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dunsterville

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Posts posted by dunsterville

    Insurance for a VW Dongle

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    After a panic for about a week, over the loss of my Dongle, I finally called my House's Insurers: They took great pleasure in telling me that I wasn't covered under my present policy.

    So a question . . .

    Does anyone have any tips to make sure this sort of problem doesn't happen again; where I am covered, and to get the most value from what I have always thought as a 'Protection Racket'?

    (aside from never losing it in the first place)

    I work from home, and live in the UK.

    What's your preferred approach?

    PS: I managed to recover this particular dongle: I found it in the bottom of my vacuum cleaner's bag.

    12.5 Universal

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I have just been sent news about 12.5:

    Its Universal

    supports Google .KLM files for exporting to Google Earth

    Supports UK drawing standards (hooray!)

    680 Plumbing symbols from Kohler

    DWG/DXF improvements (how about DWF too?)

    Batch PDF for multple sheet layers

    improved Door/Window/Roof/Detailing objects

    and a bunch more things; it all sounds pretty useful.

    I've not found much notices posted on the web, so I'm putting it up here. The supplier in UK, ComputersUnlimited are who sent this to me, but predictably of them their website has no real news about 12.5 ? I'm really looking forward to getting my mitts on this.

    Anyone else had a chance to use it?

    Core Animation

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Well I feel kind of sorry for Islandmon here: beset by pedants on both sides!!

    Obviously, I understand the other side: we've all had that "you just press a few buttons and the computer does the rest" notion that clients have, and that false idea that just because they mention something, this new and un-planned for requirement not only automatically exists, but is set in stone ? again!

    What I do with colour changes is to make sure that my renders have individual alpha channels assigned to tagged objects in Maxon Cinema. This way, I can effect more of the suggested changes in Photoshop in a much quicker way.

    Dongle not detected, VectorWorks quitting

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I keep getting messages like this, I can't figure it out.

    I'm using a Titanium Powerbook, so it might be that. . . .

    ? the USBs have become 'dry joints' .

    ? the heat has caused things to expand (weather 33?C.) but obviously I'm in shade.

    ? there are problems inside the dongle

    I've tried to use a USB hub to see if I can isolate anything, but the same problems in different configurations.

    Are there any known issues ?

    Dunsterville

    Enable Interactive Scaling Short cut

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Zooming is simple with a scroll-wheel, give it a go . . . I bought the cheapest and most basic 2-button mouse with a scroll-wheel recently, it works flawlessly on my old PowerBook (with no tedious 'Wizard' set-up either).

    Don't worry about the so-called 'integrity and simplicity' of Macs . . . if Apple co-founder Woz, can admit he might have been wrong to go with just one button on the mouse -he was into the Bauhaus ethos at the time- I'm certain it'll be OK.

    Offset error or my imagination?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I'm glad others find this 'extra vertices' issue a puzzle ? all I can say is that similar offsets also occur in Amapi Pro, Cinema, it even happens in Illustrator.

    I've got used to it, I assume its just what happens when a line is copied and expanded in relation to the orignal curves rather than Scaling; using a locus, which is a very different sort of operation.

    Scaling document

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I take it you aren't interested in preserving a standard scale . . . ?

    If this is so, you can do this outside VW: if you save as a PDF (using your A1 settings) then take the PDF into a PDF Reader, in your A3 printer dialog, make sure 'scale to fit on page' is selected.

    Wall join challenge

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I've done it . . .

    although I don't have a website to post it to.

    I can see why what you're trying to do isn't working easily, but does it mean that its a bug; isn't it more a wish list item?

    I cheated by adding a third wall style; a 'blank cavity', and started-in from the exterior walls (rather than the other direction).

    MAJOR PROBLEM!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I had it happen when I was learning the basics : I'd made 3D prism to 'subtract' so that I could get an angled the top of a wall, nothing would restore that! ? have you perhaps done something similar?

    Good luck, Guy

    the local Degree show

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Indeed it is all about presentation:

    I was like the students here: until I bought VW, I was using adobe illustrator to do all of my technical drawings ? was hard work [and none too accurate!]. But it looked good, and different to all the drawings I was seeing, until I discovered vectorworks which had just enough of the potential for an individualistic looking work, without making the processor fry on a complicated project.

    Interesting David about what you say of your methods, I hear AutoCAD is pulling itself together for a new release that looks like it could be strong.

    the local Degree show

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by dunsterville

    I was pleased to see that some of the students this year, have made VW their main design tool. I hope this becomes a 'tradition': a group of "Spatial Design" students told me they initially faced discouragement from some of the tutors.

    I can only guess that the tutors were trying to pass-on the idea that DESIGN should be a process of seriousness and pain !

    Then I got talking to one of the Product Design technicians, who spouted complete tosh about the PC-and-aCAD combination as the only way to do what I've been doing with success on Macs for 6 years.

    As ever, it was the students who were the coolest; But the standard attitude of that age-group is to knock their elders ? This can be sad for the tutors of course, however in this case, I'd say the students were right to disagree with these old stick-in-the-mud attitudes.

    Good luck to them, it was a good looking show.

    http://www.bcuc.ac.uk/main.asp?page=1831

    http://www.bcuc.ac.uk/main.asp?page=5522

    DWF files

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Thanks very much for that information. What you've written doesn't surprise me at all.

    What I'll do is to tell the client from being such a fool, and send it in a format that we'd previously agreed works for us both.

    A book from Islandmon please !

    in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests

    Posted

    Is there any chance of VectorWorks approaching and commisioning a document by the venerable Islandmon? It would really be excellent to see Islandmon's working methods in practice.

    And his methods really are astonishing ? some of the things he does with 'fractals'(?) look like a really great way to produce complex and optimised models very accurately.

    Pretty pretty please?

    Regards, Guy Dunsterville

    PS: so what if he also uses other software like filemaker or the very pricy mathematica, to do his initial calculations ? we're all grown-ups here.

    Access to older threads that used to be here

    in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests

    Posted · Edited by dunsterville

    I like the changes to this forum, except that VW has reduced the number of replies from the past.

    I've found these old posts and answers to be a really useful archive of trouble-shooting methods.

    Backup hardware is relatively cheap now, so why bother going through a process of deciding which thread should, and which shouldn't, be culled...?

    Trawling through the sheer number of these pages, has helped me so much because they can be used as a great method of getting into the VectorWorks Philosophy.

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