Ross McLee

Is it possible to run a solar animation (make movie) without first selecting the heliodon, from another, say top/plan, view? I want to animate the effects of sunlight in a room, from a saved 3D view. Unless I have already clicked on the heliodon (which is visible in a different view (top/plan) I don't have the ability to run a solar animation and record a movie clip. I have to be very careful not to click on anything in the 3D view I want to animate, otherwise I lose the Heliodon selection and the access to the animation button in the OIP. Does that make sense - A view menu option for heliodons would be good. Thanks, R

Hi, I would like to animate the solar affects of sunlight on the walls and floor of a room throughout the year (Jan - Dec) but also include the extremes of the daily light patterns through the day (not just a fixt time). I'd like to demonstrate for example, when a presentation wall with a projection screen is likely to have sunlight cast on it. An animation throughout the year (day by day, with the time set at say 10am might not demonstrate a case which is poor at 5pm in July only 10 am in December, for example) Is it possible to extend the options of the solar animation (make movie) to allow for, say sunrise, noon, sunset and possibly a few points in between, and then either every day or every 2,5 , 10 days etc? (may be an option to allow for short days and long days that give you more granularity to make the animation smoother. Thanks, R

Is it possible to render solar animations in the cloud - my desktop struggles to do high quality rendering at the best of times. Being able to send the process up into the cloud for processing would be awsome! Thanks, R

Hi, Unless I have missed it somewhere... would it be possible to add an additional column to the edit save views dialogue so that you can see/set the render mode to multiple views in one go? I have 20 saved views currently set to wireframe, but want to set them to open GL, and possibly later set to a renderworks option. This would seem an ideal place to have that option. At the moment I am recalling each view, changing the render settings and redefining. Thanks, R

Hi, Is there an easy way to change the "sort order - order" in a worksheet? In Excel ,Microsoft refers to sort order "levels" which can be moved up and down (e.g. sort by Column A first, then by column B and then by column C) You have a relatively friendly dialogue box where you can move those levels up and down. I can see the little numbers within the worksheet column header icons that show the order levels, so I can see the order in which they are applied, but the only way I can change the 'levels' is to remove all the sorting completely and start again. I looked here - but nothing mentioned - notably bullet option 5 doesn't work (perhaps this is an older feature now removed (I'm using 2021) https://app-help.vectorworks.net/2016/eng/VW2016_Guide/Worksheets/Database_Row_Sort_and_Summary_Functions.htm I know there are movements afoot to update worksheets significantly for the next release - so here's hoping 🙂 R

@thomas_ - 'Noise' away. these posts help learners like me find features we've been thinking about, but not yet realised so the responses are always helpful. Keep on postin' R

Hi, Is it possible for the check drawing tool to identify duplicate circuits that are coincident (i.e. have the same source and destination and sit on top of each other?) I only discovered that I have a handful of such circuits after I numbered the circuits and produced the cable report, but the check drawing tool didn't highlight them. I'm not entirely sure how they were created, but... Cheers, Ross

Hi @markdd, My setup is near identical to your own. I have resource manager unpinned so it hides when not needed (though I am finding command/ctrl+R to switch it on/off an easy alternative especially if it is expanded out 'big'). My problem arises when connecting and disconnecting my external monitors (with Windows extended desktop!) that the palettes get left or 'dumped' in odd places and need to be moved back each time. A faff, but not the end of the world. Just wondered if I haven't got a box ticked or there was a quick way to restore them to their normal place. I think it is because the palettes are not attached to the main VW window (parent/child thing).. so are allowed to sit anywhere on an extended desktop. Ill take a look at the save palette positions thing - it might be what I am missing, otherwise a feature request will be born.. Thanks as always. R

Hello good people of VW world! I use a laptop with an external 30" monitor both in the office and at home and sometimes out and about with just the laptop's screen. I find it a little frustrating each time I change from one setup to another that I have to move my palettes, into a convenient position (top left corner, stacked one above the other, unpinned). I usually have my scripts palette, attributes, snapping, resource manager and sometimes saved views. Is there a clever way of making them go back to their 'normal position'. I realise there is the docking option but from what I can tell that takes up too much real estate (e.g. the attributes palette is stretched full height). Your thoughts and ideas welcome.... Thanks, R

Hi, Any chance VW can implement autocomplete for input fields? It would significantly speedup and improve text input for OIP input boxes (and possibly others) whereby existing values are presented to the user for selection as they type the first few letters (possibly mid string too). This is particularly helpful for text values trying to ensure that values are entered with the same spelling, capitalisation, punctuation etc. A similar approach could be used for selecting classes or layers. Speed and accuracy (they are not mutually exclusive 🙂)! Cheers, R

Thanks @markdd I did think it a bit odd! What is the best way to report as a bug? - I couldn't see a bug report topic from the forum drop down. Failing that I'll call support/helpdesk by email with my scenario above. R

Hi, Still learning VW... I wanted to check to see if the behaviour I am seeing is normal. I have a multi layer drawing. Active layer = A (grey snap others) I have multiple instances of a speaker type object and wanted to edit the properties of all of them on the current layer. I have a simple script (created via the custom selection tool) SelectObj(INSYMBOL & (PON='Speaker')); Running it selects all objects as expected. I make my edits and do some other stuff for half an hour... On changing view (saved view recall) I change to a different active later to find that all the speaker objects on that layer are still selected. I realise that I didn't specify on active layer only in my script, but think it was odd that despite making all sorts of other edits, deselecting and selecting other objects and changing tools etc, the selection remains in the background. Is this normal behaviour? Cheers, R

Hi, Having only used VW for just under a year I am amazed how 'clunky' the licensing and login experience is. A few of the bugs/issues I would like to see improved or fixed: The license software/platform seems very outdated and reliant on an IT administrator to manage and support it - may users of VW don't have this resource or the time to do multiple jobs. Overall the license server should be hosted and maintained by VW and not on premise. A remote VPN accessible server is very old school. Very reliant of technical support availability to fix problems, not always available at 3am "Borrowed license expires after" displays the total number of days the license has been borrowed for (not the remaining days left). The license cannot be returned without connecting to the server - there may be a reason why you can't connect but another user needs the license (home worker). Understand this is deliberate but is a pain. Think of it as an overdraft facility! Unable to change server address (it is greyed out) when the license has been borrowed and needs to be returned to a server which has a different address (because it has been moved/relocated) - minor issue due to office move Error messages received are not very explicit and do not help with troubleshooting. They are often generic. Sometimes there are firewall issues relating to ports used which isn't obvious. The login screen is not very clear. there is a 'borrow' button, there is a 'return' button and there is a 'login' button. Suggest using radio buttons to determine what you are asking and an OK/Continue button to proceed based on the radio button choices. If a license is already borrowed and the user wants to login with a 'live license' the option should be there to return and continue Just some thoughts, It is just not a pretty environment to use, maintain and support. R

That is exactly what I have done! I created devices with the same name with joining circuits and mass copied them (they were simply called loudspeaker). I have moved them around etc but then renamed them to make them unique. I only deleted a handful so the fact you got 67 objects, I will follow your advice above and remove the remainder. Thanks as always. R

I think I might have a backup file saved before I deleted them. Let me dig it out and forward if I have. TIA R