Danielj1

You can also (and this is a crude-but-often-effective method) draw the lines in VW, and then switch to Front view and convert them to 3-D polys. They will have zero depth, but will be viewable in perspectives, renderings, etc., and you could put them right next to the walls to be rendered (as in 1/4" in front). Dan J.

If you plan on making large prints to be seen from a distance you can export at a lower DPI. For "boardroom" type presentations I have often exported 24" wide renderings at 150-180 dpi with completely acceptable results. The images, mounted on boards and placed on the walls, were often viewed from about 5 feet away, and the fine detail of a higher-resolution rendering would have been largely lost in that situation. Dan J.

"You can also use pictures of real trees to make your own 3d model by texture mapping the photos onto flat planes and placing them into your model." If you're using VW10 with RenderWorks, you can also use a photo image of a tree to create an image prop, which is a 3-D object with a texture and transparency automatically mapped correctly. You also have the option of having the image prop automatically rotate toward the camera (or viewer) when rendering in various views (so that you don't see it on-edge, thus revealing its skinny side). Dan J. www.imageprops.com

I believe that none of the Obliques will render in RenderWorks with their projections shown accurately (they revert to plan view in the rendering). This is a RenderWorks characteristic (a feature not a bug!) of long standing. Dan J. www.imageprops.com

What exactly is the problem you describe? I just rendered a scene that had multiple types of transparency, including an image prop with a transparency mask, using Custom Renderworks with the mapped shadow option selected and it worked perfectly. Can you describe the problem you're experiencing? Dan J.

The Tile command can only be found in Vectorworks Architect: AEC>Tile. The basic VectorWorks doesn't have it. I believe only VWArchitect and Landmark contain this menu command. But as I mentioned, in the absence of VWArchitect you can accomplish the same task manually, pretty much, by using Duplicate Array. If the tile needs to fit an irregular polygon shape, you can select the individual tiles near the periphery, convert them to groups, and edit the groups (by clipping for example) to fit the enclosing polygon. The Tile command does all this automatically. Dan J.

The Tile command can only be found in Vectorworks Architect: AEC>Tile. The basic VectorWorks doesn't have it. I believe only VWArchitect and Landmark contain this menu command. But as I mentioned, in the absence of VWArchitect you can accomplish the same task manually, pretty much, by using Duplicate Array. If the tile needs to fit an irregular polygon shape, you can select the individual tiles near the periphery, convert them to groups, and edit the groups (by clipping for example) to fit the enclosing polygon. The Tile command does all this automatically. Dan J.

There's another solution to this problem, using VW Architect, that doesn't involve using hatches. Beginning with VW Architect 9.5.1 and on, you can create a symbol and then use the Tile command to duplicate it within a defined polygon area. Briefly, once you've created a symbol consisting of one repeatable module, you draw a 2-D polygon and invoke the Tile command. The polygon will then be filled with evenly-spaced instances of your tile. There's a sample file that explains and demonstrates this at Vectordepot: http://vectordepot.com/Drawings1.shtml (it's the Spanish Tile file) You can also use a similar technique even without VWArchitect, by placing one instance of your block symbol in the drawing, and then invoking the Duplicate Array command, entering the proper spacing. Note that the resulting file will probably be somewhat bigger than if you had used a hatch, but for those uncomfortable with the hatch tool, this method can be a great deal simpler. Dan J. www.imageprops.com

I have been using, with wonderful results, an Epson 1160, which will print extremely sharply (1440 dpi) in both B&W and color up to 13x19 with extremely narrow margins. I believe the price on this printer has now been reduced to $299, which frankly is pretty unbelievable. Regarding the pixel issue: if you're on a Mac, you might consider exporting rendered images with the shareware Print2Pict. It is a virtual printer which shows up in the Chooser, and you "print" to it as you would with any other printer--it creates PICT and TIFF format images, among others. The great advantage to this method is that you can choose the resolution you want (and by extension the number of pixels you prefer). Just make sure that your printing resolution preference in VW matches your desired output as well. Dan Jansenson

Thank you. Well, I certainly don't mean to plug a sale here (since I receive no royalties...:-)) but the third-party manual by Janis Kent has a detailed discussion on this very technique, with examples. Dan Jansenson

Thank you. Well, I certainly don't mean to plug a sale here (since I receive no royalties...:-)) but the third-party manual by Janis Kent has a detailed discussion on this very technique, with examples. Dan Jansenson

If you're wondering about the response rate to this message board, you might also want to check out the other, well-attended mailing list mentioned on NNA's web page (http://www.nemetschek.net/support/mailinglists.html). There are about 670 subscribers to that one, from around the world, with about 30 or 40 new messages per day. Dan J.

Sounds like a classic insufficient RAM problem. Either you have too little assigned to VW, or too much (thus taking up too much of the overall RAM heap). The easiest way to solve this is to add RAM, but you might try tinkering with the memory allocation to see if you can find the sweet spot that allows the rendering. Dan J.

I believe that Pagemaker6.5 comes with Distiller ( I have v6 which did). In this situation, all you need is to download the latest free laserwriter driver from Adobe, and it will give you the option of "printing" to PDF via the Distiller, which comes with Pagemaker. Note that to make large PDF sheets you may wish to download a free laser plotter driver from HP, goes up to D size, approximately. Dan J.

The third-party developer Julian Carr (mentioned on Nemetschek's web site) has a plug-in called DXFManager that solves or simplifies alot of the issues connected with DXF/DWG export. Dan J.

Just wondering whether the virtual memory settings are the same on both computers. Also, you mention the use of a "newer" Quicktime. Perhaps a trial installation of the same version you have on your office machine might help also... Dan J.

This may have nothing to do with your specific problem but... I have found a strange coincidence, that after (or when) using Microsoft Internet Explorer I will often crash VW with an out-of-memory condition. I've learned to close IE, and sometimes even restart before launching Vectorworks. Dan J.

The procedure is described in detail and specificity in Janis Kent's book, the WorksManual 8.5. I've exported many many images, at multiple resolutions with no crashes at all. Just to make sure, I just tried it again, doubling the number of pixels in the dialog box, increasing the resolution from 72dpi to 600, and adjusting the export resolution in the Raster Render preferences box to 600dpi. The image (in JPEG format) exported perfectly, with no crash. Make sure you have enough RAM and the latest version of Quicktime; I believe one or two versions ago there were documented export problems. Dan J.

No, I'm referring to the little explanatory text that appears whenever you place a cursor over a tool button, for example "line tool" or "property boundary tool." On the Mac the text appears up on the top of the screen right under the command menu, and is not intrusive, in my opinon, but in the PC version it shows as a little pop-up box containing the text, that appears right next to the tool button in question. So, apparently with certain hardware/software configurations, if you move the cursor over a series of tool buttons in succession, you get a flurry of little text boxes opening up one after the other, and I personally find it most distracting. As I say, on the Mac it is visible, but not distracting, since it's on the very top--discreet but available, and it would be nice if on the PC version one could either shut the feature off, or perhaps it could be relocated to the top as in the Mac version. Dan J.

Well, I just tried it on my Mac. Used Renderworks for the image, exported it as a 300dpi JPEG. Opened it in Photoshop, which reported it as a 300 pixel-per-inch image. OS9.04, VW8.5.2. Dan Jansenson

Yeah, I'm all for this one as well. I often get drawings from others (or open old drawings with different lineweight standards than my current ones) and this ability would make it a great deal easier to select all lines of a certain weight in the drawing, which may not be a part of my standard set. Would have saved me a dozen hours this year. Dan Jansenson

I'd like the ability to toggle the tooltips on or off. I personally find them extremely distracting, particularly when using many tools in quick succession. Dan Jansenson

I'm with Janis on this one. I have 256MB installed in my G3 (OS9.04), with about 110MB allocated to VW. I've reduced my undos to 2. I do a great deal of memory-intensive 3D and rendering work, and can't remember the last time I got an out-of-memory message. And I often work with files that are 8-10MB in size. Dan Jansenson

Here's a tool you can get on-line that may provide the answer: http://members.aol.com/danielj101/FOV.htm Kindest regards, Dan Jansenson

Not for the Mac, unfortunately. You'll need the third-party product, such as MacPlot. Dan J.