Stan Rostas

Here is your curved surface. First draw the shape in Top/Plan as a Polyline Copy this polyline then extrude a couple of feet. Then extract the top surface of this object and move it off to the side as this now will be a closed Nurbs Surface. You will then have to increase the U an V points and would suggest you rotate this in accordance with how you would like to move the points up or down. I took a guess to create this finished shape.

This is a bug and you should report this as such. Bug Submit

Report is as a bug. The Door Plug In Object should know to mirror the hardware object.

Should not the Z value for a layer really be K which is the alternate Value given for a Working Plane? A design Layer that is moved out of the World Ground Plane is nothing more than a horizontal working plane is it not?

Hanson Brick This might have Textures and Images you can use. They are US and Canadian but might have something close to what you need.

Maybe Nemetschek North America needs to add an "Errors and Omissions" clause in the licensing of the software to dispel any expectations of perfection! As has been said, new features and tools, bring new bugs. The Question gets to a point made earlier, should Nemetschek North America not release any new features or Application versions till the presently released version has all major bug fixes implemented?

j.christ Have you been to any of the other forums for Revit, Microstation, or ArchiCAD, heck even AutoCADD? They are all about the same as most people seem to speak passionately about features that keep them from doing there work as opposed to features that enhance their work. This one is no different. phanta rei just started a list of all things one finds that has helped with their work maybe you should chime in?

He lurks below the surface, beware the wrath of the northern wind.

3d objects do not use 2d line or fill attributes, you should have used either the Floor, Pillar or some other hybrid object that gets you 2d and 3d in one object. Hybrid objects are one of the foundations of Vectorworks and you should tone up on usage.

Ray would need to know how you intend to manipulate then render the textures. If you use "Planar" mapping then the texture will only be correct on the face chosen but you will be able to use the Attribute Mapping tool to adjust, if you change to "Perimeter" Mapping then you will have to rely on the Offset parameters and Rotation to adjust. If you go to the Render Tab of the Object Info Palette you can change the Texture for the Group of Letters and it should render as desired. The issue I think your facing is that the Letters can have a solid fill as well as a Texture for Rendering under the Render Tab. If you Assigned a Texture then it will override the Fill color in a 3d view. The Letter needs a fill though in order for it to Render the Texture chosen. You can change the "Letter" Texture to any material of your choice but would suggest using names to textures that are associated to the actual texture, for instance Metal Chrome or Metal Cast Aluminum.

Customize With the little tine Arrow at the bottom of any of the Tool Palettes or Menu "Tool-Workspaces-Workspace Editor. Just Remember Vectorworks is primarily Noun-Verb in tool operations for most of them anyway and it will help. You need to Right Click, or option click, to see if the various tools have other options that are not readily apparent as many have what are hidden functions.

What everyone forgot to tell you though its that if you hold down option while drawing the Marquee you can zigzag through the floor plan as you desire. Just make sure you do not start this Marquee over any filled object as it will instantly select that object and stop the Marquee function of the 2d Reshape tool. And yes the 2d Reshape tool does work with objects selected while in a 3d view. But beware as it will stretch only in the 2d screen plane and not in a 3d workplane.

We would not suggest you do what you are proposing as it will cause issues. Even though you can, you should refrain from linking to a Design Layer in another file containing a Design Layer Viewport from another file, thus a Reference you have no control over for updating or visibility configuration. This method of referencing will eventually create a visibility management problem as a user in the file with the Design Layer Viewport can change its Class or Layer Visibility settings which will propagate to all files you have set up this way using the Reference of a Reference, which most likely will not be the work you wish to represent in the file target file.

Yes, you can. The crash may be caused by the Reference wanting to update upon File 2 open if you have it set to Auto Update the Reference. To solve this issue open the File 2 what ever way that works and change the setting. What may be causing this issue is the dialog to change the Walls effected by the wall style change cannot complete thus causing a crash. This is just a guess and it could be something entirely different that is causing your crash. You can report this Bug at http://www.nemetschek.net/support/bugsubmit.php

You will have to Reference in the floor plan one to another on their own Design Layers and set the heights to match. Then you will be able to have the stair use the Design Layer height you have set to generate the stair configuration and graphics.

He She Said Here is an image of a School Project entirely modeled structure, finishes, and site all in Vectorworks. During the 2 weeks to model this project we only crashed once. We work on Mac's which may be part of the story and have no experience on Windows. Having worked in the other BIM type apps you mention, they to have had issues. They may not have crashed as often but we have had many many error messages denying the operation. For the price difference in software you could buy all a 30" monitor. This latest release of 2009 SP2 is quite stable comparitively for an application that gives you all this capability. It sounds like you already have a leg up in that you have users who are already familiar with the way the software works and will be able train the others. Good luck.

In my opinion, there's no easy and flexible way to organize sheets, layers, and viewports for detailing in vectorworks. In my opinion, it is one of the least flexible aspects of the software. It's an area where everything is a workaround and a compromise because of the software's limitations. So you'll just have to kludge your way through it. So if it is not to your liking how should it be done? What would make this work better and create the Nirvana for Sheet layout with Details? Just wondering and so may NNA?

John You may not need this now but you can also go to this site and start to learn Vectorscript. Vectorlab

If you get Landmark and Architect that combination used to be the same cost as the Designer Series. For landscape the Landmark series is a must with all the plant libraries and textures available. Depending on how much Architecture you do the Architet Series would also have an abundance of resources to facilitate your designs. Pat Stanford on this list is in LA and can assist you but he may know of someone closer to your area. You could call the sales office listed on the website to see if anyone else is in San Diego.

Lets see if this one works. Still not working, not sure why, lets see if this second one works? OK secong .TXT file is downloading which you will have to change to .zip to unstuff.

John You could look at this and reverse engineer it to see how it was written. This may be what you are looking for though and no VS required.

David Presently the pickins are very slim for the online tutorials and any DVD tutorials. You can use the help system as a start point. You may want to create some of the standard reports and see how they are formated to gain insights. Good luck.

You may want to use the menu command under Tools:Update Plug-in Objects and see if this door symbol, which may have a old door object, can be updated to the new Plug-in object type. If this is a simple graphic for a symbol, then delete the symbol from the File and from the Resource Browser to see if the Door Plug-in Object becomes operational. Of course this is the brute force method rather than the eloquence and sophistication of the previous two posts.

Chad You can use the 3d Reshape tool in Top view and change the configuration of the nurbs curve path or you can use it in a 3d view and snap to the wall edges if the two coincide. One just has to take care when editing in Top view that either the Z value or K value remains the same as you adjust the position. If you have the Profile placement in relation to the path at a point that would allow you to snap to logical 3d positions it works fairly well.

Ideally it would be best to reference the Wall Styles into each of the plan files so each plan is using the same resource upon updating of the reference to this Wall Style file. The method proposed requires one to re-import the resource to make sure it is updated but will give you more control of the update process as to which Wall Styles are brought in to the file again. You can use this reference method but it may cause wall join issues upon updating and it will update all the walls from that file. In the reference method would suggest you have a Wall Style File per project copied from your office standard file, creating a start point.