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Mark Aceto

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Posts posted by Mark Aceto

  4. Posted

    1 hour ago, Art V said:

    Sparking joy?... be careful what you wish for because we might end up singing Beethoven's Ode to Joy (from the unfinished 9th symphony) when that does happen. 🙂

     

    Seriously now, I do hope they finally will do some housekeeping, streamlining and fixing broken things on a large(r) scale for the next revision than just a few bits and pieces here and there in each new revision.

     

    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!"

    • Like 1

  5. Posted · Edited by Mark Aceto

    @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:

    1. 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
    2. 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
    3. Still need to RTFM from manufacturer / Soundvision report to confirm actual attachment positions (of hooks, etc)
    4. 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)... 

     

    Screen Shot 2020-09-24 at 11.19.54 AM.png

    • Like 2

  8. Posted · Edited by Mark Aceto

    @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... )

     

    Screen Shot 2020-09-24 at 8.35.56 AM.png

    Screen Shot 2020-09-24 at 8.35.59 AM.png

    • Like 2

  9. Posted

    8 hours ago, Art V said:

    The irony, if you want to call it that, is that the simple stair tool sometimes allowed for things that the stair tool struggles with, at least it did in the past it may have improved since the last time I had to create extensive multilevel stairs.

     

    Old doesn't necessarily mean obsolete in such cases.

     

    Cleanup of the old tools is needed, but I'd first check which useful functionality of old/legacy tools is not in the new tools  and implement that functionality into the new/current tool first.

     

    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.

    • Like 1

  10. Posted · Edited by Mark Aceto

    8 hours ago, Art V said:

    The single menu as proposed

     

    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).

     

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    The new 2021 implementation works great. Try the moving light claw. Edit the 3D component. Duplicate the claw with the insertion point in centered between them. Then add it to the lighting device. The help documentation is much more readable this year, so it’s a good reference for this operation.

  15. Posted · Edited by Mark Aceto

    Is there some functionality built into selecting hoists in the OIP?

     

    I was expecting to select hoist symbols next but it doesn't seem to go anywhere after choosing the hanging support... 

     

    Screen Shot 2020-09-23 at 8.39.03 PM.png

     

    Also, I tried adding shackles as "pickups" (obviously not literally truss pickups) to the hoist symbols but that didn't work:

     

    2106142061_ScreenShot2020-09-23at9_06_58PM.thumb.png.9c45130f0099942ffc1ba084ac713769.png

     

    How do I make it look like the pretty marketing videos from a year ago (and still function with Braceworks)? The rear offset rigging point is in the correct location, and I keep seeing these super slick wire rope "stingers" (albeit they look more like Pixar than real life) in every promo video:

     

    Screen Shot 2020-09-23 at 9.10.58 PM.png

     

    • Like 1

  16. Posted · Edited by Mark Aceto

    Well, it wouldn't be an official release without a L-A rig having scale issues. I'm assuming some other symbols may have the same errors. Fortunately, the fix is super easy, barely an inconvenience.

     

    The age-old issue was that you had to change the units to mm before adding symbols (year after year).

     

    This year, there's a new twist -- the bumper dims are incorrectly entered as feet and inches:

     

    1014635680_ScreenShot2020-09-23at8_01_28PM.thumb.png.dccd2c4a95969ce866df314388913942.png

     

    Resulting in this issue:

     

    Screen Shot 2020-09-23 at 7.41.51 PM.png

     

    To correct this (info entered in the record field):

    1. Find the symbol in the RM
    2. Edit 3D Component
    3. Deselect all geo in the edit view
    4. Go to OIP - Data
    5. Replace all the imperial punctuation with mm

    1619530362_ScreenShot2020-09-23at8_26_15PM.thumb.png.5887404162e766f1f21b404dce74a2c6.png

    1. Exit the edit mode
      1. BTW VW team please note my shrunken Exit Edit Mode text in the screenshot above (possibly a 4k display issue)
    2. Then in the Configure Array dialog, do the same with the offset dim from 520'0" to 520mm

    Screen Shot 2020-09-23 at 7.49.25 PM.png

     

    Also, from memory, I thought we always had to add the bumper in the last tab of the dialog but I guess we don't have to do that anymore. Or my memory is wrong. Either way, delete the extra bumper if necessary.

     

    Screen Shot 2020-09-23 at 8.03.32 PM.png

    Screen Shot 2020-09-23 at 8.04.28 PM.png

  18. Posted · Edited by Mark Aceto

    2 hours ago, rb-arch said:

    We have also found that the Extent of the viewport needs to be unlimited in order for the grid to show.  If you clip your view before the end of the building you're out of luck.

     

    I just tested this with a side elevation view (not a section viewport) in my "test drive" model, and it seemed to work fine. The only unexpected behavior was the the bounding edges (top and bottom) of the grid lines/bubbles moved/constrained to the extents/edges of the crop.

     

    Screen Shot 2020-09-23 at 12.15.42 PM.png

  22. Posted

    25 minutes ago, michaelk said:

     

    You can export the workspace to a text file.  (Who knew?).  I did a Find Differences… w/ BBEdit between the Architect and Architect-BIM workspaces.  The BIM workspace is a little smaller and rearranged.  But not that different.

     

    Amending the workflow above:

    1. Export workspaces as TXT (not documented anywhere)
    2. Open TXT files in BBEdit
    3. Compare files with Kaleidoscope (or any other comparison app) to spot the differences
    4. Repeat for every workspace... 

    This is the best possible user experience imaginable 🤣

     

    I want to believe, or at least hope, that there's a master matrix XLSX of all tools and menus across all workspaces. From that I could probably use Filter Views in Google Sheets to find the path of, dare I say, "least resistance."

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

    30 minutes ago, michaelk said:

    don't remember if the limit is from the OS or Vectorworks, but I do know that as you approach the limit things get crazy.


    I hit my own personal limit long before I hit Mac or VW’s limits 😕

     

    Also, can anyone confirm if all of the Spotlight tools, menus etc are in the Braceworks workspace? Likewise for BIM Architect and Architect? Is there a (paid?) reason why there are 2 Arch workspaces?

     

    Considering Fundamentals is a lame duck for anyone that has Designer, that would consolidate 3 workspaces (and remove limits?) right there. Actually, is Designer a lame duck? It’s supposed to be the Everything workspace but it has zero Spotlight / BW / CC anything. So that’s 4 consolidated right there (Pareto principle).

  25. Posted

    @Andy Broomell I’m pretty ambivalent about the Keys tab for a few reasons:

    • Editing hotkeys in all 9 workspaces would take about 15 min
    • Most of the solutions, like an Everything workspace, would supersede that anyway

    I’m a “pick your battles” guy, so I’m not gonna die on that hill. It’s a “nice to have” for me.

     

    Tools and Menus are my top priorities, followed by resizing a dozen palettes x every workspace. Those are my “must haves.”

     

    Not for nothing but I’m also a Pareto principle guy: find the solution that takes 20% of resources to improve 80% of the issues (versus the inverse of that). Any of these solutions would be better than none of them.

 

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