Chris D

Funnily enough, I kinda like what MS have done with the Office interface (from AppleInsider) though...only with the Windows version (the Mac version is a mess) This uses some sort of unified tabbed interface to quickly change entire toolsets

That's what command+tilde is for....at least on a Mac Apart from copy and paste, it's probably my most used keyboard shortcut

I'd go along with this. Floating palettes annoyed me a lot when I first moved to a Mac - the worst thing is seeing bits of other applications in the gaps between the windows, as it looks very messy. A single window would get around this and would also be better at adapting to different screen sizes and resolutions than the current loose palettes. One particular palette that bugs me most is the little Attributes palette. Why is this separate from the Obj Info palette? It only encourages people to disassociate the line/fill colour from the other object properties, particularly the class, and people who override colours away from class defaults should be shot of course :-) *Colour = Color, depending where you are in the world...

Data Info (& Reports) for resource objects: The data for resource objects could be displayed on the info bar at the bottom of the Resource Browser, or a right-click menu item Get Info / Properties could be used to bring up a data window for the object(s) selected. Or both. The info bar could simply show the symbol name of anything clicked on, with the number of 'instances' next to the symbol name. If you want more info, use right-click (or an "i" button?) to bring up the data window which shows the date created, default class, number of instances of that symbol etc. This data window could then also have a Report button that generates a more detailed report setting out which layers the symbol instances are placed on. Tree Structure: It's about not having all the main branches of the tree on show at all times. I may have navigated down into symbol sub-folders, but why should this then hide the hatches? Top level object types should always stay put. Hope I'm making sense...it's late here...

Shaun, I do agree about sorting out the elementary stuff, but I think my own list of these things is full of ticks in boxes when I look at the 2008 blurb. It's worth making your own list of these remaining bugbears, and sticking it on the Wish List forum. They do seem to pay attention to this when developing upgrades.

No I haven't got 2008 yet.... but from what I can see amongst the many improvements, the Resource Browser didn't get much love this time around. So now we're on to annual releases, here's my wishes for the 2009 browser: 1. Bigger or resizeable thumbnails 2. Longer descriptions in thumbnail view (actually can you do this on a maintenance release, pretty please) 3. Data Info for resource objects, eg. how many times a symbol is used in the file (without having to generate a report) 4. Sortable List improvements, sort by creation date, number of instances, default class etc. 5. Find/Search. You can currently search external files....but (unless I'm wrong) you can't search for a symbol in the open file, from within the Resource Browser. (Some of our mcd files have thousands of symbols in 50 symbol folders) 6. Fix the Tree! If I am in a subfolder, why should I have to navigate up to the top symbol folder, before browsing other objects like hatches. I know the new Home button helps...but let's get the tree right too. 7. Thumbnail Orientation, for wall types. Walls are not just for plans you know - they're great for sections (2D) too, and you can get the brickwork coursing correct etc, BUT the resource browser shows sectional wall types on their side, like a plan wall type, because it knows no better. It could just show all wall thumbnails vertical, that way it works for both plan and section! 8. 'Show in Resource Browser' context-menu item, when you click on a symbol in a design layer. Say I've found the symbol I want to work on...why do I have to find it again in the resource browser, just to do something like make a duplicate of it? 9. Drag and Drop Organizing. Why can't a symbol just be dragged into a symbol folder? 10. Reporting. It would be great to make reports directly from the resource browser. Menu items could offer reports, with returns such as number of symbols in particular layers etc. This is manual and laborious at the moment. Roll on September 14th 2008...

When I switched from AutoCAD to VW with a job move (at VW version 10), the two things that impressed me most were as Petri mentioned - having classes AND layers, and the WYSIWYG colour drawings with fills etc. Last time I checked, AutoCAD still doesn't have these.

It's odd that you don't have a trial version in general. I would have thought that a time/feature limited download would be the norm. I know this is the case for ArchiCAD...and our local distributor often sends me a copy on CD with the hope of us switching... Paying up front with a money-back guarantee is no good if someone is considering the switch from ACAD to either VW or ArchiCAD....they won't pay for both and send one back...they just want to try both out, without strings, and see which they like. Bad policy Robert, in my view.

It already looks like a must-have upgrade for me: object-highlighting, view rotate, wall component classes, robust referencing Some of these might have been slow to come to VW - but hey, they're here, and in a low-cost CAD program. This version will be less of a shock to ex AutoCAD users, and for that alone it's worth the cost (and the wait!)

yes please....we'd like to evaluate it now so that we can decide if it's worth the upgrade when the localised UK version comes out.

The 2008 upgrade page is up - is anyone else having trouble with the movies - they seem to bring up VW12.5 movies

Hey, the techboard is branded as 2008 (don't think it was like that yesterday?)...are we rolling?

I agree with Christiaan. When we get VW13, I will build my plan in-situ on site at the correct orientation, but use rotated view to work on it true to my screen. Naturally each storey has a layer, as does the site layer, so Robert's advice is good in this respect.

That screenshot of the new Resource Browser is a bit disappointing - I was hoping for a more radical overhaul. Can we have resizable thumbnails and longer descriptions please - if we add codes to our hatch names with a 'friendly' name after the code....we can only see the code part of the name in the current thumbnail view. Also Wall Types in the resource browser - we make plan and SECTION wall types (with vertical coursing) here, but the browser shows them all horizontal, which looks dumb. Can we have a display option for thumbnails to orient them. Chris D

Thanks Katie, I like this new forthcoming style about 'roadmap' information in future releases!

The ability to edit classes in a particular viewport, i.e. change the way a class looks depending on the viewport, is a great feature of VW12. However, when in the Viewports tab of the Organize palette you can select multiple viewports but CAN'T edit the class properties (you can edit which appear, but not their line and fill). This is immensely frustrating if you have 20 viewports that need the same class override settings!! Please implement Multiple Viewport Class Overrides Thanks Chris D

Our office is currently considering 'working off the server' rather than working on local copies, but we really need Nemetschek to enable 'any directory' backup files that can be set to backup to the user's local drive. We don't want to litter the server with vwbackup folders.

Christiaan, you're a genius..or at least very helpful. I had always double-clicked, rather than right-click. The right-click works great even on the troublesome viewports. I assumed this just invoked the same command...but actually this is at least 5 times as fast to actually regenerate the Design Layers too! Wonder why this is?? Dream.

Seconded. This would save a few clicks.

Hi Christiaan, no this doesn't help. It's a persisting problem on these files.

Anyone else having trouble with going 'through the viewport' to get to the design layers on large files? I have a few files where VW stubbornly refuses to go through the viewport (Edit Viewport > Design Layer) and just sits there even when repeatedly attempting to do it. It's really annoying because I don't use the Saved Views anymore as these just duplicate the viewport settings...but I can't get to my views now!

Hmm, I was so hoping we'd get Component Classing in 12.5 walls....but I'm disappointed. The lack of this feature means that Viewport Class Overrrides (an otherwise brilliant feature) is next to useless, as the most numerous objects on my drawings (walls) can't be overridden, when everything else can. We need individual classes for each component of a wall - that way we can assign classes (with associated hatches) for each component/material. While I'm on the topic - when will 'batt insulation' be allowed as a wall component? Surely most walls are insulated these days... ;-)

Nice to see an improvement to the version 12 wall tool in such an early bugfix release (12.0.1) - you can now assign wall attributes by class style, but only if the wall has no components. Can this be extended to the individual components for a future release. I want to be able to class each component of a wall, so that I can change the appearance of each component with Viewport Class Overrides. The overrides are very powerful but are hampered at the moment by non-classed attributes such as wall components.

Seconded. I believe you are suggesting combining the features of the Attributes Palette into the Object Info Palette, so that all properties of an object are controlled from one place. If no objects are selected, the OIP would display the current 'active' attributes.

I'd suggest you don't use those vector-copy scripts from Vectordepot...they give strange results that aren't immediately apparent - the resulting objects remove themselves from the undo queue somehow and generally make the file unstable. You need to be careful using third party scripts, especially free ones. Vector-copy and vector-move should be in the core program. It isn't good enough for NNA to suggest using buggy third party scripts.