alanmac

Never going to get a printer to physically print as fast as the information sent to it. Got to be processed somewhere. It's not so much the sending I would have thought but the processing that's the bottleneck. At a previous company which had large format we had a seperate machine,server, with a RIP and all jobs were sent,processed, etc. on this leaving the individual workstation machines free for other work. Connecting a printer even with Gigabit ethernet into your network isn't going to get your jobs printed any quicker by its ethernet connection speed alone. Alan

Why would you want it to have this? Alan

Take a look at this site. whilst I've not tried to use any of the software, it's free and looks like you could bring it into VW via dxf. http://www.applied-synergetics.com/ashp/html/domes.html Alan

If you look at the Apple web site there are currently no CAD programs on the Universal Binary version available site, the nearest in respect to work that any of us may do is Cinema 4D. No Archicad etc. I think the vast majority of VW mac users would be running on a tower type machine, such as a G5, G4 etc. This giving the flexability of choosing your monitor of choice, and having some increased upgrade ability over the graphics card and of course substainshall RAM capabilities over the more consumer focused machines. In this respect I guess whilst NNA want and need to get the job done, until a Intel based Apple Tower hits the streets the urgency is not as great as if these were available. Maybe by the time Apple announces these NNA will have the VW12.5 upgrade ready to roll out. Be a nice marketing line for NNA. "To coincide with the release of Apples powerful new intel based workstations NNA annouches that VW12.5 free upgrade is released and will be available to Apple users as Universal Binary" I'd rather they took their time to get it right than early release with too many bugs etc. I'd say about July/August, but that's just a guess on my part. Alan

Irrelevant, as a program it works equally well on all platforms. Choosing is deciding which platform you work best on not VW. So its either WindowsXP or Apple OS. As you won't be buying Apple you don't even need to consider/worry about the release of the Universal Binary version for Macs which is the only thing holding VW on the new Intel based Macs back. If you want a Dell then it's going to be Intel based as they don't use AMD processors. Look to the Precision range for more workstation use, and ensure you spec the dual core processor machine to be as up to date in the world of buying pc's as you can be, remembering in these terms its "out of date" in a month !! The 24" screen is better value than the 30" if your sticking to Dell for all your purchase. Renderworks will benefit from the dual core processing more than VW itself, but it will still be faster in general programs use than a "old" single core processor. 1.5 to 2 gb of ram.

Have you tried reducing your class names with logical abbrevations, and the fact you can have three sections per class must help in this. Alan

As it becomes a "teenager" lets hope it does not truely become one - thinks it knows everything, leaves an untidy mess everwhere, no longer communicates and takes all your money ;~) Alan

I think you are way off with your advise regarding getting a card with "512mb to start with" Most cards are 128, or 256 mb memory cards. 512mb cards are becoming available but are very expensive and not what is generally stocked or supplied. Just take a look at any computer manufacturers site to see what size the cards memory is. 256mb would be more than adequate for VW needs. Please show me a link to graphic cards with more than 512 mb on as you regard this as a "starting point" I'd be interested to see them and if they exist their prices. Alan

I don't use it but I understand there is a service to send fax via email, but why can't you send emails instead of faxes anyway with the drawings as pdf's attached ? I only ever saw a A3 fax about ten years ago, and it was for inter office use between a UK and USA office each having A3 machines. I never saw it used in A3 mode with anybody else because they only had A4 at the recieving end. Of course a modem in your computer (if you have one) can be used as a fax machine with the right software, but I don't know if the software shows A3 paper sizes. I used this to "fax" drawings from VW to my clients before switching to pdf and email. Good luck Alan [ 04-13-2006, 08:54 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

Just a word of warning I picked up from an email regarding Boot Camp invalidating your warranty if you install Windows. Why create software to allow you to do it then say it will invalidate your Apple Warranty.It does seem strange and would be worth just checking with your Apple dealer. http://www.macuser.co.uk/?news/85936 [ 04-12-2006, 04:23 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

I have found that if I have a VW file on CD if I open it in VW Windows it will do so by creating a new untitled file of that file. On Mac the file will not open giving an error message. With the file copied from the CD to the Mac hard drive then it will open in VW Mac version. I realise this is probably because how VW works from the point of view of referencing the file for saving and undo purposes and cannot do that to a file burnt to CD. When wishing to access and copy elements from many files on many different CD's the Windows version involves less work, without the need to clear files off the workstation merely close the untitled file without saving. If I'm missing a trick with regard to the Mac scenario I'd love to hear a solution/answer please. Alan

Okay, lets forget it, I can see where this is going..... I use both MacOSX and WindowsXP with VW. Alan

quote: Originally posted by ccroft: Without knowing what percentage of members use Mac or PC, it's impossible to draw any conclusions from the number of posts about problems on either platform. What has percentage of members using either platform got to do with it when, as I said, I get the impression from the posts here that at the moment Mac users seem to be having more problems than PC users. Most of the time there is a straight forward fix, sometimes just simply a case of running the disk utility and repairing permissions. Alan

Since VW12 its been dual platform supplied, with the license purchaser installing it on Apple/Mac or Windows/PC, the dongle working on both, but of course, only one at a time. They used to supply both versions on the disc years ago, the installer firing up from whatever OS you used, but then the serial number was platform specific. Now its tied to the dongle rather than the platform. I too get the impression from seeing the problems and the signatures on posters equipment description that there seems to be a greater number of Mac problems than Windows these days. But of course not only is VW upgrades a contributing factor, Apple is quite prolific in its upgrades to OSX, so this may also be part of the reason. Alan

I think your reading that wrong EJ. It's certainly not about the demise of Apple genius, but the recognition of its industrial design prowess and the prediction that with the capability to run Windows many will now choose to buy one rather than a Dell, HP or any of the other PC makers, because they can buy a nice looking box that now runs Windows. So if you're the Apple user that gets a kick out of being "different" to the mainstream, regard yourself as better, not like all those other PC computer users you might find you are a little less "unique" in the future. Will they (Apple zealots) be able to handle just being part of the boring old mainstream? Alan [ 04-07-2006, 05:25 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

Forgive me if it's obvious and you've have it already and an experienced user, but do you have the snap to object selection turned on in your constraints? Alan

Frank If you had it all in one drawing you could select the element you want to move and just go to the OIP and change what layer it sits on, easy peasy!! Others who have used Autocad (I have not) I'm sure will advise you to work the Autocad way in Vectorworks is missing the real advantages and beauty of VW over Autocad. Far be it from me to tell you how to work but it sounds like you'd have a lot happier experience with VW if you stopped trying to use it as a substitute for Autocad, instead as a alternative, with an alternative way of working. I'm sure there is no difference to having one big file open and several smaller ones in the working overhead of VW. All the best Alan

Just to add another twist to this .... When I first did this I drew an arc, then duplicated it, flipped the duplicate and moved it over to touch the other arc to make the "S" shape. When I hit compose one arc jumped and it created a circle from the two halves !!! Figure that one out.... Alan

Works for me in 10.5 on a Windows XP if I'm doing as you describe. Draw two arcs, one touching the other to look like letter S, combine to make one S shape. Draw a circle, select both items and extrude along a path choosing S shape as path. Am I reading your problem right? I'll email you file. Alan [ 03-28-2006, 11:43 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

Take a look, might be of help. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/labs/138/inkjet-printers---a3-photo-inkjets/products.html Alternatively if you want a direct replacement for the 1125 I think HP do one called a 1280 now, but depends were you are located. Don't think its networkable, (was the 1125?) but depending on your set up you can print across the network so long as "host" machine is on. I do so with my old HP1220. Alan

If we did that you'd all start commenting on how much I look like George Clooney. Everybody except George that is, he'd be annoyed I'd posted his picture in place of my ugly mug!

When doing the install/upgrade to 11.5 try it by using the "browse" facility and once you drill down and find the Vectorworks folder, go into it and then double click the VW icon inside the VW containing folder to add that to the command line see if that works and it recognises it. Alan [ 03-19-2006, 05:19 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

Check the set up of any printer you have itself. If you have more than one printer on your system it may be changing and you have not noticed. But as I said, just check your printers page size and orientation just before you decide to check the "pdf" option. Alan

Hi Andy really busy so can't spend loads of time, but it does appear that using OSX's inbuilt pdf creator has to relate to the printers installed on your machine. Two choices as I see it at the moment, download a printer driver from a Epson or HP site which goes to that size and pdf from that as if you had the machine on your system or buy/download a pdf creation software that goes to the bigger sizes. can't help you on that as my bigger sizes are dealt with by the home Windows pdf creator. Alan

So I take it your Mac based running OSX using the inbuilt pdf capability. If so I'm not sure, with regard to your last comment, to be honest. With the separate pdf creation program I use at home, pdf995 you tell it what size you want pdf to be, but with Mac I guess it goes by the assigned printer you have before hitting the pdf option. I'll have a go when I'm at my mac based studio tomorrow. Nasty ol' Windows (not really) here at my home studio. If you want to try out your theory maybe download a printer driver for an A2 printer from Epson or HP and install it. Although thinking about it its going to give you a pdf at A2, is that what you want? To print an A2 on two bits of A3, your printer, you surely must have your print setup under file menu to A3 but your page "Set Print Area" to A2. This will show two A3 pages side by side, especially if you enable show page breaks. Then ask VW to print all pages I'd assume. But unless your printer goesright to the edge, part of the drawing will be missing. Sorry got a bit carried away. Try getting a A2 printer driver, as I said, then pdf via OSX that set up. Alan [ 03-13-2006, 01:07 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]