Monadnoc

I can't count how many times I've clicked that OK button thinking I was saving a new wall and have it dump all my changes and jump back to the default. I second the request!!!

I agree the one year release cycle is responsible for a lot of the dissatisfied customers. But I don't agree that in the past it took almost a year to get a semi-stable version out - it always took a minimum of a year and a half, and for most versions it was well over two years. And even then there were still plenty of bugs in it. Having a yearly release cycle for Vectorworks is company suicide. If they don't go back to a 3 or 4 year cycle I doubt they will be around much longer. And make Quality Control the absolute Number One priority. They abandon the previous years release while it is still chock full of bugs, as soon as the "new" years release comes out. No wonder people feel the way they do. It is very sad, really. And a terrible business decision. Just because AutoDesk and Maxon, and everybody else decided to do it, didn't mean VW had to follow along. I personally believe the annual release cycle is pure evil. I hates it.

I think if they can be read in Fundamentals then they will also be read in Landmark. But they will be read as Symbols, not Plants, which are a special type of plugin object. If you want to develop pre-configured Plant objects you will need Landmark. I'm not sure what info you are trying to include with your Symbols that isn't working in Landmark. I am using v2011, and the Plant Tool has changed in newer versions, so my info is outdated (and probably misunderstood).

You need to have Landmark or Designer, then there are several plant libraries included.

I haven't downloaded a trial version for the last few versions, but they used to give you an option to either download a stripped down version with only basic libraries or download the full version with all libraries. Made a big difference in file size/download time. Check to see if there is another link that offers the full blown download.

It's been driving me nuts for as long as I've used MiniCAD/VW.

Interesting. I had no idea you could do that. I'll have to give it a try. Do you have to copy/paste or can you export as png or tiff? Although technically it's a transparent background, not an alpha channel. But if it works it's just as good (I actually prefer transparent backgrounds over true alpha channels).

No way to do it in VW. Not that I know of. If you have Cinema4D you can bring it in and easily do that. Who knows, maybe in September ...

I am starting to think more and more it's the 64 bit coding. VW needs to evolve. Fast. Also, I agree it should be able to know which viewports have which elements displayed in them, and only have to update those viewports that are actually effected by the change. That is not an unreasonable expectation.

It is meant to only be a temporary condition. I've used this feature in another program (but can't remember which one), and when you hide anything, the next time you open the file everything that was hidden is unhidden/visible. It was either in AutoCAD or some Adobe program. It is very handy.

What version of Vectorworks do you have? Architect? Designer? There should be some symbol libraries you can use. You can also use the bath-shower plugin configured to what you need. Then save it as a symbol. It's in the Furn/Fixtures Tool Set. Personally, I've found most CAD blocks/symbols to be painfully lacking in 3d depictions, not just VW's.

I'd be happy if they just let the programs communicate ...

I agree.

I have wished for two way compatibility between VW and C4d since they switched over. I'd rather they invested their time in that file format then either fbx or dae import. Hopefully some day that will happen. I'm not sure why it hasn't already been implemented. But until that day we're stuck with 3ds as the only route. I've tried importing a 3ds as a mesh but it loses the textures. If I Import as Groups of 3d Polygons, it applies the textures correctly, but if I then try to convert that model to a Mesh it destroys the texture mapping. Probably the UVW mapping not "sticking" issue again. Unless I'm doing something wrong. Although the Mesh Smoothing setting does smooth it out. Maybe if VW can figure out how to bring in the textures and apply them when importing as meshes the problem would be solved.

Yes, the lack of phong shading in VW often results in very bad looking renders. I import models I made in C4D into other programs and they render smooth (they import the phong shading tag), but the same model imported into VW is very obviously faceted. VW apparently ignores the phong tag, whereas the other programs do import it. This is using 3ds (my fourth choice for import/export, due to triangulation). Due to the lack of phong shading, you have to up the polygon count almost triple to get them to render smooth in VW. Considering how poorly VW handles high polygon models, this is far from ideal. Wish for VW 2014: Utilize phong shading AND be able to import dae and fbx (or even obj) so we can maintain quads. Both these things would eliminate the faceted look of imported models (while we're at it, how about making UVW coordinates stick, so we can rescale imported models and have the textures scale with them).

There used to be a representative from VW who answered any and every question users had on this board. Her name was Katie. She, and she alone, made putting up with VW's bugs and quirks possible. She was a font of knowledge and information. And she seemed to read this board night and day seven days a week. I would ask a question on a Saturday and that night at midnight she would respond. Boy, do I miss her. Unfortunately, VW let her go years ago. Big mistake. Can we start a petition to bring Katie back? Offer her triple whatever you used to pay her.

Try viewport over rides. You can quickly select all the classes and change the color to grey just for that viewport.

Did you assign a glass/transparent texture to the class you assigned the window glazing to? It usually isn't pre-set up, you have to still set up your classes to work. Also make sure "use at creation" is checked for the glass class.

Glad you got something working.

Reading your link, it sure seems like they are real spreadsheets now. I still haven't had a chance to play around with them in person yet. Thanks for the info. Learn something new every day. Sometimes it's hard to stay current.

When you tried the transparent background, did you choose Alpha Mask for the mask? That keeps the transparency intact. If you use Transparent Color it actualy takes away the transparency and makes the background color solid white. That can be a tad confusing. Whatever the case, it certainly sounds like something very weird is up with your install. Did you try trashing the VW preferences?

Are you sure about that? I always thought tables in AutoCAD Architecture were either OLE objects from Excel or pseudo-tables made up of lines and text but linked to attributes. But I'm not positive, and I haven't tried them since R2009. Once I realized they weren't true spreadsheets I always used Excel OLE objects for tables. But it could be something new. I'm not at work now so I can't see how ACAD Architecture 2013 does it now. If I have time tomorrow I'll investigate.

By the way, looking at your two example images, I notice your sliders are not optimum. In the first one, the Color Matching Tolerance slider should be full left and the Mask Contrast should be full right to get the cleanest separation/transparency. On the second image, you have a lime green background but the Transparent Color is showing as black, so the preview on the right is behaving as I would expect. The blacker areas of the image are transparent (it's ignoring the lime green background). The sliders should also be set as above for maximum differentiation of colors. Although the fact the two preview images display the same does suggest something wonky is going on, and you're probably just fiddling with the sliders/BG color to get some sort of reaction, any reaction. In which case, ignore this post. HTH

Sounds like something is messed up with your system or maybe the file is corrupt. As an alternative, did you try using the source image with a transparent background or an Alpha Channel instead of a vibrant color? That's usually how I create image props. Just use the "Alpha Mask" option when you're creating the Image Prop. This avoids the whole color problem. WARNING: If you use a Transparent Background and select "This Props Color" and select "Transparent Color" it will turn the transparent background to white, which in your image doesn't work so well as she has highlights that are also white and therefore become transparent, unless you push the color matching sliders full to the end. PNG only supports Transparent Backgrounds TIFF supports both Transparent Background and Alpha Channel Here are some test files to play around with in VW 2011 format:

First off, by tables I'm assuming you are talking about spreadsheets and not furniture. And are they dxf or dwg? So are your original dxf/dwg tables actual spreadsheets or just lines and text? What program did they come from? I know in AutoCAD, every table I've ever worked with that came from an architect wasn't an actual table or spreadsheet, it was just dumb lines and text arranged to look like a table. As far as I know (which isn't much) AutoCAD has no built in functionality for spreadsheets/worksheets like VW has. If I remember correctly, when I run the create table command in AutoCAD Architecture it creates a table out of lines and text, not an actual spreadsheet. So there isn't much VW could do in translation - garbage in, garbage out. I have inserted Excel spreadsheets into AutoCAD for tables as an OLE object. I have no idea how that would translate through the dxf/dwg engine though. At the very least you'd still need the original, referenced Xcel file. It's hard to say without knowing the condition of the original tables.