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Andy Broomell

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Everything posted by Andy Broomell

  1. Yes, but: I've already set up various tools as I like them in my template, but only a fraction of the projects I work on begin with my template. Sounds like there's no way to set global defaults, which is disappointing. Thank you all for your help!
  2. I think OIP input boxes would remain as they are now without the hyphen (which makes sense because of the ability to do subtraction, as you mention), but places where dimensions are displayed for print need to always have the hyphen (just like the Dimension tool currently does). Otherwise it's poor drafting.
  3. Oh that's right, I forgot this exists. I remember playing around with the Plug-In Manager a few years ago but none of the changed settings would ever "hold". However, I believe this was somewhat addressed in the last few years. Does it now hypothetically work for all tools, or is it somewhat hit-or-miss? ........ Just now starting to play around with it.... Already I see that I can't seem to edit any of the parameters for the Renderworks Camera. The options are greyed out. Now I'm trying the Stake tool - also greyed out. But I'm able to edit the Drawing Label defaults, so that's good. What's behind the inconsistency? I understand not being able to edit code on VW tools, but changing default parameters should be allowed for everything. No?
  4. Is there a way to set defaults for tools in such a way that the settings apply across all files? My current understanding is that all of this is stored on a per-document basis via "special record formats" [which you can see when you Purge], meaning that I should set up default settings in my template file. However, more often than not I'm taking over files that were started by other people rather than beginning with my own template, meaning I have no control over tool defaults. As a simple example, every single time I use the Camera tool I want the Aspect Ratio to be 16:9. I know how to make this be the default in my template, but when I'm in someone else's file it reverts to starting at 4:3. I know how to click the Preferences button to change the default for future cameras in said file, but I have to do this every single time I open a different file. I want to set a global default somehow - is this possible? Out of curiosity, from where do tools pull their default parameters when you're in a completely blank file? Is that hardcoded into the each tool's coding? (An exception being tools like Select Similar and Eyedropper which have their own xml files in order to keep settings the same across all files.)
  5. ^ this should be true anywhere in VW dimensional data appears. Not sure why we have to ask for it since as far as I know its a standard. Exactly. I specifically remember having this issue with dimensions shown in Worksheets, which seems pretty basic (though I haven't used Worksheets much in the last year or two so perhaps there's been a fix for this).
  6. Yes to all of the above. Also: 14. The ability to set unit precision. For example, I work in feet & inches with precision set to 1/8", though I often change printed dimensions to "No Fractions". I wish the stake object also had a "No Fractions" option, without having to change the document units. 15. There needs to be a hyphen between the feet and inches when coordinates are displayed. For example, 2'-5" instead of 2'5".
  7. You can assign hotkeys to the 8 different "types" of snaps as seen in the snap palette. The defaults are A, S, D, F, Q, W, E, & R, but this can be customized under Tools<Workspaces<Edit Current Workspace. As mentioned above, if you double click some of the buttons in the Snap Palette (or double-hit the corresponding hotkey), you'll get a pop-up where you can specify additional settings for each type of snap, such as turning on and off things like End Point, Mid Point, Insertion Points, etc. However, you can't add hotkeys to any of these subsettings, only for the 8 different main types of snaps.
  8. @JimW - is there any way to make it so that when you click on a PDF attached to a post, it opens in the browser as opposed to it downloading to your hard drive?
  9. I wonder if it depends on the lasercutter? For the VLS3.50 I used for a few years, setting the thickness in Vectorworks to 1 Mil always seemed to work fine.
  10. Or if you'd like to assign a custom shortcut, go to Tools<Workspaces<Edit Current Workspace. (I personally make Decompose "Cmd+Shift+D" and Compose "Cmd+Shift+C".)
  11. [Art V replied as I typed this, but to reiterate...] He's saying it would be nice to not have to remember to change the number of copies to "1" every time you want to use the tool to simply move something. That is, it would be nice for there to be a preference that makes the "number of copies" only applicable when Retain Original is ON. I agree with the request entirely. All too often I want to simply move something, but forget that it's set to 20 copies from some previous operation, then end up with a ton of unintentional objects floating off into space. This change wouldn't make the tool do anything more or less than it already does, per se, but it would just reduce the number of clicks and headaches.
  12. It seems to have magically stopped doing it this week... Odd, but a good thing
  13. I think that only applies when you manually make a new class: there is an option to set its visibility in existing saved views and viewports. We need a similar setting for auto-generated classes and classes brought in via import/copy & paste.
  14. I definitely encourage that. My custom workspace keyboard shortcuts barely resembles the default shortcuts (which I think are mostly terrible). At some point I should post my workspace on here - my drafting speed has increased exponentially since creating it. For example, my most-used tools from the Basic Toolset are single letters: "M" for Mirror "R" for Rotate "S" for Trim (Scissors) "W" for Select Similar (Wand) "E" for Eyedropper "O" for Offset "F" for Fillet etc... Plus a few other modifications to suit my needs. [Sorry to get off-topic]
  15. Here's one way: https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/54078-move-functions/#comment-271637 Alternatively, I'd personally love for the Move command to have a "Create copy" checkbox, because I like the simplicity of typing in coordinates with this command: https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/40263-move-command-duplicate/ (Of course you can always duplicate the objects in place first, then do the move command, as suggested in the above thread.) As yet another approach, you can use the Duplicate Array function to do what you want, using the Linear Array mode. [I usually don't use this because I like to leave my Duplicate Array settings configured for Circular Arrays which I use quite often]. I think one of the great things about VW is that there can be multiple ways to approach simple things like this.
  16. I've been wondering this too. I really want all the thicknesses to be 3/4" instead of the default .787" It makes this tool fairly useless to me outside of rough concept renderings.
  17. This confuses my students quite often, and I would love to see this issue fixed. I really hope a programmer didn't one day decide "let's make these classes invisible by default" - rather, I'm guessing it's more of an oversight/fluke that's just never been addressed. It happens to me all the time not only with auto-generated classes, but also when I import or copy/paste things in from other files. If new classes are brought in with these objects, the classes are always automatically OFF in viewports and saved views, which often leads to things missing in views that are already set up. This is of course fixable by right clicking the new classes and adjusting "Visibilities" - but the issue is moreso even realizing this needs to be done in the first place. It would be much safer to include these extra classes as visible, which we can then turn off in viewports as desired.
  18. I would venture to guess that the reason this isn't already the case is that you're never really "in" a Saved View. It is merely a script that changes class & layer visibility, pan & zoom etc. Once the script executes, the Saved View is no longer relevant until you decide to again run it. I agree that it might be handy to have some way of knowing which Saved View was most recently used... but it'd have to be very clear that it is not the "active" Saved View, since that's not how they work. So checkmarks would be a no-no, though I'm not sure what to suggest alternatively which wouldn't also give the wrong idea about how Saved Views work.
  19. Interesting idea! I like it. Having breadcrumb navigation would be a great addition. Upvote this topic as well, perhaps?:
  20. I tried creating a panorama for the first time a few days ago and had this same issue. I had no idea it was related to not having any lights in the scene, and gave up after a few tries. It would be great if panoramas worked with the default lighting, and in the meantime, the help topic on panoramas needs to explain that lights are needed.
  21. While not immediately apparent, this can currently be done with the Move By Points tool from the Basic tool palette. Make sure you're in Move mode, and that Retain Original Object is turned off. Have the object you wish to move selected. With the Move By Points tool, click the reference point on your object that you want to move, then hit tab 5 times until you're in the X field of the floating data palette, type in your X coordinate, then hit tab again to enter the Y coordinate. Then hit enter twice. (You can ignore the acquisition hints and cursor position; the tool will just move you reference point to the coordinates you typed in.)
  22. Is there a reason the Hardscape tool doesn't auto-assign these loci to a class such as "NonPlot" or "NonPlot-Loci" as most other tools do?
  23. Perhaps when you go to edit the Symbol, you have "Use the edit view to update the Resource Manager thumbnail preview" checked?
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