Ken

TA is Technical Analysis. You can just Google "TA and stocks" to get more info. Of course you would mock the innovative use without knowing a thing about it. Again you show your character! :grin:

Hmmmm... you stand a better chance of getting the graphical parasolid 2D/3D goodies into maple than solvers (analysis tools) into VW... The Maplesoft sales reps have provided a conclusion for me. It is not something that can work within Vectorworks nor side-by-side with it. You also misunderstand, so I'll repeat that I am not seeking to insert "solvers into VW." And I've already looked into the other direction. It's not "a better chance." Instead, the other direction is absolutely impossible. I'll mention again (for those too lazy to read this entire discussion) that this comes after discovering a new technique that combines TA and CAD to increase odds clarity at any given moment. That's all. There's no secret beyond that. It's not traditional TA. It's a new approach. It's an innovation. The actual use of it is irrelevant, especially for those not familiar with TA. The effectiveness of it should be irrelevant, although I'll say again that I'm willing to compensate very fairly for just a rudimentary version. In fact, explaining any more than this would be like explaining why your building design has a metallic facade turning the corner at the lobby whatever ? so NNA programmers can debate the merits of it before introducing some innovative "viewport" feature. Yeah right. Rest assured I'll divulge more to the right person(s) at the proper time, but this public discussion is not the place or time. I think I've exhausted the resources here. VW SDK and IB API for somebody with C++ experience. My hunt continues. Thank you all for the discussion. I've added my email address (in my profile) for readers who have not registered or don't want to log in.

Miguel, Thank you for suggesting the SDK. That's exactly what I'm hoping for. I'm seeking somebody who can use it to help me create the procedure. I'm proposing either partnership or a one-time gig with fair compensation. The procedure or plug-in doesn't absolutely have to update dynamically if by nature Vectorworks is not structured that way. Knowledge of C++ seems to be the key. I'm not versed enough to tackle it on my own. If nobody visiting these forums have that kind of experience (and interest), then I'll take my offer elsewhere. I'm just posting here as a broad general inquiry. Well then you're simply not the creative-inventive type! Innovation often comes from combining seemingly incongruous systems. I've already described a simplified approach (above) from a common Vectorworks point of view, for common Vectorworkers. And I'll overlook your attempt to speak for everybody else. Who's "us?" I find that expression to be herd-think. You're thinking only within the given box. Which also explains why you'll never get it if you still have no clue at this point. No offense intended. This is just a fair response. :cool:

Interactive Brokers offers an API solution for this: http://individuals.interactivebrokers.com/en/pagemap/pagemap_APISolutions.php Although the first level for Macintosh would be Java only, I think it'll be a win-win situation for both Nemetschek and InteractiveBrokers. The 2D drafting tools in Vectorworks are untouched and untapped by even the most sophisticated trading platform currently available. They just don't have the visual-intuitive approach. I wouldn't mind transferring my entire trading account to IB for this. In fact, if Java is not possible I wouldn't mind switching over to Windows!

Just want to add that login to a financial institution may not be necessary. Yahoo seems to provide prices for any bot (or body) to retrieve on a regular basis.

Pat, You're not familiar with the stock market. I'll say this much ? I've discovered a very useful technique that combines both worlds (of TA and CAD), increasing clarity and trading odds at least tenfold. Probably more, in the hands of a serious full-time professional. And this is just importing screenshots as bitmaps every hour! The technique itself could be huge, but to bring it into view of regular investors and traders, there has to be some automatic or semi-automatic importing of stock quotes into Vectorworks. I'm crossing both worlds only because I'm familiar enough with the basic tools... and frankly I got really fast fingers and cursor control. If the idea well here is dry, I'll have to go on to my next line of resources. It's been awhile since I've visited, so I don't know if the old experts are still around. We used to spark some famous ideas. And some not so famous ones.

Can you tell me explicitly if what I describe is possible when the Maplesoft procedure is added to Vectorworks? It's still within Vectorworks that I must do my analysis. Again, I only need the price charts as background. I have no intention whatsoever of migrating to some simulation, modeling or solving platform. That defeats the purpose.

Thank you but how are you able to get it for FREE? I could only sign up for an evaluation as their software sells for US $2275. It seems a sales rep will contact me with more info. The description page doesn't say anything about any interface with third party software like Vectorworks. Are you familiar with it?

Assumptions and Simplifications Assume there's a server at a financial institution providing the data. This is common. Assume that, in addition to typical streaming data that's "pushed" to clients, it also has static data available for manual "pulling." In Vectorworks, everything is just 2D. Let's say the data is just two numbers for each minute interval. So for one ticker, it's (closing) Price and Time (of the price) generated every minute. Price can be rounded to two decimal places. Time rounded to the second (it may also have day/month/year components which are important). The X axis would be Time. The Y axis Price. The procedure would recognize the last Time of retrieval and pull only data that's available afterwards. So upon manual execution, it would retrieve all the 1-min data sets, then simply graph them in the same design layer space. It just has to be visually clear at any scale. The chart would then just continually build. The graphic appearance could be anything that, at any zoom, looks like an accurate stock price chart. They could just be symbols made of circles or squares. Or be new vertices and the graph be a single object (polyline). They could even be raw 2D loci. All just X-Y positions. Each retrieval would fill in the points and bring the chart up to date. User interface could be: 1. Open control window 2. Login to financial institution 3. Press button to execute (pull all data since last retrieval) The user would fill in with whatever that's needed on the other layers ? graph axes, major grid, minor grid, labels, etc. Maybe add user-controllable intervals (5min or 30min), or multiple price points per interval (open, high, low, close) in a later version. This would be rudimentary but immensely helpful. Vectorworks can be a very useful financial tool. There won't be anything else like it. If anybody can help create this, I'm willing to pay fair money. Please contact me by sending a private message in my profile. Thank you. Suggestions/ideas/advice invited.

Ideally real time. However, manual updating is okay. The goal is to duplicate an accurate stock chart in Vectorworks that can be saved. I'm on a Mac. I've done only basic scripting, so this is quite beyond me. I can imagine the programming would be very tedious with various parts and pieces to achieve the simplest interface. The other factor is the format of numerical data that comes in. Currently, without inquiry and digging, I don't know how it comes. It could be take all (constant streaming) or take none. If none, then the input becomes finding the data source manually before importing. At worst, this involves another user input and another chance for errors. So it's the user input and errors that must be kept to a minimum. Or entirely eliminated. The goal is to do it as quickly and automatically as possible to have the background information in place. Even if not fully automatic, say a two-click process every few minutes, it'll still be head and shoulders above the rest.

I want to hire somebody to create something that allows me to add streaming stock data into Vectorworks. This needs to be displayed as a real-time price chart on a separate Vectorworks layer. The chart needs to be scalable/ snappable/ stretchable, and most importantly, savable between sessions. Not sure if this is within the capabilities of VectorScript. If not, how else to create it? Is there already a plugin or 3rd party solution? In the most robust and ideal approach, this would be a new type of workspace, perhaps called "Trader" -- no doubt opening new markets for NNA. However, for my immediate needs, I'm willing to hire a programmer to hack something rudimentary that works. Fair compensation. Where do I start? Suggestions?

I find that scale-specific hatches are immensely more useful. Are yours not architectural? Even simple horizontal lines, for example, mean different things when spaced apart differently. I don't see any particular advantage of having small, medium and large versions. Keep in mind that there are two types of hatches. One is a command that fills a selected area, creating a group of lines. It's easy to rotate. The other is an attribute preference that follows your layer scale. My recommendation is to keep hatching to a minimum because every line should have meaning in architectural drawings. Unless you simply want to portray a "busy embellished look" for whatever reason. Just IMHO.

Com'on. I gave you the benefit of the doubt. Now are you really wondering whether 2D linework can generate shadows? :tired:

Joypog and newhus seem to have solved their problems, but I want to jump into this discussion with a related issue (not quite worthy of its own topic). I had also upgraded directly from v2008 to v2010 a couple of months ago and share similar frustrations... Right now there's still a lack of clean COMBINATION OFFSET SNAPS in v2010. This occurs when turning a corner snapping to an offset using either the Polygon, Double-line Polygon or Wall tool. Tapping the "T" key does NOT bring up the next segment offset as quickly as it did in v2008. As it should. :mad: This is one of the most frustrating features of v2010 Smart Cursor.

Yes. Solar animation is possible in plan view. But of course, just like in real life, only three dimensional objects are affected by light(s).

This brings up a very interesting GENERAL question, of which, once answered, will help your situation as well as others. Question: If the checkbox "Always do the selected action" is checked, the dialogue window will never appear again. How do we go about undoing it so that the dialogue window will show again?

Aloha, Yoginathaswami, That's the same pref window I get when my Turbo Mouse is NOT CONNECTED. Once the unit is plugged in, the pref window changes. As for the SlimBlade, which may not have anything to do with Mouseworks, there are rumors and expectations that Kensington is developing a programmable software to bundle with it. This is regardless of their "official" tech support response. If you research into it, the "unofficial" responses by Kensington are in some of the reviews of the device. Personally I'm holding out on getting it. I don't think much of the plastic flaps as buttons, but maybe that's just something to get used to. And then those teflon nibs instead of friction-free rollers...

For the TurboMouse (better than the newer Expert Mouse IMHO), the MouseWorks software in the link you have is correct. I can confirm that the downloaded file called "MWInstall_3.0r1.dmg" dated 5/31/2006 is the latest! Pleasant surprise that it works fine in Mac OS 10.6.3. Long live the Turbo Mouse. :cool:

If you really want to pinpoint the trouble, you can try copying/pasting-in-place one object at a time into a new blank document, and testing the rendering behavior at each step.

Let's see how many people will jump ship... :grin:

Still in rumors though: MacRumors: AutoCAD Coming Back to Mac Am I now considered evil for posting this here?

Attached. Just disregard the funky scale. :grin:

It's an interesting problem. Here's something more realistic. I've duplicated the same problems I have when running a router on the inside corner of a frame, which is probably what you're talking about, and when a round-over bit is stopped before the end. The inside corner problem is that the router bit's bearing guide actually doesn't ride a radius corner. The stile would have to be notched/ripped a good portion of its length creating a sort of elongated C of a piece, which is a lot of work just to create an inside radius to meet the rail pieces. So in reality I end up hand-sanding the inside corner. Isn't that what you do? The digital model uses a radius sweep for subtraction at the corner. Now for stopping before the end, there's always a residual truncated edge after one pass (and it's always a little burnt), so do you run another pass on the adjacent face? Or just sand it again by hand, tapering gradually as you please? For the model, just keep subtracting the same radius sweep, duplicated and flipped 90 as needed.

Even with Zoom Line Thickness off, VW shows heavier lines with greater than one screen pixel thickness. There's no global way of printing EVERYTHING just one pixel thick, but you can create a VS command to (temporarily) convert all lines to whatever thickness you choose. I believe 0.03mm is the thinnest. It involves the GetLW and SetLW functions. There was an excellent but long script floated around the email list to do just this a few years ago. I think it was by Willis.

I haven't noticed any difference between the two. But it's important to note that the Properties window is NOT a palette. It can't be kept open/ visible while you work elsewhere on the drawing. For this reason I've always thought of it as an acclimation interface for Autocad users switching to Minicad (now Vectorworks). :grin: