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Shortnort

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Everything posted by Shortnort

  1. markdd, thanks for the suggestion. That was one of the first items that I checked, but the class did not have that as a default.
  2. This is very strange..... Until yesterday this was not an issue. But today, the curtail wall/storefront does NOT publish on my Floor Plan Sheets. But..... they publish on all of the other sheets. I have spent so much time trying to figure this out, to no avail. Any suggestions? Yes - I have checked the class settings, etc. They actually display on the sheets, but don't print.
  3. I am using VW 2023 and that just started happening with my wall sections also. I was ready to publish for permit review and BAM!!! Great timing. As a workaround, I turned off the wall layers in annotations and simply drew the walls manually. A pain, but at least I got my drawings published. One interesting thing mentioned in an earlier post - I use Wall Types Data Tags with leaders. Could that be the cuplrit?
  4. markdd, thanks for the suggestion. That was one of the first items that I checked, but the class did not have that as a default.
  5. For some reason, direction arrows have started showing p in ALL of my wall sections!! How do I turn them off? For weeks they have been without them, them tonight - POOF... There they are.
  6. I save all my CW storefronts as symbols (doors also). They show fine in the Graphics Legend.
  7. Pat, for some reason I can not modify the "Define Legend Image" - it is grayed out. I tried modifying the Graphic Legend Style, but I have none of the Options shown in your example - only "none" and "Overall". By the way - it seems that the vanishing annotations problems have been fixed!!! Great job, VW!
  8. Thank you. I will try those. It is very frustrating and time consuming for doing something one would think would be simple. Dragging and dropping is not a simple thing - it is like the mullions have a life of their own. If they don't want to go somewhere, by gosh they won't.
  9. I have been battling the curtain wall tool for over 2 years now and still do not have a handle on shifting mullions (horizontal and vertical). To relieve my stress, I usually just create storefronts from scratch and save as symbols. But one problem surfaced - when I have sill flashing incorporated into the symbol, the graphics legend includes the flashing height (see SF-8 and SF-13 below). What is the method most people use to move mullions? Often times equal spacing of mullions and sizes of mullions change in one storefront (see below). Any assistance is most appreciated.
  10. I have a project where there is substantia remodeling required. It would be great to have a simple solution for displaying/printing the layers as different colors, without having to physically assigning colors to each class, etc. The reason is so that I can overlay the existing and proposed work. The project is a car dealership I did several years back and now the dealer is mandated to provide updates. I have received dwg files of the dealer changes, but many structural modifications are needed and having on one sheet the existing and proposed work, including furniture, etc. would be a tremendous aide while discussing with the owner.
  11. Thank you, Pat. I understand the difficulties with new functions. I suggest that VW issue an alert to users that there are possible bugs with the Graphic Legend and to proceed with caution, perhaps create symbols of the annotations, etc.
  12. How can we users have these issues yet corporate VW does not? It is extremely frustrating and costly for the end users to be faced with what is a definitive bug while corporate seems to just cast us aside.
  13. Thanks for the input, @jeffprince. I do not know your background or your participation in determining fees, etc. I am self employed, Registered Architect since 1982, do a wide variety of project types and sizes. Perhaps architects have generous "fees", but what I have been encountering since Covid, MEP costs have skyrocketed. At one time their fee would be about 1/3 the total fee. Today, their fees have increased substantially to at least 1/2 or more. Structural fees have remained relatively the same. I have raised my fees some due to the MEP impact, but not enough to regain lost revenue. With the decrease in my share of the fee, and the additional upfront load of VW, I am constantly searching for ways to streamline my efforts. I have established many standards, symbols, reports, spaces, etc. to help, which they do. In Georgia, large firms get 90% of the great projects and fees leaving the remainder with the kitchen scraps, so to speak. As one of my Convenience Store clients told me once "You have many repeat projects and your fees should be going down." I explained to him the cost of doing work these days and it is like him trying to pay his mortgage by selling lots of bubble gum. I am not crying or whining, just trying to see how others cope with our many challenges. Since COVID, the local plans reviewers have become tyrants, hide behind their computers, never return phone calls or emails, etc. thus adding to the frustrations and time consumed. I have a project in one county that I submitted in mid April and they still have not started a review... So, I am stepping off my soap box and getting back to the salt mines. Thanks everyone for your input.
  14. Thanks, @line-weight. To be honest, I did not intend my post to create a debate on the practice of architecture. I am old school and perhaps the method that I deliver projects is out of date and old fashioned. Perhaps someone can "enlighten" me as to what is in Vogue these days. I typically prepare Schematic Designs based on the owner's needs/wants/desires. These are more than bubble diagrams but not detailed either. The intent is to insure rooms sizes, relationships, building configuration, circulation, etc. meet all/most needs, including code requirements. Once this is approved I prepare Design Development documents. These include more detailed floor plans, ceiling plans, building and wall sections, exterior elevations. And this is the major part that my original post was asking for suggestions about. Since VW is essentially BIM based, or at least that is how I use it, much more time and effort is expended to create these documents. What may take one day to create in 2D may take 3 or 4 days in VW. I find the use of "Spaces" as a great tool and create them from the start. I have developed many Space prototypes, which saves time, but it still requires input not provided by 2D cad users. So, do most users of VW just eat this additional front end cost anticipating being paid at a later date for it, or do they fee beef up the retainer or SD/DD fees? I have learned the hard way that anticipating completion and payment at a future date is a big gamble... I had one project that took over a year to get paid and another where I never got paid. Based on previous posts, for now I will just beef up my retainer and be done with it.
  15. @Jeff Prince, I wish it was missing a Zero. You must not do convenience stores... Very tight budgets, to say the least.
  16. Hugues, here are a few screen shots that demonstrate the problem: Notice that the 3rd Cell now has no annotations... I had double clicked the cell to edit annotations and nothing appeared and nothing remained. Here is what then happened when I clicked onto Cell 2: Happens in ALL files that I have worked on.
  17. Thanks for the great responses!!! I will continue my new approach - MORE RETAINER FEES. Speaking of which, how much do most of you charge, if any? Mine used to be a nominal fee when using 2D cad due to the limited upfront time investment. I am now asking for about 15% to 20%, which of course is ALWAYS negotiated down. That keeps the client "happy". Just yesterday I lowered the retainer on one project $1,000 which made my client extremely pleased. The comment about owners thinking fees should be lower when using BIM... That is funny... I had one that actually said "All you have to do is push a few keys now." So he, a builder, hired a CAD operator to do his small projects. He learned very quickly about pushing a few keys to get the jobs done. It is now costing him many times the amount that I charged. Hilarious!!
  18. Thanks for the education of running an architectural firm. I have run mine for about 40 years, but only 2 now with VW BIM software. Having experience with Autocad, Archicad, ARRIS, and Datacad I understand very well the "setup" overhead required for BIM versus 2D. The issue here is competition... Most other companies offer 2D CAD to the clients, which as everyone knows, has very little overhead in the early phases, with some basic renderings as eye wash. My first question is how much time and cost should be entered into the equation. The second is how to convince an Owner that has no idea of the BIM process to expend up front more money.
  19. I have been using VW for 2 years now and am still learning, but very pleased overall. One issue that I am struggling with is how do I get/convince my clients to pay more for schematic and design development services? As you know, there is so much more work involved with BIM production and it sure would be nice to get compensated accordingly. I have been asking for more retainer than in the past, which helps, but is still way below the amount of work involved.
  20. Is there a way to do this when using Storefront windows? I don't see how to do this, so I use the old method of inserting symbols and annotating the viewport.
  21. Any and all files do this... It is apparently a bug.
  22. Wow - I love the Partition Types Legend you have there... Mind sharing how you did it?
  23. Thank you. Yes, that makes more sense. So, If a door or window type is added to the Legend, then none of the annotations should vanish? Mine did on a couple of different occasions, so I am leery of annotating them now.
  24. Thank you for the response, but could you clarify? I am confused as to what you are saying. Thanks.
  25. I have tried everything I can think of to get a sheet to print full size. Something is making it think that the sheet is 8.5 x 11..... Even when I publish multiple sheets as one set, the one page ends up being 16 sheets... I have purged my file, created new sheets, etc. but some reason the info on that one sheet keeps printing as 16!!! I created a new sheet from scratch changed the name from A-1 to A-3. Worked perfectly. So, I deleted A-1, saved the file, then renamed A-3 to A-1. BAM!!! The new A-1 had 16 sheets again. Very strange. So as a work-around I simply renamed the Sheet to "A- " and it printed perfectly again..... So - it appears that for some reason something is stuck in the A-1 settings and I have no idea how to flush it out... Strange, aint' it?
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