Recently in Dealing with resources Category

Thanks to the flexibility of interiorcad, it is possible to change the appearence of the opening triangle in the front design dialog. The default behaviour shows the base of the triangle at the hinged side. To swap it, visit your "XG Resources" folder. Open the file "Unit.txt" in a text editor. Check whether the parameter DoorTriangle:0 exists. If not simply add it. DoorTriangle:0 is the default. You can change it to DoorTriangle:1 if desired:

All interiorcad installers install interiorcad completely. There's no need to install a previous version first. It is strongly recommended to install it on top of a plain vanilla VectorWorks 2008 installation though

If you want to install an interiorcad 2008 update on top of an existing interiorcad 2008 installation, please do the following steps before running the installer:

• Visit the VectorWorks 2008 installation folder
  
• Locate and open the folder "Plug-Ins". Locate and remove the folder "xg". This will wipe out all interiorcad 2008 plug-ins. Do not simply rename this folder as VectorWorks 2008 will scan all plug-in folders recursively.
  
• In the VectorWorks 2008 installation folder, remove the folder called "interiorcad". This will not affect any of your personal settings. It's simply a template folder.
  
• In the VectorWorks 2008 installation folder, locate and open the folder "Templates". Remove the "interiorcad (Imperial).sta" resp. "interiorcad (Metric).sta" files.
  

You can now run the installer which will recreate the files and folders you just deleted. Due to files and settings in your user folder, you will still get dated template, workspace and interiorcad configuration files. If you want to benefit from all the fixes the update provides, do the following additional steps:

• Visit the VectorWorks 2008 app data folder. The path differs depending on the platform:
  • Mac OS X: /Users/Your Username/Library/Application Support/VectorWorks/2008/
  • Windows Vista: C:\Users\Your Username\AppData\Roaming\Nemetschek\VectorWorks\2008\
  • Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\YourUsername\AppData\Nemetschek\VectorWorks\2008\
• To get the updated template files, backup the folder "Templates" and rename it as "Templates old"
• To get the updated workspaces, backup the folder "Workspaces" and rename it as "Workspaces old"
• To get the updated interiorcad database, backup the folder "xg" and rename it as "xg old"

Now start VectorWorks 2008. We hope you enjoy the interiorcad update!

Since interiorcad 2008, the location and configuration of the XG Resources and Data folders (which contain all of your interiorcad settings) have changed.

• In the folder where interiorcad 2008 got installed, you'll find a folder called "interiorcad". It contains a folder called "xg" which contains two folders called "Data" and "XG Resources". Additionally, there's a file called "XGResourcePath.txt":

  

  Unlike interiorcad 3.x, the folder "Plug-Ins" does not contain a folder called "XG Resources".
  

• To fully support the user concepts of modern operating systems, none of those folders gets used while running interiorcad 2008. Instead the complete folder "xg" gets copied to the user folder of your operating system at the very first attempt to use an interiorcad 2008 plug-in:

  

• If you need to adjust interiorcad 2008 settings, do not edit files in the application folder but the files in your user folder exclusively.
  
• The paths to your user data depends on your operating system and user name. If your user name is foo, you should find the user folder in the following locations (Windows and Mac OS X):
  
  
  
  • c:\Users\foo\AppData\Roaming\Nemetschek\VectorWorks\2008\xg\
    
  • HardDriveName:Users:foo:Library:Application Support:VectorWorks:2008:xg:
    
  
  
• The file "XG ResourcePath.txt" contains the path to your configuration files. Simply open it in a text editor. It contains two entries, containing a variable to automatically determine your user folder:
  
  
  
  • ResourcePath:%APPDATA%/xg/XG Resources
    
  • DataPath:%APPDATA%/xg/Data
    
  
  If you want to share the "XG Resources" over a network, move them from your user directory to a fileserver. Leave the folder "Data" locally, as it contains machine dependent settings. Adjust the "ResourcePath" in the file "XG ResourcePath.txt" accordingly:
  
  
  
  • ResourcePath:\\Filesever\XG Resources\
    
  • DataPath:%APPDATA%/xg/Data
    
  
  If you have mounted the network share as a drive letter in Windows, you also can configure it from within interiorcad. In the menu "Workshop" point to "Preferences" and select the entry "Preferences Shop...". On the tab "Preferences" choose the desired drive and folder.
  
• If you have more than one user configured on the machine and all users shall access the shared files, configure each user folder accordingly.
  

Please note that you do this at your own risk. Due to the many dependencies we cannot support installations which make use of the above hints, except extragroup configured your machines. if you get the following message, it is likely that your installation is messed:

Please check the folder "xg" in your user folder and the contents of the file named "XGResourcePath.txt".

In interiorCAD 3.0 a new Import Resources... menu command was introduced by extragroup. Contents can easily be added by creating a subfolder in ./Libraries/xg/ and placing a VectorWorks drawing in it.

In interiorCAD 3.5 we have introduced a second folder hierarchy. Thus libraries can be organized more conveniently. Instead of having three folders like »Handles Haefele«, »Handles Hettich« and »Handles Wuerth«, it is now possible to create one folder called »Handles« and create subfolders called »Haefele«, »Hettich« and »Wuerth«:

The folder »Handles« then will appear in a popup in the resource browser, and the leftmost list will show the subfolders:

Adjusting the prices of functional hardware can be done using two different methods. Either choose the »Import Materials...« command which simply imports a TAB separated CSV file with supplier IDs and prices, or edit the configuration files directly. This entry is about the latter method for advanced users.

We recommend to use a spreadsheet application. As there are some odds and ends which can cause serious troubles, we will not be able to help you if something goes wrong. OTOH, the method explained below is very efficient. After the following steps have been performed, it is necessary to (re)run the »Configure supplier data« command.

• Open your spreadsheet application (we use Microsoft Excel in this example). Do never right click on the files to run the »Open with...« convenience option. Your files would be damaged!
  
• Instead, now choose the file open command of your application
  
• Navigate to the VectorWorks application folder. On Windows, it reads something like c:\Program files\VectorWorks Designer 12. On Macintosh machines, it usually is located in the folder Applications of your main hard drive
  
• In the VectorWorks folder, choose the subfolders Plug-Ins, XG Resources. You will find further subfolders like the ones below:

  

• Depending on the hardware you want to edit, choose one of the folders like Bought-In, Connectors, Hinges, Levellers or Sliders. In this example, we will edit the hinges files. The hinges directory contents look like the following:

  

• Choose the MountingPlates or Hinges subfolder to edit hinges or mounting plates. You will find a subfolder called Sales:

  

• Enter this subfolder. It seems to be empty, but it isn't. Switch the file type filter to display plain text files:

  

• Before editing one of the files, make a backup copy for later reference
  
• Select the file of the desired manufacturer. In this example, we have chosen the Blum file.
  
• Press Open to load the file. An assistent will appear, providing some options. Usually, the options of the first dialog are preconfigured as needed so you simply can proceed:

  

• Even the next dialog usually provides reasonable preconfigured settings:

  

• The next dialog will appear, where you have to perform some very important steps:

  
  

  
  
  • Move the horizontal slider to its rigthtmost position
    
  • Press and hold the Shift key on your keyboard
    
  • While still holding down the Shift key, click on the rightmost column above the slider. All columns now need to appear as selected
    
  • Leave the Shift key
    
  • Now change the option Standard to Text. This is a very important step. If you omit it, your data will be damaged:

    

• The contents of the file will now appear in your application. Editing the prices now is very simple, using standard spreadsheet techniques:

  

• After you have done your edits, save the file. You will be promted by a dialog which remarks that some spreadsheet features will not get saved in your text file. Confirm this dialog by pressing the button Yes:

  

• Now close the file. Your application will complain again; simply cancel this message by pressing the button No:

  

One further issue: Never ever click into an empty cell outside the data array. Excel will then assume that it contains data and will later export those cells as empty fields into the text file. This may cause severe troubles when using such damaged files in interiorCAD afterwards.

That's it. Don't forget to (re)run the Configure supplier data command again. You can now assign hinges to units and the updated prices will appear in your costings.

VectorWorks 12 provides a new feature to ask it for resources which are placed in the folder ./Libraries/ of the VectorWorks installation. The brand new resource importer provided by interiorCAD 3 only works if this VectorWorks 12 feature is switched on. Otherwise no resources will appear in the resource importer of interiorCAD.
In the VectorWorks preferences, please ensure the option »Display Default Content« is enabled:

In interiorCAD 3 you will find a new resource importer. In the menu �InteriorCAD� choose the entry �Import Resources...�. This will show the new resource importer. Resources can be filtered by tags, searched by a fulltext search engine, previewed in any of the VectorWorks default view- and render modes and finally imported into the current document.

Adding new libraries is very easy:

• Create a new library document
  
• Place your resources into the document. Please note: only one resource type per document is allowed, and the resources must be placed on the top level of the resource browser, e.g. not placed in symbol folders
  
• In your VectorWorks installation, you will find a folder called �Libraries�. In this folder a subfolder called �xg� must exist. In this folder, create a new one and save your drawing in this new folder. The names of the folder and the drawing are arbitrary
  
• Your new resources should already appear in the �Import Resources...� dialog. If you want to add descriptions to your resources, additionally place a file with the extension �.xgx� in your folder
  
• In this file create TAB separated columns. The name of the first column must be named �ID�. This column must lists the names of the resources in the VectorWorks library drawing
  
• Add further columns with arbitrary names and fill them with content.
  

If you are unsure about the xgx file, simply copy and open an existing one in a spreadsheet application and use it as a template for your own index file.

Applying textures on interiorCAD units is easy if you know some simple steps.

Before textures can be applied, these need to exist in the current drawing. Textures are managed using the resource browser:

Importing textures from other files or libraries is done the same way like importing symbols using the resource browser.

The next step is to understand that you can not apply textures to units
using the palette �object info� or assigning the texture to classes. interiorCAD offers its own way to easily assign textures to each particular part of a unit. interiorCAD already contains some useful default favourites:

If you want to change textures for some parts, we recommend to create a new favourite first. The reason is that if you change an existing one all units which use this favourite will use the new settings. Therefore create a new favourite first, select it and then change the parts you'd like to change:

Renderings can help you increasing sales a lot; in VectorWorks, doing renderings is easy. Since version 11.5 VectorWorks creates some default lighting if you haven't set any lights in the drawing so you get an immediate access to reasonable results.

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