michael@arc

sginder, thanks for your statment - it does not really comfort me though, to have an application with features that sometimes do work properly and sometimes dont. in my case, anyway, zooming in to far always ends up in a crash. did you change anything to your systems to make that bug go away? (os, network, other installed software etc.) michael

we're not working in 3d most of the time. the problem is, without layer links you shouldn't dare combining several scales on one sheet, since you'd loose accuracy far beyond a reasonable point to work with. so we use layer links to be able to display referenced project parts in a 'print' document, who's accuracy doesn't matter to much since changes don't go back to the source document. also, if you have several project to work with, you'll probably want to see the points where these projects toucht each other in every project. layer links are the only way to accomplish this, if the referenced projects need to be ROTATED. everything else would be fine with saved sheets. so why don't they just care for the layerlink feature to work in 2d all well, as there is an 'display 2d' option in the tool??? michael

we are trying to use layer links to print several sheets from a single production document. so far so good. if it were not vectorworks unique ability to make simple things difficult: hatched circles display without any filling or hatch, when layer linked layer links dont export to dxf or dwg and, last not least, zooming in on a layer link will always result in a system crash, if you go far enough (you'll have to, considering the snap which only works on points, when layer links are snapped to. one more: i have a document here on which only one sheet will print, the other will cause a crash. our conclusion: although layer links seem to be the only reasonable way to print several sheets from one document without having to more the sheet for each plot, and to print several scales from a document without loosing accuracy, layer links seem to be a beta feature, causing crashes every couple of minutes. pretty frustrated, and thinking of switching to a different cad system, michael

i have several drawings here (win, vw 8.5.2) in which the size of the sheet changes every now and then - i couldn't yet find a pattern WHEN it changes, but this happens about 3-5 times per hour; this is not one of the big bugs in this software, but it is annoying. by the way - will there be bugfixes for vw 8.5.2 at all, or will everyone be required to upgrade to vw9 to get rid of the old bugs and have fun with some new ones? ;-)

p.s: if this were of any help, i could mail you a copy of the file i've been working on for about two days by now. i even tried various machines, to make sure it's not a system configuration problem. michael.

the commas are indeed the decimal separators in the german versions of vectorworks. so the values of the loci range from 418.557m to 430.000m, about 11.5m difference. (i'm working in europe, here) if the problem consists in any 3d loci too close to each other, what practical way is there to get rid of those loci (or locate them first, anyway) still, i can not figure out why twp points close to each other should be a problem for the calculation of a dtm - can you explain this more precisely? regards, michael.

ok, so i will try explain more precisely: i got a ascii-file with coordinates, and i imported it to vectorworks as 3d loci. there are about 1400 loci on a separate layer. fine so far. z values are between 418,557m and 430,000m; in most cases (i tried various settings in the dtm dialog) the system hangs after showing parts of the calculates dtm; i gave the machine (a 600mhz pc under nt4.0) up to 8 hours time over night, but vectorworks did not come to an end. in some cases, with no 3d model selected, i got an error message (4,6) and the system crashed afterwords. in all cases only vectorworks hangs, all other applications keep running (slow, though, certaily) on the layer with the loci are only those, all others are invisible. does this help any further? michael. thanks for any assistance!

i have a file here i am trying to create a dtm of - whenever i try, the system crashes. can anyone help us? michael

just for my information: do any vectorworks monitor this board and sometimes help solve problems? HELLO OUT THERE! we really need help about this and are currently considering to buy another cad system due to the missing productivity of vectorworks.

hi john p, i really don't want to upset you, but as far as i am concerned, this is a known issue... i have been trying to get some problems about internal accuracy of vectorworks resolved for a larger scale project we are setting up right now, and i have not found any satisfiying solution yet. we're designing a project with a lenslike shape, and i found that whenever you use snap functions on curved elements, the internal accuracy of vectorworks leads to a point slightly off the point where it should be mathematically. this is an issue with all cad systems, but vectorworks (seemingly coming from the dtp-software area) only calculates 10digits, where other systems have 16 or 21. a vectorworks tech told us, that in version 10(!) there might be a change to the coordinate system of vectorworks. we are currently discussion whether we will take the risk setting up the project in vectorworks or switching to a cad system with better accuracy. if you find a way to resolve this...let me know! michael

we're using linked layers to display and print severals floor plans of the same building on one document; this works o.k. so far, but whenever i zoom in closely on any object on the linked layer, the VW crashes. we're using VW8.5.2 on a WIN NT4.0/SP6 machine. thanks for any help michael.

i had a brief conversation with some vectorworks hotline support member, and he told me that he had the question before, and that there was some solution...but that he'd have to check back and he would send me an email. i've heard nothing jet from him... maybe it's because this just doesn't work, as you say. still i don't really understand what would be so difficult about this function; i would already be satisfied with a 'duplicate to polygons' or 'ungroup' functionality for these layer links. i'd have to do this only for exporting to dxf/dwg in 2d format. other cad systems like archicad, allplan and autocad have no problems with this feature - so i can't really believe vectorworks has NO WAY to work around this. thanks for any assistance, michael

thaks for your answer, but i think, the reference function does not fully meet our needs; as far as i know, references are always put into a drawing at exactly the same coordinates as in the source drawing; so again, we would have to draw several floor plans at different positions on the drawing. dissolving the refenences to be able to unlock an move them is not usefull as well, since if we do so, changes in the source drawing have no longer effects to the plan. one more advantage of the layer link procedure would be the possibility to ROTATE layers for display; this is usefull e.g. to be able to draw a floor plan using orthogonal structures and to PRINT this floor plan on an oriented (turned northwards) site map. thanks for any assistance! michael

in our drawings, we use layer links to set up different documents from the same building, e.g. to print all floors of a building plan on one document, though they are drawn all at the same position in the file (as is the only reasonable way, i think). despite the lack of an option to show different scales in such a layer link, this pretty much helps to work around the missing model space - paper space feature of vectorworks. this would be fine except from 2 problems: - is there any way to modify the list of linked layers in such a layer link (german version: "ebenenmodell") - whenever we try to export one of these drawing, the dxf/dwg-file is empty except from the data drawn directly on the layer with the links to it. please help! we need an option to export the documents as they print to keep our consultants from getting all confused... michael. @arc

be extremely carefull with this! we've been using this option for a while, but we found that it is NOT possible to export such a composition to any other file format like dxf/dwg - so if you need to work with consultants or so - BEWARE! greetings, michael