Mark Aceto

@Sam Jones I was honestly just trying keep the power puns going in response to "current workspace" because I'm that big of a dork but those are all good points. For me, I leave the LX prepro to my excellent production electricians, so I'm really only messing with audio, video, and utility. I also work with an excellent power vendor that prepros everything (in AutoCAD) from the gennies to the transfomers, plus utility. I would love to convert them to VW... Anyway, I took a crack at the new preview tools, and also had a lot of questions. I think the big thing for me, and probably my #2 question for the Q&A in a few weeks is that we now have 3 very different modalities for working with cabling, one of which I pay extra for as a VSS add-on: The OG tools ported from AutoPlot The new tools (developed in house?) ConnectCAD So, as a VW user, I would just like to know which tools I should get attached to, invest in, subscribe to... and, more importantly, when I can just use one toolset to get the job done? Apologies if that sounds snarky (not my intention). A couple things I did notice: Styles - warming up to these more and more Lots of red symbols - that's usually a good thing Green symbols - "what are THOSE???" meme I'm embarrassed to admit I had to look that up but they sound great https://app-help.vectorworks.net/2021/eng/VW2021_Guide/Symbols/Symbols.htm As usual, the drum I'm banging on is improved communication / managing expectations / a clear roadmap, so I'll bite my tongue until Oct 6 to see what's planned for the future...

Or a year. Still on Mojave here. Apple just released 10.15.7 today (the first .7 release ever of the annual upgrade cycle; the first since Snow Leopard). There will be more supplemental updates to follow. I’ve had zero issues with VW on Mojave. I’ll upgrade to Catalina when Big Sur is released. If you’re using that computer and Vectorworks for work, wait a year to upgrade macOS. That said, if you need to buy a new Mac that comes preloaded with Big Sur... Godspeed. For context, totally different story with iOS, iPadOS, watch OS, tvOS... Those are all basically fine right now.

I'm a little confused about this solution because even when I select Show No Hoist, I still see chain and hooks. The truss pickup in a torm (BW Drop) would still be a standard truss pickup. Therefore, I think what I'm looking to modify would be the Hoist symbol?

For context, I'm looking for something more realistic for Braceworks Drops: Stingers Deck Chain STAC Here's a pretty standard torm. Because this is Tyler GT truss, it needs its own special pickups and plates. I really just want to replace the chain & hooks with a stinger but keep everything kosher with Braceworks because this is the future and it's freaking glorious:

I realized it would be super easy to mock up the Everything Workspace using the workspace editor. If I needed menu bar real estate on a smaller screen, I would happily put Braceworks and ConnectCAD inside Spotlight. Architect-BIM should live inside Architect. There's no need for Fundamentals or Designer. Click on the screenshots for the high res versions (much sexier). And if Dark Mode is your thing:

Every year with the L-A symbols lol:

@JustinVH next question: where can I find these (wire rope) "stingers"?

@JustinVH perfect explanation--thank you! Here's the file if anyone is looking for a shackle to attach their motors to a K2 Bump + Bar: Shackle Pickle.vwx

That was a Marie Kondo reference for housekeeping but now I'm in the mood for some Beethoven. I've been test-driving VW21 nonstop since it dropped, and I have to say it's more like they improved thousands of small things vs a few big announcements. I mean multicore and a few other features are definitely big ticket items but there's a lot to appreciate under the hood with this release. It's like how Year-Three iPhones (on a 3-year cycle) look exactly the same as they did 2 years ago (so that's not exciting on the surface) but they're the best most stable version. Or the body style of your favorite car that's a few years old but it's not a lemon because they worked out all the kinks (unless it's a 4-runner which never changes under the hood for decades). Anyway, I don't know how you market "we fixed thousands of things that slowed you down." It's not as sexy as "NEW (the trigger of which we do no speak) TOOL!"

@jcogdell I don't have an loci in my truss pickups. Which one did you use? I want to make sure the record is attached when nothing is selecting in the edit wind (like in the screenshot), correct? What is the SlingRecord Distance measuring? I'm assuming the SlingRecord distance will tell the hoist to attach the look hook at the correct Z height of the bumper? This would also be massively helpful with LED video screens that just get sucked up to truss trim, and until I manually knocked the screen down to make room for the bumper I attach (which doesn't talk to BW at all). I have to force the hoist US because BW doesn't talk to the Rigging Guides I set in the Configure Array dialog. VW Team: it would be helpful if bumper symbols had holes drilled with 3D loci that we could snap the shackles. In the meantime, workaround is to find the manufacturers drawings, and remodel the symbols, so we're not roughing it in, and then making changes onsite. I'm still going to reference the Soundvision report for all of these details but it would speed up my workflow to have those predrilled holes and loci. EDIT: success! Notes: Have to rotate motors 90º to rotate hooks 90º to align with shackles Braceworks will de-rotate when it snaps, so just rotate 90 in the OIP Have to nudge US motor US of where BW will snap (edit Y in OIP) *** After editing the SlingRecord Distance, the Hoist objects need to reselect the Pickup symbol (every time it's edited) Not doing this is what confused me about the SlingRecord Distance Still need to RTFM from manufacturer / Soundvision report to confirm actual attachment positions (of hooks, etc) Would still love predrilled holes and 3D loci in bumper arm but I can mod that myself in the meantime One step closer to the dream of a Braceworks Connected Entire System! Also starting to feel comfortable creating my own pickups and slings (similar to Lighting Device Accessories)...

Here's another example of what would be helpful in (re)building our custom workspaces: https://www.toolfarm.com/images/uploads/vendors/maxon/r19/maxon-R19-comparison.html For VW, I'd be most interested in Menus, Contexts, and Tools. BTW the Libraries seem to not be affected by this issue at all. Perhaps they're a great example of an Everything Library?

Braceworks has me looking for Entire Connected Systems everywhere now... Please add this to The List 😀

@C. Andrew Dunning thanks for the explanation! Side by side screenshots of your imperial and metric bumpers attached. I'm glad this was such a quick and easy fix, no doubt because of your responsive tech support over the years. VW team: just need to QC the input values of some of these symbols for the next SP. (Not everyone is as nerdy as us; has to be an Imperial Stormtrooper shooting accuracy joke in here somewhere... )

Totally agree. This would be a great topic for the Q&A webinar on Oct 6. In fact, they may even address it before we bring it up. Housekeeping, streamlining, removing pain points, sparking joy... seem to be the current/next phases for VW.

I think something got lost in translation, so for clarification: Menu could mean master, parent, or child menu From what we can tell, there is a master menu dedicated to each workspace With the exception of the Tools menu, which changes slightly from workspaces to workspace, it doesn't seem like any other master, parent or child menus change File, Edit, View, Windows, and so on... The proposed Everything workspace would allow a user to select which Master menus to include in their Menu Bar (BIM/Arch, Landmark, Spotlight, Braceworks... ) These master menus would be pre-populated, and organized as they are now (as a baseline starting point) Obviously, we would be able to customize them from there Contexts would have to be thought out, and I would also bet this is sorely overlooked feature with most users (not including the power users commenting in this thread) Long story short, I would like to set contexts in my Everything workspace once, rather 9x across all workspaces Definitely, no one is proposing a single master menu with every parent and child menu from every workspace lumped together. The giant caveat of course is that everyone's "everything" workspace looks different. However, it does seem like the a la carte organization and management of these workspaces could be cleaned up. Likewise, the palette resizing thing just seems like a no-brainer as no windows offer features exclusively tied to a workspace. Obviously, the Toolsets palette includes content, so I could live with that one changing (especially as it's docked over there on the left).