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_James

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Posts posted by _James

  1. 44 minutes ago, Christiaan said:

    Just look at Onshape.

    Thought it would be interesting to check out their changelog:

     

    July 22 - 1 update

    June 22 - 2 updates 

    May 22 - 1 update

    April 22 - 2 updates

    March 22 - 1 update

    February 22 - 1 update

    January 22 - 2 updates

     

    2021 had 17 updates in the year.All a mix of new features, improvements, bug fixes etc. I looked at some of the forum posts showing these updates and they have pretty positive comments from users.

     

    If Vectorworks start doing something like this (and the updates are actually good!) I will be impressed.

    • Like 1
  2. Absolutely @Matt Overton.

     

    Additionally it could change the way in which project sharing happens for the better (in my opinion). 

    Rather than the constant saving and committing and clashes that come with it, changes are incorporated more slowly and deliberately by being "pulled in" by the administrator/project leader once they have been checked and compared against the current situation.

     

    Whilst I know there is a log in vectorworks to see what has been saved and committed, we find that save and commits are so frequent that it's difficult to unpick relevant changes from minor ones and a big issue is that no one fills in the box describing what they have changed!

  3. OnShape have a great system for managing changes and reviewing versions of shared files - more info here

    1163882999_Screenshot2022-05-30at17_21_32.png.1482859cb4aa194ffcc0844c70ba547a.png

    It would be great for Vectorworks to have some form of version history such as this so that one can look back on the file/project and the path it has taken to reach the current state.

     

    I guess this wouldn't just be limited to project sharing files, but having richer version information would be a big improvement. Presently we just have files distinguished by file name "xxx-option 1" etc. Having these linked together to see the trajectory of the project over time makes it easier to go back to earlier versions, incorporate changes from others (in project sharing" and crucially - visualise the amount of times the client has required changes to the drawings!

     

    I mentioned this to the project sharing team on the Vectorworks OpenHouse a few years ago - it would be great for project sharing to deal with changes like pull requests (or at least my basic understanding of them) in software development so that data isn't just overwritten or deleted but the file is forked in another direction but one can look back on where it came from.

  4. I think the Hyperlink tool should be deleted, and instead the hyperlinks just added via the text objects themselves. 

     

    I don't use this tool often, but it seems unnecessarily complicated to have to control the text attributes via a symbol.

     

    This would create one fewer tool in Vectorworks, and keep the same functionality, whilst simplifying the way attributes are controlled keeping it inline with all other text in Vectorworks. Text styles would still be able to be used to control large amounts of attributes across a whole file for those who need this functionality. 

    • Like 1
  5. We use the revision data on drawings to write what has specifically changed on the drawing, such as a design or specification change. We then use the issue data to show/log when these drawings are actually issued to other consultants or contractors.

     

    Often we will revise drawings day to day, but issue them all in one go at a future date to cut down on the amount of changes flying around which can lead to confusion. The downside to this is that when you come to issue drawings, it can be difficult to remember which drawings have been revised, as some may have been revised weeks ago.

     

    Is there a functionality whereby it can easily be seen if the revision date is more recent than the last issue date - therefore alerting you as to which drawings need to be reissued? My first thought was a worksheet that could highlight sheet titles in red if this is the case, I would just need to get in the habit of checking it before issuing drawings.

  6. 14 hours ago, Shengxi Wu said:

    For the graphical symbol part of your legend, are they usually 2D line works (i.e., lines, arcs and 2D polygons)?

    Somewhat related to this is the existing Window Schedule worksheets with images which I guess is quite close to a legend. I found it quite annoying that the images were just that, images, so one could not interact with the linework, take/show dimensions etc. One of the examples I saw in VW presentations about this future possible feature was window schedules, and in my opinion the tool will need to generate linework so that dimensions can be related to it like the image below. 

     

    This is especially important as installations are more complex where the window frame is partially covered by the outer finish as shown.

    1993863725_Screenshot2021-09-29at11_05_49.thumb.png.e0d89cda77b6f63d782b8d0b7b381d58.png

     

    14 hours ago, Shengxi Wu said:

    Will you anticipate the ability of being able to update a legend (i.e., automatically add/remove a legend line) based on its associated viewport/sheet layer?

    Yes, for the example of electrical symbols on a plan it would be great to link the legend to that viewport so that it reported only the symbols in that viewport. Like the OP, I also have a electrical symbol key/legend saved as a symbol that I drop onto sheet layers. I've seen others say they go in and edit the legend symbol to reflect what is shown in the viewport - I am too lazy to do this - but also I think it is just an opportunity for errors, plus it adds a lot of time checking the drawings by having to go through each and every item.

     

    For electrical symbol legends, it would be very helpful if the number of items could be reported also, as well as data such as manufacturer/model so that the legend becomes a schedule as well.

     

  7. Definitely agree - they could be made a lot better and clearer. I think it's the space object where you can select what information is actually shown in the OIP to stop it becoming too overwhelming.

     

    Also things like checkboxes could be improved so the consistency is better. All items have a title on the left, with a box on the right that the user interacts with, except the checkbox where the box is on the left and the title on the right hand side. It makes the palette less consistent - I think it would be better if all the interaction happened on the right with all the titles (and maybe future icons!) on the left.

    • Like 1
  8. Fair enough, keeping backwards comparability makes sense.
     

    I often wonder what VW employees think when (if) they read these comments, “this guy thinks he knows what he wants but he doesn’t understand at all…” 

     

    probably the same feeling we have with clients some times. 
     

    Hopefully they remember to get rid of wall components when wall closure is more mature and keep things simple. 
     

    In future it would be great if things can be directly edited too. Editing wall closures by VW generating a section of the window in question and wall components can be dragged to the correct position rather than editing in a table with numbers would be very nice and much more intuitive. This is a good first step in any case though. 

  9. Also it seems not to be turned on by default if you just make a quick wall and drop in an unstyled window to test? (unless I'm doing it wrong which is definitely possible!)

     

    Instead you need to create a symbol of the window, and turn on "use wall closure" from the "plug in object style options" from the resource manager.

     

    Two steps forwards and one step back - I wonder what the reasoning is for keeping both "wall detail" and adding "wall closure"? Surely "wall detail" could have been improved to have this functionality rather than make a new workflow?

  10. 1 hour ago, elepp said:

    It's amazing how many little things have been changed.

    A favourite of mine so far

     

    "To reduce unnecessary complexity, portions of Vectorworks that enable outdated 2D workflows have been deprecated. Objects can no longer be set to the screen plane, and drawings now always have a “unified” view, with the same view, lighting options, render mode, and Renderworks background for all design layers. Legacy 2D features can still be used in existing files that contain them, and they can be enabled on new files as a document preference."

     

    Hooray! I am a big fan of reducing unnecessary complexity!

    • Like 3
    • Love 1
  11. VW can control this, but it's too specific for 90% of the time. What I always almost do is half of the doors height and width to get a centre label. Then inevitably there are changes and they are off centre again. Looking forward to (the mythical) WinDoor in 2022!

  12. Perhaps this is a bit premature considering the more multi-core CPU support is arriving at the moment, but I wondered whether VW has plans to support multiple GPUs in future as I don't think it currently can.

     

    In 3D visualisation software it's not uncommon for computers to have multiple GPUs for rendering - if VW is going to support these programmes with plugins it would be great to have the same functionality.

     

    It's perhaps not so important for the VGM, but being able to flyover a model in rendered view mode and have it rerender quickly, such as how you can in say Blender for example might be pretty cool.

     

    Or maybe it's deemed overkill for VW - i'm not requesting it but interested to know what the consensus is 

  13. On 9/3/2021 at 10:09 AM, bjoerka said:

    the last years it was the second week in september 🙂

     

    I hope it's then, but my guess would be a bit later given that we've only had one "teaser" which was a well produced video, it would seem strange to just make one or two of these but who knows. I would say it's more likely there would be 4 videos, 1 per week with the release around late September.

  14. 47 minutes ago, jeff prince said:

    FYI - You can configure the viewport to automatically go into annotations just by double clicking on it.

    Yes, this is what I have set up.

     

    Maybe i'm misappropriating my frustration with the amount of clicking that VW requires on this element. I remember reading a request on the wishlist that VW should hire someone who's specific role was to reduce the amount of clicking required!

    • Like 2
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