Marc Davies

@Pat Stanford hi Pat. Thanks for your reply. My query seems to have led you along a different path. It is not the positional value I am looking for, but rather the actual text of the text object reported in the worksheet. E.g I have an unnamed polygon which has a text object typed near its centre which reads “abc”. I can set up a worksheet which finds the x and y centres of the polygon and the x and y centres of the text object. (So I can match them). I can show the Name value of the polygon (empty) so I want the “abc” text Value of the text object which I can then paste into the empty polygon name. My next step is to repeat to extract the polygon name and paste into the Space Number field of a Space object with same 2D centre. I'm sure there are scripts which would do this better, but I’m no script writer. I have looked at marionette, but can’t find a Space object node. So I’m after the actual text of a text object to view in the worksheet if this is possible? [Full kudos and thanks to anyone who can write a marionette script to get the text room numbers which lie within the bounds of a polygon room then create spaces with that number added to The SpaceNumber field, that would solve all my issues. This has to be a regular requirement of anyone working with imported 2D dwg’s who needs to add wonderful data-rich Space objects. Perhaps less so for domestic projects but definitely for multi-storey buildings of say 80 spaces per floor].

Is it possible to get the text value from a text object within a worksheet? I am (still) looking for a way to take a text item from an imported DWG i.e. Room Number, and assign it to the Space Number of the closest Space object. I figure I could do this with a worksheet using the nearest x and y centres, but I still need the text value of my text object.

Hi, I have tried many things but with limited success. My local VWksUK tech support helped to refresh my VWks installation to a clean install which in a simple test of just 4 objects seemed to have worked, but after a short time Vectorworks began crashing due background polling of the ODBC Driver which was reporting to have lost connection. This is what seems to trigger the VWks crash on object connection. Sorry no resolution for me yet. It seems to be a driver connection issue, Because I can get a connection and import data without a crash, but only within a narrow time frame until the next background polling. As to whether the problem lies within Vectorworks or in the Mac system I cannot tell. Needs more VWks tech support.

ODBC has worked really well for me with Filemaker previously, but the connection quality varies over time depending on compatibility of updates for a) operating system ODBC driver, b) ODBC drivers for Filemaker, c) Vectorworks implementation between Service Packs. However when it works, it is truly indistinguishable from magic! When it is up again I plan to set up a how to video for colleagues and I'm happy to share. My plan B is to learn how to query and connect to MySQL, but I suspect the ODBC connection issues are not at the database end on this occasion as I think we are currently in version c) of the above options. I have tried various drivers and the Database connection works, the record format links from Vectorworks are all OK and I can even get small packets of data into the Vectorworks objects on first run (sometimes), but it constantly crashes on object connection. I have a five storey building with 1500 objects on each floor to connect up to an external catalogue of coded items so doing this by hand is (gulp) not really an option I want to pursue. I'm awaiting a VWks tech support call, so will see how that goes. Thanks for your valuable advice.

Thanks Pat, really helpful to know. You have confirmed my searching and prevented me looking further in vain. I'm trying to figure out a workaround for the short-term - I really hope it is short term, until there is a fix for external ODBC object connections for a large catalogue of furniture information I need to get into a VWks BIM drawing.

While ODBC has stopped working in VWks 2020 and Catalina (at least with Filemaker Pro), I am searching for alternative options for a live project. One of these is to find a way to import an excel spreadsheet into VWks - doable as tabbed text import, then to link record fields to the worksheet containing the imported data. This would by-pass ODBC which is great (when it works) but takes more set up for inexperienced users> Also an internal look-ups within a drawing file should be more efficient within the programme. However I cannot find any reference to lookup commands within the Vectorworks ecosystem, no equivalent Lookup and Match or Find routines from Excel for example. I know there are specific search criteria for object data and attributes, but no spreadsheet cell lookups based on Find criteria. Have I missed anything obvious here? Essentially I need to get ID key data from database cells, find matching data from spreadsheet cells and return other values from a row and return them to record fields in the database cells so that I can add Symbol data automatically. Can this be done internally within a Vectorworks file or across referenced VWks files?

Same issues here working on VWks 2020, Filemaker 17, but with FMP19 ODBC connector (having tried 17, 18 and now 19) with latest ODBC Manager for Mac Catalina. Vwks SP4 says this is fixed, but not apparently. Also crashes on Object connection even for 1 row. Mission critical for me. UPDATE: It does seem to be fixed in SP4 - I was on SP3, my error. UPDATE 2: No, it still crashes with SP4, - constantly.

Many thanks @sbarrett I will pursue further. I loved your tutorials btw. They were what piqued my interest in marionette to start with.

Hi, I regularly receive architects base files with polygons and separate text elements for room numbers and names. I want to extract these and create Vectoroworks Space objects with the same number and name fields. It looks like it should be easy for Marionette to do this, it just isn't easy for me to configure Marionette! Has anyone else had a similar requirement (and solved it) I wonder?

Thanks Marissa. File attached (via separate private message) with two test Marionette versions. The bottom one is the problem with the Mirror node. The top one is my attempt to do the same with Duplicate and Move and Flip nodes - which I am also having some issues with, but that is probably just my lack of Mrionette experience getting in the way.

Hi, I have been trying to mirror (and Duplicate) 3D items e.g. a left door and handle mirrored around the centre of a carcase to create the right door and mirrored handle. Everything works fine in 2D pla, but mirrored duplicates of the 3D extruded versions drop 50mm or so below the original. When I use the debug tool to select the input strings, everything jumps into place as expected. Is this a bug, bug or simply my implementation is wrong? I'm providing Point3 x, y, z inputs with same x and different y (to create a top-plan vertical axis) and same Z=0. Using Point2 input makes no difference.

Hi @PatStanfordOk I understand the difference between A) “default” values for Record Fields -as defined during Field creation and B) the data added to fields when editing a Symbol definition which has a record attached in an unselected state. These are very esoteric differences but I see that they are different although for new users they are very confusing and I’m still not certain about hierarchy of precedence when reading the data in a worksheet, I will have to experiment further. If your script writes data from Symbol instances back to Symbol definitions, then I can either look up external data, attach it to instances or add the data in a Worksheet of my symbol instances and then use the script to post the new data back to the Symbol Definition. That would help enormously. Any progress with the script?

Hi Both, missed your recent replies sorry. I have followed your advice @markdd and used the change all fields for those items where I could which has helped get me a long way forward. So many thanks as I had missed that option. For the questions you posed @Pat Stanford, it is something of a combination. Do each of the symbol definitions have the same record(s) attached? - Yes. Do you want the data for a specific record to be the same for all symbol definitions? - Some fields yes, for Category/Group fields others need to be individual, e.g. cat refs and dimensions. Do you want to change the data for all symbol definitions with that record attached? To the same value? - No. Do you want to change the data attached to the symbol definition? Or do you want to change the default values for the record? They are different. - Probably the latter (b. below) if I understand the difference correctly. a) = changing the record format attached to the symbol. b) = changing default field values within the record format. Is that what you mean? The script sounds interesting. It is not something I do each week, probably every other month, but can apply to many, say 50 or so, symbols. It would be really useful to add these via copy and pasteable data into worksheets to attache to unique cat referenced objects of similar types. i.e. All repeating data for say "Chairs" plus individual dimensional details and finishes references which will differ by Chair "Range". I have tried to extract dimensional data from the symbol images as x and y width and height parameters, but I have not got these to stick in the data fields yet.

Thanks markdd. I have attached Records already, but I need to attach data to specific fields for a number of symbol definitions at once. I still haven't found a method for this yet.

Is there a quick method of adding default (sticky) data to symbols en masse, without having to edit each Resource Browser item one by one? I don't mean editing per file after the symbol is imported, (I can achieve this via ODBC to Filemaker), I mean at root definition level so that on import the data is already attached.

Many thanks for this Pat. 26th December! I hope your Christmas holidays were not interrupted by my query. All the best for the New Year. I will work through your example and see where this gets me. Regards Marc Davies

@Pat Stanford Is there an easy way to do a "fill down" entry to assign incrementing numbers to a database field and thereby add ID numbers to the records?

Data Visualization is a wonderful tool and I have been applying it liberally with Auto-colour across a multi-floor BIM model to illustrate furniture by team. However, having 40 teams across my model means that viewports contain more key text info than the model area! I found the column break integer in the OIP but is there a method of reducing the key to only reflect the items within the viewport for say a single floor rather than for the whole model?

Hi Charlie, Yes opened up the text box width but it reverts back to single character and then wraps to single character.

Update: I have discovered that in 2019 Service Pack 2, the Space object number (which automatically populates the "Name" field at the bottom of the OIP) now shows when selecting Locations in worksheet database criteria. Still not very user friendly, compared to using the "Space Name" but at least it is accessible now. Thanks for your previous input.

Having issues with text wrapping in our in-house Drawing Label symbol. Text is linked to record but if "wrapping" button is checked, then it only wraps one letter width resulting in many single letter columns. This is an issue I have seen in previous upgrades (probably decades ago). Nothing on the forum, is anyone else getting the same or have a fix?

Hi Pat, thanks for the reply. I have been working on the Report Example file you provided above, but added a Space object to test it. I copied and pasted the object name of the Space Object (from the bottom of OIP) but it doesn't seem to work with or without the curly braces. Also tried Sum((Loc(SpaceName ='MySpaceName'))) and variations thereof but no deal. Of all the pop up options for calculating, SpaceName seems not to be available for the cells. I can get it to work vertically down the rows, but not horizontally across the columns.

Struggling to get the Spaces version to work.

Plus, (and I hope someone is listening who can make this happen) worksheets do not have any "fill down" function for number incrementation. This would really help in other situations, but not this particular "stamp" issue.

Thanks Samuel, I know I could do that and also add text-linked desk numbers, but it is generally easier to run amok with the stamp tool on the furniture objects in a layout for numbering because it is not easy to add numbers within worksheets as one cannot see the object. Additionally clients often have a specific preference for the numbering sequence positions. Entering via OIP records fields is similarly overly long-winded, requiring field hopping and manual incrementing, unlike the excellent auto-increment available with a data tag. If only I can get it to work.