Jeff Prince

I'm no expert, but I built a simple model consisting of walls, door, window, roof, slab, and trees. I just exported to dwg and my design layers appear in sketchup and CAD as layers. No textures showed up though. The same model exported via 3DS has textures and sent the image prop too...but no layers 🙂 Neither export shows classes as layers. Depending on how complex the model, perhaps you create a temporary export file where you could move your items from "classes" to "design layers" in order to get the desired result? Not that it sounds like a desirable workflow. **Unless you set it up per the attached image. Then you get Mike said, VW classes as CAD layers, VW Layers as separate CAD files. Actually works pretty good.

How are you creating drawings in the field for site analysis, conceptual design, construction administration, or As-builts? Are there any apps that do this well and play nice with VW? What about creating conceptual models on site to visualize or test ideas? Is there any hope of VW developing a tablet solution that addresses the workflow of Landscape Architects? I would love to have a tablet app that could play well with my team’s CAD or BIM backgrounds. *Tap on an existing tree to add/change data that could link back to the source model. *Capture GPS data for points or tracks and add it to the model, seamlessly. *Photomodel, onsite... and feed that back to the main site model. *etc... I drank the IPad Koolaid awhile back and life and work have been greatly enhanced. Sketching, modeling, photoshop via Afinity, and flying drones are just scratching the surface. Taking the plant database on the go has been nice, wish it could be synced automatically. There is so much potential for improving our workflows by creating a useful extension of VW on a tablet that embraces the entire process of design. Thoughts?

Thanks for the reply. I hope to do a bit of experimenting with it this week.

I'm very new to vectorworks and using 2017. I would like to learn how people are creating landscape edging to represent in 3D and reports. Many of my designs have these running between different landcape areas, usually abutting some other hardscape object like a walkway or path. I used to just draw these as polylines in AutoCAD, but now I would like to leverage Vectorworks to make them properly in 3D so they will follow a site model and such. I just made one with the hardscape tool using the path option and setting it to 6" wide. It seems to work pretty good on curvilinear forms both in 2D and 3D, though I can't seem to find an option in the hardscape settings that builds it from "top of slab" and representing it's thickness in the downward direction. I usually show a difference of 2" between the top of walks/headers and the adjacent landscape or hardscape surface and would like to represent this. In the mean time, I opted to change to object from 3D to 2D, VW is taking forever to process that little instruction 😞 thanks for any help, Jeff

I'm on VW 2017 and just learning how to set up sheets after dabbling in developing a project model. I followed the procedures in creating a sheet layer, border, and titleblock using the default VW objects per VW online video. I'm curious why VW created the sheet with it's center at 0,0 instead of the upper or lower left corner. Is this typical and desired behavior? If so, why? I notice the Adobe softwares place the user origin at the upper left corner of a project by default. This can be changed in Photoshop, Illustrator, and Vectorworks to correspond to lower left at 0,0. Strangely enough, the "user space" in a PDF defines the origin at the lower left corner, but the rulers and coordinate tool display the upper left corner as the origin. Does anyone know how to change this behavior in Acrobat? I wish there was some consistency in all of this and just want to develop good habits while learning VW. I'm thinking I should train my brain to view paper coordinates as originating from the upper left corner and adopt that in all my layout processes in various softwares. What do you think is best? So getting back to VW, Is there any concern with changing the "user origin" of a sheet layout? I see I can do this easily the same way I do it in Photoshop and Illustrator, but want to make sure it's safe to do so. I really don't want to break some kind of functionality down the road as I'm pretty busy just figuring out the basics :) thanks for any help, Jeff

We have been experimenting with image props in preparation to create a new library of regional plant materials to be shown in elevation and perspective. Are there any recommendations or best practices for: Image Size (width & height) Resolution/DPI Color Mode/Depth File Format Are there any pros & cons to be aware of for various setting? I would like to nail down all these settings before turning my staff loose on what will be a fairly large task. Our intent is to use these images for the construction of image props, display in the plant database in a custom report (to show a larger image and less data), and as Photoshop entourage. Thanks for any help, Jeff

Some help finally arrived via our reseller and possibly from VW over the past week. I was instructed to do a series exercises in accessing the plant database in a variety of ways. Just like taking a car into the shop with intermittent problems, the bug failed to materialize. I had to get some actual work done at some point, so I gave up. A few days later, the bug reappeared and today I made it a priority to figure it out. If Outlook is active and is being used to write an email or has recently sent an email, the text in the plant database turns white. This is repeatable. Of course I do not know why Outlook has this effect, but perhaps the solution is easier to identify now? I suspect it is a Filemaker Pro / Outlook issue, as there appears to be a long history of incompatibility between those two. Perhaps I will avoid this issue if I don't run Outlook while running the Plant Database. Time will tell... Maybe I can use this as justification for having email programs removed from my computer **edit - I just read an email from VW tech support that also laid suspicion on Filemaker... so perhaps Outlook vs Filemaker is the culprit.

Meanwhile, no solution to the above is forthcoming from the company that writes the software... And of course, someone took the time to read my message and negatively impact my "reputation" for pointing out these issues. Amazing company and community.

Thanks for the tips. I think I'll just stick to drawing them by hand

Pretty much every one of my projects starts with sketches and site analysis. I draw them by hand to communicate quickly. My team uses M-Color to create similar hand drawn graphics (see image) based upon AutoCAD vectors when these types of graphics need to be included in formal reports. Is it possible to create similar graphic styles in Vectorworks quickly? If so, how? Ideally, I would place a few symbols to mark key features or site influences, draw a shapes to define areas, and draw some lines to define paths. After all that was done, simply apply a graphic style to create the look I'm after.

Can you ditch the 3d polys and just request a point file from your surveyor? That seems to be faster and more accurate in the testing I have done thus far.

The text was not changed via format > text color If I try to change it, nothing happens The same happens, intermittently strangely enough, even after a preference reset per the VW instructions involving the deletion of numerous plst files and reentering the serial number. And then this situation just gets better and better. Having tried to get support directly from Vectorworks, I was referred to our reseller. After waiting over a week for the reseller to respond, they have informed me that it has been referred to Vectorworks for resolution... I can't help but feeling like this company is staffed by people who retired from long careers as DMV workers Probably get down voted again for that....

Im curious how people are handling this as well. In other layer based CAD software, our symbols were composed of multiple layers for graphic purposes using AIA layering convention. We then placed the block/symbol on layers based upon there master class/layer (L-PLNT-TREE) for instance. Sometimes a project would have phases of planting, so we would place the block/symbol on an appended layer indicating that. Problems would occur with our approach if you wanted graphic differentiation between the phases using the same symbol/block, leading to further classifications to differentiate. Wasn't a big challenge because it was an infrequent requirement.

Thanks, will respond in a few days when I'm back in front of the machine.

Don't sweat it, I can see a refund from the reseller is probably in order before the 30 days are up.

Same issue.

JimW are you giving people negative reputation points again for asking legitimate questions? Shame shame

Thanks for your comments. About the only thing left at this point is to reinstall the software I guess. I'm a US landscape architect working in the Middle East. Our IT department was directed to purchase from a reseller in the region by this website, much to my dissapointment. Jim, I will ask you the same question I posed to Jay and Juan of VW in a recent email... Am I to believge my experience with support would somehow be different if I personally purchased through VW in the USA? I'm still waiting for support to materialize from our reseller and questions posed to your colleagues in the US (presumed) to be answered. Tell Juan and Jay to check their email

Interesting, I post an update saying this issue has not been resolved and it gets deleted. Meanwhile, my emails to tech support, Jay, and Juan, and a reseller go unanswered.... I'm starting to understand why some of my LA colleagues said it was a bad idea to consider the switch to VW.

My issue with the white text remains and support from VW seems unlikely. Today I successfully placed the plant database on my iPad and opened with Filemaker GO per: http://learn.archoncad.com/2010/09/445/vectorworks-plant-database-on-your-ipad/ I was pretty excited, especially when I successfully opened the Vectorworks database on my iPad, added a plant, and even added some photos of it directly in the database. I then transferred the modified database off my iPad and back to my laptop. If I open the modified plant database in FileMaker Pro on the laptop, I can see my edits and photos. If I open it in VW on the laptop, no such luck. The modified database opens and displays the old plants in VW, but no trace of my new plant and photos. Any ideas as to what is going on?

thanks

I'm not sure that is something I have or have access to. I have an IT department that takes care of things.

Is it different than the trial version? Reason I ask, the company just bought a copy of the software and installed it on my workstation. If I run into trouble or want to install it on my laptop, I have the serial number, but not the installer.

I probably contacted them August 23 or 24 using the button on the bottom of this page, per the advice offered by rDesign above.

No answer from tech support, no answer from the forum, no answer from sales. Does this company actually exist?