Pat Stanford

Attache a custom record and look in the Data tab of the OIP?

This is one of the things that VW Cloud Services offers. Except you don't have to have a separate computer to run it.

It does exactly what it says, It causes all plug ins to read all of the parameter settings and redraw based on the current parameters. You should not need to do this often unless you are doing things like changing the settings of the PIOs from a script or a worksheet instead of the OIP. There is already check box in the Print Dialog to Reset Plug ins that need resetting prior to printing.

You can kind of already do with with Dual Dimensions. Just make one dimension standard that only shows the Primary unit and one that shows the Secondary unit. You can set the primary and secondary to different precisions and different decimal/fractional. The problem becomes when you need more that two different types of units. @AndySmithArchI only did a quick test, but it looks like you could put the Survey and the elevations in a different file with the units set to Decimal Feet. Then reference that file into your primary file with units set to Fractional Feet/Inches. Each will stick with the unit display of that file.

Two minutes is way to long. Copy and paste everything in the following script block into a new blank Vectorscript Editor window. It should run in approx. 2 seconds or less. Procedure Reset_TBB; {December 11, 2017} {© 2017 Patrick Stanford pat@coviana.com} {Licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License} {Resets all VW2018 Title block objects. Useful to force changes} {made in a worksheet drawing list to display.} {Created in response to a thead by DigitalCarbonZero of the} {Vectorworks Community Forum 12-11-17} Begin ForEachObject(ResetObject, ((INSYMBOL & INVIEWPORT & (PON='Title Block Border')))); End; Run(Reset_TBB);

Try Tool:Utilities:Reset All Plugins. This should allow you to reset them all at once, but if you have many plugins in the drawing it may take a while to run. If this is too long, I can provide you with a script that will just reset the Sheet Border objects that should be faster.

They should all be stored in your user folder. Check the help for the location of the user folder on Windows and just copy that folder to the new machine.

I failed to mention that the script would only work for dimensions placed AFTER the script was run, not for dimensions already in the drawing. :-(

And for the other part of the question, why don't you get the The Selected Object can be used as crop dialog box. This is a Yes/No dialog box and there is an extra check box that says Always do the selected option. At some point you checked this box and clicked No. Poof no more dialog box. To get it back, you have to turn ALL of the Always do the Selected Action dialogs again dialogs back on. Go to Vectorworks Preference, Session tab, and click the Reset Saved Settings button. Make sure the Always Do Selected Actions line is checked and click OK. You might be surprised at the other option you hid and forgot about as they start popping up again.

Have you tried different fonts? Nope, just tried. It appears to be all fonts. But what does eliminate the problem is Advanced Properties and uncheck the None fill uses Alpha Transparency. Sounds like a bug to submit. But at least there is a workaround for most situations.

It looks like a bug, but here are two work arounds: I appears that there are two preference which control the display of dimensions, The Fraction Precision and the Dimension Object Precision. You can see both of these plus the chain Icon to have them linked together in the Units dialog box in the Dimensions tab. In the Dual Dimensions tab you can access the Fraction or Decimal precision, but not the Dimension object precision. 1. Swap your dimensions to use the inches as the primary and mm at the dual. 2. Copy the following 2 lines into a new blank vectorscript and run it on your document. If you use a template file, it is probably enough to run it once on the template and have it carry over to all future files that come from that, but no guarantees. These two lines will set both the Fraction Precision and Dimension Object Precision for the secondary dimension to 1/32. SetPrefLongInt(221,5); SetPrefLongInt(222,5); You might also want to submit a bug on this that the secondary dimension is not taking the proper display settings from the Units dialog box.

If you are really interested in protection, just ungroup everything before you send it. Convert all symbols and PIOs to groups. But you will break a lot of the functionality of something like Spotlight that expects them to be symbols. How would you like them to be locked? So they will only function in that drawing? So they can't be copied or duplicated? As you say, you do this to make your work more productive. In many years of working and training in VW, I have rarely found a time that what made sense for one user ever made sense for another. Yes, there are basic workflow similarities, but almost everyone is an individualist. If you really want to lock things down, we could probably work with you to create a PIO wrapper that would not allow changes except under your serial number. But even then, if they are willing to blow everything out to lines, they would still be getting some of your content. Probably better to just accept the small amount of piracy that exists and trust that your ability to use it better will give you an edge.

Yes, I agree. The Rectangle should automatically switch to a poly if the Reshape tool is used in such a way that it is no longer a rectangle. Manual intervention to make it a poly should not be required.

Perfect. I just wanted to get it documented that the file was drawn strangely in AutoCAD (or where ever it came from) and is not a limitation in what VW does and should do. Thanks.

You now have to set things in two columns. First, use the pulldown menu and choose Summarize on. From what I can see of you screen shot this would have to be Column A as it is the only one that has the same data. Then go to the column that you want the data Summed in and check the Sum Values check box. With this new setting you can better control how the data is displayed. If you don't Sum Values and they are all the same, you will get the value. If you don't Sum Values and they are different you will get a (dash) in the column indicating the data is different for different items. If you do check Sum Values, you will get the proper sum.

That is the way it is right now. You should file it as a Bug and a Regression. In VW2017, database rows that were added took the height of the rows around them. In 2018, database rows that are added go to the default height.

IN column B, choose the Sum Values Option when you use the Summarize option in column A. You could actually do this with a single database. Edit the Report (or database) criteria to include Class is rows for Class A, Class, B and Class C. Put a formula of =C in the column A header. This will give you the name of the class of every object in the drawing. Put the formula of =LENGTH in the column B header. Go to the pull down menu for column A and click the Summarize button. This will give you one row for every class. Go to the pull menu for column B and click the Sum Values button. Column B will now add the values for all the hidden subrows. Write back if you need more help.

Edit the Wall Style. From the Definition tab click the Edit Wall Attributes button. Change the Pen Style from Solid to None. The way you have the Style set, you are basically drawing double lines. One set of lines form the Wall Attributes and one set from the Component. By turning off the Wall Attribute lines you can then use the classes to switch between the solid and dashed settings.

Thanks Nina. I was hoping you would chime in. Is this an import that VW should be able to handle? Or is this something strange enough on the AutoCAD side that it is really just an edge case that should not be handles automatically by VW?

Text Menu Find-Replace Text... Replace All, Text Objects, Find String X=, Replace With Q= Replace All, Text Objects, Find String Y=, Replace With X= Replace All, Text Objects, Find String Q=, Replace With Y= All the labels should then read with X and Y that match the values returned by the stake tool.

I am not positive, but I think you are out of luck. It looks to me like they drew this sideways. Look at the differential values between the points. Find 2 points that are about twice as far apart vertically as they are horizontally. Put in contained dimensions to get the vertical and horizontal separation. It looks like the vertical dimension added to the X value and the horizontal dimension added to the Y value give the X and Y values of the second point. You might be able to group all the objects and rotate the group 90 degrees and then use the User Origin to set the point values to the right place, but I don't have enough information on where the data is coming from to figure that out right now. What is the units in the DWG? 1000 inches? When I imported it as meters I was off by a factor of 25.4, so that tells me it is in inches not meters, but the absolute values are certainly not inches. You will need to get the units right to be able to properly move the origin and get the right points. One of the Origin options is to se the next point to an XY value. Or if it really doesn't matter, just use a text search and replace and swap all the Xs to Q, all the Ys to Xs, and finally all the Qs to Ys. Then the values will match the reality of Y being up and down the page and X being across the page.

Can you copy and paste an object into a new blank file and see if you still have the problem there? If you do, can you post the file for us to look at? Hard to diagnose this sort of thing without being able to look at it.

What happens when you use the Stake tool in a new file without the DWG import? If you turn on the rulers, which is correct, the Stake object or the imported coordinate marks? Can you post the DWG (or a DWG) that causes this problem?

It sounds like you are experiencing a problem with the concept of "Container Objects" Walls, Groups, Symbols, and probably many other types of objects are "Container Objects." They are containers in that they can have other objects "Contained" inside them. Since every VW object has a class, both the container and the contained objects have a class. And those classes do not have to be the same. BUT, for a contained object to be visible, both the object class and the containing object class must both be visible. If either one is not, then the contained objects won't show. In your case, it sounds like you have either switched to Active Only for your Class Options, or, more likely, you have gotten your container object set to S-FOOTINGS as well as the solid geometry inside the container. When you switch of S-FOOTINGS to invisible, ALL of the objects inside the container are also invisible. Try setting the class of the container to something else that will always be on. It could be a third class you add, or you can just use the NONE class for all of your container objects and leave it visible all the time. HTH

Some of the nodes you are using are not the defaults, so I don't know exactly what they are doing. I could not accomplish what you want with the stock nodes. I don't think the Convert to NURBS will convert a Symbol into a NURBS Curve. To do it manually, you have to use the Convert to Group menu item and I don't think there is a stock Marionette equivalent. I think you will also have to convert the symbol for the profile to a NURBS or to a Polygon to get the Path Extrude node to work. Good luck.