Peter Eichel

Vincent, as Peter says, duplicate the staircase, ungroup it, move it to the appropiate layer and edit as required (2D method).

I worked for a short time at a shipyard in the engineering dept as a draftsman. They were using AutoCAD 14 at the time. The fellow before me, a graduate from the drafting program at the local community college, didn't use viewports in any of his work. I don't understand why anyone would not use viewports or for that matter, not having ever learned of their use. Viewports have certainly been around long enough. They absolutely simplify scale and printing requirements. I would like to see the AIA do a survey on viewport use, the results would be interesting!

I want to add the column "Elevation In Wall" to my window schedule. I decided to edit the unused "Sill Detail" column. Looking at the window height and window width formulas for examples I edited the sill formula to as follows: =(Window.ElevationInWall) Well, it doesn't work! Can someone please tell me how to do this. VW2009 Designer on Windows

Can an parametric octagon window be created by editing, lets say a square window and by someone without a degree in computer programming! Meanwhile, when are the folks at VW's going to have one of these to add to their current windows.

It may be un-rotating text that was previously affected. With the option turned off type in new text then save your file, reopen and print and see what happens. Also, make sure your not using the rotated text mode.

You may have the ADJUST FLIPPED TEXT on in VW's preferences. Go to TOOLS/OPTIONS/VW'S PREFERENCES. Under the DISPLAY tab you will see flipped text option. This option is not remembered from file to file so keep the setting it in mind when moving from one file to another.

"AEC bytes" has a very good review of AllPlan 2008. I expect it will give you enough information to make an informed decision. AllPlan is quite a bit more expensive than VW's and is designed to accommodate workgroups. I have the AllPlan 2008 demo but haven't gotten around to trying it. The demo runs for only 30 days so make sure you have the time to spend with it if you want to give it a good run.

Lisa: Use the FILE/DOCUMENT SETTINGS at the beginning of a new drawing. Start at the top command and work down. You can set units, printer settings, sheet sizes and types, titleblocks, viewports, scale and so on before you even begin drawing. It also sets up your classes and layers depending on the sheet types you choose (site plan, floor plans, elevations, sections, electrical, furniture etc.)It makes short work of organizing any drawing.

TO: VW's software engineers, can we have a system like ALLPLAN uses, check it out!

bcd: wow, is parallelogramminesses a real word! Your engilesh is better than mine. Anyway, thanks for the tip. I'm going to try it on this *#@+% roof.

What we need is for VW's to combine and trim roof faces, if it does will someone please tell me how. I'm working on a complex roof with different elevations (just to complicate things). I use the roof tool to it's max, ungroup and then edit the resulting roof faces. It would be so much easier if a tool was available to extend or trim all of the roof faces. For now it involves stretching the unlaying polygons back and forth until one "gets close".

Hello Will, I don't think that exporting to DWG will ever, ever, ever be fully satisfactory regardless of which CAD software you are using. If my main source of income was contracting out architectural drafting services in DWG format, I would, as they say "bite the bullet" and purchase the necessary software. Exporting DWG's to exacting clients is just not worth the headache.

Does anyone know how to raise a dormer window elevation greater than is presently possible via the roof/dormer pop-up. Dormer windows appear to sit lower than they should be and I don't want to get involved with a number of "workarounds" to achieve this.

I use a printer service when a client needs more copies than I'm willing to print at my home office. They not only provided the FTP software to transfer print files to their server but provide file backup at no charge. Now that's hard to beat! Check around, maybe your local print service can do the same for you. Their off site and most have excellent printing rates (unless you need color or mylar).

No matter how advanced CAD software becomes, creating good sections will always be a lot of work. Because of this I still favor the use of symbol libraries. They are easy to edit and already annotated. I have over the years created very detailed sections that I use over and over again. I actually have so many that I should start selling them. Section viewports can still be useful to use as a guide or template when editing a section symbol from a library.

You completely reworked the stairs tool and did away with the dual floor view! What were you thinking? I am going to assume that this oversight is going to be corrected in 2010 with the next service pack.

Sorry, VW's 2009 Designer on Win XP Pro

I cannot the stair handrail (or the guardrail for that matter) to show on the upper floor display in dual display mode. Is this a bug?

I've discovered the problem, changing a windows width, for instance, via the OIP only, will update the O.A. width in the schedule after a recalc but does not and will not update the R.O. size until the windows settings pop up is "opened" via the OIP or by double clicking on it. Another recalc is then required to properly update the schedule. I often make changes to an object using only the OIP and think that should suffice.

The window schedule seems to have a temporary "disconnect" problem. When I change the size of a window in my drawing the schedule does not update the change regardless of how many times I recalculate. I find that I have to navigate back to the floor plan and pick the window again (as if to verify any changes) then navigate back to the schedule and recalculate again before the change properly updates. Is there a refresh operation in VW's I'm missing as this is a real pain?

Geoff - I received both the CD and DVD. I copied the 3 missing library folders from the CD which did not include the Building Architecture & Interior folder you've mentioned . I have just finished doing a re-install and discovered that there are 59 files in this library folder. Prior to this I had only 25 files. I am returning the original VW's DVD so your people can take a look at it for yourselves.

I purchased my upgrade from Resolve Software Solutions Inc. which is the only VW's distributer in Canada. I know the disc was used because it was badly scuffed and how else can you explain missing libraries.

When I upgraded to VW 2009 I received a used CD that had my upgrade copied to it. Not only was the CD scratched but there were library folders missing, which brings me to my point. Does VW 2009 have any chairs in it's libraries? VW 12 had loads of them but I cannot find a single chair anywhere in VW 2009.

To VW's software engineers, please update the TASK MANAGER in VW 2009 with regards to the wall classes. It's a great tool for not only learning VW's class structure but also to navigate a drawing, so, when you add or change default class structures for various components, such as walls, I expect these efficiency tools to be updated accordingly. I do not want to see results such as "wall-ext-frame class does not exist" I do not want to have to spend time editing the TASK MANAGER so that it does it's job. That's your job.

Wes Thank you, I really need a course in worksheets! How do you show the window on the floor plan? VW's 2009 SP4 Win XP pro