Mike Twining

Now you've got it! You learn quick.

Tom- You might be using the internet wrong if this is what you are finding ....

Hmmm..... I wonder if that info comes through with the "Import Styles and Layers" command.... Edit: They sure do. If you import the Styles and layers from the original template into a blank one and you can use the imported "View" style to get an underlined View font.

I've got several Text styles set up for Faking information (including view names). The one you reference is the style we use for fakes. I would LOVE to be able to set my View Labels to use that Text Style, but the v11.1.1 "View" drawing element only has limited options for Font setting for (I assume) the default View Name fonts. Jonas- I feel like there used to be a way to assign a Text Style to a View Label. Perhaps there is a missing "Drawing Element" (like "View Label") in the "Styles & Layers" interface.

Here is one I am talking about. (Again... this must have been created in an earlier version; no earlier than v9; but it has been saved in v11). 11.0_SH1.icd

Right... but I don't want the scale. I have a working template where the actual FONT is underlined. It was probably built in an earlier version, so it appears to me as if there was a loss of functionality somewhere along they way. I would definitely like to get this ability back.

Can someone tell me how I can get a Drawing View Name font underlined? I have done it before (in fact, I have a template that works fine), but I can't seem to find the option to Explicitly underline a view name font anymore. Thanks!

I've got a few files that are acting... "funny". I feel like I need to exorcise them of their demons. There are several ways to go about this... and I was wondering if there was a difference in the end result, or a preference as to which method is the best: 1. Save As Part/Assembly of a Top Level Assembly: This involves creating (if you don't have one) an assembly at the top-most level of the drawing, and doing a File->Save As Part/Assembly on that upper-most assembly. The resulting file appears to be the same (it includes all the parts/items from the original drawing, along with all of their part properties) and in an identical order. 2. Copy/Paste of a Top Level Assembly: This would be pretty much the same as above, just using the Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V commands, and pasting the TLA (top level assembly... not to be confused with "Three Letter Acronym") into a new scene file. 3. Copy/Paste of individual Parts This is just copying and pasting the individual parts from one scene to the other. This takes longer, and you need to re-assemble and re-order all of your parts/assemblies. Kind of a pain. 4.2, 4.3. Use the Catalog Similar to 2 & 3 above, but dragging items into (and out of) a catalog instead of using the Copy/Past commands. I can say that the first option has been recommended to me, and has worked fine for a while, but the scene files will eventually start acting weird again, requiring another exorcism.... so which method produces the "cleanest" result? Is there even a difference?

I think the results of your study show you should be marketing to Walter from The Big Lebowski.....

Now that (presumably with v2009) CAXA is going to be an "integrated" part of the IronCAD environment, are you guys going to prepare any instruction on how to get CAXA to do some of the same things that native IC drawing can do? I for one messed around with CAXA in the beta, and found it ... interesting... but I gave up on it pretty fast as I found it difficult to re-create some of the native functions of the IC drawing environment. I would suggest that, if you really want people to use CAXA (especially here in the US where it is pretty unknown), you should really have some sort of "CAXA guide for IC users" which addresses some of the more common items like: -Setting up (or better yet transfering) templates -Setting up (or transfering) BOMs -Setting up (or transfering) drawing settings (item bubbles, linetypes, etc...) ...as far as v2009B4 goes, I see CAXA as WAY more work to use than IC Drawing, or even AutoCAD. Just my $.02.

Tom- That stuff is similar to SETI@HOME (if you ever recall that; this is basically the "new" version). It basically uses your computers' idle cpu cycles (i.e. when you are not using the machine) to chew on some downloaded data chunk for the purposes of finding a solution to a problem of your choosing. You can look for space aliens or the cure to cancer... the choice is yours. The software itself is harmless; it should only run when your computer is idle (like when it detects the screen saver is on), and should increase your computing karma. Now... I would be concerned that some other dude is getting credit for your hard work... If you want your karma points; be sure to enter in your own user information (e-mail is what it takes I think). If it all sounds too much, you can uninstall it without any side-effects.

Sounds like the problem is solved then. I think I could find an IC 3.x CD around here somewhere if you need another copy of the catalog

Kev- I see the F/a-18 in the background. How come you guys stopped providing that SWEET catalog with all sorts of vehicle models in it (like the 3.x era)? I killed some serious time playing with those things!

You also might want to try $PRPPart:"IC-PART_MATERIAL". I know that for the BOM at least, "Material" != "MATERIAL". This worked for me (when the custom property was applied to a part in the scene) in v2009B3 at least. I did reference the custom property in all caps both places. When I went to lower case on the drawing, the property no longer appeared.

Are you asking how to adjust a camera or to move the part? If you are looking to deal with the part, a torroid has an "axis" which can be used for alignment of the tribal. If you are looking for just the camera adjustment, then I suggest using a dummy block aligned with the torroid to use F7 on...

I would not spend my money on an "Extreme" processor for IC work (but I don't do much rendering). The "Extreme" line has a bunch more on-board cache and so it can chew through CPU intensive tasks a bit faster, but I would consider IC more memory (RAM) intensive than CPU intensive. Of course, if you are doing a lot of rendering of realistic images, you will be using more CPU cycles that if you are modeling or creating drawings. That being said, I think the multiple cores will provide you with sufficient power to work IC while you are rendering an image. I vote a Core 2 Duo (or quad)... NOT the "Extreme". Spend the difference on RAM! To choose between a 2 or 4 core really depends on what (other than IC) you are going to do with the machine. FEA: 4 cores. Surf the 'net and e-mail: faster 2 cores. I don't see 4 cores being any benefit to IC (over 2 cores) unless you are REALLY multi-tasking. I see that you are only looking at 64-bit OS's (so I assume you are going to load them up with more than 4Gb of RAM). I further assume this means you will work on some large models. Whenever I look to build a new IC machine, I max out the RAM and the video card first, then back-fill the other components with the remaining budget. To that end, I would vote for the 3700. It'll render images much faster, plus it should be able to spin some pretty huge models in 3D. Hope this helps!

The status bar is the electronic equivalent of install/assembly instruction. Who ever thinks to read it?

There are a couple of things you can do to lessen the Pain of the new Vista Access Control scheme... some of them are "not recommended" as they effectively defeat the intent of this new and "improved" system. 1) Use the "Run As Administrator" check box to always run a program (i.e. IronCAD or the License Wizard) with max rights: Link. 2) Disable the UAC (i.e. "Stop asking me if I really want to do the thing I just told you to do!"): Link. 3) (For you CMD folks like myself) Run a command (from the Start Menu) as an Admin:Link. And finally, a little history and background on the UAC, as well as some additional or alternate methods of minimizing the pain...Link. Edit: Just to put the Vista access policy into a sentence: "Run everything with the least privileges you have". You can theoretically (I haven't tried it) make everything run as an admin if you ensure that your username is only a member of the Administrators group, and not of anything lesser (like "Users"). My guess though, is that would probably introduce some other issues....

...man... that tool question really had me stumped. It is like picking your favorite child!

You don't have sufficient memory to "benefit" (or even use really) from the /3GB switch, and in fact, it may be causing you more problems, as you may not be leaving enough memory for the OS. First order of business is to either reverse that switch, or to go down to your local computer shop and get yourself some additional memory. Did you install any other applications or anything between the time when IC worked and when you noticed that it did not?

Tom- I think what they mean by "support" is that they can officially try to solve your problems. From an OS standpoint (at least from the software side) the only difference in those versions is "features". As far as I know, none of the additional "features" included in the Buisnes/Ultimate versions are required for IronCAD to work (it is mostly networking and backup type additions). Meaning, IronCAD will more than likely work just fine, but if you have a problem that is too difficult to solve, the IronDUDEs are totally justified in not working too hard to solve your problem... (i.e. if this is for your own personal use, I think you should be fine.... if this is for a customer, I would be hesitant).

Unfortunately... no. Sorry. Erics got it pretty well covered I believe. (And apparently I had my translations and rotations all catty-wompus).

On the back of my SpaceMouse, it has a little decoder key that indicates various key-combinations. A few of those are "Gain" (or sensitivity) for Translation and Rotation. I use this a bunch when switching between HUGE (physical size) models, like a Dry Dock, and TINY models (like a bolt...). I've noticed that I use the rotation adjustment WAY more than I use the translation. I don't know if you have such functions on those variations of the Space(thingy), but if not, you may want to sacrifice a button or two in the control panel to adjusting the sensitivity. ...so, YES. I also have had this problem. And Kev- Open a dimentionally giant model, and a dimentionally tiny model (at the same time) in IronCAD. When you switch between the two (and when in the Giant model, try to do something on a small scale), you will notice the sensitivity problem.

...also the "Spacebar Key" command through the SpaceMouse will crash IC 11.1.0.Vista.64 on the first click (at least it does for me)

I would recommend a few things for a "High-End" machine: #1) 64-Bit OS (XP is available) #2) Multiple CPU cores and/or chips (2 is nice... 4 is nicer ) #3) Fill every available Memory slot with the biggest and fastest memory you can afford (you should be in the 8Gb range) #4) Nvidia Quadro based video Card (512Mb Vid RAM MIN...1GB is nicer) #5) Large 10K RPM (with a low seek time) hard drive(s).... if you are really looking for a hot-rod, you should consider several identical FAST drives in a RAID array (RAID 5 is generally the performance & tolerant array of choice) that will give you both speed and redundency. For a little RAID info, you can read this: Wikipedia Entry #6) Spacemouse <-- You know what I mean if you have one. ...and just as a measuring stick, a "High-End" machine should be costing you $3K+ to build your own... and probably closer to $5K if you order or lease one from Dell.