Gytis

I dunno....I think I have to agree with Pat here. For me, Extrude Along Path works consistently and as expected, with the one sore point of having the profile center being the default for the path. Though it IS an added step, the level of control relative to 0,0 and profile elements is excellent, IMHO. Snap Loupe and improved cursor in 2009 has made it even better.

I hear you Christiaan. I see the wisdom then of a simple copy.... K.I.S.S., right?

Not my area of expertise, but I've used Get Info>Sharing and Permissions to specify User privileges individually. You can set some to Read and Write, others Read Only, so they can only open a copy and do anything they want w/o altering original file. That would seem to serve mvsubstations needs...

I don't know about Windows, but in Mac OSX, you could set permissions to read-only. You may want to add a signature with relevant info: OS, VW version, hardware....

Lots of hatch resources at VectorDepot Hatches (OLD) Try the great new ones so generously shared on the new site too. BTW, it will be helpful for yourself and others to post version, OS, hardware etc. in signature....

BTW, there is no attached example, but I think I understand. Select all involved lines and polylines/polygons, use Modify>Intersect Surface..voila. May have to delete polyline/polygon, depending on needs.

Well at least we have a companion, unlike with our primitive standard of measure. I, too, find the door triangle more logical as the rest of the world uses it. Still to this day, I have to fairly consciously contradict my instinct.

...and Split Tool doesn't work on the 3D polygon?

Yes, meshes are generally to be avoided. Difficult, sometimes nearly impossible to edit; moreover, resource-devouring, depending on number of vertices. That being said, lots of objects import as meshes (read:Sketchup), so they are hard to avoid. Vectorbits offers an Optimize Drawing plug-in which can be used (with caution) to reduce vertices. Otherwise, NURBS are your friend, and use symbols and nested symbols whenever possible to reduce redundant calculations.

Would it be a 3D polygon or a NURBS curve? I think polyline is 2D by def. Split Tool should do the trick.

Chiming in from the archaic side of the Atlantic Ocean, the conventions are as in UK, i.e. dashed line for all and point at hinge.

Not that I've used it yet, but apparently in 2009, you can have a non-planar path for Extrude Along Path.

I suppose the modest consolation in these life-critical instances is the engineered redundancy and use of old, thoroughly tested, stable code. OK, maybe not so much.....

Thank you, quigley, for a dose of realism. "Bug-free" will never happen, so long as humans are ambitious and willing to experiment. The potential ease of technology is so seductive that when technology stumbles, we are aggravated beyond words. I believe we must find our own gray area, a balance of functionality and ambition.

In the Constraints Palette, double-click Snap to Object for the parameter on 3D edge snapping. Some of these dialog boxes are pretty buried and easy to lose track of......

Ya, done that...but it sure would be nice not to lose the object intelligence. Seems like a common enough condition-I think I'll wishlist.

Don't use this tool much....so there is no way to have a horizontally aligned single duplex receptacle, as might go in baseboard?

Nice detective work, Constable Christiaan. Very kewl!

Fredrik is correct, if you have VW Arch or Designer--in Libraries>Objects-Imperial and Objects-Metric there are folders of SubZero, Wolf, and generic appliances. For others: some manufacturers provide 2D/3D CAD files, and numerous websites, like Sketchup's 3D Warehouse have models of various quality. Search and ye shall find.

Don't worry about the date of release, it will be actually almost exactly a year from the release of 2008, which was Sept. 13, 2007.

Default is Shift+arrow=nudge Change to arrows only in VW Prefs>Edit>Arrows...

Yes

I dunno-I can't manage a machine screw with any "reasonable option", ie 1/4 dia x 1" long. I can't find it in Standard workspace, or any other. Maybe it is only in Machine Design and Designer?

Looks to me like your friend has Machine Design. Is that possible? There is a good fastener plug-in at Vector Depot .

Meshes are pretty difficult to work with and are generally to be avoided. If you double-click (i.e. edit) a mesh, you see that it is a bunch of 3D polygons. You can delete entire polygons, but not individual vertices. You can move individual vertices by selecting with a marquee begun outside of mesh. Depending on what you are trying to achieve, use various 3D Modeling and Powerpack tools. If you are importing something that becomes a mesh (ie Sketchup objects), it gets kinda tough to edit, as far as I know.