Dietmar Lorenz

Ray, in my experience you never catch everything that way. And changing libraries with thousands of symbols is tedious. That's why I ran the batch conversion from Version 10 to 11 on a computer that didn't have the font installed that I wanted to replace. It got automatically mapped to Arial, but the files seems to "remember" the original font and revert once it becomes available again.

Christiaan, I can see a consensus in giving the user the ability to rename classes and make those appear in the plug-in menue more easily. I'm not sure if "more meaningful" class names could be agreed upon that easily. That's why I was suggesting an "annotation" to the (limited) number of classes that appear in those pull-downs. In general, I prefer less classes in the program default, not more. Dietmar VW11.5 on PC

Eric, thanks for your advice. Adding a zero in the beginning didn't help, but your "Arial" codes work; they also seem to work for my Graphite Font. It still appears that the upgrade to VW11.5 brought the changes. Anyway, I came accros these helpful characters: ? alt 0178 ? alt 0179 ...but still haven't found 1/2 and 1/4. I can't find a way to view a complete character list in the PC font setup. Any idea where I can find that? Thanks, Dietmar

Katie, this is equivalent to what I described in my initial posting: I did open the file on a computer without Graphite installed, mapped Graphite to Arial, saved the file. When opening it on a computer that has Graphite installed, the mapping no longer works and the file reverts to Graphite font. Unless there is a way to purge the "memory" of the obsolete font, this is not going to work. It seems a "map and replace font" tool is needed to accomplish the task. Example: Your engineer sends a plan with Graphite font, the rest of your set is Arial and you want a uniform appearance, or better readability. You should be able to change the font setting for the entire file, without editing individual objects. Just like font mapping, but as a deliberate act, rather than a necessity, because you're missing a font. Please advise. Dietmar

I'd be hesitant adding even more classes but would find it extremely helpful to be able to annotate class names (e.g. style-8 [set invisible in MEP plans] or style-5 [perforated metal texture]) to make it more transparent how they get used in a specific project. The annotation should be a separate field, so no new class is created by renaming it. I can see the reason of style-# classes being versatility, as a "style" represents graphic attributes rather than a specific element of a design. A door swing and a window sill might share the same class for that matter, unless you want to be able to set the one invisible in specific sheet setups but not the other. Obviously this is a controversial subject, and everybody has different priorities and preferences. It seems there needs to be a good trade-off between minimalist restriction and lavish class creation. Dietmar VW11.5 on PC

I used to be able to enter these very useful characters by pressing the ALT key while entering three digits on the num-pad: ? (Alt 167) degree symbol ? (Alt 171) instead of 1/2 ? (Alt 172) instead of 1/4 ? (Alt 241) instead of +/- ? (Alt 253) square symbol Since upgrading from VW11 to VW11.5 it no longer works. Please advise. Thanks, Dietmar VWArchitect11.5 on PC

Katie, it seems to me that you can only map a font if that font is not installed on your computer, else it would not show in the left column of the mapping dialogue. Changing drawings manually is a daunting task, as text can be buried deep down in symbols, groups, drawing labels, worksheets etc. Certainly not practical for hundreds of files. The mapping tool should be enhanced to allow manual mapping of fonts, even if they are available on a computer, or a "replace font" tool. Any other ideas for now? Thanks, Dietmar

When upgrading from VW10 to VW11.5 I tried to replace the Graphite font in all of my files with Arial. However, I still want to keep Graphite installed on my computer. In order to use batch conversion for my extensive custom symbol libraries I installed Vectorworks on another computer that doesn't have Graphite installed. As expected, Graphite got replaced with Arial. But when I brought the file back to my workstation Graphite re-appeared. It seems the files retain a "memory" of the original font and revert to it when it becomes available again. Is there a way to permanently replace a font without having to edit each text element in every file separately? Thanks, Dietmar VWArchitect11.5 on PC

hong - in the keynote manager, the "sample keynote" db is active. in the keynote prefs, however, it's stuck on one of the databases i created, and i can't change it without being kicked out of the dialogue box with "Error: _159 _7 - Index outside array limits." in other words, i can't change the active db any longer. none of the databases involved exceed 250 lines at this point.

hi katie - is the info below still true for vw-architect 10.5? and please clarify: it's possible to point the keynote prefs to a (general) note db, but not the other way around? if that's true, all db files should be created out of the (general) note prefs, to be able to share them? also, can you help me with the problem that i described in the vw architect forum yesterday? i can't edit/remove a possibly corrupted db from the keynotes prefs. thanks quote: Originally posted by Katie: Keynotes and Notes create different databases, but you can set the Keynotes Pref. to point to a Notes database. YOu can only use the Keynote Preferences pointer for the Text Note and Keynote tools. (this is why you are allowed to point the keynote pref to the notes db) The keynote/text note tools limit you to placing 250 notes in the drawing, however each database can store up to 499 notes with each note no larger than 256 characters. There is no limit to the number of databases you can have, except for room on the hard drive preventing the text files from being created. (text files hold the database information) The keynotes/text notes tools can only be used for one database at a time - the current database Keynote Preferences is pointed to. If you want, you can place 25 notes from DB 1, you can then go to Keynote Preferences and switch to DB 2 and place 10 more notes from this database. You can keep going thru 250 notes on any given drawing. Does that help clarify limitations? I know, it's alot of numbers to keep track of.

thanks for your info regarding the 250 line limit. it's quite a limitation on the usefullness of a database if you constantly have to switch between different files. i was hoping to share notes between the general- and keynote databases. now it appears that i'd even have to split the general notes in different database files rather than sections within one database file. (dear monitor / tech supporter: why isn't that mentioned in the manual? it's always helpful to know where the ceiling is before you bang your head on it...). but back to my most pressing problem: i can't change the (corrupted?) active keynote database in the keynote preferences. whatever i'm trying to do (add/remove/edidt), a vector script error message pops up "error: _43 _46 - Index outside array limits." (the numbers vary). closing the error message takes me back into the drawing. what can i do about that?

hello there - i'd like to start using the database functions for note management in architect 10.5 and have a few questions regarding the general setup: 1) can general notes and key-notes share the same database? it would be good not having to maintain two databases in parallel, but at first glance, there seem to be two different formats. 2) can the database(s) live on a shared network drive? if so, would two users be able to access them simultaniously? 3) i created, copied and renamed a few database files and located them on a network drive. now i get stuck in the keynote preferences, when trying to select another active note database. whatever i'm trying to do leads to the following script error message: Error: _159 _7 - Index outside array limits. any way to fix that without a complete re-install? please advise. thanks, dietmar

Katie, thanks for the tip with the blue bar, I'll keep that in mind. The main problem, however, seems to persist: some prints turn solid black after a few inches. it may print ok through half of the title block (typically with uncorrupted text), after that, it prints a solid black sheet. the black area is not limited to blobs, patterns or objects; it fills the complete printable area (some 22"x34" of wasted ink). My printer setup is set to process the print in the computer (so it won't run out of memory, and it's set to spool, rather than print directly). I'm not sure what to do at this point. Any ideas? Thank you, Dietmar

Katie, Thanks for your prompt response. I'm using the HP 4.63 driver. The black printing occurs somewhat randomly, sometimes it plots just fine. There are typically a few inches of "normal" printing before the rest of the sheet turns black. I noticed, that often the text in these few non-solid-black inches is scrambled (all letters jammed together on the same origin). I don't know if that gives you a hint what the problem might be. Dietmar

Hello there I'm running VWA 9.5.2 on PC. Since switching to XP Pro, plots sometimes come out solid black, wasting a lot of ink. The plotter is an HP 430 D, there were no problems on Windows ME. I'm not sure if this is related to Vectorworks at all, like an incompatibility with the XP driver. Any suggestions? Thanks, Dietmar