Benson Shaw

Should be fixed if it's a common problem. Maybe it's a conflict with some particular other software or particular group of apps on your (networked?) system. I can't recall this behavior with VW, even with 6 or 7 other apps running. I have seen something similar with my old Epson scanner software. Click makes the app active, but brings only one of the two windows to the front. Expose' also only brings up the "hovered" or clicked window. As AndiACD suggests, the cmd tab or cmd~ sets everything right for that old dog (but I usually just click the other window). -B

Hi, David - Experiment a bit with some of this: Search VW help for Compose Compose command is for linear (unclosed) objects which are end snapped. If the objects cross, Compose will fail. Trim tool can eliminate the tails allowing the Combine command to work. The Connect/Combine tool has several modes. Dual Object Connect will trim the objects in one go. Dual Object Combine trims and composes the overlapping objects. Closed objects are not affected by this tool, but can act as trim boundaries for unclosed objects VW help makes the Add Surface command hard to find, but it has good info. Search for "Add Surface" - use the quote marks. Top topic is Editing Object Surfaces. Add, Intersect, Combine and Clip Surface are discussed. Explore the Polygon Tool modes - Bucket (Inner Boundary) and Lasso (Outer Boundary). These tools create a new object which is bounded by and overlays objects already on the drawing. FYI, the mode bar for any tool is located at upper left of drawing window - little boxes with icons. Click the box/icon to enable it, or press the u key to toggle through the modes. Some text to the right of the mode bar gives limited prompts to work the tool. Post back with specific problems if needed. Good luck. -B

Tim - I just made a curved landscape wall (vw2011) and applied a brick texture to it. Segmented as you report. At first, I thought one could extract the surfaces (use a duplicate of the wall) by converting to group, enter the group, then apply shell tool to surfaces. Shell objects display a texture continuously over the objects in the shell, even if they are not adjacent. Worked better than the wall, but still not perfect match at the edges. Even worse when rotate the brick texture - continuity fell apart at segment edges. So, one solution is to model a new, continuous surface, say with lofts or a tilted extrude, and offset it just a bit outside the wall surface. -B

Probably Unified View, but there are some other pitfalls: Misaligned objects may result from a layer/screen plane mix up. OR Layer heights may not be correct, or for other reasons, z values may are not as expected. Switch to a side view and see if walls, slabs, ceilings start at expected z heights. Select and apply correct z values in OIP. Same with x or y values - Things may not match if some objects were created in top/plan or top, and others were created in side views. It often helps to experiment in a new VW file with a few objects on a few layers. That way the project file does not get compromised. HTH -B

Upsides for NNA (just guessing here): Subscribers will purchase every upgrade, rather than skipping a cycle or two, so the income stream is more predictable - assuming subscribers are satisfied. The subscriber income is also collected at a known date, helping with cash flow predictability. Upsides for Subscribers: Somewhat lower costs for the initial product and future versions. Special content for free download in the subscriber web portal, such as extra library content (one example is additional 2d human figures for use directly or in image props). The first subscription (2011) had a sweetener in that the 2012 upgrade would release prior to any new subscription charges - essentially a first-upgrade-is-free offer. Possible down sides for subscriber (guessing again): Future update pricing may "force" a subscriber to pay more than expected. Subscriber will have to make payment on the subscription schedule rather than waiting to purchase when convenient. Subscriber will have to cancel the agreement to decline a version. Cancellation has notification and timing rules. For me, it's all fine or at least OK at this time: I have purchased every new version since VW8, so would likely upgrade anyway. If a new version price is too big, I will cancel after that one. The special content is not of great interest to me, but others may find it very useful. Another upside scenario (my musings): If the subscription model prevails as trusted by both subscribers and NNA, then maybe, hopefully, the development could stop being based on annual revisions (with attendant backward incompatibility problems) and instead become a continuous improvement stream. The development effort would not have to split between service packs and next year's top secret revision with its built in incompatibilities to prevent older versions from opening it. A new module or feature or fix or improvement is released when ready - no need to hold it back, subscribers are already paying for it. One danger in my scenario is NNA development becoming complacent - money coming in, so why do anything exceptional? Money is OK for now, so why conceive that revolutionary, ground up rewrite every 5 or 10 years many of us wish for? -B

A few comments after installing and exploring the demo: 1. AR works can be used without the marker. I put a sticky note over the laptop cam and could rotate the sample model via mouse without seeing my ugly mug in the frame. Section sliders and other features work without the marker. On the whole, I think AR-Works is pretty good. Some rendered surfaces were divided with X lines as if not flat. 2. Even while using the marker, the sample model rendered with some x facets on supposedly flat surfaces. 3. I have little use for AR-works at this time, so trashed the app from applications folder. VW seemed to work normally, except I started getting AR-works license requests when I used Modify>Scale Objects. Could not use the Scale Objects command! So AR-Works is messing with Vectorworks in unintended ways. I removed the "AR-works.vwlibrary" file from my VW>Library>Plug In folder. Now things are fine again. I hope I removed all traces. I may try again if I need presentation/sharing tools like this. 4. Hand holding the marker is dicey at best - swoop & zoom with every breath, grip adjustment and elbow flex. A tabletop stand with a flex neck supporting a turntable would be useful as a Marker holder. Tilt, rotate, swivel . . . -B

If you did not already, explore different settings in the snap preferences. Dbl click any of the snap boxes in the snap palette to enter the snap prefs dialog. Adjust acquire times for smart points and smart edges. Too quick and unintended points get acquired, too slow and drawing process slows. In Smart Edge tab, the Bisector or other options might be what you are looking for in edge related snaps. HTH -B

Sometimes I click the Basic Tools Palette red button (Mac OS) by mistake when I am aiming for the Selection Tool in the palette. This closes the palette and it disappears from the screen. To get it back, I click in the VW menu Window>Palettes>and select Basic (near the bottom) - This restores the palette to its location when closed. -B

Yes! Very good if implemented. Would this be a helpful refinement? When moving the group with cursor data: Floating data bar info displays xyz of one of the points - user selects which one. >Perhaps option click the controller vertex - it highlights color A. >Zoom/pan/rotate view if needed. >Option drag the group - highlights color B, but controller retains color A. >Zoom/pan/rotate view if needed. >Tab into the floating data bar. >Return to execute. Selection remains. Tab or drag to move again. >Dbl Return to execute and deselect. -B

VectorBits Optimize Drawing has a simplify poly command with a tolerance setting which might help here, and a compose command, too. But: It operates on the whole drawing - all polys in the drawing, on all layers are converted, not just the selected ones. And the undo history is deleted. So if drawing file contains polys not meant for conversion, copy items to convert to a new file, convert them, and copy back to orig. Polys in symbols seem to be immune, but not polys in groups. It does not necessarily convert with equal spacing btw the vertices, so curved shapes may have long facets and short facets. May need to use VW Poly Smoothing command after the conversion. Check Vectorbits.com for pricing. It has lots of features and commands beyond the Simplify Poly. -B

Was there an unintended duplicate in place or duplicate layer at some time in the drawing process? Duplicate walls or multiple copies of those surfaces could be rendering and interfering as moires. -B

But the text is modified in the conversion of both Truetype to Poly and Text Along Path. Italics, stroke, kerning do not necessarily match original. In a TAP The letters emerge from a curved path, but are planar objects which do not map or bend onto a complex surface. One can use extruded or shelled text and use solid intersections to make an approximation of the letters mapped to a surface. Mapping the letters onto saddles, spheres or other complex surfaces is quite a challenge. Textures work well except they are virtual - no snappable, editable object components. I think Text to Poly and Text Along Path are wonderful, powerful tools, which can come pretty close in many situations. But the conversions do not keep all the text properties, and these commands do not map text onto complex surfaces. This could be a big problem in awning or other graphics biz. -B

I feel Ron's pain. Truetype to poly does not have all the required qualities. Textures work for presentation, when mapped to the curved shapes of the awnings. But since they have no snaps or paths, textures are not good for stencil cutting, snaps/measurements. A new texture or image has to be created for each edit of text and other graphics on the awning. Many letter and stencil cutting machines cannot cut from pdf or image file (but some can). Often they need the vector paths, including styled text in outline form - ie text converted to polys with all the bolds. Seems like two processes are needed. One is to flatten the shape of the awning cover and have experience and vision to know how the graphics on the flat shape (vector based objects & text, images, etc) will look like when mapped to the curved shape (texture created from the flattened shape with graphics). The flattened one can be scaled for mockups and for final printing/cutting. -B

Use File Manager to attach files to posts on this forum. In the quick reply area where a reply to a post is entered, click the "Switch to Full Reply Screen". Click the File Manager (it's blue). Click Choose File>browse to the file and click it>wait while it scans>click Add file> choose another if desired. Click Done Adding Files. The post can still be edited. No need to wait until end of text to access File Manager. -B

Here is my take with one way point on the middle plane to make a loft. VW2011 and VW2008 Rotated all objects in top/plan to make plane of path horizontal - easier for me to visualize. Duplicated Design Layer 1 and worked on Layer 2 Top/plan>drew a rectangle>Center on end of path>Convert to NURBS Duplicate Along Path to make 5 dupes of the rectangle. These give working planes Converted profile to NURBS curve Duplicated and aligned to mid plane, oriented on plane (lots of mucking about) Same for end plane Loft Surface the 3 profiles in No Rail Mode. Additional profiles on intermediate planes might constrain the loft better. Post back if not working for you. -B

Hi, Waldo - Lofts could do this. Is your path same object as the rail, so the profile is revolving around the path as it extrudes? Or is the rail a different object? If path and rail are same, then one way is to make the EAP, use the split tool to section it in several places on normal planes, extract & compose the section curves, rotate each as necessary, then loft them in sequence. Another way is to orient several instances of your profile in 3 space and loft them in sequence. Profile can have a 3d locus or crosslines to indicate rotation center . Duplicate Along Path might be a start to place your profile instances along the path. Then rotate each one in its plane. This means establishing a working plane at each profile. Try this first with a simple 3d profile on a straight path (say the z axis). Raise and rotate each of the profiles then use the Loft Surface tool in Loft No Rail mode. Click each one in sequence, then click the green checkmark or press return. There may be some other ways, too. Maybe a bi rail loft? Kinda depends on your shapes and required rotation. HTH -B

Good one Mike! I never noticed that before. But the rasterized text has a couple disadvantages: it does not select/copy/paste as text and it is aliased. These are tolerable in printed version, but may be a problem if pdf is the final product for review. -B

A longshot idea is that your drawing has a rare font not in the print shop font library. But, assuming this is a bad font, and the print to pdf idea does not help, here are a couple things to try once you know which one: 1st, make a new Vectorworks test file containing a couple text blocks of the bad font and a couple of a good font. Make a couple sheet layers with Viewports, too. Batch export to see if the problem persists at the print shop. If yes Fix the font in your Mac system 1. Launch Font Book.app which ships installed in your Mac. It's in the Applications folder. 2. Run the Validate Font or Validate File scripts. Disable one or more duplicated fonts may be suggested. Read the Font Book Help files, and post back if not understandable. or Replace all instances of the bad font in your Vectorworks file with a font which displays properly at the print shop. Do the test file first, to get the hang of it -- 1. Deselect everything by clicking in "open" space. OIP (Object Info Palette) should indicate No Selection. 2. Menu>Tools>Custom Selection 3. Choose Select, Execute Immediately and click Criteria 4. Set criteria to Font--Is-- Nameofbadfont 5. Checkmark all the options, Click OK Result is that every instance of the bad font will be selected in the active drawing file (but not in any other files). 6. In OIP, change the font to one which displays properly at the print shop. If the size field is blank, leave it blank. It means you have several sizes of that font in the drawing. HTH -B

Also, look in Unified View Options to toggle page boundary visibility. Unified view displays all visible layers in same view/orientation as the active layer. -B

1st, select the stage floor then copy/paste into a new blank VW drawing. Some things to look at: 1. Make sure the stage floor has a fill color and is a 3d surface of some kind - floor/slab object, 3d poly, NURBS surface, shell, etc. Select it and look at OIP. If it's a 2d object or a NURBS Curve, choose the Modify menu then Convert>Convert to 3d Polygon. 2. Edit the texture, if needed, It should have transfered to the new drawing with the paste: *Select the stage floor & click the OIP Render tab. *Make sure the texture you want is selected in the texture pull down. *Click the arrow at right of the texture pull down. Choose the edit texture option. *In the edit dialog > Shaders>Color>choose either Object Attribute (render takes color from attribute palette), or Color. If Color, click the Edit button and pick a color. Floor needs a fill color in either case *Close out the dialogs. Stage should render with color assigned through object attribute or texture color. If the stage object has depth (extrude, shell, floor object, etc), the Render tab will have a Parts pull down. Click each part and select the texture as desired. 3. Is the stage floor in the original drawing a stack of objects? Maybe a 2d object overlays the 3d floor? HTH -B

An old and annoying quirk, but Starting in VW2011 the EAP has a Fix Profile option. If profile is 3d object, it can be parked at start of path and oriented to suit in 3 space. Fix option constrains this orientation or its equiv on each leg of the path. Older versions exhibit the behavior you describe. Correct, as you report, by relocating/revolving profile in EAP edit, or prior to EAP. -B

Jake I don?t think you can get the whole tent as one surface, if that's what you were after. Kevin is right, those out of plane curves were making gnarly surfaces. I made half a tent and mirrored it. I assumed sag in edges is z direction only - no deflection to the sides. Started with flat (but tilted) NURBS surfaces, and adjust z values of vertices. Edges appear as straight lines in plan. 1. Draw half of one of the long tent surfaces In Top/Plan, draw a NURBS curve (interpolation point mode) over your orig tent for half of a long side. 4 points: pole top, pole top, corner, long side base mid point, back to start. Or, draw a poly, convert to NURBS, adjust z 2. Shape the half side 3d PowerPack>Create Surface from Curves, set degree 3 for U and V . Set z value of top midpoint to 32? or what ever you like. Decrease the z value of the 3 horizontal mid points to give a little sag to the face. Or increase the OIP weight value. 3. Mirror the half side Top/Plan>Mirror tool on tent long axis 4. Make the end face Off axis view. Extract tool>ShiftClick end edge on each half side, checkmark Ungroup & loft the two new NURBS curves - ruled mode Lower z of upper mid point 5. Make a top for this half tent Extract top edges of the two sides, Loft (ruled). Adjust z for mid points. Sometimes it helps to 3d PowerPack>Create Interpolated surface - this puts the vertices on the surface. 6. Mirror the half tent Top/Plan, Select the 4 surfaces, Mirror on tent short axis. HTH -B

A guess re the Shelf: The shelf object is Locked. This would allow it to be selected, but the OIP would have grey fields, and it object will not delete. I forget where the Lock/Unlock commands are in VW 12, but I think they are in the View menu. Check the other menus if it's in View. Edit here: Lock/Unlock is in the Edit menu of VW12.5.3 OIP should indicate whether the object is locked. You could also set the layer or class containing the shelf to Invisible. If this doesn't help, post a sample file or a screen shot. (Click the Reply button and use File Manager). Many visibility issues are related to Class visibilities/overrides. The oven: Place a Dbl Oven object in a new blank drawing. If it has expected z values and behavior, maybe something is corrupt in your file. General: I don't think that VW 12.x.x is officially supported in MacOS 10.6.6, even though it seems to work well most of the time. Little quirks could be related to OS changes. Keep posting until you get this solved. -B

Images copied or ported out of VW always end up with a border of some kind. Where do they come from? VW? MacOS? Other? In a new blank VW file. 1:1 scale Draw a rectangle, black line & green fill, 5 or 6 inches on an edge. Duplicate and scale to .5, change fill of dupe to black. The drawing now displays a black rectangle with a wide green border. 1. In VW, Select/Copy the black rectangle to clipboard. Open Apple Preview File>New from Clipboard Image has a white border, all sides. Where did that come from? Test part of this new image in Preview: Activate select tool, marquee inside the black area & Copy to clipboard File>New from Clipboard ---No white border! 2. In VW, Select/Copy the black rectangle to clipboard. Open Graphic Converter (mine is v4.9.2) File>New>Image with Clipboard Image has a white border. ??? Why?? Test part of this new image in GC: Activate select tool, marquee inside the black area & Copy to clipboard File>New>Image with Clipboard ---No white border! 3. In VW Export>Image File>Marquee >DragSnap diagonal corners>Save to JPG Open the JPG in Preview or GC Result has green border on two edges. Just a pixel or two. 4. In VW Select/Copy the black rectangle Open Apple Mail>New Message>Click/Paste in message area. Result is an attached PDF. Drag the PDF to Preview or GC See the border. (too bad there is not a PDF Export Selection option) Same results pasting into PowerPoint. No Photoshop, so did not try. Borderless would be greatly preferred. -B

Yes! -B