Samuel Derenboim

Hi, Many a time where you happened to want to create a library but found it too cumbersome because the record information must be written directly in the resource manager rather than a spreadsheet? Is it possible to write existing record information inside of a symbol to the symbol definition please? This would tremendously expedite symbol and library creation.

There are 3 things you need for point cloud modeling in VW 1. Laser Scanner 2. Registration - what this does is it connects the scanning worlds of different files into one. Essentially what it means is that every scan that you take /with or without targets gets saved as one scanning world. Your job afterwards is to combine them to get one giant scan of the entire facility. An entire facility can have as many as 20 - 100 scan worlds. Be ready for a heapload of memory (storage) use in order to register the information. Recap isn't a very good program - simply because it is designed to register the files automatically and isn't very accurate. For your purposes you probably will need 1 / 16" or 1 /32" accuracy, and proper alignment is imperative. I would recommend Leica Cyclone software, however this isn't a very cheap program in of itself. Registration can be done manually or automatically, and it tells you how precise your registration is based on the number of targets you aligned with every scan world. (you need at least 3 - 4 targets) There are others, but cyclone is the only one I've used by far so far, and on a very very complicated project. Some other software include a. Recap b. Pointools c. Faro Scene d. VisionLidar e. 3dReshaper 3. Once you have assembled all of the scan worlds in one registration file (.pts, or .laz, or .las) you can import it into vectorworks. There are a variety of methods how you can process the information once the point cloud is imported, however, workflow would depend on you, your computer power and your graphics card. Hope this helps.

Is it possible to create a plugin or marionette that reads a worksheet or spreadsheet and uses that information to generate wall styles? The reason for this is because in todays world - the amount of wall types, STC ratings, UL ratings, and R ratings of wall styles is dramatically increasing. In order to minimize the production time for generating wall styles for a firm, what if they were able to be generated from a spreadsheet? Using the same information that you would receiving information from a schedule, instead you generate the wallstyles by imputing the information into a table using the same record labels for the parameters that set the thickness of components, description of components, and description of the wall style, UL and STC ratings / R & U values.

Mark, I agree, it only works with the wall tool. But other than that, there is no other way of using it? It seems promising - it assigns record information to symbols that are not plug-in objects, but for wall types - it just reflects the information. Is it because the record information is locked? and if so - is it possible to lock symbol record information?

Good afternoon everyone, Could someone help me out? I've scoured the VW forum for displaying record information from a symbol using the ID Label tool. So far i've used the default equipment record label and assigned the same equipment record to the symbol. However, one thing i noticed is that the ID label tool always overwrites the information in the symbol with the record information rather than simply displaying it. Is there a way to just dispay the information therein? not erase and overwrite it? Thanks in advance community !

sorry everyone, figured out the solution to importing classes. Just for reference though, what is the reason for this function? to change active classes in the document?

Is it me, or is class and layer mapping broken under SP 2 VW 2018? I try to save my classes to a txt file, but I cannot import any classes into a new file. Could anyone verify?

Pat, Thank you! Just modified your code to make it work in one column. Just make a worksheet column show this below: =value(substring('property line'.'area', ' ', 1)) Just curious, why is this such a hassle for property lines? Couldn't they just make it originally a numeric function?

Good afternoon Everyone, I'm having a real problem with calculating area summaries for the Property line plug in object. I've been trying a number functions additional to =('property line'.'area') in order to convert this string into a numeric value. I've tried =value, =area, =round, =num, =str2num, etc... and I can't for the life of me get it to work. Anyone had any similar problems - VW 2018 SP2 PS - I checked the VW forum records, there was a similar wishlist item, but for some reason =area function worked in that instance. Any help please? Thank you in advance!

Hi all, another question, Is turning mass individual groups into individual and separate symbols a possibility? and second - how would i go about learning the functions of the included marionnette objects inside of vw?

Hi everyone, Has anyone tried to write symbol instance record definition information to a symbol definition record using a marionette?

Hi DomC, Just curious, is it possible to do something similar with IFC or revit import?

Good afternoon everyone, I wanted to inquire about two things today - 1. Is it possible to center all objects in a symbol to a center? I.E. Group all objects in the symbol and center them based on origin? 2. Is it possible to mass convert all nested symbols inside of symbols into groups? 3. Is there an easier way to replace or merge the same symbols inside a vectorworks folder? This is a major hurdle when created libraries from existing dwg files - 1 - Vectorworks makes a copy of all the nested symbols from separate files after import and then renumbers them from 1 to however many copies there are. Getting rid of them and cleaning up the file becomes a very grueling task. Was hoping someone has had similar issues? Is there an easier way to replace these copies other than right clicking -> replace with? Selecting a bunch and just saying merge would be a wonderful addition to vw, unless something like that exists? A possible workaround this matter would be to convert all nested symbols into groups upon import and then delete all the nested symbols inside of the file. But then there is the task of eliminating or merging similar hatches, line types, records, etc... 2. When importing dwg files directly into symbols - not all files have a 0,0 origin from the dwg file. Is it possible for vectorworks to assign it to all the symbols after they were imported? or perhaps during? 3. Is there a way to convert mass individual groups to independent symbols? In other words - select three groups - create three independent symbols based on their internal origin? I'm attaching a file that shows some of the problems I'm having.... Sample_symbols_import.vwx

Pat, thank you for that. Definitely makes sense. Yes, If i were to want to make a library, id use the script in the instances definition and update the symbol definition only, but surprisingly i wasn't aware this would be such a complicated task to figure out a work around. I thought there was a method inside of vectorworks that allowed for updating a symbol's default definition's from an instance definition already, thinking its one of the only natural ways to make drag and drop methods of BIM / Parametric objects inside of VW. How do you guys make your own libraries? Or do you just update the spec when you need to specify after dragging in default symbols with these records? Here is a file with an example of what I'm referring to. Say i want to create a library of lighting fixtures that are compatible with a worksheet that i have already created. The idea scenario is to create symbols for each of the lighting fixtures, modify them in the work sheet, and then update the symbol definitions from the instances. You can see i have a custom record format with many records already in order to calculate wattage and specific requirements in my jurisdiction. Furthermore, Libraries can then be shared among users in the community, allowing the BIM library to grow. Autodesk compromised the market by being first and becoming a 'standard' format. VW can combat it by using the community i think. Just some thoughts. Lighting_Fixture.vwx

Its a real shame. This makes making libraries much harder than i thought it would be. The idea is to create a library using office wide record formats. I.E. for lighting fixtures, Lighting controls, FFE, among several others. My goal is to create libraries for the office with the goal of just dropping the symbol into the file and have the worksheets already pick up the information. Seems there is another way, like setting up a database, and then just picking the database object to represent the symbol...but it seems complicated. The typical record format i have about 10 records not including notes. Lighting controls have about 7. I wanted to create a new format that calculated light fixture spacing from the spec and standard requirements as well, which would make that a 7-8 records as well to make the formula work. Would love to have the record fields updated in the symbol definition... Can a script be written for this? or a marrionette?

Hello Everyone, In a bit of a bind here. Is there an easy way to update the record information from inside the workspace after the symbol has been inserted? I noticed that It's very easy modifying records from inside a work sheet, but it it doesn't update the attached record to the symbol inside of the resource manager. Is there a way to do this? Can anyone please help? Thank you in advance.

Good evening everyone, Perhaps there is a feature i'm unaware of, but is there a way to add attached records from inside a drawing to the global symbol ? Vectorworks seems to create a temporary record (if its custom) specifically for that symbol...I was wondering if there was a method of applying an existing record to the symbol itself - without having to re-attach records to the symbol from the resource manager. Any ideas?

I have, i never really used it before. I added the directories in the preferences folders, but whenever i add files, nothing shows up. Even after refresh. I'm running VW 2018

Hi All, I can't wrap my head around this feature in the libraries. I have found the directory for both user libraries and workgroup libraries. Even if I add a file in there, it doesn't show up. Could someone help me out?

hi all again, Is there a way to mass import several revit libraries? It would be extremely useful to make custom libraries for vectorworks from already made revit object libraries. Currently, importing one by one is a bit cumbersome, wanted to get a take on how to do that at a faster pace? A script perhaps? or is there a way to do this via marionette tool? Looking forward from hearing some ideas. Best, Sam

Matt, any new ideas on how to update and create new catalog items? I can't seem to extract or eliminate the information for new catalogs, let alone modify them in excel. I do not know how to export the file so that the format will be the same as the catalog txt file. Any ideas?

Hi everyone, I have been wondering the new title block feature - is there a way to callout a time stamp (as opposed to a date stamp) for the titleblock? The time stamp tool doesn't work inside of the titleblock, and was wondering how that could be fixed? It useful in determining the latest revision of a set that might've not been issued as a new revision or a new issue set. Hoping to get some suggestions. The secret i think is in the new pop-up feature shown in the sheet and project dataset? Now, only if i knew a way to callout the timestamp function....

I've had a bit of a problem with aligning the sheet because of the inherent bleed and margins for the printer. Usually its at 3/16" or so, but this configuration could vary depending on the printer you use. VW sees the margin and automatically integrates it into the paper space. So there are two ways to move it, based on dragging the edge to the bleed mark you set up in your title block (it drags by the bleed edge, not the edge of the sheet) or when you use the page tool - after pressing tab and accessing the position menu - enter 0, 0, 0 for all three components. It then resets it back to the 0 position. But if the page is offset, the tool doesn't center it to the page, it centers it to the 0,0,0 mark. That I think is the biggest problem that everyone is having. Hidden classes could be an issue, but with me it definitely wasn't and after experiments with a new file (no classes), I can confirm the tool doesn't position the titleblock on page center.

I get your frustration. I'm there with you. I had to spend some time doing the same thing on my end as well, and I could see how that could be a problem if you have hundreds of sheets. I've noticed certain things you cannot do in the new titleblock feature - you can't put a time stamp inside. A date stamp is included, but I do not know how to integrate a time stamp. It's useful in recognizing the latest issues that were printed beforehand by seeing what time and date it was printed. But the time stamp tool doesn't work in the titleblock, nor is there an option inside the titleblock tool for one. Perhaps either a script or some command line? Will contact VW regarding that.

In that case I'll experiment. What do you supposed would be a good indicator, file size? or ease of navigation? I mean the two are interrelated, but still, don't know if a same sized mesh would operate the same sized (polycount) generic solid or nurbs object for that matter. nurbs are subdivided, so I don't know how that would reduce poly count. Thanks for the heads up either way, i'll experiment, see where that takes me.