Joe-SA

I don't have any experience with it but you could try the 'Project Sharing Server' that was introduced a few years ago if you have not tried it already. My understanding is that this was designed for in-house server management as opposed to the cloud.

To be clear....the biggest issue is that once the Project File (.vwxp) file is deleted and then replaced during a Save and Commit process it is no longer set to MAKE AVAILABLE OFFLINE meaning it no longer exists in your local dropbox folder but resides only in the cloud. When this happens your Working File (.vwxw) located on your local drive can no longer 'see' the Project File. You have to tell the Project File you want it available offline again (on your local drive) for the two files to see each other. Issues arise when this happens in the background on your station as a result of your team members Save and Commit. Using 'Safe Save' mode as suggested above seems to have resolved this problem. This setting does default to being 'off' so you must remember to set this every time you create a Project File.

Curious, would a Surface Array of a symbol have actually 'bent' the scroll around the surfaces? I don't have a need for this tool typically but it was my understanding that it does 'bend' symbols along a surface. Can anyone confirm this?

A couple thoughts on this... My first thought is that what you are describing is a feature not a bug. People typically want to be able to continue to be able to work while offline including syncing to their .vwxp file located in their local dropbox folder. As soon as they get back online the folder will sync to the dropbox cloud and back down to the rest of the team. However, if while working offline you are checking out new objects or layers... that pipeline that tells the rest of the team of the status of these objects is temporarily shut down so you risk creating 'conflicted copies'. That is, multiple Working Folders that contain changes to the same areas. This is the case regardless if your Working File is communicating with your Project File or not. It is more likely to occur if they are not talking to eachother. Vectorworks does do a 'status' check of the Project File before syncing to it and if it is out of date with the same file in the dropbox cloud it will prevent you from checking out new items or committing changes. Usually this causes a delay of a few minutes while the dropbox queue catches up. I'm curious if while you are working offline if this is what you are running into. If so, this is the 'feature' that is preventing the future conflicts. I would presume you would be able to work within the status of what was under your control at the moment of last contact between your local version of your .vwxp file and the cloud version. That is, creating new objects or making changes you already have checked out. Changes to that current status will have to wait until you are back online to avoid conflicts. You may need to grab a big working area while you are online such as checking out whole layers to allow you to do the work you anticipate. An emergency alternative might be to save your .vwxw file as an .vwx file breaking the link to the project file all together. You can either use that new file to re-create a new Project File or you can cut and paste your new work over to a fresh Working File at a later date. Admittedly a lot of this is speculation. I do a lot of remote drobbox work but very little of it while offline. I'm not sure there is another way beyond what I've described. Joe

I made this one a couple of years ago using the Custom Stair tool and a series of 3 radial stair segments all in one object. There is actually a 4th straight segment making the top tread. Certainly not simple and had a major fuss factor with hard to predict results but we got very close to what we needed in the end. The structural stringers came later. Joe

I'm looking for some clarifications on the best way for a group of people to share VW Cloud Services Presentations when they are all also using Dropbox for Business. Upon install each VW User gets their own Vectorworks Cloud Services folder that defaults to their USER FOLDER. I understand that each user could continue to create VW Cloud files here and pick and choose which files they want to share with specific other users. However, with this method files that have not been shared are invisible and inaccessible to everyone else on the team. This is essentially how we have used the service to date. At this time we have not attempted to do much sharing of these files. That leaves me with questions. Each of us can integrate our VW Cloud Services Account to our own Dropbox Account which is part of a larger Dropbox for Business Account allowing the VW Cloud App to navigate into our full folder structure of Dropbox including both shared and personal folders. If we were to create a VW Cloud Services folder in the shared section can everyone simply locate their presentations in this folder? Can I place my VW Cloud Services files in the respective Project Folder we already have established for each of our projects? Will everyone be able to open these files no matter who created them? In this setup does it matter if they are shared between users inside of the app? Do two people have the ability to work on the same files simultaneously? What if each user modified their Default VW Cloud Services folder to a common shared folder in our Dropbox folder structure? Can the application handle that much integration or can it only manage the sharing that occurs inside of the app? My goal here is to promote the use of VW Cloud Services presentation tools amongst my whole team. I'd like to place our VW Cloud Services files in the same Dropbox folder as all of our related project files instead of some common folder dedicated to VW Cloud presentations. I might like to have a location where past presentations can be opened and reviewed by anybody in the office without having the rely on the creator of that presentation to have specifically shared it to everyone who might like to open it or review it as a sample file one day. I'd also like the ability to pass off development of presentations from one person to another without necessarily, again, relying on the original creator to go through the act of specifically sharing it to that person. What I want is to essentially be able to work with VW Cloud Presentations amongst my whole team the same way we work with .VWX files and .VWXP files within our Dropbox for Business folders. Can I do that? If so, is there an existing resource that might help me do that? I've poked around the standard repositories of VW information and I'm not finding what I need readily available. Hoping someone here can point me in the right direction. Joe

I'm a little late to this thread but the issue with Dropbox 'replacing' instead of 'updating' a .vwxp file can be solved with one or both of the following two things. At least when working out of VW2023, that is. In VW2024 Project Sharing received a revamping of the backend programming so it is likely that none of this applies past VW2023. First, always have 'Safe Save' activated in the Project Sharing - Settings dialog box. See graphic below. I believe this is one toggle that is administered to the .vwxp file by the person who created it and it remains active for every user. If you ever need to recreate the .vwxp file you'll need return here and toggle this back on. Best to make it a natural part of the creation process. Secondly, I've been advised by Dropbox to 'Re-Index' our dropbox files. This is done by logging out of your dropbox account and logging back in. All of your local dropbox files have their location assignments reset so dropbox knows where everything is. Long before we discovered Safe Save we had 'replace' vs 'update' issue resolve itself after 're-indexing'. A couple of other generic tips which may not be self-evident: - Make sure you are giving your computer time to sync your file back to the dropbox cloud. Don't shut down your computer too quickly after closing VW or your local .vwxp file won't sync out of your computer. - Don't locate your .vwxw file in your Dropbox folder. Every single change you make will get added to the Dropbox Queue and slow down your .vwxp file's ability to properly communicate in a timely manner. Always locate .vwxw files in a local folder. - We've had problems arise when multiple .vwxp files are present in the same folder. - The Network Protocol setting only impacts those locating their .vwxp files on a local network drive. It is meaningless when you are placing it on a cloud drive. Joe

I'll add to this the WinDoor option of Custom Symbols. A 3D symbol of the panel can be inserted into the desired grid openings you choose. This works if the window sash or door panel settings can't make the exact configuration you are looking for. Joe

The forum thread above was started in 2019 pointing out how hidden line ignores the clip cube. The last note saying this feature is still not fixed was last year. I just tested in 2024 SP4 and it is still not fixed. We regularly generate interior perspectives with textures, lighting, shadows and overlay line work. We do this from an eye point location outside of the room in order to avoid the fish eye look and to be able to see more of the space. This is best done from a perspective section view. Hidden line and Shaded simply do not respect the clip cube the same way in Viewports. It is not consistent through the various other Rendering Modes, either. We've resorted to having to generate DLVP Section viewports and then set up a perspective view of that design layer model section. A massive file size and memory suck in order to do it. We've been jumping through this hoop for years. I've brought this to Vectorworks directly in the past with back and forth exchanges but still no action. This shouldn't be a new feature wishlist request. It is actually a bug that has needed fixing for the past 5 years. Once upon a time it worked as expected.

Picking up on this AFP vs SMB setting info....I ran into some issues with some employees setting up Project Sharing with AFP when in the past I've had much better luck with SMB for many years. I did a little research and found this article on Project Sharing.. https://blog.vectorworks.net/an-overview-of-project-sharing-in-vectorworks-software Which contains a link to this forum post from 2016 Which contains this NOTE: of AFP deprecation at the top and a recommendation to only use SMB following MacOS 10.13 which is High Sierra released in 2017. I also found this current Vectorworks University Course https://university.vectorworks.net/mod/scorm/player.php?scoid=40&cm=103&currentorg=articulate_rise Here item 28 in the Frequently Asked Questions reiterates that you should use SMB only for any MacOS 10.13 or later. It includes a link to the same 2016 post above. VW2023 Is not supported by MacOS10.15 Catalina or earlier. VW2024 is not supported by MacOS11.0 Big Sur or earlier. All of this being the case....why are we still being offered the ability to choose AFP protocols when setting up Project Sharing Files? Should we at least be prompted that with any MacOS that has been released in the last 6 years it is recommended to use SMB Only and not AFP? Or Does the 2016 deprecation of AFP need better explaining because none of what I found today is evident to unfamiliar VW users as they setup Project Files. Some of us have been running AFP with VW2023 which has worked but generally it has not been a great experience. Meanwhile I use Project Sharing via SMB nearly daily with VW2023 and rarely have any issues but I will say we have seen some sync issues that have shown up intermittently with both protocols. It is still easy to find non-vectorworks sources for internet advice that suggest if you are running mac...AFP is the better choice. Can anybody clarify this? Seems to me the Project Sharing Setup could use some re-vamping to provide better guidance. I'm curious what's in the works for VW2025. For more context we are Dropbox for Business users with Project Files in a shared dropbox folder and Working Files stored locally. Most of us are running MacOS Ventura. Some may be still on Monterey. Nobody is running Sonoma as far as I know. I have not yet loaded VW2024 but I can only assume that nothing has changed in the Project Sharing Setup Dialog box in the latest version.

I have found that when it comes to walls the class overrides will work on the class the 'wall object' is in but not on the components inside of the wall. We make our footings out of walls with dashed lines and solid fills. If you define this by the class the entire wall is in and you do not include any components inside of that wall style you should be able to override both line type and the fill when in section. It is the lines and fills defined by the components that I can't override. Additionally, I use custom line types with my framing members and then class override those lines back to solid in my section cuts as well. There seems to be some issues getting the textures correct in 3D when applying by Object instead of Component. This could be a bug or I just don't have a setting correct yet. I am able to set the proper texture wall by wall its just getting Wall-Footing class texture to show without the use of a component seems to be a bit tricky for some reason.

I often put multiple WinDoor object together in a single assembly inside of a symbol when a single plug-in can't make what I need. A common one would be a double door flanked by single fixed doors. The '2' door setting makes the sidelights double door units, too. I'll make the entire perimeter out of one Windoor object leaving the sidelights as openings and then place a second and third plug-in into that assembly to make the final product. There are lots of different configurations where something like this is necessary.

I don't follow the forum that closely these days so forgive me for jumping in months later... I did not see it mentioned so I'll give you our solution for those who might not know of this feature. You can manually draw a section mark in annotations. This functions as a 2d mark that you manually locate, however, you can optionally auto-number it by linking it directly to an existing viewport that was created with the Section Line tool in plan. Not as good as automatically having it come in on its own but better than an un-linked mark that doesn't update when detail and sheet numbers are modified during development. For what its worth.

For those interested in the solution to this problem....a simple log-out of our Dropbox account and logging back in forced a re-indexing of the entire local dropbox folder. Each account associated with the Dropbox for Business account need to do this. This latest Dropbox updated was prompted by a change Apple implemented with Monterey 12.3 which changes how the OS interacts with Dropbox and other cloud storage. Dropbox claims that they send prompts to indicate when their update will be running on individual accounts but nobody in my office was aware that this update ran in the background while they were working. It just appeared one day. Apparently it will take months for the update to roll out to every Dropbox account. Once updated all users will need to re-index the library. Hard to know when to do that with no obvious prompt or instruction to do so.

In our early tests this problem may be specific only to VW2023 and not our previous version. As an office we skipped VW2021 & VW2022. We have been making a push to move people to VW2023 in recent weeks which is why this project was taken into VW2023 after being started in VW2020. We exported our file back to VW2020 and reset Project Sharing. All appears to be working fine. My .vwxp file is now syncing fine between myself and my co-worker without the loss of the 'offline' status as before. Some combination of software versions that includes VW2023 but not VW2020 is the issue. Backing out of VW2023 was the only solution I had left.