Pat Stanford

Christiaan, I am not sure the "open formats" are enough to ensure future access. You might be right if you are talking about a very widely accepted format like PDF or DXF. But just because it is an open format does not mean that it will be supported by any active software 10 or even 5 years down the road. I will stand by my pervious advise and my PowerMac 4400/200 and state that if you want to keep an archive, then you need to archive hardware to run the software as well as the data. Either that or convert all of the data as necessary before you update hardware/operating systems. I hope that long term virtualization will allow us to reliable run any old software we need to, but how many of us (I know that I do) still have install disks for all the old versions of VW/MC and the old Mac OSs? Pat

If you truly want to archive old data, you need to archive both the software and hardware it will run on. Eventually there will probably be a third party emulator that will let you run OS9 on an Intel mac. There is a program called SheepShaver that emulates an environment that can run OS9 on Intel Macs. The developer has stated that he is not going to get and test Leopard, but that he thinks it should work. I see two options for you. 1. Get and test SheepShaver or 2. Find a PPC MacMini and keep it running in Tiger so you can run Classic. Pat

VectorWorks won't directly read your Blueprint files. In fact, it will probably take at least two conversion to bring them up to the current level. They will have to be ocnverted to at least MiniCad 7 first, then VW2008 will open the files. Make sure you call Nemetschek and talk directly to the sale people. They should be able to help you get set up to be able to do all of the transfers. Pat

Greenmeadow, 1. It sounds like you are trying to twist things. CBArch said it would take years to learn ALL of VW. I believe that to be true of any advanced program, Excel, Word, Photoshop AutoCAD. VW is no different. The important factor is how long it takes to learn enough to be productive. 2. I was at both MacWorld 2006 and 2007. I know for a fact that their were people there who could have demonstrated/explained any aspect of Architect you might want. David Phillips, a user from Fresno spent almost the entire week in the booth. Juan Almansa, one of the top tech support people for NNA solved problems for many people and did nearly constant demos. There were at least 4 sales people doing on-going demos and on-on-one sessions. I spent almost 2 days in the booth. Any of us or the other 6 people NNA had at the show would have been glad to help you.I suggest that you either A. where there at a very busy time, when no-one was available to help you, or B. you are talking out your arse. 3. Details and plans on the same sheet with live links are available in VW12. They are called sheet layers and viewports. Yes, it is one additonal step to edit, but for output purposes you have exactly what you are asking for. Pat

Quit and restart VW

How about selecting everything and then doing a Custom Selection (Tools menu) to deselect the 2D stuff? (lines, rectangles, arcs, polylines, polygons, ovals, 2D locus points, text). Pat

You can use the section viewport tool to cut a section of a regular viewport, but it has to be in one of the primary (top, bottom, left, right, front, back). So far, I don't know of any way to cut a section of a non-standard view. Pat

Try C:\Users\username\Application Data \Nemetschek\VectorWorks\2008\Workspaces And check out these web sites about what happened with Vista. http://4sysops.com/archives/documents-and-settings-in-vista/ http://www.hanselman.com/blog/WindowsVistaJunctionsAndMovingMyDocumentsToAnotherDrive.aspx Regards, Pat

From the VectorWorks 12 VectorScript Guide under How Plug-ins Work": The user's Plug-Ins folder exists in a platform-specific location. On Windows, C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data \Nemetschek\VectorWorks\xx\Plug-Ins, where xx represents the current VectorWorks version number, and username refers to the name of the current user logged into the computer On Macintosh, /Users/username/Library/Application Support/ VectorWorks/xx/Plug-Ins, where xx represents the current VectorWorks version number, and username refers to the name of the current user logged into the computer You would be looking for a fodler called Workspaces instead of Plug-Ins. Pat

The title block is a symbol in a symbol folder called Drawing Border Components. You can edit the symbol and move the text where you need it and change or resize fonts there. If you want to change the title block program wide, there are files in your VW Applications folder:Default:Drawing Border - Title Blocks that hold the master definition of the symbols that the Title Block tool uses. Pat

What you are coming up against is the hybrid nature of VectorWorks. Object (symbols, plug-in objects, Walls, Doors, Windows, roofs, floors, etc.) may (repeate may) have different representations in Top/Plan and other views. Top/Plan is a 2D view. In Top/Plan any object that has a 2D part will be displayed in its 2D form. As such, these object can have fills, patterns and hatches. In any view other than Top/Plan it is a 3D view. Any object that has a 3D part (like your extrudes) will display their 3D part. The default 3D rendering mode is wireframe unless you choose something else. 3D object can show fill colors and can also have textures applied to them. If you want to have objects that will show both 2D and 3D aspects, you have to either use hybrid objects or create your own objects with both 2D and 3D Parts. The easiest way to do this is to create both the 2D and 3D Parts, align them in a top/plan view and them Create Symbol. If you need to change them, you will have to edit both the 2D and 3D parts of the symbol sepratately. If you are doing simple extrudes, another option would be to use something like a Floor object that already has the 2D/3D separation built in and automatically generates the 3D from a 2D object and a height. Pat

In VW11 I had a similar problem. It turned out that I had vertices of two object that were coincident. If one of the objects is symetrical, try rotating it a little bit and see if my moving the verties the problem goes away. Pat

Unless the z coordinate is stored in the PIO record, I don't know of any way to get Zs of object in worksheets. If it is critical, you could write a couple of scripts to attach a record to the object and copy the x,y,z into the record. Two more scripts would copy the data from the record to the object and from the object to the record. The record would be able to be changed in the 2-way worksheet, but thechanges would not show up until you ran the script to copy them back to the object. Pat

What program are you using to display the PDF? I have found that Acrobat 6 has some display problems. If I fill out a form in Acrobat 6 that was created in a later (Acrobat 8) document, when I go back to check it, it does not display any of the text. If I use Preview or the Acrobat 8 Reader, then all the data is there. I wonder if your problem could be similar. Pat

The traditional method is to workgroup reference in the file to a new blank document. After you get what you can from the file, then break the reference while retaining the information in the file. This will not get you any sheet layers in VW12. If this is not enough or does not work the only other option is to wait until Monday and send the file to Tech Support at NNA and see what they can do with it. Pat

If you have an assembly, put all the objects in the proper place and then group them. Each object will remain individual (with individual attributes/textures), but you can move the whole thing as one object. Snaps in 3D are still a little hit and miss. The best way I have found is to find the correct view and then zoom way in (~5000%) and use nudge. Or use the align commands to put one side of the objects at the same point and then move one the proper distance to get the placement you want. Nope, no interference warnings. The poor mans version is to select two objects at a time, duplicate them and do an intersect surface command. If you get an intersection, then you know that there is interference. Pat

The red X means that the tool is not in the plug-ins folder. Are you sure that you installed Architect over Fundamentals? Perhaps it put it beside it. Check your Applications/Programs folder/directory and make sure that you don't have two copies installed (actually it will work fine with two copies installed, but you then have to be careful about which copy is running). Pat

You can certainly use VW for some complicated parts, but it depends on your definition of "Constrain". VW does not have 3D constraints that would say, keep a wheel centered on an axel. I find that by grouping assemblies I can get enough functionality for what I need. I have also downloaded and use a 3rd Party add-on (from VectorDepot) called Explosion that will help generate exploded views of drawings. You can even use it multiple times in a drawing to explode different parts in different directions. Pat

Try using Ungroup. In a Top/Plan view you will get a set of lines and polys. In a 3D view, you will get a mesh object for each flight and extrudes for platforms. Pat

No, you don't have to use layer color for the whole file. Select the Viewport. Click the Layers button in the OIP. Select a Layer and click edit. Click the Colors button and set the pen and fill to B/W. Click OK twice to get back to the Viewport Layer Properties. Click in the Column between the Layer Name and the Stacking Order. You should get a little color icon showing three stacked layers. Click OK Everything on the layer you selected should be in Black and White while other layers should still be in color. Pat

Clois, You are welcome to send me the files and I will take a look. Pat pat@coviana.com

Use the 2D reshape tool and pick a vertex close to where it stops duplicating. Use the arrows in the Object Info Palette to step through the vertices. Keep your eye on the button that says Hide Next Edge. See if it doesn't switch to Show Next Segment right around where the dupe stops. Pat

Christiaan, Your desire is very reasonable. It should be wish listed. I think the problem is that locked objects are locked, they can not be changed. I think that the parametric constraints (which are used by the associative dimensions) need to attach a "record" to each of the associative objects. I don't know any work around. I get the same behavior in VW2008. Pat

My guess is that we have a terminology problem. I think kelhammer is using the words "guide lines" to describe the dashed lines that come from snap points. The actual name for these lines is "extension lines." CruisinLong is referring to the object actaully called Guide Lines in VW. These are lines (or other objects) that are placed in the Guides class. There are commands in the Modify menu to create, show, hide and delete Guides. The short answer to kelhammer's question is no, you can not get extension lines to remain. You can however use guides to simulate teh same thing. Pat

Check the stacking order of your design layers. When you have a rendered layer (At least OpenGL, Renderworks and Radiosity) it renders to infinity and will hide anything on a lower layer in the stacking order. Pat