Donald Wardlaw

Sorry to beat a dead horse, but for me the route to vw2019 involves upgrading from El Cap to Mojave and from vw2017. VW is the only app I have that is reported to behave badly with Mojave. When will Vectorworks give their blessing?

Probably 25 years with a wacom tablet now. Must be about the 4th or 5th one. Here's what I've learned: 1. If a pencil feels natural, a wacom will too. 2. More control than a mouse, especially on anything involving a curve. 3. Less motion. You can jump instantly from one side of the screen to the other. Try that with a mouse or track ball. Easy to go from tool pallets at one location and your point of drawing at another. It is faster for me. 4. Smaller tablets are the best because there is less motion to navigate. I've used the small one for big screens and two screens. 5. They are pressure sensitive, so for some applications they have added functionality over a mouse. 6. Worth their weight in gold when using a laptop in the field to do field measurements. You need a horizontal surface, about the right height, with wheels, and a small truck to carry it.....(hint: tall av cart). 7. I suggest to all my competitors that they not use one. 8. May be counterintuitive, but you never look at the tablet. It just connects your brain to the cursor. Donald

I've been using mac laptops with vw for the last 15 years or so. Currently 2015 MBP, 16 RAM. This one is the best performer I've used. Optional Apple graphics chip upgrade is recommended. Screen resolution is excellent, also best I've used.

I hope you can see the pdf. This form doesn't really give graphic feedback on that detail. In keeping with my above average Neanderthal gene count, I have never adopted the wall tool, and thus the hybrid approach. I would if it looked like I would get better drawings. As I sometimes do when a new release is out, I take a look at the wall tool, noting that it has evolved, and ask whether it has become something I could use. I usually bump into something that frustrates. Then I go back to my old ways. Case in point is the attached. I put a window in a wall. I used one of the pre-defined wall types. That part is not so bad, except that there is a thin line at every change in direction that roughly corresponds to one of the stud lines. That has no meaning but it is a line. That's not really ok. But the thing that really gets me is the sill. In the options for the window there are two outer options (show sill, don't) and three inner options, timber, stone and I think masonry. I chose timber. Have you ever seen a sill that looks like this? No exterior horns, no interior jamb trim overlap? It is showing lines that have no meaning. Over the years I've watch the response to objections like these. The result is that a window now has what, 4 dozen different parameters? A window that tries to look right but doesn't, and has a large amount of turning the dials complexity is not just no better than a simple abstract symbol (a wall cut and a line for the glass) it is worse. As an architect I do not want builders looking at my drawings and snickering. I expect them to have pride and care in their work and not make little boo boos everywhere. I undermine my right to have that expectation if my drawings are comical. SILL2.pdf

RGyori, Thank you. Had no idea. Reverted to traditional in this case. Donald

As of yesterday I have a new behavior in VW. I use VW on an iMac and a MBP. When I launch VW I see what I've captured in "TAB". There is a tab below the main window head. If I click on the "x" is see "TAB 2". This is like a blurry window that shows the desktop below. If I close that window, VW quits. If I put it in the dock, and launch another file, both windows remain open and there is the title shown like the tab in "TAB." OSX 10.11, current El Capitan, and current VW. I think I have invoked some behavior in OS X, but maybe VW? Anyhow, it is of no value and I'd like to get rid of it. Thanks, Donald TAB.tif TAB 2.tif

Thanks Raymond. Using Mac. I find that when I click on the little minus, sometimes it turns to a plus and other times it just opens or closes the drop down info. Could be a Wacom issue. Could be a design issue of making controls we use too small. A lot of folks are using computers with a high pixel density to their screens, like an iMac 5k. It wouldn't be the first instance. But what you say does work. I"m getting the hang of the resource libraries, but I don't like that the old generic objects are no longer available. I used to be able to go into the VW folder in Applications and access various object libraries. Now, if I go to "Objects-Building Furnishings" there is a folder inside called "Generic" which has nothing in it, and a file called "VWplaceholder.txt." Is that typical, or did I perhaps not install something when I upgraded to 2017?

I have a RM related issue, operator error probably. I find the window shade behavior annoying and not really functional. I would like to display the palette with a mouse command and hide it with a mouse command. I don't like that it collapses when I move the cursor off the palette for a few seconds.

Jim, Remains empty. Have to check on second question. d.

If I switch to a standard workspace, like "Architect" I see all the recent files. If I edit my custom workspace first by removing the "Recent Files" command, saving workspace, editing workspace to add "Recent Files" command, I still see only a list of 20 numbers, and no files. VW knows the recent files but will not display them in my workspace. Did not have this problem in 2016.

2017 is not listing recent files under the file menu. I see a list of numbers 1-20 and that's it. Using the migrated workspace I've been using for a long time. MacOS El Cap, current VW sp2 on two different computers same result.

Workspace organization has always been a cool feature. What I use is an evolution of an organization that started on the 13" Sony RGB monitor. The first thing I did was rename the menus so they were shorter because a 13" monitor did not have much left to right length. So I have had for years menus with names like "Do", "Act", and "Neat." For an organizational philosophy, I want to minimize mousing around (actually wacoming around) and maximize movements that creates or edits drawing elements. This also means minimizing zooming and panning where possible. That leads to a desire to have the most drawing real estate while minimizing the screen real estate used by pallets. That leads to a layout where the commonly used things are visible and taking up space, and the less commonly used things are hidden, called only when needed. That applies to menus also. Commands which have command key equivalents are at the bottom of menus and those that do not are at a the top of menus. So if I do go to a menu, I don't have far to drag once I get there. On a big monitor, putting all the pallets on one side will minimize long moves between pallets. Since I'm a lefty, I put everything on the left of the drawing window. The main reason to have tools in a visible tool pallet is to see which tool is active. Selecting one is normally just hitting a key. Tools that are rarely used are either not in the pallet or are beneath a tool used often. In the past, one of the biggest hassles of a new minicad or vectorworks release, was getting the workspace to work right. For a while now, the VW folks have done a very good job at making that migration smooth. The last thing I'd mention is that workspace tuning is ongoing. Things only move in the direction of perfection, or less imperfection.

Close but... If I rotate the plan to put the pdf in a squared up alignment, it behaves like rotating the pdf without rotating the plan. Other objects, say a rectangle, will scale correctly, asymmetrically in a rotated plan. d.

Raymond, I think you nailed it. Good insight. I did in fact rotate it slightly, say .4 degrees to correct for misalignment in the scan. It makes it a bit tricky since it is not too hard to figure out the scale factor in the x,y coordinates of the drawing, but that would not be the same factors for the x,y of the drawing file. Doesn't VW allow for turning the ground plane for working with floor plans that have a wing that is at an angle? I wonder how scale objects works in that case and whether I could rotate the ground plane, make true asymmetric scaling, return to normal ground plane orientation, then rotate the pdf? Off to the lab.... Donald

Ha! Problem exists with "Best Performance" and not the other two options. I've never noticed that setting before. d.

Jim, I sent you a VW file with two versions of the same pdf in it. You can asymmetrically scale the larger one but not the smaller one. The smaller one had been scaled uniformly two or three times. It appears that something happened to the pdf that was in my file. It looks like there is not a general scaling problem. Thanks to all, Donald

Jim, I can scale your pdf, in the file I was working with 2017 current, but El Cap, also current. That makes it look like the problem may lie with the pdf. Here are the particulars in a "grab" screen shot. pdf data.tif

I have a graphics regeneration issue and don't know where fault lies. iMac 2015, discrete graphics, sufficient ram, El Cap (current), VW 2017 (current). If I create two layers, a drawing layer and an underlay layer, same scale, both visible, layer options show other or show snap others; and I put a pdf on the underlayer (bottom layer in stack) so as to draw (trace) on the upper layer, then in order to see the pdf, I have to make that layer the active layer and then switch to the drawing layer above. Now I can see both layers. BUT, if I pan the upper layer, the pdf goes invisible and I see only the upper drawing layer. It will not re-display the pdf. If I make the pdf layer active again, It will display, and if I go back to the drawing layer I still see the pdf, until I pan the drawing layer....

Alan, What I find is that, yes I can enter the different factors, but the scaling will not happen. I can create two rectangles, same size, and apply the two factors to one of them, and it scales asymmetrically. But, the pdf will not.

When importing a scan of an old blueprint, the blueprint is normally not accurate scale wise in the 'x' direction---because the drawing stretched in the long paper direction as it went through the roller of the blueprint machine. If I try to use this as an underlay to accurately create a new base drawing in vector form, I need to scale the 'x' and 'y' coordinates of the pdf differently. What I'm finding is that "Scale Objects" allows the entry of different values, but will not scale them to different values. This is VW2017. I can work around this but it takes a lot more time.

I'm not tempted like I was as a young man. Everything here is working great on El Cap. Siri is nice, but she is seeing too many others. I do not trust the cloud for important things, and who trusts the cloud for security these days? Sierra is a snore as far as I'm concerned. El Cap should stay at a similar level of security for at least a year. I did let my hormones get in the way and upgraded to the new version of Safari. That was annoying. HTML video autoplays, you can't stop it, and sometimes they hide the controls. I'm still waiting to hear what Sierra does to iPhoto, which I find an order of magnitude more useful than Photos. Keep your pants on, Donald

Hey Zoomer, In my experience, 1. They are used in 2d. Not sure if only used in 2d. 2. Yes. 3. Yes, "Top/Plan" to be precise. 4. You betcha. That's one of the beautiful things. Elements....goes both ways. Many people do use many of the elements like doors and windows. I don't but that's another issue. Print from design layers yes. And publish full pdf plan sets from design layer saved views. Sometimes design layers with one or more viewports into other design layers. I have a project with that scheme now. What can be cool about that is that you can dimension correctly right on the design layer viewport. Try that with a Sheet Layer sometime.

Hey Zoomer, In my experience, 1. They are used in 2d. Not sure if only used in 2d. 2. Yes. 3. Yes, "Top/Plan" to be precise. 4. You betcha. That's one of the beautiful things. Elements....goes both ways. Many people do use many of the elements like doors and windows. I don't but that's another issue. Print from design layers yes. And publish full pdf plan sets from design layer saved views. Sometimes design layers with one or more viewports into other design layers. I have a project with that scheme now. What can be cool about that is that you can dimension correctly right on the design layer viewport. Try that with a Sheet Layer sometime.

I need to visit more often. I didn't remember adding to this thread before and I also did not see Raymond's response which was excellent, and maybe makes some of my observations above overcome by events.

I can add a couple experiences, using all current software. 1. Using the shift key to constrain an unconstrained line does not always constrain it to the exact angle (say 0 or 90). I find I'm checking lines in the OI pallet for angle. 2. I recently had the experience creating an oval using the height then length option (with a rectangle to set the length and width) and the result was that the bounding box of the oval, say the left side, did not align exactly with the edge of the oval. So if I drew a vertical line to the left of the object, and then used Align Objects to align the left edge of the oval with the line, it resulted in a misalignment. 3. I can't offer facts, but I have suspicion that dwg translation of some ovals converts the oval to a polyline that does not exactly match the geometry of the oval. I can work around all this. Donald