Benson Shaw

This is not exactly grab and drag, but Cut/Paste actions apply to geometric center of object (2d or 3d). Cut (or Copy) the object, click on new location where you want the center to end up, then Paste. -B

I looked at both files on screen. Export file shows all lines as black in Adobe Reader and in Apple Preview. Same result for full page view and zoomed views. Print to PDF file in full page view shows diag lines grey in AR and black in Preview. Zoom a bit and all lines show black in both readers. On my screen, black seems more robust in AR than in Preview. Maybe the problem is display or graphics card issue rather than some problem in VW? -B

Right you are, Ian. Thanks for the correction. That would probably explain why it is called the Renderworks Camera Tool. Anyway, it offers a number of useful presets for the perspective box. -B

BUT, is there any reason or benefit to the "BOX" or is it just there in perspective view for no reason. The Camera Tool in the Visualization Tool Set offers great benefits with the perspective box. Unfortunately, I think the tool is not included in Fundamentals. It might be a reason to upgrade to an Industry Series or Designer version of VW: The Aspect Ratio pull down menu in the Camera Tool OIP has presets to size the perspective box to match the rectangle of the drawing page, or to many common camera, display and projection formats - 16:9 3:2 etc. Numeric control of custom rectangles is also available. Camera placement and view alignment are made in Top Plan view. -B

3d dimensions? -B

It appears that you have the Full Screen cursor pref enabled. Full screen cursor displays as crossed dashed lines when a 3d tool is in use. Full screen cursor displays as crossed solid lines when a 2d tool is in use. -B

Whoa! Thanks,Pat. I am sooo old school! Good call, that works a treat! -B

Your original post asks for image in a polygon. I think that means an image cropped to fit inside a non rectangular shape. Sorry if this sounds pedantic: The photo imports as a rectangle, and you may need to use it with part cropped out to a non rectangular shape. VW can't do the crop, but you can mask out parts with a rectangle with a hole(s) in it to reveal the part(s) you want. The holes can have any shape - polygon, circle, etc. Draw the rectangle with a fill color (white would be common), and the shapes for the holes. Select base and holes. Use the Clip Surface command (read about it in VectorWorks help). Delete the hole shapes leaving the rectangle as a polygon with holes clipped out of it. Place this poly in front of the image and the image will show through the holes. Group the image and poly, and send it back or forward to work with other elements in the drawing. Another approach is to use other image editing software to make unwanted areas of the image transparent (alpha channel masking). VW can't do the alpha work, but the mask/image group described above can be exported as a png which can then be alpha'd by other software. If you are working 3d, then image textures are the way to go. -B

In Vectorworks, mouse up to Main Menu/File/Import/Import Image File navigate to the image on your disk and set the import options. Click Open. All is good. You can resize image with the reshape tool. Use a clipped polygon to create a polygon mask to change the perimeter shape -B

Here is link to earlier discussion on this topic: http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=2&Number=105439&Searchpage=2&Main=22566&Words=tapered+thread&topic=0&Search=true#Post105439 -B

Hi, Brendan - I received the files via email. The wood texture (texture 4) is not one which has mapping controls. As you probably already found, grain scale and color can be modified in the texture Edit options (Resource Browser), but not grain direction. These edits will affect all objects with this texture. Here are some solutions: 1. Build your cabinets with 3d polygon faces. Rotate and reshape the polys to rotate the grain. Grain rotates with the object. This does not affect grain direction in other objects. 2. Pick another texture with mapping. Mapping textues have an asterix in the texture name, Pine Board for example or several of the other woods. 3. Make a screen shot of a rendered Texture 4 polygon and use that to create a new RW texture of the Image Color or Filtered Image variety (mapping controls available). To attach a file, click File Manager. In the new window, click Choose File and navigate to select a file. Click Add File and wait for it to load. Click Done adding files. You will not see the file in your post window, but the File Manager file count will update. Click Submit. Good luck

Ooo, good call, CW. Filtered Image with Object Fill option! My bad. Alternative to the wrap: An existing texture can be converted to Filtered Image variety, sort of. Create a 3d poly with fill, apply the texture & render. Scale the texture for best appearance and take a screenshot of the basic tile. Use the screenshot as imported image to create new RW Filtered Image texture. -B

Ya, Brendan, post the file. Maybe it is something besides the texture. I did submit the birch as a bug. Bug submit replies (!) that not all textures are created equal. So it's not a bug but rather an example of a texture type which has no mapping options. These NO Asterix Textures can only be manipulated to the extent of host object rotation, scaling etc. That's fine, but I am bemused that all the default RW wood textures except the yellow birch varnished have mapping options. Even my home made textures have the options! Here is the message and screen shot from Gunther at NNA (Thanks, Gunther!): Hello Benson. There are two different types of textures. Not all texture types can be modified. When you?re creating or editing a texture, you?ll likely see an, asterisk appear next to a texture?s name. This determines if the texture can be fully modified. See attached image and the circle help for better explanation. Hope this helps. Gunther

Or adjust color of an image outside of VW and import it as an image texture. Or put a transparent colored wrap or overlay: Dupe the object in place, scale the dupe a bit and give the dupe a transparent, attribute colored texture (eg glass). Change wrap color with attribute palette. Modify wrap transparency for color density. Veriegated Stone turned blue with glass wrap in attached file. -B

Tried it with RW glass texture set to white color and no transparency. At 35% ambient light, the glass is not transparent. No transparency at 100% ambient. Can you post a file with a few objects which illustrate the problem? -B

For some plan textures use the Object Attribute Color in Edit Texture pane. Right click the texture icon in the Resource Browser to access the Edit TExture pane. If you are not familiar, try this first in a new file with new objects and a duplicate of a texture. Changing an image texture to plane or attribute deletes the image. -B

It's obvious - We all just need to start drawing at 1:1 scale using displays which are as large as the drawing extents. Bicycle and ladder at workstation are required. Telescope and microscope are optional. -B

This seeems more of a backup issue than a warning/lock issue. Sort of reminds me of the If Microsoft built a car it would be in the crash shop all the time. If Apple built a car there would be an "Are you Sure ..." warning every time you put on the brakes or shifted gears. (That is some other wag's joke) I agree that VPs can involve lots of time, but so can objects, textures, etc. Maybe some Document or VW pref option for this would make sense. I delete VPs all the time and see the Are you Sure warning as a hinderance to work rather than a needed protection (so far anyway). One can build safeguards into the workflow to get get back to a deleted object such asTime Machine Backups on several minute increment, dupe a layer or the file prior to work session, etc. Hope you didn't loose too much. -B

Those might be connecting to or indicating center vertices of nearly flat arc segments. I saw these in dwg conversions, too, butI have not tried any lately, so cannot duplicate your experience in v2008. The dwg conversion sometimes created some or many extra vertices. Some stacked. What I used to do is select all and fit to selection to find the end points about a mile from the drawing. Then zoom with mouse scroll, and use the 2d edit shape tool to delete the offending vertex, zoom back to the object and delete a few of the extra vertices near the problem one(s). Another fix was to just trace then delete the poly say with arcs rather than cubic or bez point, or splice in a new section near the bad part. Also, some polys imported from ACAD have areas which do not select in VW - cursor or clicks indicate selection in about half the poly, but not the other half,. Had to split by point and recompose or just trace over those. You say you cannot select, so perhaps that was no help. And waay cool church! Renovation or building new? -B

I tried all the default RW wood textures. All behave as expected except Wood Yellow Birch Varnished which behaves as you report - Rotate unavailable. Scale is unavailable and changing map type produces little or no change. I will submit this as a bug. For now, maybe you could choose a different woodgrain texture which does work, or create your own texture with a photo of some wood. -B

Look in Forum FAQ about add a file and attach a file. -B

There might be a custom line type with characters, but I have not seen it. Duplicate (a letter or phrase) along a path might work for you. Or the Repetitive object tool. -B

Lots of things could cause this. Here is a guess: Dimension objects are set to low precision, so do not display enough decimal places to describe the offset difference and The tangent and radius lines are not actually snapped to the circle. Perhaps there was a mouse twitch and no snap occurred, or VW snapped to a snapgrid point (if snapgrid is enabled) instead of the circle, or to an angle alignment, or to some other locus such as center of some off screen arc etc or One or more of the objects was moved after the dimensions were created - a small, inadvertent drag can happen when selecting and manipulating objects, esp in close zoom. See if you can make the radius, tangent and dimension objects snap properly in a new test file containing only the objects in question. -B

Use the Split tool (in the basic tool palette - It works on 3d objects, too) If all target objects are in one group, dbl click to enter the group Set the view plane perpendicular to the cutting plane Apply the Split tool in Line Split or Line Trim mode. This cuts all ungrouped objects crossed by the line, selected or not. Resulting object will show as Solid Section in OIP. Dbl Click the object to reveal and edit its orig objects and cutting plane. Any target objects which are groups will not be cut. (ie you can group an object to protect it from cutting) If manipulating groups is a problem, apply classes to the objects, ungroup and manipulate class visibility. Post back if this does not work. And please create a signature (My Stuff tab near top of forum window) so posts indicate your VW version and computer info. -B

Dbl click the solid addition - this reveals the 3d extrude. Dbl click the extrude which reveals the 2d objects which are extruded. Your extrude is made from two polylines. One of them is the inside arc. (Used as a clipping boundary?) Delete this poly and exit the edit windows. Your sliced poly should appear and render as expected. Also, the original polys have lotsa points. In that edit extrude frame mentioned above, you can retrace the extrudes with polyline tool in arc or spline mode, with the ocassional corner point. If the shape is close enough, it will improve redraw and render performance. Hope this helps! -B