occidental tourist

sorry, realize it is not in my profile but I'm using an old version on a mac ( 9.5.3 ) Cannot find create helix spiral. The only spiral tool is in the 2D tool box for spiraling out in a two dimensional way. I have found that the sweep tool offers a spiral setting. So the question I have bearing the foregoing in mind is, can I use a sweep to cut a cylinder that represents the body of the fastener? one supposes as an alternative that I could create the sweep as a positive using a radius so that it was empty at the smaller diameter of what would be uncut or unrolled diameter of the fastener. I'll try playing with this this evening but if anyone has any suggestions or recollections related to this version or method that would help I will, of course be appreciative, and am flattered that folks seem to be falling over how fast they can key in answers to my humble questions. thanks brian

just used solidworks this afternoon to draw a screw part by extruding a cylinder then creating a spiral around the extruded cylinder and making a triangle shape defining the removal profile and using the cut command along the spiral. It was pretty cute and I though maybe I'd been missing something but couldn't find a spiral or similar command in vectorworks when I got back to my computer. So I tired searching the board here for "spiral" with no results. So I'm wondering if there is a tool or method I'm missing for drawing hardware with a spiral thread.

a lot of my design work is guided by framing techniques and materials so that is why I try to work with representations of the individual components rather than just place entire wall surfaces on each side of the building. Obviously, I'm doing this differently than many folks would so I understand that the program will not necessarily be optimized to my method. I appreciate the help getting as close as I can. Is there a way to clip an extruded polygon? I suppose I could duplicate the 4x8 as 2 dimensional and as long as I'm in front view (or whichever side I'm working on)Then clip each one and then extrude. Duplicate array will allow me to handle the z movement during duplication so the lack of reliable 'z' control for polygon becomes less critical. Actually, while they are 2 dimensionally, the Y inputs and locs will control the Z in a vertical view. So I just need to make sure I place them precisely in the plane I want them, so I don't have to move them all in plan view to get them up against the framing. Upgrades probably aren't in my near future, but can you give the cliff notes version of how architect handles framing. I assume there is individual control of various elements for creating irregular stud space. Likewise I need to draw joists and band joists and rafters, etc. As I recall, all my rafters are individual roofs just as the studs and joists are individual walls. Haven't gotten that high on this building.. . thanks AT

Done, so that worked fine. I created a 2D rectangle 4x8 feet in front view. Then I created another smaller rectangle that covered the intersection of the larger sheet and the window. I chose them both and used the Tool> Clip Surface function in my version. Then I extruded the 2D remnant to 5/8" thick. Originally you suggested I make a 4x8 extrude and then modify (I assume you mean clip or trim) the extrusion. Is there a way to do this? The clip Surface doesn't seem to work on 3D objects. Maybe something that would clip an extrusion could clip a wall. Any such tool would surely clip a wall converted to polygon but when you convert you loose significant OIP control which is why I like working with walls better. You especially get better Z management and axis standarization. The OIP for the extrude does not list a Z location -- partly, I assume, because it tracks X and Y and Extrusion meaning that the extrusion is the Z value by definition, but it will not necessarily coordinate with the nominal drawing axes depending on the rotation of the extrusion Walls on the other hand are essentially extruded polygons with x, y and z axes that remain coordinate with the drawing axis. In the case of the sample clipped and then extruded figure attached, because it is vertically oriented, it is holding the Y dimension as 4 ft. even though in this drawing it is really the Z dimension that is 4 ft. and the Y dimension is 5/8 inch. Created as a wall I have numerical control and reference to its location and delta in all three dimensions from the OIP and those nominal axes match the drawing axes. Also - very minor point, it doesn't seem to present it's class color in the top/plan view as the walls do. But there doesn't seem to be a reliable way to quickly clip a wall, so this may be the best option for what I'm trying to do. thank you. AT

very fairly said. maybe I only have enough facility to make me dangerous. I'm not asking you to indulge incompetence, per se. It is true that I am prone to pyrrhic victory over work challenges. YEsterday I spent a half hour retreiving a $20 hole saw we dropped through a hole in a grey water system we were installing. It really wouldn't have done damage to leave it there, so the half hour for two guys was much more costly than leaving it there. credit [or discredit] hard head. I realize that the hole in this philosophy is that I can have sophisticated mastery of some aspects of a technology but can have skipped over simple building blocks that would solve problems. This seems to be one of them, although my last extended commitment to solving a VW problem was isometric dimensioning. I similarly assumed that my inability to do that was the result of my lack of facility with the program. Turns out its a lack of facility of the program and I couldn't necessarily have cured that deficiency with an educational approach -- although I'm pretty proud of the solution I worked out myself of creating a dimension layer and giving it a different scale to match the foreshortened isometric representation and I can now do isometric dimensioning quite precisely. I feel like the 2D and 3D reshape ought to be a little more intuitive and powerful but the whole package, even Version 9, is so useful I'm not here to whine about it Usually, problem solving like this gives me more understanding of functions that don't suit or solve the problem but presuppose and solve future problems. So in that sense I treat narrow problem solving as global learning about the program. Best Regards and don't hesitate to point to modestly priced training opportunities in my region - Southern New England -- if those resources are familiar to you. AT

now that you mention this method, I remember this is how I reshaped walls under gable roof pitches. Those were more traditional walls and I was moving existing vertices, didn't recall I could add. . . that will take care of it and with snap to object it ought to be easy to make the cutout. I'll try right away. To rephrase that timeworn aphorism, if you're a screwgun everything looks like a screw. So I learned to create VW walls as x, y, z rectangles so since most building materials are x,y,z rectangles I just carried that method over. So I tried with 3D reshape. Klunky with walls. When you choose the plus option it doesn't seem to reliably add vertices. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I tried click, click-drag, and double click on the perimeter of the object without any reliable results. I was snapped to the object and highly magnified so I wouldn't miss. The 3D reshape tool displayed the existing vertices of the wall which are not displayed by just selecting it so I thought I was gonna be made in the shade but . . . Occasionally a new vertice would appear but not in a logical pattern where I could understand what I did to create it. Moving them was impossible. If I got one in the run of the x or z shape of the wall, sometimes but not always, I could grab it and distort the wall as if adding a peak. But one I finally got two new vertices added and then tried to move the original corner to create the inset of cutting the window out of the 'plywood' the original corner wouldn't move. It would only give me arrows acting as if I could move it in the z dimension, but it didn't move even in that dimension although I had cursor arrows. So I gave up and started trying rectangles. Drew One. Then chose the 2D reshape tool but couldn't add vertices or move the existing ones. So then I tried the trim tool. Drew a 2D rectangle and then drew a smaller one on top and experimented with which one should be selected when I choose the Trim Tool. Well this tool actually does something, but, as you can see from the attached screen shot, it doesn't clip the overlap of the rectangles, it clips a straight line between the intersection of the overlaps so you get a diagonal line instead of a smaller rectangle clipped out. I moved the rectangle I used to clip so you could see the result in the picture. I had something wrong logically because the piece left of the larger rectangle is actually the small diagonal corner. So I still don't have the boolean operation figured out, but it looks like I'm going down a dead end alley if I'm only going to be able to create a diagonal line when I'm trying to clip the entire rectangular overlap. All in all, my simple quick fix is to make two rectangular walls that add up to 8 feet in length with the one over the window being shortened and with higher bottom Z so it is above the window and then join the walls but that doesn't erase the line between them in the running join to make them appear to be one piece of plywood the way it would if I were joining two walls at a corner. Maybe I don't have something set right. doesn't work joining rectangangles either, the line remains between the two rectangles. But, I'm still trying to ramp up my capabilities here and I'm glad to get into the world of extruding polygons, but first I have to learn how to add and move vertices reliably or join objects to create a single object. thanks from the VW Kindergarten. AT

I haven't extruded polygons to make these plywood sheets, although if they are easier to clip I guess I shot try to do that. The plywood sheets are actually walls. The create wall tool has always seemed the easiest to use to me, so the plywood is a wall. I just put in 48" for delta Z, 96" in delta X, 0 in delta Y, and 5/8" in thickness. All the studs, joists, etc. are walls. Can i change a wall to a polygon? Can I create a 4x8 polygon in Front view and then extrude to 5/8" or do I have to make it in plan view and then rotate vertically? Once I create this polygon and move it into place, could I clip it in front view by placing a 2D rectangle over it and using the trim tool? Thks. AT

hopefully from this screen shot you can see that I use this as a framing tool to solve field details that I used to do in my head on the fly. Not something I can justify a lot of monetary investment for upgrade in although I'll certainly consider you recommendation that I ended up marooned at a particularly infertile version. I find it powerful and not counterintuitive so it still seems like a useful tool to me. I can figure a workaround for this problem but there may be a more straightforward solution even in version 9. Thanks, AT

A Dinasour from previous versions weighing in. I checked Jeremy's screen shot to see if I could ascertain where in the Object Info box "Window in Wall" would appear. I can't see it in the screen shot, although the object info palette is shown, but I don't appear to have that option in my antique VW version 9.5.3 but I'm trying to figure out if there is something akin. I have a separate post up about how to trim walls but the purpose of that is to trim around a window, so if chosing "in wall" would accomplish this I'd be all set. I'm not trying to be a cyber jerk by abandoning the thread I started but the subtext here goes to my question. I tried searching first but I keep forgetting that the advanced search sets the age of the thread to 1 week as a default so my searches came up empty, today I remembered to set it to the last 6 years and this recent thread popped right up. In my case the window does not go within the entirety of the wall because the wall is representation of a piece of plywood and the window will only clip a rectangular corner. I could simply make two pieces of wall to accomplish the same thing but when I'm doing a framing plan, it is easier to just work with 4x8 'walls' so clipping the corner of a window out is a regular task I'd like to conquer. thanks, AT

I know I have managed to trim walls before but I'm not having much success at the moment following the manual instructions which say. Create an object that will do the triming (they show a rectangle). Place it over the wall be trimmed. Then select Tool>Trim. Then click on the object intended to define the trim. I am trying to do this in front view to make a cutout for a window from an individual piece of plywood that I have made as a wall that is 8' long in the x dimension, 4' delta Z and 5/8" thick. I do what they said and nothing happens. I know there is a clip tool but I thought that was 2D and probably wouldn't work on walls but the tool that is supposed to work doesn't seem to be doing it either. I last did this in slight different context creating a bevel cut out of a full representation of gable end wall. I can't remember how I did it. In this design I'm building up the framing and materials to make walls rather than just calling out the master dimensions I am using the Architects Simple Window samples from the object resources files that came with VW and I had some recollection of them cutting their own openings in walls. Any tools or techniques I'm missing that you can fill in would be appreciated. Thanks, brian

I just don't do enough work to justify keeping up with the Cipeses. But I greatly appreciate the help. Many features are still similar. Ah, the old DDB. So I start a dimension hit tab (the fields available while drawing are different than when you select an previously created dimension). I have been able to tab to the relevant field for affecting the length of the dimension. The first click is already laid down and any changes I make to X and Y loc affects the second click, you can't go back and change the first if you didn't get it right where you want it. There is no "L" in the DDB while drawing. only a delta for both dimensions, which obviously determines length. One troublesome problem is that even when drawing a constrained dimension it follows the last location of the mouse to the DDB, so if you didn't pull a perfectly straight line you might have a delta in a dimension that you want no change. Insofar as I can tell you can push the shift key down while using the DDB and it will return the offending delta to 0 if you have established an overriding direction for the line, if you're out near some perfect angle, e.g. 45 it will go that angle. Obviously if it is just a hand jitter while starting with the mouse you're not far enough off for that to be a problem. I have had no luck whatsoever using the DDB to edit a previously created dimension - for what that's worth. I just don't get why they don't have a create dimension dialogue box just like a create wall dialogue box. Well, maybe they do nowadays but that's the news from us relics. This is a manageable workaround, because even if I don't get the dimension in precisely the right fraction of an inch, I can still make sure it comes out to the exact right length. And you can move the entire dimension using the Move dialogue box. _____ And thanks Ray for the heads up on the boolean operator. Forgot about the ole plus sign. Haven't run into that as often. Brian

Sorry, I'm sure this topic must have been discussed but I'm not having much luck with the search function. When I put in multiple keywords to narrow the search, it returns topics that have any one of them instead of all of them. Tried ampersands and the like but don't find the normal option in advanced search to affect the boolean character of the query. so that ain't the question, that's the apology. I'm having trouble with various elements closely spaced that can provide snap-to targets with getting my dimensions to come out precisely using the mouse. Now I can draw an approximate dimension and then zoom in on either end and reset it. But that's fairly tedious. And, more often than not, I know the numerical target but I don't find any way I can just enter the end point in the object info panel. nor can I seem to create a dimension that way by double clicking on the tool the way you can create a wall. Silly me, I would think this would be most facilitated for something like dimensions. But maybe it is obvious and I'm just missing it. Thanks, Brian PS - I'm living in the past, i.e., VW 9.5.3 on an older Mac.

got it. thanks. i guess, logically, i imagined that if you can join something with a command to create the miter in the first place there would be a command to undo it rather than a tool. interestingly, the rollover explanation for that tool is "remove wall breaks" - no mention of heal. This is borne out in the manual which also has no listing for a wall heal tool and instead calls it remove wall breaks. But, when you select the tool the name "wall heal" appears in the header area where the selected tool and it's various subiterations are displayed.

I joined several walls that I forgot were different heights and do not want a typical mitered corner presentation. Of course I can delete the walls and recreate them and not join them but was just looking for easier options. I see there is a split tool which I have never used. Because this is an object I created by joining, a split command or something that reverses the join command I used would be handy, if it exists. Maybe the split tool would be facile at this given the snap to function, maybe it would readily draw a line at the miter of these walls and they would just become regular flat end sections? I've tried the tool and I can't get it to do anything, so it isn't very intuitive (or maybe I'm not too intuitively minded). Don't seem to find anything searching the forum or the manual so appreciate any ideas. Brian

CD, so I tried again, made some more changes, closed the file and then opened it (without quiting VW). Same deal the changes are apparently polled by the layer link on opening. So it knows how to go to those layers and see whats there to create the view and closing and opening the file is a reliable way to make it happen. I'm going to concede that I use VW episodically. Because I build the stuff I design, so I get something worked up and then don't go back for 6 or 9 months. But I don't seem to recall having this trouble before, so I think I must have found someway to make it update. At first I was wondering if I would have to empty the layer and then remake all the layer links each time. I guess that would work but seems cumbersome. Sounds like this has been solved in the stacked layer or unified view approaches but I'm pretty sure there actually is a solution lost in the translation somewhere for my version. Speaking of solutions, did they ever solve dimensioning in perspective view? I won't be able to afford the newer versions, so its doubtful I'll ever get beyond my workaround (carefully setting my perspective dimensioning layer to a different scale than the rest of drawing.) thanks, brian

I have some non-drawing layers, i.e., I haven't drawn anything on them, that I use to assemble layer link views for elevations and perspectives. When I make changes to the drawing and then go to those layers I see the old version. However if I save, close the drawing and reopen it, the layer links present the new changes I have recently made. IS there some kind of command, toggle, or update control that will updates these layer linked views without closing the drawing? It might be analogous to the "calculation" command in Microsoft Excel when you have automatic calculation turned off. Or maybe there is some preference I should have turned on or off. Thanks, Brian Version 9.5.3 on mac G4 running system 10.4.11

bcd - thanks there is no "Zoom" menu under the "view" tab in my version. Zoom chaning options are under the "Page" tab and those options are not amongst the ones accessible as a menu or submenu item. However those command keys do work. so thanks much. brian

is there a command or command option key combination for zoom out (and/or in) or that automatically selects the zoom tool. Most graphics programs I run, in addition to a "fit to window" command which I have found as Cmd 0 in vectorworks also have a command key that would take you up or down a level of magnification (often Cmd + and Cmd - ) and or have an option key combination that toggles to the zoom marquis and then back to the tool you were working with when you release. can't find any documentation of anything like this in the manual for my version (Mac 9.5.3) Thanks, Brian

Color me dumb. I looked at the page setup several times but thought it was relative to output paper size and, because the Vectorworks documentation talked about "drawing size", I was sure there would be a place to set "drawing size". Most often I just use 17x22 which is the print size I've got, but didn't realize that set the drawing size also. Thanks, Brian

I'm running an antique version (9.5.3) on an antique Mac (G4) and I wanted to take an existing drawing of something that we built a few years ago and make it bigger because we're going to build an addition. The .pdf reference file I have says "Three required VectorWorks drawing settings are Layer Scale, Units , and Drawing Size." It proceeds to tell you how to set the first two, but not drawing size. So Layer Scale and Units are right there under the menu, but I've looked in vain for an hour and cannot find where you set the drawing size. Checked all the palettes, menus and preferences settings. Trying this rather than tear my hair out. Thanks, Brian

I was speaking more theory of ops. I see the math gives the answer. The question is why is the arctan of the sq.rt. of two the angular ratio that defines the foreshortening. while the horizontal draws at 30 degs on the isometric, I assume the reason that the ratio between a horizontal line drawn in plan and isometric view isn't simply 2 to the sq. rt. of 3 is because the angle of view also involves a z angle as well. You're looking from an angle above the drawing as well as at an angle that shows both the x and y vertical plane. So there is maybe some additional foreshortening I'm that doesn't figure just from the cosine ratio of a 30 deg. angle. So, I'm still looking for a description of what the 35 and change angle. Why is the reciprocal of the sq. rt. of two the tangent of the angle whose cosine defines the ratio of plan to isometric drawing? thanks, brian

OK Islandmon, enlighten my math. I've been using a ratio of .8135 derived emperically by measuring objects of known dimension in plan view in the isometric view and calculating this observed ratio. I fully comprehend that the resulting foreshortening should be mathematically calculable in theory but where do you derive the 35.etc angle that you used. Which gets to my isometric dimensioning workaround. I make a separate layer for dimensions and change the layer scale for the dimension layer to account for the foreshortening,e.g. dimension 1:48 drawing on a 1:59 layer. Now that I know the secret formula I will set the dimensioning layer to 1:58.7878 (i.e. the reciprocal of the cosine times the drawing scale - 1/0.81649658 * 48 = 58.7878). This works famously as long as you get your sheet visibility stuff worked out to show the dimensions over the part of the drawing your working on (it also shows that my empirical figure of 59 was a pretty good rule of thumb). The last difficulty to work out is I can't make head nor tales of snap to object while doing this. It seems to work in some cases and not in others. I need help figuring out how the hell you input dimension values directly. What I've been doing is making a dimension and then if it doesn't come out to my known calculated dimension in the style of drawing I'm doing I can usually just limit the precision of the dimension to force it to the length I want. This is different than actually measuring objects in three dimensions. It is noting on a three dimensional drawing measurements I already know and wish to quickly communicate. My desire is to be able to make quick isometric views with basic dimensions on them for building projects and ideas. I just want the drawing to put them in instead of printing it out and having to write the dimensions on. Call me retentive. I can't figure out how the hell to set the default precision on the dimension tools which would save me having to go back each time and make it easier to draw the dimension in the first place. More importantly, life would be much easier if I could enter the parameters for the dimension directly in the cursor bar above the drawing. I have read several threads that say you start drawing a dimension and hit tab. This takes you to direct input in the bar. Got it. Done that, but I put in numbers and have tried hitting the tab again, the return key, going back and clicking the drawing thinking that the entry will force the next mouse click. Nothing, these direct entry numbers won't take. And to make matters worse there is no way to adjust them after the fact using the same parameters that were used at creation that I can find. What kind of craziness is it that all the numbers used to create the dimension don't show up in Object Info palette where I could change them!? Anyone who could explain to me how to make my entries into the info/cursor bar at the top of the drawing and/or find a window where I could edit a dimension through keyboard entry afterwards I would be grateful. In case it makes a difference, I usually am trying to set the length and angle of the dimension. Obviously I set the angle to the skew of the isometric. The length I want to set to my know length. Because the isometric view does not put up the drawing in a way that starts in from the origin in a way that preserves x,y coordinates from plan views, I can't readily enter my starting location and ending location. Instead I click on the drawing where I want to start and then try to enter a length (meaning the dimension length, not the change in x, change in y, there is a separate box for the length) and the angle. Thanks and hope that this workaround might be handy for folks like me looking to create quick dimensions on a three dimensional view, if not for those actually trying to measure three dimensional drawings to a great degree of precision. Brian