Eoin R

As a test I created a completely new file in Version 12. I can get the door PIO to work albeit that you cannot control it assigment of parts of the door onto a class called 'sills' The window PIO is a different matter. Tried numerous times but was unable to succeed in getting a window to display inner and outer sills properly in a 2D drawing. Can you get a refund if you trade in Version12 & go back to Version11.5? John Ryan CPR Architects

Shaun You are right. A couple of things on this. 1. When I go to the View tab in the preferences settings for a door I am presented with limited options to assisgn either 'none' or 'Style1-12' as classes for some of the door components. There is a separate dialog to set line weights for the door elements but presumably these should all be in the class on which the door is created. 2. I have struggled for a number of hours to get the window PIO to work in 2D to show inner and outer sills but cannot get this to work. This is in a drawing where the window PIO worked flawlessly (for me) in Version 11.5. 3. What I cannot understand or get to the bottom of how PIO's are generating new classes such as 'sills' or 'nonplot' for some parts of the PIO. We will now have to go through all our drawings and sort this out as these new unsolicited classes are not switched on in our viewports, saved views etc... Can someone please confirm that either this is a major bug/flaw in Version 12 or else what is the solution to the problem. Thanks John Ryan CPR Architects OSX - G5 2Ghz - Vw 12

The problem is getting worse. I now have parts of my windows being set to the 'Sills' layer. Can anyone explain where in Version 12 you can set and control the class attibutes within walls and doors. Thanks John Ryan CPR Architects

Katie. I am having the same problem. We have just upgraded to Version 12. When we open our drawings we find the door leaf and swings are not visible and have been arbitrarily reassigned to a class called 'sills'. Previously in Version 11 all the elements of the door were all the same class. I have looked at the Settings dialog and cannot find out how to change this so that everything displays as the door class. Can you help us out on this one. Thanks John Ryan CPR Architects OSX G5 2Ghz VW12

Orso As a switcher from Minicad to Microstation and back to Vectorworks I would sum up the key differences as follows: 1. Microstation has better options for referencing files. You easily able to move, rotate and mask reference files. You can do most of this in Vectorworks but the process is more convoluted. 2. In Microstation you can rotate the drawing workspace which you cannot do in Vectorworks. 3. In 3D Microstation used to have very strong rendering options as a core part of the programme. We use VW primarily for 2D so I cannot comment on how they compare in this respect. We chose Vectorworks for a number of reasons: - cost - ability to create good graphic presentations - suitability for our scale of work - mac compatible - simplicity of use - ease of importing image file formats (tiff, jpeg etc...) I think Vectorworks is outstanding value for money and hopefully the features above where Microstation has an advantage will be available in Vectorworks in the not too distant future. Hope the above helps John Ryan CPR Architects

We are a firm of architects and have just upgraded to a 20" 2Ghz G5 imac with 2MbRAM and can confirm that it works flawlessly with Vectorworks. We considered the PowerMac option but decided to invest in the imac and wait until the Intel transition is fully settled down with software native to the intel macs available before upgrading again if necessary. From our experience 3 weeks in on the G5imac I consider that it will meet our needs without any difficulty for some time to come. It is also very good value compared to the PowerMac options.

Richie I think you are completely right. I am a VW user who started off using VW, moved by necessity to working on Mircostation and Autocad when I was with other offices and have then returned to VW when I set up my own office. I think VW is an excellent package and just needs two improvements to really make a major difference: 1. The ability to rotate views 2. Improving the referencing functionality From my perusal of version 12 I don't see these being addressed. Both issues have been discussed repeatedly on this forum over the past year or two. On a general note we use VW solely for 2D drawings.We use Sketchup for creating 3D CAD models and find it far faster and more intuitive than Vectorworks. My preference would be for NNA to concentrate on perfecting and improving the basic 2Dsoftware package over VW 3Dmodelling which I as an architect and any other architect I know never uses.

It appears that Apple may be bringing out Dual Core PowerMac G5's shortly. We were about to purchase G5 single core as our current configuration (G4-1Ghz-632MbRAM) is slow. Can anybody advise if a dual core chip would make any real difference to using Vectorworks? I am unsure whether we should wait (for how long we do not know) or purchase the current G5 PowerMacmodel.

A simple way to do it is to copy and paste items from a drawing into the new file and then delete them all. The classes remain in the new file. There may be a more sophisticated way to achieve the same end but it works. One other tip is to create a blank template file with all the classes that you use included.

In the next version can NNA please include a keyboard shortcut to the eyedropper tool. We use this tool constantly to set the active class and settings when drawing. It would help to be able to activate and select the tool via the keyboard.

Katie - The problem appears to be unrelated to printing as we notice the change in the dimensions as we are drawing in the file. Tow other things to note: 1. The compressed numerical is not a single number but all the numbers compressed and overlayed on top of each other. 2. This change does not affect all dimension. It is a random effect Delmer - The Page Units seem fine unless we are missing something

Oh. I should have added that this is not a printing issue. The compressed dimension is what we see in the Vectorworks file.

We are having an odd problem with dimensions. When we create them they look fine but on printing out the drawing the numerical display has been compressed down to a single digit. ie what should read as 4500 is labelled as 4. As well as the compression of the number the numbers have also moved to be offset on the line and not in the centre of the dimension string as specified. Has anybody else come across this and have any ideas how to sort it out? Thanks John Ryan CPR Architects

We use a 14" 1Ghz G4 ibook for occasional drawing in Vectorworks and have no problems with it. Our main workstations are G4 desktops and the screen quality and size are dramatically better than the laptop. I wouldn't advise a laptop for general day to day drafting but if you are considering intermittent use an ibook should be fine.

Jacques. That is what I would like to achieve. Cavity walls close in where they end or are interrupted by a window/door. The wall tool is very useful but it falls down if it cannot achieve this.

When I am drawing a wall with cavities I would like the cavity lines to close and return 100mm from the end of the wall. Is this possible?

Jonathan. My suggestion would be to delete the temporary group. The disadvantage in working in layer colour mode is that you then lose the differentiation between class colours and this in my experience makes the basis process of drawing more difficult. Unless I am missing something here and the layer colour mode can be made to be selective about which layers to show in a single colour mode. Another suggestion to Wanderson is to use the show/snap layer option. You can then work away on the upper layer knowing that you are not changing the layer below.

Another solution to your problem is to copy the elements from the lower floor and paste them in place at the level you are working on. Then group them and convert them all to any colour that suits. You can then snap to this group. When you have finished you can then delete this temporary group or else put it on a separate class.

Does anyone know how to set the pens to a 'round pen setting' as suggested by Drake? I have tried to do but cannot find any such setting either in Vectorworks or our Mac OSX printer settings.

We use the eyedropper pick up sets button constantly within drawings. The only snag is that this setting has to confirmed every time you open a file. It would be much handier if once set this way in a file that it would remain the default mode. As a general issue it would be preferable if all tools could be set to open in a file as they were when the file was last saved.

Ray, Thanks for posting on that thread. I have tried the rasterize output option and there is a definite improvment although it does not totally eliminate the difference in line thickness. Would you or anyone else know if fiddling with the DPI setting in the sheet layer setup or any other tricks to get the perfect result. ie lines print out at the same thickness no matter what ange they are at. Thanks, John Ryan

Can anyone offer some advice on the following probem: I am working on a project where we have a mixture of walls at different angles. The lineweight is set to 0.35mm. Walls that are orthogonal print out this lineweight. The problem is that walls at 45degree angles are printing out at 0.5mm. Many thanks John Ryan N.B. I am using VW11.5 with a 1Ghz G4Mac and are printing from sheet layers and viewports. The printer is a HP Deskjet 1220C

Peter & Travis Thanks for your advice. I have been working on Vectorworks for over a year now and am very happy with the programme. My experiment on this job is my first go at using the wall tool. At this stage deadlines looming I want to break everything down to constituent lines as that is at this point in time the fastest way home. When I have some more time I plan to tinker with the wall tool to get the best out of it. One last general question for the two of you (or anybody else out there). Do you use the wall tool to create a 3D model? My needs are for 2D drafting (we use Sketchup for 3D work) and I suspect that the complexity of the wall tool is more aimed at someone creating a 3D model.

What I am trying to do is break the wall back down to its constituent lines. However when I try do this I lose the windows and doors that are inserted in the wall. The problems I have in joining relate to the fact that a lot of walls are non orthogonal. What I cannot get to join for example is a 45degree joint between walls of different thickness

I am tracing over an existing survey drawing and for the first time I have used the wall tool and dropped in windows and doors. All well and good so far but I would now like to explode what I created to start working in more detail. The wall tool seems fine for simple shapes but will not form the complex junctions that I require. The problem I am having as I cannot seem to explode the wall without the windows and doors dissapearing as well. The windows seem to be locked into the wall and are not easily separated. On a general note are there many architects out there that actually use the wall tool. My brief experience so far is that it is fine for very simple plan forms but as soon as you run into any complex geomety or junctions where different wall types meet the going gets very difficult