Mike Twining

What resolution are you running at? Is is a standard 4:3 resolution (i.e. 1024x768) or is it a "widescreen" resolution (something like 1600x1024). My guess is that you are running a standard resolution on a widescreen monitor and that is why everything is getting stretched. Try selecting a resolution that matches more closely your screens aspect ratio. MikeT P.S. HOLY I-Beam Tom! 1000 posts.

There is some extensive discussion on this topic. It starts here and is continued here. Enjoy MikeT P.S. The short answer is "no".

<<Rant: ON>> So, just out of curiosity, what is the ".0" for in "IronCAD 7.0"? We are now at "product update 2" which means that I am now running "IronCAD 7.0 Product Update 2". Seems like a lot of information to cary around. It also seems like it would be a whole lot more logical to call this version "IronCAD 7.2". Is the decimal ever going to change or are you guys just teasing us? Perhaps it is the result of some marketing survey that was designed to give the end user the feeling of stability. Either way, it just irritates me. Lets either call this thing what it is: IronCAD 7.2, or drop the whole ".0" and call it IronCAD 7 Product Update 2. <<Rant: OFF>> Mike T

How does this template print out? I have always had a problems with the white lines (and text and whatever) printing out in white, and I end up with a blank sheet when I print out a drawing where I have used "inverted" drawing colors. Is there a way to print "black and white" (i.e. if there is an entity, print it in plain ole' black, otherwise, print nothing)? MikeT

You can get close to that result by simply following the directions I gave you above, but make sure you have your "Aspect Lock" set to none. Grab the handle in the direction that you want to stretch and tack on your scale factor. You won't end up with oval holes though, as those features are not "scaled" per say, but now fundamentally different (hole does not = elipse). So, for your particular example, you would then need to go back and address the holes individually (hopefully you have them all "linked" together so you only need to edit 1). Hope this helps. MikeT

Do you mean you want to keep the thru hole the same diameter (no scaling)? If that is the case, your hole needs to be an "Assemble Feature" not just a regular feature of the part. Otherwise, the whole thig will scale together. One quick way to scale a part by 50% (in my opinion... there are many ways to scale things) would be the following: 1. Assemble everything you want to scale in one assembly 2. Right-Click the assembly, choose "Assembly Properties" 3. Select the "Sizebox" tab. 4. Select all the check boxes under the "Display" section (see the Lengh, width, and height handles). 5. Make sure the "Aspect Lock" is set to "All" (same tab). 6. Hit "OK" 7. Right-Click on one of the handles that now appears at the Assembly level and choose "edit sizebox". 8. Take whatever number is in there and tack on a "*1.5" and you are good to go. MikeT

I would also like to recommend a windows port of the Linux "gkrellm". Same great interface with extremely low overhead. Link to gkrellm (along with links to all the skins you could ever want) is located here or the direct link to the Windows version can be found here. It has CPU monitoring, memory monitoring, disk performance monitoring, network monitoring, and a slew of other cool monitors that will let you know what your computer is doing while you stare blankly at that little hourglass waiting for your "pointer" to retrun. MikeT P.S. You can skip a few steps getting to the perfmon by simply doing: Windows-R, then type "perfmon" and hit ENTER (as opposed to "CMD"...)

Sure... send me that hotrod of a computer and I will see what I can do! (just kidding). I am of no help, but I am jelous of that computer MikeT

Personally I have never used the little "Shape Toggle Icon" (or used it very little), and I used to run into the same problem all the time. If you don't care about the icon, you can go to "Tools->Options->Interaction" and uncheck the box marked "Show edit handle toggle icon upon selection". That will get rid of the icon for good (well, until you re-check that box). Its an option. MikeT

Yeah, what Per-Arne said. And then, if you want to plan for the future, buy an Nvidia card.... they have better Linux support ( hint hint developers ) MikeT

Yep. I won't even begin to explain why, but there is a thread in the community where (I think) Chris Loman gives a good description of the switch, and how/why it works. I believe it begins to be usefull when you exceed 1Gig of memory, but that may be a lie MikeT P.S. A good description of the /3gb startup switch can be found here. And the credit goes to Cary.

I heard a rumor that Ironcad compresses files 10:1 (so if you have a 30 Meg file on disk, when you open it you are using 300 Meg. of memory). I would say that if you are really working with large models, 1Gig of mem probably won't cut it. I recommend doubling it (2 Gig) and adding the /3GB startup option discussed here if you are getting a lot of "Out of memory" errors. MikeT

Not an IronCAD solutions, but if you rename your old server (something like ntserver2), you can add an entry in your c:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file that would point "ntserver1" to "winserver2003", in effect renaming your new server to your old name. Mike T

I assume that you have already checked the box marked "Transfer thread callout to drawing" (right-click the nut/bolt, select "Add On Properties", check boxes appear in the top-right). I would check to make sure your callout are not going on to a hidden layer on the drawing. MikeT.

You got it. With the general view there are no "defaults", however, the "break alignment" will take care of any unnecessairy constraints. FYI, you can only have one constraint type at a time (vertical or horizontal)... and it will move the view accordingly. As far as I know, you can't get yourself into any real trouble using this. Enjoy. MikeT

Chris- You can right-click on a view you created using the General View tool, select "Vew Alignment" and you have several options on "locking" different views together. This is how we get multiple (correctly aligned) "3-view" part drawings onto a single drawing sheet. Not as easy as using the 3-view drawing tool multiple times, but it gets the job done. MikeT.

I know that in IronCAD 6.x there were problems with the scaling of BOM tables and what not. That was supposed to be fixed in 7.0, which it (for the most part) did. Well, I would not consider the problem fixed so much as I would call it "minimized". I am still having problems with the BOM (object) external borders not lineing up with the internal "cells" borders, resulting in double lines on the bottom and RHS of the BOM (FYI, this BOM is anchored at the top right). This is causing me headaches when I try to line up the BOM border with say a sheet border. Sometimes it comes out O.K., and sometimes (a lot of times) it does not. See the attached image for an example (this is a BOM template used as a revision block where the edges of the BOM have been lined up with the drawing border). My question is, does anyone know the trick to getting the BOM inside (what I call the) "BOM object" to scale at 100% such that there is only 1 visible borderline. I have tried to "Zoom to current sheet scale" while zoomed way in to a BOM, I have tried the same thing after a "fit sheet". From what I can see, neither one will consistantly give me good results. Thanks! WELL CRAP! I also just noticed that the "E" in "ZONE" is being chopped off also(I assure you it appears when editing the BOM). MikeT.

Am I to understand that the vertical and horizontal planes are defined by the camera view? Does that mean I can use the "horizontal" smart dimension to measure both vertical and horizontal directions by simply rotating the camera? I have never understood how these directions were defined, but associating them to the camera view seems kinda strange to me... MikeT

Steve- What you described can be easily acomplished using "Smart Dimensions" (default on the LHS toolbar near the bottom): Pick the tool, drop in the dimension you want to constrain/control... right click the displayed dimension and choose "Lock". Booya, you have a "refrence". Hope this helps a bit. I am sure that the more you use IronCAD, the more little tricks you will pick up, and the easier you will find it to get your job done. I would personally be interested in your opinion of IronCAD after using it for, say, another 6 months. MikeT

WARNING: Complete and utter non-sence follows. If you are looking to be productinve, this post is not the place for you... ...let me get this straight...you are telling me that to solve the "refrence" problem i need to get rid of my boss when I no longer need him, which will also get rid of his ribs... (i get that part)? Will that then make me the boss, and if so, should I worry about someone trying to get rid of my ribs? MikeT

... I don't know... Have you seen that guy? YIKES!!!! And who is "dave"? MikeT

... uh... what is a refrence?

Is there any way that I can remove the borderlines? Even with none set, I get a light grey line in between cells. This is what I do right now (well, 1 box for the numbers, 1 for the text). I started using Microsoft Word (Word pad will work also)... looks like a good option, however, how can I set it up such that the font displayed in the OLE object is the same size as it would apprear in IC. (How do I lock the display scale of the text document to 1:1 and still allow modification of the information)? I need fonts in the notes to match the fonts on the drawing (in size and type) even when the info within the OLE object changes. It is probably something easy that I can't figure out... MikeT.

Just curious of how all you guys out there in IronLand handle your drawing notes... Right now I am just using a standard text box (1 box for the item numbers, 1 box for the actual notes) so that everything will line up. The problems I have with that method is that text boxes align text (vertically) in the center, so every time the note gets longer, I have to re-adjust the location of the box. It is also difficult to get the numbers to lign up with the notes.... anyway, I am looking for a better way to do things. Tried using a BOM template with all the borders turnded off, but you can't get rid of the external BOM border, so that is no good... So... who has the best (read easiest) way of managing drawing notes? The winner gets the honored distinction of being blatently copied without any recognition what-so-ever. MikeT

Well, if you can see the image in your .pdf already, I think IronCAD has done it's job. Did this work in older versions of IronCAD? Try changing your print options to print raster images instead of vector (or vice versa) within your .pdf viewer. Also, make sure you don't have your print settings set to "black and white" or someting like that. MikeT.