Tim Harland

Thanks @Tom W. that coffee break was quite helpful - I must have missed it. HI @Luka Stefanovic OK that is good to know it can be done. It wouldn't just be for formating, we would also use it for data entry, especially as it is much quicker and less destructive to filter lists in excel. There are also still advantages to formatting in excel (printing over multiple pages for instance, adding headers & footers, printing headers on multiple pages) unless there are additional printing option for worksheets that I have missed in the last few versions? It is also necessary for excahnging information with clients and consultants. As far as I understand it from your Coffee Break, we would have to have a referenced version of the Excel Schedule that is linked to a Database worksheet (eg. via the Door number or a Door Type). But all the information about the item being scheduled would have to be just in the excel file - we wouldn't be able to have the information about the item as a record field in the symbol? In the coffee break example would it have been possible to change any of the information about the sanitaryware products within vectorworks? I guess it would be possible in the refenced Excel file, but not in the Database worksheet? So again in that example you wouldn't be able to select all sanitary objects from a particular manufacturer, or with a particular finish? In your example would it have been possible to list all the objects indivually and add other information from a record format eg Layer or class or a record format attached to the symbol? That could potentially work for us. What would be most useful for us would be to be able to for instance change the fire rating of a door in vectorworks and then update the excel version of our door schedule to reflect this without having to do an export. Of course it would be amazing if we could also make changes in the excel that would be reflected in the vectorworks file but I can see how that is technically very challenging and would essentially need a permanet connection to the vectorwokrs file to know the state of all the objects that were being scheduled.

I am starting to explore the new excel referencing in Vectorworks 2024. Am I correct in thinking that only 'dumb' / self contained worksheets can be referenced, ie if we have a worksheet with database rows and or fields that are reading information from record formats there is no way to link them to an excel file? This seems to limit the benefits of this new feature significantly if the worksheet can't take advantage of the data contained within the vectorworks file? Or am I missing how to do this? How I had hoped this feature would work when I saw it announced would have been; that when have for instance our door schedule generated with information from our door symbols, that we would have been able to link that schedule to an excel file where we could format it more easily and use the filtering funtion in excel to interact with our schedule, and any changes in the vectorworks files would be reflected in the excel file. In an ideal world we would also be able to update any fields not linked to the geometry or location of the object.

I'd love to know too - do walls fit perpendicularly as well as along their length for example?

Hi, yes exactly that is what we would like - otherwise we need to manually upload the referenced files and try and keep tabs of whether they have been updated.

We often reference multiple models together for out final renderings - to test variations and add people and lighting without making our core model files to cumbersome. However we cannot render files with referenced elements using the cloud referencing service, only the elements that are in the actual file are referenced. It would be good if cloud rendering recognised that elements are referenced and copied them over to the cloud too - doing this manually is too cumbersome.

Is it possible to have an new elevation benchmark set to use class settings for its graphic attributes? I'd like to be able to set the one benchmark style on different classes with different colours but as far as I can see you have to fix the class of the graphics in the benchmark style and when you place the benchmark there is no way of controling which class it is on?

When we attempt to use cloud rendering on 3D models where certain elements are referenced into the file using tradititional referencing, the referenced elements are not rendered?

Does anyone know if this has been addressed in VW 2023?

IN the German version of Vectorworks it is possible to show the heights of doors or windows directly in associative dimensions (see the video here for a demonstration). When selecting the SIA Dimension type the Height of the openings is shown greyed out in the dimension info box but there is no way to get the dimension to show this information. That is very confusing for our users as they can see that the dimension recognises the height of the opening but can't work out how to get it to show up. We have a work around using data tags but that is a bit clunky especially when you adjust the offset of the dimension line. It feels like this would be a positive development for intelligent models especially seeing as there is already a tool available in a localised version.

I've just seen that this is on the development roadmap, so not in 2023, but at least coming at some stage.

I take it in Vectorworks 2023 the only way to control textures on doors is via classes? This is still very problematic for us as we can't create additional classes for different materials.

It would be helpful (especially for staff less familiar with Worksheets) to be able to control criteria for Database Rows in Worksheets with And/Or functions through the visual interface. At the moment it defaults to 'or' (when one would expect it to be 'and') and the only way to adjust it is to edit the criteria formula to change the vertical bar to and ampersand. As soon as you want to add a new criteria you need to reedit the formula. In the same interface it would be good to be able to change the order of criteria or at least delete criteria that are not at the bottom of the list.

This would streamline our processes in files with large numbers of layers

We also use layers (retained, demolition and new), with layer colour overrides in our sheet layer viewports, and retain a separate 'existing' plan than we can refer back to if things get messed up from too much changing back and forth between retained and demolition. We tend to stay in 2D for refurbishment projects though, doing the same in 3D is a real pain. At early stages we often just mask the existing until we are are more certain if the demolition is really happening. We don't use classes because you need triple the number and we already struggle to manage our existing classes, we also often have class systems defined by our clients. The biggest problem is when we export DWG's and there is no way to distinguish between the different states - for that purpose the class approach is definitely better. there is definitely no good system in Vectorworks at the moment, if you have well set up saved views it can function ok. I did here whispers that there was a new approach to demolition being developed but I haven't seen any evidence of it yet...? Hopefully something like the Archicad renovation filters: https://help.graphisoft.com/AC/24/INT/index.htm#t=_AC24_Help%2F050_ViewsVB%2F050_ViewsVB-122.htm

HI Zoomer, yes I can see your side of it too - is is quite a weird abstract thing to just have this window floating somewhere on a design layer. Like you say if you could see the aspect ration and lock the camera position that would also be a way to do it, the current approach seems very counterintuitive.