PeterT

In VectorWorks, "Export DWG". In Sketchup, Import "ACAD Files (*.dwg, *.dxf)" Tips: 1. Before the Export in Vectorworks, put the model in " Top View". This way the model will come in to SketchUp on axis. 2. In the SketchUp Import window, before import, choose "ACAD Files (*.dwg, *.dxf)" in the pulldown menu, then click the "Options" button and make sure the Geometry checkbox is checked for "Merge Coplaner Surfaces". Otherwise the model will come in with lots of triangulated plane surfaces.

...and with version 11.5.1 and 12.5. I guess nobody trims walls with rectangles except me. But could the bug be fixed just for me then?

If you double click a floor object it will enter the group, and you can select the rectangle to get the area. Then, just exit group to get back to the floor slab.

Do your scripts have the appropriate file extensions (I.E. .vso, .vsm, .vst)?

We have limited experience bringing VW models into Sketchup 5 on a Mac. What has worked for us is to Export the model to DWG in Vectorworks 11.5. We choose DWG V. 2000 for the export. Be sure the model is in top view when you export it. In SketchUp we open a new file and choose Import, and set the Format to AutoCAD(*.dwg*.dwf). Next to the Format pulldown, we click the "Options" button and check the boxes for " Merge coplaner faces" and "Orient faces consistently". Navigate to the DWG file and click "Import". If your SketchUp file is defaulted to plan view, the model should come in to SketchUp right on axis. We have not tried this yet in VW 12.5 or SketchUp 6. Good luck.

I am using the SetVPLayerVisibility function in a script to hide or show a layer in a viewport by the user's choice. The problem is that when I show a layer like this when originally hidden, it changes the stacking order of the layers as seen in the viewport and puts the newly visible layer above the other visible layers even if this layer is lower than them in the design layer stacking order. I cannot believe that this is the intended behavior. When viewport layers are turned on using the Info Palette, they stack correctly according to stacking order in the layer list. Why should it be any different when turned visible using a script function? I have only tested this in Top Plan View in VW 11.5 so far. Can anyone verify this, or tell me if there is a work around?

Edit Group, Exit Group, and Top Level are part of a " Menu Chunk". To use them with DoMenuTextByName, use the name of the menu chunk and the item position of 1, 2 or 3. For Edit Group, it woud be: DoMenuTextByName('Group Navigation Chunk', 1); For Exit Group use the index of 2. The names of the menu chunks can be found in the VectorScript Appendix, the index number corresponds to the order of the commands in the menu. Hope that helps.

I have written my first Plug-In Object script in which I hide the visibility of some of the parmeters in the Object Info Palette until other other parameter choices are made. The script is working fine for objects inserted in the drawing, and the visibilities are working as expected in the Info Palette. But before I insert an object, if I open the defaults by clicking in the menu bar to open the Object Properties window, all the parameters are visible no matter what the selected choices are. How do I get the visibilities in the Object Properties Window to behave the same way as in the Object Info Palette? The documentation says that SetParameterVisibility is an "Object Instance" property, so how do I set visibilities in the record itself prior to insertion?

VSD, I don't know about on a PC, but on a Mac, what you are trying to do works fine. I just sucessfully moved the entire Standards folder from my local machine, put it on my File Server, made an alias (shortcut) of the folder and put that back on my local machine. When I create a new class in VectorWorks all the class standards are available. The two things to remember though are that standards load in VectorWorks when the application launches, so the alias to the folder must already be present with the server volume mounted before VectorWorks is launched. So if you make the change with VectorWorks running, be sure to relaunch it. The other thing is that the folder name has to be "Standards" and nothing else. "Standards Alias" did not work as a name. I also tried this leaving the Standards folder on the local machine, and just moving one of the .sta files to the Server, making an alias, and putting that alias back into the Standards folder on th local machine. This also works, as long as VectorWorks is launched after the alias is placed in the folder.

Wow, that sounds like the more likely cause. I didn't even remember you could do that. But the "Show Page Boundry" checkbox is actually in "Page Setup" for v. 12 or "Set Print Area" in v. 11.

How do you know it is behind a layer if you cannot see it? Perhaps it is something else. As far as I know you cannot bring the page boundry to the front, and opaque objects will obscure it. Do you have the reference grid turned on (Tools/Set Grid.../Show Grid Lines)? Can you see the grid? If you select the Move Page Tool and click on the drawing, do you see the "X" marking the location of the page? If you "Select All" and "Fit To Objects", is there perhaps a large object covering the page boundry? You might have to do this for each layer of a different scale with layer options set to modify others.

I noticed this too, and posted it to BugSubmit. The help string displayed is really the help string for "Separate Sheet Views".

You might also want to consider AEC Software's FastTrack Schedule for Mac.

Turn off the "Snap to Grid" constraint if it is active. This might cause the problem you mention. Also, the "A" key toggles this on and off in case this is turning on by accident.

This bug has previously been reported, see this link: Tabs

The "Page Setup" command now brings up what was formarly called "Set Print Area". Inside of the Page Setup dialog there is a "Printer Setup" button that brings up what used to be called Page Setup.

Think of a Workgroup Reference as a snapshot of layers in one file displayed in another file. Each time you update the Workgroup Reference, it deletes everything on the referenced layer, and places a new snapshot there. The referenced layer is technically not linked to the original, it just get updated with a new snapshot each time. This is why it is not a good idea to make modifications to a referenced layer. When you update the reference, the modfications will be wiped clean, and replaced with the new snapshot. Layer Links on the other hand are a dynamic links between layers such that changes made on the original layer are immeadiatly reflected on the Layer Link. Layer Links do not work between files though, they only work between layers within the same file. The good thing about Layer Links is that once unlocked, they can be flipped, rotated, put at a different scale, but because they are dynamically linked to the original, they will maintain the same form as the original, even in their revised orientation or scale. Modifcations to a linked layer are not lost when changes are made to the original layer. Combining these two features allows you to bring a layer into your file from another file using Worgroup References, then create a layer link to a new layer within the same file. If you leave the referenced layer alone, and make your modifcations to the linked layer instead, when you update your Workgroup Reference the updates will be immeadiatly reflected in the Layer Link, and the layer dispaying the link will will keep any modfications you have made to it.

BG, There are 7 types of arrow heads in Vectorworks. "Solid" is type #1, and "Open" is Type #3. To set the default style before drawing a line, just deselect all, and choose type #3 from the pull down in the attributes palette before drawing your line. The Set Arrow Attributes dialog in Tool/Options/Arrow Heads, is for changing the attributes of one of the 7 types, not for setting the default type that VectorWorks uses. If you don't like the way the open (#3) arrowhead looks, you adjust this by choosing #3 in the pulldown list of the Set Arrow Attributes dialog, and adjusting the angle or length of the arrowhead. Katie, I do see what BG is saying though. If you go to the Set Arrow Attributes dialog, and change style #1 to an "open" arrowhead, but also leave style #3 as an "open" arrowhead, VectorWorks does not act appropriatly. It does not seem to like having two types set to the same style. I personally would not want this anyway, but it begs the question: why is there a "Style" pulldown in the Set Arrow Attributes dialog if Vectorworks will not let you use two arrowheads set to the same style? I think this might be a problem for someone who wanted to use, for example, two different types of open arrowheads in the same document.

I don't know what platform you are on, but it sounds like the file does not have Read/Write permissions. If on a Mac, Get Info on the file, and check that it is not Read Only.

I have seen this before. It happens with long filenames. Once you reach a file name with 32 characters, when opened in VectorWorks it trims the filename back to 26 characters and adds some mystery nuber at the end. If you shorten the name to 31 characters, VectorWorks will leave it alone. This has never bothered me though, because the Mac finder still retains the full name, it is only in the VectorWorks title bar that it appears odd.

Get the name of the NEGATIVE index number i.e. gradientName := INDEX2NAME(-gradientIndex); I can't recall where I learned this, but for negative index numbers you need to get them back to positive before you get the name. Same for Hatches.

Also, the Import SketchUp command is only available if you have Architect, Landmark, Spotlight, or Machine Design installed. If you are using Fundamentals, you are out of luck.

I think you did explain it well. You cannot import a .VSO or .VSM file using the "Find Resource" command because plug-ins are not drawing resources that can be imported into a drawing. .VSO or .VSM files are files accessed by the VectorWorks application using the VectorScript plug-in Editor to edit them, or by the Workspace Editor to add them to your workspace. If you want to add the script contained in the plug-in file to a specific drawing file you could open the plug-in using the VectorScript Plug-in Editor, copy the text of the script, create a new VectrorScript in the Resource Browser and paste the text of the script into your new VectorScript and save it to a script palette in your file. This of course assumes that the plug-in is not encrypted, and you can open it to copy the text in the first place. But this is not the way plug-ins are intended to be used, and you might get bad results using it from a script palette. A .VSM is a VectorScript Menu Command, and a .VSO is a Vectorscript Plug-in Object, and both should be placed in you workspace using the Workspace Editor. I think your Resource Browser is working fine, you just cannot do what you are trying to do.

I am not sure what you are trying to do, but I think I might. Plug-ins are not document resources until they are placed in a drawing and turned into a symbol. Plug-ins are really application resources, and are available in any document through the Workspace Editor. Just edit your Workspace and add the plug-in to your Workspace as a tool or a menu command. When you open the the Workspace Editor, if you select the Tools or Menus tab, and then open the "All" folder, the plug-ins will all be there in alphebetical order. If the plug-in you are looking for is an "Object" Plug-in, you will most likely find it in the Tools tab of the Workspace Editor. Once you have added the tool to your workspace exit the Workspace Editor. Now open your document, select your tool, and place a copy of your object in the drawing. If you then wish to make it a plug-in object that appears in resources palette for that document you need to make a symbol of the plug-in. Just select the placed object in your drawing, and chose 'Create Symbol" from the Organize Menu. In the Create Symbol dialog, click the "Options" button and select "Convert to Plug-in Object" if you want the object to convert back to a parametric plug-in when it is placed in the drawing. Name your symbol, exit the dialog and you are done. Plug-in objects made into symbols like this will appear red in the Resource Browser. When placed in the drawing they will convert back to the plug-in with all the same parameters as if placed from the plug-in tool. You can now delete the tool from your workspace if you want to. You only need the tool to create the original instance of the plug-in that you make the symbol out of. As long as the Plug-in script remains in you Plug-ins folder, the Plug-in symbol you made will continue to function.

You might want to install the one Orso B. Schmid has posted at the VectorDepot site: Vector Depot Misc I think it is labeled for VW 12, and I believe it works better than one that comes with TextWrangler. After installing in User/Library/Application Support/Textwrangler/Language Modules, it becomes available to TextWrangler in addition to the one that is already there.