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boxjoint

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Everything posted by boxjoint

  1. Charles, Sadly, I agree with you. On the surface, it doesn't seem to be much to ask that an object that is one inch by three inches and extruded to twenty inches should be able to transfer it's dimensions to a spreadsheet. But, I am not a computer wizard and so there must be reasons for why it cannot. I realized after posting my suggestion that it would not work so well with the diagonal members of the flat, since the bounding box becomes the "object" rather than the actual diagonal object. Again, I find it difficult to imagine that I can see this diagonal object on my screen, yet the program is unable to tell me it's dimensions. Have you found a way to overcome this obstacle? boxjoint
  2. This doesn't exactly answer the question, but since a flat is almost two dimensional and all your framing members are the same width and thickness and in the same plane, (with the exception of the corner blocks) perhaps you could lay out the framing members in 2d (using rectangles) and have the worksheet report height and width of each. Since this type of lumber is typically sold by the linear foot not the board foot, you don't really need to calculate the volume. If you need to have the flat be 3d in order to place it on the model of the set, you could create a duplicate of your original layout on a separate layer and extrude all the elements to 3/4" to create the model. Hope this helps.
  3. Over the years, I have accumulated a bunch of bookmarks in my browser for specific pages in the forum that address issues on a variety of topics. These pages provide answers that I may need on a recurring basis. I have just noticed that these bookmarks no longer work. They all seem to take me to the Forums page where all the forums are listed, rather than the specific page that was bookmarked. In addition, the ability to reach individual pages from a google search does not seem to work either. Specifically, pages that are not very recent. Has anyone else noticed this behavior?
  4. Michelle, Try File>Setup>Document Setup. If you don't have it there, open the Workspace Editor and, on the left panel, click the triangle next to File and look for Document Setup. The info in the right panel is the configuration of your current workspace. Drag things from the left panel to the menu of your choice in the right panel and it will be added to your workspace.
  5. Jeffery, Thanks but... Count is in column D. Width and Height are columns H & I. I am summing column E. Still getting the wrong answers. I tried moving Count to the column immediately preceding the width and height but it didn't help either. Other thoughts?
  6. Pat, The sheets do show up in the correct order on the left hand column so I guess I could select them there. However, I've already selected them once in the issue manager, and when I click Today's Issue, it populates the right column but the sheets are out of order as I said. Really, this problem goes back to the Issue Manager. When I open Issue Manager to create an issue and I select the Sheet Data tab so that I can check the box marked "Include in Current Issue" the first sheet that is displayed is sheet #21! They are all out of order right in the Issue Manager which makes it a real pain to navigate and select which sheets I want to include. The sheets show up in the following order as I click the 'Next' arrow: 21,22,23,24,15,14,26,25,11... and I don't know why. This is the same order they appear when I click "Today's Issue" in Batch Export. It would be nice if the Issue Manager had two columns like the Batch Export box so you could see more than one sheet at a time when selecting them for issue. It would also be nice if the Issue Manager displayed the sheets in the correct order.
  7. I am exporting @ 30 sheets using the "Today's Issue" button on the Batch Export PDF dialog box in VW 12.5.2. The box that shows the list of Sheets and Views to Export has a header with a triangle on it which suggests that it should sort the sheets by name when you click on it but it does not work for me. Is it supposed to sort and this is a bug? Or must we organize the order of the sheets by manually dragging them up and down in the window with the mouse?
  8. Yeah, and if the window can't be installed as it is drawn by Vectorworks right out of the box, then NNA has to pick up the tab for lunch. I can eat a lot of lunch! Maybe they should just hire a few architects to advise the software engineers about what sorts of things they should be including in the package? Thank goodness we have a million colors now to offset the other shortcomings.
  9. Pat, Thanks for checking it out in V12. It's beyond my comprehension that after 20 years in business, this package cannot produce a window schedule without a lot of fussing around.
  10. I open a blank file and drag an Andersen TW3062 window from the Andersen library in the Resource Browser into the drawing. I go to Tools>Reports> VA Create Schedule and create a window schedule. The first thing I notice is that the units in the schedule are set incorrectly. They are showing the window dimensions in fractional feet (3 1/8 feet) rather than a dimension (3' 1 5/8") so I have to reformat all the dimensions in the schedule. Next, I notice that while the O.A. Width and O.A. Height of the window unit are correct, the Rough Opening Width and Height are NOT correct. They show the same dimension as the O.A. Width and Height. So, I click the window Settings button on the OIP and find that the shim gap is set to 0". Changing it to 1/4" apparently adds that dimension to both sides of the window so now the Rough Opening Width shows correctly at 3' 2 1/8". Unfortunately, it also adds 1/4" to the O.A. Height of the window so now the Rough Opening Height is incorrect. There appears to be no way to have the shim gap for the width be different from the height. Is it just me or is it not possible with this Architectural CAD program to accurately model a window by one of the most widely sold manufacturers in the U.S. and have it show properly on the window schedule?
  11. I cannot get this trick to work. I've added the column with formula =COUNT and used the column reference in my formula =(Window.RoughOpenWIdth)/D4 but the summed cells are still not correct. 47'7 7/8" / 15 should return a value of 3'2 1/8", not 8'8 7/8". Any suggestions? Does this trick only work with VW 13?
  12. Thank you Bill for saying so many things that I've wanted to say for a long time. It has seemed that way to me too. Which is particularly frustrating since NNA specifically ASKS for input. I realize that every request for a new tool can't be added, but there is no excuse for NOT fixing a current tool that does not work as it is supposed to, or in a way that users expect. Yes. Or devise some clever workaround to achieve what the tool was supposed to do, AFTER spending hours searching the manuals, online help, and forum for a solution or someone else's workaround. How many man hours go wasted every year by multiple users searching, searching, searching for the answers to the same questions. Then to find out it's a 'known bug' or worse yet, 'the software is performing as designed'. I, for two, agree completely. It's bad for those using the software daily, but even worse for those of us who don't. It's infuriating to come back to VW after a week or two of doing something else only to realize that I've forgotten that little trick or workaround that I discovered but neglected to write down. Or some tool that I thought I had mastered has me stymied all over again by it's unnecessary complexity or lack of documentation. I've forgotten how many "seats" VW has out there, but I seem to recall it was a couple hundred thousand. There seem to be about 200 fairly active members on this board. If you figure it's a random sampling, then one forum member may be speaking for 1,000 users. Someone should be listening.
  13. I don't know if it makes a difference that I'm using VW12.5 on a Mac, but I can have two files open at the same time and move the windows from one monitor to another at will.
  14. I always view the forum by looking at Active Topics within the last 24 or 48 hours. I do not like the new layout that appears when choosing this option. The presence of text between the post topics makes it very difficult to scan the list to see if something interests me. Is there a way to turn this view off and return to a simple list of topics? If not, there should be.
  15. Travis, I'd be interested in knowing how to resolve this as I've run across it too and I find it irritating. I'd imagine this would be exceedingly easy for NNA to resolve if a user can resolve it. What could possibly be keeping them from correcting it?
  16. Jeffrey, If it's not a financial issue, then why not make resources from past versions available on your website? I was fortunate to have had VW 11 so that I could import to VW 12. Not so for folks that bought in on VW 12 or later. I understand that the manufacturer's lines change, but I'd bet 90% of their stock sizes haven't changed for years. Do you ever offer more than one manufacturers line in the same version of VW?
  17. There was an Andersen library in VW 11. I guess for VW 12 Marvin must have offered more money because they became the door and window library of choice. I don't know what is in VW 13.
  18. Brooke, On the sheet layer in question, if you do a "Select all" you can step through the selected objects using the OIP by clicking the little button at the top with three dots in it and then using the arrow buttons to the right of that. Have you tried that to see if the masking object is actually selectable via "Select All"? Also, do you have any groups on your sheet that may contain the offending mask? Another way to go about it might be to use Tools>Custom Selection or Custom Visibility which allow you to define what sheet and objects you are trying to find.
  19. Brooke, If by masking entity you mean something like a white rectangle that you are using to hide things, are you sure you have it on the sheet layer and not in the viewport annotation which would make it selectable only by entering the annotations space?
  20. Personally, I'm not sure how it's less work to produce only the online manual when the content seems exactly the same. Perhaps there are less formatting issues. However, I believe it could be a disadvantage for many people who do not have the luxury of dual monitors. I keep my help window available on one screen so I can refer to it easily. It is much more cumbersome with only one monitor. You also cannot sit in your favorite chair and read. AND you cannot make notes in the margins! I wonder what the sales statistics are on printed manuals?
  21. Peter, Thanks, I'll try the layer link thing. But I am still confused about why it will let me use the Tape Measure tool at some times and not others when in stack layers mode? Is it a bug or something I'm doing that I'm unaware of?
  22. A related issue is an overabundance of duplicative information. Creating more resources is not the way to solve the problem. Improving the existing resources is. There are currently too many places to look and too much info to sort when looking for an answer. In the same way that VW12.5 consolidated tools and menus to eliminate multiple places or ways to do the same thing, the help resources should be consolidated so there there are fewer places to go for all the info.
  23. When I began using VW I was overwhelmed. I fumbled along for several years until I upgraded to v12 and made a determined effort to learn the program by reading the manuals, the online Help, the Architect workbook by Resolve, and viewing the training CD's and online videos. I was not satisfied and still am not after a year of hard work. I am educated and have taught myself a great many things, and am completely confident that given the right information, VW could be one of them. It shouldn't be this difficult. Tguy's analogy to language is a good one. Learning a language is not simply a matter of memorizing a bunch of words, it requires understanding how the words fit together in order to communicate clearly. So it is with a program like VW. The VW manuals should be comprehensive enough for someone who is willing to dedicate themselves to be able to learn to operate the program. Unfortunately, I don't believe this is the case. The problem is that the VW manuals describe VW in very sterile terms. They do NOT give any information on WHY one might choose a certain tool, object, or command over another when both do similar things, or HOW tools or objects interact with others. And, as tguy said, there is no context. Often, important information is not included, or is left to guesswork or trial and error. There should be many more illustrations to supplement the text. This is, after all, a program that is used by graphics oriented people. NNA staff should be watching the forum for those questions that get asked repeatedly and address them in the manual. A bright spot was the VW 12.5 Upgrade Companion. This guide was written in a much more approachable style than the manual. The Tips and Considerations sections present the kind of info that I was seeking. I'd suggest incorporating info like this into the manual itself. NNA's response to my plight might be "Well, we offer both in person and online training sessions and there are third party manuals available". I think offering training seminars for money is an acceptable thing for NNA to do for those who want or need to fast track their learning. But those of us who cannot afford to pay for training deserve be provided with complete information on the product that we have paid for as part of the product.
  24. Thanks Peter, This option must be new to VW13 as I don't see it in my version. I use stack layers all the time. Glad to see it is being improved.
  25. Most times I seem to be able to use the tape measure tool in all views (top, front, side, isometric) when I have stack layers turned on and multiple layers visible. Occasionally though, when I try to select the tool, I get a message that says "This tool requires plan view with stack layers mode". Why would it work sometimes and not others? Anyone else have this happen?
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