Christiaan

I think marek wants to know how to convert the walls into lines without diagonals so as to avoid having to manually delete them.

As pointed out above Mike, this doesn't work because any further addtitions to the wall (such as a door) contribute to the Solid Subtraction rather than staying as a door.

Okay done, thanks.

Ah, I see what you mean. I thought you were having a problem with consultants using other software, when in fact you mean other people using Vectorworks. Although I managed to eventually convert our office to using walls it's an ongoing campaign. We'll get new people coming in the office who resist. Generally I use education but sometimes the resistance is so strong I need to resort to belittlement. It helps of course that the boss understands and is convinced of using walls. You're probably tripling the time it takes to make modifications so you have to be stark raving mad not to use them; that or they simply don't know how to use the tool. And I've found the later to always be the case. And most of the time it's a lack of understanding about the mode bar and the sequences needed to join certain walls. Show people all the different modes the wall tool has and show them the bit in the manual about joining walls and you'll have convinced most people. Show them this thread to. I don't want to offend anyone but if you don't take the time to learn this tool properly you're actually stiffling other people's potential and for that people should be compunctious.

Someone at work is having trouble importing a Autocad file with "Donuts" in it. They're coming in as polylines instead of circles and at half the size the should be. Anyone else have this problem?

I'm not usually inclined to respond to people's queries by questioning their method but I'm very surprised you feel the need to use lines in order to communicate with others. Maybe you can elaborate on why exactly you need to use this method, as we may be able to offer you an alternative. I'm not sure how you get rid of the diagonal joint automatically.

Ha, thanks guys, I'm so used to using backspace instead of delete. So here's my next question: how do you do it on a computer without a delete key (such a laptop without an extended keyboard)?

Haven't heard of that one Jorl. Want to elaborate?

If there was some situation where incorrectly positioned studwork could potentially cost tens of thousands of pounds in sound testing or reconstruction, or refused building regulation applications, and we could graphically convey the correct information on plan then we would probably want that ability also Robert. The reason referring someone to a detail isn't a good solution is because the 1:50/1:100 drawings actually conflict with the details (and we've experienced problems in this regard). The only way, currently, to avoid this conflict on our drawings is to either draw the junctions manually, as explained above, or to remove all the hatching from the walls on the 1:50/1:100 drawings. Both options are less than ideal.

I've added a toolset icon to my basic toolset pallette and now I want to remove one but I can't work out how to do it. What am I missing here?

Bugger, yeah you're right, I thought you could double click into the wall and insert a door, window, etc but obviously it then becomes part of the solid subtraction instead of remaining as a door.

In the UK new regulations with regard to sound attenuation mean that the configuration of cavity wall junctions has become very important. We use what are called Robust Details, which, once certified, negate the need for comprehensive (and expensive) sound testing. It's critical enough that we've deemed it necessary to show these junctions accurately on 1:50/1:100 plans. The following images show the kinds of junctions we need to convey. There's also this one, which is much the same thing. These examples were drawn by using a group of polygons and lines drawn over top of the walls. Not only does this make for much work (especially when it comes to modifying them) but it also creates less than ideal DXF exports. So out latest wishlist item is absolute control when joining wall junction components.

When I use a dropdown menu, say one in the Resource Browser, I'll often get a conflict between choosing an item and clicking on Apple's menu bar items, such as the clock, which results in the clock being selected instead of the item in the dropdown menu. Is this a Mac OS X-only issue? And an Operating System or Vectorworks bug I wonder?

Oh I see what you mean, good point. I've altered the image to show capping. It's to do with sound attenuation: stopping sound from travelling between dwellings via the inner leaf of the exterior cavity wall.

Only "duh" if you actually know the answer! No prob.

Currently there's limited RTF support when it comes to importing text into VW. I'd like to see full text formatting support, including tables, etc. My preferance, rather than trying to support the MS Word format would be to implement support for OpenDocument (an open standard format used by OpenOffice.org): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument

Just create an extruded polygon for your recess Gytis, and then do a Subtract Solids. This way you don't permently lose your wall or break it up into components.

If I remember correctly I found v11 a little easier to join some types of junctions so out of curiosity here's a version 11 file, but I'm interested in v12 because if no one can do it I'll submit it as a bug. Not sure what you mean here Mike, can you elaborate (and describe using the hatches). Sound attenuation.

Agreed, guess it's not there already because it's such an obvious needed improvement. Added: http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB20&Number=62285

Same here.

I thought something like this maybe, but megj said "polylines" not polygons or lines.

Which version of VW are you using? I can't figure out how to convert walls into polylines even on purpose in VW 12. I was thinking you might be able to create walls out of your polylines. Not that this will help with your current predicament but you should have a backup. Period.

Explained in this thread: http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB12&Number=34188

Yeah, maybe it's just a kiwi thing. Our school teachers used to tell us that.

Whoever can join these walls using the Wall Join and Component Join tools so they look like the image below gets a chocolate fish!