boundnorth Posted October 22, 2007 Share Posted October 22, 2007 Having trouble with the attributes palette. I can't seem to draw with a dashed line. I've tried setting the class attributes as dashed, no luck and tried selecting the object and 'manually' changing it to a dashed line via the attributes palette, but again, no luck. I can change the object fill settings, and the line weight. Thanks. Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted October 22, 2007 Share Posted October 22, 2007 What layer scale are you working with? Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 When you look at the attributes palette next to the Pen graphic, do you see a solid square or an arrow pointing up? Quote Link to comment
Benson Shaw Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 This assumes you have Zoom Line Weight checked in prefs: 1:1 scale displays line weight as measured. For example, a 10 mil line will display at 10 thousandths of an inch (.010) when the zoom of the layer is set to zero. Not a very bold line. If you zoom in on the line, it will appear to get fatter. If you zoom way in and draw a short line segment across it, the small line segment does measure .010". Standard dashed lines choices in the attributes palette do not have much space between the dashes, so at 1:1 you need to really zoom in to see the "dashedness" of a line. Change layer scale to get a proportional change in line width and dash space display. For example, in a 1:2 layer, a 10 mil line measures .020 inch, not .010 inch. -B Quote Link to comment
boundnorth Posted October 23, 2007 Author Share Posted October 23, 2007 I've tried both - meaning having the attributes assigned to the class used at creation and not having them used at creation. Currently, the pen/arrow up icon is not visible. Quote Link to comment
boundnorth Posted October 23, 2007 Author Share Posted October 23, 2007 Thanks, Benson. I changed the scale in all the layers related to that drawing and can now see the dashed lines. If I kept the layers at 1:1, would the printed version - at whatever scale that sheet layer is in - show the dashed lines? Quote Link to comment
Petri Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Oh dear. Just the other week I told some users that no-one but them among the 400000 VW users has layers in 1:1 scale... Well, I was - for once - wrong! Why would you have layers in scale 1:1? What's the point? Quote Link to comment
MullinRJ Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Well, I was - for once - wrong! Make that twice, Se?or Petri. I also use 1:1 scale. And lately I've been using 1:0.03937 for my layer scale. Not all things need to be scaled down. Quote Link to comment
jan15 Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I would assume that a lot of people are using 1:1 design layers, for full compatibility when Autocad users are sharing their files. The problem described here with dash styles has always been common in Autocad, though it would never have come up in Vectorworks before there were sheet layers and viewports. Quote Link to comment
Petri Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 The dash line problem obviously won't go away with 1:1 scale. I'd hate to use text sizes like 1200 points... Quote Link to comment
jan15 Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 That's the joy of Autocad. You're constantly thinking things like, "Let's see, this is 1/4" scale, and this font in the other drawing was 3.25" high at 3/8" scale, so I should make it .375/.25x3.25", which is 4.875" high. Right? Or is it the other way around? No, the scale is smaller so the text should be larger. I wonder if it would be o.k. to just make it 5" high... or would that look too big? Let's see, 5/4.875 = 1.025641025. That's like the difference between 13 point and 12.675 point. I guess that's o.k." If you're not interested in the building or the drawing, this gives you a nice distraction to occupy your mind. But if you are interested in those things, it's hell on earth. Quote Link to comment
Benson Shaw Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Saws, routers, waterjets, lasers and other tools have kerf and variable kerf. VW's ability to accruately represent and zoom line weight allows the designer and fabricator to know whether kerfs exceed the matial bounds, how much material is between kerfs, etc. 1:1 is very useful. -B Quote Link to comment
Petri Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Everything you do, regardless of the apparent scale, is in fact 1:1... Just zoom in - and perhaps forget Zoom Line Weight. Quote Link to comment
jan15 Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Benson, are you using line thickness to represent the width of the kerf? Wouldn't it be better to use a double-line or a wall object, representing the two edges of the kerf? Especially since you want to know how much material is left between the edges of two kerfs. Quote Link to comment
boundnorth Posted October 23, 2007 Author Share Posted October 23, 2007 On a related topic & problem... when I change the layer scale in an existing file (as I did above) I have problems with the text and with tools like the elevation mark etc. being way out of scale. Is there some way to avoid this problem? Or to fix it once it occurs? Thanks. Quote Link to comment
Benson Shaw Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Jan - Yes, line weight equals kerf. Cutting service just wants the vectors. I want to see that the shapes I want are not leaving too narrow an area between kerfs. So double line is not helpful to me for this. Drawing with polys works really well for me. The line weight of a double line would also misrepresent the cutting path. This is mainly an issue with parts smaller than an almond or small elements within a larger item. Too narrow could mean that a shape connected by a neck drops out or that the neck is too weak for the intended use. Interior shapes of text shaped holes are good examples. Some finished water jet objects: http://www.bensonshaw.com/bensonshaw.com/CACHE.html Some people ask the cutting service to offset the kerf from the vector, and do other tasks related to kerf width. That leaves the cutter to determine what is an outside or inside kerf, to make decisions about what drops out and what is kept, etc. Or an irresponsible cutter may not even review it. I really do not want the cutting service to mess with my drawings or to make very many decisions about my intent. -B Quote Link to comment
MullinRJ Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Arguments similar to Benson's also apply to the drafting of circuit boards, which VW excels at, even given its heavy bias toward Architecture. Line widths drawn 1:1 represent the widths of electrical traces. Spacing is exceptionally critical, especially around filleted corners, and there's no easier way to draw than at 1:1 using the Line and Poly tools this way. Raymond Quote Link to comment
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