Boh

If you right click on a viewport and select "edit" from the context menu you will get a window open up where you can add the refernece crop object. At the bottom of this same window you can also choose what action double-clicking on a viewport will do.

Further to Art V's suggestion I have created a new file called a symbol library to contain all the symbols commonly used across our office. The file will be kept in a workgroup favourites folder and will be accessible by all office users so they can quickly import symbols for use in their projects. To get it started I have gone through a bunch of my recent projects and imported lots of symbols from those project files into the library file. Unfortunately this also drags any classes contained within the symbol into the library file. I now have a file with lots of random and out of date classes that don't conform to my class naming system. I need to get rid of these classes so they don't go on to further "infect" future projects that library symbols might be imported into. Is there someway I can quickly get rid of these classes in the library file without changing the appearance of the symbols? I.e. Remove "by class" settings from symbol subobjects then delete the unwanted classes so that the subobjects go on the "none" class but still look the same. i know I can do this one symbol at a time but there are hundreds of symbols... As I understand it the "set default symbol class" command as mentioned by Matt Panzer only sets the class that symbols are inserted into not the actual class of objects inside symbols. If there is no quick way to sort all these symbols then is there an efficient way to find out which symbols contain the unwanted classes? Most of the symbol subobjects will already be on the "none" class so it may not be too big a deal to sort the symbols individually if I can quickly find out exactly which symbols contain unwanted classes. Any suggestions would be very welcome. Thanks

I suspect that you don't have crop on your viewport. If you right click on a viewport from the context menu you can edit crop. You can draw a rectangle or polygon around your view to crop it. When you exit the crop view you can choose to see the crop object or not from the check box in the oip.

Thanks again guys. Great to have input from experienced VW users and yes I totally agree that Option 1 is better. However with our office so busy at the moment we really just need a quick fix to sort out some current jobs that were problematic. I've started organising office standards including a standard class naming structure and will look to phase it in along with some staff training when things slow down after the Christmas break.

Thanks Johnathan. Yes a bit of office management would help. Our classes have got quite convoluted with different people working on the same/similar projects but bringing in different classes & symbols they use elsewhere, so until that is sorted I'm a bit hesitant about using Option 1 which requires custom classes inside symbols. Perhaps next time you are in Auckland you could help us set up an office standard and in particular help us out with standard class naming so that imported classes merge into already extg classes. Does Archoncad have a good tutorial on that? Thanks Boh

Thanks Art V. Great response. Re the AutoCAD block attributes it was the "by layer" settings rather than the "by block" settings I meant and yes I think something like this should be introduced to vectorworks. It would definitely solve my little symbol attribute dilemma! Re templates, I am in fact just putting together some templates along with a workgroup folder and library which these symbols will form part of. Fantastic suggestions about setting up some office standards. I have been thinking along these lines for some time so it's nice to see it so clearly put in writing! I will be looking to phasing this sort of thing into the office workflow. Until our office agrees on a standard classes then I think the safe way to sort the symbols for the time being is option 2. At the moment it is just a group of about 40 symbols so not too big a deal to change if we later end up switching to option 1. Thanks

Thanks Matt and Jonathan. Yes Option 1 is what I first thought to be the best solution and I can see how the symbol insertion options can help, however until we set up standard naming of classes I'm thinking that option 2 might be more bullet proof. Some staff are also not using the resource browser efficiently and simply cutting and pasting symbols (I.e symbol insertion options are by passed) so with option 1 it's highly likely symbols will end up on the wrong class requiring visibility settings to be correct across two classes rather than just one (a situation not too different than the current system) Option 2 also allows one symbol to represent many different versions of the same object if placed on different classes (new, existing, relocated or demolition fittings or fixtures for example) plus perhaps more interesting looking symbols as solid fills and line types can be different (I.e. not set to just "by class"). Could an option 3 be using data visualisation? I haven't explored that yet but interested in your thoughts. thanks boh.

Our office does a lot of retail work and I am looking to revise our system for standard symbols for retail fixtures which are used right across our office. i would appreciate any advice on a system that best suits our needs. In our office we have varying levels of expertise on vectorworks so the system has to be easy to implement no matter your understanding of how VW works. We also do not yet have an office standard for classes so everyone is currently using different systems. The current symbol system is confusing especially for the less experienced VW users on the staff. It uses different classes inside the same symbol so that you need to have viewport visibilities for 2 (or sometimes 3 classes) set correctly to see the symbol in a viewport. For example a symbol for a table will be placed in a class called "Arch-Furniture-Contract". The table will have 2 rectangles inside it to represent the table - one rectangle with a solid linetype placed on a class called "Fixture - solid" and the other with a dashed linetype called "Fixture - dashed". The viewport classes are toggled depending on which view of the table is required. E.g: - On the main floor plan a solid view of the viewport is required so both the "Arch-Furniture-Contract" & "Fixture - solid" classes need to be turned on. - On the electrical plan a dashed view of the table is required so both the "Arch-Furniture-Contract" & "Fixture - dashed" classes need to be turned on and the 'Fixture-solid" class turned off. - On the ceiling plan no view of the table is required so the"Arch-Furniture-Contract" class is turned off in that viewport. This is confusing especially when a symbol gets put on the wrong class. It also means these symbols drag these classes into any drawings they are imported into. I am looking at 2 alternative options: Option 1: For the table symbol example I would have only one rectangle which is set to say the "Arch-Furniture-Contract" class with the rectangle's linetype and solid fill attributes set to "by class". The symbol itself is placed either in the "none" class (which always has visibilities set to "on") or it could be placed in the "Arch-Furniture-Contract" class. You can then override the "Arch-Furniture-Contract" class attributes in the viewport to get the dashed line with no fill. This is relatively simple and once the symbol is set up pretty easy to implement. Though if the symbol is inadvertantly placed into a different class then that class also needs to be turned on for the object to be visible in a viewport. Also it drags the "Arch-Furniture-Contract" class into any drawings it is imported into and as it is using "by class" attributes the symbol will take on the class attributes of the file it is brought into. Option 2: For the table symbol I would have only one rectangle which is set in the "None'" class with no attributes set to "by class". Viewport visibilities are adjusted either by graying the class or overriding the opacity of the class the symbol is placed into. The plus side is that it is really only dependant on one class - the class which the user chooses to place the symbol into. No importing different classes into your drawings and the attibutes are the same no matter the class attribute settings. Downside is that you can't override the linetype to get a dashed line instead the table would need to be grayed out or set to lower opacity for some views such as the electrical plans (perhaps not as clear as the dashed line system). Any expert advice on these options (or perhaps someone can suggest a better way that I haven't yet thought of?) would be very much appreciated. Perhaps a wishlist item for vectorworks would be to introduce a "by object class" attribute setting for symbol objects similar to the "by block" setting used in AutoCAD. That would mean symbol subobjects could simply be on the "None" class but take on the attributes of the class the symbol is placed in. Thanks Boh

If you have a vectorworks user folder or workgroup folder then you can place the template file (with the classes you want) or a shortcut of it in a defaults folder within one of them. Your template file should then appear in the new class window.

Thanks Wes. I have downloaded the schedules and read through the pdf. It makes sense and clears up some of my issues I was having trying to work out the VW space tool and room finishes however I am still hesitant to dive into this on an actual real project. In particular I want to reliably import my own custom finishes for my projects. Your pdf instructions say to do this by editing the text files in the workgroup folder room finishes folder and not through the VW application directly. Does this mean every time I have a new finish for a space I want to add to a project I need to do it through this text file and not through the "Edit Finishes" dialogue (accessed from the "Assign Room Finishes" dialogue from the OIP)? I have had inconsistencies previously with the edit finishes dialogue where new finishes were not showing up as options for other space object finishes - so I am guessing this a work around until VW debugs this part of the space tool? It does seems like a very back door way to do what to me seems some basic functionaility. I am not a scripter or computer expert so editing these text files is quite foreign to me. Before I start typing in a whole bunch of room finishes are there some basic guidelines as to how the text should be formatted so that these finishes come through as defaults in the VW program? Thanks for any help.

Yes I see how that ties into how you set up your files. I'm interested as I have been doing a similar thing i.e. using the none class as a temporary "drafting lines" class. However my office colleagues use the default solid fill setting for the none class so it can get tricky when we are working on each others files. For example I now have to be careful any none class objects in symbols I create don't have fill attributes set to "by class" as otherwise they can look quite different when imported into their files.

Can you explain why I you have none class set with no fill?

Thanks. Yes I meant to say workgroup folder, not user folder. I just saw in another thread that in the resource browser you can export resources directly to another file without having to open the target file. I'm still interested to know how others organise the resources.

I have just asked a similar question here. you need to create a workgroup folder that others can access and place your library file in there.

Hi. i am about to tidy up my custom VW resources and set it up better for other users in my office. I am wondering what are the advantages of saving custom resources such as symbols, hatches , wall styles etc in a user library as suggested by many people on this forum as opposed to my method of simply keeping a file called "VW Resource Library" which contains all this stuff and keeping the file in a workgroup folder and as a favourite on my resource browser? I can quickly import stuff from it as required. It is very simple and straight forward and everything is in one place. The resources don't come up as defaults as they would if kept instead on in a user library but as a favourite they are still very accessible. It is a bit tedious if I create a new resource that I want to put in my library as I have to open the library file to import the new resource into it. I understand with the user library system it is easy to export resources to the user library. Apart from that I don't see any distinct advantage of using it. Are there other advantages that I am missing? In addition, I have also developed a standard project template file with many often used resources preloaded into it. Over the years I have developed my own class structure with hundreds of classes many using custom hatches and render textures. The template also has commonly used viewports set up with class & layer settings all ready to go. The number of classes is getting unwieldy though so I'm thinking of culling the less used ones and putting them in my library file. Before I start reorganising all this stuff I'd appreciate any advice, tips on how I might better organise this stuff prior to doing some house keeping on it. Im currently using VW2016 on existing projects and 2017 on new projects. Thanks.

Fantastic Pat. thank you.

Wes, that's sounds like just what I need. However, dumb question perhaps, I don't see an attachment to your post. How do I download it? Similarly, Pat I'd like to get hold of those PIO scripts but the link isn't working. And when I find it in the Archives location I hav the same prob trying to find how to download from your post. I'm clearly missing something here... Thanks

Cool got it. Thanks

Hi Michael. I've been trying to get my head around worksheets and reports and found your vidoes which are excellant! I'd like to get the worksheet scripts if possible but can't see them on this page. Am I missing something or have they been removed? Thanks

Thanks Michaelk! I couldn't find it the DLVP name for the life of me until I realised I had my attribute palette at the bottom of my OIP - right on top of where the name is.... I see the SLVP names are there too. No need for DLVP naming script. The SLVP naming script is fantiastic tho. Cheers

There must be a fix for this. Anyone?

I just got onto VW2017 & straight away saw that I couldn't rename sheet layer viewports so this script is a lifesaver! Is it possible to create a similar script that renames design layer viewports? It would be very helpful as I also use these extensively. Thanks for any help.

Great responses thank you. Not such an easy fix for me however as I use the wall frame fill to distinguish both exterior/interior walls as well as new/existing, load bearing/non-loadbearing walls etc. Changing the wall frame to a component class would make all my walls of that style the same colour so I would have to make different wall styles for new/extg, exterior/interior walls etc. However, using what you guys have told me, and a bit of playing around with my wall styles, i figured out the root of the problem. In order to use class fill style to control my wall style frame component I need to set the wall style frame component to "object class" as well as the frame fill colour to "by class". As you suspected mike there must have been a remnant cyan frame fill colour in the wall style prior to changing the frame component fill to "by class" and the cavity slider wall pocket fill was using that remnant fill colour. The fix is as follows: Leave the frame component set to "object" class. Change the fill style from "by class" to a preferred colour (not cyan!) Close the wall style edit dialogue. Reopen the wall style edit and return the frame component fill colour to "by class". Hey presto - I can now sleep at nights! Thank you.

Ok file attached. Any help appreciated Thanks

The "drop down classes menu" is aka the Organisation Palette? I don't think the Cyan in the cavity slider is a class attribute. Cyan isn't used as a solid fill for any of my classes and I even tried turning all my class fills to "None" and that didn't change the cyan. I noticed in another VW file a cavity slider wall fill was white rather than cyan. Just can't find where to control it. Thanks for your help David. Have added my signiture :-) Cheers