Nicolas Goutte

The ground rule (also in VW 2020) is: open everything, export to the last 5 versions

As written above, I do not think you can define an object in a Plug-In that is not a Parametric object. Otherwise a Parametric object that would not be a Plug-In would be needed to be defined in VW itself. I am not sure if there is any. (If it is defined in VW, it could have its own object type.) Thanks too. This thread makes a few things clear for me too, that were not so clear before.

Yes, I think you are getting closer. However an object would be a Plug-in too. You can see Plug-ins as something that tells VW: "Here are some extensions: this tool ATool, this object A, this menu B, this code library C". Normally a file containing code file, especially from C++, defines more that one "thing" (that is my naming).

You could define it in another way (a bit simplified perhaps): - a plug-in is something listed in the Plug-In Manager - an object listed there is parametric.

For me, they are not parametric, as they have other object types. (And they are no Plug-Ins either, as there are defined in VW itself, as far as I know. Wall is very internal in VW too, so it is not a Plug-In. Also it has a separate object type too. However Door and Window are parametric objects and Plug-Ins. I would say anything that is an object which is defined as Plug-Ins. Thinking about it, I think you cannot defined any other type of object that a parametric in a plug-in (alternatively you can define a menu, a tool or library code). So at the end a PIO is probably the same as a Parametric object (unlike what I have written in the meantime).

No, it is the object which is Parametric. The tool is just a tool to be able to place it into the document. (Sorry, for the recursive definition. 😃) My definition comes from the internal object types. Sure that would be another point of view. That is probably why it is not easy for somebody not knowing object types to see a difference. However seen that way, every object of VW has a OIP where something can be changed (be it its position). (That is probably the definition of a PIO.)

Internally in VW, all those are not Parametric objects, as they have other object types.

There is also the term PIO, which is mostly used in the sense Parametric Object

A Parametric object is a VW object of type 86 (constant kParametricNode in C++). As for "plug-in", I would say anything that is in the folder Plug-Ins, to add functionality in VW. A tool, especially a third-party one, is probably going to have parametric object associated to it, but it does not need too. (E.g. you could have a tool creating a polygon.) A parametric object alone cannot be placed in a VW document, you need a tool, a menu (or a call by a script or other code).

The Python 3.5 documentation does not recommend using the module fileinput for just one file: https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/fileinput.html Instead, https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/io.html (paragraph for readlines) recommends using: for line in file: So the code sample above would then read something like: for line in open('sample.txt', mode='r'): print(line)

The transfer of ownership of the Serial Number should be done officially (by Vectorworks, Inc or by the corresponding distributor, the one who has issued the serial number)

Distributors of VW are free to add stuff, not present in the American version of VW As for using the serial number, the answer is no, as the distributor is coded inside the serial number

Yes, there are teacher serial numbers.

No, it is linked to the serial number, if VW is in Pro mode oder in Student mode (or in Teacher mode, which is in-between)

I have been thinking during the weekend, why apparently we have no such problems (apart not signing our plugins). I have realized that we use the BuildVWR script, even in Debug, as PostBuild-Step. That means an intermediary step between editing and the created plug-in, even inside a .vwr folder. Alternatively, you could try using editors not creating resources, but that would probably mean you have to change your tools, so that is probably not a realistic option.