Art V

I exported the file into a dwg and opened the dwg file in AutoCAD. The display of lineweights in AutoCAD can be controlled by typing in the command line the following command (without quotes) "LWDISPLAY" (On/Off) to turn on/off the display of the lineweights on screen. Or you can set the display scale of the lineweights by typing "LWEIGHT" and adjust the display scale of the lineweights. I am assuming that the above commands are available on the Mac version as well. (The last time I used on AutoCAD a Mac was R12, after which Autodesk abandoned the Mac platform) AutCAD's default lineweight display is rather coarse by default, it is not vectorworks fault.

It seems to me that the boxes were made as surface models and not as solid models. 3D studio max is also from Autodesk so it is no surprise that it has little problems with .dwg files. Surface models may get triangulated when importing into vectorworks, I have the same problem.

Are you referring to importing a DWG file into Vectorworks or opening a DWG file exported from VW in AutoCAD? When you say they look ok in modelspace but are huge in paperspace I get the impression you are talking about a dwg file exported from VW and opening it in AutoCAD.

If you are using a windows computer there is an option to solve the import issue and not have to ask your client/supplier to save it in an older version. From the Autodesk website (www.autodesk.com) you can download DWG TrueView. Apart from being a dwg viewer it can also convert DWG files to/from AutoCAD R14/LT97 up to 2011

It sounds to me as if it could be that the texts are AutoCAD MTEXTs (Multiline text) and then the text boxes in VW will keep the size of MTEXT box. Depending on import scale settings this may cause the text boxes to become/remain very large in VW.

Earlier today I opened a file created yesterday and all texts were condensed and dimension texts were displaced and had to manually restore the appearance. Later today I opened a copy of yesterday's file to send to my local distributor and the text looked normal. After doing a PDF export the text issue came back so it does seem to be related to the PDF export function. My local distributor had also hear about there being an issue with text/fonts and asked for a file so hopefully a fix will be included in the next service pack.

There is something you could try, if possible, but it is not recommended as a permanent solution and it is at your own risk. You could try to **temporarily** disable UAC (User Access Control) in Windows and see if Vectorworks starts up after that. I know of someone who had big trouble making VW run and the only solution left was to disable/bypass UAC, which in the end worked. If it does work after disabling UAC then at least you have an idea where the cause of the problem might be and maybe Nemetschek support can provide a solution to work around this. In the meantime you can re-enable UAC in Windows. UAC is meant as a security measure to prevent malware to run freely so disabling it permanently is definitely not recommended unless you know very well what you are doing and have other security measures in place.

Before you do another reinstall, try running Vectorworks itself as administratore. (e.g. right-click on the VW shortcut and select run as administrator) That is something I have to do at the laptop at the moment after a reinstall. Before this reinstall it worked without this problem.

Do you also have a similar font appearance problem with dimensions? When using the PDF export the dimension text is smaller and narrower than it should be and in the wrong location. When printing to the Acrobat PDF printer it works fine.

Reducing the number of fonts in my fonts folder through the font manager utility did solve the problem. Thanks for the tip. :-)

In another post on this topic it got mentioned tha the "data" folder was not there, but based on the listed folders you may want to search the "packages" folder for the mentioned files and all other folders if necessary.

Ken, It could be that the installation media and folders are a bit different from the localised versions over here. Based on the list of folder, I'd guess it might be the packages folder that contains the needed installation files. If the setup of install files is similar, but just in different locations then you may find the files in another folder. Try browsing all your folders (try the packages folder first) until you find a folder that lists .exe files with fundamentals, landmark, architect etc. in the filenames. You may still have a .exe file with "main" in it and that would most likely be the starting file for installing vectorworks. If you run that one as administrator it may work. If you cannot find such a filder then tech support from Nemetschek might be able to tell you which file you can use to start the installation of vectorworks other than the "install VWexe" (which is probably just a starter application but probably not the actual vectorworks installer file).

I'm having the same problem and apparently it is by design (sigh). My local distributor has been informed of my unhappiness about this but it seems that Nemetschek Vectorworks in the US has to change this behaviour. It would be really nice if one could e.g. change the font size for a single text object without having to create a new style for it in case e.g. the font gets changed later on. I have also noticed that it does not import or export text styles from/to AutoCAD dwg files (which is something that would be really useful for compatibility reasons, even if the font itself might change)

I have used neither of them but noticed both are based in the US. This may or may not be an issue with regard to data storage/protection etc. depending on your or your client's requirements. For a non-US based option you may want to take a look at Vondle by Bricsys. http://www.bricsys.com/en_INTL/vondle/index.jsp

In my case the problem started after installing the VW2011 trial version but it might have been the docking utility after all, so I'm not sure that the number of fonts was the cause in my case. But I will try your suggestion anyway to see if it helps. Did the VW tech mention whether the fonts had to be removed permanently or that using a font manager utility would work as well?

I don't think you can instruct Vectorworks to include the units and scale information into the document structure of the PDF. It either does it or it doesn't. If it doesn't then you have to set the scale and units manually. Unless you have a known dimension in your file then basically your only option is to add a graphical scale so that you can set the scale manually. Printing at 100% may not be feasible depending on the size of your drawings.

It has taken a while, but I have reinstalled the computer having this problem. At first I could switch between drawing windows again without problems. After installing some other software the problem came back so it definitely looks like a matter of conflicting software. My guess is it might be ObjectDock from Stardock (also makes WindowBlinds etc.). ObjectDock is similar to the Apple docking thingy. If you have a utility installed that is a docking utility or something that alters the looks of Windows you may want to check if disabling/deinstalling it may solve the problem.

Ken, Below is a copypaste of another reply to a similar issue of which I think is basically the same as your problem. The same problem can occur in Windows Vista and has most likely to do with UAC (User Access Control). I have it installed on two Vista computers, and on one I had the same problem as you and on the other one it installed without this issue. Did you try installing it as Administrator? (Right mouseclick on the install file and then Run as Administrator) If yes and the problem persists then you could try another option... If you browse the installation DVD (assuming you have one) then in one of the folder's subdirectories called "Data" you should find a series of files named Main2011xx.exe, Fundamentals2011xx.exe etc. etc. xx is something after 2011, but that may not apply to the US version. I have the Dutch version, so in my case xx equals NL (i.e. Main2011NL.exe) In your case it might be Main2011US.exe or just Main2011.exe Run the Main2011.exe installer as administrator. All other modules will be added as necessary based on your license. After the installation has been done and you start Vectorworks 2011 it may either run without problems or the Windows UAC may kick in and ask you to allow Vectorworks 2011 to run. In the worst case you will have that UAC dialog pop up every time you run Vectorworks 2011 I hope this helps.

The same problem can occur in Windows Vista and has most likely to do with UAC (User Access Control). I have it installed on two Vista computers, and on one I had the same problem as you and on the other one it installed without this issue. Did you try installing it as Administrator? (Right mouseclick on the install file and then Run as Administrator) If yes and the problem persists then you could try another option... If you browse the installation DVD (assuming you have one) then in one of the folder's subdirectories called "Data" you should find a series of files named Main2011xx.exe, Fundamentals2011xx.exe etc. etc. xx is something after 2011, but that may not apply to the US version. I have the Dutch version, so in my case xx equals NL (i.e. Main2011NL.exe) In your case it might be Main2011US.exe or just Main2011.exe Run the Main2011.exe installer as administrator. All other modules will be added as necessary based on your license. After the installation has been done and you start Vectorworks 2011 it may either run without problems or the Windows UAC may kick in and ask you to allow Vectorworks 2011 to run. In the worst case you will have that UAC dialog pop up every time you run Vectorworks 2011 I hope this helps.

You have to keep the design layer scale as it is and create a viewport (to be put on a sheet layer) for the map output. You can give this viewport a scale to fit on the 24x36 size. The scale of the viewport is independent of the scale of the actual drawing. Also set the page size for the sheet layer to 24x36 so that the sheet layer will have the proper size and depending on the size of the viewport you can add additional annotations on the sheet layer. If you need more room on the page, you can change the scale of the viewport through the object info palette if neccesary.

Do they use the PDF export in AutoCAD or do they print to Adobe PDF (the Acrobat printer) to create the PDF? If they have the full Adobe Acrobat, try using Document>Reduce file size (first) or Advanced>PDF Optimizer... (if the other doesn't work) to see if this reduces the file size. AutoCAD might be adding alot of redundant information into the file that makes it bloated and slow. The above might then get rid of that. If they get a message saying something about images that could not be (re)compressed and have been left unchaged in that case something is generated as an image and then you need to do some further searching.

Hi Linds, Do you have a known distance in your PDF file? If yes, check which units you are using in Vectorworks (i.e. inches and feet) and what scale you are using. Make sure that all layers are using the same scale. Then measure the distance on the PDF in VW. If it says 1" in VW and it says 36.5' (i.e. 438") on the PDF then you need to select the PDF and use Modify>Scale object and scale the PDF with a factor of 438 (or 43800%) to bring it to the real life size. If you then do another readout of that same distance, it should give you 36.5' in VW. I hope this helps.

When I still had a Mac I did have Quick Keys, but since I'm on Windows Vista I no longer have it (and I thought Quick Keys is Mac only). The problems only started after installing the trial version of VW2011 with SP1. All other problems in VW2009 that appeared after the install of VW2011 are gone after the deinstall of VW2011 and the reinstall of VW2009 except for the changing of documents issue. All servicepacks, updates etc. for Windows re installed as well as the most recent graphics card driver. Now that I am thinking, during the few days when SP1 was not available, I don't recall having had this issue but I'm also not sure I had to change windows in VW2009 during that time. It was not until after the VW2011 SP1 install that I noticed all those problems in VW2009 so it might have been introduced with the SP1 update.

AutoCAD does not always create nice PDF files I have noticed and some things make it even less nice depending on the drawing's contents. Polygons may increase the size of the PDF, the more points a polygon has the larger the size of the PDF. So you may want to check whether the exported file has polygons with lots of points (i.e. curved lines that get converted to splines with lots of points) If they zoom in quite a bit, does everything stay smooth or do jagged edges appear? The reason I ask is because relatively small (approx. 250 kilobytes) and simple AutoCAD files that contain simple 3D lines only with some text printed to A3 size gave me 500-900 kilobyte PDF files because they got rendered as images by AutoCAD. If there is some object in the DWG file that gets interpreted as 3D, it may cause AutoCAD to render the entire PDF as an image instead of a vector drawing. The more information there is in the plan and the larger the exported page size in the PDF the faster the file size may increase in that case. Just a few thoughts.

Switching workspaces makes no difference. Removing preferences and custom workspaces (original workspaces have never been modified) makes no difference either.