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Tamsin Slatter

Vectorworks, Inc Employee
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Posts posted by Tamsin Slatter

  1. Hi

    Sorry to hear of your frustrations.

    Firstly the texture bed... a texture bed has no thickness at all. It is simply a mechanism for replacing the texture of the site model with a different texture, within the boundary of the texture bed. So, it will never have any thickness and you don't really want to change the elevation.

    If you want to show things that have thickness, I would suggest you look at a) the Hardscape tool (but only if you have Vectorworks Landmark or Vectorworks Designer), or b) the Roadway tools. These are objects that will sit on top of the site model, but can also generate their own site modifiers (pads) underneath them that can mould the site to the bottom of the road.

    As for the lengthy update times, that does sound a little excessive, but it's difficult to judge without understanding a) more about your source data for the model and b) the other modifiers you have already applied. I am guessing the file is quite large, but I'll be happy to take a quick look at it if you like.

    If your model was made from contours, it might be worth taking a look at the Simplify 3D Polygons command under either the Landmark menu or AEC>Terrain menu. This can reduce the number of points in the model, many of which will be unnecessary.

    Hope that helps you get started with solving the problem.

  2. So, you've imported them into a new file? If so, save the file somewhere sensible on your hard drive. On the Resource Browser, click on the Files menu and choose Add Current to Favorites. This will "bookmark" the file onto the list of files for you to browse on the Resource Browser. Then you will have access to them whichever file you are working on.

    If you've created them all in your current project, you could export them to another file by locating them on the Resource Browser, right-clicking and choosing Export. This enables you to copy the resources into other Vectorworks files.

    All the best

  3. Hi Simon

    The filled symbol 2D element is draw with lots of arcs. When you fill them, they are filling to their centre point, like a piece of cake.

    You need to select the different elements that make up the edges of the symbol and use Add Surface to bring them together. In some cases though, where you have simply used lines to denote the edges, there is nothing for Vectorworks to fill. You could use the Polygon tool in its middle mode to fill a shape in those voids. Once those shapes exist, you will be able to use Add Surface to bring them together into one object.

    Alternatively, use the Polygon tool in its third mode - drag a marquee around the entire symbol and Vectorworks will create a new Polygon based on the outer boundary of the shapes you have drawn. The original objects will still be there, so you will to decide what you are going to do with those, but you will be able to fill the new object.

    Hope that helps.

    All the best

    Tamsin

  4. Don't know what caused your problem, but you can import the layers and classes from the previous file... Just go to create a new layer or class and instead of typing a new name, choose the second option to import and then point to your other file. This will list all the layers/classes in that file. When importing layers, you can also check Import Layer Objects to copy the elements on the layers across too.

  5. Have you set up a Legend? If not, you could draw your plans in the ready made Spotlight template (FIle > New > Use Template and pick the Spotlight one. This automatically assigns a legend to the instruments.

    Otherwise, you need to set up a legend (Spotlight > Label Legend > Label Legend Manager). You choose the fields you want to assign and then edit the layout to determine where those fields will be displayed in relation to the instrument. Then, you need to select the instruments and assign the legend to them (Spotlight >Label Legend > Assign to Instruments).

    Hope that helps to get you started!

  6. Yes. Make sure you have Snap to Object turned on in your Snapping palette. Choose your drawing tool, hover the mouse over the first reference point and notice the cursor will "acquire" the point. Move the mouse to the second reference point and acquire that also. A midpoint snap will be displayed between the two points. Click on the midpoint and start drawing.

  7. Yes. Just put your cursor on the "datum" (for example, a corner on your extrude), and make sure the desired plane is highlighting. Press the Tab key and tab to the X coordinate. Fill in the distance you want from the datum as the new start point. Repeat for the Y coordinate, pressing Enter after the second value. Now click and draw. The new shape will start a set distance away from the datum and you can use the data bar as normal to set the desired size.

  8. To use the automatic plane:

    Draw something on the layer plane in a 3D view, using a 2D tool such as the rectangle. Immediately, click on the surface of the rectangle and pull it up. Now hover your mouse over the extrude. The planes of the extrude should highlight in blue as the planes are detected under your pointer. If this doesn't happen, use the \ key or change to Automatic plane on the View bar.

    Draw another rectangle on one of the vertical sides of the extrude. Click on the surface and pull.

    Hope that helps!

  9. Use the 2D Reshape tool. If you look at the tool bar, you will see it has several modes including adding and removing vertices, but it also has several selection modes. You can click and drag around those vertices you want to move, leaving the others in place.

    Hope that helps.

  10. What's the specification of the machine?

    You can check this on Control Panel and choose System

    Then let me know how much RAM and with is the GHz value for the processor.

    You could also try updating the graphics driver.

  11. Hi

    Yes - you just need to select the spiral path AND the object together before running Edit > Duplicate Along Path. Vectorworks will then highlight the object it thinks is the path - if it has selected the wrong one, use the Next button to select the correct path. Then set your parameters - either a fixed number of copies of a fixed distance between them. Then click Preview to make sure you are happy with it. When you are happy, click OK!

    Hope that helps!

  12. Hi Olivia

    I have had a look at this on my Mac. Unlike the PC, I can use my operating system colour picker to choose CMYK values.

    However, I have noticed that once I create the colours in Vectorworks according to your CMYK values, they are slightly changed when I go back in to edit them.

    I am wondering if possibly it is converting to the nearest Hexadecimal value (aka web safe) colour.

    I will check it out. I have sent you an email with the colours in Vectorworks compared to the colours in Illustrator. I will do some more digging and let you know what I come up with.

    All the best

  13. OK - well, RGB has a higher range of colours ("gamut") than CMYK, but they should look similar. Are you comparing the onscreen colours with printed colours? If so, it may be that your screen display needs calibrating - because you are comparing completely different colour systems (RGB being "additive" and CMYK being "subtractive"!)

    Do you want to send me a couple of example colours (offlist if you prefer), and I'll take a look. I do also have Illustrator and can do some comparisons for you.

    tamsin@vectorworks-training.co.uk

  14. Hi Olivia

    You don't mention if you are on a Mac or on a PC, but either way, you should be able to create a new colour and set CMYK values for it. No need to convert to RGB.

    On the Attributes palette, click the solid fill colour box. When the colour palette manager opens, you can create a new palette. Having created the palette, you can create new colours within the palette. You can open your operating system's colour picker and this should allow you to enter CMYK values directly for your colour.

    All the best

    Tamsin

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