visard

Thanks, Pat and GMM. I had been trying to use the Model Setup up to build an orthodox 3D model within the VW system. Having done work-arounds and other cheats over the years, I see that it's becoming harder to freewheel and I'm now trying to learn the VW system as it is intended to be used. Unfortunately, the building Model Setup isn't very flexible and simple problems like a plinth confuse it and me. I took your advise, Pat, and lowered the ground plane then set the building on an extruded block.

I'm working on an urban site and want to lift my building model up 14" above the ground plane. It appears not to be as straight forward as I imagined. What's the best way to do this? Thanks.

Thanks, Pat.

Thanks Pat. I was able to construct Viewports on design layers but the current layer is apparently not available to image - other floors show but not the one I'm working on. Regarding whether 2D objects will show in 3D if in the active layer - I haven't been able to reproduce your results after all information is on the active layer. Are we both using 2008?

Curvy Dome, Simple Light, Spotlight Dome are all black blobs when selected as backgrounds. Are they supposed to be lit? Sunset background does not scale properly and is concealed by model. Only Clouds will scale and illuminate so as to be useful. Help is not helpful. Please comment if you are able to add some light to the subject.

Thanks for your suggestions, Pat. I see that I can edit the workspace and yes, the Viewports will return 2D projections but I'm not able to get Stack Layers to display 2D. I have activated the preference and parking layouts will show in 3D but simple lines such as column layouts, guides, dimensions and property lines do not show properly. Any further thoughts? Ed

Supposed to be under View but no dice. I see that layer stack is a similar function but it does not allow us to project 2D objects (lines) in 3D views - comments?

Jeffrey, The VA schedule is pretty interesting but... it's the size of Oklahoma for one thing, and I haven't been able to discover how to edit the template to show a more relevant set of data. The other thing I noticed is that the object count isn't able to distinguish sequential numbers ie. one (1) is followed by ten (10) not two (2) in; general, text, and scientific cell formats - don't seem to have a numeric format. I would appreciate your comments. Thanks, visard

Jeffrey/Pat: thanks for your suggestions. To clarify my intention, I'm trying to get the report to default to the OIP to the 'width', 'height' and 'configuration' settings of the OIP. I imagine the it is possible to attach a record to the door or window object and cause the report to count the objects, show the above size and configuration data and allow me to note finish and hardware, etc. The formulaic method suggested by Pat hasn't panned out probably because the record reference is attached to the marker and not the door itself. Would you suggest that I reset the doors and markers and attach records the door?

Thanks, guys.

I've read through the 2008 manual on producing records and reports for symbols and didn't see information on how to get reports to show door type and size. Any suggestions?

I would appreciate if I could hear back from tech (or anyone else) regarding this issue. How do we get material hatches to show in viewports, elevation views?

Is anyone aware of a way to get a VP to show a true (surface texture) black and white brick hatch? It looks like the only way to get a brick pattern is by filling a polygon in annotations mode with a brick hatch and cutting holes for doors and windows (?) Hope I'm wrong about this. Thanks.

Here's something new - my wall types disappear from project library. Don't know what has caused it. Was working with class/texture settings for windows and walls and next thing I know all walls types established and saved are gone! Wall definitions were reestablished by importing from a previous file and same thing happened again. Drawn walls do not disappear from plan but are listed as un-styled. I've never seen anything like it. Care to take a guess what might be happening. Working in 2008.

Robert, thanks for your response. I would like to go back to my original comments and agree with you. NNA should abandon the printed manual and develop the on-line help 100%, starting with the index and search function. As a long term user I often need to refresh memory or find a specific piece of information in order to get on with it. I don't often need background. I would also like to agree with the comments regarding the training videos you've produced. I find them particularly helpful and appreciate hearing the thinking behind the process and well as having the ability to stop and check-out an issue or train of thought and restart the training when convenient.

Thanks so much Benson et al. - I realize I misspoke, the problem is aligning the working plane with the ground, as you surmise. Not using that tool frequently, I had forgotten how to realign the working plane and couldn't find instructions anywhere in the manuals or on help - not an unusual situation. I did finally realize that double clicking the ground plane in the WP palette did the trick. Yes, I am familiar with naming and saving working plane locations but you bring up an interesting point - I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out the latest version of the saved view tool in VW2008. I have tried to save a number of configurations including; sheets with viewports, and old fashion layer and class settings and find that due to overlapping settings saved views rarely returns the image I saved. I've only recently realized that the saved view settings will not return a viewport to the original. Any suggestions on how to understand the visibility protocols in 2008?

Thanks Mike, but perhaps I wasn't clear. I was looking for a way to realign the ground plan with the working plain, not look at the drawing in plan.

I've noticed that a number of people have looked and not tried to answer the above so thought I should share... the working plane tool WP in the palettes box is used to control views and settings of the working plane. When the working plane has been moved it is realigned by opening the Working Palette where you will find the ground plane written in as saved view, double click on the words 'ground plane' and the working plane will realign with the ground plane and essentially disappear by becoming the same color. As far as I know this is not written anywhere.

Robert, I respect you and your work immensely but I've used VectorWorks and MiniCad long enough to see that similar questions do pop up routinely. Part of the reason for this is that the manual is not complete and neither is the help line. That is why we see the publication of third party manuals. Examples of the failure of the help line to provide guidance are numerous - one example: type in 'align work and ground plane'. This kind of fundamental information should not be difficult to get. Respectfully, Edward Bell

Here's what I was trying to do: -show a single floor plan with options for placement of stair. the stair is a group, rectangle with 'x'. - on a design layer I imported the scanned pdf file of plan and named it Fl1 - displayed five copies of stair in different locations and assigned each a class: option one to option five. -I made a viewport showing plan and activated class "option one" in the OIP to display stair option location. - saved the view and repeated process for second option. - now try to recall saved view #1 and nothing happens. - check class view settings in saved view edit and all is well. - try again and find that saved view settings are apparently overridden by the class setting in the viewport OIP. - There are a number of obvious questions here. the first might be - is this methodology sound? Classes work well to control visibility in simpler documents but should I be using annotations or viewports or layers for each design option? A second seems to be that the variety of visibility controls has confused the process, when using viewports does the OIP trump all other controls? It should be pointed out that, as far as I can tell, the help has no opinion about this.

VW long ago decided not to invest in a proper product manual. Now that VW no longer ships with any sort of written material is it to much to ask for an honest effort of producing a up-to-date, lucid, and complete on-line users guide?

I used to love using the saved views tool, dependable, easy and if you get completely screwed-up, a way to quickly restore order. So what has happened with 2008? After a day of working with it, I am not able to produce a series of saved views. It appears that viewports have complicated the process enough to make it nearly impossible to use. Given three options, are the changing elements different - viewports, layers, or classes?

Seems to me that we used to be able to double click on the origin box, or some such, and could align the working and ground plane - does this still exist?

Once again I'm looking at the problem of defining glazing in a door and asking myself why doors don't work like windows. Window glazing is easily set within the object info box after a 'style-glazing' has been defined. After wrestling with this for years I find myself asking - Why can't we do this with a door?

Anyone know if its possible to insert doors in window walls?