jan15

File> Workspaces> Workspace Editor> "Menus" tab> the "Menus" window on the right side. Expand the "Edit" menu, find the Duplcate Array command, click on the "D" at the right end of that line, and change it to whatever you want. Note also the 4 radio buttons below to choose which combination of modifier keys are used with that letter.

I make little use of layers and even less of classes. VectorWorks has lots of other ways of organizing a drawing that are easier and faster to use, more intuitive, more visually oriented, and less distracting. I make a lot of use of Groups and Polylines and Surfaces, and of the Custom Selection command and the Eyedropper tool, all of which can do part of what I used to do with AutoCad "Layers". I think of a Group as a kind of nameless sub-layer (in the VectorWorks sense of Layers, not the AutoCad sense). And Polylines and Surfaces sometimes serve a function similar to that of Groups. The organization of each file is unique. I start out drawing everything on one layer and in one class, and then I add others only as I find a specific need for them. I feel that layers and classes consume a lot of time and energy, so I try not to create new ones unless there's a real need for them. The most common reasons why I add another layer are to draw at a different scale or to create a different sheet. Other common reasons are: to make sure that certain objects remain behind or in front of others, such as solid-filled windows and doors staying in front of the siding in an Elevation drawing; and to share objects between sheets. The most common reason I use a class other than None is in order to assign Class Colors to solid-filled objects in a rendering, and then be able to adjust those colors globally after seeing how they look together or how the printer alters them. But I do make use of the Sheets facility. I commonly draw all the sheets for a project in one file, and freely move drawings from one sheet to another as the drawing set emerges. I find it's a lot easier and faster to manage sheets if I don't have a huge number of classes and layers to distribute among them.

Another option is to select the plan, or the parts of it that you want to use at the larger scale, and issue the "Copy" command. Then change to a different layer, at a different scale, and "Paste". It'll be like having another, differently scaled, viewport to the same part of model space. You can select either version of the plan and drag it around on the page. The second copy won't update when you change the first, but if you keep the parts that will be used in both scales on a separate layer (for each scale), you can update by just copying and pasting what's on that layer.

I don't think there's any way to change the display of selected objects. I don't often have the problem you described, but when I need to see which line is selected I use the Attributes palette to change the color of the selected object. A quicker way to do it, if the line in question isn't very long, is to tap the C key 2 or 3 or 4 times quickly, which zooms in on the selected object. In either case, after establishing which line is selected I use the Undo command.

I think the reasoning is that usually the piece of text is part of an assembly, such as an individual drawing title. That assembly includes lines and circles and things, all of which have to change size when pasted into a differently scaled layer; and so the text changes size along with them to keep the original geometric arrangement. After pasting, you just use the "Scale Objects" command (with "Scale Text" selected) to adjust the whole assembly to the new scale.

Nicholas: In AutoCad 2004 you can zoom in and out by spinning the mouse wheel, and pan by pressing the wheel down and holding it while moving the mouse. And all of that can be done in the middle of another task, such as drawing a line. That's especially important in AutoCad, which still doesn't have the pan-by-dragging feature that VectorWorks has had for many years.

Barry: re: your item 1: I've exported many drawings to DWG format and then opened them in AutoCad and found the geometry is identical. And VectorWorks geometry is very accurate. Perhaps your client is using "Snap to Grid", with a 1/16" Snap Grid, and snapping to grid points that appear to be intersections or endpoints but in fact are grid points nearby. To stop that, turn off "Snap to Grid" in the "Constraints" palette. re: your item 2: VectorWorks has 2 features that can be translated to AutoCad "Layers". It has "Classes", which are very similar to AutoCad "Layers", and it has "Layers", which are not at all like AutoCad "Layers". VectorWorks "Layers" are more like what we normally mean by the word "layer", of things arranged one on top of another. "Layers" also have scale associated with them. When exporting to DWG, VectorWorks gives the user the choice to export either "Layers" or "Classes" as AutoCad "Layers". It sounds like your colleague is using the default setting, "Export Classes as AutoCad Layers", since "None" is the default Class (like AutoCad's Layer "0"). You could tell your client to change the setting to "Export Layers as AutoCad Layers" in the "Export Options" window that pops up during export. Are you sure your client is using multiple Layers or Classes? I think most VectorWorks users do use many of one or both, but it's less necessary in VectorWorks than in AutoCad because of all the additional ways we have of organizing drawing elements. I personally almost never use more than one Class, and for construction drawings that are going to be printed in black and white, I usually use one to three Layers for each scale on each sheet. So if I were doing a not too complicated drawing on only one sheet, and at only one scale, the file would have only one Class and one Layer.

J Parkin: AutoCad's new scroll wheel zoom/pan is a nice feature. I'm glad to see they've finally come up with something of value for that $3000 price tag. But VectorWorks has a lot of good zooming and panning options that AutoCad doesn't have, such as arrow-key panning, zooming by double-tapping the ZoomIn and ZoomOut tool keys, and pan by dragging. And I agree that Ctrl-key commands are a pain, but you can solve that by buying a macro utility (I use MacroExpress, $40) and a keyboard with programmable extra keys (I use Focus 8200, with 12 extra function keys) and then assigning each of those slow and painful combination keys to a single key. With these two simple additions VectorWorks becomes a real pleasure to use, much better than AutoCad's tedious system of having to hit the Enter key or space bar every time you pick a tool or issue a command.

Maybe the setting you need is in your BIOS Setup?

I don't know what you mean by "border symbol" and "page area". There is a "Print Area" or "Printable Area", set by the "Set Print Area" command in the "Page" pull-down menu. And there's a grey rectangle that can't be erased and can only be moved by the "Move Page" tool. I've always called that the "Print Border", but I'm not sure if that's an official name. If you want, you can specify an exact Print Area, in inches or centimeters. If you choose a paper size as the Print Area, I'm not sure if the exact size of the Print Area takes into account the margins of your printer. The Print Border, on the other hand, is always set automatically based on the printer and paper size you select. To make the Print Area equal to the Print Border, you have to select "One Page" as the Print Area. I always set the Print Area to "One Page", and have a hard time understanding why there is any other option. For me one of the most annoying features of VectorWorks is that it won't keep that "One Page" setting but keeps changing to something else, so I have to keep resetting it, and when I do the "One Page" option is always hard to find in the pull-down list. If you want to see the difference between the Print Area and the Print Border, set a larger Print Area than Print Border and select "Show Page Breaks" in the "Set Print Area" window.

I agree with Marc. It would be very handy to be able to specify the offset vector for an array by clicking on two snap points. If it were available, I would probably use that method of specifying array offset most of the time.

If there's a setting you need to change, it's in your notebook, not in VectorWorks. Maybe it's a matter of switching off the numeric keypad. On a standard keyboard, the typewriter Carriage-Return key always inserts a hard line-break, and the other Enter key, the one on the numeric keypad, exits from the text object. Soft line-breaks (as you probably know, but maybe someone else reading doesn't know it) happen whenever you drag the text object to a finite width. The text word-wraps to that width.

It sounds like you're drawing in black on a black background, or possibly drawing with thickness zero or with pen type "None", and when you think you're changing the color of a line you're really changing some other color setting that doesn't pertain to the line, and when you think you're just changing the line from solid to dashed, you're really changing something else, and that something else happens to change the color of the line to white or the pen type from "None" to "Dash". Another possibility is that you're confusing "Pattern" with "Dash". A "Pattern" line has two colors, so if the foreground color is black and the background color is anything other than black, you would see something when the line is "Pattern" but not when it's "Solid". The only thing I can think of that would yield exactly the effect you described is if you draw a white line, then duplicate it in place or draw over it, and the second line somehow is black, so that when you change its line type to Dash, parts of the white line underneath show through. But that seems very unlikely. I can't tell exactly what's going on from what you've written, especially given the extra complication of assigning dash style by Class. But here are some things to consider: "Attributes", including color, dash style, and thickness, are controlled primarily by the Attributes Palette, and only secondarily by class. An object will only have an attribute associated with its class if that particular attribute of the object is set to "Class" on the attributes palette. For example, a line in a red class will only be red if its color is set either to red or to "Class Color" on the attributes palette. That's the same as in AutoCad, where a line only has its layer's color if the color of the line is "Bylayer". When an object is selected, its attributes are shown on the Attributes palette. When no object is selected, the palette shows the attributes that will be assigned to any new object drawn. That's similar to AutoCad also. A different system is used for Classes and Layers, not similar to the Attributes Palette, and not similar to AutoCad. The Class and Layer shown in the Data Bar at the top of the screen are always the "active" class and layer, not the class and layer of a selected object. To read or alter an object's Class and Layer, select it and use the Object Info palette, or right click on it and select "Properties". Then there's that business of "None", "Solid", "Dash", or "Pattern", which appears to be an attribute, but which overlaps various attributes, so that changing it changes them, and vice versa. That can get confusing, especially when you try to control attributes by class. You might do well to avoid using class attributes until you become comfortable with the whole attributes system and the more graphically oriented user interface. It's pretty easy once you get the feel of it. I'm sure that any experiened user could tell you in a second what the problem was if we could see your computer. You might also consider switching permanently to assigning thickness and dash style directly to objects, rather than by class. VectorWorks has a lot of features that make it unnecessary to use class attributes. I myself never use them.

The class that's showing is the active one (it shows in the second white box from the right in the Data Bar, which is just under the pull-down menus). To change the active class, click on the arrowhead on the right edge of that box, pull down and select the one you want to be active. Unlike AutoCad, that box always shows the active class. When you select an object, its class doesn't show in that box. To read or change the class of the selected object or objects, look in the Object Info palette, or right-click on the object and select Properties. Yes, all new objects drawn are assigned to the active class, except that Dimensions automatically get put in the Dimension class, regardless of what class is active. Layers work the same way, using the box just to the right of the Classes box. Layers have no equivalent in AutoCad. They have scale associated with them, and they control layering of 2D drawing objects, one on top of another, as if each layer were a separate sheet of clear film with things drawn on it, and the things drawn on one sheet cover up the things drawn on the sheets below. And even if Layer Options is set to Show/Snap/Modify Others, you can only snap to or modify objects on layers at the same scale as the active one. Another way to change active class or layer is with the arrow keys, perhaps in combination with the Shift and/or Ctrl keys. To see and choose which it is, pull down File > Preferences > VectorWorks Preferences and look in the Arrow Keys area in the lower right of the Edit tab. I use Ctrl + arrow keys, which I think is the way it's set when you first install the program. Ctrl-Up and Ctrl-Dn cycle through layers, and Ctrl-Left and Ctrl-Right cycle through classes.

It does seem like a bug. I found that if I try to Trim to a Break Line, it either deletes the line I'm trying to trim, or, if there's another line crossing it, trims to that! But I also found that if I Ungroup the break line, which changes it into a Polyline, then it still looks the same and now both the Trim tool and the Trim command work with it.

I just tried what you're describing. I printed a full sheet of text from Microsoft Word (in Windows 2000), then pasted the text into VectorWorks and set it to the same font and point size and printed it again. The character spacing of the two two print-outs looks the same to me, but when held up to the light in register I can measure a 4 percent increase in width, over a full line. I have no way of measuring the character sizes accurately enough to know whether the increase appears there also, but visually it looks like the spacing is proportionally the same, so I assume that VectorWorks made the characters 4 percent larger. The line spacing does look slightly different, though I didn't notice it at first, and in fact I measured a 6 percent increase in height (over the whole page) for the VectorWorks version.

Have you checked the dimension object's Font & Size? (Use the Text pull-down menu while that object only is selected.) Most dimension settings are under File> Preferences> DocumentPreferences> Dimensions> Custom> Edit, but I don't think there's anything there that would do what you're describing.

When I was working on Mac's, they used to always save 2 files on the disk for every one data file. The second one didn't show in MacOS directories, but did show in Windows directories, and was of no apparent use to Windows. Are they still doing that? And if so, is it possible you added the MCD extension to one of those extra files?

Thomas: That's a good idea, too. It would suit me, and I can't offhand think of anything that anyone would object to about it. Maybe even 17..-5... could mean 17'-5", which would also cover people who don't use associative dimensioning but instead fill in the dimension text manually. iboymatt: I've never thought about that before, but after I read your post I tried it and found I could negotiate all the dialogue boxes with the keyboard, using a combination of Tab, Shift-Tab, the arrow keys, and certain letter keys and Alt-letter key combinations. Is it different on a Mac?

Mark: I like that DataCad thing you described, where the keypad decimal point means feet when the dimension system is feet and inches. But I'm sure a lot of people would react against it, as you said you did originally. That always happens with anything non-standard, and besides, I think there are good reasons why some people would object to it. The best way to solve this would be to build in a macro utility. Then you and I could type 17.5 to mean 17 feet 5 inches, and people who object to that wouldn't have to use it. Macros would also solve 90 percent of the other complaints people submit to this forum about the user interface.

Sorry, QM, but we're mostly designers reading these forums, not IT people. I couldn't understand your original post. Have you tried calling tech support? I haven't called in a long time, but when I did they very good at that.

quote: Originally posted by Kaare Baekgaard: I must say, however, that VW does the job rather poorly - with character spacing that is noticeable displeasing to the eye. I don't understand this. In programs which don't have character spacing adjustment, isn't the character spacing the same in one program as in another? That's the way it looks to me, at least on Windows machines. VectorWorks doesn't seem to have any effect on character spacing. Do you know you can convert text to polylines and move the individual characters? Of course, that would only be practical for occaisional use. If it's for general use, have you considered making an altered version of whatever font you use? I altered the Stylus font to get rid of that bizarre space in front of the digit "1", and then again to decrease the standard line spacing. And if I remember correctly, at least one of the popular shareware font editing programs allows adjustment of the character spacing for a whole font with one command.

I can't speak for 9, but it still works in version 10. Have you poked around in the mouse control panel, to see if there's some wheel mode setting that you can change?

You have to install their plotter on your computer, and then select it as the printer for any file you're going to send them, and then work inside the Print Border that results from that. Make sure you set it up exactly as they will, exactly the same model, and including width of roll and orientation. On most plotters, a 24 x 36 print will have different printable area dimensions if it's printed on a 24" roll than if it's printed on a 36" roll using the full width of the roll. Also, make sure Page Layout > Set Print Area is set to "One Page".

Jacques: I sympathize. The standard computer keyboard layout is inconvenient for CAD work in any program... unless you mouse with your left hand, in which case all the problems go away and the keyboard layout suddenly becomes ideal, with the much-needed numeric keypad very convenient to the right hand for fast data entry. Using a mouse requires the same dexterity as erasing a chalk-board, but somehow most people don't think they can manage it. Have you considered a programmable mouse? My Microsoft Intellimouse Optical has 5 buttons, any one of which can be assigned the meanings you asked about, of Left-click or Space-bar, or any other key. I don't understand what you mean about Cmd-1 and Cmd-2 key combinations. I agree with you that the hand stretch would be terrible. I personally never use any combination keys, except for the Shift key to type capital letters. I map my 24 most commonly used commands to my Focus keyboard's 24 function keys. But what do Cmd 1 & 2 have to do with panning and zooming?