowledge but it involves stuff like xrefs if any, font issues etc. Again others will have experience and comment. Good luck Alan [ 08-03-2005, 05:24 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

I see that Apple have finally acknowledged the need for a mouse that has more than one button. http://www.apple.com/uk/mightymouse/

Iboymatt Whilst I'm not to up on the technical stuff, you may well have seen a marked difference in your demos, but did they also go into detail about the resolutions settings etc on each monitor? No offence intended but I wonder if the demo was loaded somewhat so as to convince you to buy what was the most expensive. Correct me if I'm wrong but TFT's not only come in different sizes but different resolutions, native resolutions I think they call it. I know its not a great example but wander down the line of screens on display at any large PC outlet, notice a difference in screen quality between monitors of equal size being feed no doubt from the same signal. Whilst I would not argue that a product designed to work using the same technology should work better than a conversion to another the aspect of screen resolution, dot pitch and settings must also play a part. Agreed that any conversion is not the best thing to be doing in the world. I'm not at work so can't look at my G5 but if it's only got a DVI output then yes DVI is the obvious choice. Alan [ 08-01-2005, 09:25 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

quote: Originally posted by david bertrand: I read about problems unique to the Windows version of 11.5. Yes, but it was cleared up by a patch issued by Nemetschek a few weeks after 11.5 and before 11.5.1, but if you wanted to point the finger of blame, not that I want to, would it be at Microsoft or NNA? after all XP including Service Pack 2 has been out some time. Stuff just slips through the net I guess even after extensive beta testing. I have to say in my opinion NNA are better than most at picking these up, responding to bugs etc. and getting stuff sorted. Hi Jan Again I think its sheer wieght of numbers with regard to the shareware thing, but that's not a yardstick for quality. From a Vectorworks point of view I say plug ins and other stuff on sites like Vectordepot and Vectorbits the Mac has the slight edge on availability. I like your comment on the movies, yes if its got to look stylish etc. drag a Mac out the Props department. They are re-running , again, the TV series "24" at the moment here in the UK and the desks of the good guys are covered in them. Mr Jobs and his marketing team know the strength and financial potential of brand awareness as well as good looking well built products all to well. No more so than in the wonderfully successful ipod range. I feel sorry for the guys in the Powerbook department, they must be under intense pressure to get a successor to the G4 Powerbook range out the door. The deal with Intel must have helped here surely. Gone well OT with regard to PDF printing, anyway glad pdf995 works okay for you, pod. Alan [ 08-01-2005, 08:20 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]