new product

[greenmeadow@mac.com]

How about a VW product that primarily addresses architectural drafting. The current "improvements" to VW reduce drafting ability in order to provide 3D and construction management abilities that I have little use, certainly no billable use, for.

[Guest]

What particular features are you looking for?

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Brian O

Nemetschek North America

Technical Support Specialist

[Robert Nichols]

I'll jump on that one. Big architectural snafus for me are:1) Walls don't have a "control line" (as they do in ArchiCAD. I should be able to say which edge, or the center of a wall is dominant and should hold its position if the wall thickness changes. To assume a wall always changes thickness about its center is incredibly ignorant of the way architects work and builders build.

2) I should be able to move an element or selection set on the screen according to any vector that I define with two mouse clicks (whether or not those mouse clicks are on the selection set). Building geometries are often nested. Example: a row of columns. A table located between the first two columns. I should be able to select the table, duplicate it, then move the copy to the center of the next bay simply by clicking the center of ANY column in the row, then the center of its neighboring column.

3) Duplicate array should be much more robust, particular relative to "next mouse click." Graphic input assumes you are indicating the center of an object or group. This is proposterous! Building construction is much more interested in edges and corners than centers (particularly abstract calculated centers of groups). Graphic input should also let you make n number of copies between two clicked positions. Best, it should let you position n copies between 2 clicked positions, omiting the final one. ArchiCAD does this beautifully.

4) Am I missing something about 3D work in VW. I haven't spend much time with it, but I tried to make a multi-level massing model the other day and was I suprised at how difficult it was. Setting layers (level 1, level2...)to have appropirate "z" values didn't seem to have any effect on the z value of objects drawn or pasted into those layers. Also, having moved an object to a given elevation with 3D move command, I was not able to query to object later for its z-value. Wanting to make some adjustments, I soon became very disoriented within my simple model.

[Robert Nichols]

Forgot one.

5) Window and door objects are infuriating. a) glass line thickness often assumes the line weight of the wall ('nuff said); b) there is no useful way to change line weight of glass (haven't written my own window symbol yet - mac plug-in editor can't handle over 32k of text [probably mac's fault]); c) copying the things is impossible (my first experience of getting a second wall when I copied a window proved to be a very dark harbinger of things to come); d) why can't they be positioned with say, the "move" command? How about duplicate array - and don't tell me about tool that let's you pick a symbol, set a beginning offset, then a typical offset for multiple symbols. What if I want to revise the layout (pretty common thing to do) or if I have an a-b-a-b-c-a-b-a-b rhythm? Doing that with the bad tool would be mind-numbing.

[Andrew Bell@NV]

quote:

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1) Walls don't have a "control line" (as they do in ArchiCAD.

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Good point, and the OI palette could certainly support such a thing. The widget would be like that used for lines. I'm surprised I haven't heard anyone suggest this before.

quote:

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2) I should be able to move an element or selection set on the screen according to any vector that I define with two mouse clicks (whether or not those mouse clicks are on the selection set).

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Go to http://www.vectordepot.com and get the move/duplicate by vector plug-ins, they'll do exactly that.

I do like several of your duplicate array thoughts, although that's generally outside my area of expertise.

[Alexandre Villares]

>>2) I should be able to move an element or selection>>set on the screen according to any vector that I define >>with two mouse clicks (whether or not those mouse >>clicks are on the selection set).[...]>Go to http://www.vectordepot.com and get the >move/duplicate by vector plug-ins, >they'll do exactly that.[...]

The move/duplicate by vector plug-ins at Vector Depot work great, but for those inclined to a quick workaround:

1- Create a 2D locus at the first point of the line vector;2- Select the object you want to move (keeping the locus selected) ;3- Move the locus, deselect all, remove the locus.