Main features in VectorWorks

Many friends asked me about all the fuzz around VectorWorks, and why I talk about it a lot, so I thought to list some of the main functions I like about VectorWorks:

• A complete 2D and 3D package, unlike many applications that work around BIM and smart handling of the design process, it handles the basic 2D drawing and 3D modeling with ease and with little rough edges in this part; mostly because it is one of the earlier applications in the market, so it perfected this part in the earlier releases before focusing on the smart-part of model designing.
  
• Smart environment, it does not just understand the distinction between 2D and 3D (a Hybrid Environment in VectorWorks words), it also understands the higher level objects that can create the advanced designs, for not only the architectural designs, but for site planning and urban designing too.
  
• The SmartCursor and the floating Data bar, it is like the AutoCAD OSnaps (which I consider the best feature in AutoCAD), but works in a way that is somehow more intuitive.
  
• The Solid Modeling, its ability to keep the source solids in the Boolean operations and handle them as a group is much more intuitive than the AutoCAD way of handling the solids, also its (mostly) parametric editing of the basic 3D objects gives the application a very flexible environment that doesn't rely only on the editing tools available (now more powerful in VectorWorks 2009 with the Parasolid kernel).
  
• The site modeling, it is one of the premier applications in modeling the land, while staying easy enough for using such features; I'm used to the GIS way of modeling parts of the earth and its usage of advanced tools to take care of data entry and data modification; but the way VectorWorks construct, model, modify, and visualize the site is way too powerful that it fills all of my needs in this area, and I think it is very intuitive compared to AutoCAD Civil 3D.
  
• Plants management, this is an area where no major CAD application can beat VectorWorks, its plants tools and its built-in extensible Plants database can be the ultimate tool for the Landscape architect.
  
• Its ability to import and export SHP files and its recognition of georeferenced tools, this is the way I expect CAD applications to integrate with any GIS system (well, maybe support for direct databases connection and data query and visualization inside the CAD is better, but that makes it a GIS package too, not just a CAD application).
  
• The RenderWorks engine, it is not V-Ray or 3dsmax, but it is the best thing that I know of that is part of a CAD (it is not really built-in, you have to pay for it, but it is still very integrated inside the VectorWorks application that I consider it to be an optional built-in feature).
  
• The integration with Cinema 4D, it opens the gate for VectorWorks to real 3D rendering and advanced 3D modeling, I just hope NNA creates a tool to integrate with Maxwell Render and maybe the best of all, integrate V-Ray inside VectorWorks with optional plug-in. 
• The architectural objects and symbols, while they are not as advanced as ArchiCAD tools, its integration with the complete 2D/3D functionality in VectorWorks makes it a better choice when designing in the non-western countries, where the design patterns are slightly different and may not be supported in the built-in customization capabilities in the application.
  
• The drawing structure scheme, the usage of both design layers and classes is conceptually more correct than using layers to arrange and classify the drawing objects (and more generic than using the layers and stories concept that is used in ArchiCAD); I also like the design layers concept, while I think it would be better named just Layers and the sheet layers would be named Sheets, but whatever, after a week or so inside VectorWorks, you will get used to the different terms.
  
• Many other features that gives me the feeling that the VectorWorks developers are more focused on usability than having to release a product every year (like what Autodesk likes to do, just for the sake of upgrading and keeping a stream of cash in their pockets, whether their software deserves or not).
  

VectorWorks User Interface

Bars

• Menu bar: Contains pull-down menus that access the VectorWorks commands.
  
• View bar: Contains buttons and pull-down menus that control the view in various ways.
  
• Tool bar: Displays the various modes of the active tool. The bar also displays mode information and accesses the tool preferences, if any.
  
• Data bar: Displays information such as X and Y data, length, and angle depending on the tool and on the action being performed.
  
• Message bar: Displays tool explanations, undo messages, minor alerts, and a progress bar (when applicable).
  

Palettes

• Basic palette: Includes all the 2D and 3D tools needed for the creation and editing of the basic drawing objects.
  
• Tool sets palette: Includes the advanced tools for the different functionality in VectorWorks products, it varies from product to the other; the displayed here is the Designer palette.
  
• Object Info palette: Displays the properties of the selected object(s).
  
• Navigation palette: Displays the structure of the active document, including its Classes, Design Layers, Sheet Layers, Viewports, Saved Views, and References.
  
• Attributes palette: Contains a selection of colors, fills, pens, and other object attributes.
  
• Constraints palette: Contains the SmartCursor (or snapping) controls that can be toggled on or off. 
  
• Resource Browser: Accesses the various resources in the file (gradient fills, hatch patterns, image fills, record formats, scripts and script palettes, symbols and symbol folders, worksheets, textures, and backgrounds) both inside the active document and in external documents (that are part of the VectorWorks library or a personal library).
  
• Visualization: Accesses all lights and cameras in the file, this palette is available only when RenderWorks is running.
  

Document Body

• Drawing area: This is the open portion in the middle of the window where drawings are created; it includes both the print area and the space that surrounds it.
  
• Print area: Within the drawing area, a gray border defines the print area, if shown. Only the objects that are included within the print area are printed. The print area is divided into pages; each page equals a physical sheet of paper to be printed. 
  

Windows and Macintosh

There is a small difference in the behavior in the application windows under Windows and under the Mac OS X, under the Windows environment the application is running in a single main window where all of the sub items are inside it and the palettes are part of it (in a configuration known as MDI window), this allows most of the palettes to dock at the corners of the window.

But under the Macintosh environment there is no such thing as a main window for the application, this gives a slightly lower ability to use the palettes (not being able to dock them to the document window), but gives a slightly higher ability to use multi-monitor configuration.

VectorWorks Introduction

What is VectorWorks?

VectorWorks is a world-leading 2D/3D CAD application that includes all the tools and technology you need for precision drafting and designing, it is also a complete design and production management system that enables the engineer to efficiently and easily construct, model and represent their designs.

VectorWorks Products

VectorWorks is actually 6 products based on the same foundation: Fundamentals, Architect, Landmark, Spotlight, Machine Design, and Designer.

VectorWorks Fundamentals

VectorWorks Fundamentals is an excellent 2D and 3D package that includes all the tools to efficiently design and represent 2D and 3D models; it can be compared to AutoCAD, but it is much more intuitive and easy to learn and use, it is also cheaper ($1300 compared to $4000) and a much better offering than the AutoCAD LT, while similarly priced, it is a 2D-only package with no AutoLISP/VBA functionality, and quite frankly, I hate it. 

VectorWorks includes extensive symbol libraries, default drawing resources, built-in database and worksheet capabilities to help track costs and materials. A host of import and export formats makes it easy to share files.

VectorWorks Architect

VectorWorks Architect is an important design tool for the architecture work, it allows the designer to design and present architecture models and drawings, it allows a very easy way to create accurate and precise buildings using walls, doors, windows, roofs, slabs, columns, and all of the building parts that create a complete model of the building.

The Architect competes with Graphisoft ArchiCAD, Autodesk Revit Architecture, and Autodesk AutoCAD Architecture; I think the 3D parametric properties of the ArchiCAD's library and the pre-assigned textures is somehow better than the properties of the built-in tools in VectorWorks, but still better than the AutoCAD Architecture tools and objects, and the lack of layers in Revit makes it less suitable in terms of generic CAD features.

VectorWorks Landmark

VectorWorks Landmark (I think) is the best program for the urban designer and site architects for modeling and handling landscape and site engineering projects; it understands the concepts of site models, DTM models, plants, hardscape, irrigation plans, roads, parking, and miscellaneous items associated with land.

The ability of Landmark to understand the site as intelligent objects inside its environment is unique among BIM applications that mostly use site models as an accessory to the building model; and it is not like Autodesk Civil 3D, where is more targeted towards civil engineers and site modeling more than site designing and site planning.

VectorWorks Spotlight

VectorWorks Spotlight is the de-facto standard in light designing projects for the theaters, it includes a huge lighting library, coupled with the 2D and 3D capabilities of VectorWorks, it is one of the more advanced tools and one of the most sophisticated in the industry.

VectorWorks Machine Design

VectorWorks Machine Design is concerning with the designing and modeling of the machines, I think it is one of the more intuitive tools in the market, but I have no familiarity in this field.

VectorWorks Designer

VectorWorks Designer is the ultimate edition of VectorWorks; it combines the functionality of all the VectorWorks editions in one interface under the same umbrella, it is priced under $3000 and includes the RenderWorks engine for advanced 3D visualization inside VectorWorks (RenderWorks can be purchased as an option for any of the above products).

معاً ضد حجب المدونات

VectorWorks 2009 launched

Earlier in the middle of September, Nemetschek North America quietly (at least for me) launched its latest release of VectorWorks, the 2009 release is most notably one of the major releases in the VectorWorks line, as it debuts the usage of the world-class Parasolid 3D modeling engine from Siemens PLM, which is stated as one of the most advanced modeling engines in the market, it allows VectorWorks to become 4x to 5x speedier in the 3D modeling operations and to become 2x to 3x speedier in rendering the Viewports inside VectorWorks.

Parasolid is used in many 3D packages including MicroStation (from Bentley), SolidWorks (from Dassault), and NX (from Siemens).

Update 29/12/2008: It seems that the integration of Parasolid into VectorWorks is very important, because the VectorWorks core is single-threaded, which makes it a second class citizen in our new multi-core CPUs world, while Parasolid is multi-threaded and benefits from the multi-core technologies in modern CPUs.

This means that VectorWorks has two major components that are multi-threaded, its 3D kernel and its RenderWorks engine; this should give VectorWorks the needed power in 3D modeling and visualization.

أدي أخرة إللي يسيب مصريين علي الإنترنت

عقبال إللي في بالي

إحنا إضحك علينا يا رجالة

و الله ده حصل يا رجالة .... إحنا بقالنا 56 سنة مضحوك علينا  .... و أنا كده مضايق .... منه لله بقا توفيق الحكيم

Managing the Layout of the Workbench in Eclipse RCP

Setting the layout of the Workbench in any Eclipse RCP application can be a daunting task if your application needs any control over the placement of views and editor area that is not directly exposed through the RCP interface.

But some techniques can be used to provide (relatively) more control over the layout by managing the perspective settings and hinting the view size.

In the perspective

In the class implementing IPerspectiveFactory (the class that implements the Perspective to the org.eclipse.ui.perspective extension point), you can:

Enable or disable the Editor area, if you are to design an Editor, this setting should be kept to true

layout.setEditorAreaVisible(true);

You can also use the Fixed Layout option, this removes he ability o maximize and minimize views and the editor area (through the min/max buttons and through the double clicking on the view title.

This keeps the ability to resize single views (as if they are included in Resize composites, but without the ability to reorder the views, or stack them or minimize them as fast views)

layout.setFixed(true);

The order of the views to be added decides who gets the full layout to take part of it and what views get the remaining of the layout to take further parts of it

Views

Views can be standard views, stand-alone views or fast views:

A stand-alone view is a special kind of view that cannot stack other views with it, and can optionally enable/disable the title bar

layout.addStandaloneView(MyOwnView.ID, true, IPageLayout.TOP, 1f, editorArea);

Standard view is a simple view in the Workbench that can be docked, stacked, minimized, maximized or detached inside the Workbench window

layout.addView(SampleView.ID, IPageLayout.LEFT, 0.5f, editorArea);

Fast views are shortcuts to the actual views put in the toolbar at the bottom of the Workbench window and shares the status bar if visible

layout.addFastView(SampleView.ID, IPageLayout.DEFAULT_VIEW_RATIO);

Views and hinting its size (in Eclipse 3.4 and upwards)

By implementing the ISizeProvider Interface in the ViewPart class that is creating the view, you can get the view to set its minimum and maximum size, given that the view doesn't get docked into other views (which can be easily made by using stand-alone views), the simplest implementation would be:

@Override public int computePreferredSize(boolean width,
int availableParallel, int availablePerpendicular, int preferredResult) {
return width ? 100 : 110;
}
@Override public int getSizeFlags(boolean width) {
return (SWT.MIN | SWT.MAX);
}

Change has come

A new day has come, not only to america, but to the whole world .... I hope he will be a real world leader, and not like his predecessor.
The exit polls shows that a new wave of supporters are going after America's and the World's future.

Branching and Merging in Subversion

Subversion (and Subclipse as my current UI to it) has a somehow tricky branching and merging technique, I've tried it for some time and the only way I managed to do it is by:

1. The main trunk is branched using Team -> Branch/Tag (this initiates a Commit which is recorded in context to the branch, not in the main trunk; you can get its revision number by showing the history of the project linking to the branch or the main repository in the SVN Repositories view, but not the project linking to the trunk)


2. You can select to switch to the branch in the same project, or keep this project linked to the trunk and checkout another project linking to the new branch
   
3. Edits can be done independently from both the trunk and the branch where the commits don't conflict (as they are in fact different files)
   
4. When you need to incorporate a change that has been done in the trunk but not in the branch (like a bug fix or to keep the branch up with the trunk), the Merge command can be used:
   
   • Select the project containing the branch
     
   • Select Team -> Merge
     
   • In the "From" group, press the select button beside the revision number
     
   • In the available revisions select the revision you branched at (the Commit of the branching order)
     
   • In the "From" group, press the Select button beside the URL text box
     
   • Select the trunk folder
     
   • In the "To" group, check "Merge to HEAD revision" to incorporate all the changes done in the branch, from its creation to the current most up-to-date revision
     
   • This will create a modified working set locally (the project linked to the branch will need to be committed)
     
   • At this stage, you need to update the project first (using Team -> Update) before the modified files can be committed
     
   • Finally, select Team -> Commit to publish the merged files into the branch
     
5. In the reverse direction, when you need to merge back changes from the branch into the trunk (where edits has been done in both the branch and the trunk), all you need to do is to select the project containing the trunk and select the branch as your "From" URL, you still need to select the revision number of the Branching commit (for all the changes you committed to the branch to be included and not just the newer or latest ones)  

I find a special shortcoming in the Subversion branching and merging system; when merging, it doesn't merge the changes in its revision number, meaning that if you did changes to the branched files in revisions 105,106,107 & 108 to the branch, and then merged and committed the changes to the trunk in revision 109, you will only see all of the changes suddenly occur to the file in revision 109 and later, not in an incremental way as it should be.

This is not a major shortcoming, as you can always return to the branch and check its changes in the revisions it was committed in, but it is still an unintuitive solution.

Experiments with Subversion

I've been experimenting with Subversion, and it turned out to be great tool, even for single developers, where its ability to indefinitely remember changes and track versions is indispensable to any software project that is more than a small hack.

Also the ability to work with it is very important to contribute to any major open source software (especially the ones I'm currently interested in as uDig, PostGIS and OpenLayers).

I'm using Subclipse and TortoiseSVN to handle the communication from and to my SVN repository, Subclipse is particularly easy and handles all of my needed functions with tight integration to the Eclipse platform; I've tried the Subversive and it didn't seem to recognize the SVN connector library (neither JavaHL nor SVNKit), I think the Subversive plug-in is more feature-rich, but until further attempt, Subclipse is very stable to me.

I've also read about Git, Mercurial and Bazaar, and I think the Distributed Version Controlling Systems are really interesting, but they seem to not fit so well with my development model, you can check about some notes about them here and here.

uDig 1.1.0 released

uDig 1.1.0 is released according to uDig and How 2 Map blogs, I find this application very interesting, as it holds a great potential in becoming the #1 GIS desktop application in the Open Source arena, because I think it is the most user friendly interface and bacause of its programability.

AMD is splitted

It seems that the city of Abu Dhabi is investing in AMD through its new split-off company "The Foundry Company"

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2331941,00.asp

روح .... عفونا عنك

بص يا حبيبي .... أنا قرصت علي ودنك خفيف كده .... إنما وحياة #### لو كررت الهمبكة بتاعتك دي لأرميك جنب أيمن نور ... و أمنع عنك حتي الدوا لما أخليك تقول حقي برقابتي ..... و لا أطلعك و لا أطلعوا.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Launched

On September 22nd, Adobe has officially released its forth version of Adobe Creative Suite.

You can watch the 1 hour launch event

دول طلعوا شهرين

أنا ماكنتش متصور إن الموضوع هيطلع كده .... الراجل لبس شهرين بس ..... طب هايتفاخر إزاي بالحبس في شهرين دول.

علي العموم يا كبير السجن للجدعان ... الجدعان بجد

أنا اللي أخذت سنة في الريس

مش من زمان أوي ... كان لما تييجي تقابل شاب صايع أو بلطجي ... كنت تلاقيه متفاخر أوي بموضوع إنه أخذ ست شهور جنحة في اللي كح في وشه .... و لا إعترض يوم على طريقه نظره لمرات أخينا، بس الموضوع ده إنخفض شوية بعد مابقا إن السجن مش للجدعان إنما السجن للمصريين جميعاً (و ده توحيد إجتماعي يشكر عليه اسيادنا في الداخلية)

المهم ظهرت بارقة جديدة من الأمل لإحياء هذا التراث المصري بس لنوعية جديدة من المصريين، بقت فيه جريمة جديدة إسمها إهانة رئيس الجمهورية و هي المرادف اللغوي للعيب في الذات الملكية (في الزمن جمهوري الإسم ديكتاتوري المعني ده) و أعتقد إن عقوبتها سنة.

أنا كنت بتابع أخر أخبار قضية إبراهيم عيسي و هوا بيحاول يخرج من التهمة العجب إللي هما ملزقنهاله (و إللي هيا أصلاً كانت أمل .. مش خبر ... يعني بزمتك مش كل واحد كان نفسه الإشاعة إللي هما بيتكلموا عنها تبقي حقيقة؟ و نخلص بقا)

المهم ..... بعد إبراهيم عيسي ماهاينطس السنة المتينة بعد كل المحاميين و الجلسات هاتلاقية في كل الجرايد و المقالات بتاعته بيتفاخر بأنه أول  من أخذ في الريس سنة.... و بأن الوطنية لا تكتمل إلا لما تأخذ في الريس سنة!!!!

والله يعني أنا بشكر سيادة الرئيس و السادة القائمين علي القوانين و الأحكام إللي قدروا يرجعوا للتراث المصري عادة مصرية أصيلة.

The Eclipse RCP - 3 - Launching configuration

A Launch configuration in Eclipse defines the environment under which your application will be started, e.g. compiler flag, plug-in (classpath) dependencies etc.

Select your plugin.xml -> Run As -> Run Configurations

On the tab Arguments you should add the parameter -consoleLog. This will send error message of your Eclipse RCP application to your Eclipse development IDE.

On the Arguments tab, you will find also the -os -ws -arch -nl arguments associated with ${target} variables, they can be edited form Window -> Preferences -> Plug-in Development -> Target Platform

On the Plug-ins Tab select "Validate plug-ins prior to launching". This will check if you have all required plug-ins in your launch configuration.

The Eclipse RCP - 2 - Create your first RCP application

1. Download the package "Eclipse for RCP/Plug-in Developers" from the webpage of eclipse (www.eclipse.org).
   
2. Extract, and Run.
   
3. In Eclipse select File -> New Project.
   
4. From the list select Plug-In Project.
   
5. Give your RCP plug-in a name, "MyFirstRCP", click Next
   
6. Select "Yes" at the question "Would you like to create a rich client application", click Next
   
7. Select "RCP application with a view", as a template, click Next
   
8. Type the name of the Title Bar in the "Application window title" field, and Select "Add branding", click Finish
   

To Launch the application, double-click on the file "MANIFEST.MF". You should see an editor and the tab "Overview" should be selected. Click the link "Launch an Eclipse Application".

The Eclipse RCP - 1 - Rich Client Platform

For the full tutorial, see http://www.vogella.de/articles/RichClientPlatform/article.html

The Platform
The Eclipse RCP is a platform, where no functionality is implemented in it; its sole purpose is to manage the plug-ins, where everything in the program is done using the plug-ins.
The plug-ins implement everything, from the menu bar, to the status bar, to the main toolbar, to the views (or panels), to the Editors (which may not be editing anything, but they are the main focus of the program), to auxiliary functionality like software automatic update and help and the management of long-running background operations; these plug-ins are the heart-and-soul of any Eclipse RCP-based program.
The basis for this architecture is the runtime environment of Eclipse which is based on the OSGi Alliance. Eclipse used the OSGi reference implementation Equinox to run upon. The Plug-in concept of Eclipse is the same as the bundle concept of OSGi.

Minimum Requirements
As a minimum, a RCP application requires:

• Main program or Application (org.eclipse.core.runtime.applications extension point)
  
• Workbench Advisor (invoked from the Application handler, it sets the default Perspective, invokes WorkbenchWindowAdvisor which configures the default Main window state and subsequently invokes ActionBarAdvisor, which in turn provides one of the ways to configure the Action Bar or the main menu and Cool Bar or the main toolbar)
  
• A Perspective (org.eclipse.ui.perspectives extension point)
  
• A View (org.eclipse.ui.views extension point, views are technically not required for a RCP application, but they are the base interface element)
  

The RCP application depends on 2 main plug-ins:

• org.eclipse.core.runtime
  
• org.eclipse.ui
  

Plug-ins Architecture
The RCP architecture is based on the concept of extension-points, which a plug-in provides so that any other plug-ins can contribute functionality to it in the form of extensions, e.g. you can easily provide your menu items in the Action Bar (an extension point provided by the org.eclipse.ui plug-in) by implementing extensions that connect to the org.eclipse.ui.menus extension point and provide their own implementation. In general an extension point can be used several times (either by the same plug-in or by other plug-ins).
The plug-in architecture is based on 2 configuration files (or manifests) that describe the behavior of the plug-in, "MANIFEST.MF" and "plugin.xml", by double clicking on any of them, Eclipse provides a graphical editor of the files contents.
The plug-in manifest ties all the code and the resources together, the OSGi bundle manifest is stored in "MANIFEST.MF", while the Eclipse specific parts are stored in "plugin.xml".

سبتمبر جاانا

الصراحة رمضان السنه دي جامد جداً ..... جه أول سبتمبر .... و الصراحة سعيد صالح باين عليه كان عارف من الأول فجهز الأغنية التمام لرمضان السنادي

The Eclipse RCP Platform

I've started in my quest to learn the Eclipse RCP Platform, the Java Rich Client Platform built on the Eclipse foundation softwareand using the Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT).

While I think that Swing and the Swing Application Framework (JSR 296) would be a more pure Java approach, I personally prefer the Eclipse RCP approach for large scaled projects, where it can provide high degree of modularity to the system (this can be also achieved in the NetBeans Platform, but I prefer the look and feel of the Eclipse-based applications).

Also I think that the NetBeans IDE is better in the more broad Java picture, where I assume it is better in handling the Java EE and Java ME applications and provide a higher of community participation in its code base (this may not be correct, but I got this impression, maybe because I was a close watcher for the NetBeans news earlier than Eclipse).

But the Eclipse RCP won because of its large base of implemented applications, one for example was the main reason that I tried the Eclipse RCP in the first place, uDig, the internet-friendly desktop GIS application, and i don't know until now if I'm gonna to run inside it with my plug-ins, or that I will embed its plugins inside my application(s).

Also the Eclipse SWT library is more responsive and native-looking than Swing (personally I love the Java Metal look and feel, but thats just me, everybody else hates it).

So, in the next few days, I will start posting about my findings in the Eclipse RCP world and the Java world in general.

اللهم تقبل منا رمضان

البقاء لله

مخرج مصر الأهم و الأقوي .... هانروح لمين من بعدك يا دماغ السينما المصرية

Vision Group website is finally there

I glad to announce that the Vision group website is finally up and running ...... after many trials and many more attepts, I'm that finally http://www.vision-group.net is finally online.

Check and tell me your opinion

من وحي مدونة حكاوي أخر الليل

من أمام مركز تراخيص المدونات
...
يتوقف الأستاذ مدبولي أما شاب بدين: نعم ياخويا إنت راخر
الشاب: يا أستاذ أنا بقالي ثلاث أيام كل يوم بحاول أسجل المدونة بتاعتي علي موقع الحكومة الإليكترونية و الموقع مش راضي
الأساذ مدبولي و إبتسامة خفيفة علي وجهه: إنت عملت إيه بظبت؟
الشاب: أبداً، بدخل و أضغط علي تسجيل مدونة جديدة و أملا البيانات، بعد كده تروح الطابعة مطلعالي الورقة دي و مابيعمل حاجة تاني
الأساذ مدبولي: وريني كده ...... أه يا سيدي ده إيصال الدفع ..... تروح شباك ثلاثة تسدده و تختمه من الخزينة و ترجع تسحبة علي الscanner و بعدين تبعته علي البريد الإليكتروني بتاع الموقع، نروح إحنا طبعينه و بعتينه الأرشيف ياخد مسلسل و يتسجل في الدفاتر و تيجي تسأل عليه بعد ثلاث أيام يكون إن شاء الله إتسجل و خد موافقته
الشاب و قد بدأت ملامح العصبية تظهر عليه: يعني لما أنا لازم أجي و أدفع في الخزينة، يبقي أنا بسجل ليه في الموقع ؟
الأساذ مدبولي: يا أستاذ تيسيراً علي المواطنين .... بس مش معني كده إني أكسر اللوايح و لا القوانين .... يعني إيه إيصال مش متسدد في الخزينة
ينظر له الشاب و نظرة الغيظ تملأ وجهه .... و ينظر بحسره إلي بطاقته الإئتمانية الجديدة و هو يتجه ناحية الخازينة

خبر الموسم

في تمام الساعة العاشرة و النصف من مساء يوم العشرين من شهر يوليو لعام 2008 الموافق السابع عشر من رجب للعام 1429 هجرية، تأكدت الأنباء التي كانت تتردد منذ بضعة أيام حول الحدث الأهم في عام 2008.

هذا الحدث يعتبر بمثابة نقلة نوعية و هامة في تاريخ التعليم المصري (و العربي بشكل عام)، هذا الحدث الذي لن يتكرر في التاريخ و ربما يبدأ التأريخ الجديد للواقع المصري باستخدامه.

في هذا التاريخ تم إعلان نتيجة طلبة العام الخامس من كلية التخطيط الإقليمي و العمراني، و التي تتضمن نتيجة 141 من طلبة التخطيط، يعتبر أبرزهم هذا العام .... الطالب أحمد محمد هشام، الذي إستطاع و بمجهود إنساني و ذهني كبير ، و بدعوات من كل من قابله في هذا المشوار الطويل أو عرفه من قريب أو بعيد أن يصبح حديث الأوساط العلمية و السياسية و الفنية، و ذلك بعد أن شكل قضية تخرجه موضوع من أهم الموضوعات المطروحة علي الساحة العربية و التي لا نبالغ إن قلنا أن الوضع في لبنان قد فقد جزأاً هاماً من إستقراره بسبب سخونة هذه القضية و تضارب الآراء و الأقوال فيها.

إن هذه القضية التي تعبر و بكل صدق عن الموقف الحالي لمنظومة التعليم المصرية و لم تستطع أن تكون أقل من قضية التوريث أو أزمة رغيف العيش و مستقبل المنطقة ببقاء الإحتلال الأمريكي بالعراق و العلاقات المتوترة بين الدول العربية و إسرائيل، هذه القضية التي ستبقي أعواماً و أعوام في ذهن الشارع المصري و العربي.

تخرج الطالب بتقدير جيد لمشروع التخرج و تقدير عام مقبول، و أستطاع أن يجتاز هذه المرحلة الإنسانية بنجاح، ليستحق من كل من عرف هذه النتيجة كلمة واحدة:

"كفارة يا شيخ"

كلام جرايد

رداً علي صديقي ساكن بيت القتلي

هيا مش دي الست إللي كانت بتحاول تنتحر بقالها 6 سنين و الواد أخوها إللي كان بيحدف الناس بزجاجات الحاجة الساقعة من بلكونة بيتهم؟

يعني هنلاقيها منين و لا منين ... يعني لا جرايد حكومة نافع و لا دستور نافع .... حتي المصري اليوم ؟
أنا غلطان إني بطلت رسوم متحركة

خلصت يا عالم

إمبارح كان مناقشة مشروع تخرجي (كلاكيت ثاني مرة) و المرة دي نسب النجاة و الخروج من المعتقل بتعلي جداً (بس أنا عمري ماهصدق لغاية ماشوف نتيجتي بعيني ... إللي إتلسع من الشوربة و الزبادي بيمشي ينفخ في الهوا)

إن شاء الله يوم النتيجة كلكم معزومين عندي في البلوج.

Holes in ArcGIS Polygons from AutoCAD

It remained a mystery to me how Polygons can be exported from CAD to ArcGIS with holes (or donuts, if you prefer to call it so) until recently.

I read in the GIS CAD Interoperability blog that when ArcGIS encouters a block, it considers all the objects inside it to create a multipart object (that is multipart polygon, multipart polyline or multipoint) which is exactly how ArcGIS stores its polygons with holes. 

That means that to create a polygon with hole in AutoCAD you only need to select the polygons creating the polygon and its holes and make a block, this will tell the ArcGIS when importing CAD data that it is a single object with multipart geometry.

إنه لا يفكر .... و لا حتي بمؤخرته

رداً علي ما نشر في مدونة سكة راتب باشا .... أردت أن أضع رأيي بجانب أصدقائي الذين عانوا من المفكر بمؤخرته .... صديقنا المشترك الذي أجمع الجميع علي إبداعاته الفكرية.
الجديد في الموضوع إنني لا أوافق علي إطلاق إسم تفكير علي ما يخرج من صديقنا .... فالتفكير له قواعد من أهمها المنطقية (سواء إتفقت مع هذا المنطق أم إختلفت) و لكن أن تقول الشيئ و ضده في جملة واحدة فهذا ما أتفق الجميع علي خلوه من المنطق.
تبقي مسألة ماهية الخارج من قريحة و مخيلة صديقنا و التي ترتبط بمبدأ أن صديقنا "إضحك عليه قبل كده" و التي تظهر عندما يحدثك بمنطق أول من أبدي رأيه في أي موضوع أمامه، يعني أنا لو تحدثت أمامه عن الحتمية التاريخية لزوال الدلتا تنيجة الإحتباس الحراري في كوكب الأرض، فإنه سيبقي إلي نهاية عمره يتحدث في هذا الموضوع كما أنه لو أصبح مدير عمليات التصدي لهذه المشكلة و المسئول الأول عنها في مصر.
تبقي الطريقة (أو الجماعة لو شئنا الدقة) التي يعتبر صديقنا نفسه حامي حماها و الذائد عن كرامتها .... فأقول له و لشيخ طريقته "يا أخي إتنيل إنت و طريقتك"، فالطريقة التي تقبل بك عضواً فيها لا ترغب في أكثر من المفكرين بمؤخراتهم الذين يمكن عدهم بني أدمين في صندوق الإنتخاب لا أكثر و لا أقل.

iPhone in Egypt ... FINALLY

According to an AppleInsider.com article, Vodafone has inked a deal with Apple to provide the iPhone mobile phone in 10 countries, one of them is Egypt (in addition to Australia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey).

This will proabaly coincide with the highly-awaited iPhone 2.0 hardware, which is rumored to have 3G connectivity and video capabilities (probably it will be unveiled the Apple WWDC conference in late June).

I think the combination of third-party-enabled iPhone Software (iPhone 2.0 and the iPhone SDK) with the 3G network support, with the already-sexy hardware design will be the main pillars for Apple to reach its 10 million units target at end of 2008.

VectorWorks Drawing Setup (2)

Creating Standard Viewports

Viewports are created on sheet layers, and display a specific portion of a drawing with a combination of visible, grayed, and/or hidden design layers and classes. Viewports can be cropped, rotated, and annotated, and the sheet layer print settings saved. Several viewports can be included on one sheet layer.

The Create Standard Viewports command creates standards-compliant viewports and their associated sheet layers, with the layer and class visibilities of a standard drawing.

Viewports are created in five categories. The available viewport types are:

• Site Plan Drawings
  
• Project Plan Drawings
  
• Floor Plan Drawings
  
• Auxiliary Plan Drawings
  
• Notation Drawings
  

Creating Viewports

To create standard viewports, select File -> Document Settings -> Create Standard Viewports.

The Create Standard Viewports dialog box opens. Select a drawing category from the Type of Drawing list. The available drawing types display in the Drawing Types list on the left, with a short description beneath. Select the viewport to be created in the Drawing Types list and then click Add to move it to the Viewports to Be Created list on the right.

For auxiliary view viewports (sections and elevations), types with a -Man suffix (such as Sections-Man) typically indicate that the elements of the section or elevation are to be drawn manually on, for instance, Mod-Section or Mod-Elevation layers, which are created along with the viewports. The visibility of all other layers is set to Invisible for these viewports.

Types with a -VP suffix (such as Sections-VP) are for creating a view or a section viewport of the model from existing Mod- layers. No new layers are created and the visibility of all existing Modlayers is set to Visible for these viewports.

The Preferences dialog can be opened by clicking on the Preferences button, the preferences apply as viewports are added to the list for inclusion in the drawing. You can set the default scale for each type of viewport and select a drawing border and, if desired, title block to add automatically to each sheet layer. The scale settings affect only the viewport scale, not the layer scale of any model layers.

Standard Naming

The Standard Naming command controls the layer, class, and viewport names used in a project. These names can be changed to a user-defined system other than the default VWArch naming system. Standards can be mapped for office-wide use or to convert an existing file to the office standard. This command can also be used to assign specific attributes to classes in standards, and to change the names of layers, viewports/views and classes in the current standard. The command does not create new layers, classes, or viewports/views.

To set the standard naming of layers, classes, and views, select File -> Document Settings -> Standard Naming, the Standard Naming dialog box opens, so that you can select a naming standard for the file, and choose whether auto-classing should be enabled for objects.

Custom Standard Naming

You can customize the Standard Naming to suit the user's needs and requirements, using the Standard Naming command and selecting one of the user standards, and using the Layer Mapping and Class Mapping tools.

VectorWorks Drawing Setup (1)

The Setup commands create a file that adheres to predefined VectorWorks standards, or alternatively, to user-defined standards. Running these commands in a project file ensures that the desired structure is in place. Each command can be run in either a new or existing file; the Model Setup command must be run prior to using the Create Standard Viewports command.

When a file is set up with the Model Setup and the Create Standard Viewports commands, the appropriate classes and layers are created automatically. Design layers are created by the Model Setup command and begin with “Mod-” (model layers, since this is where the model is designed).

The Create Standard Viewports command creates the appropriate viewports and sheet layers for the viewports (beginning with “Sheet-”), along with the appropriate classes if they are not already in the file.

The Standard Naming command establishes or changes the naming conventions used for these classes, design layers, sheet layers, and viewports or saved views.

Landmark Standards

When using VectorWorks Landmark standards, landscape site plans are composed of shared model information on four layers:

• Mod-Site-Arch: contains any buildings or other improvements
  
• Mod-Site-Civil: contains topographic and survey information
  
• Mod-Site-DTMData: contains the DTM output
  
• Mod-Site-Landscape: contains tree and planting data
  

Document Setup

When starting any drawing, the Document Setup command should be used to set up a file’s basic characteristics (units, scale, drawing area, and grid) as well as define the drawing border and title block settings.

To set up a drawing with the Document Setup command select File -> Document Settings -> Document Setup, this will show the Document Setup dialog.

Model Setup

The Model Setup command creates the appropriate number of floors or levels and their corresponding design layers (Mod-Floor, Mod-Foundation, and Mod-Roof layers), as well as setting the Z and delta Z of each model design layer. It is required for running the Create Standard Viewports command.

For Landmark users (when doing site models), if there is no floorplan geometry in the drawing, click OK in both Model Setup dialog boxes to accept the default settings.

To set up the model, select File -> Document Settings -> Model Setup, The Model Setup - Initialize dialog box opens if the drawing is new or contains unrecognized layer/class names, click OK, the main Model Setup dialog box opens.

In the Model Setup dialog box, select a level from the Level Settings list, and then specify its parameters and click OK. The selected level is indicated in the graphic with a red bullet. A maximum of three floor levels are displayed. For buildings with more than three floors above ground, the middle floor indicator is highlighted for all intermediate floors.

To set up a model for split-level homes, select the Fixed at option and enter a height greater than the distance to the next level.

VectorWorks Drawing Structure

A VectorWorks drawing is a container full of drawing objects, to output the needed results, the objects must have various properties defined, such as their geometry, their attributes, their graphical representations (2D/3D/Hybrid) and their behavior (plugins).

To assist in handling the large number of the drawing objects that are typically present in any drawing, VectorWorks offers several features to help organize and display a drawing: design layers, sheet layers, classes, viewports, and views. Create a structured system with these features to make it considerably easier to select, view, and print drawing elements.

Classes

Drawing objects are assigned to classes; a class is an attribute of an object. Classes apply to the entire file and control the visibility of objects. Classes can be set to be visible, invisible, or grayed when they are inactive.

Complex objects, such as symbols or plug-in objects, may contain more than one class; different parts of the object can be hidden or shown. Classes can also be used to assign graphical attributes and textures to objects.

Many plug-in objects that are included with VectorWorks are set with pre-assigned classes. The appropriate classes are created by the Setup commands. The use of auto-classing is determined with the Standard Naming setup command.

Layers and Viewports

A VectorWorks layer is a named container that holds items. VectorWorks uses two types of layers: design layers and sheet layers.

Design layers are used for drawing and modeling the elements of a project.

Sheet layers are created for the presentation of a finalized drawing, and can contain viewports, title blocks, notes, and other annotations.

A viewport, located on a sheet layer, is a particular combination of visible, grayed, and/or hidden design layers and classes.

Layers have certain characteristics that are used when drawing and structuring files:

• Design layers can automatically set default Z-values for objects they contain. They create natural structural divisions within a drawing for objects on different floors or different vertical locations within a floor.
  
• Design layers can be visible, invisible, or grayed. Sheet layers are always set to Active Only.
  
• Design layers, as well as viewports, can be displayed at different drawing scales, for the display of all aspects of a drawing plan from the site model to details.
  
• Design layers, as well as viewports, can have different 3D views. A building can be viewed in Plan view in one viewport and in an elevation or perspective view in another.
  
• Layers can be contained in different files and shared using workgroup referencing.

Drawings set up with the Setup commands contain both design layers and sheet layers with viewports. A project file contains, at a minimum, design layers for every level, as well as a number of viewports on sheet layers.

VectorWorks Plants Irrigation

Irrigation Tools

The irrigation plans in VectorWorks can be created by placing the irrigation tools to the design.

The irrigation tools can be easily selected from standard pre-configured manufacturer’s irrigation products in the Irrigation tools libraries:

• 02_Sitewk_Irrigation heads
  
• 02_Sitewk_Drip Emitters
  
• 02_Sitewk_Irrigation Pipe
  

Alternatively, generic drip emitters, irrigation heads, and irrigation lines can be selected from the Site Planning toolset.

Irrigation Plans

Once the drip emitters, irrigation heads, and irrigation lines have been placed in the drawing, as required, irrigation plans are created by using the ID Label tool and worksheets together.

To create irrigation plans:

1. Select the ID label type and style. Place ID labels on the drawing with the ID Label tool.
   
2. From the Resource Browser, open the [VectorWorks]\Libraries\Defaults\Reports~Schedules\Irrigation Reports.vwx (Irrigation Head Schedule and Irrigation Line Schedule are included) and drag the selected worksheet to the drawing. An Irrigation Schedule worksheet, populated with information from the irrigation in the current drawing, is automatically created.
   
3. To show or hide the spray pattern of irrigation head objects, select View -> Show -> Show or Hide Spray Pattern.
   If the spray patterns are currently hidden, this command causes the spray pattern of all irrigation head objects to become visible. In the Object Info palette, Show Spray Pattern is selected automatically.
   

VectorWorks Plants Database

The VectorWorks Landmark plant database manages an extensive list of plant names and botanical information which can be used to associate specific plant data with plant definitions. 

Accessing the Plant Database

To Open the Plants Database select AEC -> Plants -> VW Plants Database, the dialog to choose plants database location shows, which you can select a User Folder or a Workgroup-shared location.

Once the plant database has been set up, it is accessed immediately when selecting the VW Plants Database. The plant database can also be accessed when creating a plant definition, by clicking Open VW Plants from the Get Plant Data dialog box.

Altering the Database

Using the standard methods to edit the database records, you can edit the Plants Library (using Add Record/Duplicate Record/Remove Record and edit the record contents directly in the Browse mode).

Getting Data from the Internet

By selecting View -> Go to Layout -> Web Data, the Plants Database turns into the Web Data layout, where it is set to search for the Latin name of the current plant in Google Images, Google Search, Wikipedia and USDA.

If you find any relevant data you can easily copy and paste in the database, whether text or imagery.

Searching for Plants

The plant database can be searched when in Find mode (by selecting View -> Find Mode) where flexible, sophisticated searches can be conducted by combining search criteria.

By entering the Find Mode a blank record will be displayed, where you can set the search data and click on Find in the left sidebar.

Plant Lists

Plant lists are the connection between the FileMaker plant database and VectorWorks. Creating plant lists in the plant database allows that data to be attached to plants in VectorWorks.

Create as many plant lists as necessary; the appropriate plant list is selected for the plant definition.

The data attached to a plant becomes part of the plant definition, and can be added to planting plans and displayed by plant ID tags.

To create a Plant List select File -> Create VectorWorks Plant List in the Plants Database application

The plant list file is a tab-delimited file saved in the location of the plant database.

Using Plant List Data in VectorWorks

Plant list information is available to plant definitions from the Plant Data tab, you can add plant data by right-clicking on any plant symbol and select Edit, then Definition.

In the Edit Plant Definition dialog box, click Get Plant Data, the Get Plant Data dialog box opens, where you can select the plant name and data to include in the plant definition, and click OK.

VectorWorks Plants Libraries

The VectorWorks Designer and Landmark come with a huge Plants library that provide a ready-to-customize plant symbols, which can used to build your own plants library in no time.

You can access the libraries from  [Vectorworks]\Libraries\Plants

Xfrog library

In the plant library from Xfrog, you'll find photorealistic and artistic images of plants in top, elevation and 3D views, in two seasonal views and two growth stages.

The Xfrog library provide plants imagery, this means it will give high realisticty to your design, but it will not benefit from some advanced rendering methods in Plant placement (like plant shadows in plan view, mass overlapping plants and vector outline controlling).

The Xfrog library provides:

• 1896 Photorealistic Color Images showing 195 Different Plants 
  
• 255 Artistic Images in 3 color modes showing 87 Different Plants
  
• 1270 Grayscale and silhouette Images showing 195 Different Plants 

Using Xfrog library

The Xfrog library can be easily used to create plant symbols:

1. Open any file from the Xfrog top symbols, and select the desired symbol to use
   
2. Insert the symbol in the Top/Plan view, this will form the 2D Graphics of the plant symbol
   
3. Open the corresponding file from the Xfrog IP symbols, and select the desired symbol to use
   
4. Insert the symbol, this will form the 3D Graphics of the plant symbol (it resembles a large plus sign in Top/Plan view)
   
5. Select the 2D symbol and select AEC -> Plants -> Create New Plant
   
6. Fill-in the plant details, then click OK
   
7. Select the 3D symbol of the plant, and select Copy
   
8. Right click on the new Plant symbol in the Resources Browser, and select Edit
   
9. Select 3D Graphics
   
10. You will be in the Isolated mode, select paste and snap the pasted symbol to the already-there 3D locus
    
11. Click Exit Plant
    

Use the plant as needed

Plant Objects 

While the Xfrog library is an imagery library, the Plant Objects library on the other hand is a vector library that provides advanced 2D plant symbols that take advantage of:

• 2D plant symbols rendering (plant shadows, mass overlapping plants and vector outline controlling)
  
• Classes capabilities (and how its settings can be applied globally)
  
• The customization options when viewed in different Viewports (using Class overrides)

It provides 50 different 2D plants symbols

Using Plant Objects library

By customizing a viewport visible and invisible classes and setting a class opacity, a single Design layer can be viewed in different states and presentations, as the sub-parts of the plants symbols belong to different classes, they are:

• Plant-Component-Outline: This class is used for the outside perimeter of the plant.
  
• Plant-Component-Color Fill: This class is used for the background color in shrubs and smaller plants.
  
• Plant-Component-Bloom: This class is used for plants that have a bloom. If the blooms are too bright they can be 'toned down' by reducing the class opacity setting in the Class Settings dialog.
  
• Plant-Component-Canopy: This class is used for the colored fill in tree canopies.
  
• Plant-Component-Interior Linework: This class is used to control the visibility of detail lines that are used in the interior of plants. At smaller scales it may become desirable that these lines are not drawn.
  
• Plant-Component-Tags: This class is used for plant tags (and polygons) and is set in the Place Plant Settings - > Edit Definition dialog on the default Prefs tab.
  

The Plant Objects library also suggests that when the plant symbols are placed in Design Layers they should be classified under the classes Plants-New, Plants-Remove, and Plants-Existing. These allow the user to discriminate between the plants based on the intent.

For instance class Plants-Remove will be invisible except on a Demolition Plan. Plants-Existing would be grayed on a Planting Plan but left visible on a colored presentation drawing.

The easiest way to browse the different effects on plants is to open the Plant Objects.vwx file in VectorWorks (not in the Resources Browser) and see the different viewports and their overriding effects on the classes.

كل سنة و إنتوا طيبين

النهاردة ذكري صلاح جاهين و سيد ميكاوي مع بعض 

و في اليوم  ده أحب أفكر الناس برباعية

كرباج سعادة و قلبي منه أنجلد

رمح كانه حصان و لف البلد

ورجعلي نص الليل و سألني..

ليه خجلان تقول انك سعيد يا ولد

و عجبي 

VectorWorks Plants

Placing Plants 

Plants can be placed using the Place Plant tool, can create plants using: 

• Single Plant Placement 
  
• Poly-Vertex Placement 
  
• Poly-Edge Spaced 
  
• Rectangular Array 
  
• Triangular Array 

The following properties are important in Plant preferences dialog box: 

• Spread: the plant spread diameter (the maximum width of the mature plant, as drawn) 
  
• Height: the typical mature plant height 
  
• Spacing: Indicates the plant spacing distance for the Poly-Edge Spaced, Rectangular Array, and Triangular Array cluster placement methods 
  
• Polygon display: For multiple plant placements, selects the display type of the boundary or center polygon defining the plant cluster shape. 
  

Editing Plants 

You can use the Place Plant Preferences dialog box to edit plants definitions, by clicking on Duplicate and using the Edit Plant Definition dialog to set plant settings. 

Creating new Plants 

New plants can be created from duplicating previous plants and editing the changing parts only, or you can select any 2D geometry and selecting AEC -> Plants -> Create New Plant, this will open the Edit Plant Definition dialog with blank parameters where you can set the plant settings, then after clicking OK, a plant will be created in place of the first symbol. 

You can later Edit the plant 2D geometry and 3D geometry by selecting the plant symbol in the Resource Browser, right clicking on it and selecting Edit, this will show the Edit Plant dialog where you can edit: 

• 2D Graphics: that you started the plant with 
  
• 3D Graphics: where is initially have a 3D locus that you can consider as the lower center of the plant 
  
• Plant Definition: to open the Edit Plant definition dialog 
  

Alternatively you can right click on any instance of the plant in the active layer and selecting Edit to show the Edit Plant dialog. 

2D Plant Styles

The Render tab in the Plant definition dialog provide some advanced effects to set the 2D plant styles, these effects display in Plan view only.

These effects control plant shadows, mass overlapping plants and vector outline controlling.
They can be turned on after placement for selected plants by choosing Enable 2D Plant Rendering from the Object Info palette, or for all plants by selecting View -> Show -> Show/Hide Plant Styles.

Replacing Plants 

Plants can be replaced in the design process to better reflect your design decisions at every level of the design. 

To replace a selected plant or all plants with a single Plant-ID, select the plant and select Replace Plant from the plant context menu. 

Plant Clusters 

Plants placed in a multiple placement mode of the Place Plant tool are associated as a cluster.

The cluster moves together, and parameter changes affect all plants in the cluster. However, it is possible to dissociate the cluster to make individual plant changes. 

Clustering identical plants which are in close proximity can be desirable for labeling and identification purposes.

To disassociate a single cluster into multiple plants or group multiple plants into a single plant by selecting AEC -> Plants -> Change Plant Grouping (a remark about the cluster order is that plants are clustered based on their drawing order. If the joining polygon of the resulting plant is not as expected, change the drawing order of the plants prior to joining them)

Plant Lines

The Plant Line command creates a freehand plant line along a line, polyline, or polygon. It can be used to represent a single plant, line of plants, or general plant mass (it is not a plant symbol, but rather a 2D polygon).

To create a plant line select the object (line, polyline, or polygon), and select AEC -> Plants -> Plant Line

The Plant Line dialog box opens, the suggested values are based on the selection’s perimeter, most notably:

• Segment Length: Maximum length of each plant line segment; longer segments create a rougher plant line appearance
  
• Thickness: Maximum perpendicular distance of each segment; a higher thickness value results in a rougher plant line appearance

Plant List Worksheets

You can add Plant List Worksheets to any design by opening [VectorWorks]\Libraries\Defaults\Reports~Schedules\Plant Lists.vwx from the Resource Browser. Four types of worksheets are included (Basic, Colors, Costing, and Simple).

Select one of the worksheet symbols and choose Make Active from the Resources menu. Click to place the symbol in the drawing, and again to set the symbol rotation.

The worksheet, populated with information from the plants in the current drawing, is automatically created (Plants to be included in the Plant List must have On Plant List selected in the Object Info palette).

Edraab Cool Ya Maan

الأستاذ أحمد شقير (الراجل ده بجد أنا بحترمه جداً و بحب رأيه) كتب في مدونته عن تأثير الإنترنت في إضراب 6 إبريل هنا
يا أستاذ أحمد موضوع النت ده فيه مشكلة صغيرة ... هيا إنوا و بالرغم من أن الأنترنت دلوقتي بقا منتشر جداً في مصر بين الشباب ... إلا إنالإضرابات مابتقومش بالشباب بس، صحيح إن موضوع الشباب ده من النقط الجوهرية في المجتمع السياسي بشكل عام يعني .... إلا إن واضح إن حضرتك مدخلتش الجامعة من سنين.


الجامعة بقت نادي إجتماعي البنات فيه بتروح عشان تلقطها عريس ... و الشباب إللي ناوي يبقي عريس (بس مايعرففش إزاي) قاعد يصاحب و يتعرف و يهزر و يتكلم .... إنما إننوا يتكلم في مستقبل البلد (ده غير مستقبله هوا شخصياً و سوق العمل و الحاجات إللي هوا مش متخيل إنوا هايغرق فيها بعد كده) فدا موضوع ثانوي و مادة دردشة و فتح كلام، مش موضوع بيهمه بجد.
أما عن موضوع إضراب بجد واضح الأهداف و جيد التنظيم و مرتبط بمختلف طبقات العمل السياسي في مصر فده موضوع خارج إحتمالات الشباب المصري إللي خرج مظاهرة بيساند فيها مثله الأعلي تامر حسني.
و مش قصدي طبعاً إن الجامعة بس هيا المشكلة ، الجيل كله بقيت تحس فيه بحاجة غلط، فيه حاجة نسيت الناس تعلّمها لولادها عشان هيي شخصياً بطلت تعملها.

طبعاً فيه إللي رايحين يتعلموا و فيه إللي رايحين و هما بيفكروا بمستقبل البلد، بس الصراحة دول بقوا قليلين و بقوا هما إللي شكلهم غريب و بقي إضراب ينظمه شباب زي الفل من نوعية الشباب المنتشرين في الجامعة دلوقتي نوع من أنواع
Edraab Cool Ya Maan

,

وحدانية - أنغام

سمعت أنغام إمبارح في البيت بيتك و كانت بتغنيها

وحدانيه

كلمات عصام عبدالله - لحن امير عبد المجيد - توزيع فهد

قاللى يا ام رشرش حرير شنكله احمر

و الشعر خيلى سواده ليلى طويل مضفر

و القصه حارده على حواجب ماللى تسحر 

خايله لحديت فروق راسك يا عيوجيه 

و ان كان عليا مالبس سوا اللى يدارى همى 

دانا وحدانيه ما مسح دموعى غير طرف كمى 

مال الحديت ده بس بيا مال الحديت ده بس بيا

 

قاللى ايديكى معالج زان زانها العنادى 

فوق المقصب الروميه و تحته وادى 

حطه المشخلع و الكردان على حسن هادى 

شوفوا الجدعان اللتاتين اللى حواليه 

قاللى يا عجبانه 

الود ودى انقشك حنه

يا ام الجبين الابيض يا عايجه

يا تمر حنه 

بكرة عرب خللى البنادره مرياحنه

اه يا خويا صادق بس فوتنى باللى بيا

شكراً Schizophrenia

VectorWorks Site Analysis

Some analysis functions that can be done on a Site Model.

Slope Analysis

Select a 2D display Style of 2D or 3D Triangle (colored slopes) or 2D or 3D Triangulated Contours (colored slopes)

Elevation Analysis

Select a 2D display Style of 2D Contour (colored elevations)

Zone of Visual Influence Analysis

Creates representation of shadowed and lighted areas as seen from a specified point of view

Shadow Analysis

A shadow analysis can help determine the areas of the drawing that will receive less sunlight or remain in a shadow during a particular time of the year.

A shadow analysis is not a single command that can be used, but by inserting several directional light sources, each representing a different time of day (View -> Lighting -> Set Sun Position.), an overlapping range of shadows (by ensuring that Cast Shadows is

selected, and decrease the Brightness so that the combination of lights is not too harsh) is created which indicates the amount of time a particular area is in the shade over the course of the day.

RenderWorks is required to conduct a shadow analysis.

Solar Animations

A sun study is an animated movie of sunlight over a specified day of the year. It illustrates the way shadows are cast over a project as the sun's position changes.

By running Model -> Create Solar Animation and selecting day and Site details a movie can be created containing the sun study.

Site Model Profiles

A Site Profile can be created from existing or proposed Site Model, just select a polyline/polygon then AEC -> Terrain -> Site Model Section, A Site profile will be created on the selected sheet or design layer.

Sections can also be created from Viewports if a true section (and not just a profile) is needed, using View -> Create Section Viewport.

Determining the Elevation of a Point on the Site Model (Staking)

To display a point on the site model is to create an stake object and set its mode to "Set elev to site model", this will create a stake object with the current DMT height at that point.
The Stake is easily created using double clicking (to create the stake with rotation angle 0)

VectorWorks Site Modifying (2)

Roads from Stakes

A road object can be set to be a site model modifier, and changes the proposed DTM when the site model is updated.

To create a road:

1. The centerline of the road is defined with a polyline (with its interior vertices must be arc-smoothed)
   
2. Stakes are added (the elevation of the stakes are initially set to the surface of the site model) using AEC -> Roads -> Station on Polyline
   
3. The elevation can be modified before the road is created (by setting a the stake at one end of the road and running AEC -> Roads -> Align Stakes Vertically)
   
4. The Road object is created using AEC -> Roads -> Create Road from Stakes
5. Finally, the site model is updated and modified by the road object
   

NURBS Roadway

A Roadway (NURBS) object offers a simpler, but less exacting, way of inserting a road on a DTM.
It can be created using:

• Roadway (Straight)
  
• Roadway (Curved)
  
• Roadway (Tee)
  
• Roadway (NURBS)
  

Landscape retaining walls

A landscape wall object (retaining wall) can be set to be a site model modifier. It changes the proposed DTM when the site model is updated.

Landscape walls can be drawn using the tools:

• Landscape Wall
  
• Landscape Wall Arc
  
• Landscape Bez
  

A Noteworthy setting in the Landscape Walls is the Left and Right Pitch, which are the angels of the left and right faces of the wall and the Top Width which is the width of the upper face of the wall

Hardscape objects

A hardscape object is comprised of paved areas with joint patterns and optional borders

You can control the Hardscape:

• Name and Label
  
• If it is Boundary or Pathway mode
  
• Width and Offset from the centerline
  
• The Joint pattern (the main hatching pattern in 2D Display)
  
• The path border setting
  
• The 3D Display type (Slab, Pad or Texture Bed)
  

The Hardscape object is very versatile in that it can combine several objects in 2D and 3D (mostly a 2D Patterned polygon + Stipple + 3D slab/Site Modifier)

Enhancing Hardscape Visuals

To coordinate the joint patterns of several hardscape objects, configure the hardscape objects with the same settings and drag their main pattern origin control points (marked with the red locus) to a common location.

The angle or origin point of a hardscape fill can be adjusted. Move the control point at the center of the hardscape to control the origin point of the paving pattern (including a hatch) and change the Joint Pattern Angle value to adjust the angle.

Controlling Site Modifiers Visibility

View -> Show -> Show or Hide Site Modifiers

Property Lines

Property lines are similar to the COGO and Traverse Tools in ArcGIS and AutoCAD Map 3D, and I have little experience with them, so I think I would visit the manual again when I need this tool

VectorWorks Site Modifying (1)

After the site model is generated, two different display modes of the site model object are available - existing and proposed. The proposed DTM is a calculation of the existing data altered by site modifiers (where the site modifiers are specific objects with capabilities to modify the site model).

Site Modifiers:

• Pad: a 3D polygon representing the shape of an element which modifies the site model, and can be closed or open (open pads are called "break lines").
• Fence: a 2D polygon which limits the area of topographical transition between existing site data and site modifiers; outside the fence, the site remains unchanged, and within the fence, the site model is defined by the site modifiers (it can be created automatically using AEC -> Terrain -> Create Fence from Pad).
• Grader: helps to balance the cut and fill so that the site does not require earth to be moved in or out. A grader applies an even thickness of fill for the site over its area.
• Texture Bed: converts a 2D polygon into an area of the DTM that can be textured, and RenderWorks is required for creating and rendering texture beds.
  

Texture Beds

Te texture bed has a very weird behavior, and can be frustrating in the beginning, as its main role it to patch a part of the texture of the DTM with its own texture, so it should use its own assigned texture or its Class's texture, but that's not the case, what it really use is the Class property, not its own Class!

Under the Elevation setting there is another Class setting that you can't select a Class from interactively, its name has to be entered manually, that's where really the texture would be used, you set the texture for the Class, copy its name and then paste its name in the Texture Bed Class setting.

Also note the Texture Bed is a Site Modifier, it won't update the texture of the Site Model if not showing the Proposed model in the 3D display.

Site Model Updating

For the Site Modifiers to take effect, the DTM requires updating to reflect the modification. Select the site model and click Update from the Object Info palette (I think they should have an Auto-Update feature in the Site Model).

Massing Models

In Many occasions, you don't really need the overhead of creating a building where a building shell for illustrative purposes is all you need. The Massing Model is an easy way to create a representative or context building when a detailed building is not required.

You can specify it's:

• Name and Label
  
• Height and number of floors
  
• Wall and Roof Classes
  
• Roof properties
  
• Whether Site Modifiers are use, where a pad and control fence are added to the base of the building and allows the building to modify the site model
  

VectorWorks Sitework

The sitework-related commands allow the development of complex 2D and 3D models of site terrain in VectorWorks, it gives many features to do full Digital Terrain Modeling (DTM) using Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN).

Site Model Input

The data the Site Model accepts are:

• 3D Loci (and Stake objects)
• 3D polygons
  

Survey Input tools

The above data can be entered directly or using the Survey Input tools:

• Import Survey File (Convert a table of X, Y, Z coordinates into Stake objects)
• 2D Polys to 3D Contours (Convert a collection to 2D Polygons to 3D Polygons and enter their heights interactively)
• 3D Polys to 3D Loci (Convert the vertices of 3D polygons into 3D loci)
• Grid Method Entry (Create an array of Stake objects and enter their heights interactively)
  

Creating the Site Model

To actually create the DTM use AEC -> Terrain -> Create Site Model, this will show the Create Site Model dialog where you can select the Minor Contour Interval, the Major Contour Multiplier (how many minor contour lines will be counted to the major contour line), the Smoothing Interval (when selecting a triangulation method for 2D and/or 3D site model display, sets the distance for adding new points to the contours) and many others settings.

Editing the Site Model

After the DTM is created it can be edited using the context menu Edit (or double clicking on it) to show the Site Model Settings dialog, or selecting Edit Source Data from the Site Model context menu (which can also be done using Modify -> Edit Group or Ctrl+[).

Custom Boundary

To create a custom hull shape (the outer edge) for the DTM, select the site model and select Modify -> Edit Group. Using the 2D Polygon tool, draw the desired hull. Exit the group and update the site model; with a contour style of 2D display and the Draw Hull option selected, the custom hull displays.

Alternatively, can be specified at creation time by selecting a single closed 2D polygon when creating the DTM to be used as the hull shape.

Labels

Labels can be changed by selected the DTM and changing the desired text properties from the Text menu (Typeface, Size, Style, ...)

Sending objects to the Model Surface

A handy feature when working with DTM is the ability to send any 3D object to the surface elevation of it using AEC -> Terrain -> Send to Surface.

Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90

Arthur C. Clarke, the Author of "2001: A Space Odyssey" and one the great three in the Sci-Fi field has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.

He was one of the greatest writers in the Sci-Fi field and a distinguished visionary, it is a sad moment for me, as 2001 is one of my favorite novel and has drawn much enthusiasm  in my life for so much time.

Farewell Mr Clarke, I enjoyed your work so much, thank you.

MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23697230/

A Constructs of Trust

I found this definition of trust to be comprehensive, according to Dr. Duane C. Tway, Jr. in his 1993 dissertation, A Construct of Trust.

He defines trust as, "the state of readiness for unguarded interaction with someone or something." He developed a model of trust that includes three components. He calls trust a construct because it is "constructed" of these three components: "the capacity for trusting, the perception of competence, and the perception of intentions."

Thinking about trust as made up of the interaction and existence of these three components makes “trust” easier to understand.

The capacity for trusting means that your total life experiences have developed your current capacity and willingness to risk trusting others.

The perception of competence is made up of your perception of your ability and the ability of others with whom you work to perform competently at whatever is needed in your current situation.

The perception of intentions, as defined by Tway, is your perception that the actions, words, direction, mission, or decisions are motivated by mutually-serving rather than self-serving motives.

VectorWorks Dimensions

While the dimension tools are very important and contain many options, their usage is very simple, as long as you keep them organized into classes, they are self explanatory and can be easily used.

Associativity

Dimensions are either associative or non-associative, an associative dimension keeps its connection with the vertices that it is measuring (these are shown in small red squares), you can edit them using (Modify -> Edit Constraints)

Usual Dimensions

Linear, Radial, Angular, Center Mark and Datum dimensions are the usual dimensions are very point-and-click interface.

Dynamic Measuring

Two tools provide dynamic measurements without creating a dimension object, these are:

• Tape Measurement Tool (for linear readings)
• Protractor Tool (for Angular readings)

Design/Sheet Dimensions

These are not really dimensions in the usual manner, but they really measure something so they are considered more of dimensions, they include:

• North Arrow
• Scale Bar
• Grid - Rectangular
• Grid - Polar
• Drawing Border

They all provide readings that is the same in the whole Design layer, so they don't need to be associative to any object, instead they are associative to the page.

Dimension Standards

The common dimension standards are:

• Arch (to have slash at the ends of dimension lines)
• ISO (to have arrows)

Annotating

Annotations can be mainly done using the usual Text Tool (1) and Callout Tool (Alt + 1), more specialized annotations can be used, like:

• Redline Note Tool
• Revision Cloud Tool
• Stipple Tool
• Room Name Simple Tool
• ID Label Tool
• Break Line Tool

VectorWorks 2D (3)

Move Tool (Shift + M)

The tool has two useful options, the first is that you can use the data bar to use a numeric value, so that it becomes the same as the Move option in the Modify menu; and its ability to become a cloning tool by setting the Retain option in its Preferences window.

Duplicate

And speaking of Duplicate options, two very useful tools are available (Edit -> Duplicate Array) and (Edit -> Duplicate Along Path).

Paste in Place (Ctrl + Alt + V)

The Paste in Place is the same as Paste to Front in Adobe Illustrator, which duplicates the object in the same location.

Lock/Unlock

These would be useful tools, I should try to use them occasionally.

Purge

The Purge option (Tools -> Purge Unused Objects) is very useful to decrease the file size and keep it clean.

Convert

These tools are very useful, the Convert To Lines (Modify -> Convert -> Convert To Lines) allows a 3D object to be converted into the 2D representation of its current view, also the Convert To Polygons turns it into 2D surfaces (where each polygon is considered a surface).

VectorWorks 2D (2)

Align/Distribute (Ctrl + =)

A good implementation of the tool for organizing and aligning objects,  what's interesting is when I get to 3D editing (there is an Align/Distribute 3D which would be very useful to master), a something to remember is that it handles locked and 2D loci differently than normal objects.

Clip (Alt + C)

The clip tool might be useful in some occasions, where a functionality like select and delete is needed, there is a polygonal selection mode too inside of it.

Connect/Combine

While I think the Connect/Combine tool is less useful in 2D, in NURBS and 3D it would be very important, also its ability to handle Walls would be more useful than I initially think.

Useful Tools not used so often

• L : Split Tool
• Shift + - : Offset Tool
• 7 : Fillet Tool

Handling Surfaces

VectorWorks understands the concept of surfaces (2D/3D) and can handle them using the Surfaces commands (available in the Modify menu):

• Intersect Surface
• Add Surface
• Combine into Surface
• Clip Surface
  

Calculating Centroid

A very simple way to calculate a polygon (or a number of polygons) centroid is to use the Model -> Engineering Properties -> Place locus at centroid -> OK

VectorWorks 2D (1)

User Favorites

A simple way to save and edit your resources favorites (because there are too many resources in the current Resources Library and there is no way to browse it without opening each file from the Resources palette) is to go directly to your user directory and edit files in it.

The User directory can be easily accessed by Tools -> Options -> VectorWorks Preferences -> User Folders -> Explore

And you can simply save a shortcut from it for later accesses.

Symbol Types

When navigating the library, you can find different kind of symbols, they are mostly are:

1. The symbol has a small "2" icon in the right lower corner of its thumbnail, it is a 2D-only symbol

2. The symbol has a small "3" icon in the right lower corner of its thumbnail, it is a 3D-only symbol

3. The symbol has no small icon in the right lower corner of its thumbnail, it is a 2D/3D hybrid symbol

4. The symbol label is in black, it is an ordinary symbol

5. The symbol label is in blue, it is a group symbol (when inserted, it will be a group)

6. The symbol label is in red, it is a plug-in symbol which includes some VectorScript logic in it or a symbol that is translated to a high-level object in VectorWorks (a wall, door or even a DTM)

Color Charts

To easily calibrate your printer to your current color library select Tools -> Utilities -> Create Color Chart then print the group that gets in the middle of the page.

2D Reshape

I think the 2D Reshape tool is one of the greatest tools in the CAD industry for editing vector entities, it can achieve so much in no time.

Its ability to add and remove vertices visually is very good (much like Adobe Illustrator), also its new multi-vertex selection mode (when the cross-hair is visible) is great, you can stretch parts of the polyline by selecting the vertices to stay connected and move them as a single edge.

Also the ability to select multiple vertices and then delete them is a huge improvement, you can even change a Bezier edge (or segment) into a straight segment by selecting the vertex point and deleting it directly.

2D Polylines with a single curved edge

The simple way to create a curved side of a polyline is to point to the bezier curve control point and drag-click over it, it will give the same result as setting the Polyline tool mode to Bezier Vertex Mode.

While you can use the mode directly if there are many successive curves, to switch to the mode (using the U key) and then returning to the Corner Vertex Mode every time a single curve is needed is too much of overhead to make such a shortcut very important.

Arc/Circle

The Arc and Circle tools are very versatile, they can be used in many modes, you may try to fiddle with them before actually using them, that might give you a good idea about what should be used in which situation, especially the "Arc by 2 points and point on arc" which is similar to the arc tool in the SketchUp application.

Compose/Decompose

These tools can be accessed from the Modify menu.

The Compose is a great tool, it takes lines/polylines/arcs and connects them together into a single polyline, the great about it is that it doesn't need the polyline components to be closed, it automatically fills the missing edges and hides the by default, you can later reshow them using the 2D Reshape tool.

Decompose is logically the equal to AutoCAD Explode (mostly, I suppose), you give it a polyline and it turns it to its basic form (lines and arcs).

They don't work on symbols, but by converting symbols into group (Modify -> Convert -> Convert to Group) and then ungrouping the, they work correctly on them.

Object Info Palette

While the Object Info Palette is not limited to 2D objects, mastering it is crucial to easily use VectorWorks.

It can be used to edit a single or multiple objects, when selecting more than one object it displays their number and the common properties in them, you can click on the three small circles beside the objects count to turn it into Individual Edit mode (it turns the 3 filled circles into 2 hallow circles with 1 filled circle between them) , this retains the selection and allows for editing the individual object properties, and you can cycle between the selected objects by the back and front arrows beside the three circles.

Groups Shortcuts

• Ctrl + G : Group
• Ctrl + U : Ungroup
• Ctrl + [ : Edit Group (Enters inside the Group and allow for editing inside it)
• Ctrl + ] : Exit Group (Exit the editing mode)

Drawing Order Shortcuts

• Ctrl + F : Send to Front
• Ctrl + B : Send to Back

مستجاب الخامس

لقيت قصة لمحمد مستجاب علي منتدي ... مستجاب الخامس ... مهولة في المستوي و الفكرة و الرمز

حافة النهر .... مستجاب الخامس

http://www.adabhome.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1315

مستجاب السابع ... إحتفالية ذات الوجة الجميل

http://www.arabicstory.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=7607&st=20&p=52964&#entry52964

شكراً للسيد راتب علي الروابط

إنها دولة الأنطاع

مش عارف ... أنا حاسس إن مصر بقت دولة للأنطاع، غالباً أعلي نسبة أنطاع في العالم كله
تبقي ماشي في الشارع .... الدنيا زفت و الجو تراب و مش لاقي عربية تركبها في شارع فيصل المرعب، علي فكرة شارع فيصل ده شخصياً ممكن تقعد تكتب عليه سنين و سنين و مش هاتقدر تعرف الخاصية الغريبة إللي فيه إللي بتخلي أي حد بيبدأ في أوله مايوصلش أخره قبل ساعة، رغم إن طوله الكلي مايزيدش عن 12 كيلومتر ، المهم فجاة تلاقي عربية ماشية بضهرها و السواق بتاعها قاعد بيزمر بأسلوب يخليك تفتكر إن الشارع ده الصح بتاعه و إنك كمجرم واقف في طريق مستقبله.
تعدي البيه و تقول مسكين ... أكيد إتزنق في لفة غلط و لا حاجة .... و فجأة تلاقي حد طالع من الشارع إللي قبل الملف بوشه عكس حركة  الشارع عشان ياكل الملف إللي قدامه بدل مايحترم نفسه و يمشي في إتجاة الشارع العادي، و في نفس الوقت الميكروباص المتين بيلف من نفس الملف عشان مايكملش الخط لأخره و يركب زباين، و الناس واقفين إستعداداً إنهم يكبسوا عليه و يلحقلوهم كرسي و لا حتي وقفة ببعض من البقية الباقية من الكرامة الإنسانية فيهم .... يقوم السواق الأولاني داخل في جنب أقرب ثلاثة من إللي واقفين و الميكروباص يبتدي يركب و هوا في نص الملف (يعني في عرض الشارع) و الناس بتجري ..... تحس فجأة إنها حالة من النطاعة العامة منتشرة مابين الناس كلها.
بلاش ... بمعجزة ما تقدر تركب العربية الميكروباص و يادوبك الدنيا تمشي... تلاقي ميني باص (ده إللي هوه الكبير بتاع الميكروباص .. وده له قصة عظيمة برده ... بس ما علينا دلوقتي) واقف في نص الشارع بيحاسب حد نازل و قاعد بيتخانق إن الأجرة غليت و الراجل مصر إنه كل يوم بيركبها بريال (رغم إن الأجرة من ساعة ما وعيت علي الشارع ده و هي عمرها ماكانت بريال)، و ما علينا.
الدنيا تتحرك شوية و بعدين تلاقي السكة كلها مقفولة .... أتاري راجل صاحب عربية كارو (عربجي قد الدنيا) ماشي بيتمختر في الشارع و أكنه ماشي لوحده في الصحرا.
اللطيف في الموضوع إنك توصل لحد محطة المترو ... تقعد تنده علي الراجل بعزمك "علي جنب يأسطي" و هوا و لا هوا هنا .. كأن الطبيعي إن الناس مابتنزلش ... بتركب بس .... لغاية ما يتفضل و يتكرم و يسمعك ... و في اللحظة دي تبدأ مأساة تانية ...  إنك تنزل فعلاً ... و دي إسمها في كتب التاريخ ملحمة (يمكن يكون سبب الإسم مختلف في الكتب دي، بس ده إحساسي الشخصي) سواق الميكروباص مركب بزيادة جداً لدرجة إن مفيش مكان تحط رجلك فيه ... و حتي لما يبقي فيه .. تحس إن النطاعة المتفشية مسيطرة علي الأداء العام للناس ... محدش عايز يتحرك حتي لو خبطته بكتفك بغباوة عشان يتحرك ... تحس إنك خبطت إللي جنبه.
و هنا تبقي وصلت بحمد الله للمترو ... و من هنا تبدأ مأساة تانية .... بس بعدين بقا

Web Design Concepts

I've had some time in the web design profession (both personally and professionally), but I found this book to be of particular interest to me: The Principles of Beautiful Web Design.

It walks through the design process through the systematic (yet beautiful) selection of layout, colors, textures, typefaces and images; I think this method works well with my way of thinking.

Some of the new findings in this book:

Layout

• The layout design process should produce a design comp (the comp is the simulation of the printed material before the final print, it refers here to the design mockup of the site, before the HTML phase)
• The design process is composed of 2 main phases: the Discovery and the Implementation
• Three rules are important to be met in order to make the design (good):
  1. Users are pleased by the design but drawn to the content (so a balance must be met)
  2. Users can move about easily via intuitive navigation (so if you can't manage to navigate the site with ease, probably you won't navigate
  3. Users recognize each page as belonging to the site (even with different sections, the soul of the site must be seen)
• A particularly useful ratio for the design is the Golden ratio (the 1:1.618) which many myths circle around it, but in all cases it gets a good looking ratio for the site balance
• ... while a simpler way is to use the Rule of Thirds (divide the sketch to 3 vertical panels and divide them to 3 horizontal panels) and try to snap your design components to it.
• Balance must be maintained in the site design (either in the symmetrical or the asymmetrical designs), the balance occurs when you feel that the total weight of all the elements are bound to a single point, not by just their shapes, but by their shapes, sizes and color.
• Unity is another concept that helps keeping the site together, a unified design is a design that works as a single unit (mentally), it can be achieved using:
  1. Proximity, or that related components are kept closer to each other
  2. Repetition, where items with repeated design are more considered as a single unit, as the unordered list
• Emphasis, on the other hand deals with getting a single item dominant in the design (a focal point) through proper:
  1. Placement, using the center of the container to draw attention to it
  2. Continuance, where the eye is sliding over continuous objects until it hits its ending, where an object might be placed for emphasis
  3. Isolation, as any object that stands out from the group demands attention from the viewer eye
  4. Contrast, the more common way to draw attention by keeping the change between elements as large as needed; in color, shape or size
  5. Proportion, where by unreal scaling of elements (or real but exaggerated) you draw attention to it
• Enough of design theory, some of the implementations that are commonly used are the left column navigation, right column navigation, and three column navigation
• The least used design element while being one of the more important is the white space, it is crucial to have enough white space in the design
• A good idea is to keep a Morgue folder where you keep all the designs related to your current design to help you in the inspiration
• A choice between the Liquid-and-fixed width designs should be based on:
  1. A Liquid design adapts better for different screen resolutions, while on larger screens can cause too-wide lines and most of the time causes awkward or hard-to-manage white space
  2. A Fixed design better handles white space and spatial relations between items, while risking being too-large or too-small on different screen resolutions
• Some stats that are useful: Browser Statistics and Display Statistics