[Custom Label position for Stakes]

I would like to be able to set a custom label position for stakes.  I prefer to have the labels in the 'corner' of the cross that I'm using as a marker and it's very time consuming to have to change it after inserting each one.

 

[ET Symbols lose transparency]

I have used a custom 2D Exiting tree symbol with transparency and a drop shadow so that everything on the drawing beneath doesn't get hidden and the canopy casts a shadow.  This works fine for trees with a regular canopy diameter, but when used with the irregular canopy size the transparency and the drop shadow disappear.  Is this a bug and can it be fixed?

[Existing Tree Significance to BS 5837]

Would it be possible to have an option to show tree significance categories in accordance with BS 5837 instead of the defaults in VW?  At the moment I either have to fill in the significance manually or change the tree survey file to match the VW categories.

[Existing Tree Root Zones]

Currently there is no facility as far as I can see to bring in the critical root zone diameter from a tree survey.  This means that I have to bring it in to 'field 7' and then type it in manually which can be very time-consuming for a project with many existing trees.  Can this feature be added?

[Merge canopies of existing trees]

It would be good it VW could merge the canopies of existing tree objects when they are close together, perhaps by selecting them plus a command.  Separate canopies can look messy in some circumstances.

[Grade objects in files updated to VW2022]

When I update files to VW2022 then add a new grade object, if I don't change global settings it converts all of the existing grade objects in the drawing to % instead of rise over run.  In the large file I was working on this is taking so long that it appears that VW has crashed.  Similar happens if I change the global setting to rise over run first, it hangs for ages before it will display the cursor to add the grade object.  Nearly sent my 800Mb+ file to support before realising that it was actually doing something.  Once the grade object has been put in VW acts normally.

[Is Vectorworks able to do professional grading?]

On 9/26/2021 at 12:10 AM, Anders Blomberg said:

@Laura Stone Thanks for the advice! I had the chance to talk to people att VW and they pretty much said the same thing about landscape areas, they currently recommended using them instead of hardscapes. But why do you convert from NURBS to 3D polys after extracting? NURBS work just as well in Site/DTM and don't chop up into straight little pieces. Also, do you know how to update the landscape areas to adjust to a changed site model? Currently I select the area, and change the layer where the area looks for the site and then change back. Kinda tedious when updating multiple areas.

 

@Benson Shaw, yes, I REALLY hope they give us some kind of functionality like that. Currently I'm doing my grading with a combination of site adjusting grades and NURBS in DTM and I really haven't found a way to be very exact when adjusting NURBS. So I start out by laying out my grades with the grade network which acts just as a guide for the NURBS I put in later.

Initially it was because I was using only this method and straight geometry 3D polys modifiers. A curbs curve on its own will  mean that the area 'contained' by it is not affected, only the line of it, so by converting a 3D poly I could add vertices to make an enclosed shape that would affect the whole area in question.  I've just done an experiment where I made a curbs a site modifier and then used gradients attached to each end to close the shape and it worked, so thanks for the suggestion

[Image resources not displaying transparency]

I am having the same issue, I think it is a bug because the guidance talks about the alpha channel importing when making the image resource.

 

Other clues: 

In top view, rather than top/plan, the transparency is there

When you scroll across the area, or zoom in and out, the transparency momentarily appears.

 

 

[Is Vectorworks able to do professional grading?]

I was given a tip a while back to use landscape areas and not hardscapes for the hard surfaces (just with the plants switched off) and I do find that it works much better.  This was after finding that hardscapes and landscape areas don't play nicely together.  So for angular geometry I use grade networks and for curved areas I have the following workaround:

Make a wall style called 'kerb' (or 'edging') and use a curved wall on the area you want.  Set the top level to the level you want at the one end of the kerb and put into a 3D view.  You can now use the reshape tool to move the other end of the kerb up or down to the correct level.  Now use the 'extract' tool to extract a nurbs curve along the top edge of the kerb and convert it to a 3D polygon.  Close the 3D poly and add any necessary additional vertices.  Move the 3D poly into the Site- DTM - Modifier class to grade the site model.  I have grades at the top and bottom of kerbs which gives a slope between them but use the wall style to represent the kerb and landscape areas for the hard surfaces each side so the slope is not seen in the modelling, only on the site model which I don't export to IFC.

[Ability to change levels of grade objects wholesale]

Using grade networks to model levels on a site at the moment, but living in terror of the day that the FFL of the building gets changed, this happens a lot.

 

It would be very useful to be able to select a number of grade objects and just move them in the z dimension to fit a new FFL.  At the moment the process would be very laborious, manually changing the two levels at each end of the grade.  I probably have over 200 of them on this particular site.

 

Is this something that could be incorporated?

 

 

[OZCAD acquisition]

On 7/19/2021 at 7:55 PM, JuanP said:

Some information about Windoor -  “In addition, Vectorworks will acquire well-known plug-ins such as Windoor and AnimationWorks, along with local content and object libraries that are currently only available in Australia and New Zealand. Windoor will become available to Design Series product users outside of these geographies through our Partner Network for version 2022”
 

Will this include the OzCad railing/fence tool that sends to surface and allows the top rail to be below the top of the uprights?

[Fence Top Rail flipping on slope]

I'm trying to draw a fence on a slope, but once over a certain gradient the top rail of the fence flips to vertical position.  Looks like a bug to me.

 

Laura

fence rail flip.vwx

[Landscape Areas with squares attached]

Working on a drawing that already had landscape areas, all of the new ones I draw (or convert from shapes) have a square attached to them in top/plan view.  It is not visible in other views.   I have used different landscape areas, including ones I used before in this drawing without any issue, and get the same result. I can't select the landscape areas by their edges or fills, they can only be selected by selecting the attached square.  Anyone have any idea why this is happening?

 

Thanks

 

Laura

[Existing Tree Export]

And if I export only the trees and uncheck 'export site model' they export at the correct height, but only from the new file.  

Laura

[Existing Tree Export]

And another update, if I export the site model as well the trees export at the correct height.  But I don't want to include the site model in my IFC file.

Laura

[Existing Tree Export]

Update on this, double checked the trees and they are displaying z=0 in the OIP but they are actually at the correct height in VW.

Then when exported to an IFC file they all drop to zero.

Laura

[VW Plants not exporting to IFC]

Hadn't seen those before, I usually import things from sketchup files on 3D warehouse.  We use generic low-polygon trees for models but have given up on shrubs.  It depends what the other disciplines are going to do with them.

 

Laura

[Existing Tree Export]

I have exported existing trees to IFC with no problem in the past but having issues with a particular file.

If I try to export the trees I get an empty IFC file.  

If I copy and paste the trees into a new file they export with no issues but they are all at z=0

If I paste the site model into the new file the trees do nothing when I send them to surface.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

Thanks

 

Laura 

[VW Plants not exporting to IFC]

As far as I know IFC only supports modelled plants, not crossed plane image prop symbols.

I have tried using modelled plants but it makes the Vectorworks and IFC files far too heavy.

Laura

[Existing Tree species data]

The dialogue box says 'press a keyboard letter to go straight to that part of the list' but nothing happens when I do so.

 

Laura

[Default Site Model Layer for Landscape areas]

It would be really useful to be able to set a default site model layer for landscape areas that is used at creation.  Most of the time I would only want to use one site model and it takes a long time to change the setting for every landscape area on a drawing.

 

Laura

[Custom Railing Panels]

I would like to be able to create custom railing panels.

 

This is one that I have bodged together by making a custom 'post' that is actually a panel and then using a frame to form the post.

 

Also 'send to surface' so that I don't have to laboriously set the correct heights at the beginning and end of each run.

 

Laura

 

 

[callout tool]

Jesse,

 

Thanks very much, that works just as I wanted it to.

 

Much appreciated

 

Laura

[callout tool]

Hi Jesse,

 

Thanks very much, I would like this option please -  "add lines of code to set all the attributes of the selected items to be By Class"

 

I don't normally have 2D attributes by class (it is only fill and pen attributes that I need here) it's just quite handy to have the site modifiers by class, then I can see which ones I've finished.

 

Laura

 

 

[callout tool]

Great,  thanks Jesse that works perfectly and will save me a whole load of time.

 

Just to make it a bit more complicated, when I do the change manually it gives me an option to change all attributes to the new class defaults, it that something that could be written into the script?

 

Laura