Stefan Bender

Dear developers, how can I create a generic solid that has the shape of a sphere? I tried CreateSphere and then ConvertToGenericSolid, but the conversion failed. Surprisingly, even manually (using menu command "Modify->Convert->Convert to generic solids") the action failed with an error message saying that this object type can't be converted. So what else can I do? A sphere isn't such an exotic object type so there really should be a way to to that. Thanks for any ideas, Stefan Bender

Thanks Joshua, I had already thought about something like that, but I'm not sure if the pointer and the data remain valid if the user switches to another document during the session. So I would prefer something that returns the "current" color table of the active document.

We frequently need to access the document color table. Atm we do VCOMPtr<VectorWorks::IDocumentColorTable> doccol( VectorWorks::IID_DocumentColorTable ); But that seems to be time-consuming so it would be great to get a handle/pointer to the current document's color table without having to create a new VCOM ptr each time. Is this possible? Thanks for any ideas, Stefan Bender

Not yet, but there are plans to implement this in a future version.

Yes, an empty image is provided. And it does work if you change it manually.

Dear developers, does anybody have an idea how to change the value of an enhanced pull-down menu in a VWDialog? I tried both GS_SelectChoice and VWPullDownMenuCtrl->SelectIndex, but neither worked. If I click on the menu, I can see that the correct item is selected (checkmark), but in the "closed" version of the pull-down menu the (redlined) area remains empty. A VIP user has submitted a bug because of this. Is there another function that makes the Enhanced pull-down menu draw itself correctly in closed state? Or maybe there is an "update/redraw" function for all controls that does the job? Thanks a lot for any help!

Maybe you need a 28.0.1 SDK. Some things might have changed internally.

Dear developers, is there a way to hide a line, but still display its line end markers? We have a new wish for the stairs to do exactly that. The only idea I have is to draw a very very short line, but that's not a clean solution. Does anybody have an idea? Thanks!

Maybe you can try virtual short VCOM_CALLTYPE ISDK::DoMenuName(const TXString& name, short chunkIndex) = 0; You need to know the universal name of the menu comand. I don't exactly know where you can find it, but maybe somewhere in Vectorworks.vwr.

In theory, it is possible and I think there are working tools doing this, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're absolutely sure what you're doing. Potential problems are among others infinite recursion and undo.

In GetStatus(), you may wish to return different status values depending on the current tool mode (how many points are required to be drawn?) and maybe on other things (2D/3D mode?). And of course, in HandleComplete you should check the current mode and do the appropriate stuff.

Hi all, how can we find out the current data mappings for a PIO or other record format? Are there SDK functions or VCOM interfaces for that? Thanks for any help, Stefan Bender

Thanks for the replies! But recreating the entire widget does not seem to be a reasonable solution. There really needs to be an SDK call or member function of the widget for that.

Dear developers, in one of our PIOs I will need to disable/dim several pull-down menu entries in an OIP widget. The widget is created automatically (it represents a kFieldPopUp field of the PIO record). I don't want to disable the entire widget, just some of the pull-down menu entries depending on the PIO's setings. Does anybody have an idea? Thanks for any help. Stefan Bender

Did you try all render modes? OpenGL isn't available anymore in VW 2022 and at least one of the render mode constants is not working at all. IIrc there's a thread about it somewhere.

Handles are dangerous if you give away control to other parts of the software that could delete them. Maybe you could store the UUID of the objects instead of the handles and call virtual MCObjectHandle VCOM_CALLTYPE GetObjectByUuid(const TXString& uuid) = 0; if you need to access the object later.

IIuc the website shows an old version of Dialog Builder. The new version contains these four tools only afaik. You can change the type of a dialog item in OIP.

The third option will be to write your own Vectorscript. That would be just the first part of the file created by dialog builder excluding the XML stuff after the Vectorscript routines.

Dear developers, what exactly do the return values of these functions mean and what is the difference? - GetWallInsertLocationOffset returns (*((ParametricHandle) hObject))->wallInsertLocationOffset - GetObjectWallInsertLocationOffset returns symBreakType.locationOffset of the wall break the PIO is inserted into Are these values in sync? If not, then which one means what and which one has the priority? We will need to know that if we are supposed to support the new wall closure features in our PIOs. Thanks for any help, Stefan Bender

I think quicktime support was removed from the SDK some versions ago.

Hi Steve, here's the plug-in built with 27.0.1, CL 617382. Fenster CW.vwlibrary.zip Fenster CW.vwlibrary.dSYM.zip

Dear developers, I have a PIO instance that has object style A. The symbol definition A as well as the style PIO (first member object of symbol A) are in class B. The object style's class is by style (gSDK->SetClassByStyle(obj, true)), but the PIO instance does not have class B but class "None" and the class pull-down menu in the OIP is dimmed. Even worse: I can't even assign the correct class to the PIO instance as ISDK->SetObjectClass(B) blocks the assignment. In function SetObjectClassWithOptionalNotification it is checked if the class is by style and if it is, the function quits so I'm stuck. So this looks like an obvious bug in VW to me. Or is there a workaround or proposed workflow for changing the class of a styled PIO instance? Btw, I can't find a function that gets or sets the class of an object style. Which class is relevant, the class of the symbol definition of the class of its PIO subobject? Thanks, Stefan Bender

Yes, if the cursor hovers over a wall, the window data are recalculated based on that wall's thickness and cavities and the preview is replaced using the CallDefaultTool mechanism.

According to the movie, it was reported for VW 2021, SP 2. Don't know if it existed before. I'm just going through some old bugs trying to evaluate them.

125069_test_video.m4v