Pat Stanford

"A" series serial numbers (at least in the US) do not require a dongle. The "B" Series serial numbers do require a dongle and you can only run VW on a machine that has the dongle plugged in. But VW can be installed on multiple machines with the same serial number awaiting the arrival of the dongle. Pat

There is a problem with the help update on my machine. If I follow the directions exactly, VW2008 crashes. The folder created is not named VWHelp like the one I removed, but rather it is named VW2008SafariHelpFix. There needs to be an additional step in the directions: 5b. Rename the folder VW2008SafariHelpFix to VWHelp. After this change is made, the new help works fine. Actually better than fine. The new help seems incredibly faster than the old. Pat

On my Mac, there is a check box on the Edit Color Palette button labeled Lock Reserved Colors. With this unchecked you can edit 254 colors. with is checked the first 3 1/2 rows are locked. Pat VW12.5.2 Mac OSX.4.10

It is not a bug. The differences between the two similarly named objects are significant enough that they really are two different creatures. While the experience of makeing one work on a design layer would help, there would still be a very large engineering committment to make the other work as well. I don't know for certain, but I think/hope/guess that they are working on it for a future version. But we won't see it released until it is stable enough to work reliably, even if it doesn't have everything we would like to see. Pat

I just went back to to VW12.5.2 (Mac) and I don't have any option to scale a Worksheet on Drawing. If I try Modify:Scale, I get the same message (different presentation of course), that Object Can't Be Scaled. Doesn't matter if I do symetrically or Asymentrically. What do you have to do in 12.5 to scale a worksheet? Pat

Well, Viewport in general are still farily new. VW11 brought Sheet Layers and Viewports. VW12 brought Section Viewports. VW2008 brought Design Layer Viewports. Who knows what the next version will bring. It would be nice to be able to put a section on a design layer. But look at the limitations of viewports on the design layer (same view, scale and render mode as the rest of the design layer), section viewports with those limitation are less useful. Section Viewports are similar to regular viewports, but are an entirely different animal. It almost sounds like what you are asking for is close to the old "Instead of just Top/Plan and 3D symbols, let us do multipel different views of symbols. As to your question about the vapor barrier, etc. If you really need to show it in multiple different views, think about how difficult it would be to add it to the model in 3D instead of just to the elevations. Then you have it everywhere. You can always class it to not display when you don't need it. Pat

I just did a quick test. You are correct in your assumption that for summed rows, any change in the worksheet is made to all of the summed objects. The cell in the worksheet shows the sum of all the objects, not an individual value. You could create an additional cell with a formula of =User_Edit.Integer/Count which would work OK if all of the objects have the same value. If you change a value in the Data pane of the OIP for one object, it only effects that object, not other objects that happen to be summed. The cell still shows the sum of all the objects. If you have a text field it will change in all the objects. You can not Force Select on a summed row. If you have a row that happens to have a single object, you can force select it. Pat

You can specify the class you want to use for the section line in each viewport. By default it is Section Style, but you can manually create a new class with attributes and apply that. Pat

VectorWorks Preferences:Display Pane In the pulldown for Display light objects: and set it to Only in Wireframe. You will be able to see the lights when you are in wireframe, but not when rendered. Pat

The easiest way to accomplish what you are looking for is to attach an additional "User_Edit" record to each object. You don't have to do any data entry in the Data pane of the OIP. Just put them in the VW2008 worksheet and the 2-way feature will allow you to enter data in each sub-row of the database and set up your calculation exactly as you want. If you want to get fancy, you could set up a formula for a column that would tell you when your User_Edit record is not attached to the object in that row. Now if you have lots of objects, you might want to create a script to do the attaching of the record, but if you can set up a simple Custom Selection script, it is only one click in the OIP Data pane to actually attach the record. Just be careful that you don't delete the User_Edit record or you will lose the data. Also, I recommend that when you name your record, don't use any spaces in the name. If you use spaces, you will have to wrap the name with quotes in all of your formulas. If there are no spaces, you can type it directly. Pat

It makes the markers on each end of the line match. Pat

Section Viewports are just like regular viewports. They can be scaled and cropped as you see fit. If you need a detail of part of a section, just duplicate the viewport and change the scale and crop to what you need. I am not in VW right now, so I can't say if the duplicate uses the same section line as the original or not, but there is a button in the OIP for each Section Viewport that lets you specify what layers and viewports the section line should show in. This should keep you from having extra section lines. Pat

Oh, good questions. This is one of my favorite hints and I give it often on the podcast. In the NNA supplied workspaces, each group of modes in the mode bar can be toggles/stepped thorugh by a different key. They are mapped geographically to the U I O P keys. So in the 2D Selection Tool, the U key will toggle between the Reshape mode and the Move mode in VW12. IN VW2008, it will step through the three modes (No Interactive Scaling, Single Object Scaling and Unlimited Scaling). The keys can be changed in the Workspace Editor in the Misc. Keys pane. Pat

There is a bug that does not let the help file open up in Safari 2 on Macs. You can either set your defualt browser to something else (like firefox or opera) or open one of those other browsers and use the Open File command and browse to the Applications:VectorWorks2008:VWHelp:Index.htm file and open that. Pat

Try DoMenuTextByName('Font Size',6); The number at the end is the selector (1-15) for the default font sizes from the pull down menu. This will work on all selected objects. If you want to work with handles, we will have to dig deeper and figure out how to get a handle to the text inside the Door/Window PIO. Pat

Yes, they have added Design Layer Viewports, but they take their view, scale and render mode from the design layer they are on. They act kind of like cropable layer links. They can also reference data from other VW files. Personally, I use Saved Views for two different purposes. I use them to take me to a specific part of the drawing that I am working on (kitchen, left elevation, et cetera). In this case the are used with design layers. I also use them to take me to Sheet Layers. On the Sheet Layer I layout everything in viewports so each can have its own rendering, view and scale. If you read the documentation for VW11 (and I think VW12) closely, there are places where Sheet Layers are called Presentation Layers. I think this is closer to the original intest of Sheet Layers. As usual, we the users have taken them far beyond what was originally envisioned. Pat

What exactly are you trying to do? Can you post your code (or at least a snippet)? Pat

Whoa, I think you have it backwards. A viewport in VW12 (and 2008, and 11) has the ability to show as many layers as you want, with the condition that they will all be shown at the same scale. That means that you could have a plan and title block both at 1/4" and they would display just fine. I think the part you are missing is that you can put as many viewports on a sheet layer as you want. Since you get to pick the layers in a viewport, put in a viewport with only the title block layer (at say, 1:1). Then do another viewport with the plan at 1:50 and then do a detail view (using a crop) at 1:10. Makes it very easy to compose any type of sheet that you want. Pat

SetTextSize will work with an object you have a handle to. You can wrap this in a ForEachObject function if you need to work on selected objects. Pat

Now on to your Worksheet question. InSymbol is an additive function. That means that when count for Layer = 1 you will get a count of just the objects that are on the layer. If you do Count for (Layer = 1 and InSymbol), you will get both the objects that are directly on the layer and the objects that are in symbols that are on the layer. I don't think you use a worksheet to examine individual objects that are inside PIO or Symbol instances. Pat

In order to have Hebrew display correctly you must have Quartz Imaging turned on in VW12. This was a question that came up at MacWorld last year and was answered by Juan Almansa of NNA Tech Support. Pat

OK, I am working from memory here. If we don't get this soon, I will dig deeper into my archives tonight or tomorrow. An object in an annotation is actually a group nested two level deep (the Viewport is essentially a group that contains a crop group and an annotation group). Therefore, when you are getting the rotation of the FSActLayer, you are probably getting the rotation of the viewport. Try rotating the viewport to see. As you stated, you need another way to get the handle to your PIO. From the VectorScript Mail List: Subject: Re: Object angle From: listmgr@VECTOREXPRESS.COM Date: June 11, 2005 9:42:34 AM PDT To: VWSDK-L@LISTS.NEMETSCHEK.NET Reply-To: VWSDK-L@LISTS.NEMETSCHEK.NET Hi Dirk, Maybe try: GetSymRot(gParmhan); then draw the object(s) that needs to be counter-rotated and then HRotate(LNewObj, 0, 0, - gRot); hth, Frank Brault On Jun 11, 2005, at 12:17 PM, Dirk Baarendse wrote: Hi all, How can I get the angle of a line PIO within the VectorScript PIO code? I?m trying to create a reference PIO where a reference line should point to a certain location (1st click point) and that the referencing information is drawn horizontally at the end of the reference line (2nd click or dragged point). The 1st object is what?s created now and the 2nd object is how I would like it to be. So it should behave like the Callout Object. Thanks, Dirk

Ion, What is it you are trying to get the rotation of? I would think that you want the rotation of the viewport, then rotate the marker to the inverse of that angle. Is that correct? If so, I think I have some code that will get a handle to the viewport from inside the annotation. Let me know, Pat

No, it works ver similarly to how you use layer links. Create a model on three layers, First Floor, Second Floor, Roof. Switch to a separate Model Layer and set Layer Options to Active Only. You should see nothing. Create a Viewport. Near the top of the dialog box is asks where to create the viewport, select the Model Layer. Turn on the First, Second, Roof under the Layers Button. Click OK to leave the dialog box. Set the View to Isometric. Use the Flyover Tool. It works just like you would expect. You can actually do the set up easier. Just like with Sheet Layer viewports, the viewport will automatically have the layer and class visibilities of the drawing at the time the viewport is created. And, just like a sheet layer viewport, you could be on any layer and just tell the Design Layer viewport what layer to be created on. Pat

Design Layer Viewports are the VW2008 version of enhanced layerlinks. The viewport takes on the scale and display attributes (zoom, view rendering) of the layer it is on. The benefit is that you can control the layers AND classes that are visible and also crop the viewport. The biggest downside to me is that it renders like the layer and renders to infinity. This means that you can't have multiple rendered layers as the top one will hide the others. I would prefer to be able to set the rendering of the viewport separately or have it work more like the Render Bitmap tool. Pat