Chris Lohman

Hmmmm that's a new one...

Print "to" what though? Were you printing that sheet to a laserjet, or a pdf file, or ?

What version of IronCAD? What operating system? Printing to what?

Thanks for the feedback Tom. That's a new format that we decided to try for the draft tutorial; I'm glad that you liked it (and told us so).

They didn't turn into a solid because they're not a closed volume. It's still just a single sided ribbon. You have to close the sides in order for it to become a solid. There is no surfacing resource. I'm sure that IronKevin will have more useful info for you.

.ics is the native IC file extension. So while in IronCAD just hit File/Save As. .ics is not under file/export

Ahh so the ATI problems persist beyond the X2 256T. (Come to think of it, I think Floris already told me about this, I forgot) Steve if you pull down tools/options/rendering; uncheck automatic, check software, then [ok] out; those redraw problems "should" go away (at the expense of not using OpenGL); if it becomes a major problem for you before the new drivers release.

So if you're not running an ATI X2 256T card, and you're not relying on any of the trial licenses; then SP2 is fine. If you are running an X2 256T card then wait until the next ATI driver release; which should occur at the end of this month.

A Save As is supposed to purge the file, so what you are experiencing is unusual. When you perform a regular "Save", there -is- data left in the file that is unusued. But the file should not grow exponentionally upon each save. If you will upload the file to our ftp site (ftp.ironcad.com) and then email the filename to support@ironcad.com (do not post it here); then we will check it out and get back to you.

1) Assemble everything in the scene into one assembly 2) Select the top level assembly 3) Pull down the assembly menu and choose "Save As Parts/Assembly" 4) Save it out and do not link 5) What is the size of the resulting file? If bigger, then we will need to investigate your file.

On our systems at least, when you insert a word object, it displays the text at a 1:1 scale. If you stretch the sizebox, then it will scale it up or down, but it should always start at 1:1. Of course, stretching the sizebox seems like a desireable method for showing more or less data from the word object; in this case, instead of stretching the box, you would edit the word object in-place and resize the borders of the object while editing it; in order to show more or less of the document. As for the excel object, that's just how excel is. Those aren't considered borders by excel since they don't print or export; but since you're working in a table format, you need to see the cells "somehow" . If you can figure out how to turn off the grey excel borders using normal Microsoft Excel, then that will also be the method for not displaying them when they are embedded in IronCAD. (Try filling the lines with white or filling the cell region) Scaling seems to be quite tricky with our embedded Ole objects. I will place an enhancement request for it to be easier to control.

Ooh, good tip.

One method is to link in an excel spreadsheet through the OLE server. The spreadsheet will display in the drawing, but you can edit it outside of the drawing if desired; and you get the table look. Create/Object/From Files/workbook.xls You could also just put all of your notes in a single text box with line returns in it. You could also do a "Create/Object/Word Pad Document" and use the wordpad GUI for creating a note.

The error uses too much to tell you to simply regenerate your geometry in the scene. So do this: 1) Goto the scene 2) Click on a blank area of the scene so that everything becomes deselected 3) Hit the [ctrl] + [a] keys in order to "Select All". You can also pull down the "Edit" menu and choose Select All. 4) With everything selected, pull down the "Shape" menu and choose "Regenerate", and then wait. 5) Save the scene 6) Goto back to the drawing and "Update all Views" 7) Save the drawing. Now that you have regenerated and updated, everything should be copacetic. If, after performing the above steps, you still receive that error, then something is malfunctioning and we will need to investigate your data.

Ok ok, Windows bashing isn't very productive on these forums and takes the thread off topic. Per-Arne, yeah the potential benefits sound great. We'll take note and add your name to the list of people that would be willing to purchase new hardware, a new OS, and a new version of IronCAD, to take advantage of the new 64 bit stuff.

The "official" plan is the same as linux right now. We have not decided officially to port to the 64 bit OS; but we are always paying attention to emerging technologies and considering ways that they can improve your experience with IronCAD. We have discussed the merits of both 64-bit Windows and Linux and that is a discussion that we rehash frequently. It is very important to us, to be able to provide you with the best tools that we possibly can. Of course you have to weigh the potential benefit with the volume of people that would actually take advantage of it. Moving to linux would be an enormous task. Supporting 64 bit could potentially be a sizeable task. We only have so many developers and we already work them to exhaustion; so even if 64-bit or Linux might be obviously superior, if only 1% of the user base would jump on it then it doesn't make sense for us to move to it. Now, the fact that we don't change our code to specifically take advantage if the 64-bit processor doesn't mean you can't move to it. The AMD architecture was built by -extending- the 32bit x86 so it still has all of the legacy 32 bit stuff in it. One could argue that IronCAD may potentially run faster on a 64 bit processor with clock speeds that are identical to a 32 bit merely because the 64bit opteron processors have eliminated the front side bus and have instead just integrated the memory controller. The opteron's also use the new "HyperTransport" technology for improving chip to chip communications: Which all result in a much more efficient CPU. Microsoft's 64 bit OS has taken measures to insure that your 32 bit apps will run on the opteron chips. They built their '"WOW64" subsystem into the OS which handshakes the 32 bit calls that the app makes into the new 64bit architecture. At this time however; we have neither tested IronCAD on a 64-bit chip, nor has anyone reported anything about it to us. As of now, the theory is that with the new Microsoft 64 and an Opteron chip, IronCAD should at least run as well as it does now on a 32 bit chip. Time will tell if this proves to be true.

I have been searching for an OLE server for jpg and gif and have experienced great difficulty with finding anything. I have read that photoshop is -not- an OLE server. I have read that Microsoft Photo Edit -IS- and also that Ulead Photo Impact -IS- an OLE server for jpg and gif. I have installed the ULEAD trial though and it isn't working as an OLE server. So what it comes down to is just finding getting the right OLE server to work. IronCAD really isn't part of the equation at this point. Once your OLE server works, a create object "from file" should work the same in Microsoft Office or IronCAD.

Good Tip, thanks

Yeah I use IE for quick and simple ftp uploading/downloading. IE is missing many of the Unix commands so you can't use it to chmod a dir; but it does the basic add/remove/rename/delete/up-down stuff so for the most part it seems to work fine. I use IE for FTP sites that I don't regularly visit (sites like our anon ftp site would be to you); but I too use Core FTP for the sites that I regularly manage and interface with. IE FTP feels slower to me; it certainly takes longer to login; and it doesn't remember your sites and account info so...for simple stuff it has its place.

Ahh...Microsoft Office 2003 no longer contains "Microsoft Photo Editor", which is an OLE server for JPG. Microsoft recommends going back to Office XP, and installing Microsoft Photo Editor, if you want that OLE functionality.

I can't make a jpeg display in a drawing either, even with an ole server. I'll speak with a dev on it. BMP works just fine though. Note: Microsoft Word doesn't display the JPG file if you create it as an OLE object either. In word, if you goto insert/object/from file...word displays it as an icon. I have PS and it doesn't seem to be an OLE server for the images.

Yep, you can also right click on a file, choose "open with", select ironcad.exe and click the "always..." checkbox...and that works for a little while as well. Outlook always figures out how to take it back though. Kevin's registry thing is the easiest but all of the different methods will work at fixing the .ics extension every time outlook takes over. It's just a matter of determining how much effort you want to make at that level of frequency. I don't understand why it's such a problem for people though. I never fix my .ics extension. I suppose if you don't turn on your file extensions then you need the icon. If you goto tools/folder options/view and uncheck "hide extensions for known filetypes", then you can see the .ics extension and just "know" that it's for ironcad. I have never really cared about icons for anything though so...

thanks for the info Eric

support@ironcad.com

The man11.ics seems to link in a file named "man1.ics" which file actually contains the "iso man". Without the man1.ics, man11.ics seems to be empty. So can you post man1.ics?