Kevin McAllister

Michael's advice about the OIP is very good. In my experience it is the easiest way to move a single NURBS point in a predictable way. Editing single points can be a challenge using the mouse directly as they always seem to move in an unexpected direction..... the 3D constraints are getting better but its still not super intuitive like say Cinema 4D.... Kevin

Has anyone else had trouble with scaled symbols in Vectorworks 2011 SP4? I have a symbol of a 3D nurbs curve. I have duplicated it into an array and scaled each one, stepping down in size. They all look the correct size in wireframe but when I render, they all render at the original, unscaled size. I have tried various render modes in both the design layers and in sheet layer viewports. Kevin

If you want the folders nested as you describe, you will also need to put all of your subfolders (ie. "tables") in the furniture library file into a "furniture" folder. Vectorworks does not see a library file as a folder.... Kevin

Please improve the Rotate tool including - - show the actual object being rotated at all times during the operation, rather than just a bounding box (especially symbols and 3D geometry). - overhaul the interface so that Rotate in 3D is much more like in Cinema 4D, with independent axis rotation. Kevin

Thanks Mike. I didn't think there was. I was trying to match someone's drawing standards on a project.... they are working in Autocad. Kevin

Is there a way to make Vectorworks show metric units in capitals within dimensions? "MM" instead of "mm" Thanks, Kevin

Please implement the selection of textures consistently. I find as I use Classes and the By Class style more and more, there is a need to select a texture of "none" in the Class dialog. This is something that is not currently possible. You can, however, select a texture of "none" in the OIP Render Tab for a specific object. Why is this not consistent? This is almost a bug..... KM

Please implement Text Styles universally and consistently across Vectorworks. Some of the basics would include - - being able to assign a Text Style to a Class (ie. Dimensions, Notes etc.) - the option to force the Capitalization options within a Style as well KM

Note that you can select multiple sheet layers (or all of the sheet layers) in the Navigation Palette and edit all the Page Setups at once. When you choose Edit Vectorworks shows the normal dialog but "Multiple Sheet Layers" appears in the Sheet Number and Sheet Title boxes. KM

That type of flexibility would be great. It would also be cool to have a 3D rotate option like Cinema 4d's. KM

Here is an article about installing Quicktime 7 under Lion - http://www.macworld.com/article/161320/2011/07/lion_quicktime7.html#lsrc.rss_main KM

I can confirm the same problem in Designer 2011 with the most recent service pack. Because I didn't need them to specifically be Spotlight fixtures I re-inserted them as symbols, which seemed to resolve the problem. Kevin

I have files that go back to Minicad 5 in my archives as well. I strongly believe Nemetschek should have an online file translator for old files. Upload your old file and they send you a link to a translated version. How difficult would it be for them to support this? Not very. Most other software opens old versions of its own files. Vectorworks has been especially bad in terms of changing the file type. My two cents. Kevin

Hi Pat, Thanks for your response. I use a few different custom Dimension Standards in my workflow. I don't think its possible to actually set a default offset for a dimension style. You can set the offset between stacked dimensions (constrained baseline dimension mode of the dimension tool) but not the offset of the initial dimension or a single dimension. You would think witness line length would do it but its actually independent of offset. Kevin

Please add an option to set the default dimension offset. I like all my dimensions to have the same offset or multiples thereof. Right now I have to adjust them manually in the OIP after I draw the dimension. I have tried using the floating datum bar but it does not give consistent results. Kevin

Please update the search function in the Resource Browser so the searches can happen in the background while other drafting work is being done. The Vectorworks library is frankly terrible to find anything specific in. The search function is slow and precludes any other work from being done. Even a PDF catalog of all the resources would be better than the current system.... Kevin

Has anyone else had problems when scaling symbols that contain NURBS? The solids scale properly, the NURBS shape does not. Kevin

Please add a constrain proportions checkbox to the OIP (much like the link/lock buttons in Photoshop and Illustrator). When I type in a new horizontal dimension it would be great for any object to calculate the corresponding vertical dimension. Kevin

It's there, sort of. At the moment those origin lines seem to appear/disappear with VW2011. The origin should also be a snap-able locus like in a symbol. I vote for this. I would love to use symbols in Extrude Along Path objects. Kevin

Please improve Extrude Along Path to include the following: - origin point is clearly visible when editing the profile object after creation. - the ability to click on the profile object and define the origin during the process of creation. -automatic view alignment when editing either the path or profile. Right now you have to hunt around. - the created extrude should be created on the current working plane not the ground plane. Lately the behaviour when editing within Extrude Along Path elements (profile or path) has changed subtly with each service pack. Clearly there are things with the planar objects / 3D working procedures still being resolved. It would be great to get some improvements at the same time. Thank you, Kevin

Check the mode of the Selection Tool in the mode bar. After installing SP3 mine had reset to Enable Polygonal Selection Mode and I wasn't able to select objects by clicking on them. (The cursor looks like a small plus and a polygon icon when you click down.) After setting it back to Rectangular Selection Mode, all was well. I've found in general that SP3 resets things you wouldn't expect. There are some other quirks as well which I'm monitoring to see if they're reproducible bugs. Kevin

This is a great wish. (Autosave on a timer causes all sorts of problems in my experience. It was because of advice on this list that I switched to Autosave after X operations. Autosave and rendering are a particularly bad combination and sometimes the render command ends up being X operation and it hangs.) Kevin

Hi Chris, I am very curious when you say "I drew polygons of the correct sizes". What does this mean? I have attached an example of how I would create your shape. It uses basic geometry (circles, rectangles, arcs) and the Add Surface / Subtract Surface commands. While you could use the Polygon tool as Michael suggests (it is a powerful tool to learn, but unfortunately its not as intuitive as say Adobe Illustrator's pen tool), you don't have to to get the same result. The reason I'm confused is because Add Surface / Subtract Surface always create polylines as far as I know, not polygons. I'm not sure how you're ending up with polygons. Perhaps its because of the Clip Tool. I don't use it very much myself. Add Surface / Subtract Surface / Intersect Surface are commands I use all the time and I've had very few problems with the resulting polylines. Kevin PS> As an aside its interesting how much larger the file is when exported back to VW2008.

Kaare, I entirely support this. I too could care a less about BIM. Every project I work on requires an entirely different approach. I often use the architectural tools, but not in ways they were designed for or intended. The power is there under the hood, it just needs to be revealed. Its like the release of Excel a few years ago where they didn't add features, they just made the existing ones easier to find, renamed them so people actually knew they existed and revamped the user experience. The Fit to Roof command is a prime example. I have never drawn a roof, but I use the command to fit things to other things all the time. I also think that this wish, especially when it comes to modelling tools, is completely appropriate to this thread. When tools fail regularly and have an inconsistent UI, for me that falls under Stability. Kevin

The only way I know of is process of elimination. Save a copy of your file under a new name as a test file. In the test file, delete half the layers or half the classes. If your crashes stop the offending object is in the layers/classes you deleted. If not, choose revert from the File menu and delete the other half of the layers or classes. Keep repeating until you begin to narrow down where the object is. It can take a while, but I have found offending objects this way. Kevin