July 2005 Archives

In interiorCAD 2.0 there is a set of new handles in the template file �interiorCAD.sta�. You'll find five handles of the three major distributors in it (e.g. knobs and bowed handles). We'd like to recommend that you use this template file and the new handles, because there seem to be some problems with older handle symbols converted to VectorWorks 11.5 (units with lost handles or even crashes).

If you use a template file of your own, then we'd like to recommend that you drop the old handles and import the 15 new ones from the template file mentioned above into your template file.

To do so please perform the following steps:

1. Open the new template file
   
2. Open your template file
   
3. Delete the handles in your template file using the resource browser
   
4. Import the 15 new handles from the interiorCAD template file
   
5. Ensure the imported handles are placed in the symbol folder called �Handles�
   
6. Save your template file

Here's another nifty new feature of interiorCAD 2.0:

if you're running interiorCAD 2.0 on two different machines in your network, you may want to store all materials, favorites etc. on your server.

This data is stored in the XG Resources folder which can be found in your VectorWorks 11.5 installations's Plug-ins folder. Copy the XG Resources folder to your server.

Then, open up the "Preferences Shop+" dialog and enter the path to the new location of the XG Resources folder here:

Fire up "Create Unit...". If the command isn't complaining about missing materials files, everything should be fine.

When working on sheet layers (which have been introduced in VectorWorks 11) it can happen that dimensionings show incorrect values, especially if there are set different scales for the drawing layers.

To avoid confusion, dimensionings shouldn't get drawn on the sheet layer directly. Instead, double click the edge of the viewport. In the dialog box choose the option �Annotations�. Press the �OK� button and draw the dimensionings as desired. Then click on the button �Exit Viewport Annotation� which is located on the right top of the drawing area. This way, all dimensionings should appear with correct values.

interiorCAD's cabinet symbol are hybrid symbols, they contain a component which is shown in 3D views plus a special component which is shown in 2D plan view only.

With interiorCAD 2.0 you are able to assign a special class to the 2D plan view component of a cabinet, allowing you to customize the 2D plan view appearance of cabinets (e.g. setting fill or pen color etc.). Check out the popup menu in the "Create Unit..." main dialog:

interiorCAD 2.0 features a new way to automatically dimension polygons. Create a 2D-polygon of arbitrary shape, then run the command "Part dimensions..." found in the interiorCAD-menu.

Here's some information on the options available:

• Sections - Check this option if you want to dimension each sections of the polygon
• Angles - Check this options to output the angle (in degrees) of two adjoining sections of the polygon
• 90° - sections - Use this options if you want to cut the polygonal shape out of a rectangular sheet of wood

You may also choose to attach the dimensions to the object (associative dimensioning) or create a "snapshot of the object and its dimensions on a separate layer.

Sometimes it happens that solids only show rendered edges but do not appear solidly:

Most often this happens as soon as the base object was not drawn properly. In this case, the polygon has not been closed. Instead, the ending point is a bit outside the polygon:

It should be created anew or modified.

Sometimes it is useful to send a drawing via email to a customer, partner or an interiorCAD developer. interiorCAD / VectorWorks cannot do so per default, but on Windows it is possible to install a system wide PDF printer driver which then also is available for any other application.

There are several solutions out in the web, but we'd like to recommend the cutePDF Writer. Unlike others, it's not shareware but freeware and it doesn't hurt by including advertising banners into the PDF.

1. Before installing the cutePDF Writer you need to install Ghostscript. Get this open source library as a Win32 installer from Sourceforge
   
2. Then install the cutePDF Writer

The cutePDF Writer will now appear in the printing dialog of any application.