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alanmac

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Everything posted by alanmac

  1. Of course Adobe Acrobat is good but it is also expensive and this must be borne in mind. It depends at what level and frequency you want to create pdf's at. I've no experience of the OSX built in version, because of the print work created at my last studio we had Acrobat Distiller and were Mac based. Since going freelance I'm back on my Windows PC and am getting excellent results with pdf995 which is freeware but Windows only based. I'm sure there are Mac equivalents out there you could give a try to see if they fit your needs. Nothing ventured etc. and if they don't work you can always bite the bullet and buy Distiller. Most free or low priced programs would suit people wishing to send files as pdfs for client to check and approve etc. I'm not saying Acrobat Distiller is bad, it's just that for many peoples needs its overkill.
  2. As the man said as easy as that. Because you are on Mac OSX it should be even easier with the built in pdf creator than Windows.
  3. Andrew is saying the same as I did in my first email. What's stopping you or your objection to putting your project files in the My Documents folder? Alan [ 12-06-2004, 11:14 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  4. Yet to have to do a system restore, so thanks for the warning. Just a suggestion. Can you not put all the project files in a folder in My Documents. I keep all my work files in a work folder within My Documents, although I think to be correct my hard drive is partitioned into two, so I should save them to the drive not containing my operating system so there is no chance they are lost on system restore. Once a job is complete I back it up to disk and delete it from the computer anyway. Hope you have not lost too much Michael. Alan
  5. Erich I think you may be refering to this thread in the wish list which you contributed to. http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=001331
  6. Take a look at this thread I think it may relate to the same problem but on a different model of HP. http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=22;t=000261
  7. mike (m oz) Is it only 3D loci that show in pdf's? because I recently did some pdf's and your comment had me rushing to double check. Looking at my drawing the loci(2D) I have does not appear in my pdf's. I use Adobe Acrobat Elements (cut down version preloaded on my computer) and pdf995 with neither doing this. I'm on Windows PC also. Just a suggestion. Can't you get round this in some way using a class visibility workround for your on screen client presentations? A pain I know but just a suggestion, needs must etc. Alan
  8. quote: Originally posted by Kevin: In my experience, using hidden line rendering produces unwanted lines and leaves out some needed lines. My solution was to "Convert Copy to Lines", Ungroup, and then edit the image. How do we handle this now with viewports? I agree. I've never been fortunate enough to have the hidden line render in any view show exactly what I want or need to show without change. Some editing is always required, and have always relied on the method Kevin describes.
  9. Chris Sounds good to me. Count my vote in for the change please. By the way, what does happen if you don't have a scroll wheel at all like the apple etc? Apart from joining this century and going out and buying one that is. Or a trackball type arrangement, as some like to use. Alan [ 11-24-2004, 04:21 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  10. Hi Chris D Does it come up that often? I must admit I don't remember it and when I did a search only about five threads came up, most not very current. So what you are saying is that in these programs the scroll wheel does not scroll the page at all anymore. This function subsituted by the fact you can pan by depressing the wheel and moving the mouse instead of scrolling. Do these work regardless of what tool is selected at the time of scrolling the mouse wheel or do you have to select say the zoom tool? I must admit I like the sound of what you describe. Just don't ask me to switch to Autocad to use it. I'd suffer the Vectorworks alternative forever, rather than that!! This of course assumes you have a scroll wheel mouse, which most of us have I'm sure, what do you do in these programs if you don't have one? With that in mind, you mention Macs, which of course does not apply to Autocad and Revit, so how do diehard users of the lovely made Apple mouse get on without scroll wheel to do this in Archicad? Alan [ 11-23-2004, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  11. Hi cberg. Although I did use macs for the last two years I started on Windows PC and am back on them again. As you may know the main function combination key is the control one, Ctrl, for actions in Windows e.g. Ctrl+A to "select all" for example. The same as on macs but a different first key. If you don't use or have not used Windows this is the last key in the bottom left of the keyboard, larger than the others and easy to find. With your fingers lightly resting near the left edge of the keyboard the key is always easily found with the forefinger. See how superior Windows is ;~) Only joking, don't want to start an OS war, just a little joke. As you say we all look at things differently, including design, which is why it's great to be involved in it. all the best Alan
  12. Hi cberg When you pan how do you achieve this? As you said by holding down the space bar (a keyboard key) and moving the mouse, which to me is the same effort as holding a key and scrolling to get zooming. No offence, but if one is acceptable useage why not the other. Whilst I accept and agree it would be nice to have the option to change and it may well be possible I don't think that it's in any way difficult, awkward or time consuming or would make a tremendous difference to my working day to do so, considering this combination of actions is used frequently in all programs. I'm a great believer in using as many keyboard combinations, short cuts as possible or you can remember in my case !!. Anybody using these to there full extent, (I've seen people brought up with the old DOS programs/keyboard used to this way of working) are much quicker at production than somebody using the mouse for the majority of actions. Pressing two keys to achieve an action is a whole lot quicker and I'd say healthier than "mousing" all the time. In my opinion we seem to rely too heavily on the mouse to perform actions these days and should be encouraged to use the keys more.
  13. The standard set up on my wireless Microsoft mouse is probably the same as most others mice with scroll wheel. The scroll wheel when not used with any keyboard combination scrolls the drawing page up and down. If you have the tilt wheel like mine it will also scroll from side to side in the PC version of VW. Don't know if this is the same on a Mac. Can't see how you'd work the zoom just using the scroll wheel without losing the page scroll function if it didn't need a keyboard key with it. Maybe a multibutton mouse will allow you to assign this to one of the mouse buttons instead of the keyboard, but that may prove awkward when trying to scroll the wheel with the same hand and cause aches and pains to develop, increasing the risk of RSI. My opinion is that many program use the keyboard and mouse together for commands so it's not just this function and VW, and I find the compliants to have to use a keyboard key in conjuction for this function nitpicking in the extreme. After all it's not like some programs commands, where you have to use three keys held down to achieve something. Also, it's a whole lot better than relying on just having the zoom functions in the palettes, drawing an area zoom selection etc. I've just done a search and the last post in this thread describes an option with the intellimouse which may work if you have one to just use the scroll wheel. It's an old thread so may not be relevant to VW today. The link is http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=001348 [ 11-22-2004, 05:23 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  14. I think there has been other posts in which these type of conflicts with these two have been mentioned. Can't remember exact thread but do a search through the site I'm sure you'll find it.
  15. Hi Paul plenty of good ones out there. It seems the hardware all works okay, it's the drivers that people seem to have the problem with. Which brings on the question what platform are you running on ? With Windows you stand a better chance but it depends on manufacturer. I'd say stick with the big three as the start of your shortlist, Epson, HP and Canon. Is this to be a standalone connected machine or networked ? Is speed an issue ? Also take a look at the consumables. Sometimes a machine can be cheap compared to its rivals till you start looking at the ink cartridges and special paper costs. Do you do a lot of colour printing or just B&W plans ? Will it be used for other things. Got a budget figure in mind ? Older models such as the HP 1220 are going cheap as they are coming to an end of product life. Most of the computer magazines, which have web sites with review archives, look at these from time to time. Do a search on these, even if it's not the platform you use. All of them seem to bring out new models ever month as well !! My only problem I've had is speed, VW files I create can be big and take a time to process on my Windows PC and really slow to cancel, stop printing etc. An old HP 1120c but still gives good prints. I'm considering the large Canon with separate ink tanks for each colour. Nothing really new from Epson in this size. Loads from HP. All seem to aiming at the photoprinting aspect, digital camera - printing out images market with A4 printing at the moment. Alan [ 11-21-2004, 06:38 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  16. At least you have a user group. In the UK, which I would assume to have a fair few users, there appears to be nothing. I realise this may bring back replies "well sounds like you need to start one" I'd love to, but I'm more concerned with getting my freelance design business up together at the moment. After being employed these last couple of years I need to rebuild my client base. If there is one and it's hiding please let me know !! Alan
  17. quote: Originally posted by Kevin: Note that the single processor 1.8 has a slower bus speed. The Dual 1.8 will run faster with only one processor working. Kevin I agree with your statement but after rereading Hugo's post he sayes he is on a very tight budget. Would you not agree if, for the money a single 1.8 with much more ram for the same money as a dual 1.8 with less ram, will be faster? In other words using the money it would cost to buy the dual for ram instead. In an ideal world we'd all buy the fastest but I know only too well you have to draw the spending line somewhere. My wife knows were to draw it all the time !! [ 11-16-2004, 05:39 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  18. Getting a G5 has got to improve these times, but it sounds strange with regard to the time taken. Do other files this size cause the same slow problems. 22 mb is not a huge file, not in my line of work anyway, exhibition stand design, with 3D elements making up nearly all my files. I can't really comment on G5's as I only experienced G4's at work before switching back to Windows PC's now I'm freelancing again. I tried a 25 mb file which opens in around four seconds from clicking it in "open recent files" in Vectorworks, changing from plan to isometic view about 3 seconds, exporting and updating an existing 23 mb Artlantis file takes 35 seconds max. Opening that file in Artlantis, 15 seconds. Recalculation when going into edit camera view in Artlantis around 10-15 seconds. I had a 105 mb file recently which would take about 20 seconds to open in Vectorworks and about 10 minutes to export to Artlantis.this was slow to move around. I'm sure comparable results are achievable with a G5 stacked out with ram. Mines a single processor 3.2 Mhz Pentium 4 with 1.5 gb of ram which in my opinion would be comparable to a G5 twin 2 ghz machine with the same ram. Dual processors only make real major speed differences when the program in question is designed to use them. Vectorworks and Artlantis are not. Other renders do, such as Cinema 4D and I believe Renderworks (Vectorworks rendering program) but not 100% sure on Renderworks using both. I'd say you are the very limit of usable computing with the present set up you have and the work you are trying to do. If you can go the extra I'd go dual 2 ghz machine with plenty of ram. Buy good quality ram, but not from Apple, it's overpriced. If you are very tight on budget get the single 1.8 with loads of ram rather than 1.8 duals with less ram. The set up will cost you about twice what I paid for my set up but your Apple based and don't want to change platforms as well as machines do you. Also take note about comments on the slow speed thread regarding OSX 10.3. posted here recently.Here is the link if you don't see it on the page. http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=004213 [ 11-16-2004, 05:50 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  19. quote: The selection slowdown is caused by MacOS X 10.3 - not VectorWorks. As I posted in the other threads, we anticipate a fix from Apple in MacOS X 10.4.Hi Paul I'm sure others would agree with me that you are in a difficult position on this sort of issue, but it would be interesting to know what would be NNA's course of action should this not be fixed in OSX 10.4 and Apple say they cannot implement changes to the OS to achieve this. Do the Vectorworks Mac users struggle on hoping and waiting for Apple to do something or do you make the required changes within Vectorworks for the OSX platform to get it working correctly?
  20. I should think the thread concerning speed issues in VW 11 on a Mac is enough to make anybody with VW10 and a Mac hold fire on upgrading. Don't wish to point the finger either, it's not working right, bottom line, and needs fixing. So whoever has the answers I hope they implement them soon so the Mac users here suffering, even after the OSX recent upgrade can be as fast and productive with VW as it used to be.
  21. I don't know about the US but the bulk of kitchen suppliers in the UK seem to have there own CAD system of some description already, either custom made for them or perhaps a bolt on to Autocad. This is because they tend to, from what I've seen, standardise on cabinet sizes, and the appliances are also standard dimensions. Anybody dealing in bespoke work, and charging those sorts of prices will look to design the units per project, so draw a lot from scratch. Just my thoughts as to why NNA would discount spending development time on this. From what I've seen the InteriorCad product mentioned is excellent at the market it's aimed at.
  22. Hi Katie I in turn am surprised to hear you say that it's not a Vectorworks problem, from what I've been told. Sorry, don't see anything on the page about the "summise the problem is with the dongle driver". Can you show me link please. This could run on and on with us, the poor user, stuck in the middle with both companies bouncing us back and forth!! Please note, I have not and do not intend to load Service Pack 2, so any inference that this is related to installing that can be completely discounted. I can only repeat what I was told to me when I telephoned Aladdin UK Tech Support. How the program communicates with the dongle is down to how the software is written to communicate with the drivers, as in Vectorworks, written by you. They supply the hardware and the drivers, the hooks as he described it, for the software to write to. I was also told that they have hundreds of companies using this with no problems. I repeat I'm using Windows XP with only Service Pack 1 installed. All my other programs work fine and apart from this dongle issue it appears so does Vectorworks. Let me make on thing clear please- I'm not in a position, and would not wish to claim you are not telling the truth, but clearly not only is somebody not doing so, we the end user, are having to put up with the end result whoever it is. I can see that the site you mentioned has new files on its pages. Do they relate to SP2 issues and/or VW 11? because I'm running 10.5.1 and at the suggestion of your Tech Support,with replacement drivers downloaded last week. Not these ones. I've also been told no such problems occur in VW11 with one of the suggestions being to upgrade. Tech Support has said you are working on VW11 now and as such no further upgrades patches etc are likely at all for VW10. I have, for my part, reconciled myself with the fact this problem will not be cured and have to make do with whatever solution I can implement of my own. As for my 100% confidence in Vectorworks or upgrading, that I'm afraid unless presented in a very advantageous way, is not going to be forthcoming. Disappointed. Alan
  23. Maybe try to give it to them as a pdf?
  24. I have heard over on cgtalk.com the Hardware and Technical forum that Apple writes its own drivers for any of the video cards it supplies, but I can't confirm this. Video card drivers seem to be updated constantly and as a rule of thumb I'd say keep up to date as they sort issues and squeeze that bit more performance out of them. In the Mac community the video cards lagging behind Windows PC's both in supplied machines and as upgrades has always been a sore point. I guess it's a case of supply and demand. It seems to change as well between the two big players constantly, this week ATI cards work better, then nVidia comes up with something. Even then it's sometimes down to what application you're using it for. I think the only answer is for NNA, with the resources at hand, G5's and the latest software versions to try them and give it's recommendation as to the best card running Vectorworks. I'm talking Apple here, because of the limited cards available in G5's, three is it? They did make a big thing of how Vectorworks ran so much faster on the G5 when it first came out if I remember rightly. Obviously the number of Windows PC ones would be a major undertaking and I wouldn't expect NNA to undertake this. But as Paul Farr pointed out the speed problem here is in the OSX version. Hopefully, for all you Mac users, soon to be sorted. Just my thoughts and opinion. Alan [ 11-03-2004, 01:56 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  25. alanmac

    PC PDF Drivers

    tvetter I've done some testing and from that I may see what you are saying but I think it's your intepretation of what you expect that's causing the problem. As I've said I use only black but to try your theory I changed some elements of my drawing to red and blue. Hit the print button, selected 995pdf to print it but before I did I went to properties for that printer and made sure it was on the B&W button. The pdf created was black and white ! The blue elements were black but the red looked grey. Then it struck me. It is B&W but it's in greyscale, as if printing a black and white print. A black and white photograph is not just that, it's tones of black between the white. So it is with this. Depending on the colours in your drawing gives a toned result accordingly. If you look in the properties of the printer, any printer on windows the button to press for B&W printing has a series of litte icons in it, notice they show patterns and various grey tones. If you want to guarantee solid black, select all change pen colour to black, send to pdf. Once created hit undo and your colours are back. Hope this explanation helps to stop this doing your head in. Alan [ 11-03-2004, 01:33 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
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