bpsabatier

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.

One more thing. Make sure the Heliodon is on a class that is "On" in the viewport. We create 4 classes (Heliodon-Front, Heliodon-Rear, Heliodon-Right, Heliodon-Left) and place a Heliodon object on each one. Then we play with the particular settings of each one to create the desired shadows on that particular elevation, turning on the appropriate class for the appropriate elevation. That way you don't have to change the settings of the Heliodon object for each different elevation. We are not concerned with the correct sun location for our elevations but rather getting a nice field of depth for each elevation that a good shadow creates. If you are presenting to a client and need an accurate sun and shadow pattern, then created another class with that particular Heliodon and use it for that purpose.

Not entirely sure, but my guess would be that elements in your plan (walls, windows, etc.) are not set to use "Class Settings". That is the only way that changing class settings in the viewport would affect the line weights. If you edit your wall style(s), you can select "Edit Wall Attributes..." and make sure the Pen Style and Color are set to Class Style. Also the Thickness. Do this for all the walls you are using. I did notice that you used a "Viewport" instead of a "Section Viewport". May be not a big deal, but in 2021 we have issues with our shutters, and in Section Viewports that problem goes away. One last thing. The blurry line is a function of the Sheet DPI. If you want to eliminate it, set it to something other than 72, which is the default. We set ours to 180. Right-click the sheet with the viewport in the "Navigation - Sheet Layers" palette, and select "Edit". The change the Raster Rendering DPI to whatever works best for you. However, don't do this on every sheet, as it will increase your file size when printing a set to PDF. Just do this for the sheets with elevations. And I noticed your scale of 1:100. Our typical is 1/4". I don't know if this affects the DPI setting effects.

We achieve shadows this way... 1st, set up your view with all of your classes/layers you want on, and make sure to have a Heliodon object to create your shadows. Play with this object till you like the look of your shadows. Next, create a viewport of the elevation with "Create Section Viewport". Then under Display settings, change the Background Render to Artistic Renderworks. Under Background Render Settings..., Select the Style: Lines and Shadow. Set the Edge Thickness really low (we use 0.01), set the edge color and the Shadow Color to the same gray you want for your shadows. Then choose Foreground Render Settings... and set it to Hidden Line. Under Foreground Render Settings, we leave everything checked, and select the Sketch Hidden Line Results and select the sketch style if you want to have a sketchy elevation. Then hit OK, and the viewport will be created on the sheet you selected. Once the viewport has been created, we go into the "Classes" button, select all, then "Edit..." We then choose the Pen:Color to be black, and the thickness to be all one thickness, usually fairly light. Don't change anything else. Click OK, then update your viewport. At this point, it should render with your shadows. We usually go into the Viewport Annotations to add a thick ground line, and outline the building with varying thicknesses depending on the distance from the viewpoint. For thing way far back, we add a polygon around those parts of the building, set the pen to "0" thickness, and the fill to "white", then set the opacity to 50%. This grays out those parts. Hope this helps...I've included a screenshot as an example. BTW, 2021 has a glitch on a perspective viewport using this Hidden Line for the Foreground. Windows with custom shutters display a ghost shutter in the middle of the window. Not sure what caused this but it has happened in multiple drawings. It doesn't happen if the viewport is a flat elevation.

Ha! Read the room... I feel the same about avoiding these teasers. I seem to remember them in the past being longer than this year's samples, which gave us more to be excited about. The current format just brings out the worst in us.... These teasers, however, have done their job....My curiosity has been heightened by the lack of substance. When should we expect the new release? Any ideas?

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but the cost of any program doesn't increase or decrease the development cycle. Everyone has gone to the subscription service for a reason. They mete out small spoonfuls of improvements every year at a reasonable price carefully calculated to satisfy the main user base just enough to keep them coming back for more. I know I'm one of those suckers. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a brand new stair tool just waiting in the wings, ready to release when the user base really starts to actively revolt. BTW, I don't always bash VW. Cost is a great reason to stay with VW, but it is also a powerful program on par with the other main players. It is a valuable part of my work process, and it produces great looking drawings for me. I just want more improvement in the day to day tools I use... stairs, doors/windows/walls/roofs/foundations... and I want things that should not be an afterthought... like gutters/ridgecaps/trim profiles/crown mldgs. and baseboards. Oh, and a cabinet tool that doesn't suck. Did I mention a new stair tool? @jmanganelli , you are absolutely correct. I took a chance with Chief Architect and experimented for about a year with it. I loved parts of the program that gave me options VW just doesn't do (see wishes above). But in the end, their 2d drawing capabilities fell way short of what I am used to with VW, and it killed my productivity. We ended up having to export the elevations and plans to VW to finish up the drawings for publication.

No, I understand speed improvements are necessary and welcome. But that should be the feature I find out about AFTER the new version comes out. Right now I want to see that we are getting a new stair tool that allows design options that others already employ (Archicad and Chief Architect in particular). Or how about a trim profile option in the door/windows... not everyone utilizes flat trim in their designs. And don't get me started on that horrible Cabinet tool... Now those things would get me excited on Teaser Tuesday. Being able to link an Excel spreadsheet to VW... boring. I have to agree with Mark Aceto's Note to the Vectorworks Team to give us a clear roadmap to the features to expect. I don't like be kept in the dark till after I pay my subscription, that's all.

My fingers are tired of being crossed... Simple solution. Release the new version before asking us to pony up our annual subscription. At the current rate of necessary improvements to simple architectural features, I can wait 3 or 4 years to just upgrade.

Disappointing. No improvements to basic VW. Stairs? Doors/Windows trim options? How about roof ridge caps? I know the update plans... tease with improvements that don't affect 90% of our work, leave us hoping the update will include some surprises, and have us spend thousands of dollars to be disappointed once again. It's about time to rethink my commitment to VW...

We've been having an issue as of late particularly on a file over 100MB in size, where as we tried to select an object while in a 3D view, we would get the spinning wheel that would last from 5 to 30 seconds. This was quite frustrating and we couldn't find any solutions on this forum. After playing around with this file all afternoon, I found the issue. We often utilize a segmented arch cased opening in the homes we design. Our standard for this has no jamb as it is often just a sheetrock opening. Because they have no jamb, it is difficult to select. If you try to click on the opening in 3D, it takes a while to select. But, more importantly, if you try to select any other object that is in front of the segmented cased opening, you get the same spinning wheel. There are two solutions to this issue. First, simply add a jamb of any thickness will allow for a quick selection with no slow down. Second, change the opening to a square top opening solves the issue. Not sure if the engineers at VW can fix this problem, if it is even worth their time to do so. I'd much rather have them working on fixing that damn Stair Tool. But I thought if anyone else is having this issue, we needed to let our solution be known. Things like this are incredibly frustrating....

The set designers must be ecstatic.... architects not so much. Disappointed for another year. Not sure how much longer I can take this...

Way too many issues with this release. I, too, have had these wall issues. At some point during my day, I get an issue where when I clean up a wall intersection, all of a sudden any windows or doors in that wall "disengage" the wall. I can't even select the door or window to put it back in the wall. I've tried undoing and doing it again, but the same result. I resorted to redrawing the wall and doors and windows as necessary, but this is not a solution. I did find that if I quit VW, then relaunch and open the drawing, it goes away (for now). Closing the program should not be the fix. A stable program is...

I, too, have experienced this sluggishness. As the day progresses, selecting a space can take up to 6 seconds of beach ball time before it becomes active. Many times I just reboot my computer to get rid of this so that I can finish off the day strong. Aggravating, especially when having to move or reshape these things as a plan evolves. This, along with a host of other issues, has me thinking again of switching. I've got a lot of years invested in this program, and it doesn't seem to be getting better. Maybe Architects aren't high on the priority list (not sure if other fields are experiencing the same frustrations), or maybe it's the pressures of releasing new updates every year to justify the yearly subscription scam that has infiltrated every aspect of the computing world. Something's gotta give.... fix the program!