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Tom G.

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Everything posted by Tom G.

  1. If you are really wanting to print your Top/Plan view, just issue a Print command. You may need to clarify exactly what it is you're trying to make to help us help you. Sheet layers are easy to make. If you are happy with your Top/Plan View, just go to View and Create Viewport. It will enclose the entire drawing area unless you drag out a smaller polygon around part of your work. Name this Viewport. Look for the "Create on Layer" pull down menu there and select "New Sheet Layer". Give it a name. VectorWorks doesn't like it when you give Design Layers, Viewports and Sheets the same name. I try to keep the same name by using the trick of adding a different suffix to each. Thus my Main Floor design layer, when made into a Viewport, is labeled Main Floor VP (for Viewport) and the Sheet I create from that is labeled Main Floor Sheet, at least until I can get back to it and give it a number. Now that you have a Viewport deposited on a sheet, you can pull it around to better compose your page. And if your original Design Layer changes, this Sheet view will update too. Convert Copy to Lines works well for sections and elevations although the Stack Layers tool (and Section Viewport) has the important benefit of delivering a live, updatable model, vs dead lines. But knowing how to do both is best. If you do create a 3D model using the Model View tool (Vs. Stack Layers), make a Layer to receive the linework created when you render the 3D model (Hidden Line) and then issue the Convert Copy to Lines command. Once generated, send the "copy" to this new Elevations layer by using the Object Info palette. Ungroup and edit away. If you are interested in creating 3D elevations, here is a great how-to by Peter Cipes from the Techboard RenderWorks folder: http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=77297&page=1#Post77297
  2. My advice would be to not use the model setup tool but rather create your own layers on which to place 3D elements and manually give said layer its Z-height by using the Organization palette OR by setting object heights, avoiding layer height settings, by using the Object Info palette (OIP). If you choose to use the Org. palette, select any layer, then click on Edit and there, set the Z-height of the layer (and perhaps your wall heights via the Delta-Z input box provided the wall you choose doesn't already have an assigned height). Or, alternately simply use the Object Info palette to set the Z-height of the elements you are placing (walls typically) when you work on any particular layer. Note that in using the OIP to set Z-heights, you are setting the Z-height of your OBJECTS, and not the Z-height of the layer. In that way, the layer does not lock a Z-height onto objects placed there. It's OK to keep all layers zeroed-out in the Organization palette. A layer is only a holder, remember. It does not need a Z height to function. If you use the OIP, just do the math, tabbing in + for up and - for down. You can use the input boxes for Z height to add groups of numbers, for instance, wall + floor or wall + floor + wall. This makes it easier on the brain when trying to keep the model snugly together. Remember though, when going down, you want to stay with minus signs when "adding" groups of numbers. There are some other issues with using the OIP solely to control Z heights but the overall result is that you will have firm command of what's happening.
  3. This has been discussed before. See if this helps. http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=7&Number=96383&Searchpage=1&Main=20643&Words=beam+islandmon&topic=0&Search=true#Post96383
  4. Robert: The manual attempts to do something in a static manner that is far better performed dynamically. An NNA produced webinar*, for example, is more successful as a teaching tool than the manual--at least as the manual is written today, although they can be very helpful, as anyone who remembers Janice Kent or has seen the Bauer book on VW 10 will attest. If you want to find out about one of the most powerful tools in VW today, Stack Layers, you have to read through three quarters of the manual to find the discussion, found right alongside Creating IFC Entities. Is this where we expect our users to go? (Don't bother to check the KnowledgeBase for info on Stack Layers--I already did.) If the manual was ignored for two years, would anyone notice? Seriously. Put the resources into cranking out quick, cheap webinar-style QT movies. All hands on deck. Start yesterday. *Webinars are QT movies produced in-house for the benefit of VW User Group Members.
  5. brudgers: I don't think anyone has commented about the program itself, in this thread, but rather the documentation. The complexity of a program does not necessarily mean that it can't produce drawings simply, or be effective immediately. One just has to find the pathway to the tools that are indispensable which means finding the one set to best serve the beginner and another set for the intermediate user and so on. Helping the novice find this path and the proper tools is the job of a teacher. And I do agree that the main way to learn is by doing.
  6. Note that when you import a Sketchup model, VW places it on a new, automatically generated layer. So look for that layer and check there before you give up. Your model may also come in on that layer as a one to one so the thing could be huge--your screen may happen to show the space between the wheel and the wheel well so select all and zoom to object.
  7. The rendering choices on the Object Info palette really should be simpler. Hidden Line as a background render makes sense. And the foreground render offers Sketch, which also makes sense (along with another Hidden Line choice). But in fact, there is yet another Sketch option that is available, not through the choice of Sketch, but rather through the choice of Hidden Line, as Pat says above. If I have a background render set as a Hidden Line and the foreground set as Sketch, shouldn't that be the end of it? Hidden Line below Sketch. Apparently not. Set your render to read Hidden Line-below-Hidden Line, check the next radio button and THEN set that choice to Sketch. Is this awfully unintuitive or is it just me? Thanks, Pat, for showing the process. I've been running around a tree all night trying to get a simple extruded rectangle to render correctly.
  8. Robert: You replied before I could edit my text and take the reference to you out. You said nothing about 3rd party books; this was my point and not yours. Sorry. If one looks at the prominence on the NNA website of the Knowledge Base, and contrast that with the woeful attention it's gotten over the years, then I think that my tough-love comment has at least some merit. Providing content, such as the What's New disks and manuals (by request) is very important though it is not the issue, in my view. The issue is their quality in regard to ensuring the success of the beginner. Here, context is everything and calls for a different approach to teaching. (The What's New disks are, by their title, not a teaching guide, although QT movies provide the most effective method yet for getting an idea across. (See J. Pickup's podcasts)) PS. You are hard-working to be online at this hour. Thanks for your time and for your response. (Note that I've made further edits to my original post.)
  9. There is a cultural difference between the general user, who has one kind of world view--arguably more artistic--and the core NNA staff, which is engineer-centric in their world view. Thus, when these boards are constantly peppered by users asking "this seems really simple, but I've searched and searched and can't find an answer" they may have no recourse but to be sent back to the manuals or to a third party book. But the NNA in-house manuals are like a dictionary and not a thesaurus. They give equal weight to every tool and process and are in no particular order. In other words, there is NO context. Sending a new user out to buy a third party book would look to the average shmoe as a rather big risk to take on, not to mention cost, when they only need to get over one hurdle to proceed. This is a little like asking someone to learn French before they can order a baguette. There should be a primer on using the least number of tools to get the most done such that the new user is effective with VW as soon as possible along with a Knowledge Base that provides answers. What we have instead is a promise with no follow-through. This tough-love approach by NNA results in a lot of good people giving up or stopping in their journey into VW thus the overall effect is one that limits the pool of possible users and certainly slows users from upgrading consistently. In big offices, where NNA is placing its resources, and betting its future, there are guru's to help you through. If you are trying to learn on your own, then best of luck. This culture will not change until key people are brought into NNA with a teacher's point of view, who value effective learning materials, who can vote with the core decision makers and swing the ship such that effective resources are made available and placed in easy to find locations. (Please don't misunderstand; the NNA staff are hardworking and doing their best. And 3rd Party books can be a terrific investment) But culturally, the providers and the users are not on the same page, or even on the same manual.
  10. This Feedback Center is supposedly for the posting of requests for Knowledge Base articles which would be fine if that actually led to the posting of an article in the Knowledge Base. There are, at this count, 253 threads and 903 posts and there are TWO how-to's posted in the Architect folder within the Knowledge Base. It is a crying shame when you have such great posters within this forum (Peter Cipes, etc.) and so little escapes into the prime folders of the Knowledge Base, one of the first places a new user is likely to go for help.
  11. I'd like to have the ability to do a macro turn-off via a class toggle of window and door schedule numbers.
  12. "Slab" and "Mod" are not special terms other than to be placeholder names that are assigned to automatically created layers. Rather than risk breaking my pick on the logic of Slab and Mod and where one thing stops and another begins, I'm much more effective if I make my layers one by one as my projects are almost never similar. The Model Setup tool may be worth your time if you do the same kind of projects again and again, or if you are handing off data for someone else to input. I could be wrong.
  13. Why not use both ways, depending on what works best? I find that Cut 2D and Cut 3D, used in the development of a drawing--as opposed to the display of the drawing--can be quite fast compared to trying the same with Viewports. Today I was placing windows with transoms and I used Cut 2D to section the wall to confirm the correct elevation of the mullioned units. These are sections that are deleted once you've made your observations. Make a new 3D layer, then use the Model View tool to assemble layers there containing 3D information.
  14. One has to know how to frame the roof before it can be drawn. And sometimes VW can show you how to frame it without a clear understanding of how to solve the problem. This is not one of those times. In this case, if the front roof springs from the top edge of the second story floor and the rear or back roof springs from the top of a second story wall, then use Roof Faces and extend and edit until they come together at their peaks. Then go back to the front-side roof and either do the same with the wrapping brow (or shed roofs), set to the top of the same floor line (higher than your first story wall plates), or draw a large polygon and Create Roof. Then ungroup and discard the back roof planes and then adjust the front remaining roofs to tie into the valley of the first upper story roof. There is no quick way to do this, however once you get the knack for solving for similar roofs, you'll have bullet proof sections to show your framer how to proceed.
  15. You should also add back Cut 3D Section, as 2D shows only what has been cut, nothing beyond the cut plane. In my experience, tools are obsoleted by NNA more for their conflicting with a newer paradigm than because they create a coding conflict. If islandmon has a specific instance in mind, I'd like to be made aware. I've no doubt they might exist, just haven't found them myself.
  16. Tom G.

    I Beams

    islandmon: I've converted the polyline to nurbs and made a path and extruded along path. Also done the same with a Convert to Nurbs but find the nurbs i-beam renders the same--except for Hidden Line render and Sketch--as a polyline extrusion. Can you be more specific in why there is a benefit to nurbs, other than when cutting away (curving) parts of the i-beam? Thanks
  17. Perhaps it's time to remove Create gable end walls? I'm always having to manage deleting them since Fit walls to roof is so effective. In any event, out of the box it should come preset as unselected.
  18. I'm with David on this one and believe, while Jeffrey is technically right, that his response places ideology over practicality. Design Layer Viewports have been touted by NNA as REFERENCE layers. If I use a viewport of a building's story as a reference, such as a floor plan below a framing plan, I don't need the new VPDL to create false counts. This should be the default setting and others needing a more expert report should be the ones adjusting the sorting order of the schedule. After all, being the more expert, they already know how to do this. (No slam intended toward Pat.) Practicality trumps ideology when the number of users overwhelmingly use a tool in a similar way, at which point the tool should be optimized. This is one of those times.
  19. I'd use a 2D poly and extrude. Make sure upon your return to close the poly; the Object Info palette should display a "Closed" box bearing a check mark. Check it yourself if it isn't. Extrude. Give it a simple color fill. Set its elevation. This should work. I have sometimes found that after I've assigned an object a simple fill color, then, when assigning a texture for more detailed renderings, the texture doesn't take. You can test this by going to the Render pane of the OIP, assigning a texture, and checking under Mapping (bottom of OIP). If you don't see your wood texture, go back and assign a slightly different fill color. This typically will cause the texture to become visible. Sometimes a couple of colors will need to be applied before the texture takes. I've found this behavior going back to V. 12.0 and up through V.2008. If you don't want a 3D object on a Top/Plan view, duplicate it prior to extruding and then, while keeping the 2D form in place, send the countertop to a special layer created to hold misc. 3D objects whose line work would otherwise confuse your Top/Plan view which I assume you'd want to show as primarily a 2D layer.
  20. You'll want to get your view into a top "plan" view and out of any 3D views including top 3D view. Go to View>Standard Views>Top/Plan View to get the previous drawing to look correct for the addition of 2D info such as electrical layout, etc.
  21. Regarding title blocks, an easy way is to create a new layer solely for a title block, typically in a 1 to 1 scale in case you're importing a graphic symbol in jpg or tiff format. After placing info that you expect to show up on each sheet, make a viewport of the title block. Then go to the Viewport portion of the Organization palette, duplicate the viewport and send it to each sheet by using the Object Info palette. Any change to the main viewport will now show on each sheet. Save as a template for letter size, legal, ledger, C, D, and so on. To add sheet numbers, scale, drawing name, etc., simply type them onto the sheet itself in the appropriate location. Copy and paste-in-place similar text to each new sheet. My basic template has one drawing layer at 1/4" per foot and one title block layer. Since my work is different from project to project, I add layers as needed. I never use Model Setup.
  22. Check this out: >http://web.mac.com/jpickup1/Site/podcasts/Entries/2007/9/16_047_-_Line_Textures_on_Elevations.html
  23. TONS of vehicles under Google 3D Warehouse. Use Sketchup import. Look in World's Manufacturers folder http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=fcaa46a4940e46fa5df37c24afdb5215
  24. When I place doors and windows into walls, one can check each window or door via the OIP as "On Schedule" and thus prepare them to be generated into a Window or Door Schedule. Is there a way to get these to number automatically on the planset such that I can just click away, inserting without having to set each and every one on the OIP? It seems that I currently must manually enter the door or window number for each unit. A check box for "Consecutive Naming" would be helpful, particularly with doors--assuming one doesn't already exist. Thanks
  25. In VW 2008 (Mac OS 10.4.2), I wished to update changes to my window and door schedules and so tried the (right click) Recalculate button. This action doubled all of my units in the schedule. How do I undo this or keep this from happening in the future? Second question: My windows tallied 1 through 15 consecutively just fine on the Window Schedule, but on my Door Schedule, the numbers jumped around out of order. How do I get these to show consecutively? Thanks!
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