Taproot

Robert, I've also found a related scenario. When using the Section Marker Tool (not the linked viewport, but the manual version), if the marker symbol is set to another arrow style after it is created, all arrows disappear (never to return). Do you need a file for this, or are you already aware of the situation?

Pat, Yes, that's precisely what I've done. With the exception that I included the criteria (not key's and legends) in the QTY field only. I had wanted it to list all of the symbols (including the keys and legends layer), but only count the ones not on the keys and legends layer. Apparently, that is not possible. It's just a pesky "1" - I have half a mind to just put a note at the bottom of the schedule instructing the electrician to deduct one from each line item! The perfectionist in me just can't quite settle for that. Michaelk, You may be right. Pardon my ignorance here, but is there a way to count symbols within a worksheet - not within a database row? I'd be fine with listing out all of the symbols manually, but I don't know how to introduce COUNT functions into a worksheet. The only thing that I can think of is to make every row an individual database row where the title for each device is manually entered and the COUNT criteria for the whole row can be set to exclude the Key's & Schedules Layer. That seems like a LOT of work ... but I've tried a sample, and at least it functions correctly. Woah, sometimes the simplest stuff truly is the hardest.

Wes, I didn't have any luck opening the attachments. Are these VW files? VW 2008 doesn't recognize the format. The icon suggests they are quicktime.

Lloyd, I think this is a pretty common dilemma, so here's a quick overview for other users (it sounds like you've already figured it out). When using the wall tool, you can use different modes i.e. left snap, center snap, right snap, or custom snap for wall insertion. Custom snap is the one that you want (on the right of the mode bar). In this example, I've snapped the exterior face of the framing component to the grey rectangle. You can set the control offset in the preferences of the Wall tool. After you do this, save the wall as a wall style for future use. To set the control offset, look under "insertion options" of the wall. The offset is from the center line of the wall, so you may need to do some math. The images I've shown are for an exterior wall with 1/2" sheathing, and 7/8" siding, so you end up with an odd dimension. A simpler example would be a 2x6 framed wall with 1/2" gypsum on both sides. In that case, if you wanted the framing line to be the snap point, you would set the control offset to 2 3/4" (or 1/2 of the distance from the center of the wall to the line of framing). For asymmetrical walls (where you have more materials on one side of the framing than another), it's a little more complicated. You need to calculate the full width of the wall, divide by 2 to determine the centerline and then compute the difference to your offset point. Once you have the wall setup as a wall style, it's all then automatic. Dimension is a bit of a nuisance. I find that I use framing only for new construction and component walls for as-builts (where I use true finish dimensions) and assemblies where exact alignment is critical. In which case, I manually adjust the dimensions to the framing component. I look forward to the improvements.

Michael & Pat, Thank you for the informed replies. I've been trying to fix the Image Uploader widget to give you a visual, but alas it seems to have broken. Here it is via a different service: I think the Criteria route is the right one. De-symbolizing would eliminate the titles of the symbols. I've set up the criteria of the Database header row to require Electrical Device Records to be present. The Symbol column uses the formula: =('Electrical Device'.'Type') The first Qty column uses a simple COUNT formula. The second Qty column uses the formula: =COUNT((L<>'Keys & Legends')) Wherein, I've tried to limit the criteria to any layer other than the layer the legend symbols are on. As you can see, it returns "False" or a series of dashes rather than a number. Dashes are where I've put a test symbol (or a couple of symbols) to verify if the worksheet is working. I've tried setting the cell format to decimal, general, etc. to no effect. (At least no beneficial effect.) It seems like what I'm trying to do should be possible ... but then again maybe not. Thanks again for your help.

Just to corroborate - yes, the problem is with Tekton. Only "Tekton Pro" will work correctly.

Is there any way to modify the COUNT function in the worksheet? I've set up a worksheet that acts as an electrical schedule. It pulls the Symbol Name from the symbol record to form the list. I have a symbol instance displayed beside the worksheet for graphic reference. I would like to list the number of symbol instances in the drawing minus the one shown for the key. I've tried every permutation of =SUM(COUNT,-1) etc... to no avail. It appears that any formula combined with the COUNT function is calculated per instance (rather than once only). I've also tried pasting different criteria - into the headers for the Item and Quantity columns, i.e. excluding the key layer from the Quantity criteria. However, in that case I get True/False returned (instead of numbers). Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thank you Michael. I appreciate you're setting the record straight. I'll endeavor to reach you later today. Kind Regards,

Pat, I was planning to sell one of the copies I own to a friend of mine. Marcus informed me that NNA would no longer grant permission for the transfer of ownership. That caught me by surprise. It's a significant change in policy/attitude and one that at least in my mind shouldn't be put into effect without advance notice. If anyone from NNA would like to confirm or deny this policy change, I (and I think a lot of other people) would appreciate it!

I just got off the phone with Marcus Dulin at US customer sales and was informed that Nemetschek's license transfer program has been terminated. I had used it in the past - when one of my subcontractors moved to Revit, I purchased his copy and added it to my firm's resources. At the time, Nemetschek would transfer the license for $100, allowing a reasonable way for licenses to stay in circulation and helping to justify to companies the wisdom of investing thousands of dollars in software. It made a big difference in my software selection - believing the purchase to be an investment in an asset rather than a disposable tool. Marcus informed me that the end user agreement prohibited re-selling of a license, so I looked it up (my verision 2008): (d) Sub-license, sell, lend, rent, or lease any portion of the software without permission. The buyer may, after approval by NNA (or authorized VectorWorks distributor if not in the USA), permanently transfer all (but no portion thereof) of the software to another person or entity, who in turn is subject to this agreement. Actually, it says nothing of the sort. Therefore, I interpret the current proclamation to be a change in policy. Given the significance of a policy change like this - affecting all current users, I would expect Nemetschek to issue a formal notice to all existing users. To my knowledge that has not happened. Since this affects all users, I felt it appropriate to bring the matter to your attention. I would strongly suggest letting Nemetschek know how you feel about it.

Thanks Pat. I use your handy worksheet all the time. My version doesn't display field type, however, so you must have updated it. I'll get a copy of the new one. After some trial and error, I repurposed the 'Door.LintelDrop' field. It took some figuring - Since all of the door number fields are hard coded as feet & inches, you have to correct for it manually (like this): =(Door.LintelDrop)*12

It's a new year, so I'm finally retooling my schedules. In the door schedule, I'd like to automatically calculate for Energy performance, so I've set up the following: =IF('Door'.'UserFld10'='Exterior', (Door.DoorWidth)*(Door.DoorHeight), ' ') I've found that the single quotes seem to be optional - in my case, the above formula works. However, if the statement is false, I would prefer the formula to return a blank value (rather than a zero). My solution was to return a 'space'. Is there a better way to do this? Now that I have the area for exterior doors only, I'm trying to multiply it by a U-value to determine a UA. So, in the next column, I've set up: =('Door'.'UserFld9') In which I manually type the U-value Then in the next column, I've entered: =(L4*M4) 4 is the database header row Column L= the Area Column M= the Uvalue The formula returns a #Value (error) I've tried a lot of permutations and determined that any formula involving the area (column L) will return a number value. But any formula including the Uvalue (column M) will return the error. Therefore I assume that 'UserFld9' cannot handle a number value?? Please Help. Thanks.

Instead of setting each layer height to a fixed elevation, how about being able to reference (link) layer heights to each other? That is, the second floor framing elevation is referenced to the Elevation + Elevation height of the first floor. If the first floor height is changed, the second floor framing automatically shifts as well.

A long shot ... but I experienced a similar issue. In that case, the texture also rendered at 20x the size, but in my case it was viewports not design layers that I was viewing. The cause and solution turned out to be sheet resolution. I had the sheet resolution set to 72 - when I upped it to 300 dpi, everything rendered fine. To troubleshoot, I would suggest looking at a viewport of the problematic elements and see if this correction works or not. Also, look at the "mapping" portion of the render tab of the OIP for the objects that are rendering incorrectly and see if their scale has been tweaked differently than the "normal" objects. Good luck.

If building your own worksheet from scratch seems difficult or you don't have the time, consider Charles Chandler's "Info Editor." It does exactly what you're asking for, but will do so - not just for windows and doors, but for any object type: Drawing borders, Walls, etc. It costs $20 - a bargain for the tedium that it eliminates. A link to his site is here.

Aha! Details... I'm curious how many people actually figured this out?? Never the less, You've just made finding things on this forum a WHOLE lot easier! Thanks,

Miguel, The electronic version is a vast improvement over what I have. Thanks,

Fabulous! "SetTool" is what I was after. I answered my own question about tool tables: Table E of the Vectorscript guide. Cheers,

Ray, that works. Brudgers, I tried as you suggested - what I found is: That "+" appears to be of limited help. Your tip was good, but I also found that the forum will ignore secondary terms if it can't find them i.e. retrieves 14 posts <+narrowing+fettucini> also retrieves 14 posts I suppose Google has something going for it after all.

Pat, Thanks for the confirmation (and the color note), I intend to do your latter suggestion as well. Toward that end, I sought to call the Text tool as part of the script i.e. through the Custom Tool / Attribute command. This is the script that was generated: Procedure CustTool; VAR Name:STRING; Result:BOOLEAN; BEGIN PushAttrs; PenFore(1); FillBack(256); TextFont(-24192); TextSize(12); TextFace([bold]); NameClass('None'); CallTool(-200); PopAttrs; END; Run(CustTool); Indeed, at the end of the operation, the Text tool is activated, but if I click on the drawing or draw a text box with it to then apply text to the drawing, the tool drops out. Any idea why this may be happening? Is there a way to correct it? I hope to expand this concept to line styles, etc. Where does one look for a list of tool # addresses? Appreciatively,

I'm in the process of updating our office text standards. I'd like to have presets for Text Heading/Body/Title/ etc... Given the absence of text definition by class or 'text styles' I'm exploring using the "Custom Tool/Attribute" script pallet as a way of establishing standard settings. Is there a better way? Have any of you found what you think is the optimal workflow?

How do you narrow a search on the forum? Via the "advanced search tips," I've discovered that "+" is the way to add required terms. However, it seems that the forum returns any instance of ANY required term rather than all of them. Using quotes doesn't appeal, because many of the terms won't necessarily be used in the same sentence. Is this possible?

For the hand drawn look, you'll definitely want the "Sketch" features of VW for all your 2-D drawings. I would guess that you are looking at the "Architect" module which contains this feature. If you are only doing two drawing sets a year and therefore only a couple of renderings, you probably don't need Renderworks. Some magic in photoshop may be enough for your needs.

The ability to set display settings in the Place Plant Tool that would apply to all subsequent placed symbols i.e. Shadow Direction, Shadow Hatch/Fill, "On Plant List," etc. Currently it only applies to the active symbol. The ability to change aspects of all plants at one time: For example Rendering, Shadow Direction, etc. Perhaps this simply means adding these settings to the OIP and using "Custom Modification?"

Thanks Ian, I did read through your comments, my conclusion is that the only really effective way to do this is to create a new symbol library from the default symbols with each plant display set to our preferred standards i.e. shading, hatching, etc. Then as Frank suggests when the drawings advance to CD level, we can use the Custom Modification to turn on "on Plant List" etc. This is a bit cumbersome, because right from the get-go, it's a little difficult to know what the best "standard" is without working with the symbols for a while. I do believe I'll log my initial request as a wish list item.