[Cyc Rendering]

A simple translucent plastic texture will do (found under the Reflectivity settings in the texture dialogue).

Cris Dopher

[New line types?]

Essentially, you can't quite do what you're describing only by defining new line styles. You could find a good vectorscript programmer to make you some new plug-ins that do these kinds of tasks, or look around on the web for plugins that do something close to what you're looking for.

Alternately, you could create symbols that are a chunk of your desired line style, placing them end-to-end for the length needed; but that could get cumbersome and you wouldn't be able to lay them in as simply as drawing a line.

Wish I could be of more assistance.

CD

[Channel wierdness.....]

A quick test would be to copy and paste the entire light plot into a new file, then try running the paperwork commands.

CD

[3D light postions dissapear in plan]

Although sometimes, like with battens, I like to create a batten as a 2D/3D hybrid symbol, but not a lighting position. And then use the lighting position tool to place a batten as an electric while using the symbol itself to be a batten.

That's a great idea!

[exporting vw into illustrator]

Users should be aware that older versions of Illustrator are not supported well by the newer operating systems. If you're not up to at least the first CS, you'll have problems. Also, many users report crashes of Illustrator a couple minutes after booting - make sure you're not running Photoshop at the same time. They share the exact same font cache and will crash each other. CS2 and above fixes this problem on Mac and Windows.

CS2 and CS3 play very nicely with VWs EPS exports, but for a quick and dirty way to get the vectors into Illustrator, you can copy-and-paste between applications.

BTW, VW can export to .3ds...and Photoshop CS3E can open that up as a 3D file, and by Placing the Photoshop doc, Illustrator can show the model, too. You needto have the model textured correctly first, but the results are amazing, especially when placing a 3D model into a presentation board - no need to tweak the original model just for rotation or scale - Photoshop can handle that.

Cris Dopher

[3D light postions dissapear in plan]

Actually, VW will create a symbol every time you use Convert to Lighting Position. The nice thing is, you can then use that symbol over and over to create identically shaped new positions. Save some file space.

Cris Dopher

[Solids]

5. Reference Point - By holding down the OPTION/SHIFT you can move the reference point to where it can be used most effectively to rotate, move and copy as preferred. It will speed up production. BTW money is time and time is money.VW is not very much helpful in this area currently.

Are you referring to the datum? This can be set at any time with the G key.

6. Detail Bubble - can someone please make a plan and get the extension line to start at the edge of the bubble and not in the centre of the numerical value. It sure do not look very professional to have your numerical value with a line through it.

Does your Detail Bubble have a solid fill in the Attributes palette?

7. Point to Point Move & Copy Tool - a must have been there already basic tool.

You already have this ability. Ctrl-drag will drag a copy off the original. Grab by the correct snapping point and drag a copy to where you need it.

Cris Dopher

[importing problem]

Listen, every time either product rolls out an upgrade, the Autolink default mapping becomes invalid; it's just a fact of making two products work together. Because it is a bit of file written by NNA, NNA has to fix it. However, even in the best of times, Autolink has never been robust - even within one project my units will eventually break their links.

Interestingly enough, I find I can go back and forth between VW and Excel just fine... Then I export once to LW to fill in the finer details of instrumentation and focus notes and send to the printer.

I think John and Kevin have some serious collaboration to do if these two products are to work together seamlessly in the future.

Cris Dopher

[Curtains no longer render properly]

Simon, there is a bug with curtain objects and final quality RW, which they are working on. Which render modes have you tried? Is the curtain wireframe in all of them?

[Curtains no longer render properly]

Simon, do your curtains have a solid fill? If they are no fill or pattern or hatch fill, they may not render. (Although, at the moment I can't get curtains NOT to render).

Cris

[Custom Title Block]

Plopping the symbol itself down on the drawing will work, but you'll have to manage the data per symbol on the Data tab of the OIP.

When you start to juggle a number of sheets and have to keep updating titleblocks with revision notes or sheet number changes, it is easier to use the Drawing Border Object and manage the titleblock from inside the DBO's object info palette.

On the other hand, it sounds like you made a red-object symbol out of a pre-configured DBO w/ titleblock in it. IN which case, you're all set.

CD

[LIVE SECTION questions]

Jim, I'm not sure what you mean by live section, but if you mean section viewport, those are created on the design layers, which I assume you're drawing to scale. If you want to edit the section plane later, you edit the section line instance on the design layer; then update the section viewport to show the changes.

CD

[12.5.1 update lost ability to stack layers]

The short answer, Stacy, is that Stacked Layers programming changed. It was in the release notes, IIRC, that in your workspace, you'll have to first delete Stack Layers, then re-add Stack Layers. The program is trying to find the old version of the programming.

Cris Dopher

[Custom Title Block]

For a titleblock to work in the DBO, the symbol insertion point must be the lower right corner. Edit the titleblock symbol and move all geometry to the upper left quadrant. (Where the dashed lines meet on the screen is the symbol's insertion point and you must move things relative to that.)

CD

[12.5.2b to 12.5.2?]

Benefit: updated import/export algorithms for dxf/dwg.

CD

[Help me upgrade to VW 12 (why do you like it?)]

I just want to point out that it is by upgrading, and staying up to date, that you'll be able to import and export the latest-and-greatest version of AutoCAD files. AutoCAD 2007 and 2008 versions under VW11? Fuhgeddaboudit.

Cris Dopher

[Reorganising the Top bar]

Not currently, no.

Cris Dopher

[12.5.2 release notes?]

Anybody have release notes on this version? I can't find them anywhere.

Cris Dopher

[exporting vw into illustrator]

Steve, you got this conquered, did you not? Do you want to post how you did it for the benefit of future forum searches?

Cris Dopher

[persistance of memory in worksheet]

Have you Updated the WR? Do you have space objects on hidden layers it might be counting?

Cris Dopher

[I hate VW worksheets]

Allow me to get out my Old Man soapbox here... "I remember when a CAD program didn't even HAVE database capabilities..." yadda yadda yadda. I have faith that worksheet capabilities will get better and better, since Nemetschek is really pushing this product into a Building Information Model mode of working. Sure, worksheets aren't exactly Excel right now, but they were never meant to be, either.

I wouldn't call them weak, either... it takes some digging through the help files, but you can set up some pretty powerful worksheets to track objects and count stuff up. It goes hand in hand with being competent in setting up good symbols and data records. It would be nice if users who are adept at worksheets would start submitting worksheets to sites like vectordepot.com so that the rest of us can examine them and see how they work and learn from that.

Cris Dopher

[dimensioning]

Matt, I'm sure we'll have this ability in viewports someday, because it's been a wishlist item for a lot of people, including myself!

In the meantime, I have been using a nice little plugin I got off vectordepot.com (I think) that does a quick conversion of a dimension to 3D objects. It's no longer a dimension, of course, but the same text and lines can now show up in many views, rotated as appropriate. Don't know if that helps you, but it's another strategy.

Cris Dopher

[basic 3d modeling questions from a beginner]

What kinds of planes are you making? Extrudes? 3D polys? Nurbs curve? Nurbs Surfaces? Meshes?

[Easy circuit map?]

Just don't forget to Ungroup those units down to basic rectangle and text objects, or else they'll show up in your paperwork.

Personally, I would set my snap grid to whatever spacing needed and go to town with the Number Stamp tool.

Cris Dopher

[Doors in the floor!]

A similar problem with Window sills extending out was fixed by turning off Quartz.

Cris Dopher