stan61449

YES.....it should have a paradigm upon which it is built. Speaking as a professional software engineer and more, EVERY good piece of software follows a paradigm. The truely best software is nearly intuitive and doesn't require a large learning curve. THE best paradigm for a drafting program comes from it's origins....paper and pencil. Yes, it is capable of so much more but the interface still has to have a basis, a paradigm upon which it is based. I currently have three different drafting programs and all of them have their unique strengths and weaknesses. VW has a very confusing approach to layers, objects, viewports and the task manager. Not at all intuitive and apparently without paradigm.

It's very possible you have been affected by a whole new class of "virus." Adware and spyware are uninvited guest on most computers. They are not detected by anti-virus programs. When you "replaced the drive" was it the one and only drive on your computer? Did you start from the ground up, reformating the drive? If everything was "fresh" then it couldn't be adware. Adware uses a combination of registry entries, hidden files, dll's and services to bootstrap itself and repair any attempts to remove it. The "slow" computer is a prime result of their infection. The best help for adware is a free program called "Spybot s & d" Run it. research anything weird that pops up which is not addressed by spybot on the internet. Eventually you can tear it all out of your computer. Nasty stuff.

One more time back to the well. I just read the FAQ from Katie (pat her on the back) on V11 and it looks like a lot of my frustrations have been addressed. It finally starts to make sense. How old did you say this product is? 6 months?

Oops. I didn't mean to say that 10.5.1 doesn't use layers and classes. I doesn't use viewports as in v.11. Crazy stuff this 10.5.1. For instance I used the roof generator. Do something else. Go back to print it. No roof. Go back to the task manager. NO ROOF. Hand futzing to bring it back and print it out. How exactly does that correspond to paper and pencil? And please don't tell me anything about it's a technical problem the programmers fixed this way. Been there, done that. I've run shops with hundreds of programmers. I know different.

I suppose some of my hours of frustration are going to show through here but I just can't help it. To exactly what paradigm was this software designed? I have spent hours reading the book, the help, and this board. NO, I didn't read the whole book. During the process I have been trying to get business done. Well now I'm ready nearly ready to print out all my sheets. Well guess what? I have to go through and setup each and every sheet to have it print correctly. So maybe I'm not using the product correctly. Or maybe the product isn't correct. Which kind of leads me to my rhetorical question. (Rhetorical because I don't expect anyone to actually have the real answer.) What kind of paradigm was used during the creation of this software? Version 10.5.1 doesn't uses classes and layers. OK. What ever happened to the concept of a real physical drawing sheet? When I setup a particular sheet through the use of classes and layers and of course the task manager, why can't I just print out those darned sheets? The real answer is probably that someone either steeped in Vectorease or Programese was calling the shots. When software is written, it HAS to adhere to some real physical model of the world or it presents a steep learning curve. After months of use, I still have to futze to print a sheet. So what kind of paradigm is that???????????? Stan (and yes you can call me)