IanH

Phew. Thought my brain had suddenly forgotten basic maths. Still trying to work out how KA gets 16.25Km2. Thinks he is the one for a basic maths lesson because my calc also gives just over 4Km x 4Km for 650000 points too.

5m intervals is 200 readings per linear KM is it not? So thats 300 x 300 readings, 90000 readings. Where does the 650000 come from?

Wow. That's a lot of data. Once its in, its going to be a pain to manage if its simply a set of coordinates with no structure. When I do a Total Station survey, I normally create about 400-500 sets of coordinates. Importing as comma delimited "ID, Easting, Northing, Elevation, Description" takes no more than a few seconds. What format do you think the file is in and what command are you importing it in? I wonder if you are trying to import an ascii dxf file as x,y,z coordinates. Maybe you could post a couple of lines of data?

Only just picked this up. Hope its not too late. As highpass mentions, in the Piranesi/epix export dialogue, set the image size to reflect a higher dpi setting. The standard is 72dpi and this cannot be changed, at least not with 2008/09. You probably want to output close to 300 dpi, in which case, multiply either the width or the height of the pixel dimensions by 4 to give 288dpi - ie simply type '*4' and enter after one of the two dimensions and VW will calculate the pixel size of both for you. Once exported, check the resolution in the Piranesi file properties and real world dimensions match. The export Epix/Piranesi available with renderworks would always appear to use (final quality?) renderworks with shadows irrespective of preview setting. The ePix file is a multi channel raster format file. If you don't have renderworks, then you need to use Vedute as supplied with Piranesi. Its use is quite different as it takes a dxf (amongst other formats) vector file as input and renders this into a epix raster file which can then be loaded into Piranesi. It is far easier to set views using the Epix export function if available, even though it does not output the colour names which subsequently translate to Piranesi materials. I have a Vectorworks to Piranesi tutorial if anyone is interested.

Dongle free is available to selected customers on request. However, if you loose the dongle, I believe that the license is changed and is less flexible in what you can do with it.

Bring back printed manuals in addition to the electronic copies... I don't care about the number of trees saved (can't see why you need to sacrifice a tree to print a manual) or reduced shipping costs by having them only in electronic form, its simply marketing speak for cost (ie end user value) reduction and a chance to sell an extra and up the effective price. There is nothing like having a printed manual to thumb through whilst not sat in front of your computer.

Unfortunately, I found quite early on with 2008 that it was best to avoid rotate plan and only use it when absolutely necessary. Its a shame that this appears still to be the case. If you want to rotate a plan to permanently orientate it, its best to rotate it in a viewport. This reduces the number of operations that need to be performed in rotated view. Submit it as a bug. Its the only way this functionality is likely to be improved.

Only design series versions have pdf import.

I'm not really sure what I am suggesting as colour space is quite tricky to manage if you are not in full control of the end to end process. I use a calibrated scanner, monitor and printer and often find myself tweaking settings depending on the type of document I am working on - it would be fair to say that I am not 100% sure what I am doing as much is by trial and error, but at least, in a calibrated environment, I can see the effects of my changes. However, I generally take the following approach. I work in the colour space of the source unless I am manipulating colours, or the application does not support the colourspace, in which case I work in the colour space of the application - which I think in the case of VW is RGB - having had a quick play of your colours I have found that I cannot actually input CMYK colour values in 2009 under windows, so I assume its not CMYK. Then, if I need to output in another format, I either leave it to the print/ad bureau to do the convert and send me the proof, or I convert using the highest quality conversion that I can - ie Photoshop and proof it myself, and trust that the print/ad bureaus printers are correctly calibrated. The fact that my printer prints in CMYK is immaterial to me even if I am working in RGB, which is 95% of the time as I have calibrated it for the paper that I intend to use, so leave it to the application, my calibration software, the printer driver and OS to get it consistent. But this does rely on the application being colour managed, which VW (at least 2009 and before) is not. If I print direct from VW, colours will differ, often by significant shades, from the calibrated approach using Acrobat with colour management. Looking at your required colour, and the colour VW changes it to, in Photoshop I can see that the difference in shade is insignificant compared to using Vectorworks printing without colour management. So yes, as a starting point, use RGB in VW and export to Acrobat and use colour management in acrobat when printing, if correct colour rendition is important.

Its the last of your worries. Vectorworks does not offer colour management for printing so won't print colour calibrated anyhow. Workaround is to export as PDF then use Acrobat and colour management to a calibrated printer.

Have you looked at Piranesi?. You appear to have all the 3D info you need so exporting it to Piranesi either via epix or dxf/vedute then hand painting it will, IMHO, unless you want many different views, will give the possibility of better final results. Many people use Sketchup as a modeller to Piranesi, in fact, probably 90% of the Piranesi gallery will have been done this way. Using Vectorworks as a modeller and Sketchup as a renderer seems counter intuitive to me, although I do accept that there is an additional cost, slightly more than Google Professional, involved with Piranesi. There is a low resolution (800x600) trial version with limited textures and props available on the Piranesi website. Learning Piranesi takes probably a day experimenting to produce the first sketch. Its then substantially faster once you have it sussed - I spend about an hour per 'render' when I need to produce a client image. If you can use Photoshop, you can easily adjust to using Piranesi.

Chris Out of curiosity, are you associated with this product from NSW Australia? I don't think it matters if you are, but I personally feel that it is an aid to openness if people make it clear that they have a vested interest with products that they are trying to promote.

Wouldn't it be simpler just to use metric

2D polygon can take some time with more complex outlines. Also worth saving your work prior to use as its not unknown for VW to get itself 'confused' and windows mark it as not responding. Plus groups and layers can affect its operation.

I didn't import raw survey data prior to using 2008 to it may be slightly different in 12 but what I use is the import survey data command and specify the format, of both the field delimiter character and of the coordinate method. I import exactly the same data as you. This then creates stake objects at the x,y,z which you can then set to display different options, albeit only two fields, such as elev and description or point id and elevation. Certainly with 2008/09, do not set the stake object mode to 'use as 2d graphic only' as it loses elevation data. Also, if you use a point id that includes a prefix and number, ie 1W1, this is not always imported correctly. For this reason, I actually additionally export the point id as part of the description and have a script that then runs across all stake objects and correctly populates the point id prefix and number. hth

Not necessarily. 2009 may exercise the video card in a way that the other versions does not. So the problem only shows in 2009 but may still be a video card/driver issue.

That's lucky as all 2010 upgrade products are listed as being out of stock.

Vectorworks 2010 has been shipping in the UK for some time, just not the upgrades which are mostly still marked as 'due soon'.

Also, if you are running a logitech mouse then it may be worth updating the logitech drivers or trying standard mouse drivers.

You need to edit the viewport crop - assuming you have one which is why your viewport is too small.

Jeez. Having to download VW over two consecutive months just to avoid breaking a download limit. Up to 2 months delivery time - that's progress for you. Call the UK telco industry old fashioned.

Ouch.... mind you, you should see what we have to pay for a Leffe And they refuse to sell it to you in pints - something about 'for your own safety'

A 4GB Vectorworks download would break some peoples internet usage limits. Personally, I prefer my software (programs, audio and videos) to be tangible so I can do with them what I want - put on shelf or RIP for instant access and store away the original. The thought of a virtual present (electronic gift voucher) for a virtual present (download) makes me want to weep. Call me old fashioned. But Birthdays and Xmas's are depressing enough before not even getting a real present.

That is certainly the cheapest way to get a double version upgrade. But its only available for a small time frame which I suspect is now past as no 'to 2009' upgrades are listed as being available. FYI. 2 license upgrade 2009 to 2010 is exactly what you specified for your 2008 to 2009 plus free 2010 upgrade. ?390 2009 to 2010 1st license ?309 2009 to 2010 2nd license ?815 inc VAT and shipping. Full licenses are shipped tomorrow but upgrades are still due soon.

These are the current official UK rrp prices for 2010 Architect/Renderworks 1st license unless stated. All are plus VAT (temporary 12 month 'recession beating' cut to 15% but back to 17.5% from Jan 2010) plus P&P. ?1649 2010 Full version ?1334 (as above but second license) ?390 2009 to 2010 ?683 2008 to 2010 ?780 v10, v11, v12 to 2010 ?893 Pre 10 to 2010 ?220 Architect 2010 to Architect/Renderworks 2010