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Andy Broomell

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Posts posted by Andy Broomell

  1. 16 minutes ago, ThreeDot said:

    ...but it seems that Vectorworks files have to live in the VCS folder. I don't want to duplicate Vectorworks files into a VCS folder, nor do I want to relocate active project files outside of the Dropbox project folder. I guess I don't understand how the Vectorworks-Dropbox integration is supposed to work.

     

    I'm in the same boat of not quite understanding.

  2. Try the following:

     

    Find the Style in the RM, right click, Edit, choose the component that's not following the reshape, click Edit, then see if "Follow Top Wall Peaks" is checked.

     

    5a998796595c3_ScreenShot2018-03-02at9_18_24AM.thumb.png.344b551af90c21c4ec28a614af52507d.png

  3. I might be picturing it wrong, but wouldn't stretching a line symmetrically be the same as just extending the line, in which case holding Shift should do what you're looking for?

     

    OH WAIT I think you mean resizing from the center point. Yes, it would be great if this worked on all applicable objects - lines, polygons, text, extrudes, etc... It would not only be helpful but also add more consistency to VW.

     

    (Sorry, at first I thought you were talking about maintaining the same aspect ratio) :)

  4. Every time I open Vectorworks, the bottom of half of the Data tab is completely squashed to the bottom of the screen. Here's a screenshot of how it looks when I open VW versus after I fix it:

     

    5a965c9b272fe_ScreenShot2018-02-27at8_15_10AM.thumb.png.f6fba71f1e99279d056b0c82c383617c.png       5a965c99da713_ScreenShot2018-02-27at8_15_16AM.thumb.png.8f3dfcec4c56b210ffb114b1c6ab9d61.png

     

    It seems like this has been an issue on Macs for a number of versions now. It's an easy fix each time - you simply grab the little grey dot and slide it upwards, but it's annoying to do it every time, plus I fear that novice users won't even realize the bottom half is there.

     

    Is there any known way to fix this so that it saves? "Save Palette Positions" doesn't seem to help.

  5. On 9/18/2017 at 1:43 AM, Gadzooks said:

    VW innovates with headliners, but there are some times when just looking at the basic tool sets can provide better workflow for users.

     

    This is exactly the type of thing I'm hoping for in the next version - making the existing tools work better.

     

    I don't care about brand new tools nearly as much as I care about improvements to the bread and butter tools that I spend 95% of my day using. Focus on those, please! 🙂

  6. When editing the 3D component of a Symbol via the Resource Manager while on a Sheet Layer, you should be taken to a true 3D editing space instead of being somehow stuck on the 2D sheet layer. For example, the Current View dropdown doesn't work, along with various other 3D functions. So you have to exit the symbol editing mode, switch to an arbitrary design layer, then find the symbol again in the RM and edit it. This is convoluted and unnecessary. Just let us edit the 3D component the way one would expect :)

     

     

  7. I just spent an hour trying to figure out why a viewport’s class overrides weren’t working for the fill color on an extrude. I eventually figured out that when I changed the extrude's class earlier in the day, the polyline inside the extrude stayed on the original class. This should not happen!

     

    There should be no reason an extrude's source shape(s) should be able to be on a different class than the extrude itself. Yes, being able to assign different fill colors to different shapes within an extrude is fine, but they should still always be on the same class as the extrude itself. If there's an actual need to assign different classes to different shapes, the extrude can just be ungrouped resulting in separate extrudes.

     

    So to be specific:

    • When changing the class of an existing extrude, the source shape(s) should change to the new class as well. This (usually) happens currently, though sometimes it's still buggy like it was today.
    • When creating an extrude from a shape that's on a different class than the active class, the resulting extrude should be created in the same class as the original shape. The Active Class is irrelevant.
    • When creating an extrude with multiple existing shapes that are on different classes, the resulting extrude should be created on the class of the frontmost object, and all source objects are reassigned to that same class. (Or this might be an instance where a pop-up could ask which class the extrude should be assigned to. This is the one case that's most complicated/questionable.)
    • When editing an extrude, if you draw new shapes, they are not drawn on the active class, but rather take on the same class as the extrude itself.
    • When editing an extrude, the Class dropdown in the OIP should just be greyed out to prevent confusion. You should only be able to reassign classes when the extrude itself is selected.

     

  8. I’d like to ability to suppress any Plug-In Object to display as 2D-only or 3D-only. For example, I often end creating symbols that contain both custom 3D geometry along with a PIO (such as a Television object, Truss, Lighting Device, or Window). I often want this to a be a 3D-only symbol, but the included PIO forces it to become a hybrid symbol which then only displays the 2D PIO and none of the my 3D geometry (when in Top/Plan).

     

    A current workaround is to “Convert to Group” leaving just the 3D portion of the PIO, but this of course takes away parametric editing.

     

    This could be a simple dropdown in the OIP that says “Display” with the options of “2D,” “3D,” and “2D/3D.” [The Railing/Fence tool is already partway there.] You can always get back the 2D display later by just changing this dropdown. Or vice verse.

     

    Now that I think about it, this would also be handy for 2D/3D symbols. Have you ever wanted to rotate a hybrid symbol on the Z axis but Vectorworks says "No!"? Simply change the symbol instance's Display to 3D only, et voilà :). Then this doesn't mess up other instances of that symbol.

  9. 1 hour ago, Chris Brough said:

    2: Unconstrained dimension tool: in 2015, 16 & 17 our team has become used to the N button for constrained and M for unconstrained dimensions. 2018 has changed the M key to toggle multiple view mode. I would ask that this be reverted back to the previous standard. It is very convenient for the M & N keys to be right next to each other and I believe key commands for dimensioning are going to be used more broadly among your user base compared to the multi view mode.

     

    While I also found the default odd, this can easily be changed under Tools<Workspaces<Edit Current Workspace. I actually have my M mapped to the Mirror tool, and Multiple Views wasn't about to take that over :)

     

    1 hour ago, Chris Brough said:

    3: The dashed lines which control dimension baseline offset seem to take selection priority over the grip for moving either end of the dimension to a different snap point. I have seen this primarily when zoom levels are at a lower percentage (zoomed out farther). Dimension end grips should definitely take a higher selection priority over the baseline offset as I believe these grips are used at a higher frequency, especially during the revision process.

     

    I've found this to be the case as well, particularly with chain dimensions. I try to grab a blue handle and instead it starts altering the baseline offset (which I pretty much never want to do). Very frustrating.

     

    1 hour ago, Chris Brough said:

    4: "Always do the selected action" choices: The reset saved settings dialog for this check box in particular can be frustrating as a "broad reset". I believe it would be highly beneficial to productivity to expand this checkbox to individually select which particular dialog is to be reset. On multiple occasions I have accidentally locked the wrong option due to the fast paced environment many of us work in. If the user knows which particular dialog is locked to the wrong setting (i.e. yes or no), one could open the "reset saved settings" dialog and undo only what is necessary. Having the "always do..." check box is great for productivity but is too easily undone by one mistaken click of the mouse.

     

    Agreed; having more granular control here would be nice.

     

    That being said, none of these would be on my top 4 (except maybe point number 1). Without delving too into it, my top four would probably be an overhaul of Cameras, an overhaul of Light Objects (including lit fog), a better way to manage and output render viewports (see C4D's renderer), and generally fixing all of the small things about tools that have been requested over the years instead of introducing large brand new tools. :)

  10. Viewports rendering as completely black still happens to me a few times a week. They only take a few seconds to 'update'.

     

    But here's a new one - a viewport that suddenly rendered black EXCEPT for the lit fog instruments which still rendered:

     

    5a909786de372_ScreenShot2018-02-23at2_36_41PM.thumb.png.97916caeb28aa71ef52a8ca4533d8139.png

     

    (Note there are many other things in that viewport that rendered only moments before).

     

    Have to restart to get it to work again...

  11. What Design Layer Scale do you typically work in?

     

    I've noticed the 'speed' seems to vary slightly depending on my layer scale, but I typically only fluctuate in the range of 1:48 to 1:24. I wonder if much larger or smaller scales would require some different settings to make the speed appropriate?

  12. Woah, this just happened to me.

     

    I was in an active RW camera on my Design Layer (setting up a view for a rendering). I was using the third mode of the translate view tool to adjust the perspective amount. I didn't like the change so I hit Cmd+Z, and VW undid like 20 steps. Not sure whether it went back to a point at which I had saved or some other point. Thankfully only lost like 5 minutes of work.

  13. Just wanted to put it out there that about 5% of the time when I go to Tools<Purge, Vectorworks crashes (when clicking OK after previewing items to purge). Haven't been able to figure out the rhyme or reason as to why, but it's been doing it for years across different files and computers. Always at that same point in the process.

     

    Just curious if anyone else has encountered the same issue.

  14. On 12/18/2017 at 4:54 PM, JimW said:

    I am currently testing the new UI, so I and a few other employees can give reputation for the time being, but standard accounts can not. It'll be rolled out as soon as possible, but making some more changes (along with changes coming to the rest of out web presence) to maintain flexibility further down the road.

     

    Just curious if this is this still the case? I just got a notification about someone "reacting" to a post, but I can't see what that reaction was, nor can I react to others' posts.

  15. 1 hour ago, Jim2489 said:

    Second question - how do I get custom textures, like JPEGs, into the Resource Manager?

     

    To make new textures - double click in a blank area of the RM (or click the "New Resource" button in lower left) then choose Renderworks Texture. Give it a name. Under the "Color" shader dropdown choose "Image" then import your custom image. Assign the texture a size in the lower lefthand area.

     

    5a8f10e3b7c02_ScreenShot2018-02-22at10_49_52AM.thumb.png.3cde0f29a055b997cbbf90c759573d0d.png

     

    The new texture you create will then live in your file. If you're wanting to make it available across numerous files via a custom user library, let us know.

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