Detail Cut Wood tool

[Roman]

Nice tool, but why does the internal hatch on the wood default to .15 mm line weight? Can't it be modified to be .03 mm ?

[CipesDesign]

Yes, that's very annoying isn't it. The only way to change it is to ungroup the object, and then select the (group of) wavy lines and change their lineweight. Of course this means that you cannot edit the wood cut in the OIP anymore. But you can duplicate it and just change its overall size...

[CipesDesign]

I should amend that. It's not that you can't edit it in the OIP anymore, it's that now it's just a rectangle and a group of lines, not a "detail wood cut" object anymore...

[Robert Anderson]

Here are a couple of tips on the DCW object:

1. The tool was conceived to be a detailing tool. The line weights of the woodgrain are meant to look good at detailing scales (say 1:25 and larger.) What scales are you having this problem with?

2. The "wood grain" in the object will look best if you make your piece of wood taller than it is wide. (if you want it horizontal, then just rotate the whole object).

[mikatoa]

You can change line wieghts on the Detailer Tool Object Info - Pen Thick 1 & Pen Thick 2

For default suggest editing the preferences at the begining after selecting the detailer tool icon. Alas your limited to 1.0mm pen thick.

If your game and stiil needing 0.3mm you can edit the parameters using script editor under organize. Find Detailer Tool. Select parameter. Select Pen Thick 2. Select Options. Add 0.03 and then select it for default value. Restart.

Hope that helps. Note most tools have parameters where you can edit the default values. Learnt this from the window topic.

[bc]

The second biggest problem with this silly tool is that the grain the lines represent is that of face grain and not of end grain.

Any workarounds here?

[Roman]

Mikatoa-

I tried editing the Detail Wood Cut tool via the organize feature, but the script is locked. Anyway to unlock? The parameters that are editable do not have any line weight information...

Robert- Sure it's a detail, but it can also be used as an effective hatch for drawings in 1/4". Besides, it's generally wrong when tools like this are locked into some line weight. Line weight control is essential in any drawing program...

[Robert Anderson]

Roman, what you're really saying is that we need to ship a good woodgrain hatch with VectorWorks. Do you know of any that are public-domain status for, say, AutoCAD? We could certainly get some of these and add them to our offerings....

[propstuff]

Hi Robert,

There are quite a number of wood grain hatches at places like VectorDepotthat that are offered free to users. You could speak to the authors about using a couple of theirs.

and, Robert, bc makes a valid point: the "cut wood" tool doesn't actually represent "cut wood" at all.

What is needed is a set of slightly irregular concentric arcs with some irregular radial checking to match the conventional representation of timber end grain.

[mikatoa]

Roman - I use the Detailer Tool rather than the detailer cut wood. You true there's no editable line weights for this. Sorry for the wrong info. Not sure whats the difference though?