halfcoupler

That would be great ! 😀 😀 😀

I think that is precisely the point, unregarded how Layers are used. Agree to markdd , this should be a documents preferance, or better, VW should just "remember" the setting when restarted. I dont think it makes sense to have this as a store option in saved views too. You are right, my approach to layers is a bit chaotic, often depending on which information is set to plan first. I often correct stacking orders first when I find out that things are covered by something unexpectedly in a viewport. I should rewiew my workflow to keep at least those parts correctly stacked, that are definitely known as on top of each other. A pre-definded template for that is the right way. But it is not always that simple,- for example, what is the stacking order of the detail layer that shows the scaffolding system for the audience, which ranges from floor to the roof of the venue ? Is it above or under the sidelights ? What if I position a followspot on it's own Layer since it exceeds the floor LX plan viewport with lots of empty space because it is 40 meters away from the stage,- located in the roof of the venue, is it above or under the truss layer, although it's wiring is shown on the floor cable plan ? And what about the additional tent behind the venue for backstage, is that above or under the scaffolding ? When I have 10 or more of these "undefinable layers" it is often useful to quickly locate and sort them simply by name and then do with them whatever I want, for example change their stacking order... 😀

ok, thanks Pat and DBruhnke, thought that already, just wanted to be shure I haven't missed some kind of preferance setting. Stacking order as main sort criterium is a logical thing in architecture, as it results from the construction order. ( Can't build the roof before the basement ) But I wonder if anyone in the entertainment industry uses stacking orders at all, and what for ? For me design layers happen to be arbitrarily stacked by creation date, an alphabetically sorting makes it easyer for example to find a certatin truss layer and do changes on it.

I love to have my design layers sorted alphabetically, unregarded of their stacking order. But every time I open a file the sort order is the stacking order by default. Anyone knows if that can be changed ?

No Angular Dimension tool for 3D surfaces as far as I know ... My proposal for a workaround is: (... quite complicated, maybe someone here has a better solution ?) Angle between two intersecting surfaces (the blue ones in my picture) - draw a third surface that cuts the two other surfaces at the desired measuring lines (the white one in my picture) - use 3D polygon tool to redraw the two intersecting lines between which you want to measure (guess you can use the 3D Analysis tool for that too) - set working plane to the third (white) surface - look at working plane (top view) - redraw the 3D polylines with 2D polylines - use the 2D Angular Dimension tool to measure the angle on this working plane - delete the white surface, the polylines and the 2D lines if needed and keep only the 2D Angular Dimension. Note: My surfaces are 3D polygons, havn't tested this with nurbs surfaces, but I guess this works similar.

Guess this was not really clear, in the end the question is, wether there is a Marionette Node or a script that allows me to open external programs out of VW.

guess this must be a simple thing: is there any way to open windows calc directly from Vectorworks via shortcut ?

one of my daily irritations is the select similar tool. in VW20 it's almost not possible to see at a glance which mode is active: VW19 is better:

like this ? 🙂 Indeed, the new Icons are a plague on windows systems ...

Ok, I guess this is the dead end of the one way street: Objects in the drawing are instances of the Resource Manager's symbols, changing their recordformat values does not affect the original symbols themself. So the question seems not wether to use ODBC or script, but is there any way at all to access the resources of the Resource Manager directly exept right click on the symbol/resource ?

Hi Pat, of course it's not your job to do my work, or spending hours on designing scripts for one or two users only. Your help here is fantastic here, which I guess is certaily the opinion of all users here. 🙂 I'm always chasing for the perfect workflow...The background here is that disposal-software like Hiretrack NX or EasyJob or similar mostly offer an import function for prepsheets or packing lists. So the idea is that VW worksheets are the preliminary stage of the work that has to be done in the warehouse and that they are compatible with the subsequent software. I have made some tests on this and it works great as long as there are two main principles followed: 1.) The VW drawing has to be very close to detailed assembly drawing and should be completely designed by symbols (That is the reason why I created 3000 symbols over the years,- each symbol represents an item in the real world). 2.) The symbol library has to be an exact copy of what is set up in the disposal software. This is what causes the problem here, since my library is a product of years where the compatibility was never really taken care of. The link between these two systems is a unique index for a symbol that exists in both systems. Maybe therfore ODBC could really be a solution, since it is not a question of drawing. In the end we only have two tables tables to compare, which are the item table of the disposal software on the one side and the symbols table with their corresponding record formats on the other side. So before writing endless scripts, maybe the simple question is: Is there a writable access to symbols and their record formats form an external ODBC source (like Excel or Access) ? The rest is a matter of database skills...

Thanks Boh for opening this very interesting thread ! Same problem here, over the years I made symbol libraries with all in all about 3000 symbols. Opening each symbol by right click and editing a default value of a record format manually takes about 20 clicks and about half a minute if you are quick with this. Editing 3000 Symbols will take at least 3 - 4 complete workdays if you concetrate on doing only this, and you will get crazy from this work.... What is missing in VW is a method to edit default values of specific recordformats of specific groups of symbols in the resource manager by worksheet, and whats more, a method to attach a specific record format to a secified group of symbols without doing all these clicks. As far as I know there is a way to connect to the record format tables via ODBC, but after a few attempts without effort I did not follow up this thing. I guess there is a complete database in VW that lists the content of the recource manager ? If yes, maybe edits like this could be done via database querys. I wonder if anyone has ever proceded so far ?

I dont want to highjack this thread, but I just found that animation does not work at all in Spotlight 2020, although it worked in 2019. Is this function now only available in the designer edition ???

For rounding edges on rectangles you can also use the fillet tool. For me the fillet tool seems to work quicker, never knew it could be done this way ... But anyway, a bug is a bug is a bug ... 😉

yes, this works with new files, but it will kill the class structure for existig ones. A quick bug fix is really essential.

@RussU : That looks incredible,- I'm doing exactly the same steps in VW2020 Spotlight and as soon as the line is extruded the fill button in the attributes palette gets deactivated. This only with extrudes from lines, - polygons and rectangles work as usual. So VW2020 Designer is not affected with this bug ????

Yes, it seems definetely specific to lines. So the only workaround is a decision between devil and belzebub, waiting for the next service pack or converting the extrudes to nurbs ? @RussU : What is the first extrude in your picture made of ? If it's a line, you are the hero... 😉

Bug or Feature ? in VW 2019 a line can be extruded to a 'wall' this 'wall' can have a fill from the attributes palette. in VW 2020 (SP1) the fill button is deactivated for an extrude created from a line. (It works normal for an extrude created from a rectangle or polygon) This is very confusing when working with older files that are converted to VW 2020.

I'm on WIN7 but I guess the problem is the same. You are getting stuck in the object info palette as soon as you change a value there. The curser stays in this field and does not return to the main window unless you click somewhere in the main window , or hit the esacape key. If you already have an object marked you will loose this selection then. I'm using two workarounds for that: - to return to the main window I click on the window-frame, so the selection will not be deselected and the selection tool keeps activated. - having a programmable mouse or keyboard you can configure a key or mouse button with [ESC] [x] , this returns to the main window and activates the selection tool. Hope this helps 🙂

Hi Kevin, thanks much for the reply. The Analysis Tool seems to be one of the hidden treasures of Vectorworks 😀 Meanwhile I was successful with simple solid substraction. Substracting the sphere from the two circles ( converted as polygons ) results in two "halfmoons". The edges of these halfmoons are the searched points. The orientation of the twisted clamps after finding these points is a question of skilled placement of working planes. I wonder If all this can be put into a Marionette Script. ... a task for long winter evenings after I have retired... 🙃

Just found out that the problem is not explicit, since there are 4 ways to connect the pipe. The four matching points can be found by drawing a circle around the black and the blue pipe with the radius of the twisted couple and a sphere with the diameter of the connection line... Can anyone out there tell me how to find intersecting points between a circle ( 3D Polygon ) and a sphere ( 3D Object ) ??? There seems to be no snapping option for this ...

Hello everyone, connecting two pipes with a third one is quite simply done in real world,- but its seems a big challenge to do this in Vectorworks.( for me... 😕 ) wondering if anyone out here has a soloution for this: - two pipes somewhere in space ( blue and black here ) - the red one has to be clamped with twistable couplers to the others - the positon of the two green couplers along the blue and black pipe is fixed, but they can be twisted around the axis of the pipes. I'm looking for a workflow to find the correct position and orientation of the red pipe and the couplers. What I have so far: - create Working Plane 1 between the axis of the red pipe and the connection line between the desired position of the two green couplers - create Working Plane 2 between the axis of the black pipe and the connection line between the desired position of the two green couplers - place the couplers in the origin of the Working Planes and rotate them in the desired direction. Problem: The Orientation of the couplers is NOT the Z'-Axis of the working planes ( Only approximately ). It seems to be something like a perpendiculary line to the tangential connection between two circles with the distance of the twistable couplers around the pipes. But how to find that ? Or am I completely wrong and there is a simple soloution for this by using specific 3D tools ?

Hello Chih-Pin, works fine ! Thanks ! The trick is that it is essential to restart Windows after editing.... I tried to get help from 3D Connexion support, and they could not pass me this simple information... very poor...

Hi wayway, I'm working a lot with booth construction companies and yes, it's a mixture between architecturial and event -CAD. But I guess Spotlight is the version to choose since most fairstands in the end deal with truss and lighting. Up to now I did not find any achitecturial tools that are essential for booth construction that are not part of spotlight. As for rendering, I think that Renderworks as part of Vectorworks is sufficient for 90% of booth rendering unless you want ot create high resoluted high glossy picture for very sophisticated clients. Hope works for you as a first orientation.

a bit off-topic here, but maybe other VW users have the same problem: The 3D Connection software recognizes the new installation of VW 20 as a new program, there seems no way to migrate the settings from VW 2019. I had this problem already when changing from 2018 to 2019 and ended up in re-writing all macros. Maybe someone here knows if the is a better way to do this ?