doug shaffer

Hello again - Like the others who have responded to this topic, I am getting pretty anxious for a solution to this problem. Just to point out one possible conclusion regarding this issue - It seems to me that if people using different platforms (Windows or Mac OS) are running into the same troubles (see note from Windows user 5 or 6 responses above) that the culprit is not likely the operating system. Is this a correct assumption? A driver, perhaps. There are a bunch new Macs being bought by VW users out there and none of them are going to be able to use their graphics cards. Are other PC users running into these problems? If so, please respond to this topic. YIKES! ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

Hello again - NEMETSCHEK - PLEASE RESPOND. What is the status in the search for a solution to this problem? Do you need more information from us? If so, please ask for it. It has been more than two weeks since Nemetschek has responded to this thread (which has 41 responses - more than any other on the Tech Board) Can we ever expect a solution to this problem, or will those of us with new Macs be forced to disable our graphics cards permanently? Please let us know what is happening. thank you. ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

hello - The Vectorworks Architect feature 'create solar animation' works well if North is UP on your monitor. Otherwise, there is a bug with 8.5.2. dig through the VW User Forum archives (four months back?) for more information. Nemetscheck - Was this fixed in VWA9?? I hope so. ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

Ms. Carter - Thanks for responding to our inquiry. I must say, however, that Nemetscheks handling of this issue has been quite frustrating. I just spoke with the Technical Support Manager who said he has discussed this problem with three people so far today. In other conversations with Technical Support staff in the past, I have been told that Nemetscheck has been overwhelmed with phone calls regarding the issue. How is it possible that the engineering department 'haven't heard of a problem like' mine? I assume that the engineering department regularly communicates with the technical support department. About a month ago, I was told that this was indeed a problem with Vectorworks (see my posting above) and that VW9 would fix the problem. I was also told that an interim solution might be posted on the Nemetschek NA website prior to the release of VW9. The Technical Support department now tells me that this may be a problem that can be traced to changes implemented in the system software (OS9.1). I should point out that with the exception of VectorWorks, all of the applications on our machines function beautifully. Has Nemetschek been looking into this problem? I hate to gripe, but I am having a hard time seeing how Nemetschek could possibly have been working on it up until now. Why was I (we) not asked these questions earlier? Please develop a solution to this problem as soon as possible. Below are my responses to your questions. Thank you. d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t Hello Mr.Shaffer, We have quite a few G4s with Radeon cards in our engineering department and so far, I haven't heard problem like yours. To help us solve this problem, would you please tell me some more information about your platform: 1) Which OS you are running? Mac OS 9.1? WE ARE USING OS9.1 2) Which version of QuickTime you have installed? QUICKTIME VERSION 4.1.2 3) Which version of Apple's OpenGL driver you have in the system? You can easily find this out in the system extension folder: just select any file beginning with OpenGL and look at its information, it will tell you the version of OpenGL installed. ALL OPENGL EXTENSIONS ARE VERSION 1.2.1 - EXCEPT FOR OpenGLRendererATI WHICH IS 1.2.3 4) Did you do anything on the ATI driver? In other words, is it still the factory version and you didn't do update or anything to it? UPON ADVICE FROM NEMETSCHEK TECHNICAL SUPPORT, SOON AFTER DISCOVERING THE PROBLEM I UPDATED THE ATI DRIVER FROM THE ATI WEBSITE. THE ATI DRIVER CURRENTLY INSTALLED ON OUR MACHINES IS RADEON 1.1.1 Thanks for your input. Shirley Carter Software Engineer shirley@nemetschek.net

Here's the big question now... Did VW9 indeed fix this problem permanently? If so, I feel that those who of us that will not be upgrading for a while are entitled to software level fix. NNA, please respond. Thanks, ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

Here's the big question now... Did VW9 indeed fix this problem permanently? If so, I feel that those who of us that will not be upgrading for a while are entitled to software level fix. NNA, please respond. Thanks, ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

hello - You need to read the postings under 'Video card woes'. There you will find some temporary fixes to your problem. Here is the text from one of the postings I made under that category, as well as a Nemetschek response. d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t Howdy - Here's the latest... I continue to have the problem discussed under the topic entitled 'Video Card Woes'. After much inquiry, and finger pointing between Apple and Nemetschek, I received this email from the Nemetschek Tech Support Manager. I called him and was assured that it IS indeed a Vectorworks issue, and that the 'engineering' department was working on it. He also told me that an interim solution (downloadable software fix) may be posted on the site soon, and that V9 (due 'shortly') will solve the 'Video Card Woes' problem. I hope this helps. d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t Dear Nemetschek North America Customer: Thank you for your inquiry. We have been getting a number of customers having the same situation. Our Engineering dept is being made aware of this problem and I will be contacting you shortly with a possible solution to the problem. If you have any other questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to contact us at (410) 290-5114 (tel) or (410) 290-8050 (fax) or tech@nemetschek.net (e-mail). Respectfully, Mike S. Technical Support Manager

Howdy - Here's the latest... I continue to have the problem discussed under the topic entitled 'Video Card Woes'. After much inquiry, and finger pointing between Apple and Nemetschek, I received this email from the Nemetschek Tech Support Manager. I called him and was assured that it IS indeed a Vectorworks issue, and that the 'engineering' department was working on it. He also told me that an interim solution (downloadable software fix) may be posted on the site soon, and that V9 (due 'shortly') will solve the 'Video Card Woes' problem. I hope this helps. d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t Dear Nemetschek North America Customer: Thank you for your inquiry. We have been getting a number of customers having the same situation. Our Engineering dept is being made aware of this problem and I will be contacting you shortly with a possible solution to the problem. If you have any other questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to contact us at (410) 290-5114 (tel) or (410) 290-8050 (fax) or tech@nemetschek.net (e-mail). Respectfully, Mike S. Technical Support Manager

Howdy - I never had experienced zoom/crash issue until I experimented after reading about it on this list. Like the last couple of responders, I rarely need to zoom in this close. However, I continue to have the problem discussed under the topic entitled 'Video Card Woes'. After much inquiry, and finger pointing between Apple and Nemetschek, I received this email from the Nemetschek Tech Support Manager. I called him and was assured that it IS indeed a Vectorworks issue, and that the 'engineering' department was working on it. He also told me that an interim solution (downloadable software fix) may be posted on the site soon, and that V9 (due 'shortly') will solve the 'Video Card Woes' problem. I hope this helps. d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t Dear Nemetschek North America Customer: Thank you for your inquiry. We have been getting a number of customers having the same situation. Our Engineering dept is being made aware of this problem and I will be contacting you shortly with a possible solution to the problem. If you have any other questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to contact us at (410) 290-5114 (tel) or (410) 290-8050 (fax) or tech@nemetschek.net (e-mail). Respectfully, Mike S. Technical Support Manager

hugh - please see response to same topic you posted under 'Archiectural' ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

hello - I called Nemetschek Tech Support last week and was told that they were receiving an enormous number of calls reporting the problem with broken rulers and missing selection handles. The tech support person I spoke with said that at a MINIMUM, he had recieved 50 calls regarding the issue. I realize that these problem may be due confilcts between OS9.1 and the graphics drivers included with the video cards. However, because they seem only to be showing up in Vectorworks, I don't expect to get much help from Apple. I have called them several times and they claim to never have heard of the problem. I hope that Nemetschek can use its muscle with Apple to come up with a solution to this problem SOON. We are wasting too much time trying to solve it, and feel that we may be exhausting our possibilities for a solution. Disabling extensions that render the graphics card useless is a reasonable short term (one week?) solution, but we must have a long term solution soon. This is not a rant against Nemetschek. I just want some official response from them to assure us that Nemetschek is working hard on the problem. thanks - ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

howdy again - for your information, i believe doing what you did (creating a door in the empty file first) effectively does the same thing. i.e. it creates a new class called 'ceiling-main', but it's default setting is 'invisible'. I thought you might like to know. ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

Hello - I wanted to update this list with the latest on the ATI Radeon card issue. I was able to isolate the problem to one particular extension called 'ATI Graphics Accellerator', v. 5.3.4. The Extensions manager describes this extension as follows: Provides 2D Graphics Accelleration. Disabling this extension fixes the problems with the rulers and selection handles. It also allows for a QD3D model to retain it's rendering when rotated. HOWEVER, all basic operations, like moving an open window, scrolling, or clicking the 'favorites' tab in Internet Explorer are annoyingly slow. Do anyone have any thoughts about what steps I should take next? Should I try an older version of this extension? thanks again - ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

quote: Originally posted by Caleb Strockbine: Try disabling the ATI Resource Manager extension. Gerrit Vanoppen on the VectorWorks mailing list commented just today that this solved a similar problem on his machine. Caleb Strockbine caleb@nemetschek.net Hello Caleb - Thanks for the tip. I tried disabling the ATI Reesources Manager extension, and my Ruler and Selection Handle problems were solved. However, with this extension not working, there is a serious degradation of graphics performance. Even when doing as simple as moving an open window on the desktop (with no applications open), an obvious 'regeneration' of the window occurs. Also, QD3D rendered Vectorworks models do not retain any rendering when rotated. (with the ATI Resource Manager extension enabled, rendering is retained beautifully) thanks for your help so far. I need to get this worked out ASAP. ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

NNA - PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS POSTING. THANK YOU. I just received my new G4 with ATI Radeon card... I have not selection handles in VW and the rulers are screwed up (numbers are visible, but no 'tick' marks.) When I switch to 256 colors, the problem IS NOT solved. What can I do to solve this problem. ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

HELLO - i am a Macintosh user, but think that I can help you out. Vectorworks can not create HPGL files directly. To create a HPGL2 plot file, you must use a compatible plotter driver. Go to the Hewlett Packard website and download plotter drivers for the HP750c, for example. They may have a more generic driver that will create HPGL2 files. I hope this helps. ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

Kenneth - Thank you for sharing your methods! Do you know if Autocad LT will allow the same procedure when opening exported files and making sheets? A friend wants to sell a copy of LT for $200 and I would like to avoid buying Autocad 14. thanks - ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

hello - I have never used work group referencing, but have experienced a similar problem in the past. Make sure that at all project locations (each machine working on the project) that the class called 'Ceiling-Main' is set to INVISIBLE. I hope this fixes your problem. ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

hello - Like you, I discovered this problem the hard way. Read the advice above for possible solutions. Early on, I spent many hours fixing a screwed up model by cutting and pasting into a new file. Dig through these archives and through VW User Forum site (http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/vectorworks-l.html) and you will find lots of discussion regarding this topic. Nemetschek must fix this problem for VW 9. Bug them about it. ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

hello - We are getting ready to purchase a new G4, and I just posted a question (in this forum) about whether or not to upgrade our order with a higher priced graphics card. Are others with the newest G4's and faster (32MB) graphics cards experiencing these problems? ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

Hi - We are getting ready to get a new G4 (through the Apple Store) and am wondering if it makes sense to upgrade to a more expensive graphics card. The basic model comes with: ATI RAGE Pro with 16MB SDRAM upgrade options are: NVDIA GeForce2 MX with 32MB SDRAM -or- ATI RADEON with 32 MB of DDR RAM We want to do more rendering work using Renderworks, Artlantis, etc. Will the more expensive cards help? thanks -

hi - i have never tried this before, but i understand that one must have their model in a 3d view (NOT TOP/PLAN view) in order for it to work properly. the problem is, if your model is made from linked layers, you will not be able to export a single file containing the entire model. this topic has been discussed to great extent on the VectorWorks User Fourm. Someone in that forum wrote a vectorscript which temporarily converts all layer links to 'symbols', allowing a person to export to .dxf. dig through the archives for it. here is the URL for the VW User Forum: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/vectorworks-l.html good luck. ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

regarding the previous post in this topic...if you look closely at the above examples, you will see that even if you do use the VW Architect methods for joining walls, they are not possible without using 'patches'. i use the methods outlined in the VW Architect manual regularly, but they do not accommodate the specific examples above. ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

have you tried the 'join' tool (command-J)? select both lines and go to the TOOL menu, then select 'join'. ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t

howdy the DTM tool needs alot of work. the only way to create a bunker is to adjust the contours of the DTM. I have wish-listed the ability to remove or add solids to/from DTMs. I understand that the new 'landmark' add-on package may address this, but i'm not sure. ------------------ d. s h a f f e r a r c h i t e c t