Hi All--
For some time now, our architecture firm has struggled with extremely slow detail sheets. On the surface, the detail sheets seem relatively simple--a standard sheet layer with about 16 viewport boxes showing a number of different details at 3"=1'-0". We could not figure out why they took so long to redraw, and we were losing time with every zoom and pan.
We draw details entirely on a single class. They're all lines and polygons, and all drawing work is on the NONE class. All of the details are scaled at 3”=1’-0”. We use a limited palette of 7 or 8 hatches to indicate materials like concrete, gyp board, and the like. All of the line weights, line colors, hatches, etc are ‘forced’ (assigned individually using the Attributes palette). Pretty basic.
Over the years, we've slowly built up a library of useful details from previous projects that we carry over to the next project. There is a lot of information visible on the NONE class in the design layer—perhaps a decade worth of details. This allows us to grab a window trim detail from here, a roof eave from there, etc. We’ve found that it’s efficient to build on and modify the library of details we’ve developed. We had assumed leaving the old detail info on the NONE class in the design layer wasn’t a problem, since we crop out the extra info in the viewport on the sheet layer.
But here’s what seems to be happening: When you zoom out, Vectorworks renders ALL of the information present in the viewports on the sheet layer (even if that info is beyond the crop boundary). Only after VW has rendered everything, does it apply the crop box. This means that each detail visible on the sheet (16 viewports) re-renders everything on the NONE class every time we zoom out. We’re asking the computer to redraw a decade worth of details 16 times every time we zoom out, every time we pan, and every time we zoom back in. It’s frustrating to watch the fastest computers in the office hang as we attempt to lay out our detail sheets.
Once we realized the problem, the solution was obvious. We’ve created a class called “OLD DETAILS” and a class called “CURRENT DETAILS.” Only the CURRENT DETAILS class is visible in the viewports. VectorWorks seems to recognize—and ignore—invisible classes when re-rendering the viewports. Why it can’t ignore items outside of a crop object is a mystery to me, but I’m glad to have finally happened on a work around.
This forum has solved many odd issues for me over the years and I hope this post helps someone out there.
Thanks,
Andy
www.wadesign.com
VW Fundamentals 2016 SP3 (Build 301288) (64-Bit)
iMac 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5 running OSX El Capitan (v10.11.3)
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