June 2006 Archives

In a unit, there are several features often missed by users. As a software company, we try very hard to offer all features necessary while keeping the user interface as straightforward as possible. That's why some features seem to be rather hidden.

Some of the features shown below already are available in interiorCAD 2.5, but many have been created for interiorCAD 3.0 exclusively. The list surely is not exhaustive, but it should give you a good idea what's inside interiorCAD.

Scribes optionally can go down to the floor. Simply click on the parts of the image which are marked by a red dot:

In interiorCAD 3.0 there are additional top scribes which can be switched on and off. Additionally you can define how the corners are build, butt or mitred:

All scribes can get a fixating wood strip:

Finished buttoms can be placed below or above the plinth:

Unit sides can go down to the floor (left part of the dialog). The various parts of the plinth can get switched off individually (right area of the dialog). Furthermore, there are various options how the parts are joined (butt, mitred, going straight to the wall):

When using grooved or rebated backs, the top and buttom unit shelf can optionally miss the groove or rebate:

Besides the scribes, even finished backs can go down to the floor if desired:

Unit sides and shelves can individually switched on and off. Additionally there are multiple options how the parts are joined:

Instead of a top shelf, one can use stretchers. As soon as a stretcher gets used, the top board gets switched off automatically. Stretchers can be aligned horizontally or vertically:

Grid borings can be switched on and off. Select from two or three boring lines:

Connectors can be placed from inside or outside of the cabinet:

A partition can divide the bottom shelf in various ways. It even can divide the plinth:

A partition can divide the top shelf in various ways:

If a partition divides the top shelf as well as the back, then it is possible to switch off the top shelf for an individual segment (see the option ｻHas top case panelｫ):

In this case it is possible to switch off the back, the bottom shelf and the plinth:

On doors and drawers it is possible to create chamfers, both on the front and the back sides. Chamfers can be configured for each edge individually. Chamfers on the back top edge can be used to create handleless fronts:

We hope you got a clue about features you haven't noticed yet and you find them useful. If you ever need an option, try moving the mouse over some images in the dialogs. You often will find the mouse pointer changing to a hand symbol indicating there are ｻhiddenｫ options you can select from.

Though VectorWorks and interiorCAD are rock solid working applications, there are circumstances which can cause unexpected crashes. This is due to todays complex software ecosystems.

There are two kinds of crashes: Crashes on unspecified actions and crashes on specified actions. There are no generally known issues, but anyway we'll try to share some knowledge about issues we have seen in the past on certain machines.

• As a CAD system, VectorWorks depends on certain features of your graphics card. If it doesn't work properly, the operating system will quit VectorWorks as soon as it tries to access functionality of the card it doesn't support well. To solve this, try installing the latest driver for your card. For NVidia cards, you will find frequently updated and easy to install drivers on their webpages. Other manufacturers also update their drivers, but NVidia is one of the most conscientious manufacturers when it comes to driver maintenance
• If updating the driver doesn't help, try switching off the hardware acceleration of the graphics card. This can help to work around driver insufficiencies.
• If this doesn't help, check if you are running virus protection or firewalling software. VectorWorks needs to access system calls for communicating with the hardware dongle, for serial number checking and while rendering. Try switching off your system protection software temporarily. If this helps, update it to avoid problems
• Sometimes (though it doesn't appear often) it can happen that your template drawing is damaged. It is obvious that an error in the template drawing gets duplicated each time you create a new document based on it. Try copying all elements of your drawing to a new, blank drawing and work with it. If the crashes disappear, we recommend to create a new template file based on a new, blank drawing. After that delete the damaged template file
• Even though we put huge efforts into quality assurance, we can not guarantee by 110% that interiorCAD doesn't contain bugs. If you have found one which is reproducable, please don't work around it without informing us. Send the file in question to the interiorCAD support team and add a short description like:

  Attached you'll find a zip archive containing a VectorWorks drawing. After opening it, edit the selected unit named "Base unit 500". Go to front design and select the leftmost door. Then try assigning the handle with the ID 099 55 679. Now try pressing the OK button. At this moment VectorWorks crashes.

  Don't trust we will find the error by ourselves. Chances are given that a bug which passed our QA system once can pass it a second time and thus persist in the next version. Thanks for your help!
  

Users may want to migrate their materials database from an interiorCAD 2.5 installation to interiorCAD 3.0.

We recommend to check the materials which get shipped with 3.0 and to adjust them to fit your needs. See the menu Shop, submenu Materials for editing them.

In case you have created lots of customized materials in 2.5, the port can be done by copying over some text files from 2.5 to 3.0. These files are located in Plug-Ins/XG Resources of your interiorCAD installations. Before copying over a file, it is a good idea to save a copy of the originally installed file for later reference.

• Finishings.txt contains your finishings. You can simply copy this file from your 2.5 installation.
  
• Coverings.txt contains your coverings. You can simply copy this file from your 2.5 installation.
  
• Edges.txt contains your edgings. You can simply copy this file from your 2.5 installation.
  
• Boards.txt contains your boards. You can not copy this file from 2.5 to 3.0. If you have a few boards only, please edit/add boards using the frontend provided. If you have lots of boards created manually, please send us the file Boards.txt so we can adjust it for you
  

Your default materials are saved in the file Materials.txt. After adjusting/porting your materials, open the dialog Material of a newly created unit, adjust all materials to fit your needs and save it as default when done. Please note that you can create multiple selections in the list of unit groups by Shift- resp. Ctrl-klicking.

Besides the fact that you can adjust the default settings for newly created units, you can even create multiple, named favourites to choose from during the design of a unit. If you need similar settings more than once, this is a very useful and convenient feature which can save you a lot of time.

Let's use the back as an example. Maybe you need two favourites, one for wall units (grooved back) and one for base units (butt back). In the back dialog, adjust all settings as needed for the grooved back. Then save it as a favourite and enter a name:

Now let us repeat the steps for the butt back:

At any time we need these settings in any other unit, we can easily recall them from the favourite popup menu:

The same technique can be used in most of the other interiorCAD dialogs. As a minor limitation, please note that functional hardware doesn't get saved with your favourites in interiorCAD 3.0.

interiorCAD is a highly user configurable system. Users can create custom favourites as well as set the default values which will get used each time a new unit gets created. Here is a short example how to use it.

Maybe you want to adjust the default unit size for creating new units. In the main dialog, simply adjust the settings to fit your needs, optionally including the unit name. Then press the icon with the floppy disk icon on it:

Simply check the option As Default to make these settings the default setting for any new unit to be created:

From now on, any new unit you will create will use these settings as default:

The same can be done for any other dialog like backs...

...the case...

...doors and drawers...

...or even the front design preferences:

Today we will create a non-standard unit as shown below. The shape isn't supported by interiorCAD directly, but it is a good opportunity to show some of the more advanced features of interiorCAD:

The left and right segments don't have a top board, but the middle one does. interiorCAD doesn't support this right out of the box, so we will use a workaround. First of all, we will use the case dialog to completely switch the top board off:

Now we use the front design dialog to create three vertical segments. None of them will get a top board. Then we create the partitions in the left segment, ensuring the board is a fixed shelf (the shelf can get selected in the front design):

As we have selected the fixed shelf, we can also make it to divide the back by choosing the corresponding option below the popup menu:

Now we can select the top segment and switch off the option �Has back�:

We can use the copy and paste buttons above the front design to copy the settings of the left segment to the right one:

Both the left and right segment now have a fixed shelf, no back in the upper segment and no top shelf. Unfortunately, even the middle segment has no top shelf - yet. Now we use a partition to create the top board as a fixed shelf. The top segment only has a height of 0.1 millimeters so it will not be noticed when building the unit:

This short tutorial outlined some advanced interiorCAD features:

• Unit sides and boards can get switched off individually if necessary
  
• Partitions and shelves can divide backs
  
• Backs can get switched off for each individual segment
  
• We can use partitions of minimal sizes to cover special situations
  

If there are messages like �Error accessing file� while editing a unit on a Macintosh computer, please try shortening the path to your VectorWorks installation. Placing the VectorWorks folder on your desktop usually isn't a good idea. While editing a unit it now tries to read files placed in

/Users/Yourusername/Desktop/VectorWorks 12.0.1/Plug-Ins/XG Resources/

which simply is to long. Move the VectorWorks directory to the root of your hard drive or into the applications folder instead and it will work properly. Now create an alias to your VectorWorks executable on the desktop.