lines not drawing

[M_Fedoruk 0]

suddenly I cannot draw lines. As i draw the line changes to a faint orange colour and disappears when I click off it. I know I must have hit some key combo for this but how do I get back to regular drawing?

(update)-- ok disregard above post... stupidly set lines to "0" and didn't notice... not used to some of the new features

vw2010

macbookpro

(just upgraded last week)

Edited November 11, 2009 by M_Fedoruk

[Jonathan Pickup 290]

I'm glad you found the problem. also watch out for class options set to active only, all the lines disappear...

[ThreeDot 52]

I've always wondered how 0 lineweight was useful anyway. It seems that the 0 lineweight should default to a visible, on-screen representation for a non-printable line, similar to the 2D locus.

[CEA 0]

I often use the 0 line weight to draw polygons that contain hatch patters. Its useful for me.

[ThreeDot 52]

In that scenario, is there a difference between setting lineweight to 0 vs. setting line to "None"?

[Jonathan Pickup 290]

I use the 0 line weight for crop objects in viewports

[Jonathan Pickup 290]

and there is no difference between None for the line weight and 0.00

[ThreeDot 52]

Then it seems obvious that functionality should be:

1. Set pen to "None" if you neither want the line on screen nor printed.

2. Set lineweight to "0" if you want the line on screen (vaguely indicated as a guide or reference) but do not want it printed.

Otherwise the functionality of lineweight 0 is redundant and unnecessary. Moreover, "lineweight" is an indication of how thick the line will print and does not implicitly correlate to how the line is drawn on screen -- if lineweight is 0, the line should be displayed (lightly, perhaps) but not printed. This would be a great way to handle non-printing classes and elements.

The functionality of the Locus is similar in that it displays a point on screen, for reference, but does not print.

[Jonathan Pickup 290]

if the lineweight is 0, then the line has no thickness, it is a null line, or None.

[ThreeDot 52]

Ugh, I should be more careful. When you set a line to "None" it automatically defaults to "0.00" and vice versa. Nevermind.

I suppose I was leading myself down a path that I've always felt odd in Vectorworks. That is -- unlike AutoCAD's defpoints -- the None class prints unless you turn it off in each viewport. I sort of wish the None class (or any class, really) could just be non-printable by default (or toggled via class settings).

[Kevin McAllister 1,158]

You could use Guides (submenu under the Modify menu). Guides can be turned on or off universally. Turn them off and they don't print.

KM

Edited November 12, 2009 by Kevin McAllister