gmm18

I said "only way" because it is the preferred and recommended method. If you need to change the view AFTER creating the viewport, then either: a). duplicate the viewport (so you don't lose your original), Enter the Crop Mode, in which you can change the view with flyover, walkthrough, etc, in wireframe mode only. or if that is not working for you: b). Double click the viewport, and go to Design Layer mode, then adjust view, and create a New Sheet Layer Viewport. Using Cameras is a great tool as Bill described above.

1. Definitely not easy, but not bad at all with a bit of early training by someone who knows it well. These boards are also a sure place to get answers when stumped. 2. Yes. Free in fact. See http://student.myvectorworks.com/ 3a. Of course! VW is the best no matter what computer you are on. 3b. You could run BootCamp or Parallels along with Windows right on your Mac, which means you can use AutoCad, Revit, whatever you want.

I suggest the one and only method: create Sheet Layer Viewports. Set up a view you like in the Design Layer, draw a rectangle around what you want to create a Viewport of, then go to View>Create Viewport. The rectangle you drew will be the crop object, which you can edit/adjust later, then set your scale and other Viewport properties. You can place many VP's on one Sheet. Export as what ever file type you want. Similar to Saved Views, these Viewports will save all of your settings. Once you have the VP rendered, if you Export or Print it will not go through a re-render. Model in Design Layers, Print & Export from Sheet Layers

You could create a custom texture, with brick on the bottom, siding on top, and then just tile it only in the horizontal direction. as in this example: here But I would just wrap the outside with a 3' tall wall with a stone texture. I would make it a separate class so you can turn it off or grey in your floor plans

In fact, you should be on Service Pack 3.

So you are modeling your own stairs, rather than using the Stair Tool? I know many people do this so they can get the stair to look exactly how they want them to look, but man, seems like a lot more work. The Stair Tool, and many other PIO's are Hybrid, so they look right in 2D Top/Plan and in 3D, but they are still just one entity. One class.

Are these stairs on a different layer than the Active Layer? If so, you should turn on Stack Layers. By the way, you should update to SP3.

Thanks for the link. One suggestion: The addition of a few key images or graphics would really make your newsletter much more enjoyable to read. Too much text is a turn-off for us visual thinkers. For what its worth.

I posted a tip here: http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=22951&Number=107262#Post107262 Some folks probably don't like having the images right in the post, since it may take longer for the page to load, but I prefer not having to click on a link to see the images we are posting...

Thanks to all... Both of the scripts worked. It is interesting to start seeing how the script language works. Maybe someday I will write my own...(or maybe I will just ask you first and save 1000 hours). For some reason Pat, the Custom Visibility didn't work. FYI. But I see that this command will be useful in the future for lots of other situations, thanks.

It is not you. It just says "Up." It is ridiculous, but you just have to turn off the "show arrow" option and write your own "Down" as text. I guess in other parts of the world they only write "up" on stairs, even if you would be going down from that floor level you are on... I can't complain too much though, since we are still using feet and inches!

Thanks Christian, but that doesn't work for deleting objects in symbols. In Custom Selection there is an option to include Symbols in your selection, but in order to delete those entities within your symbols you still need to edit each symbol individually. Any other thoughts?

The problem is I am referencing a .dwg that has a bunch of 2D Loci in 100+ symbols. These Loci are in the "0" Class, but so are all kinds of other objects, so I can't simply turn off that class. How do I hide or remove them without manually editing each symbol? They are really cluttering up the drawing, even though luckily they don't print. THANKS.

A couple times I have used the Scale Objects tool, and first thing I did was unckeck the "Entire Drawing" box, then I set the scale using the symmetric method, then when it brought me back to the Scale Objects window, just before hitting OK, I find that the "Entire Drawing" box has re-checked itself! I am glad I noticed. I agree with Markus' suggestion of adding a verification dialogue.

I don't have it on mine. It must be as you say, OS transparency makes it not necessary.

I don't understand what you mean by "Transfer Mode."

If the people you are sending this to are only reading it (not adding to it or marking it up), then you might also try these two options: 1). Place the worksheet on a Sheet Layer, then Export as PDF. 2). Just do a screenshot of it. And spend the half a minute you just saved enjoying a few sips of coffee. Note that when you do Export the worksheet for use in Excel, it becomes a "dummy." That is all of the functions/formulas are gone.

Worksheets are very useful. But remember: Computers may be faster, but they take longer.

First you need to know the Record & Field Names that will give you the data you need. To get these "codes" I use Pat's Worksheet of Plug-in Objects menu item. The following link will take you to it, and in that thread you will also find instructions on how to use it: http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=112259#Post112259 Okay, you click on a Plug-in Object, then run the WS-of-PIO thing, now you have the codes to pull out the data you want. Create a New Worksheet. Right-click on say row 3, change to "Database" Now Right Click again on row 3, select "Set Criteria" In the Criteria, change to Type>is>(your object type here) - in my example I am using the "Bolt and Nut -inch" Plug-in Object. Okay, now copy paste in the Record and Field Names you want into Row 3. Add one called "=count" to get your totals. Then with the row 3 selected, drag the "Sum" icon to each of the appropriate columns so you can summarize the different types you want to count. Results of Pat's WS_of_PIO menu item: My worksheet to count different bolts in my drawing: You can see that I have (5) 1/2" Hex bolts that are 7" long, and (3) that are 5" long./ Now I have a functioning worksheet. I can add or remove columns as I refine what I want to parse out. You can format the cells to make it look and read better. You can also turn off the Header Row if you like. And when you change your drawing, be sure to "Recalculate" the worksheet by right clicking on the worksheet on your drawing and selecting recalculate, or if you have the worksheet open, you can find recalc. under the "down arrow" in the upper left of the window.

You want to type specific call-outs that are coded with the type of object you are working with. This call-out includes a Record and a Field Name. They are written in a very specific way, if you get one letter wrong it will not work. In my example above I typed "=(Window.WindowDesc)" (without the quotation marks) in the Header Row, In this case, "Window" is the Record, "WindowDesc" is the Field Name, Now the cells below are blank. This is good. Now type something like "Triple Glazed" in one of those cells, which falls in the row of the specific window you are dealing with. Wa-La. That is it. You now have that "Description" tied to that specific window entity. That text is stored with that specific window's database. Each Plug-in Object has many pre-defined call-outs like this that you can use. Be aware that you have to type them exactly. And if it does not work, I swear I have fixed it by deleting it, and retyping it exactly the same way and it works. To find out what these are I use Pat Stanford's Worksheet of Plug-in Objects script. You can find it in the Vectorscipt Resource Share section of the forums.

Maybe should have an option in the PIO, something like: "Use custom graphics" Then you can pick a symbol from your resource browser to be used in-place of the hard-coded PIO for that type of object (switch, receptacle, etc.) The benefit would be that it looks exactly how you want it to look, but it still has all of the appropriate record data and options available in the PIO, so it is still BIM in that sense.

One strategy is to leave it as "custom," but also add a new column called "Notes" in the Header Row of this notes column you can type: "=(Window.WindowDesc)" Then in that row you can type "Double Single Hung" or what ever description you want. You can type anything in this row and that data will be stored with that particular window record.

2009 of course. I can't wait to make the jump myself. You will find huge advantages over 11. Especially if you plan to go 3D.

It would be really great to be able to crop imported images and PDF's right in a Design Layer. Currently you either have to crop it before importing, or make a cropped Viewport of it, but what a pain... Thanks.

Making an Image Prop is easy. Set Size. In this case you probably also want to uncheck the "auto rotate" option. That's it. Render it to see your results.