grangeian

Recently I picked up a second hand Leica TCR Total Station with a view to surveying my garden projects with a little less fuss - it seemed more professional than tapes and my Disto. I have made some 'test' surveys of small areas and some elevations but as yet have been unable to import this data in VW2008. I have Leica Geo Office Tools and the files I can create are GIS, PENHC and Apa CAD but so far this is not working. I think I need to convert the GIS file into a csv but even this has proved impossible (I have tried converters but that did not work). Does anyone create their own survey data and if so how do you get the data into VW? I do not have Auotcad, etc so cant import there, create a dwg and then import that, etc.

I do supply .pdf's and I would prefer to supply only the .pdf. However additional information such as lighting and irrigation needs to be added and they want the file to make this easier. I can understand this. There must be something within my file that is upsetting AutoCAD as it fails to print to paper or .pdf once converted. In fact in many cases they report that it crashes their system (although the file can be opened). I have one 'model space' drawing and then about 15 'paper space' or sheet presentations, 100 or so classes and about 10 layers. I think I have two alternatives, firstly to somehow flatten my drawing so that the contractors get just the model space 'image' so they can add their information as a new drawing or to simply supply my VW file and let them arrange the importation into AutoCAD. Can AutoCAD import a VW file? All this seems a bit of a shame and I am concerned that my paymaster on this project will use an AutoCAD freelancer in the future to be compatible with the others on the project.

I know this post is a little old but has this problem been sorted? I am working on a large landscape project and have to send .dwg files to the architects, project managers, landscape contractors, lighting contractors (the list goes on) and they are all using AutoCAD. My drawings started with a .dwg from the architect and I added all the landscape information, using layers and what now amount to about 20 sheet presentations. I have exported the file and this has been sent off but whilst it can be opened it will not print or create .pdf's. I am always concerned about having my 'live' drawings out there but it is a bit embarrassing when they ring me up and say they cant print - some say that after a while their .dwg crashes. I have tried exporting as different versions and they are all the same. I have tried 'not' exporting hatches, etc with similar results. Any ideas? My print settings are to an HP printer. Thanks

Hi, thanks for your help. I had checked the zoom for the grid to ensure that it was 'active' at 100%. It is. With the inkjet printers I use I expect that the lines might be too thin to print effectively but the water is muddied by the pdf export not showing the grid either which has nothing to do with the printers. I attach a screenshot showing the settings - I have a fairly large grid so it is not too small. I am at a loss to see why. I created a grid with thin lines at .05mm and set to 25% grey and they are very feint when printed but are printed nonetheless. So I can get round the problem but shouldn't have to!

I am having problems getting the reference grid to print. I have set the grid to print in the options box but it fails to do so. I exported the drawing as a pdf and as a jpeg and the light blue lines do not appear. I thought it might be that they are too 'thin' but they should at least appear on a pdf. So I will have to create a grid from lines on a separate layer as a work around but it would be good to solve the problem - any ideas would be welcome. I have tried with both my inkjet printers but they are both the same. I dont remember having this problem in 11.5

Thanks, I'll play with the jpeg settings. Its certainly not as crisp as a good pdf conversion but it will do. I wanted to colour up an A1 drawing and creating this as a jpeg is very memory hungary as a jpeg. Could you recommend any settings?

I am happily exporting my drawings to pdf and they can be opened by my Adobe Reader 7 and then printed. Thats ok. I want to import into Corel Photopaint X3 to colour up the drawing so opened the drawing in Acrobat 6.0 to resave as a jpeg. However parts of the drawing are missing in Acrobat 6.0 (although complete in Reader 7.0) and this gets worse as you zoom in and out. I have tried exporting from VW as a jpeg but it is very pixelated and also rather small - how can I get the drawing neatly and easily into my paint programmes? I have tried opening with Photoshop 5 to no avail - the pdf is not a Photoshop one apparently. I dont remember this being a problem in VW 11 (I have upgraded recently) Thanks in frustrated hope that someone can help!

I have been playing with the create plant tool and place plant tool in general. I have created a plant and all bar the background disappears when I turn on 2d rendering as I wanted to use the shadow/shade. I have tried the same process with one of the standard plant symbols and the effect is similar - the leaf detail disappears. I have attached an image of the two plants in both normal and 'enable 2d rendering mode' The fern was drawn with one class (the none class) so it should not be a class on/off problem. Any ideas?

That works! In earlier versions (11.5 anyway) you could select the 2d symbol from the plant preferences and then select the 3d symbol from about 5 rather poor choices. Now the GL view is empty. However adding the 3d xfrog as you suggest for each symbol works so I am up and running again - thanks. Now all I have to do is build up my symbols library - I was wondering what to do on a Saturday morning! Ian

This is a quick question with no doubt a quick answer! When I edit the plant preferences I have all the symbols to hand as I had previously exported the plant objects file to the default plants file. However the 3d view window offers me nothing - how do I or where do I add 3d objects to get them to view in this window? Do other users use this function or make their own symbols and worksheets and store as a favourite file - I wonder whether it is easier to create a drawing with the symbols, record and their associated 3d plug-ins and just use this when creating a planting plan?

Update! I imported the file at 1:1250 and everything is now working correctly, so I am happy! Thanks for getting me on track

Thanks for that. I have changed the settings and imported the file several times under different scales but still don't get the expected or desired result. The file is a 1:1000 paper space with I presume a 1:1 model space, although I am not sure as the base for the drawing could well be a 1:1250. I will keep playing with the import to try to solve the problem but if anybody has further thoughts I would be grateful as I have a fairly tight deadline - as ever! Thanks

I have imported an autocad file into VW2008. It gives me a sheet layer with everything correct and in the right place - if I annotate the viewport the scale is correct. However in the relevant design layer the drawing is very small and I guess it should be at 1:1 to match Autocad's model space. How do I import the file to give me accurate scaling and dimensioning in the design layer? I am almost there but that is worse than not knowing anything! Can anybody point me in the right direction please? Thanks Oh, and I see that the custom scale of my viewport is 1:25.4 for a drawing that scales at 1:1000. This I think is important?

Yes, I have GDI imaging on and have tried it with anti-aliasing on and off and with the dpi of the sheet on 300dpi as well as 72dpi. If I move the opacity object off the page and print there is no problem.

I too am having problems printing either pdf's or straight to my HP Photosmart. I have set my dpi to 300 and set ant-aliasing to on but much of my drawing goes missing. I was just using a slight opacity 'window' to highlight a detail on a drawing and if I remove this window the drawing will then print correctly. Has this problem now been addressed/solved?

I have created a mixed planting area with two polygons and have then added a cloud vegetation style to the resulting boundary. If I convert this to an object and try to add a stiple my pc churns and then Vectorworks crashes. I have been able to do a similar process with a smaller shape so wonder if my pc is just not able to deal with a larger shape. I am running VW11 with an AMD Athlon 1.4GHz pc with 512 MB ram. Any comments would be welcome.