gScott

anyone notice the hush from messrs. anderson + ouellette, the two people who do, or should, know what is happening with the stair tool...

vincent, the "2d-upper-level-trick" is exactly what the 12.5 stair does, and i guess the 20xx "old stair" still works the same way? if you look at the lower level in 3D the full stair is modelled regardless of any cut lines, but if you look at the upper level the stair from the lower level is not there at all, even though is does show in 2D... i suspect it is drawn in 2D by the PIO, as a calculated routine, rather than a hiddenline top view, because it wouldn't make mistakes between the 2D + 3D representations if it was just a rendering of a 3D. but i guess it would be slower to render than draw a calculated 2d? we live in hope, and frustration

jnr, i have a different problem to you slow to upgrade because i really want to feel i have outgrown a version, or because a new version has a totally compelling new feature i actually need and if the 2011 stair doesn't get to the upper level then it isn't a good reason for me to upgrade. the useful features of a stair is actually getting from one level to another, the upper level being as important to me as the lower level, but maybe i don't really understand stairs as well as NNA...> i'm also a bit nervous of upgrading now due to the unusual situation of too much work + no time to get up to speed with an upgrade... we'll see how 2011 is received + if things slack off i'll give it a go...

jnr i have a series of viewports + section viewports to view the stair from all sides + dimensions to try to figure out what it's doing. toggling the top tread only makes it worse, it changes the 3D to match the 2D, but the stair doesn't reach the correct height anymore! i've narrowed it down to the fact that i have a 90? winder at the top of the flight, i.e. 2 treads to turn 90?, which it shows in 2D but seems incapable of getting right in 3D the 'upgrade-will-fix-it' mantra is nonsense. 12.5.3 was a serious upgrade to 12.0, yet the stair tool has a major technical defect. from the sounds of it the new stair does less than the V12.5 tried to do and is even less fit for use... hopefully, it doesn't also make mistakes...

on the topic of the horrible stair tool, i've just discovered a very nasty glitch in the VW12.5 stair tool. our structural engineer saved us from hitting site with incorrect drawings when she noticed her section wouldn't match my plan... in this case the tool shows the wrong number of stairs in 2D, <1 tread shorter than it says it is, and who actually counts every tread?> the nasty reality rears its head toggling between 2D + 3D plan views, the stair jumps one tread longer, and doesn't fit the carefully planned space allowed for the flight. on this extremely tight site, the stair is a pivotal item + governs the geometry of all other rooms.... i wonder if my PI insurance would chip in if a screwup like this arrived on site? i know NNA wouldn't... and now who knows how many hours work tweaking everything to get it to work thanks for nothing NNA

assemblage if the layers are not identified using the 'By Layer Elevations' option vectorworks can't tell which layer is meant to be the upper floor. it would be great if it showed some kind of intelligence + used the file's layer Z dimensions and the stair's "overall height" to figure out which layer was meant to represent the upper floor, but optimistic as i'd like to be, that isn't going to happen. and trying to do it as a symbol over a number of floors is certainly not going to happen automatically... your best bet, if you want to use symbols, is to use the stair tool on each 'lower level' and make a 2d symbol traced over the top treads of the full stair, representing the upper floor, with 2d loci marking the bottom of the stair so that you can paste it correctly on the upper level relative to the lower level. then turn the break on for the lower level of the real stair... a performance but i can't think of a better way of achieving it with the limitations of the tool

pat brilliant! works on VW 12.5 too at first i couldn't get it to work using NAME (N=) as the criteria, and resorted to the VW help... guess what? the help didn't help! and when i finally got to the VS reference page the CRITERIAAREA example was wrong, they'd just slapped in the AREA example... gosh, was i surprised?! not... the cell we needed using the "block 1", "block 2", "block 3" names in my spreadsheet example is: =CRITERIAAREA(N='block*') in my example i put this at the bottom of the database so that it looked like the total in my spreadsheet version. database in row 1, in cell B2: =CRITERIAAREA(N='block*') in cell C1: =B1/B2*100 in cell C2: =C1 just to 'total' the percentages .......A..............B..................C 1.....=N....=AREA/1000000..=B1/B2*100 1.1...block 1......20m?..........40% 1.2...block 2......20m?..........40% 1.3...block 3......10m?..........20% .......................................... 2......................50m?..........100% nice solution, pat!

i don't think you can do it as a "database" as long as there are not a finger crippling amount of polys i do it this way... 1 polys are all named. eg "block 1", "block 2" etc or whatever 2 on a spreadsheet make a column listing all the named polys eg. .....A..............B..............C 1...block 1 2...block 2 3...block 3 4 5 3 in the next column enter the following formula in the top cell, in this case B1, and then copy + paste down the column + the reference modifies itself to point to the appropriate row: =AREA((N=A1))/10000000 4 format the column for your area eg m? you will now have all the areas next to the names, eg: .....A..............B..............C 1...block 1......20m? 2...block 2......20m? 3...block 3......10m? 4 5 5 total the areas column below this, say in B5 =SUM(B1..B3) note the location of this total (B5)for the next step 6 now in cell C1 enter the following and then copy + paste down the column + the reference modifies itself to point to the appropriate row: =(B1/$B$5)*100 of the area total, in this case B1 becomes B2 as you paste, but the B5 remains constant> 7 format the column for percentages you will now have all the percentages next to the names, eg: .....A..............B..............C 1...block 1......20m?......40% 2...block 2......20m?......40% 3...block 3......10m?......20% 4....................----........---- 5..................50m?......100% hope this helps...

hardware will never close the gap, if you want speed, get art.lantis. alternatively, reduce the number of lights, crank all your rendering settings down + incrementally work them back up until you get a compromise between speed + quality that suits you

i have a symbol with all the main levels dashed, with benchmarks, all set relative to the symbol's 0,0 datum. slap that in the annotations, at the correct height relative to the model + fewer screw ups are encountered on site; only one set of levels to update + keep an eye on..

robert, saved me hours fixing a terraced landscape where i started copying, many times, a wall i had added 5 height nodes to.... when i checked the 3d it looked like an ice castle! the script worked perfectly thanks

christiaan that's one of the nice things with artlantis, you can get your artlantis materials mapped to your VW-RW materials, your natural lighting + skies tweaked, artlantis furniture + planting, then save that file to use as a template. you can then export a new VW model into it, the old model disappears + the new model takes all the old settings, as long as you're disciplined in VW with your generic materials. then it's a matter of a bit of gardening, furniture + camera arranging in artlantis and you're ready to render. very fast. i still do a decent application of RW materials + lighting in VW, as i can then work with clients in real time + it looks pretty good. and that way the file is very close to being ready for export when i want good renders...

bruce don't let political correctness blind you colour blind people may well have design ability, but they should not be choosing colours, particularly in applications where their colour perception may have a totally negative or contradictory effect, green stop signs etc i suspect mike either has a really bad screen, or is colour blind himself, as there is no default brown + blue windows colour scheme, as far as i can remember... however, with windows you do have the freedom to make your interface as ugly as you like, unlike the cult of cool, but that's a horse of a different colour kisses kisses

stuart, on VW 12.5.x there isn't layer opacity. we try to draw rigorously using class graphics, and then set the class settings of the walls etc, in the viewport to be skinny + grey, and big + bright for the services, using the normal colour palette so you can get the right shade...

gws what, poetry? i also think it's rubbish iPoetry 2.0 was rubbish PoetryWorks 2010 was rubbish MS Poetry Office 2009 was rubbish we don't need no stinking poetry

cristiaan i did a speed reading course a long time ago> + they maintained that people can read short lines more accurately + faster than long lines, where you can get lost if you glaze over for a second + have to try to pick up again where you lost the plot... it stuck with me + i wrap the lines myself is firefox 3.6 ok?

christiaan do you use the VW or, the adobe, or the mac PDF output system? some VW files make huge PDF's using the VW PDF output, and for those i use the adobe driver, which has all sorts of settings that let you reduce file size. does the OSX PDF driver have compression settings you can fiddle with? it's definitely not cast in stone though, sometimes adobe PDF's are bigger than VW PDF's and i've never figured out the reason yet re clients/recipients; sometimes a gentle bit of geek help from me can break through ego's: their computers end up working better + they trust me a little bit more about all sorts of other architectural things...

or, even better, what about a PIO that does it by itself without all that fuing about? mmm, kind of like the old one? wasn't someone from NNA going on about "draw it once"? peter's alternative is pretty good but could we get there in, say 47 steps? maybe a competition for the longest way around? i seem to remember a VW8 era stair tool that even gave you the option of indicating overhead headroom, which is actually staggeringly useful in figuring out the possibilities for the hole in the floor above in tight situations. now we have to toggle back + forth to section VP's to check headroom... you can't always get what you want, and sometimes not even what you need.... is RA still about? he could sort this...

in the windoor 12.5 PIO: 'opening sizes + types' 'custom head settings' change 'none' to 'sloping up from left' 'create mullions + transom' 'slope' = 0 'left spring' = 2" 'right spring' = 2" 'component sizes + style' 'common components' 'jamb thickness' = 2" this makes the leaf 2" shorter, so raise the overall height 2" if you want a standard door height this will not give a horizontal line across the "middle" of the top frame in a hidden line view... but it only works where the head is to be 2x or less the jambs' dimension...

you can't, 'it's a feature'

artlantis has some pretty well hidden hidden 'pre'-"post-rendering" options that let you fiddle general brightness-contrast-saturation options, as well as some basic sketchy-pastel-glow options. it's not piranesi, but it's better than RW

it depends on what you want to achieve, how much time you've got to do it, and how much you want to spend i would suggest artlantis is next best for speed, quality + integration with VW C4D + maxwell appear to be more powerful + "accurate" but i don't have working experience with them so can't comment on how well they integrate with VW + how easy they manage + apply your material library

louis i would definitely recommend vectorworks architect, but only get renderworks if you think rendering will be done within vectorworks. there are many ways to model + render and sometimes rendering "outside" the main application is faster

christiaan ok, enough of my flippancy. i don't think that a PIO could possibly anticipate the myriad ways people will try to do a balustrade. if i could do a balustrade the same way twice i could make more money with standardised details, but real life, my clients, and i aren't like that. the best thing i do with with the PIO hand rail is to set it at a height of 2100mm to check headroom in section VP's, which, odd as it sounds is actually extremely valuable to me. we do very tight, chi-chi projects where every cm counts + not screwing up the headroom is an issue, every time. so i don't think we can expect PIO flexibility in every aspect... grovelingly yours gideon

dear petri remaining off topic, "public housing" in south africa is barely driven by 'construction' let alone "Architecture". district 9 will give you a fair impression of the vast majority of south african accommodation, 'nigerians' + aliens excluded... definitely more preferable, your stock design, than what has been illustrated as, presumably, superior euro design. sorry, keep forgetting that that uk is still trying furiously to remain non-euro. but then again, i know 'bugger all' about europe, thomas, milkwood etc... presume you left enough space between flights to get the bolts in to hold the glass, we africans have enormous fists and getting the spanner in at the top + bottom can be a pain in the whatsit ok, enough... kisses kisses