Jeff Prince

change it to where it only appears when you hit the space bar, that will turn you into a believer.

Vectorworks could improve a lot of things, but object snaps is not one I have any difficulty with. Holding shift locks you onto the X,Y, or Z axis. Clicking 'T' locks you onto a variety of objects and gives a nice visual display of the extension line. It works along a line, arc, and even a 3D poly. Here's a video of activating the Smart Edge with 'T' to activate extension line snapping. It doesn't get much easier, but a 3D dragger would be nice 🙂 Smart Edge activated wtih T.mov

@Tom W. you should know by now that if you try to make sense of how Vectorworks works, you will drive yourself mad. This is what happens to programs that are developed over long periods of time... inconstancies in behavior.

This whole thread is interesting, but it begs to question... Is this an actual Architectural sectioning technique? I thought the "rules" for sections and elevations was a primary view is chosen which the picture plane is parallel to and then all other features not on the plan are projected/foreshortened. It seems that a different tool would be needed than the conventional section line tool in order to do this properly. I would like to see something like a clip cube, where you could draw an angled polygon to define what you want to keep and then have the stuff outside the polygon removed. Now that would be useful. You could then orientate an elevation to this clipped form and have everything projected, either orthographically or in perspective.

I believe it has to do with how the Plant Object tool is written. I suspect when you create a plant from your own geometry, the program places the information in a container on the none class which is inaccessible to the user. You can test this yourself by making a symbol for a plant that has nothing on the none class. Then, use this symbol to create a plant. When you go back to edit the 2D geometry of the plant, it's no long in that Symbol you created and all the pieces are accessible, but turning the None class to grey will make it grey. Clearly, something happens within the Plant Tool itself. In terms of plants being unique in terms of having geometry on the none class, that isn't the case. There are tons of things that ship with Vectorworks that are built with 2D and 3D geometry on the none class. And there are inconsistencies with that, see the two different jeeps below 🙂 Anyway, leave the None class on and these problems go away. I purposely do not use the none class in my drawings and reserve it for Vectorworks objects to use only. Built in VWX content + one custom symbol on the right. None class ON None Class = Gray 1. note the custom symbol turned into a plant on the right has grayed even though nothing was in the None class. 2. Jeep on the left is not gray, most pieces are not on the None class, so they display as expected... however, a few pieces are gray because they were not classed consistently. That is probably an error on the part of the person who made the model. There are many examples of these errors throughout Vectorworks and likely another reason the trainers at Vectorworks almost universally say "Leave the none class ON". I would post this simple file for you to play with, but it's nearly 100 MB of just stock Vectorworks content!

Glad you found it. That’s why Vectorworks says to leave the none class on always, almost all of their content uses it for some or all of the geometry.

Have you watched the Core Associate training videos on Vectorworks University? There’s a whole section there on how snaps work. Pretty sure they covered the hot keys, modifiers, and temporary suspension of snaps. A little time invested in training will eliminate hours of frustration.

These can be more impactful than you might think, depending on how they are composed and located (like far from the origin). File size really doesn't matter, I've had files that are 1 GB or more that spin around in 3D silky smooth. I've also had files that were under 100 MB that would bring a computer to its knees.

The big 4 for my people... Stuff far from the origin like @Benson Shaw said. Site models built from contours that have way too many verticies, learn to model from points or clean up the contours prior to turning them into a site model Using native objects with too much detail (Laubwerks plants, etc...) Having too many object snaps active in a complex drawing, learn to turn them off and activate only as needed. Of these, most would be surprised how quickly things improve in the worst of drawings the moment you turn all your snaps off.

It works, this is a hotkey function of the Smart Edge snap, unless you have changed it.

What do you hope to end up with? a plant list for each viewport or one plant list for everything? How you get there will depend on how the drawing is organized and how the worksheet criteria is set up.

Sorry, I'm out of ideas without seeing the file. Good luck.

Your layer options are set to "grey snap others". Post a file if that's not it.

I bet the class(es) you put the plants on is set to Gray instead of Visible. That would make it to where you can see it, but not select it and remove the color fill. If that's not the case, post the file and someone will take a look.

The solution probably has you going into Adobe Acrobat Pro and changing some settings. Back when I used AutoCAD I remember having to spend days configuring Acrobat to make it work. Simple drawings were never a problem, but multiple objects overlaid and then viewed through a viewport work send Acrobat into a tail spin if the settings were off. I'm sure it better now, that was a long time ago... but could be related.

It's not going to work, the tool doesn't function that way. With path =0' width, it will depict both sides of the border. With Path=edging width, it illustrates both joints sitting onto of one another. Path =2x edging width fails to generate. Unfortunately, manual illustration is your best bet when it comes to radial joints on edging.

Sometime people can’t open your files if they are on an older version. Your description was clear though. In the future, dropping a screen shot of the problem into your post can get more responses, especially when they can’t open your file.

Are you using Windows. If so, it is probably your Virtual Memory settings on the client computers and not a Vectorworks issue.

Are you using Windows. If so, it is probably your Virtual Memory settings on the client computers and not a Vectorworks issue.

You might try FormZ, Rhino, or Blender for these kinds of simple edits if you have a lot of them to do. Vectorworks can do it with a little legwork on your part as Pat mentioned.

@scottmoore that’s problem geometry for VWX sometimes. work arounds… Use Polygon in the paint bucket mode instead of trim. Hold shift while you click, probably same level of effort as trimming. or Draw a single polyline for the centerline, use a line type to get the double line width. For the channel/clip graphic, use a symbol with a solid fill matching background color. If this works for you it should be significantly faster than what you are doing now.

@hollister design Studio did you ever figure this out? I made a PDF from your VWX today and took it to my print shop and everything looks fine. I use a Mac and the built in PDF driver. I bet it has something to do with your PDF software. Sorry it took so long to get back to you, finally had a need to go the printer 🙂

Post a file and I'll take a look at it. So you want a wall that is continuously changing with the contour of the ground rather than say a masonry like construction as depicted in your image? That's a little trickier, but possible. This thread will teach you the magic...

Good grief, you are insufferable. Where are these credentials and bio of mine you read, I might be interested in reading it too. People on this thread are interested in Rhino.inside for various reasons. I doubt anyone wants the thread cluttered with our unrelated banter. I don't know why I keep falling for this, it must be what training a chatbot feels like.

1) do your roads as texture beds since the surface is existing and you are using the old versions of the software. Walls can be done with walls and a retaining modifier, if your versions has that. 2) Yup 3) You can add some stake object or 3D loci to add additional data to areas you want to fine tune, that smooths things out quickly. The road tool is not the greatest in your versions. Grade the site to reflect how you want the road surface to be and then use a texture bed to map it with a texture, unless you really need the road components built up in 3D. 2023 has some much better tools to address roads and sidewalks that you might be interested in if you will be doing a lot of this kind of thing. Otherwise fake it to make it with texture beds.