[REPORTS - SPACE - GLAZING AREA , NET GLAZING CALCULATION]

Thanks!

[REPORTS - SPACE - GLAZING AREA , NET GLAZING CALCULATION]

This is very helpful to me to auto-generate indications of room natural light and ventilation code requirement compliance!

 

ACTUAL QUESTION:

 

Am I correct that in the "space" records there is not a natural ventilation opening area record equivalent to the "Glazing Area" records?

 

PARENTHETICAL RELATED RAMBLING:

 

Another issue - for "open plan" residential projects where there is a fairly arbitrary division between, for example, a "living room" versus a kitchen, does anyone have any advice on how to use a wall to define the spaces with auto-bounding but not create odd looking stuff on the plan?

 

As I'm typing this, I had the following idea:

- The "real" walls are defined on the floor layout layer

- Create the make-believe wall that divides the open space into separate "spaces" on another layer

- In Navigation, set "Layer Options" to "Show/Snap/Modify Others"

- Use the space tool back on the real floor layout layer to create the space by picking the real and the "make believe" walls

 

While this is clearly "a hack" it appears to work well.  I can switch to the layer with the imaginary wall and move it (not intersecting the other walls defining the space) and the space updates.

[Graphic Legend - annotations disappear with almost any change]

VW Design Suite 2023 - SP4 both Windows 11 and MacOS Ventura 13.2.1

 

Almost any change to the Graphic Legend object, which I am using for a Wall Types legend, causes the annotations in the cells to disappear, including "Edit Annotations."  Editing the style defining the Graphic Legend in any substantial way causes the cell annotations to disappear.

 

This is, let us say, an undesirable behavior.

 

Am I doing something wrong, perhaps in how I set up the graphic legend?

[Wall data in Worksheets, but not Graphic Legend or Data Tag?]

Thanks very much! Learning a lot!

[Wall data in Worksheets, but not Graphic Legend or Data Tag?]

Pat - thanks again!  This is really helpful for starting to understand what is possible (been using VW since v2008? I've known this stuff was possible, but haven't really dug in to get at it.)

 

I muddled my way through and, using the .zip file text indicating that it is the May 2017 version, got the script to run to create a worksheet with a list of field names, etc.

 

On some PIOs it generates the information about the fields of PIO itself, which is what I was hoping for. Window in wall? IFC.  Window copied from in-wall instance, pasted not in wall? Bingo! Actual PIO info.

 

But for every wall I've tried, it only displays fields from an IFC record, rather than for the PIO itself.  I tried using the wall tool to make a new, non-connected wall, but still got IFC info, not PIO info.

 

I don't know if this is an issue with the current version (Windows 11/2023 SP3) or something else?

[Wall data in Worksheets, but not Graphic Legend or Data Tag?]

Fantastic! Worked on both!  One small step forward! (Though in both, the leading "=" character wasn't needed.)

 

Am I misremembering that I used to be able to get at this when setting up a data tag?  (The problem with pulling something from the IFC records is that they are unique to the object, not the wall style, so that risks the value not being set on a particular instance of wall and thus the tag being empty.  Also, it's then hard to update throughout the project.)

 

If I understand correctly, these systems like Data Tag and Graphic Legends function differently than Worksheets, but you can take something that works on a Worksheet and try plugging it in on these other things with the #WS_ prepended (and # at the end)?  Is there some documentation that explains this?

 

It's definitely annoying that I can't find a reference that lists out the information that is available for an object like walls.  This is exposed in drop downs for objects like windows and doors.  One of my problems is, of course, that I know enough to be dangerous, but not nearly enough to know the correct terms to search for to do stuff like this, so the documentation might be readily available and I just don't know how to pull it up!

 

So: Is there documentation somewhere that lists all the fields of wall objects, or is there a way to get something to "barf" that up?

 

((Unfortunately, #WS_IFNA(OBJECTDATA('component name'), ' ')# doesn't cause the components of the wall type to be listed out. In the Worksheet I copied it from, it "subdivides"(?) the rows for each component, but the first line appears to be null or similar.  I have no idea how to get a text object to be multiple lines inside a Graphic Legend cell, or if it is even possible.)

[Wall data in Worksheets, but not Graphic Legend or Data Tag?]

In a worksheet, I can use "=OBJECTDATA('MARK')" to get the info that is in the "Mark" field in a wall style definition.

 

But when I try to get at that information in a Graphic Legend or Data Tag (which in turn means using "Define Tag Field" or "Define Graphic Legend Field" to link text to a record) I can't directly get any data from a Wall?!?!?

 

Interestingly, there are some ways to get information about a wall - I can get the wall style name with Object Function -> Object Style Name #OSTYLE# (There is also a way to get the overall thickness of a wall type.)

 

Alternatively, I can get the #Tag# info from an IFC record, but that is per instance of a bit of wall, not the Mark that I set in the Wall style definition.

 

It looks like there has been a decision to not expose wall data. In contrast, it looks like comparable data has been exposed for doors and windows.

 

Am I missing something because I have very little idea what I'm doing here?  At very least, I thought that in the past I had been able to use Data Tag and have it display the "Mark" information set in the wall definition.

 

(The Graphic Legend has some wall specific options such as individually dimensioning the components of a wall style - I'd love to expand on that to also label the components along side the dimensions.  The dimensioning seems to be similar to or drawing on the same function as the pre-made "Wall Schedule with Components" worksheet, which uses "=IFNA(OBJECTDATA('component name'), ' ')" to break out the individual component names, thickness etc. )

[Turn off auto-scroll at edge of window?]

I have multiple windows/apps open on my Windows machine and monitor (32in 4k).  I'll be working in VW, then go to do something else.  If I move the mouse/cursor to one of the window edge auto-scroll zones inadvertently, then after a couple of seconds, the window starts scrolling/panning.  This wasn't an issue for me on Mac, but that may have been due to using WV on a laptop screen where I only had WV open filling the screen and I would tend to command-tab to other open applications.  I'm not sure.

 

I can totally see why a lot of people would like having the function that when you pause the mouse/cursor near the inside edge of the window, it would pan what you're looking at.  It's fine when I am actively doing something such as dragging out a rectangle.  But this will happen when I am not clicking/dragging.

 

But I would prefer a toggle in Preferences to turn it off (given that there seems to be no other solution.)

 

Actually, I just took a second to try to get it to happen and I can't, which is all the more irritating.  If I click within a few pixels of the edge of the window, it will scroll.  But I have absolutely had the window scroll when I wasn't clicking, and simply moving the mouse/cursor caused the unintended scrolling to stop.

 

[Turn off auto-scroll at edge of window?]

(2023 SP3 on Windows 11 22H2 22621.1105 - not that this matters in this case.)

 

When I inadvertently leave the mouse cursor in certain regions (around the edges of the window), with NO MOUSE BUTTON PUSHED, VW scrolls that window.  

 

Is it possible to turn this behavior off?

 

(If not, why is it not an option in Preferences? Maybe it should be.)

 

Auto scrolling while depressing a mouse button or when a tool is active, for example: click to start drawing a line, move cursor to edge zone, scroll to new part of drawing, click to finish drawing line - that's good.  But simply moving the cursor a bit, such as when the selection tool is active, but nothing is being moved or dragged, and having the window jump somewhere else is not desirable for me and I would prefer to deactivate that passive auto scrolling.  Ideally, I'd keep active auto-scrolling when I'm actively doing something like dragging an object or drawing a line.

 

(I've been pushing myself to use Windows more after years of only working on a Mac - I don't recall this being a problem on Mac, but it might just be a difference in how I work between the two systems.)

[Apple macOS 12 Monterey Compatibility - Feedback]

There is now an official release date for Monterrey (15.0) of October 25th 2021.  The article linked at the top of the thread does not appear to have been updated (it refers to the future release of v2022, which is now out and has even had an update to SP1.) Does Vectorworks have an official statement about compatibility, bugs and limitations so that we users have some basis for upgrading production machines to Monterrey or holding off?

[Vectorworks to twinmotion sp3?]

In the "UNREAL DATASMITH EXPORT" video, the narrator says "The Datasmith file format preserves the geometry, textures, lights and more..."

 

I tried adding a Vectorworks Light object (Kind: Spot), then exporting in Datasmith format, then importing in Twinmotion.  The light did not appear in the model (when i checked the objects in Twinmotion, and filtered for Lights, nothing showed up.)

 

In the Datasmith file, I see that there are two "Light" objects in the xml-like format.  One might be the "sun" from the VW Heliodon and the other might be the spotlight Light object I put into the VW file. 

 

Is it simply a matter of Twinmotion not translating Lights in the Datasmith file into TM light objects?  It would help me a great deal if the lights I place (and revise) in VW translated into lights in Twinmotion without having to place or update the TM light objects when I place or move them in my VW design.

[VWX Datasmith to Unreal]

Does VWX to Datasmith export include vectorworks lights?  I placed a spot light in a VW file, exported to Datasmith, then opened it in Twinmotion and there were no light objects (and I didn't see the effect of the light where I placed it in VW.) I thought I read or heard that this system was supposed to transfer lights, which would make Twinmotion (and potentially UE) much more useful to me as I iterate and share designs.

["Ghost" stairs on upper level - can't delete]

v2020 SP5 - I am getting old(?) stairs showing up on the upper level that I can select but can't delete.  I've had this happen in a few projects.  For example, I have a stair starting on Story 1, and which should display above the break on Story 2. (Based on the settings in the "Stair Settings" dialogue, "2D Graphics" tab, "Upper Floor" section.)  When I view Story 2, there is an element visible, but if I select it, in the Object Info Palette, some partial options and info are shown, but there is no name at the top for the selected object.  

 

I was going to say that if I select one of them, and hit delete, that the selected item disappears, but the "ghost stair" does not disappear.  But... I used Tools -> Custom Selection... to select all items on the upper story level AND whose class is Vert Trans-Main and... it returned 1982 objects selected.  I hit delete and they all went away.

 

It appears that these nameless "ghost" objects are being created in huge numbers.  I'm glad that I figured out how to get rid of them (select all of them and delete.) But I'm concerned that they may re-appear (forcing me to waste time selecting and deleting them.)

 

Is this a known issue? Is there anything I can do differently to avoid them generating in the future?