jgriffin

I have been using VW 11.5 for a while now. Although I'm not an ace at it I do get some predictable results and I think it's a great tool. I have found that most problems I encounter are due to operator error or a mis-application of the tool. However, I just had a very strange thing happen and would love to hear that I had done something that caused it. I had a DWG of a site plan that I imported to VW and have been using for a while to produce drawings. Today I made a crop of it that I turned into a viewport. The property has several roads on it and they are named. Usually the viewports I make are for broad overview purposes and most of the lables are too small to read. Todays viewport was made to orient visitors to the buildings that are clustered on one section of the property so, the lables were something I was trying to make prominent. Everything was going well and I was finished, just scanning the lables that I had bumbed up the font size of to see if they had become too crowded etc. then I noticed that the label for "Crocker Road" looked funny. A closer look showed that the word "road" was backward and upside down, in a way that I cannot reproduce -- the letters were printed backward, like in a mirror. I thought this strange... how did this happen to the design layer??? Changing view to the design layer, I zoomed in on the offending lable to try to fix it... only to find that it was oriented correctly on the design layer. I deleted the Viewport and started over, only to get the same result (several times). It seems to affect this label only and since it is on the design layer, it cannot be fixed in the Viewport with annotation, Without some idea of what is happening I fear my only recourse is to delete the label from the design layer and use the anotation fuction of the Viewport to lable this object. Any ideas here? Should I cross post this item to some of the other discussion groups? Thanks in advance for all your assistance. John G5, 1.5G, VW 11.5

quote: Originally posted by Gorf: ... I can send it on to anyone who wants it. Just ask [/QB] I would love to get my hands on a copy. Please let me know how this can be accomplished. Thanks,

quote: Originally posted by ljg: Message: A VectorWorks dongle cannot be found.Make sure the dongle is connected and that the required drivers have been installed. VectorWorks will now quit. If I am recallilng correctly, there is a different dongle for 10 than for 11. Did you get a new dongle w/ VW 11?

quote: Originally posted by immaterial: Ok, thanks, I found out and it worked! Thank you very much...

quote: Originally posted by Tropics North: can I show the value of feet above the dimension line & the inches & fraction of inches below the dimension line? I think I would try adding another dimension object above (or below) the first and then turn off the leader lines in the new object, thus showing only the dimension text. But, I'm new at this.

quote: Originally posted by Travis: We use the Handrail Tool for the safety railing portion, and do Extrude Along Path for the grippable portion. In plan view, draw a line, add radii at the ends to indicate the returns. Convert to NURBs. Switch to Front/Side View and adjust in the Z-plane for ramps and stairs. Draw a circle of the appropriate size and select both the NURBs curve and the circle; Extrude Along Path. Voila. . .grippable handrail with appropriate ends. Good luck, Thank you for your help. This sounds like a good system. I haven't gotten a chance to try it out though and I'm not quite sure what command/tool forms "radii." I suppose your talking qabout some form of small arc. I guess that, were I to need a verticle return to the ground, I could do something similar in a front or side view? Or do you mean "Top/plan View," in which case, I suppose, I should change my plane of reference to side or front and use "Top Plan View" from there? Thanks for any help you may provide.

I am a newbie so, please excuse my ignorance if I have missed something obvious. The handrail creation tool is very cool but, is there a way to have it create terminations that conform to the ADA? Or, even return it to terminate in the wall? It's usefulness is pretty limited w/o some method of proper termination. I would really appreciate hearing how someone with a little experience handles this problem. Thank you very much.

Good to know. Thank you

quote: Originally posted by propstuff: John, Hold down the option (alt) key while doing the split to enable the "selected object only" behaviour. cheers, N. Thank you very much. When I use it correctly it works beautifully.

I am using the 3D Object split tool in Trim by Line mode to trim an extrude. I have one object selected and when I draw the line to trim it the action trims all objects that the line intersects; irrespective of the object's select state, class and layer. Choosing "active only" for both class and layer eliminates the behavior for objects with dissimilarities in those attributes (though in "show/snap others all objets of intersection were still trimed regardless of class/layer). It still seems that there must be a way to trim only the selected object. Since I am a novice to VW, I am sure that there is something I'm missing or unclear of here. Any help or suggestions will be greatly apprecitated. Thank you

quote: Originally posted by propstuff: How do I get centre snaps to happen? The only way that I have been able to get center snaps is to set the "Snap to distance" constraint for 1/2. Though as I write this I don't know that I was having a problem with circles. Lines and such were what I had noticed the missing snap on.

Thank you Katie. I would appreciate that very much.

quote: Originally posted by Travis: Found the solution: In the VectorWorks application folder go to Plug-Ins > VW_Arch > Lumber Sizes.txt Carefully read the warning. Add a 1 (or even 01) to each of the width sizes listed. 1.5" becomes 1.51"; 3.5" becomes 3.51". I even added a new line showing 2.51" for my oft-requested 3x material. Now joists, rafters and beams calculate nominal (and therefore volume in board-feet) correctly. Happy day!! Thank you so much Travis. That works great (once I restarted VW). I found it in Plug-Ins > VW_Arch > Data> Lumber Sizes.txt That is a sweet and painless work around. I added the 3" nominal in your honor. Thanks again.

quote: Originally posted by alexd: I guess I should restate that it is not unsettable, it seems that even at the lowest setting for the scroll wheel on any mouse I get a half page or so of movement for each click on the scroll wheel. I cannot get any less than this. If anyone can get less than this I would like to know how, please. alex Hi Alex, I'm not sure if you're using a PC or a Mac but... For my Mac I have a Logitech Trackman cordless optical trackball. I found that for all uses I needed to dial down the gain on the scroll wheel to its min. and wished it would go lower. That said, I just counted and it takes 35 clicks of my scroll wheel to vertically traverse my Vectorworks work space (@ 1024x768) and when a dustball put the wheel out of commission a few days ago I felt completely hamstrung without it. I use it a lot for dynamic zooming as well as panning. However, at work I have a Kensington Expert Mouse, which is a track ball with a scroll "ring." The ring was a little strange at first but it seems very natural now. The Kensington has much finer gain control for scrolling (and everything else for that matter). Dialing it all the way down is almost too slow in VW. The seting is definitely too low for my other apps. fortunately the Kensington software provides for individual application settings (for button functions as well as ring). So if I don't like how the mouse works in a program, I just create a settings entry for it and everytime I use that app the software loads the appropriate settings. This is nice for changing the button and combo functions for different apps too. The Kensington is also "ambidextrous," if that matters, while the form of the Trackman precludes effective left hand usage. Just my experience.

quote: Originally posted by reem: I'd like a clue at how to use the 3D Reshape Tool. It seems to work differently for different types of objects and as a beginner, I'm struggling trying to figure it out. Since I am a beginner as well, please (all of you out there) don't let me get away with pretending to be the final word on this. It seems to me that you already have touched the heart of the matter. Like many VW tools, this one only works with specific types of objects. In my brief experience, I have come to believe that, while they may look 3D and/or solid, an object that is defined as a group by the OIP is still just a group of its components. I have come to find that the Reshape tool is for objects that were initially created as completely 3D objects, e.g. extrudes. I believe that I have found it to work well w/ NURBS objects and other objects that were created w/ 3D "Create (Insert Object name)" tools (e.g. walls).The User's Guide specifically states that it will not work on a mesh object (I found this frustrating for a while, until I realized it wasn't supposed to) which seem to be more like a group of 2D objects. I hope that the group at large will straighten me out where I've got it wrong. IMHO- I believe that VW is a better system because of this "tool specificity." Most fine craftsmen have heavy tool boxes because they have many tools for very discrete, refined purposes. The way some posts, I have seen, seem to bemoan the fact that one tool can't do every CAD task by itself makes me wonder if the authors still use a ball peen hammer (or a Crescent wrench) to drive nails.