Christiaan

No, not like Word or Photoshop. It's on the wishlist though: http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB20&Number=66016

In that case, why don't you just give your clients timelines based on what Vectorworks is capable of, rather than giving them timelines based on what it doesn't do? Are you going to explain to your clients that the project hasn't been built yet because NNA programmers having built robotic builders into VW yet? I could understand your rhetoric if we had the feature and then lost it while in the middle of a project, but you don't have the feature in the first place so how can it make you late?

Try turning all your classes on.

I'd rather that the top level of a group of classes was selectable instead of appearing separately in the class list in the Data Display bar. So for instance if you have: Shell-Roofs Shell-Roofs-Framing Shell-Roofs-Steel Cladding The Shell-Roofs class would not appear separately but instead the sub-menu option itself would be selectable. This makes it easier to scan with the eye and also avoids the need to use a class such as Shell-Roofs-General in place of Shell-Roofs, in order to eliminate the top level appearing separately.

I think I'd like to have one more sub class level. Currently you can only go to two, which is a little limiting if you find sub classes intuitive, as you can't for instance have: Shell-Components-Balconies-Steel. Instead you have to use Shell-Components-Balconies Steel. A small but none the less limiting issue in terms of making the program more intuitive.

Thanks Pete, I see any creation of new sizes defaults to whatever units you're using. Think I'll submit as a bug as well.

Just been using the Roof Framer tool for the first time and I'm pretty impressed. Support for trusses would be useful though, as this is the main for of roof framing we use.

Well that's exactly what it is really. The idea was to make it as neutral as possible so that it could be adopted by everyone and become a standard; a panacea. Standardisation is far more of an advantage than the ability to divide it by 5 instead of 2 ways, if you ask me.

For the first time I'm using the Roof Framer tool. It's a fantastic tool, however all members are described in imperial dimensions, even though all my dim settings are set to metric. Am I missing something? Otherwise I'll submit as bug.

http://www.nemetschek.net/support/bugsubmit.php

The list of shortcuts is in Vectorworks Help. Just do a search for "shortcuts." To edit shortcuts, go to the Workspace Editor, click on Tools tab and then select the tool you want to edit. Then just click on whatever key you want to use for that tool (and choose a combination of modifier keys if preferred).

I've had problems with this too Jody. One work around is to turn off "Auto join walls" in the preferences (which is a pain). The other being to draw a line over the end of the wall you're butting into. Definitely worth submitting as a bug in my opinion. Maybe the "Auto join walls" option should be in the mode bar. Better yet the ability to join walls end on end.

I've finally got a chance to put the the updated (v12.5) window/door plugin object through the paces. Looks pretty good so far. First problem I've noticed is that if you use a masonry sill and you don't use 'Use Wall Depth' for jamb depth then you end up with no line to indicate the inner sill on plan. If you have a sill that projects past the outer wall face, the 'Draw Wall Lines' option is no good as a workaround either, because you end up with a line going through your sill. Or am I missing something? Would people agree that the inner sill should be shown on plan?

Turns out, according to Alain Picard, that Abvent did it in cooperation with Cesyam, the company that distributes VectorWorks in France: http://www.artlantis.com/support/forum/read.php?fid=atl_import_us&mes=340

An extranet to be precise, but one that specialises in document distribution(/colloboration). Yeah, I thought about that, but it would require a fair amount of management and discipline (much as our current local filing system does). I'm looking for something a little more self-managing. Came across this, which looks interesting, but it's not open source and it's probably overkill (we already have a calendar/address book/filing system etc.), although the timesheets part would be useful: http://www.copperproject.com/ Ideally Apple would build something into Mac OS X Server. That would probably be perfect.

I know this is not specific to Vectorworks, but does anyone know of any (Linux or Mac OS X compatible) server software for distributing and CAD and PDF files? Preferably open source.

Why would you do that when I just reported that this wasn't the reason.

Here're a couple of views of Nicholas' model rendered in Artlantis. It took about 5 seconds to export, about 5 seconds to move to the correct view, about 10 seconds to place the plants, person and background, and about 10 seconds to add the textures. Evening (1:30 minute set up lighting and 1:02 to render/export) and daytime (no time to set up lighting and 46 seconds to render/export). What I'd really like to try is Kaare's model. I'd be interested to see if I can get the same quality image as his (and how long it takes).

VW compresses the images so if your file is still too big then it means your photos are too big. What size are we talking? How big are your VW files? And what size are your images (in pixels)?

Here's an example comparison of Artlantis and Renderworks before HDRI: http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=60605#Post60663

Email added. Send me your files if you're game.

They are all very well but I can't post comparisons with Artlantis if no one's going to offer up their VW files. What are you scared of?

Maxon released Cinema 4D 10 yesterday, for those interested: http://www.maxon.net/pages/products/cinema4d/r10/newinr10_e.html Demo link: http://www.maxon.net/pages/download/download_demo_e.html

Being a from a theatre background myself I think Sian means one of the backdrops used in threatre to simulate a starry night.

Thanks for that George. Makes you appreciate NNA's techboard all the more. I suggested Maxwell without having ever used it, but their gallery of images really is second to none. By the way the link I provided was actually incorrect: http://www.maxwellrender.com/