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dlstudios

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Posts posted by dlstudios

  1. My service bureau uses an HP455CA and I had the same slightly smaller than scale problem when printing the Acrobat files that I created from my VectorWork files. The problem is that the HP driver shrinks a 24" x 36" sized image to fit its printable area which is less than 24" x 36". The solution was to create a custom sheet size in the Adobe PS driver that was smaller (23 1/2" x 35 1/2"). Everything prints right on scale now. Make sure that the HP driver is not shrinking the image to fit a sheet that has a small imagable area than 24x36.

  2. First, check to see if you deleted the elements of your drawing by going to the "About MiniCad" command on the apple menu (if you are using a mac - I don't know about the PC version). That give you a count on how many items are on that layer and how many items are in the file. If there's still something in the file and on the active layer I suggest that you do a "select all" and then "group." Then look in the object info pallette to see what the center coordinate of the group is. You can then change it to something that will appear on the page.

  3. Just a thought about slow performance - though I have not upgraded to v9 yet.

    How many levels of undo do those of you that have slow performance have. I remember when multiple undo was added to VW ( v8 I think). If the number of undo's was set too high it would slow the program down. I still use v8 and have undo's set to 5 - nice snappy performance on an old 604e/200mhz.

  4. I created my custom logo in Illustrator, rasterized it in Photoshop and simply import it as a pict file to a layer of my drawing that contains the rest of my title block. If you would like to see it email me and I'll send you a copy of it.

    dlstudios@ncounty.net

  5. Printing Acrobat (pdf) files is a 3-part process for me. First, I create a postscript file of each sheet I want printed using Adobe PS. In Adobe PS you create a "Virtual Printer" and the custom sheet sizes you will need. Next, I use the Acrobat Distiller which converts postscript (.ps) to acrobat (.pdf). Third, I use Acrobat Exchange to assemble the individual files (sheets) into a single file that contains all the sheets in their proper order and save the file with a new name.

    I am still using Acrobat 3.01 and Adobe PS 8.6 with VectorWorks 8.5.2 under Mac OS 8.6.

    I use this method both with clients and my print shop. Without a copy of the full Acrobat package my clients can view and print the sheets of the file using the free Acrobat Reader program that is available from Adobe's website. Their printing capabilities are limited only by the capabilities of their printer - Acrobat does not tile printing - so without a large format printer/plotter they cannot print full-size - that's OK with me. With the full Acrobat package (that is available for Macs, and PC's - an also I believe unix) they have the additional capability to add post-it note like comments which they can email back to me. I can add my own post-it note comments initially if I want to call my clients attention to something.

    My print shop can plot my files directly from the Acrobat (.pdf) files. Initially I had to send them an individual file for each sheet because multiple sheets would overcome the limited memory in their plotter. They have since added memory and now I send the whole job as a single file. We also had a scaling problem. Their plotter driver would take a 24" x 36" sheet and shrink it down to fit within the printable area of the plotter. I solved this by reducing the sheet size to something less than the printable area of the plotter (23 1/4" x 35 1/4" for my usual 24" x 36" sheet size).

    All your fonts can be embedded in the file so that your clients (and the printshop) sees and prints exactly what you see in your VectorWorks files. The only problem I have ever run into is that certain fonts contained in VectorWorks worksheets (usually bold fonts) will create errors. I just avoid those fonts.

    Hope this helps. You can email me with any other specific questions at dlstudios@ncounty.net

  6. I have occasionally run into similar errors and have managed to narrow the problem down to a couple of fonts - but only when they are included in a worksheet. If you have a worksheet on the sheet you are trying to print try changing the fonts, especially any bold fonts. I've had not further problems.

  7. Walls by definition are vertical and must have a bottom edge that is a straight line. The line does not have to be horizontal - it can slope upward or downward - but it cannot have two segments (ie. a wall sitting on the ridge of the roof, climbing up one side, then going down the other.

  8. The absolute best way is to send them an Adobe Acrobat (pdf) file. I do this all the time with my blueprint shop and it works beautifully. Buy the complete acrobat package from Adobe and you can create a single file that contains all the sheets of a set of drawings. If your clients are computer savy you can share your drawings with them this way as well. Acrobat also contains "security" features too that can prevent the file from being opened or printed without a password. If you look around this board there are more complete discussions and instructions about "printing" to Acrobat

  9. Bill:

    If you've changed the height of a layer after creating a layer linked model the model does not change to reflect the revised Z value of the layer. Select all of the layer linked model, unlock it and delete it. Then, create a new linked layer model. The new model will reflect previously made changes to the Z values of layers included in the model.

    David Lodge

    David Lodge Studios/Architects

    dlstudios@ncounty.net

  10. From the resource pallette select a door symbol to which you want to add data. With no elements of the symbol selected open the info pallette and select its data mode. Check the box next to door data at the top of the pallette, then in the middle section of the pallette select the heading for which you want to add data. Click in the bottom section of the pallette and type in you information for that heading. If you press return after entering your data you will be able to enter data for the next heading. Data entered this way will stay with the symbol. You can change data for individual instances of the symbol that are already on the drawing by selecting the symbol (don't enter edit symbol), and enter data the same way to the data section of the info pallette.

    Personally I think that there are lots of unexpected quirks, but I'm used to them. I've been using VectorWorks (MiniCad) since 1986 so I'm used to them. Email me if you need any other hints.

    David Lodge

    David Lodge Studios

    dlstudios@ncounty.net

  11. If the patterns are hatches they won't show on your elevations. Hatches are 2d only. You can in a 3d view create a hatched area (polygon), convert it to a 3d poly and locate it just in front of the wall. It is then a 3d object. The alternative is to create a texture (for Renderworks) that has the line qualities you want however the problem with this is that joints between tops of walls and floors (or the walls of multiple floors) will still show. For my renderings I create a 1/4" thick extruded polygon with cutout for windows and doors that I mate up to the outside surface of the wall (like a giant piece of plywood) and apply the surface texture to this that I need. Feel free to email me with any questions.

    dlstudios@ncounty.net

  12. Understand that you will never get a true cylinder by extruding a circle in VectorWorks. Before a 2d shape of any configuration is extruded VectorWorks converts the shape into line segments with the length and number of line segments being determined by the conversion resolution in the preferences menu.

  13. I get the same message occasionally. I believe, though I haven't confirmed it with anyone at NNA that there is a memory leak that has never been completely eradicated. I seem to get it most often when I have two or more files open in VectorWorks at a time. Immediately after this message if you go to "About This Computer" at the top of the apple menu you will see that the memory used by all your open applications and the largest unused block does not total up to your total memory (whether actual ram or virtual memory). Yes I know about memory fragmentation - I've had this error come up when the only application I had open was VectorWorks. The system allocation plus the largest used block do not total to my total ram. This suggests to me that some memory is getting lost, and then not properly released resulting in "Out of Memory." I doesn't happen that frequently so I just live with it and reboot.

  14. I'm a longtime MiniCad-Vectorworks user going all the way back to 1987 and have never really worked in any other cad application. I recently added Architect. In Architect the various classes appear in a variety of colors to help identify in which class an item is. I've never used colors in this way so it was never an issue before, but now when I print construction documents some items don't print crisply in black & white and I'm afraid will start to disappear when reproduced. Asking for the display to be "black & white only" in the preferences menu doesn't work because I lose some gray fills (in my logo and in various places in the drawings). Short of changing each class one at a time to black lines, printing, then reverting to last save to preserve the original colors, is there a better way? What does everyone else do?

    ------------------

  15. Also, have you had problems with doors and windows resizing themselves for a different wall thickness. If you create and 4 1/2" wall (1/2 drywall on either side of a 2x4 stud), place a door or window in the wall, convert the door or window to a symbol leaving the original instance in place and later edit the symbol (for instance change the casing width) the door will resize itself for a 4" wall, not the 4 1/2" wall in which it was orginally inserted. Nemetschek is aware of the problem and says it will fix it in the next release.

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