Andy Broomell

Similarly, it would be nice to have the option of using the Clip Tool in such a way that it results in open polygons. It currently always creates edges where you clip away. For a quick example: draw a simple arc then use the clip tool on a small portion. Suddenly it's no longer just an arc...

I want to be able to use the Eyedropper tool on Callout Objects, with the "Plug-In Parameters" option checked in the Eyedropper settings... WITHOUT it copying the text of one Callout to another.

Bulleted/numbered lists, yes! An "Insert special character" menu item would be helpful as well for when you don't know the alt code. It would work like Microsoft Word's Insert Symbol functionality. Additionally, it would be great if text objects allowed you to change the opacity of the background fill but not the text itself.

I'm trying to use the Tools < Utilities < Change Symbol Attrs command, but either I'm not understanding something or it's not working as it should. In my document I have symbols which contain objects on lots of different classes. The objects all have different fill styles/colors. My goal is to move all of the objects in the symbols to the "None" class without them changing visual appearance. So I select the "Change Symbol Attrs" command and uncheck all the checkboxes for using class attributes, since I don't want the objects to take on the "None" class properties. I also select "keep the object's existing attributes if no class attribute is used". But when I click OK... all the attributes get messed up and my fills go away. After testing it seems that even though I selected the first option, it's still "using the document's current default attributes if no class attribute is used". Can anyone else confirm?

On the idea of cameras... It would also be nice if you could create a camera based on the current view. That is, you could be walking around with the walkthrough tool in perspective OpenGL, find a view that you like, then create a camera that replicates the view you're seeing. You would then be able to use the additional parameters of the camera tool for further adjustments. It would just be a more interactive way of setting up a camera.

Agreed. I never quite understood why it's designed this way...

Yes! This has been bugging me lately. The new horizontal text alignment NEEDS to have an 'Auto' option.

I desperately want the Offset tool to have a simple mode button to turn on/off the option to "Close Open Curves". It's annoying having to go into the tool preferences every time I want to switch it on or off, which seems to be every time I use the tool. I suppose there should be a mode button for "Smooth Corners" too, though I don't personally use that option much. Less clicking!

+1

I've been having this problem recently too! Loci disappear even in top/plan, even with the setting set to always display. In fact, I've been the same problem with the glyphs for light objects not displaying (even when set to always display). I'll try resetting VW prefs and hope that helps...

We should be able to hit ESC to cancel the operation of the Polygon tool's Inner Boundary mode (paint bucket). Sometimes you click and it just hangs and hangs and hangs. I often have to force quit Vectorworks because of this tool, but it's too useful not to use.

Alternatively, try File > Document Settings > Units > General Display and Dimensions Tab > Change "Rounding Style" to "Fractional" instead of "Exact as fractions/Nonexact as decimals".

Currently using the rectangular grid tool and wishing it had blue handles that I could grab and drag the boundaries interactively instead of typing in a set width and height in the OIP.

Another thing: When you delete a symbol from the resource browser, you currently get options to either delete instances completely or replace with loci. There should be a third option which converts all existing instances in the drawing to groups. Then it would no longer be a symbol definition but you'd still have the objects in your drawing. An example of this being needed is sometimes after importing a Sketchup model there are hundreds of symbols, each named something like "Component #158" which don't need to be symbols. With this new option you could quickly select the unwanted symbols in the resource browser, hit delete, then convert them to groups.

Just yesterday I tried VW Viewer for the first time, hoping for it to be a tool which would allow a remote colleague to view and interact with a 3D model. Unfortunately no textures are displayed which makes the viewer quite unhelpful for 3D models. Although I wouldn't expect RW rendering capabilities, the textures should still be displayed in OpenGL.

Thanks Jim!

After selecting multiple Mesh objects, I can't seem to change the new Mesh Smoothing option in the render tab for all of the selected objects. It only changes the most recently selected Mesh and the others remain unchanged... Is this a bug?

Anyone else seeing this on their machines or is it just mine?

Computer specs aside, I can't stand the way Vectorworks palettes don't "stick together" on Macs. Although there are ways to work with it, I find myself much happier when working in Vectorworks on a Windows machine. Still hoping for a GUI update for VW across the board, though...

Another way to make a new Symbol definition based on an existing one is to find the Symbol in the Resource Browser, right click, and choose "Duplicate". Then you can make the modifications to the new symbol. Pat's method works well too

Thanks Jim! Essentially the ability to click-and-drag would make it like an eraser

After spending numerous hours the past few days cleaning up someone's 2D drawings that were converted to lines from 3D objects, I'd like to bump this topic. It would result in so much less clicking!

Has anyone been able to find the default Spotlight toolset icon?

Along similar lines, when you have class names that begin with non-alphanumeric characters, the viewport class list alphabetizes them differently than in the navigation palette. In the navigation palette these classes come first, and in the viewport class list they come last. This kind of inconsistency should be fixed.

If you apply a texture to a 3D object AFTER you have used the fillet edge tool, if you later ungroup the object to get back your original extrude, the texture disappears. It shouldn't. If you applied the texture before filleting, then it works fine. If you apply a texture beforehand, then change the texture after its been filleted, when you ungroup it reverts to the first texture. So I suppose what it's doing is keeping the object history inside of the fillet, which would perhaps be appropriate if you could actually double-click a fillet and edit the object inside. But since that's not the case I feel like the texture adjustments to the fillet should be retained when ungrouping (since unfortunately it's quite common to have to ungroup, change something, then re-make the fillet). This all applies to the Chamfer Edge tool as well. Thanks!