helmut

hi folks, based on a piece of code that was discussed here before (sorry, I cannot find the threat any more) I tried to create the following tool: -- an elevation benchmark ("h?henkote" in german) with symbols of my own -- two different symbols can be chosen depending on the position above or below the respective elevation point -- first click after activation of tool shows reference for zero elevation -- all following clicks place instances of the symbol, befilled with the elevation higth as plain text -- the system shall work in any rotated screen position so far, so good... a couple of questions remain: -- when terminating by using keys "x" or "escape" all instances of my symbols disappear; when terminating by activating another command, e.g. drawing a line, all instances are kept; why does this happen ? -- how could I achieve to place real plug-ins instead of symbols - with still changeable properties AFTER creation - such as changing the symbol type from "above" to "below" and still keeping the elevation higth... obviously there is something with plug-in creation I don?t understand... ------------------------------------------------------------------- PROCEDURE h?henkote; CONST ElevClass = 'bemassung'; ElevRec = 'h?henkote schnitt'; ElevFld = 'kote'; VAR ElevSym : STRING; x1, y1 : REAL; x2, y2 : REAL; x3, y3 : REAL; x4, y4 : REAL; CurrentCl : STRING; vorzeichen: STRING; BEGIN DSelectAll; PushAttrs; { save graphic state } CurrentCl := ActiveClass; NameClass(ElevClass); SetClUseGraphic(ElevClass, true); SetClPenFore(ElevClass, 0, 0, 0); SetClPenBack(ElevClass, 0, 0, 0); SetClLW(ElevClass, 1); SetClLS(ElevClass, 5); SetClFPat(ElevClass, 0); ShowClass(ElevClass); LSByClass; LWByClass; PenColorByClass; FillColorByClass; FPatByClass; PopAttrs; { restore graphic state } ElevSym:=psymbolname; GetPt(x3, y3); { This is where the reference elevation is stored } x4:=x3; y4:=y3; ModelPt2DToScreenPt (x4, y4); WHILE TRUE DO BEGIN NameClass(CurrentCl); { return to current class } GetPt(x1, y1); { Elevation marker will be placed at this point } x2:=x1; y2:=y1; ModelPt2DToScreenPt (x2, y2); NameClass(ElevClass); { Elev symbol instance goes in this class } SYMBOL(ElevSym, x1, y1, -GETPREFREAL(93)); vorzeichen:=''; IF (y2-y4)>0 THEN vorzeichen:='+'; IF (y2-y4)=0 THEN vorzeichen:='?'; SetRecord(LNewObj, ElevRec); SetRField(LNewObj, ElevRec, ElevFld, concat(vorzeichen, Num2Str(2,(y2 - y4)/100))); SetRField(LNewObj, ElevRec, 'zeile1', ''); SetRField(LNewObj, ElevRec, 'zeile2', ''); RedrawAll; DSelectAll END; { WHILE } END; Run(h?henkote); ------------------------------------------------------------------- thanks in advance for suggestions ! helmut

vincent, which are the hidden line improvements you mention ? thanks helmut

benson, your last posting sounded a bit as if you had seen inverted PDFs before ? h

hi benson, we did some more research this afternoon ;-) exported PDFs do look good, printed PDFs don't, prints or plots neither. so it is perfectly clear now my friend's printer drivers are causing the problem; can you imagine even exported/saved PDFs are inverted when being printed !! never seen this before... tomorrow we're gonna try printing HIS pdfs on MY plotter, should work if our theory is correct. h

hi benson, printing with on-screen resolution doesn?t help. i tried a few things out on my friend?s workstation for myself just to be sure... the problem seems not to be what he had told me before. it is not the boldness. but it is definitely strange: the patterns are OK on screen, but what makes them unreadable on hardcopy is that they are all inverted....! the printing device used makes no difference, all the same on laser printer and plotter (both are canon devices, though). never seen this before... or is there an option i do not know of...? tx again helmut

hello there, a friend of mine uses a localized german version of VW arch 2009. his patterns look OK on screen but come always very bold when being printed; all the same regardless of printing/plotting device, so definitely software related; all the same regardless of printing/plotting resolutions between 72 and 1200 dpi; the option for using screen resolution is disabled; his pattern definitions are out of the box. are there any unknown places where to change the resolution for printing patterns...? tx for suggestions helmut

hi raymond, GetPrefReal(93) worked well in my case. thanks much ! best wishes from overseas

hi. i am trying to place a symbol using the line SYMBOL (symbolName, px, py, #0); in top/plan view the symbol stands head up correctly - but in rotated top/plan view it appears rotated by the same amount the view itself is rotated. so it seems i need to know and use the plan rotation degrees instead of simply using "0" for the insertion if the symbol should be inserted upright. how can i get this done ? thanks much

@ GWS: i forgot to tell: no luck with permission repair - no effect on the display issues in my case.

hi peter, thanks, i tried it your way and it activated the viewport and the respective design layer within, went out again and all my columns were back like predicted; but afterwards i realized i had done something in addition: i had changed the design layer?s projection direction, too: from an open-GL-rendered 3D to wireframe top/pan. so i tested what toggling of the design layer projection (with unified view on) would cause; and this is what happened: -- setting a 3D view for the design layer ---> the viewport display (on my sheet) became incomplete or at least instable when being zoomed -- setting the design layer back to top/plan ---> the viewport display healed... maybe the workaround would be to set design layers strictly to top/plan view before changing to sheet layers for checking the correctness of viewport displays and final plotting. next question arising: is it simply the projection direction or have unified view, rendering (such as open GL) any influence...? my oh my...

thanks GWS. restarting does not help in my case. and, more important: my viewport shows a top/plan view, which means 2D plan and no rendering at all. i think you are right about it being a video/display/driver issue, because we had similar things happen when running VW2010; the friend of mine with indeed very large files runs VW2009. so this is definitely nothing new in 2011. but what can one change or update when running imacs - besides keeping the OSX up to date...? would it be worth trying to set up a testing machine with 10.6...? i am in doubt. i am going to test your permission repair thing next, no harm...

hi, from time to time we have issues with disappearing elements in viewports... all the same on 4 different macs. - we set up our design using 3D elements - we change to a sheet layer - we create a viewport in top/plan view - first of all everything looks fine (today?s example was a small shop with exterior and interior walls and 5 columns showing within the viewport) - we start zooming the sheet/viewport: just a little in and the first one of the columns is gone - zooming a little further in and a second one has disappeared - zooming in again and the third one is gone - thus far 3 are hiding, 2 are still showing - zooming out again, panning, etc etc: the missing ones don?t show up again - plotting: the viewport stays incomplete - exporting PDFs: the viewport stays incomplete - changing back to design layers: all of the columns are still where they should be, they simply do not show up in the viewport correctly we never encountered such strange behavior in 2D drawings, may they have had dozens of MBs; but it can always happen even in comparatively small 3D files; on our machines (3 year old imacs) solely within viewports - but i saw similar things on a friend?s imac happen even when zooming design layers (in a very large file of about 80 MB). graphics cards and drivers are of course native mac/OSX, there is nothing to change and nothing to update beyond the OS itself. has anybody ever had similar experiences ? thanks and greetings

in 2011: drawing units are square meters, rounding precision 0,01 (two decimals) all space tags show two decimals like they should database header says =('Space'.'Area') worksheet shows all space areas rounded to next even square meter, decimals are zero in 2010 the areas were showing exact numbers in the spreadsheet (two decimals like in the space tags) in 2011 i get the areas rounded (which means showing two trailing zeros) why ?? thanks

hello jeffrey, I totally agree. as by now we do about 50% of our projects in 3D, their number of course increasing. but nevertheless there are lots and lots of flat drawings where it should be possible to draw a space area independent of any boundings and handle this object not only by reshaping but also by clipping - as simple as it has been up to 2010. helmut

hi robert, sorry my reply took some time - was absent. unfortunately the auto-boundary method does not help with flat (2D-) projects... which are still quite a number in our practice. has anybody tried if space area clipping works with SP2 ? IMHO the new space label is a real benefit (at least); so if we could come up with the correct areas... ;-)