Roman

Thanks for helping...I tried both of the VW options on and off with no changes. How do I check quartz imaging? Would it be on automatically since this is a modern system (Geforce 5200 FX card)?

I tried both caching and acceleration options and nothing changed.

Working on Dual 2ghz G5 with 1.5 GB RAM with V11.5.1. Importing a 6mpixel images makes the drawing crawl. Impossible to work with...what's going on? v11 on the PC didn't have this.

I'm trying to hatch some polygons of a railway in plan. Is there anyway to create a hatch that orients itself normal to the bounding shape? Is there some other fast way to do this with geometry? Thanks.

I generated a big site plan from AutoCAD and imported it into VW 11. Everything is fine, but all the curves in the drawing (in line-edit mode) are composed of numerous points instead of arcs, which I believe is slowing everything down. Typically, I decompose-compose to cut down on unnecessary points but this didn't work this time. Is there a method for optimizing the geometry?

I'm a master student and I'm looking to get VW on my laptop. I learned V11 in an office and I love using it for 2D drafting. My typical workflow is making 2D drawings, exporting to DWG, and then modeling in FormZ or Max. So, I looked into academic packages and there is the Vectorworks 12 Architect for around $330 and then there is the Vectorworks 12 Designer for around $150. From Nemetschek's description: "VectorWorks Designer combines all the exclusive technology found in VectorWorks Architect, VectorWorks Landmark, VectorWorks Spotlight and VectorWorks Machine Design into one easy-to-use program." So, my question is this: if Designer has everything architect has, why does it cost half? And, does designer work the same way as architect? That is, will I be able to use the same drafting techniques that I've learned in V11 architect? Thanks

I've been using V11.5 on my DP G4 1.25/1gig/128Gefore4 Ultra/10.3.9 and the program is sometimes painfully slow on sheets with a lot of references/viewports. I literally wait seconds for the drawing to regenerate itself (cache and hardware acceleration are on). I run AutoCad 2004 on a 733 P3 laptop and the program is smooth as butter even on big drawings. Has anyone expereinced the fluidity of AutoCAD? It seems no matter how small the drawing file, vectorworks seems to lag. I love the program, but sometimes it's a slow hog. Does a dual G5 with a new graphics card make the difference?

Speaking of batch printing... When printing a set of drawings, customarily we have to open about 45 files and hit print on them. This takes someone in the office 1/2 - 1 hour. We've started to consolodate a lot of the drawings with sheets/viewports, but we're still wasting a lot fo time for printing. Now, in OS 9 I remember you could drag a number of files to the printer icon on the desktop and the program would quietly launch and print everything without any input from the user. Is this possible with OS 10.3 or 10.4? Could this be done with a vectorworks script?

We just completed our permit set. So we duplicate it and rename it as the CD set. However, we have dozens and dozens of workgroup references which all point to the original folder Permit. Do I have to manually reset each reference just because I copied and renamed the folder?

WV, These crotchety old professors wish the best but are 1) behind the times and 2) luddites Yes, CAD looks like garbage compared with a quality hand drawing on velum. But CAD and CG are in their infancy compared with pencil and paper. Computer graphics will not develop better aesthetics unless students have to freedom to experiment with new mediums. Besides, computers are here to alleviate tedium, so use them to their advantage. I don't know what architects did before workgroup references! Frack the low grade - you're in school for yourself, not for your professors.

Thanks, I'm aware of that option, but I'd like to preserve the standard foor-inch dimensioning for the rest of the drawing. Is it possible to edit the elevation tool?

When using the elevation markers, the typical dimension is displayed as: 275'6" Is it possible to get the number to read as 275.5'?

Speaking of Vectorworks vs. ArchiCAD, I'm trying to figure just to how to take advantage of the BIM approach in Vectorworks. Are there any simple tutorials out there in how to make a complete 3D model which is then taken into 2D working drawings?

On Macs at least, hold down the option key.

Use viewports? What does that have to do with anything? Travis - the PDF book makes sense, but only if you're reprinting an old set. We usually print plans, sections, elevations in the latest edition - sometimes in Arch D and sometimes in tabloid. Well, maybe in Vectorworks 14 we'll see somethin like Indesign has. I wish Adobe made a CAD package...

Ok, thanks Peter. I didn't realize Page Setup had a submenu for Vectorworks scaling. In V10.5 you did it directly in the OS scaling box. Printing worked fine...it's just such a hassle to swith between full size and half size. I wish I could save these presets and tell Vectorworks: Print -> tabloid@laser (scaled 45%) or Print ->ArchD@plotter (scaled 100%) I suppose this could be an OS X issue as well, but I think Vectorworks could do it.

I still cant get a drawing that formatted for an ArchD to print out @ 45% on a tabloid. I set the print area to tabloid and then in page setup choose 45% scale...and nothing. The drawing remains 100%. The Page Setup in the File menu has no effect on the page size now! What's going on? In V10.5 you could easily set print sizes via Page Setup for half size printing.

We often have to print a whole set (50+) pages at half size to our laser printer. Usually we use our plotter with Arch D paper. Printing half size, for every single file we have to select page setup and change the page to tabloid scaled to 45% and printer to laser. Is there anyway Vectorworks could incorporate saved presets, such as: Print -> 45% to tabloid on Canon 3100 Print -> 100% to ArchD on HP Design Jet This would save so much time!

Sending to PDF and then printing is an even more complicated step. I'd like to see an option for setting up pages @ XX% and then send to size XX with one button. People print half size all the time. There should be presets that fit the drawing to a desired scale: Print to letter Print to tabloid etc.

We're on OS 10.3 and most of our drawings are formatted for Arch D pages. In v10.5, we'd open a file, go to page setup, and set it to 45% and then send it our laser printer for a 11x17 print. After that, we could reset to 100% and be back in Arch D without a problem. I tried the same method in v11.5 but the page size did not change. So then I went into Set Print Area, where I chose the size there. It seems liek Page Setup in the File Menus has no effect on the layout. The problem is this. If you're printing out a file with 10 sheet layers, you'd have to change every single layer to tabloid if you wanted half-size. Any better way to do this?

Very nice. Too bad it looses its parameters..

I'm using V11.5 exclusively in 2D and the stair tool saves me a bundle of time. Fantastic. Is there any way to use it in a sectional view in a 2D drawing?

Recently I discovered the flexibility of using symbols in drawings. Very nice feature. I decided to take it a step further and reference from another file via the resource browser. Very nice too. I drew up all my windows in a window schedule file, making the windows into symbols. Then in my elevation drawings, I loaded in the file via the Resource Browser and Voila! all the windows appeared, ready to plug into the elevation. So far, so good. Here's the problem: I go back to the window schedule and modify my windows. I go back to the elevations and the symbols are still old. I reload the file via Resource Browser and they update, but not in the drawing. So I place an updated symbol and the program replaces all the old ones the moment I place the updated one. However, I'd have to do that for each unique symbol, making the update tedious every time. Is there anyway to avoid this two step update? I'm imagining the Resource browser to automatically (or per user disgresion) update all or certain symbols, and then replace the old ones in the drawing. Any suggestions? Thanks, Roman

We use a simple file sever for our VW files. Of course when a file is open by another user, the message "-54 No write permission Attempt to Open File -FSOPEN" comes up. Is there anyway for the message to report who's computer has it open? Too often we're yelling across the office: "Who's got A2.0 open?" It would be nice if the dialogue would say: "Jeff's computer -FSOPEN

Thanks for responses, but... - 2D reshape tool did nothing to move the door - Entering a number in Length box did nothing to move the door - locus is manual, so is dimensioning for position - the position button OIP does not work the way it should. Instead of treating position as relative, it treats it as absoulte. Pointless on a long wall with multiple doors. Can't the door simply be moved 3" without any special tricks, like everything else in the program?