Steve Z

The file is all existing data. I wish there was a way to easily reduce the file size like reducing the resolution of an image. I guess no matter what you do a line is a line in VW and this file has a lot. Do some objects take up more memory than others, for instance a 2d locus vs a simple line? Is the same group of lines than composed into a polygon better? One polygon vs. an infinite number of lines?

I have a 2008 .vwx drawing which is 74.5mb and I would like to workgroup reference this into my drawing. Is there a way to do this that will not slow down the performance of my active drawing? I do not fully understand the cache settings and am wondering if making the file a symbol might improve the reload time. I currently have it referenced in as a DLVP which does not seem to be any better than a layer import. Thanks, Steve

No. It is something myself and many other landscape designers have requested for years.

The area does update when modifying the shape of the array. I agree, knowing the area is important. I am glad this is fixed in 2008.

I have never tested the area of plants placed in either square or triangular array before but it does appear to be a bug in 12.5. VW has resolved this in 2008. In 2008, I drew a 20'x20' square then traced it with the rectangular array. In the OIP I did get 400sf and 80' for the perimeter. My plants were spaced at 12" and there were 400 plants shown in the box. Although the area is incorrect in 12.5 the plant counts are correct, if this helps at all. Steve

Tamsin, We are updating our plants with additional classes so we have had to go into each plants' graphics to place parts of the plant into separate classes. We have used the Plant Objects.vwx file which ships with 2008 as a model. When creating new plants we usually duplicate an existing one then edit the graphic to make it unique. Many times plants are created in our office without the correct line weight or sometimes the line weight needs to be adjusted if you are working at 30 scale instead of 1/8 so we edit the graphic for these adjustments as well. I do agree that once your plants are setup, if done correctly and how you want it from the start, then there is not as much need to edit them. For beginners or users who do not already have plant symbols there is a lot of trial and error editing of the 2d graphic before the final product is achieved.

I wish I would have tried removing old versions of VW before purchasing a new video card. One of our computers had a NVIDIA GeForce2 MX card which I replaced with a RADEON 9200 MAC EDITION because VW2008 was flickering. This did solve the problem but maybe it was not the right solution.

We have an employee learning VW who was an ACAD user. Her biggest complaint so far is not being able to do exactly as Outlander describes. I also use the line tool-arc tangent-line tool.....method then compose. I usually go back and redraw the arcs with fillets using a whole number for the radius. This takes a while but gives me the result I am looking for. VW does have the Polyline by Arc Point mode which will draw line tangents and also has the ability to enter a radius by clicking "i" but I have not gotten used to drawing this way. Maybe this tool needs to be refined or made easier.