Kevin McAllister

Right click on the symbol. Choose Edit (not Edit 2D etc.). It will bring up the dialog box. Change the drop down there to the option you prefer to set the preference. Kevin

It actually sounds like its about user interface. I suspect Vectorworks has many of the tools but they are poorly implemented (ie. implemented from a developer's point of view) or misnamed. Kevin

I agree, convert to lines is not great. There is a workaround that might help you, especially if your working from a 3D model. Use the Extract tool. Make sure "Create Planar Objects" is turned on in its tool preferences. Select the surface you want to use (it will highlight in red) and click enter or hit the green check mark. It will create a polyline of your surface. Its a 2d object but oriented in 3D space. Change it from 3D to a screen object in the OIP by selecting Screen from the Plane drop down. Ideally converts to lines would create polylines instead... Kevin

This is a bit of a challenge as you say. Its a little simpler than you describe, but not much. Select "edit 2d component", cut the 2d component (the 2D component is now empty), right click and choose edit 3D component, choose paste and now adjust your 2D component to match the 3D component. When you exit the symbol the 2D components will "jump back" to where they should be in the 2D component. Kevin

Please fix how inefficient Vectorworks gets when creating pierced or cut out geometry (anything with interior holes). So many scenic projects are using laser cutting, water jet, CNC etc. and I am constantly having to represent these shapes as 3D extrudes. For the most part Vectorworks has no problem with the 2D patterns, but once you extrude things its another story. I often recreate things as solid subtractions, but they still bog down files. Try and render these shapes as a hidden line drawing in a Sheet Layer Viewport...... even worse, turn on "intersecting lines".... These shapes are easily manageable in Cinema 4D, even from the most complicated Illustrator paths, why are they so slow in Vectorworks. Thank you, Kevin

Please, please, please improve the "Fine Tune Camera View" dialog that can be used to adjust a camera. It is an essential feature that needs improving including - - fix the text input fields so that they don't try and adjust the model until you're finished entry (ie. I'm tired of the view jumping to 3" first when I try and enter 30' in height dialog). Interactivity is great but in this case its in the way. - fix the efficiency of the interactivity. I always use the wireframe option and even then it lags with fairly basic models. Cameras in Cinema 4D are so much more intuitive. Some of those efficiencies would be welcome in Vectorworks too. Kevin

It would be great to see - - preview the new version in advance of its release - instant right click help for any tool/palette/menu - interface customization that fluid and flexible - live weekly demos (ie. Cineversity Live) - improvements like the new snapping features (think working planes done right), guides, camera calibrator (think camera match integration), wood shader improvements found in the newly announce Cinema 4D R14 Kevin

Ha I was fighting against this last night. A very good question. Its even worse in OpenGL. (Interestingly Maxon introduced Cinema 4D R14 today and it includes pre-selection highlighting like Vectorworks. I suspect it will be much better behaved....) Kevin

Are you using Workgroup Referencing? Did you import a DWG into any of the files? In my experience, its likely there is a corrupted object that's been shared between the files. Kevin

Ray, You need to change your Mac system preferences to Metric. Under the Apple Menu choose System Preferences. Choose the Language & Text icon under Personal. Click on the word Formats in the tab bar. Way at the bottom change the Measurement Units from US to Metric. You can always change it back after you set up your custom sheet sizes. They will hold their metric sizes even though there dimensions will show up as imperial. Kevin

Upper right hand corner of this forum screen, in the VW Community Links box, click on Bug Submit. Kevin

Same here. Autosave by operations is much more reliable. The only thing it still seems to cause problems with is updating Viewports if the update is the last operation. KM

Nemetzchek should be able to implement this pretty easily. The technology exists in the Cinema 4D rendering engine. I am assuming your rendering either has a black or white background. Vectorworks isn't so good at compositing at the moment. It would be great if your could turn the alpha channel for a viewport on or off. Kevin

I support this. I would also like Vectorworks to be smart enough to re-render outdated design layer viewports before re-rendering the sheet layer viewports containing them. Kevin

I never realized how backwards the implementation was until I started using Cinema 4D. Once the "camera" disappears its not really a camera any more. As Grant says, really you want to keep the camera in the design layers as an object. If you adjust it there then the linked viewport should adjust as well. KM

One of your text objects has gotten corrupted. If its a single font and you've used multiple fonts in your file, concentrate on text objects using that font only. I tend to track the object down using a process of elimination. Do this process in a copy of your original file. How many sheets are in your file? Try using batch print to PDF but eliminate a different sheet each time you try to narrow where the corrupt object is. This will help find a corrupt object on a sheet layer. If you think the corrupt object is on a design layer (ie. one of the label legends is the corrupt text object) then you will need to delete objects in a methodical manner, testing batch print to PDF after each deletion. I would try a big area first (ie. delete all lights stage right of centre) to narrow your search more quickly. Once you isolate the corrupt object(s) you can delete them from your original file. I've never seen text turn into random letters/numbers but I often have issues with a single font disappearing from a batch print. This is how I solve it. In my case, the corrupt text objects have always been in the annotations of a sheet layer viewport. In my case they have been text objects, regular dimensions or radial dimensions. Kevin

Its all in the setup of your own files/workflow. Remember Vectorworks has two complementary methods of organization (Classes and Layers) whereas Autocad only has one (Layers). In the original methodology, layers in Vectorworks were essentially seen as stories in a 3D model, so it didn't matter if they were stacked on top of each other. The only way that things won't be stacked is if you offset them in your own setup. Are you working in 2D or 3D? Working in 3D solves many of these issues. Unfortunately it sounds like you are trying to crunch two layers of organization into one. The weakness is Autocad here, which has a simpler organization workflow. Kevin

I agree completely with AndiACD. The modelling tools should be where the improvements start. The next improvements should be with the process of getting good 2D drawings off the 3D model. These things need to be sorted before any more resources go into the mythical BIM. Over the last few years so many of the improvements have been with specialty tools instead of the basic toolset. I don't object to these improvements but I think the basic toolset has been neglected for far too long. Though I'm not an architect I often use the architectural tools. I would like these tools to be more universal (the "stair tool", as an example, doesn't even do a basic flat bottom massing stair that I can use for a stage stair, or how about "fit walls to roof" which should actually be a universal "fit this geometry to that geometry" tool instead.) I do not want to manage a million plug ins given the current plugin architecture. I am paying for Vectorworks Designer for a reason. Kevin

I'm not entirely sure that its the vector elements that increase the file size. I often receive vector based PDFs generated by Autocad of entire stadiums that weigh in at a mere 500KB. There's something about the bitmaps that Vectorworks generates and how it crops them that is definitely part of the problem. When trying to optimize a Vectorworks PDF in Acrobat you often get the error message "The PDF document contained some masked images that were not down sampled." This leads me to believe that most bitmaps generated by Vectorworks sample a much larger area of the drawing/viewport than they need to and are masked off using clipping paths. Kevin

The combination of Hidden Line and Custom Renderworks shows how Vectorworks rendering (Hidden Line) and C4D Rendering (Custom Renderworks) don't play well together. I believe that the basic render modes (ie. Hidden Line) are still handled by Vectorworks internally instead of using the C4D rendering engine. Because the results are created by two different rendering engines, they don't overlay exactly. Hidden Line creates a vector based layer while Custom Renderworks creates a bitmap based layer. Planar object outlines are rendered on both layers resulting in soft line edges or inconsistent line widths. I believe the result we all desire is actually a combination of 3D objects rendered in Custom Renderworks combined with 2D/3D objects rendered in Hidden Line, but at the moment there is no way to exclude the 2D planar objects from the Custom Renderworks render pass. I've been doing some online courses for C4D and its rendering engine has the ability to do many of the things you are asking for (heavier line weights in the foreground, lighter line weights in the background, outlining complete objects with heavier lines), Vectoworks just doesn't implement these options (mostly because its not using the C4D engine for line work). Kevin

Are you using both foreground and background rendering modes on your Viewport? I only ask because I've recently been fighting with inconsistency caused by this. I often use Hidden Line and Custom Renderworks together but Planar Object lines render in both modes, causing inconsistent line weights and other messiness.... Kevin

That's exactly the problem. Everything should be 3D period. And snaps should be smart and helpful. Often you want to snap in some visually logical way and can't. Vectorworks is missing basic snaps that other programs call "2.5D" snapping. It amazes me you can't just hold down shift to constrain and drag an object across the ground plane in a 3D view. 3D should be simple and intuitive not complicated and convoluted as its become with the transitional Vectorworks approach. KM

I like the idea. Often you think its closed and its not. Perhaps it needs to auto close when snapped within a certain distance of the starting point. Or perhaps it needs a smart cursor clue (much like you get when you use Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop) when it will create a closed polygon. Kevin

Definitely a good question. It was down for me as well though, unlike in the past, this time there was a message saying the board was closed. Kevin

I wish that I didn't have to choose the Cinema 4D application every time I use the "Send to Cinema 4D" command. If its really necessary to set the path to the Cinema 4D application, please make it a preference that sticks. KM