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panthony

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Everything posted by panthony

  1. One of the main things that architectual employers often overlook is a draftsmans knowledge of the industry. I have found over the years that it is much easier to train an individual to operate a CAD program than it is to teach them how to build. Asking simple questions that seek to find out what a persons depth of knowledge in structures (pieces and parts) will tell you whether or not they will struggle in the CAD end. Pete A.
  2. I used VW to build everything. And a combination of Corel(an ancient version) for creating textures that were applied in VW and Form-z for environment lighting, image mapping and rendering. Pete A
  3. Just thought I would post this pic with some of the work I have been doing in VW. High resolution image for download link Pete A.
  4. Spinner, In ballon framed construction the blueprints will show the full 2 storey wall on both levels as there will be windows and doors necessarry at both levels. This can be easily accomplished in VW by keeping the exterior ballon framed walls on thier own layer With two seperate class definitions for the first floor and second floor openings to be turned on and off in thier respective viewports. Just something to consider. The other method would be to create a redundant set of walls (don't think that would be smart though as you would need redundant windows also). It's the openings that are going to be troublesome. Pete A
  5. Taoist, In order to show soffit returns correctly I create small roof planes and modify thier geometry to fit accuratly under a gable soffit as shown below. Hope this helps.... Pete A.
  6. Awhile ago I posted some info on finding roof collision valley lines which may help you in understanding one type of process to follow in creating complex roof layouts. Finding Roof Valley Collision
  7. Kellhammer, I work in residential design and have a sample set of condocs on my web site. These are around a year old so I have made some improvements to the look but it is still close to what these are. Toulouse Plan Set of Sample Drawings Hope this helps. Pete A
  8. panthony

    Tools

    Thom, You would assign the key/combinations equivalents to your mouse program directly. I use the left and right wheel buttons for "control+6" and "Control+4". Plus I use the forward and back buttons for "x" and "ESC". The logitech program allows you to set up buttons for individual programs also so I have several programs with different button assignments. Pete A.
  9. Pete, Michael, Britsteve, I have solved my screen flicker issues by taking a look at my hardware set-up and noticed that my motherboard had a 24 power supply socket and the power supply had only a 20 pin plug fastened. The power supply however has an adittional 4-pin plug that was meant to be used in a 24 pin socket. After plugging in and a restart all occurances of the screen flicker have dissapeared. For what its worth. Pete A.
  10. I don't know if anyone knows this but Adobe has a product called distiller that allows print to PDF directly from applications which can then be attached to an email. The only thing is that it takes a few more steps than the macites have but I use it all the time. Pete A
  11. David Can't you adjust the grain direction directly from the OIP Render tab > Rotation rather than going all way down to the texture map? Pete A
  12. David, I have noticed that the direction of a texture in a single unmodified solid will render in the direction of the map. However if you have a solid that has been subtracted, added or intersected the mapping direction does not orient properly due to the fact that the edited solid is in a group. I have a real problem in solids that have been rotated from the X,Y plane and have been cut such as would be accomplished with a rafter plumb cut or ridge cut. My work-around has been to convert the solid to nurbs and work with the planes independently...takes time though. Pete A.
  13. Christiaan, On a PC all you need to do is select Alt-Print Screen and the contents of the active window are copied to the clipboard which you can then paste to and email window in Outlook. The screen window image can be zoomed in on any particular detail and the image will be copied at the current screen resolution as a bmp. If you like to have the entire contents of the screen copied and pasted selet Ctl-Print Screen. I've been using this for years in windows as a way just as you have found to send a quick email with a small Kb footprint size wise. Good tip for the macites out there. Pete A
  14. ptar, I use lines, fills, hatch and whatever is needed to get sections the way I like them. Sometimes this involves drawing over entire areas of the section cut to hide unwanted detail. I have not found an easy way to reduce unwanted data in a section viewport... even when I spend considerable time in making a perfect model...just takes alot of work sometimes to get it right. Pete A
  15. Bruce, Do you leave applications running overnight including VW? I would strongly reccomend against that practice as what is happening to you indicates improper shut-down of applications caused by the sleep power function. The sleep function does not properly close running applications as a default the applications view the sleep as a system power crash. I have disabled any power saving systems on my computer as they are problematic. I never leave any applications running if I know I will not return to work with them before even the screen saver comes on (and that is set to only 10 minutes). I don't leave my email, web browser or any other application running unless I am at the computer working. I got into this habit years ago when I had an office of employees who left applications running overnight and would come in the next day to corrupt files, applications and even Operating Systems. This lead to alot of wasted time in recovery. Their main excuse was that it took to long to wait in the morning to launch their programs...I think they were looking for ways to waste time and get paid for it. Then they got into the habit of just shutting down thier monitors and hide the fact that thier programs were still active. That ended real quick when they had to perform recoveries on their own time. When you fix your workspace do you close VW and start it up again before starting any work? When starting a new session of VW directly after setting up, saving and performing a CPU restart does the workspace come in OK the way you desire? If, after you close down all applications overnight and leave no processes running except the core CPU systems, and the computer goes to sleep, when you wake it up then launch VW does the VW workspace open properly or skewed? Do you run system maintenance programs when any applications are active? Please don't take this the wrong way...but you need to narrow down what is causing the corruption problems and you have got to cut yourself and your operator habits out as being a part or even the singular cause. Your a woodworker so I know you can appreciate knowing that you can use a metal cutting jig saw blade to cut finish veneer but its not the smartest way to get the job done. Each tool performs a specific function and sometimes you can get away with forcing it to do something else when your in a hurry or just being plain lazy...most of the time you should have taken the time to use the proper tool...huh...and this spoken from my own carelessness and stupidity. Hope I have not offended you in any way...from the look of the fixture you have drawn in your post you are a professional with talent and skill which I am sure took many years of figuring out how not to do things wrong in order to get professional results. Pete A
  16. ptarmigan, Are you using the same layer and class for the overlay lines as the layer and class of the section viewport? Or, are your sections generated with thier layer and class data intact? I normally process all of my section views to a single line weight, color and fill which than allows me to draw over the top of the section in annotation mode with identical data. Pete A
  17. A couple of weeks ago I swapped out my Geforce 7600 video card for an old raedon and this provided a slight improvement in VW performance but was still unacceptable in that it took way to long for the OIP to populate with data the first time anything was selected. After seeing how riduculous this whole situation has become with no real answers I decided to perform an autopsy on my computer over the weekend. I found that my mother board had a 24 pin power socket and the power supply was only using a 20 pin plug. After digging around through all the wires there was to my suprise a 4 pin socket comming from the power supply made to fit with the 20 pin to fill the 24 pin socket....so throwing caution to the wind I plugged the 20 and 4 pin plug into the socket put back in my Geforce 7600 card and cranked up the machine. No sparks or puffs of smoke and everthing works fine. VW13 is running the way it is supposed too. The slowest objects to populate the OIP are WinDoor's and they only take around 3 to 4 seconds. Thought this info might help others out there who are have trouble with VW 13 and Geforce 7600 NVIDIA cards. Pete A.
  18. Hugo, I have not seen any tool available that will place the arc length on a drawing. You can only reach the Arc Len through the OIP and possibly write a script to place the dimenstion. Maybe just and quick to copy/paste from the OIP to a callout for just a couple of arcs. Pete
  19. Chance of door collision is minimal based on natural occupant movement. For instance, if you were to be of the type individual who cares not of privacy than the main entry from the bedroom/bathroom to the water closet/sink room would more than likely remain open and unfastened. This would only be of consequence if say there were a second occupant who was to enter the the water closet/sink room from the service hall and because of your propensity to never secure an opening an occurance of complete and total embarrasment would take place where the second individual will have been thouroughly disgusted at certain sights and smells and run screaming from the structure to never return. Point is the closet door never entered into the picture thereby negating code and/or any other violation except for common decency. Now say, for instance the certain second occupant were to have returned with agreed upon conditions and noticing that a huge storm were to have suddenly come into the area ran into the bathroom as you were soaking in the tub. Only thing is because you neglected to close the linen closet door after towel selection the second occupant not only destroyed two perfectly good doors but landed in the emergency room with multiple fractures from the collision of doors. It's all about makin sure the fricken door is closed and/or locked. Pete
  20. This is one of the benfits of viewports where you can overlay multiple viewports one on top of another (making sure to set the viewport fill to none) thereby creating the effect you are seeking. This technique used the same layer with different classes turned on or off in the overlay of viewports. The first viewport shows the floor texture, the second the fixtures, third the walls in plan (sketched). You can experiment with diffent settings to achive desired results. All is doable in VW. Pete A.
  21. Darrell, No...you won't get tossed. VW is a very strong 3D CAD system that I am very satisfied with, however I am looking for a system that will provide me with some rather complex animation tools. I am developing a series of post and beam homes that will have an animated assembly manual. This is not your typical fly-by or walk through. I will check into animation works from Oscad.
  22. Need opinions on what is the best 3D animation software that is compatible with VW such as Form Z or C4D. Seeking to move to next level in design. Thanks Ahead, Pete A
  23. You are correct...but, we are talking about symbol objects. Symbols are distingiushed by dimension...width, height, depth. They can however be populated with varied data attached to the object defining its character. I would not want to have multiple instances of identical geometry differing only in informational data. That information can be added via records or ID labels. Its the difference between buying a screwdriver from the corner hardware instead of Wall Mart. Same screw driver but the one from the corner store was easier to get.
  24. It's easy to dishtinguish between the left and right by sight. A fire door is informational that data can easily be added without affecting whether the door is left or right. Same goes with steel doors and jambs...informational. The symbol can be many things but you can't have a bi-fold and left hand door share the same symbol...but they can both be fire rated and steel. It's all in perspective and besides the country of NC is warm and cozy...so we are easily amused. Pete
  25. OK...> I would like to throw in on this one. I'm with Pat on this in that waaaaayyyy back in the days of DOS and Unix and my old standby XENIX naming conventions were at best hyrogliphic. So I had to adapt and make up some kind of system that would allow my 2 existing non-burnt-out hippie brain cells recall what the hell I was thinking when I named that file...you'all know what I mean. With VW you are limited to one, single, unique name for every object in a file. It sucks cuz I ran out of unique names about 30 years ago when we were trying to come up with unique names for mind altering substances like bb's and ludes. So my system involves numbers in sequence of a series of digits that are represented with letters that mean something. Take for instance the symbol library.... The symbols display in the resource browser allows only two lines of 10 digits each to label a symbol. With this limitation it is very difficult to name something where anything beyond 20 digits will be truncated leaving making the name essentially non descript and with some long names useless. My window and door symbols use an alpha sequence naming convention like this.... OO-OO-OO-O First two digits identify the Opening ID DI - Doors Interior DE - Doors Exterior WN - Windows The second two digits identify the Opening Type SW - Swing Hinge BF - Bi-fold PK - Pocket BP - Bi-pass DD - Double door SG - Sliding Glass SL - Slider AW - Awning DH - Double hung CS - Casement FX - Fixed OH - Overhead LV - Louver The third set of digits identify the Exterior Wall Veneer BK - Brick ST - Stone SD - Siding SU - Stucco GP - Gypsum The final digit identifies the wall thickness 4 - 2"x4" wall 6 - 2"x6" wall 8 - 2"x8" wall The second line of 10 digits is used to identify the manufacturers or product label such as 2/4-6/8 for a 2'-4" x 6'-8" door or 3777 which is a Pella Window Label. So a final read for a 2'-4" x 8'-0" interior, 6 panel, hollow core, hinged door in a 2"x4" Gyp sheathed wall would be... Line 1) DI-SW-GP-4 Line 2) 2480-6P-HC This is the best way that I have found to index symbols in some kind of order that makes it easy to scroll through them and find what you are looking for quickly. But then again cotter pins hold a roach better than paper clips because the steel is slightly anealed allowing the built-in spring tension to have a higher holding strength as opposed to a paper clip which must be manually reconfigured and subsequently will have adequete retention but loose its effectiveness as a paper clip and have only a single use for its intended purpose and be disgarded when the user finds that it conducts heat much more readily thereby causing it to be tossed. Well...where did you think all of this environmentally, sustainable, green building science came from anyway? islandmon said #%*!
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