Convert to Lines #25

6/18/07
Serving the Seattle VectorWorks Users Group and Northwest VectorWorks users.

An archive of past newsletters can be found at http://converttolines.blogspot.com/

In this issue:
• The next Webinar will cover Digital Terrain Modeling
• How do we learn CAD?
• We built this city
•VectorTasks
•Resources for learning VW
• The Repetitive Tool tool
• Caution: data can be lost


Greetings VectorWorks users! Our next meeting is Thursday, June 28th, from 6:00 to 8:00 but THERE IS A CATCH. I’m unable to attend and can’t provide the meeting room. If you would like to see the June Webinar on Digital Terrain Modeling (DTM), we ask if you can provide a space that would also have a high speed internet connection plus a speaker phone. Sam Krause will bring her projector. The last item needed is a projection screen which can be rented (I suggest everyone chip in a couple of bucks) or perhaps one of you could bring one from home. Please let Sam know ASAP so she can email you the location. Sam can be reached at
samkrause@alphamodalities.com

I intend to give Sam a number of CD’s containing Sketchup-based objects which will be given out at the meeting. If you haven’t played much with 3D, with this CD you’ll have an opportunity to combine a few of the objects in a fun way. As a suggestion, perhaps the Porta Potty, Trampoline, and Falling Man could be rendered in one or more of the various styles that VectorWorks allows. Be sure to add a light, if going beyond Open GL, and extrude a ground plane to catch shadows.

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How do we best set about learning something as complex as a modern CAD program? We certainly don’t learn well when we’re under deadline. Deadlines are a time for falling back on instincts and the habits honed by repetition. Good intention is also a less than ideal reason to learn any complex tool. Know anybody who has succeeded in teaching themselves French or how to play the piano? Not too many, I’d guess, at least without a mentor, tutor or solid class structure.

Practice-learning is slow-learning mostly, if done on your own, because the processes within CAD do not spring from your personal needs and so the logic of why one tool is used before another seems tenuous. This is compounded because our use of the VW tools varies by project. Unless you do the same design over and over, you’re bound to find new ways to order Layers and Classes, new ways to combine tools to best effect. Your learning is never, ever complete, in that sense, but always evolving toward the better.

If working with VectorWorks has taught me anything, it’s that a simple, direct benefit should be derived when you wrap your hand around any new tool. Pick up a hammer. Drive a nail, pull a nail. This is the payoff that keeps new users coming back. Find a few tools that can bring you immediate benefit. An example would be the polygon tool. If you are creating floors or hardscapes or countertops or any other element that contains an area, duplicate the finished shape and send it to a special layer--call it Outlines--so that you can return to that layer from time to time to tally totals such as lot coverage, for instance, or proof of total perimeters. Another simple but important task is the creation of title blocks. VectorWorks can serve as a terrific tool for designing company graphics. Use Viewports to help order your drawings on the page. Discover PDF creation and import/export. Make key 3D elements to test for fit. Find those tools that are impossible to live without and after you’ve made one of them your own, find another.

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The last time I had checked in with the Google collection of Sketchup models, the City of Seattle folder contained a single model. Things have changed! Check out the following:
>http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/cldetails?mid=5ff91a4554eac7003710a2250e7f327f
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Pat Stanford and Dan Jansenson create value for VectorWorks users via their PodCad podcasts. I’m on one of the latest, along with Jonathan Pickup, talking about user groups.
>http://www.podcad.tv/podcad/home.html
Their current podcast features an interview with Charles Chandler who develops add-on programs for VectorWorks. He was a senior VW programmer at Nemeteschek.
Dan and Pat also do training. Full details are available at >http://www.vectortasks.com
These two are very skilled VectorWorks teachers and the classes they offer are of their own design, not that of the NNA Professional Learning Series. Give them a call if you think you might be interested in traveling to California OR if you might like them to come to Seattle for tutoring, either individually or for a group.

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Here is a Jonathan Pickup podcast worth watching, on how to place a superscript symbol over a letter or number.
>http://web.mac.com/jpickup1/iWeb/Site/podcasts/podcasts.html
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The NNA Knowledge Base continues to grow. If you haven’t stopped in for a while, it might be worth your time to look over the list of topics and pick up a few new moves.
>http://kbase.nemetschek.net/
The 'How To' and the 'Tips and Tricks' folders have the most information by far, in comparison to the other categories ('Architect' has a measly two tips, for instance). In the How To group, you can learn to fillet all the corners of a rectangle in one move. Under Tips and Tricks, you can see how to do a global command to hide all loci in 2D or 3D. While you're rummaging around in the VW resources, visit the Online Video Library.
>http://www.nemetschek.net/training/library.php
Don’t miss the “Select Movie Type” tab at the top of the page which will give you sets of other QuickTime movies.
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When you get a few free moments, check out the Repetitive Unit tool on the tear-off palette called Details (Architect). Double click the icon and then, to see the libraries of pre-made items, click the far right box in the Mode Bar called Object Properties. Click Choose Symbol to view the various libraries, and again by double-clicking on the icon in the center square.

I wanted to use the sewer and fence symbols (text arrayed along a line) but was frustrated that the letters came out huge and overlaid each other. It turns out that one can better space the letters by entering a larger dimension in the “Pitch” input box. I used a dimension of 15’ for a plot plan at 1/8" per foot. Though now properly spaced, the letters were still too large and needed editing. To fix this, ungroup and double click on one of the letters. That takes you to an edit pane where you can then select the letter and set a smaller text size or select another letter altogether. If the image is other than a letter (such as a footprint along a beach), you must use Scale to reduce its size. When done with your edit, click Exit Symbol in the upper right hand corner of the editing pain--I mean pane--and you will have your sewer line, fence line or footprint as intended.

Having to go through an extensive edit is barely worth it unless you have a considerable number of lines or fences to array across the landscape or are likely to do this type of thing frequently. While the other symbols for wood or roof tiles scale just fine, the category of Miscellaneous could use some work in my opinion.

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Nemetschek issued a note to the Listserv recently that suggested data can be lost if a drawing is docked to a Mac dock bar and then saved. The fix is not to dock your drawings--unless you can keep your mitts off the save key. I’m assuming that the fix will be delivered in upcoming Version. 13.

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July's webinar will cover DWG/DXF files.
RSVP to Sam for the June Webinar (plus any potential meeting places) and I’ll see you next month.

Tom Greggs
Greggs Building Design
(206) 524-2808