Begginner needs help

[Caslo]

I have Vectorworks 8.5 for Windows. The company I work for builds commercial trailers. I am unable to use some of the commands and tools because of the design of our trailers, and I am having a few difficulties getting results that my employer and I want. Listed below are the ones I have been unable to figure out.

1. I need to add a ?degree? symbol in my text for some drawings.

2. When I insert symbols that I have drawn, into a drawing I am working on, it sometimes comes in invisible. The ?ghost image? is there until I get it into the place I want it and hit the ?enter? key. After that, the symbol is invisible. By accident I have found they become visible again when I use the ?create stair? tool. Do you know why it happens this way?

3. I drew a floor plan with a second story floor that I inserted as a symbol on its own layer. I did a layer link on the layers, but when viewed in 3-d, the second story frame is on the top of the wall where the roof should be. When viewed in the ?front? view with the layer link layer turned off, the floor frame is seen where it should be. On a separate floor plan with a similar problem, the walls looked to be at least 3? above the floor frame. I have changed the ?Z? & ?delta Z?, and neither floor frame nor the walls have changed where they are. These are the only two floor plans I have attempted to draw.

4. Because of the design of our trailers- wheel wells and baggage doors, among other things- I am unable to use the ?Create Walls? tool, and must draw all the walls. I draw them using the ?Rectangle? tool for the studs & plates, then I extrude the whole frame to the depth of our framing (2 1/2?). After drawing around the framing using the ?2-D Polygon? tool, I ?cut out? openings for the windows and any storage doors from this polygon. I then extrude the polygon to 1/8?, using that as a basis for my interior ?paneling?. I ?duplicate array? it to have one for my exterior ?siding?. I am unable to get the texturing to work on this base. I use the ?Object Info? palette to add the image-based texture, then render it using the ?Quick Draw 3D Interactive? rendering. What am I doing wrong?

5. I have also drawn up our steel frames with axles and tires to put underneath our trailers. But when I try to pull the frame symbol into a drawing, the whole frame comes in as an ?arc?. Unlike in question #2, ?create stair? hasn?t helped. Do you have any ideas as to why this has happened?

[Guest]

1. Use the Character Map program that comes with Windows. I understand that you can copy and paste it from there, and you should also be able to ascertain the key strokes required to generate the character. Sorry I can't be more help on this, but I'm typing on a Mac.

2. Not sure what's going on here, but in general the way to place a symbol is to click the mouse button rather than pressing the arrow key. If you're using "click click" drawing, placing the symbol will actually take two clicks: the first determines the symbol's location, and the second determines its rotation. In "click drag" drawing, you click to place the symbol, then drag the mouse to orient it.

I'm not sure about the other questions, but suggest that you call Nemetschek tech support: 410-290-5114. They should be able to get you on the right track pretty quickly.

[ajs]

While I can't offer much advice specific to your issues (particularly since I use a different platform), I can highly recommend Janis Kent's books on the VectorWorks subject. She can be found at Improbability Press,

www.improbability.com

She also has periodic seminars aroud the country. Good luck.

-ajs