Jump to content

alanmac

Member
  • Posts

    688
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by alanmac

  1. I draw things all the time and then give them a class afterwards, even make up classes as I go along, changing them etc. so if I'm reading your wish correctly this is already a function of VW and always has been. Even grouping objects or just multi selection allows you to change the classes. Alan [ 02-10-2006, 07:07 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  2. If you go to this link on imagecels site then they give details of Dave's description. I've used the Kentia palm with Photoshop (don't have Renderworks) on final renders and its perfect for my use. You don't need to spend time with the magic wand tool, especially with tricky stuff like a palm. http://www.imagecels.com/im04000.html About third item down Alan [ 02-10-2006, 06:23 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  3. I'll agree in your circumstance it is the case, but I don't think its the blank document that's the cause in itself merely the indication of something happening within VW. In other words I can't see the blank document being corrupted but once open it starts an incorrect or corrupted process in VW to start. I can only suggest trying to reinstall the program. It's almost seems like something is happening to the file, an action that you cannot see, I'm guessing now, something like a script running, or its going through some procedure. Have you installed or created any scripts, plug ins etc? Is this as a stand alone workstation or are you connected to a network running other copies or using it in a workgroup referencing situation? Have you moved the location of the default blank document, or created your own using your own set classes, etc and renamed this the default document at all ? Is the same happening with existing VW files or if you leave them the CPU is zero, of course without a blank document in the background ? What happens if you save the blank document as a named file without doing anything in it, then reopen it? Alan [ 02-08-2006, 05:22 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  4. Strange After your last post I started VW and left the default new document in place. Still 0% CPU usage in the graph for CPU usage and CPU Usage History on the "Performance" tabbed window, with 43 mb showing in the "Processes" tabbed window for Vectorworks.exe Flickers up to 1 or 2% but that's got to do with me typing this etc. So the plot thickens ! Does it drop to zero usage with everything set the same but with VW off completely? In other words is it something else using memory. Alan [ 02-07-2006, 06:05 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  5. If you are talking under the processes tab in Windows Task Manager that is a different issue. That will show a Mem usage of about 40 meg, with Vectorwork.exe running but with no files open. But then again this is perfectly normal, Photoshop 7 open without any files open will show 37 meg, and Internat Explorer on mine 22meg as of this moment, with me writing this reply. I doubt very much if you'd get Autocad to show considerably less, maybe even more, if this is the same place you are looking in as me, under the "Processes" tabbed window. Under the "Performance" tabbed window the CPU usage on the left hand panes and the CPU Usage History in the right hand panes both show 0% only rising to 1% as I type this. Is this what you mean ? Alan [ 02-07-2006, 08:47 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  6. I like it just how it is, zooming in or out to control the level of nudge suits me, so I know that the closer I get the finer the movement. Alan
  7. Hi Just checked mine running VW10 no drawings open. CPU usage shows 0% in both graphs on a P4 with HT on, under the performance tab. Alan
  8. Did they give you a reason not to buy Intel Macs? I can only think they told you not to buy Intel because they do not have a native version available at the moment and were maybe worried you'd come back complaining of speed issues etc. via the Rosetta emulation. I'm afraid they would not have convinced me and I find it strange they can be so positive and assured about not choosing Intel but can't give you a straight answer on RAM! Get the maximum you can but look around at good quality before you buy. Apples site prices are still too high. [ 02-04-2006, 07:48 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  9. quote: Originally posted by Mike S: I was told to stay away from Intel. Who by and for what reason? Maxon have brought out their Cinema 4D in Universal Binary a couple of days ago, so I'm guessing other software companies will be well on the way to releasing theirs soon. With this native running version its already shown to be faster on the new iMac Duo Core 2 ghz than the G5 Dual 2ghz Tower running Cinebench. Certainly looks a promising start. Alan
  10. Is this post about obtaining the thoughts of others, an inquiring, open mind. Or is it, along with the other thread regarding workflow/processes, an attempt to gain supporting opinion for strong held beliefs and opinions you have formulated about how you should be taught, what you should be taught and now how a business should be run, to use against any teaching or procedures expressed by others that differ from that of your own. As I read it at the moment the opinions are weighed towards retaining and the inclusion of hand drawing skills to your skillset, not just for the direct and obvious results it brings, but the connection this makes within the thought processes. I for one would not wish to go back to the days of hand drawing all my work but if that hand drawing capability was taken away from me I'd feel the loss of a very important element in my skillset. Its not enough to know how to use the tools, its knowing what you are trying to say, how you convey the knowledge, thoughts, ideas in your head to others. I've heard the comment that new young staff members may know how to use the computer and how the software works brilliantly but draw or design things that simply cannot be made. We should let the computers take over those repetitive tasks etc. but safe in the knowledge that what we ask it to do is feasible in the real world, gained from knowledge and experience. Usually obtained from others who indeed may not possess the same level of speed or competence in the software but have that something no training course or software can provide - experience. Alan [ 02-02-2006, 06:37 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  11. You may or may not know that Apple is in the change over from using Motorola processor to Intel ones. They have two models out with these new processors in. The iMac Duo Core and the Macbook Pro laptop. Other new models will follow rapidly till by the end of this year all its models will sport Intel processors. These machines have shown to be faster, by what amount depends on your loyalties and opinions, than the direct models they replace. I'd take a look at the 2ghz Duo Core 20" inch iMac and see if it fits in your budget. Allow for adding the maximum ram it will hold, but don't buy it from Apple, it's overpriced, if buying from an Apple Store or their on line shop. If buying from a dealer they can source equally good but cheaper ram such as Kingston etc. Being an all-in-one machine upgrading its internals, apart from the ram, is a little impractical, but having said that it's so well equiped with built in bluetooth, USB, firewire etc. even a remote control that there is little in needs, if anything at all. You could get the cordless keyboard and mouse set to go with it. I'd keep the keyboard but ditch the mouse in favour of a multi button cordless from Logitech or Microsoft, but that's my personal preference as a windows and Apple user I like the benefits offered by multi button mice. You could consider the Macbook Pro laptop if mobility is an important factor, but you are paying more for that mobility and unless you pay out even more for a large screen to work on in the office plugged into it you are stuck with its 15" widescreen. For 2D Vectorworking both will be fine, but if going onto complex 3D and detailed renderings are on the horizon then you may want to look at the quad processor G5. A fast machine, looks expensive but is in fact at a very good price compared to a Windows counterpart machine for having 4 processors. This would be of little consequence in 2D work, although very fast, the rendering area of files is were this element and specification comes into play and makes a difference. It's using the Motorola processors which Apple are phasing out but its such a well thought of machine, not long released that many have no hesitation in buying it. I'd hazard a guess you'd look at the iMac and find it fine, and I challenge you to find a Windows all-in-one that looks anywhere near as stylish, beautifully finished and put together as the iMac Duo Core. You will have to wait a little time for Nemetschek to bring out VW12 in the Universal Version to get the most from these machines, but until that time (not long I would imagine) you can get by with the OSX current version and use the Rossetta emulation built into OSX. Alan [ 02-02-2006, 05:51 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  12. Have you actually looked at Disc Three? My guess is its a documentation disc, probably the manual plus some details of changes made from 11 to 12, but as I said that's a guess on my part, as I've no intention of upgrading just yet. . [ 02-01-2006, 12:46 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  13. Four discs, wow ! sounds like we are heading towards DVD format install disc time. Certainly cut down on potential disc errors, loss of a disc from the "collection" etc. .
  14. Patrick My thoughts are this looks like the information is getting truncated in some way, like the memory is not enough to process the job. I had a problem with an old machine of mine and files would look to be processing on the printing side then just disappear. Turned out the hard disc didn't have enough space left to finish spooling the job through and just sent it into God knows were. Freeing up some space on the hard disc solved it short term, but then I got a new machine with bigger hard disc so know such problems now. This was an old HP1120 A3 printer. A sure sign used to be was when I looked in the printer dialog box/spooler it would show two file sizes. The file size sent and a changing figure showing next to it, as the amount of file processed. On the "dodgy" files (in other words big files)these would not appear, but of course without the dialog/spooler open you'd think it was processing away and only when no print appeared and the printer spooler was empty when you opened it and looked would you know....aaahhh. Just a thought. Alan
  15. Poor Open GL performance on Macs is something discussed at regular intervals on other forums I visit, mainly cgtalk.com and is the one thing that counts against Apple computers in this respect. I understand some time ago they were advertising for staff with particular experience in this so it sounds like they are addressing the issue. But, at present the implementation and drivers related to graphics cards are way behind compared to Windows users, even when compared to similiar cards.I believe Apple writes its own drivers for these rather than get say nVidias or ATI's to write them. Remember this only relates to screen redraws etc. Anything such as hidden line rendering etc will rely on the speed and power of your CPU not your GPU. I tend to work in wireframe mode constantly, exporting for rendering purposes, and don't notice much performance difference from my office G5 to my Home P4. As time goes by my preference is leaning more towards Apple and if things continue to go the way they have been going with the greater potential offered by the switch to Intel cpu's then that will for me tip the balance in Apples favour and I'll be going all OSX. Alan
  16. You have files of eight hundred megabytes? That's the equivalent of about six hundred of the old floppy discs(remember those). And you say in 2D - that's a huge amount of information. People said mine at 100mb was very high and these are 3D. Alan [ 01-27-2006, 03:44 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  17. As a footnote to this post I see Katie replied to somebody in another thread saying VW10.5 was not signed off to work with Tiger. So I guess anybody considering upgrading to a Intel Mac and at present running anything before Tiger with anything as old as VW10 is going to have to upgrade their copy of VW anyway. Alan
  18. We had a Encad wide format printer which had already been with the company some time when I joined them. The UK company who supplied it, called Colourgen, worked on that along with its RIP software to get the profiles sorted. Here is a link which I know we are talking the other side of the world but gives you an idea of the set ups that do this work. http://www.colourgen.com/support/colour_management.php As regards the Apples and the monitors, although we never got this part done we were pointed in the direction of our Apple Authorised dealer. Ideally I think it would be best to get one company to do the lot, but I don't know if they exist. If you can't spare the time but can spare the money that's the route to go. Depending on how far out the prints are compared to what you see on screen and what you were expecting, coupled with some time to devote to this, I'd start by just doing some colour adjustments of your own. I don't know the drivers and settings available for the HP110 but you could try experimenting with these and any colour management facilities it has. We were producing large format prints and needed to get the printer spot on but it was expensive. Around ?60 an hour with the guy being there most of the day. Having said that the equipment he used ran into several thousands of pounds to buy. If you go DIY try to keep track of the changes. Mark each print out with the settings, it's so easy to get confused with half a dozen or more run outs lying around. Are you comparing your Epson 1160 colours prints to the HP 110 in making your comment or is it just the HP colours in isolation? I found a marked difference from the same file. When we got so finally fed up of the Epson 1520's tempremental paper feed, blocked heads and poor quality compared to more modern units we got a HP. I can't remember the model number, it was postscript because we used Quark, ugly slabby thing but solid built, individual inks, we needed to buy a little HP print server as well. It's prints were darker in comparison, stronger blues, darker reds, vibrant compared to the Epson but not as subtle, reminded me of the results I got from my home HP1120, and my now HP1220. Although still involved in graphics I'm not involved directly with colour critical print production anymore. Good luck Alan [ 01-21-2006, 07:34 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  19. I'm sure you won't be disapointed with your Dell even it does not carry the kudos of the MacBook Pro and by the time it comes to your next purchase the dust should have settled and the machines will have there native version programs for you to make a better comparison. Of course this could work the other way for Apple. One of the ways they've always justified their higher cost is by making the point that their hardware, processors were different and performed better than the "equivalent" machines running Windows. Now with the processor coming from the same source any speed gain will have to be made through the architecture of the machines and how OSX works together with it. If you can buy an identical spec Windows machine that runs your software as fast or even faster than Apples but costs considerable less then Apple really are going to have a hard time persuading users to switch. I see that Sony for example has launched the FE series with machines equal in spec to Apples but at ?939.00+vat and ?1104+vat respectively compared to Apples price of ?1216+vat and ?1514+vat. This will of course be of little consequence to the Powerbook user who's been waiting patiently for the long overdue update to the G4, but like I said will make the job of persuading the "switcher" harder to do so. If, of course the reverse happens and the Apple outperforms the Windows based machines, Apples profits will go even higher than this quarters highest ever in their history result. Alan [ 01-21-2006, 04:20 PM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  20. quote: Originally posted by wv_vectorworker: [/qb] No. Apparently Rosetta works pretty fast, as in the CPU is so much faster than than whatever processor you were using before. Anybody using a G4 probably will not be disapointed running VW on a Intel Mac in Rosetta. Anybody paying the sums of money involved for a new Intel based Mac and not planning to upgrade their version of VW to the latest Universal version when it becomes available is not maximizing on their investment in my opinion. Sure as a short term stop gap solution, like now if you had to buy one, using Rosetta till the Universal is released. It's early days but a member here has reported good results with Rosetta on comparable machines so it should help in the short term. You wouldn't go out and buy a new widescreen TFT television and not upgrade the ariel if you knew it would give you a better picture would you, insisting it was good enough for your old 20" eight year old model so it's good enough for this. That's my take on it anyway.
  21. quote: Originally posted by D Wood: I'm very happy with it in general, but have had some peculiar colour results, so I am very interested in Ion's comments - what do I have to do to get some correlation between what is on the screen and what comes out of the printer? Colour calibration and profiling if you really want same screen to print colour matching, as done in the print industry. With the cost of equipment is best to get a specialist in, other than that its trial and error creating your own. I can't give advice on doing it yourself, at the last company I worked at that also produced graphics etc. we took the "call somebody in" route. It wasn't cheap but vital to our line of work. It's difficult, but the first place to start is to try to ensure your monitor is set up correctly, calibration equipment for that such as Blue Eye (I think it's called) from Lacie etc. will set you back about ?200 UK money, if you did want to go down the diy route. I'm even considering it (Blue Eye etc.) just so all our monitors, work and home are seeing more or less the same colour image. Been caught out recently when a job created on one machine looked considerably different when viewed on another, resulting in some rapid Photoshoping. Once you have a colour profile set up for your printer ensure that's the one used at print time, and if you change printers you'll need to do it all over again. It depends how far the colours are out, how important it is in the scheme of things, etc. It's all relative. I know that the studio A3 Epson 1520 gave a very different output to the same files on my home HP 1120/1220's. The HP giving much richer warmer colurs but that may be the default profiles of each created by others, at each manufacturers, perception of what looks good is different. To be fair the Epson gave a very good representation of what was on the studio monitors. Again paper stock also has an effect. Glossy looks the best but different if you use different brands. It's tricky if you're dealing in an area of colour specifics such as print and graphics. Under these circumstances you have to invest to stay in the game. Alan
  22. Ah, sorry didn't notice your Renderworks tag in the signature. Don't use it myself, so it sounds like Nicholas is on target here. Dare I say it, a "Prop"er answer. Alan
  23. Probably done with Photoshop. I know I've done similiar. Rendering the front/outside and back/inside objects, then bring into Photoshop and using layer, selections etc. faded parts of the concept using layer or selection transparency to get this effect. I think you could achieve the same using the much cheaper Photoshop Elements if you don't own Photoshop and its too expensive. Alan
  24. do you mean 2D, you talk about 3D in your post. Anyway, there are some 2D at vectordepot.com which if they don't suit you could modify. Alan [ 01-18-2006, 08:43 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
  25. An alternative if nobody comes up with the answer is to go the pdf route. I sometimes need to go bigger than my A3 in house printers and use Hobs Reprographic, as I'm UK based to. After problems with fonts, justification and spacing using dxf I saw other prints which looked great. On enquiry it turned out they had been printed from pdfs. I use a product called pdf995 to produce my pdfs as this pdf creator will go up to the larger print sizes. It's free to use but has a sponser screen connection come up each time you use, but nothing on the pdfs themselves. Of course this also allows you to check your final images before sending to the printer using Acrobat Reader. The only downside is I think you may be charged a bit more than a plotfile but I don't know the difference in costs or why. Check out both pdf995 and hobs to get further info. Hobs may be near you, or use some branches of Prontoprint, or other copy shops near you. Mine were about ?8.50 for the first AO then about ?1.50 per copy after that, but it's been awhile. Alan [ 01-18-2006, 06:08 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]
×
×
  • Create New...