Newbie

Wow, thanks for all your help. Mike, I tried what you said about the Ground Plane/Working Plane, but there was no working plane in the list, but I made sure the bottom right button was selected, and double-clicked Ground Plane in the list, but the problem was still there. Would you like me to send you the file to look at? It's pretty small (600k). Thanks everyone for the help, and David, I'll review the use of "smart points". dave

George, Maybe that's the issue. Could one of my axes (rulers) be non-aligned? I don't even know what that means....now I'm just saying things! I placed it in the front view, and then set the position values (in the Shape tab) to 0/0/0.

Sorry, guys, but now I'm confused even more. I did what islandmon suggested, and: 1) placed a 3D locus at 0/0/0 (xyz, in the using the Right view, Fig-1). Using the top ruler(y), locus is at 0, but on the left ruler(z), it is at 20, which coincidentally, appears to be the center of the paper. 2) then switched to front view (fig-2). 3D locus is now at 0, top ruler(x), but still 20 with the left ruler(z). All the while the position in the Shape tab says 0/0/0. 3) then switch to top view, and now locus is at 0 top ruler(x) and 0 left ruler(y). So, the question is, is the ruler (z ruler) giving me an inaccurate reading, or is the ruler not coinciding with the actual z position, or plane or what?? Is there something with planes that I'm not getting. Again, I'm sorry if all this seems ordinary for everyone else, it's just weirding me out. thanks, dave

OK, thanks to everyone for their comments. You're right, David, I might be making it more difficult trying to find a solution, but I'm finding that what I have to do to accurately move a 3D object to a specific location, is to first draw a guide (or two or three), and snap it to that location. It's just that my mind says that that's 2 or 4 steps more than that kind of action needs to be. Please excuse my expectation that something can be made simpler (why take 4 steps that could be acheived in 1 or 2?). Also, David, I agree that on a 3D object that has been rotated, or that is not a simple shape, that becomes a more difficult thing to achieve. I guess I'm speaking from a more simplified point of view - alas, I'm not an engineer (I'm assuming all of you are), and so I probably see things in an albeit more simplified way. But I do tend to be a perfectionist, and if I can see how something could be done, I wonder why it can't be like that. Oh well, that's my issue in life!! Petri, I think that's all I really want, is perhaps a readout of the 'vertex' position, other than the position readouts at the top of the window. Maybe my Snap-To distance setting is not set right, but the readouts don't seem to be reading correctly. Here's a thought - perhaps also that my resolution settings in the Units preference are not set right, and it is actual rounding to the resolution setting I have set, and not to the actual position of the object. Could that be right? Anyway, thanks for everyone's comments (I like islandmon's locus idea). I don't mean to be difficult, just thinking it could be better somehow. Dave

Thanks George. It's the Top view that's giving me the trouble. I've tried zooming in, and the object that should be at 0" is actually at -2". Should I be changing the "Set Origin" for different views? I would think that would screw up everything. I'm not sure what's going on, but it's really frustrating. And on the "position in 3D space", I deal with this all the time in animation programs, and it works correctly there, in dealing with it's position in 3D space. You know when you draw a polyline, and let's say you're working in any view in which you're seeing only 2 axes. When you select the polyline, in the Shape tab in the Object Info Palette, there's the little square of 9 dots (sorry, I'm not sure what it's called), 4 corners plus 4 mid-points plus a center dot. This gives you any position of that 2-dimensional polyline you want, relative to the dot you've selected. Well, after you've extruded a polyline, and it becomes a 3D object, why can't you still have that method of picking which point you want as a reference, and get a readout that gives it's position in whatever axes are applicable (in Right view, it would be y/z, in Front view it would be x/z, and in Top view it would be x/y. As you're still viewing only 2 dimensions in those views, even though you're looking at a 3D object, why can't you get a position of the object (depending on which dot you chose) in those 2 axes? It would only require that the label change in the Shape Tab. Does that make sense? Dave

Hi George, Thanks for the reply. Here's what happens. I have already created a number of pieces that have been extruded, so I'm in 3D mode. Just to test the issue, I've: 1) In "Right" view, I draw a 1" x 1" square, and place it's lower left corner at exactly 0" (z, on the left ruler, since this is 3D) and 0" (y, the top ruler). I then extrude it (in the x direction) by 10 inches, so I have a 1"(y) by 1"(z) by 10"(x) cube. 2) I now go to the "Front View, and place the lower left corner (dragging horizontally only) at 0"(x, using the top ruler). So now I have a cube whose lower left corner should be at 0"(x), 0"(y) and 0"(z). 3) Here's the problem. When I go to the "Top" view, and look at the object, the lower left corner is now at 0"(x, the top ruler), but the y coordinate (the left ruler) reads, -1.939031". Am I missing something? I guess I keep harking back to the issue that an extruded object contains no readout of it's position in 3D space, like what's displayed when creating a polyine. Sorry to keep ragging about that. Thanks for your help, I hope this makes sense. Dave

I'm designing a desk in 3D. When I change views(from Right to Front to Top, in 3D) the rulers are consistent in only the Right & Front views. The Y ruler in the Top view is about 1.5" - 2" off. Is there something I'm not doing, or not doing correctly? thanks, dave

Thanks, Katie. So, since I drew the object measing 45"(x) by 42"(y) on a layer that was set to 1/6 scale, the object is still 45" x 42", even if I change the scale of the layer? So does scale only come into play as a visual? That is, the only thing that's scaled is the 'paper', correct? I'll get this!!!!

Hi, Again, sorry for the newbie post. I've pretty much just jumped into working with VW 12.5, and have learned along the way. This is also my first CAD program to work with, although I've worked with 3D programs for a while. In 3D you don't work in scale, so this issue has thrown me a bit. In setting up my document, I was going by the square on the blank page, changing the scale (on the design layer) until the boundaries of my intended design fit in the square. I didn't realize that the rulers were changing at the same time, so I designed something to what I thought were the actual measurements(1/1). Then when I remembered I had originally set the design layer to 1/6 scale, I realized that everything was now 6 times larger than it should be. In reading a couple other posts, I think what I should have done was to design it at 1/1, and use a viewport to scale it to fit the paper. Is that right? How do I get the design to 1/1 scale, now that it's designed at 1/6? Thanks for your help, and I realize this is probably an easy thing to do, but I would like to know for sure the correct way before I proceed. Thanks for your help, Dave

Thanks, George. I get what you're saying. My only question is, if I'm designing something like the desk pictured above, the distances or positions or tolerances of one piece directly affect the other pieces. IE, if the positioning of one vertical side is slightly off, it will affect the alignments of all the pieces that depend on that pieces position. Boy, as soon as I start explaining, it all sounds like gibberish! I can see, in designing a room where you're positioning furniture does not have to be so accurate, but in building a piece of furniture, I would expect that it has to be extremely accurate. Which gets back to my original frustration on position markers of 3D objects. I still wish there was a better way to get their positions in 3D. Maybe I should take that up with VW? Hope that explains it better. Thanks for your help. Dave

I knew I probably wasn't explaining that well enough. Let's try again. This applies to any viewing angle, but I'll use the Front. Okay, as I'm 'positioning' my 3D objects, using the Front View (straight on, no slightly-off angle), I've got two vertical objects 3/4" wide that butt up next to each other. They're two pieces of plywood that will probably have a bolt going thru them to lock them together, creating a 1.5" wide piece. Now, as I'm laying this out in VW, how close to the edges of one piece do I place the next piece. As I'm looking at the side vertex of each adjoining piece, do I place the vertex on top of the other, or do I zoom way in and place the vertex as close as possible without overlapping? The fact that there's no readout of position when you're working with a 3D object, like there is with a 2D polyline makes it real confusing and difficult to get accurate positioning. I hope this explains this better. Thanks, Dave

I want to thank everyone for all the great advice - CNC is definitely the way to go - I've looked at the videos, pretty cool stuff. I didn't realize it would go through the wood that fast!!! Shouldn't take an hour to cut the whole desk, if that long. You know this brings up a question: As I'm designing this piece, I'm running into a quandry. As I lay the pieces out, let's say the vertical pieces laid out horizontally(as looking at the front view), on the pieces that butt up to the next piece, is there an accepted method of (when positioning left to right): do I put the right piece's left edge ON the left piece's right edge, or a specified distance from it (I realize this could be .001 or so, definitely small). I haven't had a design make it outside of virtual furniture yet, so I want to make the right adjustments. Sorry if this is confusing. Thanks, Dave

Thank you everyone for your great responses. I'll check for CNC-routers tomorrow. David, yes I'm going to Edgeband. But also, the desk I'm building has curves & angles, so it'll be interesting to see exactly what the limitations of CNC are. I am making only 1 unit, if by that you mean 1 desk. I'm trying to figure out how to include an image of the desk I've designed, so you can have some idea of the shapes. Oops, just figured it out. Below is the desk. Thanks so much, everyone. Dave

Hey George & Travis, Thanks a lot for both of your replies. You're right, I should have them cut on some of the wood I'm using first to actually see the results. I'm not doing any partial routing cuts (rabbets, dadoes, etc), every cut is completely through the piece. I haven't used a horizontal-bed CNC router before. Is that a computer-aided device too? Does it use a CAD file to make it's cuts? I really appreciate all this info - I'd hate to spend $400-500 on wood and have it wasted. Thanks, Dave

I have been told by a local WaterJet cutting service that they can cut wood (3/4 oak plywood, to be exact). Has anyone had experience with cutting wood using the waterjet system (water with ground garnets{sand-like mixture)? Would love anyone's feedback. Thanks, Dave

Thanks Gytis (GHEE-tiss). I know the butter well. Thanks for your input. dave

The guy at the waterjet place explained that it's a mixture of water (which is the catalyst for pressure, so I'm not real sure how much, ie, the ratio) and finely ground garnets, which he showed me was more like a sand texture. So the water gives it the pressure and the ground garnets gives it the cutting ability. I also think the water is there to simply keep the object cool, under the pressure of the sand.

Gytis, Will a CNC router do the same cuts as waterjet? thanks for the comments. PS - how do you pronounce your first name?

Well, thanks again Benson!! This has been great info, and I'm sure that will help when I finally export & they do an import. I'll do my own check after export like you suggest to see exactly what's being exported. I've never done waterjet before, do you have any experience with them cutting wood? I'm doing 3/4 oak plywood. Does the water affect the wood, or is the cutting fast enough to not make a difference? Thanks again, Dave

Thanks again, Benson. I guess the kinds of things I'm trying to design are more furniture oriented. In fact the piece I'm working on will be sent to cut on a computer aided cutter (waterjet), so the exact locations are a necessity. Oh, is the 3D loci supposed to lock to the object/vertex, like, when I move the object will it move with it? Appreciate all the help, Dave

Thanks Benson, that gives me the info I need. But I'm not sure that it's snapping to the vertex. It seems it's position changes each time I try to place it on the vertex. BTW, there should be an easier way to get this info, don't you agree? thanks.

Thanks David. I'm not sure what you mean by "group the extrude by itself". At the present, it is one polyline that was extruded, creating one object(?). I appreciate your comments.

In the 2D projections (ie, when creating a polyline) the Shape tab shows not only the width and depth (x,y) of the polyline, but it also shows the position of either the whole object (x,y) in relation to the selection on the Reference Point Selector (the 8 point square with the 9th center point to reference which part of the object you wish to align). My problem is that once I have extruded a polyline, and then look at that from one of the other views (3D views, I am assuming) such as Top, Right, Front, etc., the positional references in the Shape tab are not being displayed. Does an extruded polyline, becoming a solid object, not have a position??? Is that position not referred to with respect to x,y & z? I have been using 3D animation programs for 10 years now, and am very familiar with the x,y,z configurations, although VW represents the y & z as opposite from the standard animation program layout. Thanks for your continued help, Dave

Hi Islandmon, Yes, the Shape tab is selected, but the only numbers that are there are the width and depth values(x,y), plus the extrusion amount. I'm looking for the x,y,z Positions. When I'm creating a polyline, the positions and dimensions are both listed, plus the (sorry, not sure what to call it) reference point selector (topleft, topright, centerright, lowerleft, etc). It would be nice to not only have the positions listed along with the dimensions, but also the reference point selector, in order to align the extruded object. Maybe there is, and I just don't kno how to access it. I appreciate everyone's help on this. dave

Again, please excuse my newbie questions, but that's what I am. When I extrude a polyline (say, from the Right view) and then go to the Front view, I see the extruded object, and can move it. But in the Object Shape tab, the section that usually listed the position, X/Y, is not there anymore. How do I get info on the position of 3D objects (extruded) in the other views. thanks again for any help, Dave