Peter Eichel

Can these tools be modified to include rectangular profiles. Often as not I cannot use them because of this design oversite.

When setting up a new project, I add a perspective and elevation view under the Auxiliary Plan type to my file. This automatically sets up my saved views which allows me to jump to either a perspective or elevation view with a single mouse click. I use the Model View Tool in the Visualization set to create my model views, and from there, it's just a matter of using the number pad to see the views you need. When I'm ready to create my four elevations simply go through the views and Convert Copy to Lines. Very fast and efficient. I prefer a screen as uncluttered as possible and saved views works very well to accommodate this.

Sorry, some specs VW's 12.5.3 Win XP Pentium 4, 3Ghz, 2.5G RAM ATI Radeon Sapphire HD 2600 PRO, 512MB DDR2 Memory

Generally, VW's is fairly stable until this new problem. When annotating viewports (30 in this file) VW's crashes when I delete anything I've drawn. It's become so prevalent that I now exit the viewport, save the drawing and re-enter the viewport to delete any entities I've temporarily drawn while crossing my fingers. Any ideas?

Katie: I am working on millwork details for a large high school. The file is about 20 Meg and I'm using a lot of VW's cabinet tools. The larger the file gets the slower VW's runs. During a single viewport update the operation went on forever and VW's became non-responsive with the CPU at 50%. I discovered that in the VW's preference 3D options that the 3D conversion res. was set to "very high". Changing the setting to "low" fixed the problem. I can now do a global viewport update in less than a minute which is a big improvement and no crashes. VW's 12.5.3 Win XP, Pentium 4, 2.9GHz, RAM 2.5GB ATI Radeon HD 2600Pro with 512MB DDR2 memory

Update your DTM before placing objects on it.

Bill, right click anywhere on the screen and pick class options. Choose the Show/Snap/Modify others option. These options can be set in any views you create, which explains why in some views you can seem to pick everything and in others you can't!

VW's has a property line tool that does a great job, you may need Landmark or the Designer series of VW's. I draw a lot of site plans for a retired surveyor and wouldn't consider the work without this tool. The only flaw is it's inability to draw just one property line, as it wants to close the "loop". I draw the line I need and another to create the closed boundry the tool requires, ungroup the result and delete what you don't need. You'll also have to decompose the actual property line as it's a polygon.

Use the NURB curve road with the bed & fence options picked, place your road and send to surface in the OIP. Pick your DTM and in the 3D option choose proposed and update. The DTM will mold itself around your road. Do all of your roads first and update the DTM to avoid common errors. It's a good idea to review the available movies on Nemetschek's website.

To VW's software engineers, how about it? Can parametric objects other than walls be classified as structural objects with regards to VW's section viewports? This ability would allow more flexibility in displaying hatch patterns and save me a ton of work.

Brian: I have been trying to determine the same thing. I need to apply two different hatch patterns in a base cabinet section viewport, one for the cabinet body and the other for the countertop. If I could get VW's to "see" the countertop as a structural component, problem solved. For now I have to annotate the section viewport which is a lot of work on a large project. I've tried to accomplish this with VW's classes but no luck, even sent the problem to tech support who were unsuccessful. If you find an answer, please let us know!

Bill: Create a top with VW's countertop tool. Duplicate the top you just created and make sure you have them both picked. Do an operation and your tops will become a single solid addition. Change to an isometric view and you can now radius the edges to produce the profile you need. You can also make corner counter tops the same way, just rotate the duplicate and you'll have it.

Jonathan: Ungrouping a single top in plan view explodes it into 2D entities, you need to be in an isometric view for the ungrouping operation to turn it into a solid, however, if there are two tops in plan view, the add solids operation will join them both into a single solid. Go figure! Step 1-Duplicate your single top Step 2- Move it a few inches along it's length Step 3-Pick both and

Jonathan: Thanks, you got me thinking. I ungrouped a countertop which becomes either a solid addition/substraction entity, depending if it has a sink hole or not. Now you can radius any edges and still change it's length or depth. For a corner countertop, make two and rotate one 90 degrees. Do an add solids operation and you have it. WOW!!! VW's and it's workarounds!

You can draw cabinets with the countertops turned off in the OIP. Instead use the countertop tool to add a countertop to one or more base cabinets. This tool also has the ability to cutout a sink and locate it.

Bill: Top item 3-Turn counter top overhang to 0" for a workaround as this eliminates the dash line whether counter top is on or off. Bottom item 1-Hard to program, I string together multiple cabinets. Bottom item 4-I draw cabinets without countertops and add using the countertop tool which allows sink holes to be added. In addition, one countertop over multiple cabinets eliminates the dividing lines in various views and if changes are required, I would rather edit one top than five base cabinets with their own tops. Question-does the reveal setting work backwards? Counters are built with a thickened perimeter for strength and appearance, while the center area is usually 3/4" thick. This tool thins the edge which seems useless to me. I have to annotate the section viewports to get the counter right.

VW's cabinet tools are pretty good but it would be helpful if there were separate parameters for the base cabinets base. As it is now the gable extends to the floor which is not how all cabinets are built. The bases are separate and inset from the gable. A scribe would also be a nice addition for every type of cabinet.

I purchased an HP Designjet 110plus about two years ago for $1300. Its limited to 36" wide paper so you can't print ARCH E size. You can purchase an optional roll feed for $500 if you don't wish to handfeed single sheets through the front paper feed. There is also a second front paper feed that will store letter size to ARCH C sheets that feeds automatically. I couldn't justify the cost of buying an expensive plotter so the 110plus was perfect. I too am a PC user with VW's 12.5 and this printer works flawlessly. The stand, by the way, is a ridiculous $500 so I built one. Great value for small business.

Is it possible to change the thickness of cabinet components such as shelves or backs with the various tools provided in VW's. The standard appears to be 1/2" thickness.

Benson: I used a copy of the original polyline that formed the brooks winding path in the DTM, converted it to a NURBS curve and "extruded along path" an appropriate shape. Worked beautifully. Thanks for the tips.

Any advise on adding a realistic stream or brook to a DTM.

Would the cased opening in the DOOR TOOL do the job for you. Set the size you need and specify no trim.

Bill, pick your roof object and make a copy with the Modify>Convert>Convert Copy to Lines command. Choose the Hidden Line option in the pop-up box and you will have a 2D outline of your roof configured as a group. Double click your new entity and change the class to Ceiling-overhead, if you wish, which has a default dashed line and the layer to your floor plan. Remember to change all of the lines that make up the group and the group as well. Your roof object is now still a roof object with all of the benefits that entails and it's very easy to create a new roof outline if things change.

Andrew, the shrub appeared as it should in the 3D box of the PLANT TOOL, it's after I've placed the plant in the drawing that it appears as a 3D loci in an isometric view. When this happens the plant (3D box) should appear as a texture in the resource browser but it instead is under the symbol/plug in section of the browser. It must have something to do with the duplicate tree/shrub plants (copied to the default folder) confounding the PLANT TOOL. This is what I mean about erratic behaviour in VW's.

More problems! I copied the conifers & deciduous Xfrog files to the default folder which worked great until I needed shrubs. After copying the shrubs to the default folder the new PLANT TOOL creations showed as 3D loci. I discovered in the resource browser that the shrub texture was in the symbol/plug in section along with the 2D plant icon. I also discovered there are duplicate textures in the shrub & other tree files. After removing the shrubs from the default folder it looks like I'm back in business but I've lost hours dealing with VW's quirks and strange behaviour. With all due respect, your team needs to focus on ironing out the many behavioural problems in VW's.