Music files from Vectorworks???

[Joe Newell]

We are trying to export a dwg file for Autocad 14 from VW 8.5.2. For some reason when we send it via e-mail to our consultants it arrives in their systems as a quicktime audio file.

When played on quicktime (out of curiosity bred from total frustration) we were delighted to here Bad Moon Rising by CCR.

Any suggestions???

[Joe Newell]

the last bit was a joke of course.

Seriously though it is an audio file with no sound.

We are using Netscape 4.7 mail client but have never had this same problem before.

help!

[Guest]

Joe, Have you by any chance accidentally associated .mcd files to the music program ?

You can double check this by going into Explorer, Tools, Folder Options. If you click on the File Types tab, you can see the file extension that is associated with the file. Make sure the musioc player does not have .mcd assigned to it and that VW has .mcd assigned to it.

I've had a vote in to get Survivor theme song play when VW launches

[ 05-06-2002: Message edited by: Katie ]

[Joe Newell]

Actually, It was a consultant who pointed out the problem to us. We sent him a dwg file exported from VW, whenit arrived at his computer via e-mail it was a midi file. We then sent the file to ourselves to see where the switch was occuring and it arrived in our mailbox as a quicktime audio file. We're on Mac's, he's on a PC. It is a mystery because we have done this a thousand times before and nothing like this has ever happened.

Which poses the question... Is there a point when computer technology reaches a complexity where software has the ability to re-write itself, and even writing new programs that alter the way a computer behaves????

Not so much terminator as a short story I once read about a com satellite that starts to re-program itself having reached a critical mass of complexity. blah blah blah.

I apologize I am taking up space here.

The music thing went away when I generated the DWG file from my own computer. It must be Samantha who is the problem. I will go and beat her.

[CipesDesign]

JOE, as a daily professional VW user AND the owner of a small project music studio (where I create a lot of sound files etc.) I was really curious to HEAR a CAD file. As an interesting tidbit, Skunk Baxter (guitar virtuoso of Steely Dan & Doobies fame, among others) once said: "If you take the note A 440 and multiply it by [some exponent that I've forgotten] you will get the color green." Anyway, I'm glad you figured it out, and be nice to Samantha! PLC

[MullinRJ]

What a wonderful concept, from A 440 to Green. Rummaging through my cranium I dusted off a few latent brain cells to see if I could find the constant of which you speak. Using some elementary physics (it was elementary when I was younger, now it's definitely physics) I laboriously derived the frequency vs. wave length relation, and though it looks quite mundane now, I definitely needed that dusty gray matter of which I spoke. Multiply A 440 by 1.25 x 10^12 and you will get the color Green. (The GREEN CONSTANT = 1,250,000,000,000 - unless you hail from the other side and then it is 1.250.000.000.000)

On a lighter note (pun intended), I too wanted to HEAR a CAD file, and I laughed audibly when I read Joe's first two posts. Thanks Joe, I thoroughly enjoyed that.

Raymond

[SaMi]

Hi there,

And a quick advise when sending mac files to pc... Add extensions. I often receive VectorWorks files that have been created on mac and because they dont have extensions my computer adds .dat extensions to all files.

Regards,SaMi

[CipesDesign]

Joe, "A 440" is a the concert tuning standard for the middle A note. 440 is the wavelength of the sound...PLC

[Joe Newell]

That last one may be the one I need.I seem to have created a monster.What is A440 anyway.

I was watching a re-run of Star Trek TNG last night (are there any other sorts?) Where Data was asked to sculpt music. Needless to say he missed the point as it required a certain amount of imagination and creativity and only maganed a well exucuted treble cleff. But what we're seeing here is a transmutation of sorts between genres or something of the like.

What fun eh

[Peter van der Elst]

When we send .dwgs or .mcd from mac to pc (or the other way) we always use programs like winzip or stuffit. You can even make a selfextracting file if the other side doesn't have the extracting progs. We never had any problems.

[Joe Newell]

Self extracting archives and even stuffit archives sometimes look like viruses to virus scanning software and about half of the emails we send with these archives came back as rejected by the receivers vrus scan.

We gave up and send things uncompressed now.

[CipesDesign]

Hey Joe (what you doin' with that...). Okay. So my (admittedley very limited) understanding of physics says that everything in the universe is made of the same stuff. So that changing one type of wave (visual) into another (auditory) should be easy (theorectically). The natural extension of all this is that someday maybe we will travel through cable or through the air (like beam me up) to get from one place to another. It's exciting to consider, but only as a minor distraction. PLC

[Joe Newell]

Further to the A440 thing.

I don't see how a transmogrification of sound waves which require a medium and electromagnetic waves which don't can be possible even by multiplying some number by another number however big.

There's something missing here.

Besides we're going backwards as it were, trying to convert a VW drawing into music. one being a collection of fluorescing pixels and the other being a collection of pressure waves. Not that it is necessarily music.

keep your thinking caps on.

[Joe Newell]

Speaking of teleportation (The Fly et al.)

Here's a little ditty that might amuse you.

I teleported home one night with Ron and Sue and Meg.

Ron stole Megan's heart away and I got Susan's leg.

[CipesDesign]

And another:

I also teleported onceWith Jennifer and RickHe was never seen againBut Jenny's got his......

[Joe Newell]

ha ha ha

[canarch]

i have just had the same problem happen to me. and as much as i enjoyed reading this discussion i'm not sure an answer was ever achieved. (unless they now have to install itunes on there PC's!)

anyway i believe it is a problem on the receiving end (PC) as i have tried sending just dwg files and zipped versions to the offending consultant. even when a zip file is opened they files appear to be music files.

he did state however that the extension was dwg but that the icon showed as a wave file.

it was discovered later that instead of trying to double click on the file which should then launch ACAD he had to launch ACAD and then open the file from within the program.

that's the fix i came up with but if there is a setting i can advise the consultant of that would be great as i'm sure he'll have the same problem next time.

Originally posted by Joe Newell:[QB]Actually, It was a consultant who pointed out the problem to us. We sent him a dwg file exported from VW, whenit arrived at his computer via e-mail it was a midi file. We then sent the file to ourselves to see where the switch was occuring and it arrived in our mailbox as a quicktime audio file. We're on Mac's, he's on a PC. It is a mystery because we have done this a thousand times before and nothing like this has ever happened.