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Found a significant, but hopefully squash-able, bug today trying to export from VW 2008. I am running 2008 SP2 (83388) on a MacBook Pro 2.4GHz on Mac OS 10.5.2. I have a small file "abc123.vwx" of 3.3MB drawn in v2008. I needed to export it to a friend who still works on VW 11. I went thru the normal exporting process to 'Export as a Vectorworks 11 File..." and changed the default name of "abc123_v11.mcd" to "abc123_vw11.mcd". The resulting file was 398.2 MB! So, I tried to export again and leave the default name of "abc123_v11.mcd" and the resulting file saved quickly and came in at 4.4MB. Then I tried to export again with the default name of "abc123_v11.mcd" and overwrite the decent export and I got another large +250MB file. Deleting the large file and then exporting the file again with the default name yielded me a proper 4.4MB file again. I tried similar experiments saving on top of the file with the custom name "abc123_vw11.mcd" and was able to get a normal sized file again too. I suppose the results are a bit inconsistent but repeatable so hopefully this will be of some help. I have not tried exporting to other versions - please comment if you have experience with this.

Interesting question. I could not figure out how to make a true circular curtain. My solution was to make a many sided polygon (18 segments) and draw the curtain along the edges and then delete the original shape.

http://download2.nemetschek.net/TechTips/Custom_Title_Block/Custom_Title_Block.html

check that you have permission to save to the folder you are attempting to export to. first try to "save as" your file with a new name to that same location to make sure everything is ok with your system.

chstech I think you hit on a lot of the functional weaknesses of LPOs. They definitely don't behave like other objects. I don't think there is access to any of the shortcuts you are talking about. It's a completely 'manual' object as far as I can see, one where you have to drag around the label and play around with object info if you need to make changes. VW - if you're listening, it would also be very helpful to have a note field associated with the LPO.

niente.

not really - but you can use VW to export DWG and DXF files which Sktechup can read.

http://edrawingsviewer.com/ it's free and you'll be happy.

ask whoever sent you the file to send it in v12 format (will have .mcd extension)

never mind all, I figured it out - dragging the text position handle near the name.

Hello all, I can't figure out how to move the location of the Position Name relative to the Lighting Position object. I am creating some booms and although the natural location for the Name (and summary) is good for overstage electrics is rather poorly placed for items that do not fall in a standard upstage downstage path. Has anyone figured this out? Right now my only idea is to hide the Position Summary and just place the name manually with the Text tool.

that's interesting. I wonder if you have your prefs in PTH setup differently than I. Maybe VW v11 works differently with the HMTL that PTH pastes in.

islandmon - do you use PTH Pasteboard Pro? What are your settings for the Queue?

I use PTH Pasteboard as well. I assume you are talking about copying from within VW and then later trying to paste from PTH Pasteboard back into VW. In my experience it doesn't work. I find that you can only paste the most recent object which you copied to the system Clipboard with the Copy command to avoid getting the strange behavior you describe. Don't expect proper results when pasting a VW object from the PTH Pasteboard queue back into VW. Perhaps try writing to the folks at PTH. They might ben interested but they be reluctant to sort it out on the free version.

Thanks. I would not have intuitively thought to look there for the info. I was expecting to find in on the download page. Good to know it's there.

Hello Katie, Is it possible to know the major changes in this release?

you should have a create seating layout tool in Spotlight. It's really easy with that.

jkelly, I've been careful about sleep mode on my macs since switching from OS9 to OSX. I'm not saying I don't put my machines to sleep - the opposite, I am mainly on a portable and have to put it to sleep a dozen times a day for travel, etc. It's just that I advocate keeping sleep under manual control so you're sure there's nothing funky going on. Even with being careful, the apple laptops sometimes exhibit strange behavior in waking from sleep which, while not necessarily VW related, can really effect your work if you cannot successfully wake the machine. In realty, the unix core of OSX is designed to stay on 24/7 and some system relevant tasks take place during the late night hours when your machine is theoretically not in use - if it's in Sleep these maintenance tasks cannot happen. Now whether this goes counter to any pro-environmental policy is not for me to say...

Ah, yeah. That'll help. As a longtime mac user I would recommend that you turn off the automatic sleep feature on any of your machines. You can have all sorts of processes go wrong if your machine sleeps at the wrong time. I'm not suggesting never to sleep your mac, but it's safer to control it manually, after you've saved all work, or finished any installers Glad you got it fixed.

Hi Bruce, That log is a bit too sophisticated for me to understand the specific problem. However, now that VW2008 saves all of your custom settings in the user folder structure could you not consider to back that up (~/Library/Application Support/Vectorworks), uninstall VW2008 completely and then reinstall from the CD then apply the latest SP2 updater? I think you might have a smoother experience. I see you're on a mac. It should be enough to trash the Vectorworks 2008 folder in your /Applications folder without too much risk. If you've got Time Machine active on your 10.5.1 system you should be able to delete without fear.

hmm. I had first installed the SP2 for mac some time ago. I did not realize that Nem had provided another SP2 with a different build number. There were no announcements. For me the latest build of SP2 (82613) installed fine directly over (82099). For what it's worth, I find it very strange that Nem would update the build SP2 without any notice or clarification.

in VW Spotlight it's in menubar>Tools>Label Legend Manager

updating to the latest SP2 (82613) does, in fact, remedy the problem. The file no longer appears.

I have posted the same. See this thread: http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=7&Number=94930&Searchpage=1&Main=20284&Words=&topic=0&Search=true#Post94930