bpsabatier

As an architect utilizing VW for nearly 20 years, I repeatedly express concerns over the lack of attention to the architectural tools we rely upon on a daily basis. I've seen VW try to grow their reach in other areas, like landscaping and entertainment, seemingly to a degree out of proportion to their most active end users like myself. I have no clue what the breakdown is of the end users, but I suspect architects would be their number one user demographic, knowing the history of the product. Maybe it's just that architects are more vocal on this forum than others, but it is very telling that the 1st Teaser Tuesday dealing with architecture accumulated 56+ comments, the 2nd TT on landscape has 7 comments, and now the latest one on entertainment has 0 comments. VW brass, take note.... Every September I spend hours investigating alternative programs to VW before I renew. I wait for the Teasers to see what new features will convince me to remain. And every year I get closer to making a switch. I am probably not alone. I will be switching to Subscription this year in the hopes that this yearly cycle will eventually be broken and VW will fix all the inadequate tools, plus add others that are lacking, without the need to hold back on them to entice users to renew each year (we all know that this is the industries business model over the last couple of decades). I will gladly pay a yearly subscription for a product that does not need yearly updates because it is a more complete product.

Anyone else having this problem?

We are using 2024 and this just started happening in the last couple of weeks...

So we've come across a problem with our Wall Details file where it is very slow to open the file. It hangs at the point of "Resetting Text and Dimensions" for a few minutes. I've gone in a purged, nothing changed, but then I deleted all text and dimensions, and the problem completely goes away. Is anyone else having this problem? Granted, there were 5000+ dimensions and text objects, but the whole file was only 55mb. We work on 150-250mb files all the time and it doesn't take that long to open. Just wondering if there is a better fix for this....

I have also used both, and my experience is about the same. The 3d modeling in CA was fantastic, but sometimes frustrating to get the program to do anything unique. While the roofs and foundations were automatically generated, any adjustments to the exterior walls often regenerated the roof or foundation negating any custom modifications you had performed previously (I am sure there were settings that I could have used to avoid this issue...). The cabinet tool was FAR superior to VW's. And the graphical display of the model far outperformed VW. Aligning or centering doors and windows was much easier to do, with a centering tool and automatic dimensions that appeared when selecting an object, showing distances to the nearest wall or objects. Where in VW you have to select walls or draw a polygon to define a space, CA did this automatically when an area was enclosed with walls. Oh, and don't get me started on a stair tool comparison! VW's recent update to the stair tool was extremely disappointing. Roof ridge caps automatically generated when two roof planes were joined... how cool is that? I could go on and on about how great it was to lay out a residence in CA.... but their 2D was clunky, and ultimately I didn't have the flexibility there to create the construction drawings that looked the way I wanted them to look, so I bailed on CA after a couple of years. Also, their learning curve was much steeper than VW. Basic functions we utilize in VW and in other mainstream CAD programs are not that easily found in CA. I've made suggestions in the past for the engineers at VW to buy a copy of CA and steal the great ideas that I loved about working in that program. No luck with that.... Vectorworks is a great program, but it could be way better if they could get rid of some of its legacy baggage, and provide tools that are flexible and simplify the process of designing in CAD.

We struggled early with this one. For the Graphic Legend to work as we'd like to see it, with each Leaf Type represented with their respective ID Labels underneath (single or multiples) , the only way we could figure it out to work correctly is to Report the Legend Source by Style/Symbol Name, Sort it by ID Label, and then create a separate symbol for each door/window "Type" within the project. Because the Graphic Legend reports it by the symbol, and not by each instance of the door/window, if you have parameters of the door/window that can be changed without affecting the actual symbol, the Graphic Legend will not reflect any of those changes you make in the settings of each plug-in object. In each different door/window symbol, we lock all the parameters save for a few... for example, we specifically turn off all the trim and sills in the symbol so they don't show up in the Graphic Legend, but in the model we turn them on for each window so it is visible in the model and our elevation drawings. Otherwise, all other parameters are locked with the symbol so we don't accidentally make a change to a door/window that doesn't reflect in the Graphic Legend. Specifically that includes sizes! Hope this explanation of our solution helps. Otherwise, I have no clue...

as bjoerka said, this is how it is supposed to work and always has in the past. But SP3 changed that, and now every time I turn on the clip cube, with nothing selected, it cuts through the model as described above, depending on which layer is active.

nothing selected. made sure of that at the beginning

After updating to SP3, the clip cube function is cutting through what seems like a random plane instead of the full model. The section cut plane is somehow related to the layer that I am currently on. I checked a PC version of VW in the office and it isn't affecting that machine. This causes you to have to select each edge and pull it out so you can see the whole model prior to selecting the plane you want to push/pull for your section cut.

After a little investigation, I find that if I set the wall height to 48" or less, the issue goes away. At 49" and above, the wall connections disappear again and don't look cleaned up. I tried setting the cut plane of the layer active and higher but that did not seem to do anything, so it might not be related to it.

any update on this? this is really a problem.

So, we've been using this technique for several years now with our Viewports set to a Background Render of Artistic Renderworks, and a Foreground Render of Hidden Line. Using a Heliodon in the model set to cast shadows, we've had great success. The glazing in windows and doors took on a solid fill, and shadows were cast on top of those openings. However, VW 2022 has decided to throw a wrench in our system.... Now, the shadows from the model space beyond the window/door is casting shadows, and no matter what we try with the glazing settings, shadows from inside the model are visible through the windows and doors. Even setting the glazing class to None, with a solid fill, has no effect on the shadows beyond the glazing. Still visible. I tried putting a roof texture in the glazing, and it will show the roof texture, but still show the shadows beyond the glazing. This is an obvious glitch. It hasn't happened with every file. But we've tried everything we can with various viewport settings, Heliodon settings, glazing class settings, window and door settings.... nothing changes the shadows being cast behind the glazing. If anyone has any clue what could be going on, your help would be much appreciated.

this isn't so much a question as a statement... I finally started using 2022 today, along with 3 other employees in my firm, and we've had multiple crashes and video display issues. Seems like VW decided to once again release a bug laden product in order to beat the Service Select renewal deadline. Needless to say I am not very happy about paying for a product prior to its readiness for the market. It's not going to happen again. These kind of issues are inexcusable. I'm not getting paid by VW to bug test their product. I'm getting paid by clients to deliver documents to them to build. When I have to waste hours and days trying to optimize a tool to use, I lose money. I'm going back to 2021 until I see updates being released that hopefully will fix this product. Then, instead of wasting time on VW bugs, I'll start searching for a tool designed and developed by architects, not by marketing shills.

I've mentioned this before, but it is worth repeating. I tried Chief Architect a couple of years ago. The interface was a bit weird getting used to, and the 2d capabilities were clunky at best. And getting drawings to look a certain way was not its strong suit. But one look at the tools for residential architecture, and it made you wonder why Vectorworks is consistently neglecting such a large base of their customers. Doors and windows were completely customizable, with the capability to use trim profiles instead of a flat trim. The stair tool, while not perfect, was years beyond what I am forced to work with everyday. I could curve treads! What a novel idea! I could combine straight sections AND curved sections. Amazing! Rooms (spaces) had trim work built in, with profile selections for baseboard and crown. There was no need to draw it separately. You simply assigned it to the room and it was done. But to top it all off was their amazing cabinet tool. Simply a joy to design with. In the end, the complexity of the models we produced slowed the drawing files down and increased time to complete our drawing sets, so we abandoned the product in favor of what we knew. But every year I search for something better due to VW's lack of attention to our needs. I guess set designers rank higher on the pecking order. One day, that time will come... and VW will see their market share drop within our community. As I've suggested before, it would behoove the engineers at VW to purchase a copy of Chief Architect and steal the good ideas they have incorporated into that program. And release it all at once, not in small increments to keep us on the yearly maintenance program that never fails to dash our hopes year after year. That is my rant for the day.

Make sure the objects you are using are set to "by Class". that includes walls, doors, windows, etc. So when you are in Sheet View, and you have a Viewport, that Viewport can be manipulated by Class. With the Viewport highlighted, select the Class button in the Object Info Palette. You then select all classes and Edit them, changing their color and line weight. Not sure if you are missing one of my steps here, but if you attach your drawing, I can take a look and see what would have to be done to make it work.