islandmon

Certainly a provocative paradigm shift to consider... At first ...to avoid confusion & conflicts ... possibly only accessible via WGR import from a separate Spatial Model File ( which does not support Layer Z values ). All the Objects within the Spatial Model would know their actual cartesian values. Once imported into the standard Working Layer File all the Objects would populate the pre-assigned Z Value Layers as if by magic ; ) This way we could have the best of both worlds and remain version compatible.

My comments were referring to a positive experience with hardware and software, only. I am not a marketing expert nor have any idea if your claims that Apple spends significantly more on advertising than Toshiba or Microsoft are actually truthful or just petty. In case you haven't noticed this is a Vectorworks forum for A&E Design Professionals. Discussion of Apple vs PC marketing strategies of the last decade may be inappropriate.

Why bother ... use InkScape instead : http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/27526

Or convert the PIO to a hybrid Symbol and then add lines to the 2d part. That's what I do ... anyway

Our G5 workstation is 5yrs old now ... it has performed flawlessly ... running everything including Unix apps. and Apache server. It was a great investment ... paid for itself many times over. It is solidly expandable and the aluminum tower is a genuine work of art ! If the benefit of owning a premium product consisting of integrated hardware design with software implementation out weighs the upfront cost, then Mac Users aren't so foolhardy after all. In fact, we just purchased a new expensive iMac24 and expect similar stellar performance.

Use Classes and Symbols...

The OSX file system does not see these as duplicates but separate entities with different filepath locations as recommended by Apple. To simplify & harmonize the user experience ... the naming simply follows the conventions established by NNA for installed VW directories.

Now then ... shake sweaty hands and let's all go down to the pub for a pint of justice ... ; )

FQR renders line by line and pages out to disk. Your image is not that complex .. so FQR is a perfect choice... especially with the image props. Have you tried to send to Batch processing ... and what is the size of the partition you are using for VW storage ? When problems like this arise, batching to a larger partition might be beneficial.

My sentiments exactly regarding the benefits of OpenGL and interactive rendering. Especially quick with screen capture of the various images. It's a real shame if that functionality has been 'programmed out' of an otherwise essential procedure. This will make the transition from 2d to 3d work both tedious and unpredictable.

Have you tried the "Drape Surfaces" procedure ?

If only every User had these hardware specs ... NNA would be in programmers heaven. I , too, would be seriously pissed-off... if this set-up was too slow to run a simple CAD app. Let's face it... on average VW is really not doing that much serious processing. Most of the effort is memory & GUI stuff. So... then... there's got to be something wrong somewhere ...

You may be better off making a reasonable visual facsimile using a rendered texture map with the exact look&feel more easily created in Photoshop using font rendering.( set the lighting angle to match the VW 3D rendering isometric view ). Whereas, in VW solid subtracting the engraving will require a negative faceted mesh created from the TrueType > 3D polyline conversion then manually setting the interior points to the correct angular depth.

You can stick a worksheet on drawing ... anywhere .. just make sure that it points to the exact ObjectInstance(s) you desire to quantify. Then use standard Record>Field & Function calls to publish the data. Symbols work well for the reason that they are exclusive and easily referenced by NameString within a worksheet database.

In other words .. all references are possible that do not reference themselves.

Select > One Page

Indeed, Artistic Rendering is based on the old style Quickdraw polygonal rendering ... and that's the rub. What good is an almost ... not quite accurate ... sorta interesting architectural rendering ? Placating the Client is one thing ...but having to explain, "All those extra lines you see are really not supposed to be there ... they're just part of the rendering effect... a mistake in the CAD program ... really..."

Make certain the Class Attributes > ' Use at creation" is selected

We use a Project Server which handles the document trail & presentation. Permissions control the view-ability, access & deprecation of the files.

Bill ... thanks for your indepth workflow analysis ( wish I could think out-loud like that ; ) you should consider doubling your RAM .. it will make a huge the difference in performance as well as resolve many inherent "instabilities".

geez .. i knew it was gettin pretty bad over there ... but now their rioting in the streets ; ) You make an excellent point ... ideally, every Tool could be linked to it's Help Topic with the click of a mouse or key-combo ... why not ?

And to save space while maintaining functionality .. you can move the items to another directory on a different partition and/or drive... then utilize Symbolic Links.

Try>Export to PDF ... and un-check > "Export patterns at on-screen resolution"

Basically, I try to avoid the extrusion issues and the sectioning protocols whenever possible... for the very same frustrating reasons you describe. Instead focusing effort on the uniqueness of the curvature using the simplicity of lines & arcs with the basic Chamfer/Fillet to get the shape right. Working in the isolation of the Group allows for unlimited zoom. Then , adding the other line elements with joins prior to composing it all. This process will continue as each of the sectional profiles is produced. Finally , extrusion or conversion to NURBS> Lofting or ExtrudeAlongPath to finish the shape.

Bullnosing is usually considered a detail treatment. You may even want to render the walls with the Bullnose. I would use standard walls for all the runs, and then just make some custom Jambs & Endcaps symbols with the nosing, as req'd.