P Retondo

Reference the external file layers in separate viewports in separate DL layers. Then you can create Sheet Layer viewports that selectively show any combination of layers from the external files, and manipulate class visibility and graphic overrides layer per layer. Duplicate viewports in DLs in order to show the same external layer differently in different Sheet Layer viewports. Not too difficult or time consuming to do. Once you set up one reference viewport in a Design Layer, duplicate the layer and change the layers visible in the new viewport, etc. Name layers in such a way as to track the content.

If you're working in 3d, in order of importance, processor speed (multi-core good for Renderworks), video card (speed and cache size), min 2GB RAM, 4 better.

Peter, odd behavior, for sure. What I do is go to the resource browser, or simply go to Top/Plan view (Ctrl+5) and edit the 2d by double-clicking, or go to Plan view (5) and edit the 3d by double-clicking.

Vincent and Jim, hate to spoil your bad mood, but I do import and export .dwg several times a week, and I've never experienced the problem you are having. Maybe there is something about your setup or preferences?

Grant, why do we want cadfaster?

After talking to tech support and trying out their suggested solution, it looks like this problem of a corrupted linestyle reference is due to faulty conversion from v2012 to v2013. After reconstructing all references, the problem has gone away.

If your files with references were updated from an earlier version, try reconstructing the references.

Dubman, never had this problem. That's not much help to you, but at least it tells you the problem can be conquered once you figure out what's going on.

Miles, smooth sailing here, same version of VW and OS. Once in a while I get a crash when I inadvertently push wrong or multiple keys.

Does anyone else have this problem? Design layer viewports show dashed lines incorrectly, compared to the linestyles in the referenced file. Some are too short, some are too long, some are just right. I don't see what could be causing this. "Scale with line thickness" has no effect on the problem. Importing the linestyle into the target file has no effect.

I use Vincent's class assignment approach. I also have a class called "Overlay" which allows me to dot in clerestories ("Convert copy to lines" performed on the window to get the objects) when we don't want to show a cut in the wall.

Mike, if you mean that you're using "thumbnails" to display resources, and the triangle that hides/displays items under each category bounces back to an undesired setting everytime you boot VW, that's a long-term behavior. I wish it would get fixed.

I just noticed some weirdness with WGR in 2013 SP1, in a set of files migrated from 2012. Updating an existing reference resulted in a whole series of naming conflicts. The conflicts were between resources in the target document ("Plan") and the same names that existed in the referenced document ("Kitchen") as "groups." Why there are hidden names of groups I don't know. I aborted the update, which did not cause a crash, and cured the problem by: 1) deleted the reference to "Kitchen" in "Plan"; 2) deleted the circular reference in "Kitchen" that showed the floor plan layer from "Plan"; 3) recreated the reference to "Kitchen" in "Plan," no problem experienced; 4) recreated reference to "Plan" in "Kitchen." So far, no problem with all that, and no naming conflicts.

James, I don't think this is as simple as in AutoCAD, but you can delete a reference in the target file and choose to save the reference viewports and referenced resources. In the case of viewports, a new design layer is automatically created which contains the objects originally referenced instead of a viewport, and the layer in which the viewport existed still contains a viewport, but is internally linked to the newly-created design layer. Because of the new layers, one has to tweak visibilities to get things to show up correctly, but the material is essentially consolidated into a single file. I don't use this functionality, so I can't speak to other issues that lurk in the details.

Improved walkthrough performance to a decent level by the following measures: 1) changed NVIDIA settings from multiple monitor to single monitor and turned off anti-aliasing 2) changed OpenGL settings in document to Med detail instead of High 3) changed VW 3d preferences to midpoint for rotation and "always" for retain 3d model.

Having spoken to tech support, apparently this is a bug, supposedly fixed in SP2. But I'll have to wait for SP3 because of the problem in SP2 with work group referencing . . .

Peter, yes I'm aware. Jonathan, thanks for letting me know it works for you! Not working for me . . . something is screwy, maybe I have to start from scratch in 2013 and rebuild the darn thing. BTW, Jonathan, are you using SP2?

Hi Peter, thanks, but don't you want to define the retaining edge BEFORE you update the site model? I'll try updating first and let you know if this works. Later: what happens if you update first is the terrain is warped to meet the undesired pad location instead of cutting vertically down to the pad.

Does anyone have a handle on using pad with retaining edge with the "send to surface" command? From reading the documentation, I expect that the pad stays put and the retaining edge would go to the terrain surface. Sounds great, but I can't get anything to work. (Caveat, I am working with a site model originally created in v2012). When I select just the pad and go "send to surface," nothing happens. When I select the pad and the terrain model and go "send to surface," the pad and retaining edge don't move, and the whole site model moves down to some apparently random location. Pad is set to "modify proposed." Another caveat, I'm still working with SP1 until the WGR issue is resolved. :-( :-(

Vincent, that is psychedelic. OpenGL is on acid. I haven't seen anything like that. It's just the jumping, the sporadic operation, the reversion to wireframe. I found out by accident that if you let a perspective view sit for a few minutes, Walkthrough will give you quite a few seconds of smooth navigation. I reckon this only happens with complex files, but the same project in v2012 was fine.

Christiaan, don't know if I want to go through what you're going through! Let us know if you get to the point of understanding what combination of factors triggers the problem.

I just converted a project from 2012 to 2013 and I'm noticing that OpenGL walkthrough is suddenly slow and exhibits strange behavior. It will update initially at like 1 frame per second (big jumps in space), then if I release the mouse and start again, it will be smooth and fluid for a second or so, then freeze and jump around again. I can repeat release and restart and usually get it to work for a second. Anyone else noticing this? I'm wondering if it's 2013 or something I did in my file. Since I never noticed the on-off smooth behavior before, I'm guessing that there's some kind of key frame or cache that's new in 2013. (I don't use OpenGL shadows, and changing resolution from high to low does not affect performance). VW2013 SP1 Win 7 x64 NVIDIA Quaddro 4000

Christiaan, just about to install SP2, thanks for the tip! Have you reported this to quality control? NNA, are you going to evaluate and let us know if this needs to be fixed and when? SP2 has a ton of bug fixes, some of which are important to me, but when someone like Cristiaan says it doesn't work, we pay attention.

We used to trick data fields into accepting a paragraph return by copying the text in a text object, including a paragraph return, then pasting that into a data field window. If we do that with version 2012 though, the paragraph return is messy (.pdf prints it as a rectangle with an X through it). You can only see this in an exported .pdf, the rectangle doesn't display in VW. Thing is, in a file converted from 2010 to 2012, the paragraph returns in our data fields stay fine. It's only when we create a fresh one with our old method that a problem occurs. So that means there is some ASCI character that can create a clean paragraph return in a data field. Anyone know what that character is?

Hi Nico, I assume you are using the mode "hidden line" when you convert to lines . . .