Trillian

Josh, I was informed by our reseller tech support that it is due to a known bug rotating the plan and then changing layers. Apparently it was fixed in v2014 (though not in v2013 which I still use). The workaround suggested to me was to rotate plan only by coordinates which seems bizarre. Or upgrade to 2014. Edited to add in case it helps anyone else: they also said the problem was increased to due both files referencing the same drawings. Again I don't really understand why.

Thanks for the reply Josh, I never even noticed that option in the dialogue box. A workaround will certainly do for now.

The plot thickens. The reference file has moved in relation to the viewport. Pretty much an identical situation to this post https://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=198905#Post198905 So now my viewport crops are wrong, and I still have the issue with items missing in the viewports themselves when I re-crop them. They are visible for a second as in this previous thread I posted https://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=39196&Number=194606#Post194606 Vectorworks must be used for complex enough buildings all the time, but what I can't understand is that this problem has only happened on my 2 larger projects and has wasted enough time that I'm seriously considering switching programmes. The additional cost in new software probably is similar to the money lost in wasted time. It is actually a simple enough small project.

Did you ever get a response to this? Also having this issue recently, no idea what triggered it.

Is there anyone from Nemetschek who is on these forums who can help? I've also tried opening the file on a colleague's computer - no luck there either.

Thanks Mitch, yes it is. I've tried changing the class of the viewport a few times which is why it's currently in the detail class. I literally have every class turned on in viewport, sheet layer, model layer and original file A model layer, so it's not a class issue.

An update, several hours in. I created a new viewport from the design layer (B) into the sheet file (B). By messing around with all the settings, I managed to get it visible by changing from Top/Plan to Custom View and then to Top view. This only works on the new viewport -none of the rest are working. This is affecting 50+ viewports so having to redo them all would be a pain. Can anyone advise what settings I should have in the obj info palette?

I have a simple problem with Viewports turning off randomly and have posted on this before. If anyone can walk me through it step by step it would be greatly appreciated. I have a Master file - 'A' and a Schedules file 'B'. To stop any messing with the master file, I have referenced A into design layers in B. I add some extra info to B and create a view on a new sheet layer in B. (This is as there are 2 of us working on the project and that way File A doesn't need to be opened by either of us). So far, so good, I can work away in file B creating all the sheets needed. Lo and behold I open up B this morning to find empty viewports in the sheet file, although the model file is fine with the reference and my additions. I can click on the viewport crop in sheet file but can't see anything behind it. I tried creating new viewports from the design layer onto the sheet file as well, and they're empty too. I am the only person who has opened file B, my partner is working on file C where luckily he hasn't started any viewports yet. I draw everything in Screen Plane. I have turned on all the classes in the viewport, the sheet layer and the design layer. I have tried turning the machine on and off and clicking everything I can possibly think of in the object info palette to see if helps. I have also tried shouting at the computer, but that hasn't helped the situation much, though it made me feel better briefly. This may be something obvious, but it is causing ridiculous delays trying to sort it out. Please, please, please help.

Thank you for that! Many, many hours were wasted on this. They had sent me a .pcp file, will ask for .cbt instead.

Good morning all, I'm trying to import some AutoCAD drawings from dwg to VW 2013. I've never been able to import .dwgs so that the line weight/colour issue was resolved properly but they're usually consultant's drawings and not for presentation so it wasn't an issue until now. My colleague has gone out of his way to make it simple from his end - in the end he gave me the line weights the colours should be. There doesn't seem to be an option in the import dwg dialogue box for this though, and I can't find it elsewhere either. So I am manually going through each class and updating the colour to black with the correct line weight. (When I tried converting to black only it also converted colours that are supposed to be in colour). This is very time consuming and has to be done for every drawing. Is there an easier way?

Thanks Wes, that sounds like it will do the job nicely.

Thanks Wes. We are extending onto an existing building though so need to be able to snap for some items on the other layer. I'll use that as a workaround for now though & turn off snap as much as possible .

Hello all, I would be extremely grateful for any help on this. Sorry, it's a difficult one to explain but I will try my best. I started a sketch design where the new walls were at say 27.12 degrees to north, so I had the file set up properly with a rotated plan to work on the building walls. Somewhere along the line over several months of modifications, my rotated view changed slightly to say 27.13. I didn't notice for sketch design, but now we are doing construction drawings I thought it better to redraw the plan (to include block dimensions etc) so I rotated the plans to be 0, 90, 180 degrees etc. I set up a new layer with the old layer greyed out to use as a guide. But the walls are defaulting to 90 degrees from the item they are snapping to on the greyed out layer which . How can I make them be a 'true' angle instead of linking to the snapped item angle?

Thanks Josh

Many thanks all, I knew I had to be missing something. Is there a way to change the default? Manually going back through all the sheets will take a while, I'd prefer not to have to keep doing it from here to eternity on new sheets.

My drawings are printing at a draft quality in one drawing - resolution is 300dpi in Document Preferences>Resolution. Is there any other setting elsewhere that controls this that I may have missed? (It's not the printer, I've triple checked) Thanks

Hi Jim, DPI is 72 Rendering mode is wireframe Export PDF crashes the program. It's extremely odd, it's a straightforward file, some walls drawn in BIM in plan, but none in this viewport, or even design layer.

Hello all, I'm having difficulty printing a sheet of a drawing. The drawing itself is 2D, lines, symbols etc. It's a small section at 1:20. It won't print to PDF either (I tried in case it was a printer issue) When I change the viewport to 1:10, it does print. It's not a big drawing - 6MB. The rest of the drawing is absolutely fine, including some other viewports at 1:50, 1:100. The only thing I can think of is that I've made each concrete block a symbol, so there are a lot of repeated symbols in the file and on the sheet. Any ideas or workarounds? EDIT - Forgot to say, the program also hangs when this happens, like I'm rendering a huge 3D file. I left it running while I left the office for a while and it still didn't print.

bc wins the prize! Thanks all for the help, I tried the others first but when I switched the line to screen plane the problem was solved. I'm guessing as a mostly 2D worker I should only use screen plane? I do use wall tool for generating elevations though but won't be making a switch to full BIM anytime soon.

Ok all, I've a hopefully easy one for you this time. In one file, when I try to make a line longer using the handles to another element, it won't lock to 90 degrees when I hold down shift and it disappears off to an angle. I'm drawing in top plan, unrotated. It happens to any new line I draw. Thanks

I just had a thought, my usual workflow is to create one viewport of say an existing elevation in a sheet file and then copy/paste the same viewport into a new sheet file and modify it by turning off the existing layer and turn on the proposed layer. Could the repeated copy/paste of a viewport be causing chaos? (Can you guess I'm reaching a bit here?!)

No, they're the same scale & I've tried turning on all classes, within the viewport and in the sheet file. I did contact tech@vectorworks.net (thanks to your helpful Twitter account) but they sent me on to an English company as I'm in Ireland. I've got to be honest, the second company ignored my email completely for 10 days until I sent a slightly snotty email pointing out that if I had been looking to purchase more licenses, I was sure I would have had a prompt response. I'm still waiting on an answer from tech support there but I have uploaded my files so they are looking into it. Is it possible I'm using a corrupt symbol or linetype or seedfile or something? After doing a bit of tech support myself in the past, I understand that there is still a distinct possiblity it's something I'm causing, but for the life of me I can't figure out what. Thanks for your help.

Update: I have been printing each sheet as they were finished, in case there were any more issues. Since my first message, some of the viewports have disappeared entirely. They are printed luckily, though not to PDF. To be clear, they aren't blank viewports now - the viewports have disappeared from the sheet file. Is it possible that my seed file is corrupt?

Thank you both for the suggestions. Both layers A & B are in the same viewport, with all classes on, so it's not what Monadnoc suggested. I tried a variation of what Benson Shaw suggested - I duplicated the viewport in the same sheet file, turned off layer A in it and ticked/unticked every option I could until layer B was visible! I know this is unscientific & I'm not sure which worked in the end, but needs must so I can get the job printed and then get back to figuring out why so it doesn't happen again. If anyone has more suggestions, please keep them coming. I used to do tech support for Microstation in a previous job and I know a lot of 'bugs' were 'WAD' or works as designed, where someone just didn't understand what they were asking the programme. This seems a little more strange as I didn't make any changes (that I'm aware of) when the viewports started acting up. But I'm very open to being corrected on that.

Hello all, I'm having issues with viewports in sheet files. Say I have a viewport with layer A & layer B turned on in a sheet file. Sometimes the sheet file will show A & B without problem and then for no apparent reason stop showing B. Once this happened while I was mid print - the printed version showed A & B but the screen version showed only A. When I printed again immediately, only A printed. When I zoom in or out both A & B are visible for a second and B disappears again. The only thing I can think of is I could have hit a keyboard shortcut by accident as I'm not making any changes. These are plain, top/plan views, nothing unusual. The file is currently with my local support but I have a deadline tomorrow for this submission and I don't want to re-do all the viewports (this has been my 'solution' until now). If you have any suggestions as to what it could be, please help. (This has happened in both 2012 & 2013 on different files so it's not linked to this file alone. I've also tried opening it on a different computer but that hasn't helped.)