PeterT

Additional information after further testing: I have been testing the function on a low wall with wood cap, which has two outer solid lines (the cap) and two inner dashed lines (the wall below). Apparently this wall style had been imported from previous versions, so I thought I would try it on a newly created wall style. So, I created a new wall style with the exact same line attributes as the imported style (i.e. the low wall with wood cap). Running the "GetComponentPenStyles" on this wall returns different values, but still not correct. This time I still get a 0 for the outer (solid) line and a 13 for the inner (dashed) line. Still a zero for the solid line and no negative number for the dashed line. For the next test, I changed the dashed line to pattern #13 and kept the solid line solid to see what I would get. This time when I ran the function it returned the expected values, a 2 for the solid line and a 13 for pattern #13. I only changed the dashed line to a pattern, so why would the unchanged solid line return a different value than before? Next, I ran the function on a simple hidden wall (i.e. no components, dashed outer lines). Here I actually get a negative number for the right component line (even though there are really no components in this wall). This function seems totally whacked out, especially if you use a dashed line for one of the inner components. Once again it appears related to the confounding switch from Dash Style attributes to Line Type resources. Please fix this function so that it works with walls of all line types, not just solid or patterned lines. If anyone has a workaround, please let me know.

Can anyone shed some light on what this function really returns? The Function reference for VW versions 2013, 2014 and 2015 all say the same thing regarding the right and left component pen style variable: "Returns the pen style of the component's line. Positive values for patterns, negative values for dash styles." Using this function in VW 2013 on a solid wall component line returns 2, but for a Line Type (dashed) wall component line it returns 3 (Not a negative number). In 2014 or 2015, a solid wall component line returns 0 (Neither positive or negative), and for a Line Type (dashed) wall component line it returns 2. Clearly the Function References are all incorrect, since after v. 2012 a dash style is now called a Line Type anyway, and the above function no longer returns a negative value for the "Line Type" component pen style, and as of 2014 it returns a 0 for a solid pen style. With a 0 for solid, how do you know if the line is solid foreground or solid background? I am pretty sure that 0 is no fill, 1 is solid background and 2 is solid foreground. Is this a bug, or if not, what should I expect returned for solid lines and various different line types?

Why is it that in a script that has only 2050 character in it, plus an include file to the Dialog Builder Utilities, when I click OK in the VectorScript Editor (VW v.2013), I get a message that the vector script contains 66680 characters in it and that 34679 characters will be lost, and do I wish to continue? The message goes on to say that I should consider using $INCLUDE files to include large vector scripts in my code. This is a scary message, but it deletes nothing from the file when OK is clicked. Why does this message come up at all when: A. My file is only 2050 characters long. B. My file already has an include file in it. This is a bogus message, and does nothing. Why does it come up?

I have a custom dialog script I have been using for years, and it has about 67,000 characters in the script. I am updating my dialog handling calls to the new handler calls, as the current ones are deprecated. Every time I exit the dialog though, I get a message saying the VS editor cannot save a vector script with more than 32,001 characters in it, and I should use Includes. It says that everything over the 32001 limit will be lost, yet when I click O.K. it saves the script with all 67000 characters intact and strips nothing from the file. The script still functions perfectly. Is this a new message or an old message, as I have never seen the message before? But either way, why does it let me save the file when it says it will not? It is a little scary seeing the message that half my code will be lost, but nothing happens, so should I just ignore this message? I will probably get around to doing some includes eventually, but right now I am just trying to update the code to the new calls. I am working in the 2013 VS editor. Any info on this appreciated.

Thanks, I just added the "Standard Palettes" item to my workspace and now have the OIP functionality again. Do not know why I could not find that yesterday. Another question, what is the Debug menu that appears in the DB6 workspace after installing? It has only one item under it "Function Reference", but selecting it just brings up the open dialog. Can this be directed to a Function Reference file that would open when chosen? It seems to be looking for a .xml file, but the function reference in the VW folder is an html document, so it will not open. Is there any documentation on how to use this menu?

O.K. I was working in VW 2013 when this problem occurred. I reopened the file in VW2014 and DB6 seems to be working, and the OIP is there. But I will be sure not to close the Object Info Palette since there is no way to bring it back once you close it. This seems like a really bad "feature".

I am creating a dialog with DB6 and my Object Information Palette has been turned off. How do I get it back? There is no Palette Menu in the DB6 Workspace, therefore Command "I" does not work. I also tried adding the "Activate Object Info Palette" command to the workspace but it is greyed out in the document menu. I tried switching to a different workspace and making the OIP visible, but it disappears when I go back to the DB6 workspace. I have restarted Vetorworks and I have restarted my Mac, still not Object Info Palette. I do not know what the "Show Layout Properties" command is in DB6, as every time I choose it, Vectorworks crashes. You need the Object Info Palette to create your Layout, so why is it not available? Is there something I am missing?

Thanks, but I am not looking for the Function Reference, I am looking for the Language Guide. The "Annotated Function Reference" Link on the website takes you to the Developer Site, but the Language Guide at the Developer Site has the same date on it as the one in the 2013 App folder, except it has the chapters on User Interface (Custom Dialogs), Plug-ins, Development tools etc. deleted from it. I guess that information has now been put on the Developer Site instead. For my level of dialog script writing Dialog Builder 6 is way more complex than Dialog Builder 4 or 5 ever was. I successfully built many dialogs with DB4, I hardly know where to start with DB6. The DB6 "Tips and Tricks" Documentation helps, but It falls short for me as I am not an expert, and I find it a bit confusing. I am just trying to update a dialog script I wrote years ago, since all the handler routines I used are now deprecated. I guess I need to spend some time at the VW Developer site.

Where is the VS Language Guide for 2014? There does not seem to be one on the web page or in the 2014 Vectorworks folder help files. The 2013 version seems to be showing examples with deprecated functions for dialog box handling. I was hoping to find examples with currently used handler routines.

Sorry, I guess there is a built in procedure "SetTextWrap". Did not see it at first.

Does anyone know if there is an ObjectVariableBoolean index number for "Wrap Text"? I can not find it in the appendix.

In a related issue, why do you not get to the "Symbol Options" when right clicking on a symbol, but you get the symbol options if you double click the symbol in the drawing, or option double click it in the Resource Browser? It seems to me that you should see the same option choices whether you are right clicking or double clicking the symbol in either the drawing or the resource browser.

It is nice in VW 2014 that if you measure an object in a sheet layer Viewport it now reads at the scale of the viewport, not the sheet scale of 1:1. The next thing I would like is either a preference or an object Info palette checkbox option to "Show Dimension Values at Scale of Viewport" when on a sheet layer. I know that you can always annotate a viewport to have dimensions appear at the right scale, but it is several extra steps, and sometimes I would like to just add a simple dimension right on the sheet layer, but have it display the correct value. Obviously the correct value is available, as it displays with the tape measure tool, so why couldn't you just check a box on the OIP for a dimension to display at the viewport scale? Or another way would be to have a scale pulldown in the OIP for dimension display, so you could draw something at any scale, but tell the dimension what scale you want it to display in, and it would do the conversion.

O.K. I know this is not a top priority request, but I have never understood why the Rotate Tool icon was changed after version 12.5. Currently, the Rotate Tool icon shows an arrow going around a center point Clockwise. If you select an object, double click the Rotate icon, enter a positive value, and click O.K., what direction does the selected object rotate? It rotates Counter-Clockwise! I know that counter-clockwise is the positive direction in VW, but when double clicking the tool it is a bit counter intuitive as to what direction your object will rotate, as it shows a clockwise arrow. In VW version 12.5, and every version before, the Rotate Tool icon showed an arrow going counter-clockwise about its center, but in coming up with a fancy new tool icon it was changed to clockwise in 2008 or 2009. Was it really important to change the implied direction of rotation on the Icon? O.K., finally, my request, fix the icon to show the positive rotation direction.

Couldn't you use the VW Hyperlink tool to accomplish what you want? If you create a new Hyperlink and just use the text symbol as your link, then change the text to a few blank characters, you can then place this blank symbol right on top of you reference marker. Then when you command click the link, it will either open a file, activate a Saved View or activate a Sheet Layer depending on how you set the prefs. I just made one of these, put it over my detail reference marker, and when I command click it, it opens my Detail Sheet.

Not sure if this might help, but you could use the Align Objects Command, align the objects both vertically and horizontally with the "Center" buttons set, and that would stack all the centers of the objects on top of each other. You could then move one object to a distance the total of the separation lengths, then Align objects again, but choose Distribute with the "Spacing" button set. Of course, this would only work for equally spaced objects, and you would have to do the math to figure the total separation length so the spacing between the objects would come out right after they are distributed.

It would be nice if the Leader and Trailer fields for dimensions would also recognize the Diagonal or Vertical Stacking preference for dimensions that is set in the "Units" dialog under the "Factional Display for Dimensions" setting. In our office we use the "Diagonal Stacking" preference, which works great for typical dimensions, but when we enter a fractional dimension in the leader or trailer field, the fraction does not stack the same as all the other dimensions in the same drawing. In fact, it would be great if there was a similar Fractional Stacking preference for text in general as sometimes we write text blocks that have fractional numbers in them (such as an 11 7/8" TJI floor joist callout) and the fractions look different than the dimensions on the same sheet.

Well sure, we always do have it set to create text without fill. The issue was, when you want to turn fill on so you can read the dimension over the background, such as a dimension in the middle of an area of brick hatching. Also, often when I go to grab a dimension line to pull the dimension away from an object, unless I zoom way in, I end up just pulling the text away from the dimension line because the text is stacked on top of the dimension line so your cursor grabs the text instead of the line. If I zoom in to 1000% I can grab the line without changing the text offset, but I get tired of zooming in and out just to move a dimension line.

I would like to see a change in the way the dimension object container stacking order is set. Currently the dimension text is the topmost item in the container such that when you turn on solid fill of the text to make it readable over a busy background it obscures the dimension string, the witness line and part of the marker if you have a very short dimension (like 6") or if your dimension standard has the text very close to the dimension line. In this case, the white box of the text fill can block the lines and marker objects If the dimension text was behind the lines and marker in the container object stacking order this would not happen. The filled text would still block objects in the background, but would not block parts of the dimension itself.

If you are using an HP Driver, there should be a "Rotate 90?" check box in the Finishing tab of the Printer Features in the Print Dialog Check or uncheck this box as desired and save it as a print preset. This will rotate the printed page despite what you have chosen for orientation in the Page Setup.

More and more jurisdictions are going towards digital submittal of construction documents. We have come across our first submittal in California where the Jurisdiction is asking us to submit our drawings digitally on a CD for plan check. We still need to sign the drawings, of course, but Vectorworks has no mechanism for digital signatures. Both AutoCAD and Bentley's Microstation allow for digitally signing documents from within the application. Both of them are using a third party solution called CoSign by Arx which allows the application of a legal digital signature upon exporting to PDF. The authenticity of the signature can then be verified by anyone opening the drawing in Acrobat Reader and clicking on the signature. Vectorworks needs to implement some solution like this if they want to keep up with the future of architectural drawing submittal.

Exactly, now try it in version 2011 and you will see the presets hold for various different setups just fine. This problem started with version 2012 and has been there ever since. And it is only a problem with the settings in the Vectorworks tab of the Print dialog. I can save different setups for "printer features" or "Layout" or "Color settings" or any of the other tabs. This tells me this is a Vectorworks specific issue, not a print center problem.

Jim, Are you saying you can save two different setups and switch between the two? For example, do a print call, uncheck all the check boxes and save as "setup 1", then re-check all check boxes and save as "setup 2". Then switch between the two setups. Are you saying the boxes all remain unchecked when you choose "Setup 1" and remain all checked when you choose "Setup 2"? This is not the case on my machine since version 2011.

We change the gray level for grayed layers and classes depending on which printer we are using. We used to be able to save the percentage of Gray as a preset in the print dialog so we could just choose the correct setup when going to a certain printer. This has now been broken for several versions of Vectorworks, and whatever level of gray you set and save, it does not hold, and reverts to whatever it was set to before the save. In fact, none of the checkboxes in the Vectorworks tab of the print dialog can be saved as a preset, so it is back to the dark ages where you either write down or take a screen shot of your various setups so the next time you want that print setup you can remember the settings. Apple has built this preset functionality into the print dialog for a reason. I wonder why Vectorworks chooses to ignore it. Presets work in v 2011, Presets are broken in v. 2012, 2013, 2014.....

I have been using the local mapping feature of hatches lately and there are many anomalies with the feature. The first one I noticed was that I was losing the local mapping after printing the file with Quartz Imaging disabled. The latest problem I am having is scaling locally mapped hatches. If your hatch is set to World Units it should appear correctly when copied and pasted to a layer of a different scale. But if you do this with a locally mapped the hatch, it ignores the unit setting and only uses the I Length and J Length setting inside the local mapping, so the hatch appears incorrect at the different scale. The work around is to uncheck the local mapping box, then the hatch rescales to the world setting, but you lose the local adjustment. Then you re-check the local mapping box to regain the local adjustment. This is crazy. The I Length and J Length of the local mapping should automatically adjust to the new scale if the units are set to World Units.