Donald Wardlaw

I don't know if this is the same phenomena, but, perhaps using the dock as described, which I do a lot, I sometimes find that when I have two files open, up from the dock, VW thinks the window in the background is the active one. The tools don't work because the active drawing is hidden. A trip to the Window menu confirms that the file in the foreground is not checked, but the one in the background is. Checking the name of the front (visible) file does not effect the change as returning to the window menu show that no change took place, the "back" window is still the active file. Closing the file using the red close button seems to be necessary to get things working right again. OSX 10.1.5;9.52. Donald

Sometimes, when it seems something like this happens, I conclude that I am simply breezing along to quickly, on auto pilot as it were. I always imagine that the problem was that in moving quickly, I click just before I hold down the shift key. Donald I have never stabbed my forehead with an icecream cone, ....really.

I'm using a serial number version with OSX 10.1.5. I have had a couple of the crashes out when doing a copy and paste, so I do not think that this issue is a 10.2 phenomenon only. donald

I think the apple optical mouse is a pretty good unit. I used to use a Wacom ArtPadII (4x5) until I wore it out. Recently I picked up a Graphire (Wacom), the 4x5 size. I'm much more productive with this than a mouse. I feel greater control with less effort and motion. I even use it with dual monitors. I also use Photoshop, where the pressure sensitivity is very useful. But for everyday general interaction with the screen, the little pad is a wonder. Not everybody likes them, there is a matter of individual preference here. (Some people love trackballs, but I'm all thumbs with them). A last word, I don't find the additional theoretical capabilities of the higher end Wacom Intuos line to be necessary at all. Donald

Me too! Tip of the hat for being out in front of the problem, it is really appreciated. Donald

952 installs and works fine, but I guess everybody knew that. May I install the original 3D power pack *after* 952? Donald

Good work. Always uplifting to see big things move. Donald

I am calmer now as I see that the black background approach seems pretty workable. What's worse, I could get to like this! But I notice this: Working with a black background the text shows up white. Ok. Switching to a white background and the text shows up black. I'm hoping there is nothing funny with the text that willl interfere with printing. But for now I'm back to work. Best,Donald

Just a couple thoughts (3) on followup. Going backwards with OSX, it is reported, basically requires a clean hard drive and reinstallation of updates in sequence (although this morning Apple posted one step upgrades to .5). This is really a messy problem becuase of Library's used by other applications. You pretty much have to rebuild your computer from scratch and reinstall all other applications. In my opinion it is an unworkable option except for the most technically gifted and detail oriented types. So for those of us who have upgraded were pretty much stuck here until help arrives. I noticed one difference in the way VW text appears on screen when typing----it appears to be anti-aliased. For most VW users, some of the problems may be irritating and others show stoppers. For me the text issue is the most disruptive effect. Perhaps rather than going the route of pressing CD's etc., it would be possible to devise, test, and post online, an updater that just corrected the biggest problems now, leaving the smaller ones until later. Best, Donald

I think NNA should put someone on this. I admit I was bamboozled by this like others. Last place I expected problems was VW. If there is something in VW that needs changing, rather than a mistake by Apple, in my opinion this merits correcting with a special maintenance update. For one reason, this problem means that VW is no longer OSX compatible. New macs will come with the latest operating system on them and people will go out and buy VW expecting it to work and it won't. It kind of rises to the level of a messy situation. Best,Donald

Hmmm, I haven't been here a while. Let me say that OSX and 9.51 on a G4 are very solid here, except for a minor bug where the saved views occassionally go grey, which I reported. I don't have any desire to go back to OS9 and earlier mac systems. When they said X was going to be a more stable system, I was hoping they were right. My experience is that they were indeed right, very right. Donald

At the risk of answering my own question, it looks to me like the snap radius does affect the ease of selecting text. I had previously set it to 5 (probably default). Yesterday I reduced it to 1. It appears that text selects much more easily when zoomed further out. I'm not clicking multiple times to insert the text cursor into a text block. Reading the manual is sounds like what I have done should make the smart cursor less sensitive. NNA is that correct? But it seems to make working with text easier. Donald

Don't know if this has come up, but text block responsiveness to mouse clicks is not very good. You either have to be zoomed way in, or you have to click around many times until you hit just the right spot for the text cursor to insert itself into the text block. I think versions prior to 9 were more forgiving. This is a problem I've noticed. But I have also noticed or wondered something else: does the snap radius affect this? Donald

Lost in 3d space.... I think the brain rewires itself with prolonged use. To me it seems easier to recognize what is going on the more I work with it. Sometimes it surprises me when I step back, squint, as see what a wild jumble of lines I am working with. working with both... Both have user definable keyboard shortcuts. To whatever extent makes sense, I set of formz shortcuts to match the ones I've been using for a long time in VW. Unlike VW, where I use layers to control scale only for the most part, I think it makes sense in formz to set up a good layer structure so that aspects of the model can be turned off when not needed. This alone helps in the visualization difficulty when working in wireframe. I was pretty slow in formz at first, stumbling along like many. After a year or two though, everything becomes very natural and fluid. Nothing I've tried can compare for speed and ease of creating and editing objects. Donald

Bob I have done a lot of formz work that started life in VW. I know about the faceting problem with dxf, that is because the dxf format does not, as I understand it, allow objects with more than 4 sides. Perhaps dwg is the same. In my case I'm normally not exporting polygons and 3d shapes. I use VW to establish the geometry, the control points for further work. Thus I do not have the problem you mention. You may be able to resolve some of the difficulty on the formz end, since the import options there are extensive. Also, remember that form z allows you to delete portions of an object based on topology. So you could delete the faceting segments if the number is manageable. And, ofcourse, they will disappear when you render if they are coplaner. I've found those two programs to be a powerful combination, and I too find VW to be easier and faster for the 2D setup. I never mess around with eps files. Donald

,,Have any of you using Distiller to create PDFs run into the problem of Distiller not being able to see the PS file because it has no type code? When I go to open a ps file in Distiller, it won't list files created from OS X apps until I use a utility to assign a TEXT type code. Do other people have this happen or am I just lucky? .. Er, sort of. But you can fool it.Save the .ps file to the desktop.Launch distiller. Once you see the ready dialogue...Drag the .ps file (on the OSX desktop) onto thethe distiller window where the job is normally listed (in the classic environment). It will belch, and then proceed to process the job. Hope I described that well enough, it was from memory. I do it and it works. Donald

9.5/OSX Think this is new to 9.5. I use text in symbols. Some symbols have several fields. A title block might have a host of them. I can't seem to advance to the next field with the keyboard. Return used to enter or accept and then carriage return down to next field. Now it seems to return up to the top of the list. It seems the only way to select the next field is with the mouse. Am is missing something? This way data entry is much slower. Unrelated comment. I can see how the align distribute dialogue in the current design might be easier to understand, especially for new users. The old array was for some not very visual. But the buttons were close together and it required the miniumum amount of button selections to operate. After using the new one for a while now, I just can get as smooth and fast with it as I was with the old method. I think the align/distribute mode choices add a step. For example: If I'm set to align left, and want to change to align top, I first have to click on the align button (because to have an align left the upper align button must be unchecked) and if top is not selected I have to make another selection. I think this dialoge would be faster if it were tabbed with align on one tab and distribute on the other. That way we would only be turning the actuating buttons on and off like before. I'll bet align is used more than distribute so that might be the default on opening. The buttons could then also be moved closer together. Donald

Running 9.5 of OSX, G4 466, 1 gig available. I have also noticed that VW can slow down. Just finished a project, 48mb file, 9 sheets fairly full with information. Not using itunes on this computer. I have tried lowering undos to 18, undo operations only. When it gets real slow the solution is to quit and relaunch. Seems to be related to big, dense drawings, here, and time of operation. In other respects, though, 9.5 is faster than 9.0. Donald

Austin, The short answer is SUCCESS. I had no problem downloading the driver and installing it. That was cool. I found that the pdf's generated by Quartz using preview were not so hot. They exagerate the line weight of angled lines. When I tried to print to a pdf file, I always got a print error. It seemed to process the file, then it would get hung up trying to find the printer which doesn't exist. Never did find the files it was supposed to be making. But the wonderful thing was printing to a .ps file. It did not work well at first. Then I decided that distiller should have more than the default memory, and I found I could not really set that while booted in X, so I rebooted in 9, set the memory, then rebooted in X. At this point I was getting good quality files, but only a part of the drawing. Then (and I've never nosed around distiller before) I found that I had to set the default page size to the drawing size and save that as a setting. Voila! I now get beautiful, Adobe pdfs like before. I am grateful for your help. You are a credit to our profession! Best, Donald

Holy cow, Austin. What a great post! I was thinking of trying to get a printer driver to get the larger page size. I appreciate your time and detailed comment. I'll see if it works for me. Best, Donald

Preface: I love the way 9.5 works in OSX. It is I think a highwater mark for the program, despite ongoing opportunities for improvement. The latest version of Adobe Acrobat (5.05) works in OSX except for one, ahem, detail---It can't create Adobe Acrobat files. You can create pdfs in any application by saving to a pdf file. But you don't need acrobat to do this, and Acrobat is in fact not doing it. This is Apple's implementation of generic pdf not Adobe's proprietary form, and I find the quality to be problematic, especially in VW. Also there are no custom page sizes, so good luck creating a 24x36 pdf. Problem: I've lost the ability to easily make high quality, full sized pdfs. What a mess. If I use the built in pdf capability in OSX I get weird results, text drawn out and strewn about. (I don't have this problem with other applications like Microsoft Office X). I also recently learned that faxSTF (don't get me started) makes a mess of my VW files (because I think they are based on Quartz pdf's) so I cannot fax from VW anymore either. Soooo.... Anyone find away around this dilema using OSX and VW9.5? Regards,Donald

I believe the tool behavior is as it used to be. ?. I seem to remember being able to trim arcs but not rectangles. The trim tool added new, different, functionality. Note though that the trim tool converts polygons and rectangles to polylines. I wish there were an option to leave them as polygons. I like having both tools---they do different things. Donald

Since v.9 came out I have been doing this: On a second, not so current computer, I keep VW8 on Mac OS 8.5, with the last version of power plot. I save a copy to VW8 on the old not yet a doorstop, and print from that. I have not found any differences between what I see in VW9/9.5 and what is printed on the older software. Donald

I would like to see the format text dialogue as either a floating pallette or a tab on the object info pallete. It would facilite quick queries and changes. Donald

My limited experience with the system generated pdf's is that they are not as top notch, quality wise, as Adobe's method. Last week Adobe introduced a carbonized version of Acrobat (5.0.5, free download if you are already using v.5). I hope this will give us the functionality we used to have. Donald