Pat Stanford

I don't understand what you mean by "text can not be centered on in the section box". Do you mean in the annotations? Or in the section line marker. For your second problem, select the Section Viewport in the OIP. Near the bottom of the box is something called "Section Line Instances" (or something similar, I don't have VW open right now). Click the button and you will get a list of all the possible layers. Just check the ones where you want the section line to show. Seem pretty simple to me ;-) Pat

Check and make sure that the line lights are set to Cast Shadows. Lights that don't cast shadows are not blocked by solid object, just distance falloff. Pat

I think it would be much harder than you think. Look at how long it takes to import a DWG. Would you really want to wait that long for a referenced file to update? The problem is objects that are handled very differently between the two programs. One of the biggest of those is text. Pat

Petri, I am sure you know this, but for those who don't you can convert a styled wall to Unstyled in the OIP. It will keep the cavities and structure, but then can be altered with the attributes palette. The down side is that the wall no longer is linked to the style, so if you change something the wall won't change. But you can change an unstyled wall to any style you desire in the OIP, but then you lose the individual graphic attributes. Maybe we need a script that saved the attributes of a wall, lets the user select a style for the wall, makes it styled, makes it unstyled and reapplies the attributes? Pat

I don't know about your second problem, but the first is probably something else on the layer. I had that problem last year. If there is anything on the layer other than 2D polygons (not polylines), then the convert fails silently. Pat

My guess is that there are lots of people doing file sharing, but few using OSX Server. Server and Client both have similar capabilities as far as sharing files go. Server puts a better operator interface on things like setting up a Web or mail server. It also has better tools for handling 10s to 100s of users, or if you want clients to boot off the server. For an office of less than 10 people, you really don't need more than a dedicated (or mostly dedicated) Mac Mini set up with file sharing turned on. You might want to post your request again and leave off the Server part and see what kind of response you get. Pat

I don't think there is a way to get the symbol to always point to an object, but in Spotlight, you can set a "Focus Point". The Spotlight lights can then be set to always point to the focus point. Yes, you can have more than one focus point in the scene. If you take your named object and placed a focus point wiht it and grouped them, then when you move the object and re-render, the light will follow the object. Pat

I don't know about the tapered extrude. It seems to work fine for me here. Try making it in Plan view and then rotating as needed? Check out the Working Planes palette. It has a button that will let you view the working plane face on. Pat

Your two easiest options are to: 1. Upgrade to VW2008 2. Go to and buy a copy of Julian Carr's Worksheet on Drawing. It will convert your worksheet to lines and text that will then export properly. Pat

Setup a blank drawing with your preferred settings and save it as a Template with the name Default. In either VW12 or 2008, it should be stored in the Templates folder in the VectorWorks folder. Pat

Take a look at the ID Label Tool. This will go through and let you do the numbering and turn on the On Schedule buton at the same time. The other benefit is that it lets you specify exaclty where you want the label to be, rather than having to move it afterward. The only trick (for me) is that the tool makes you click where you want the label first, then on the door/window to label. Pat

Well Creative Commons suggests that you don't use their licenses for software. They recommend the GPL (General Public License). I picked the Lesser GPL becasue it is basically the same as the CC Attribution-Share Alike, but you have to be will ing to share the source code as well as a runable version. Here is the short version of the LGPL The GNU Lesser General Public License is a Free Software license. Like any Free Software license, it grants to you the four following freedoms: The freedom to run the program for any purpose. The freedom to study how the program works and adapt it to your needs. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor. The freedom to improve the program and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. The full version is viewable at Pat

What exactly are you trying to create? A shape like a cut diamond with many facets? If so, then look at using the Split tool. With this you can cut slices off your extrude. You will need to move your view for each cut as the split will be perpendicular to the screen. Pat

When a workgroup reference is updated, it throw out everything on the reference layer in the Referencing file and brings in a new set of data. If you make any changes to the referenced layer, they will be gone the next time the WGR if updated. It sounds like you are set to automatically update on open. In 12.5 instead of rotating the WGR layer, make a Layer Link and rotate that instead. Pat

Peter, Are you also aware that in 2008, you no longer need to use two stacked viewports? Viewports in VW2008 have both a foreground and background rendering mode. Make it much easier to keep everything aligned and updated. Pat

And here is a script that will do this. Copy the the lines from Procedure to Run and paste them into a new VectorScript Editor window. {==============================} Procedure ScaleEachObject; {Scales each selected object in the active layer around the obejct center} {? 2007, Coviana, Inc - Pat Stanford pat@coviana.com} {Licensed unde the GNU Lesser General Public License} Var H1,H2:Handle; N1,N2:Integer; A1:Dynarray[ ] of handle; R1:Real; Begin N1:=Count(Sel); If N1>0 then Begin Allocate A1[1..N1]; N2:=1; While N2<=N1 do Begin A1[N2]:=FSActLayer; SetDSelect(FSActLayer); N2:=N2+1; End; R1:=RealDialog('Enter the amount to scale each object by','2.0'); N2:=1; While N2<=N1 do Begin SetSelect(A1[N2]); Scale(R1,R1); DSelectAll; N2:=N2+1; End; End else AlrtDialog('At least one object must be selected'); End; Run(ScaleEachObject); {===================================} Pat

The dimension tools use the defualt font. To change the default font, make sure that nothing is selected in the drawing and then use the Font menu to change the font and size to what you need. The next time you draw a dimension it will use the new settings. Pat

The doors are likely showing multiple times due to the doors showing in Viewports. Edit the criteria for the database in the worksheet to include the design layers that the actual doors are on. It appears that the hardware information is actually a hidden part of the door record. It does not show in the Create Report command, but they can be added directly to the worksheet. The following fields appear to be available: HWDesc HWSetID HWQty HWLockType HWCloserType HWStopType HWKeyCode HWNotes HWSymName HWSymIDx You would enter these into a cell with a formula like: ='Door'.'HWLockType' I don't know of a way to concatenate the data from cells in a worksheet. Nor do I know of a way to convert a "string" entered into a cell into a number to use in calculations. Pat

Bruno, You are welcome to join us in the VectorScript Asylum, but keep you expectations in check. The amount of time to learn VS, write and debug the code and actually run the routines is often much longer than doing it by hand. Especially if you only need to do something one time. If it is something that you need to do often (more than a few times a year), scripting will almost always save you time in the long run. Pat

The short answer is that the data is stored in a form that can not be easily used in the worksheet database format. The slighlty longer answer is that you could use a VectorScript to write the same data into worksheet cells, but this would not automatically update when you recalculate the worksheet. Here are the details. The issues are stored in a hidden record fomat named 'Issue Data'. The bad part is that there are 200 fields in the record format, four fields each repeated 50 times. The names of the first four fields are 'Note-1', 'Number-1', 'Date-1', and 'Approved-1'. Replace the -1 with -2 to -50 as appropriate. I was able to set up a database row with a record as the criteria. I then had to manually edit the criteria to 'Issue Data' since hidden records don't show in the list of choices., I could then enter ='Issue Data'.'Date-1' as the formual in a database header row cell and get the data, but I don't know of a worksheet way to get things to align vertically. If you need more help with this let me know.

Check that your page is setup for the correct printer. It uses the margins in the printer description to determine where to print. If it is set up for "Any Printer", then it will be using very large margins. I could easily see a 10mm shift do to printer margins. Pat

Use TrueType to Polyline (Text menu). Ungroup the text to a bunch of selec ted polylines and either convert to 3D Polys or Extrude them to the required depth. Pat

You need to go in and modify the database criteria used for the worksheet. Select the Database Header row and click and hold on the little triangle. Choose Edit Criteria. Add an additional line to the criteria for the design layer you want the schedule to be for. This way you will only get the windows on a single layer. You should be able to do something similar if you want multiple layers in a single schedule. Pat

1. Yes, I am running VW2008 very successfully on a PB G4, 1 GHz 17" machine 2. No, it will not work across versions. All of the files you want to WGR must be in the same version. You can have different users/projects running different versions. 3. Yes, VW 12.5 and higher are Fat Binary, menaing they run native on both Intel and PPC machines. Pat

I think Petri meant that the rectangles where suposed to be reduced in size by 24 mm both vertically and horizontally. If you only want to do the width, change the y lines to: y1=y1; y2=y2; or just delete those two lines. Pat