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Benedick_Miller

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Posts posted by Benedick_Miller

  1. PS - I realise now that, for classes, if use at creation is on for graphic attributes it overrides use Text Styles on Creation for line and fill colors. So I guess this is a feature in fact?

    To me it seems to not work as expected - I get the font but not the rest of the class style. I guess it is meant to be this way after all, but I would prefer if use text style actually did apply the text style on creation.

    Where I work we generally use text styles that are complementary to the class graphic attributes so that text stands out against the objects. It is useful to us to have different text styles and object styles in a single class.

    We normally only use a single font but different colors, so trying to do what I hoped does not work at all as the only thing left from use text styles on creation is the font (and text size)

    I understand now that this does not work in Vectorworks after all. Pity.

    Thanks for all the help.

  2. 22 hours ago, Neil Barman said:

    @Benedick_Miller Is what I am doing in this video what you are trying to accomplish?

     

     @Neil Barman yes that is what I am trying to accomplish - it doesn't seem to work for me. It seems to work for you! How?

     

    video attached.

    (In the video I select the Custom Text style, not the Class Text style, but it makes no difference - the point is that the text does not have the class text style applied "on creation" - that's the bit I don't get.)

    text-style-test-scratch.vwx

  3. @grant_pd

    Quote

    I believe, at least in my case, I have found the bug.  Your text style cannot override a class setting, it will break the link between the settings.  See the attached video, if my text color does not match the class color, the text is inserted "unstyled."  Matching them makes the text be by class.  

     

    yes that is what my post is about - selecting use on creation for text styles does not work as expected. 

    • Like 2
  4. @MullinRJ thank you. I will try your suggestions.

     

    As you say:

    2 hours ago, MullinRJ said:

    this feature needs improvement. This is anything but intuitive.

     

    Indeed!

     

    The general rule in our company is to usually keep all attributes by class on and use class attributes. To have to turn this off, to write some text, them back on again to continue drawing is not something my colleagues in-house will do, it is too disruptive to the everyday workflow. In that case it is easier & quicker to assign a text style after creating text.

     

    In practice, the way i see it,  this means that the Use On Creation for Text Styles in the Class Settings Dialog is broken. Pity.

    • Like 2
  5. 1 hour ago, jcogdell said:

    Personally I would use the truss line identifier part of the truss system for this, and use a custom data tag to label it

     

    Thank you - maybe talking at cross purposes here, or I may have misunderstood: I am saying that my lighting fixtures (& other objects) need to be assigned to a hanging position for organization reporting etc. EG. Unit Number / Hanging position - this is the set-up in spotlight.  Are you saying I need to add a custom data tag to all my lighting fixtures? As I say - maybe I am misunderstanding what you mean? The nice thing about hanging positions is that you drag a lighting fixture on to it and it is automatically associated with it, and this shows up in the object info palette and the lighting fixture dialog. I don't really see how we can easily do without hanging positions ?

  6. @Peter Neufeld - has made good points above.

     

    Also, from a lighting design point of view, a single connected truss system may contain several hanging positions, as far as lighting is concerned. For example a simple "box" truss could be thought of as 4 lighting positions. - I don't know the best, or rather the easiest way, to deal with this in Vectorworks. Any thoughts?

     

  7. 11 hours ago, TomWhiteLight said:

    What you are looking for could probably be achieved with a marionette script. It might be too much to ask of the coincident objects tool.

     

    Thank you - that sounds like a good idea. If anyone out there has an example of a script that might help me achieve this it would be much appreciated 😉  but I will certainly have a go myself. 

  8. Hi,

    I feel like I am missing something here: I have a class and I have a custom text style. In the class graphic attributes dialog I check Text Style use at creation ON and select my custom text style from the drop-down.

    In the drawing I set: make all attributes by class, in the attributes palette.

    I select the text tool and enter text - the text is  <Un-Styled> - it is not set as <Class Text Style> as I would expect. It uses the class pen attributes, not the class text style. What am i doing wrong please?

    In the text tool dropdown there is no option for class text style, so I can't use that to set the text to use class text style.

    I'm so confused!

     

    Put another way: how to use the Use at Creation for Text Styles in Classes properly?

     

    Vectorworks 2020 SP 2.1 with Spotlight & Braceworks

    MacOS 10.15.3 (Catalina) 

     

    • Like 1
  9. PPS - to be fair the link above is a very old tutorial - maybe it should just be depreciated?

    On the new Vectorworks University site things are much better

    🙂

    However, interestingly,  the Getting Started: Entertainment Design has a whole lesson on Hanging Positions "Hanging positions are an important part of the entertainment designer's workflow"

     

    https://university.vectorworks.net/mod/scorm/player.php?a=5&currentorg=articulate_rise&scoid=10

     

    Just saying 😉

     

    • Like 1
  10. @jcogdell  ah! very interesting! I will have another look at hanging positions - I thought that was good practice! I am old!

     

    a couple of points:

    • it is certainly possible to count truss in a hanging position in a worksheet - please see attached file above. That bit worked fine - that was not really the problem.
    • If we no longer use Hanging positions in Spotlight, I still have hanging positions in the real world EG. Truss A, Truss B, and I still need to get a material list of truss pieces per real world Hanging Position - even if we aren't using Spotlight Hanging Positions any more. Do you have a suggestion as to how to achieve that please? Note that in my case putting each hanging position on it's own layer or class is not practical for our company.
    • In Vectorworks help on Hanging Positions I don't see anything about it being depreciated, as you seem to suggest. Maybe the help files need updating on this subject? 

     

     

     

  11. I maybe have a bug: I have created a worksheet. OK. Now I Right Click on the row number and click Edit Report. After making changes I click ok. Now the worksheet, in edit mode, is frozen on my screen in front of the Vectorworks window. The worksheets are frozen on the screen, but not visible when a different app is selected. The frozen copy of the worksheet(s) stay(s) on screen until I quit Vectorworks. 

     

    This only happens with edit report - edit criteria works fine.

     

    Vectorworks Spotlight with Braceworks SP2.1

    MacOS 10.15.3 (Catalina)

    Screenshot of Vectorworks 2020 (06-02-20, 16-56-35) copy.png

  12. @Trodaire . did this work for you?

     

    Looks like I have a similar problem. Should be straightforward, but I can't get it to work!

     

    I would like a worksheet report of Truss pieces (by Model Name) for each Hanging Position. I can easily make a report to list Truss pieces, summarised by Model Name, but I cannot work out how to set the Hanging Position Name as a criteria or how to get  it/them on the worksheet as a column.

     

    Ideally I would like a report that summarises Truss Pieces by Model Name within in each Hanging Position, but for now I would settle for being able to create a worksheet for each hanging position.

     

    I feel like this should be simple - so I must be missing something!

     

     

  13. 10 hours ago, RonMan said:

    My testing indicates the chart is accurate. I keep a virtual machine of macOS Sierra in case I need it.

     

     i am responsible for 6 mac workstations for Vectorworks plus another 20 workstations, servers etc. - of course I keep backups before upgrading the OS on the workstations, but I can't be expected to keep and maintain  virtual machines for all of the Vectorworks Workstations "just in case"

     

    It is nice that people post their opinions here, but the only thing that will let me update my user's workstations, is an official answer from Vectorworks.

     

    We also use various other software (of course) all these other software vendors have a clear position on this question. Only Vectorworks seems to be unsure if it is compatible or not, which is frustrating. We have used Vectorworks for many years and intend to keep using it. We are fine with waiting for a couple of months after the latest MacOS update before updating, however I would say that by 3 months I would expect Vectorworks to have caught up. We pay an annual subscription which includes annual releases. I think it is fair to expect Vectorworks to make sure that the annual releases are compatible with the corresponding operating systems.

     

    I have sent the above comment directly to Vectorworks.

    • Like 3
  14. 5 hours ago, Jeremy Best said:

    Vectorworks Inc endorsed Catalina for Vectorworks 2020 back in October 2019, so it's fine to expect the software to deliver its advantages. 

     

    That is good news, but a little confusing... as of today the technical specifications pages lists Catalina as "testing"

     https://www.vectorworks.net/sysreq

    Have they retracted the status since October?

     

    Quote

     

    Assuming you have ideal conditions, my answer is, absolutely. I say 'ideal conditions' because there are a myriad of variables that determine how well software performs and the setup and historical maintenance are factors, even if the previous version worked fine. If you want to get a fair sense of software stability and performance, you need to provide ideal conditions and rule out variables that can compromise performance. Of those variables, here's what comes to mind on-the-fly: 

     

    To get software to run as best as possible; 

    • Instead of just upgrading your operating system, erase then install it fresh. - You should expect to do this at least every few upgrades anyway. 
    • Account for inevitable data corruption. 1 in 1500 files are corrupt, so:
      • Expect to recreate your resource files at some point. Vectorworks resources and others. 
      • Set up perpetual backups so you can recover lost data or turn back time should you identify/experience a corruption. 
      • Don't expect a migrated macOS user account to function as well as a virgin one. There's just too many files handled in this process to expect flawless execution. 
    • Ensure your system is capable of the task you are executing. Just because the previous version of software did something the current one has trouble with, it doesn't mean the newer software is cause. Which brings me to: 
    • Keep in mind that newer software employs newer conventions that older hardware or drivers won't/can't handle. Ensure ALL your OS, hardware, drivers and software are current. 

     

    With all due respect, and honest thanks to you for taking the time to try to answer my question, but this is a very silly response. - No offence intended as I am sure that your response was an honest attempt to help, but please read the question: The answer I am looking for is simply "yes" or "no".

     

    Either Vectorworks claim that their software runs reliably on a particular operating system, or not. Like all other software. 

     

     

     

     

     

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