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Jerry Baker

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  • Occupation
    Precision Sheet Metal Bender
  • Homepage
    Coloredpencilguy.tripod.com/jbstudio/page-01.html
  • Hobbies
    2d/3d Artist, Precision Sheet Metal, colored pencil art, fishing, girls...
  • Location
    Denver, Colorado USA
  1. Your system File Helper settings (if Mac) are set to use a particular "Helper Application" to open files of that type. That is why other applications see it correctly but visually on your computer "you" see it as the system thinks it should be displaying the file "as" so that the proper helper applcation can automatically deal with it. You probably already dealt with this but I am cruising the forum.
  2. I have had success converting objects to NURBS and then utilizing the Extend NURBS tool in the Model menu. Its pretty slick too since all you have to do is click/select the vertice point which blinks red and then type the dimension and as well you have the option of changing the direction of the vertice too which is also pretty slick. Then after that if a NURBS object isn't what you want or need you can in fact change the model back to its original form.
  3. I really would like to upgrade to version 10 but feel that my experience with the software has to progress a little more before I think that it is a productive expense for me to do just yet. My problem that I have is that I am a self learned computer artist and have many applications that I am learning to utilize and so by the time I even get close to developing a good working understanding of all the tools another upgrade comes along before I even produce anything more than beginner level doodles. At my web site I have a number of examples of what it is that I am testing out as learning exersizes. Coloredpencilguy's Art Gallery I have a "LOT" more in work on both my G3 and G4 and will be posting updates but the site is approaching a revamp again due to I have to develop a good somewhat professional presentation of what it is that I am into and available for. As far as Mechanical is concerned, I have conducted tests with one of the engineers at work to find file exchange compatabilities and all of that went really well, however I am a Brake Press Operator and not an engineer at the moment so my influence with VectorWorks is a limited thing due to the simple fact that AutoCad and SolidWorks are the major players overall in that business along with the Mastercam areas of translating drawings to machine code for output to the Amada Pega's or Milling and Lathing machines is a separate application so applying Mechanical in a purposful way so far is a "personal" endevour from my own stand point. I was looking at an application called, "Cobalt" which like VectorWorks is a cross platform cam Cad software with 2d and 3d and NURBS capabilities software but an additional 2 or 3 thousand dollars investment on a prospective basis ideal that, that is something that I want to progress towards occupationally wouldn't really be a good move simply due to the fact that I think a PowerMac can produce a better product as an end result and requires way, way less technichal attention machine and software wise. But all-in-all my real goal is to only play a part in the design and presentation aspects of a company that utilizes VectorWorks or VW Mechanical as an ultimate goal really. What I am really trying to do is gain a working knowlege of this type of CAD Design software and thereby become a possible valuable asset for a design company that needs people that not only know the CAD software that they use to design with but can also produce the artwork required to present the final product to the client. That way there are a possibility if working for multiple companies in a virtual manner and from one location.... my studio. As far as the software itself is concerned it "is" everything and then some of what I need or expect, it "meaning you guys" have "NOT" failed and I am looking forward to many, many years of working with this software to produce a lot of what I am doing in concert with all my Adobe and other 3d tools. Thank you for your patience with me as I continue to learn at my own pace in my own way. Jerry
  4. It was after extruding... which is what made me do a double-take when I noticed it... However after doing a Curly Joe action I re-made the extrude which was a flange and a return flange it stayed put and the model works ok. You are right and I think that I will attribute it to sun spots. I am progessing in my knowlege of using the software little by little. The only thing that gets me perplexed any more at this time is layer linking. For the most part I stay on one layer and that seems to be ok for the time being but have come to relaize that combineing both a 2d sheet with a dimension sheet and a 3d version of what I am making requires that at some point I really need to develop a good or better understanding of layer linking in order to separate the 3d aspects of a 2d drawing. Thank's Tom I hope that you haven't taken my posts the wrong way I know that you guys are kept pretty busy.
  5. This is both a question and just a post of an occurrance. The other night I was working in Mechanical 9.5.3 and had begun a profile of a sheet metal part (of no real importance really) and I extruded the largest part of it to .063 thick... no problem then I went about adding a few flanges to the edges and to two areas that extended out at the sides. I did this exactly the same as the main body of the part and was after estruding and then moving the upper return flange in 3d space to the proper height, using the Add Surface command to make the part/now model all one piece. Everything went really well and I was saving the file at each step to preserve what I was doing and then I went back to the "top view" to look at what the drawing was looking like there and then back to the 3d area and noticed that the two extending areas of the main body that I had added two .500 inch flanges to had totally dissapeared! I then after a couple of moments simply re-did what I had done before and then it saved and remained the way that I had created it. Ok, the question of course is... Are there an explaination for such an occurrance? Otherwise I am back at it as normal just kind'a wondering what the heck happened. This by the way was being made all on one layer. Any idea's? Jerry Coloredpencilguy's Art Gallery
  6. Hello, I have recently posted two posts... both of them I was afterwards thinking that I remember someone, maybe Tom U. state that they were going to leave the CNC translation to the, Mastercam people so maybe I am a little off base with my inquires but it is a real need in the sheet metal business on the other side of drawing a shop print for the production floor and I wanted to know all that NNA has to say about it. The software is really a great set of tools and is still and will be for a long time beyond my skill level yet I have not seen hardly anything surface regarding the Mechanical stand point of use since I upgraded from VW 9.0.1 to Mechanical 9.5.3 and there seems not to be too many others really asking too many questions. However I have also requested information and offered assistance in the sence that I work as a Press Brake Operator everyday and have been for closing in on a good 20 years and am trying to train myself to work with drawings and learn the proper software in which to produce and work with sheet metal but get very little attention. I have read other posts that are valid topics and they seem to go un-answered. One of the reasons that I have sort of held back from the version 10 upgrade is mainly due to the fact that I am still learning with what I have but have not gotten very far into the current version that I have before another upgrade has come along... That's all cool and stuff but I was thinking that I was utilizing the most current version in which to learn with to use... the other reason that I have held back a step is because the cost of the upgrade compared to the lack of additional functionality added and purpose of it as well as good support for the Mechanical version leaves me thinking that it might not be as worth it as it seems. "NOT really knocking the software at all... I like it a lot." But aspects of the precision sheet metal trade require as much detail and attention as would for those that build the buildings with VW. Developing is another story so I know that talking like per'se I am is one thing, developing the tools to perform what I am talking about is completely another much less having to know the software better than the users that buy and use it. I personally am an individual that has taken the initiative to go to an expense to obtain what I feel is the best all-around software tools that I can obtain for my PowerMacs in order to continue onward with ongoing education and self learning and betterment. Please don't make me think and feel that I have been a fool for doing so and respond to the questions that I have placed in this forum so that myself, others and yourself can benefit from its discussion. Please take this correctly in that I mean no offence but am becoming a little irritated for the first time thinking that even though the VW crew that is developing the software is a somewhat small crew... I know that you guys know what you are doing so I expect a little bit more than what I have gotten... Prove me wrong and enlighten us, that would be all kinds of cool. Anything new coming up in the Mechanical version in particular? Jerry
  7. The guys at work said to ask about, Wire and EDM integration for CNC Milling and Lathe also. Hellooooo.... Any sheet metal shops out there? Jerry
  8. I agree with Katie, I have Volumes 1 of both the CD's that NNA make available thru Improbabilty... and they are both worth it. I am getting the follow ups soon as I can obtain them; after the 10 upgrade anyway... That'll come first. Jonathan Pickup, whom watches the list has a lot of really affordable and well done PDF style tutorials. And here's another good one. http://www.jrarchitecture.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/vw.html If I find Jon's URL address I'll post it here... Jerry
  9. Yep... a dwg or dxf works great from AutoCad or most anything to VW. If the draught that the designer has made is a 3d model as well then instead of a dxf which can look rather rough an .igs/.IGS format will look pretty much exactly the way it does on the host computer and software including lights and all. Also. a .3ds or .3dmf file format will be a finer model format than a .dxf but .dxf is a world standard and is a bit more compatable in a consistant way. Jerry
  10. Jerry Baker

    IGES

    Nope... That didn't happen until after version 9.1 after then though you can. Strata 3D Pro finally added that format to import/export , man-o-man that was cool of them. Jerry
  11. I was just thinking that the 3D PowerPack would most likely be a good alternative to the third party 3d software for "Skinning" the traced bitmap image of the plane that you want to build.
  12. I have not actually done this yet but know of a Strata and VectorWorks user by the name of Larry Travers that does car and truck models... and he sort of explained to me how he accomplishes them. He did most of them with MiniCAD 7 but what he told me was, he obtains a bit map image of whatever car he wants to detail in 3d and from all quarter angles and then he imports the bit map in VW and traces it, then he exports that and imports it into Strata 3D Pro and "Skins" the traces. I skin if you don't know is a 3d modeling tool called a skin and it works kind'a like an extrude or loft in that it will create a "plane" layer from all vector points in a drawing.... an EPS might work that way; anyway then he converts it to a mesh I am pretty sure and pushes and pulls vertices until he gets it the way he wants it to look and all that is left is texturing. Hope that, that may have helped. He, "Larry" watches the VW User List so you might want to post your question there and maybe he will see it and reply. Hope that helped. Jerry
  13. Ok I have already just posted something similar in another post as a reply to it but a lot may not see or notice it so here goes. After having VW Mechanical for quite a while learning CAD on my own outside of the sheet metal shop that I work at, I have pondered two solid things that I feel will be of importance to both NNA and its users that own or work in sheet metal or machine shops. The first is along the lines of an auto setup sheet that can be generated from a resulting cad file drawing for precision sheet metal bending fabrication. The setup sheet or spread sheet could collect data from all aspects of the drawing and place that info in specific places in the spread sheet like bend lengths material thickness angles dimentions "per bend step" (most shop owners are pretty hip to how what they are developing will bend up like and in what order. Bend deductions or bend allowances dirived from material thicknesses, radius (inside or outside), and angle and an area on the printed out put to fill in the actual machine numbers (dimentions) and step sequences for bending for following part runs. The other thing that I am in a fog about since they do not use VW at my job so information is real thin... and I have not seen too many Mac shops yet either so that makes that worse... Cobalt... a CNC and 3D/2D Cad software so far is the closest that I have come to finding a solution for shop drawings/model translation for output to the shop production floor for CNC lathing or milling. Mastercam is a PC based application that they use where I work at in the machining div.; my question is this.... can Mechanical accomplish the same task to the shop floor that Mastercam does? If so then Paaalease.... point me in the right direction, I really would appreciate that a lot. If not, then when will VW add that type of metal shop tools to Mechanical so that, that type of translation can happen? I have tested with cooperation of one of the Engineers at my shop how well VW works criss-cross with AutoCad and a PC from my G4 at home and that all went down perfectly... nearly no difference at all and the same back to me... I in fact have newer capabilities regarding file format compatability than they do and they have AC 14 or better. Only a few things that NNA could add over time that will have a real impact on that productive buisness community overall. I really think that these two aspects should be a serious area they should cover and then they could really talk &^%$ to the other guys. What do you think Tom? The sheet meatal bending attributes such as an auto calculated bend deduction or allowance would be something that would make drawing a layout a little more productive and efficient... if the setup sheet thing could happen then that would impact that entire industry that VW Mechanical touches... "I"... I developed a setup sheet for precision bending that was n't but did float around to other shops here in Denver and "it" had a serious impact on productivity and drop in scrap rates and run times. When you are ready to communicat on the topic Tom shoot me an e-mail... I have a lot of information that I can give you that will allow you to revolutionize Mechanical in that regards and make VW a hotter item than it already is. Jerry Jerry
  14. VW Mechanical is already a great tool for drawing prints for sheet metal work... AutoCad doesn't got too much on them... I was in the machining division of the company that I work for and noticed that they were using an older version of Mastercam to to the solids and 2d trandslations for output to the shop floor for production with CNC Lathes and Mills and thought... I wonder what I have to do to be able to accomplish the same thing with VW Mechanical. Does anyone yet have any experience using VW or VW Mechanical for the purpose of CNC Machining? Jerry
  15. I was communicating with NNA just before 9.5 was released and was addressing just the same issue wherein there should be a plugin or module as you put it to auto generate a bend deduction or bend allowance per the material thickness and inside radius and angle used, using common bending and tooling standards and come up with a drag and draw solution of some sort. Maybe NNA is working on something like that now and we don't know it. I would also like to see or once I learn to do so myself develop a spread sheet layout that will allow me to draw and dimension and have that data automatically stored in a SS that will print out like a pre-formatted set up sheet for the Press Brake area that would look sort of like an Amada Press Brake data entry box on the machine with a third angle tiny render of the part that can be edited to included bend step numbers or sequences. The rest can be filled out by the worker and could be issued or printed out at the time that the drawing is released to the shop floor further increasing the organization of physical work flow to and on the shop floor. They already have the parts and items list that automatically tabulate all of the items in a drawing... so I am pretty certain that it can be done. Jerry
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