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CipesDesign

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Posts posted by CipesDesign

    New User Training Manuals

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Jonathan, The manual that came with your software is a pretty good place to start. At first the learning curve is very steep, but soon (after a lot of late nights?) it gets much easier. If you get the chance you might attend one of the seminars put on by NNA (or by Janis Kent, if she is still doing them). You won't beleive how much you can learn in a short time.

    Plotter Choices

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Winnabagel, (interesting screen name. Are we traveling around in a land yacht eating deli food? Or maybe it's a contest?) Anyway, about plotters. I'm not sure what you mean by "entry level. " I can tell that I found an HP Design Jet 230 on Ebay about a year ago for under $800. It would have been a bargain even at $1000. As far as I know, you will also need a 3rd party PLOTTER DRIVER. The only one being written for macs is by a company called MicroSpot. If you want to print fast (and don't we all?) you may want to consider creating a small ethernet network (printing for me is up to 10 times faster). This will require yet more hardware (an ethernet hub and a printserver- the printserver is an adapter from your plotter to an ethernet cable). Okay, I know you're probably thinking "No way. This sounds like a giant hassle!" While I'll admit to a couple days of frustration when I first hooked all this stuff up, ultimately it was the most worthwhile business investment I've ever made. Not only can I print beautiful gray-scaled "d size" sheets in the privacy of my own office, I can also bill each one to the client(s) as a reimbursable. I've got it fugured out so the the equiptiment will pay for itself in about 2 years. If it is still around, it will earn $$$ for me every day. If you have more questions feel free to email me directly at <cipesp@mind.net>

    Peter

    Stair headaches...

    in Architecture

    Posted

    Suukmel (and others), I have been grappling with this issue (it seems like) forever. I have now gotten to the point where I will only use 3D if 1) a project is too complex to visualize in 2D ; 2) a client asks for it, or 3) just to play around. The fact is that 3D modeling in VW/RW 9.0.1 works great and much faster than in previous versions. You can actually model nearly photo-realistically. It does take a lot of time to learn and to do. The biggest downside is that it seems impossible to acheive the desired graphic attributes (line weights, shades, hatches, etc) when creating 2D WD's from 3D models. Hopefully this is something the software developers are aware of and working on. Best PLC

    Musical Drawings

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Hi JFMarch, Just curious: are you looking for photo-realistic pianos (ie: textured, etc) or just pologons to place into arch. drawings??? I think either would be pretty easy to draw in VW, obviously dependant on the level of detail required. BTW have you looked at ARTLANTIS? They do have a lot of objects, people, etc. available. PLC

    plt files for mackintich

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Michal(sorry about the spelling in previous post!), PowerPlot is no longer made. There are prople around who are still using it. When I tried to load a copy of it (before buying MacPlot) it would not work with my system. If you can find a copy you should try it, but because there will be no tech support available it may not be worth the effort (that was my thought). By the way, I think everyone realizes what sort of expense we're undertaking in order to do what we do. I know the software / hardware companies do. It is the price we pay and in turn the price clients pay us. If you figure out the cost invlolved in sending files out to be printed, including the fact that you cannot proof and re-print without sending them out again, I think you may see that your investment will pay for itself in a fairly short time-frame. Here's a thought: what if you charge your clients half of what it costs to send files out, as a reimbursable???

    PLC

    Saving vectorworks files

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I've had this happen a couple times, usually when I first accidently hit "save as" instead of "save". Usually if I change the target location (ie: to the desktop) the file will save, but will have the same file name as the pre-existing file. So I use the finder to change the file name before dragging it into its proper place. Hope this helps. PLC

    plt files for mackintich

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Michael: MacPlot is a pretty decent driver for a Mac based system, although it's not inexpensive. Make sure before you buy it to talk with the people at Mac Plot about you specific needs, plotter model and most importantly how you plan to connect the plotter to your system. Normal (serial or USB) connections are really slow. The best way I;ve found is to set up a small local network (LAN) using a hub. This will require a "print server" adapter for most plotters but will make plotting WAY faster (4min or so compared to over 10!)

    It took me a little time and some frustration to set up, but it was well with it in the long run.

    Peter Cipes

    G4 DP /HP DJ230

    Disappearing objects

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I have had similar problems which, in my case, were caused by a CLASS or CLASSES being invisible in the current drawing set-up. If this is your problem the solution is easy: go to the class set-up and make all classes visible, or find the object and put into a visible class. PLC Mac G4

    Plug-Ins

    in Architecture

    Posted

    Here's one scenario: you've created a "saved sheet" for your floor plan. It was created before you created the plug-in object. The PIO creates its own class(es). The saved sheet then needs to be edited to include this new class as visible. PLC

    Screen Scrolling

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I was at first baffled by the seeming inconsistency of the new scrolling system. I think now I've gotten used to it. To stretch an object, try heading your cursor to the corner (or wherever the edge is visible) and then bouncing back up (or down) when you've gotten close to where you need to be. PLC

    Beta Tester?

    in Architecture

    Posted

    As far as I can determine, this error message only appears when layer options are set to anything other than ACTIVE ONLY. In fact, when I print one of the rendered models after getting that message, it prints in wireframe even though it appears rendered on screen. I think there must be some way to produce a rendered layer along with other unrendered layers (like a title block!) and print it, but I cant seem to find it. Hope this is somewhat helpful.

    G4 450 DP HP DJ230

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