Measurement says 5 inches, then starts over again

[KBell]

Please help. I am a Vectorworks student trying to do a very simple assignment. I can not get the 80" x 40" rectangle on my screen. I can pan in and out, but can only measure about 11" on the screen because that is all that fits. Another related issue is that it will measure maybe 4" then starts over with a smaller measurement like 1". I really want to learn from this forum, but the print is also super light in some of the areas, so it is very difficult to read comments. Is there any way the print can be darkened?

 

Thank you

[Benson Shaw]

@KBell  I’m just guessing at what you are experiencing. Apologies if I misinterpret your post:

 

I think you are missing some very basic knowledge about computer aided drawing (CAD) in general, and about Vectorworks in particular.  Perhaps this series of free video demonstrations will help orient you:
http://www.vectorworks.net/training/2017/getting-started-guides/the-basics

 

A few comments:
Apparently, part of your assignment is to create a rectangle with dimensions 80” x 40”. These are virtual/digital dimensions which are obviously much larger than your computer screen or monitor. Your post suggests that you drew a rectangle and are zooming and panning with your computer mouse to display your rectangle so that it fits on your screen. Are you then holding a ruler or scale (wooden? plastic?) close to the screen to measure the rectangle?  If that is your process, please understand that such measurements of the rectangle are not same as its virtual/digital dimensions computed by Vectorworks.  Measuring objects on your screen by holding a ruler to the screen does not produce relevant measurements. Put away the ruler. The dimensions of the rectangle are reported in (and can be changed in) the Width and Height fields of the Object Info Palette (OIP).

 

When you are viewing Vectorworks objects on your screen, for example the rectangle, the scroll wheel on your mouse can can be rolled to zoom the view in and out, causing objects displayed on the screen to appear bigger or smaller, or in another sense to appear closer or further away. But this zooming does not change Vectorworks internal mathematical description (virtual dimensions, virtual location, etc) of the rectangle or any other objects.  Try zooming in and out and note that the dimensions reported in the OIP do not change.

 

Regarding legibility of this forum:
Is your screen or monitor in good condition? and is the brightness adjusted to display text clearly?  The text on this forum is consistently dark black on a white background. I am not aware that forum visitors can change the color scheme of the forum. Try viewing this forum on other equipment or in another browser.

 

OK, Good luck.  Post again if this missed the mark.

-B

[KBell]

No, I was not holding a ruler to the screen. I was using the measurements Vectorworks generates on the screen. I was able to determine that I just needed to re-scale my page. I have watched many of the Vectorworks videos and am near the end of my college course, but still have a lot of issues with the program, the most frustrating is that when I try to draw a hardscape and cut out the inner lines to combine shapes, the program adds in extra lines and flips and cuts the wrong lines. My computer is just fine and I also have trouble reading the print on other screens, such as in the computer lab. It is just parts of the page that show up pale, such as the wording below "drag files here to attach" and under "go to question listing" and beneath "quote". The other areas are readable.

 

Edited March 4, 2018 by KBell

[Kevin McAllister]

4 hours ago, KBell said:

I was using the measurements Vectorworks generates on the screen. I was able to determine that I just needed to re-scale my page.

 

It sounds like maybe you were trying to measure onscreen objects using the rulers at the edge of the drawing window. Remember that in the Design Layers these rulers will show distances in your document units but on a Sheet Layer these rulers will show real world paper measurements. If you're trying to get the accurate size of an object I would recommend using the OIP (for some, not all objects), drawing a dimension or using the tape measure tool.

 

Kevin

[KBell]

Never mind. like I said, I realized I had simply forgot to change the scale.

[Benson Shaw]

@KBell does this example show the missing and flipped linework in clipped hardscapes?  I find that the missing elements happen in several situations, and not in others;

• They are mainly associated with curved edges.
• They only affect the Flagstone & Paver joint patterns. Hatches, tiles and stipples seem unaffected.

A fix:
One way to defeat the inappropriate lines when clipping a hardscape is to convert the clipping object into a polygon via Modify menu>convert>Convert to Polygons.  This divides, say, a circle into a few hundred little short segments connected by corner vertices.

Down sides:
1. Difficulty editing the cut shape in the hardscape because too many vertiecs.  So use polylines, arcs, circles etc to make the shapes, then convert to polygon, then clip the hardscape.  If you need edits later remove the cutout, start with a new polyline or circle, etc.

2.  Depending on computer equipment and complexity of the drawing, all those points might cause slowdowns to screen redraw, navigation, render.

OK, hope this helps.

-B

[KBell]

I will try this again this evening. I also am having problems with my plant libraries. It says I have downloaded the basic ones and the 2-d and 3-d are not yet downloaded, but it is the opposite, so I only have 18 basic plants to pick from. I can not use the 3-d for the class I am in as it is only the first class.