MartyC

Hi Scott, No worries; I had really poor internet connections all last week. I had not updated to SP1 but I have, now, and it did not cure the issue. Sad, that. Yes, if I put the General Notes on the design layer, the problem does not happen. However, I have different General Notes on each sheet layer so it would be very helpful to have this work properly. I do realize that I could create a Notes class for each sheet and deal with it that way. My workaround was to increase the text size from 12 points to 1728 points. Works, but when this gets fixed I bet the text will be gigantic. That's a big vote for your solution. Thanks! New update. I had been editing the notes and trying adding and deleting but I had not tried this: I double-clicked on the actual notes, after selecting Edit Viewport - Annotations, and it changed the text to the correct size. Strange that it did not correct it when I edited the format from the Properties window but it works, anyway. (This was after I updated to 2020 SP1.) Marty

Hi, I'm having the same issue and Service Select support is not open, now. It would have been helpful, Juan, to post the solution. Yours, Marty

I have seen this - it happens when the bounding box is not closed. AutoCAD allows you to put a hatch in a shape that is not closed, but Vectorworks lets the hatch "leak" out. Very annoying, to say the least. You can go back to AutoCAD and edit the shape, or you can edit the shape in Vectorworks, though sometimes it is easier to create a new shape over the old one.

You may want to take a look at a tool called "Optimize Drawings", which might help. Go to http://www.vectorbits.com/_VB12_site/index.html It is the last item on the left side.

Thank you, anyway, Katie. I appreciate the effort.

I got as far as adding the shortcut, but there is no way to use Ctrl. The only things that are available under Use are: key, shift + key, alt + key, and shift + alt + key. How do you use Ctrl + key? Let me guess... you can't. Does this mean that Ctrl + 2 will not work for me, ever? How sad... I do appreciate all the help, even if I can't get back to where I want..

But how do I re-assign it? I cannot find it in Workspace Editor, or anywhere else?

Yikes! I can't. I have looked everywhere in the Workspace Editor, in VW preferences, and in Document Settings. The command "Zoom out by a factor of 2" shows in Standard Workspace Keyboard Shortcuts in Help, but I cannot figure out how to re-assign it. I have tried adding Zoom Out to the Basic Tool Palette, but that is not the command that I am looking for. I'm sure that it will seem obvious once you tell me where to look, but I sure am feeling stupid, at the moment. Thanks for all your help, Marty

This should not happen. If you export it as a VW10 file, then open it, it should open with the "This file was created in an earlier version..." message. Experiment with the original file - that way you'll know if it is the items that you created/edited or the original information. Cut and paste some of the objects into a new, blank file and then do the export - open procedure. See if it works that way. I usually do about half of the objects in one file and half in another, and gradually eliminate the good objects until I am left with the offender. Often, you can then redraw the bad object from scratch in the main drawing and cure it that way. Let us know how it goes...

I have seen this, too. Generally with a large file, but not always. Here are things that worked for me: -Go away and leave it alone, while importing. Eat lunch. Sometimes the DWG objects are very complex, even though they seem simple, and therefore take a very long time to import. -If you can edit the original files in, say, AutoCAD, remove half of the objects and create a new file with those. Then create another file with the remaining objects. Try to import each new file. This will help to eliminate items that are slowing the process. If they both import, you can cut and paste everything back together. I keep TurboCAD on my PC for just this sort of thing. It works with DWG files, natively, and costs about $100.00. Very worth it, if you import often. -This will seem stupid, but try renaming the file. Use something short and simple. -What are the details of your computer? Sometimes updating the video drivers is enough to accelerate this sort of issue. Keeping my fingers crossed...

All the tools work as expected, with the exception of the Ctrl-2 hot key. Unfortunately for me, that is the easiest to use when I am in the field and have to use the touchpad on my laptop. Mousewheel, '-' button in the lower left corner, zoom out tool, all work. Too bad there is no mousewheel on my laptop, eh?

Hi, Katie, I updated the video driver - in fact, I upgraded the video card and updated the driver, in an attempt to clear up this issue. No help. I spoke with Jim, several times, about this. He thought that it might be related to imported drawings that had proxy objects. Cutting and pasting the desired items into a new drawing seemed to work, but now I am having the problem with drawings that I have created from scratch. Puzzling, isn't it? Thanks for the reply, anyway Marty

I also had this problem. VW 12.5.1 was selecting a font that had no visible characters - that was fun to figure out! I wound up creating my own default.sta template with Arial Narrow selected and 10 point size selected, as well as all my other picky little preferences. That took care of the problem. I am not sure what was happening, but I am speculating that VW was looking at the workspace and the default template for clues. Somehow the default font was a symbols font, which did not have enough printing characters to be visible. Not to mention that the font size was set to 0.

When I zoom out, using the Ctrl-2 Hot key, my drawings do not redraw properly. Everything that was visible, remains visible, but the new information is often very sparse - sometimes parts of lines and sometimes missing, altogether. I have spoken to tech support. I have tried the following: Verified that hardware acceleration is 'on', in the Display tab of VW preferences. Cut and pasted the information into a new drawing. Re-installed Vectorworks 12.5.1 and Quicktime. Tried various versions of Quicktime. Using the mousewheel to zoom out works normally, but I often have to draft in the field, without a mouse. Using the '-' button (lower left) to zoom out works normally, but I never remember until the Hot key fails. Often, the Hot key will work after I change some preference, for a short while, then fail again. I'm confused. Has anyone seen this before? Were you able to fix the problem? Thanks for any help you can provide.

My apologies if I mis-spoke. As I understood things from tech support, there is an 'import engine' which is purchased from a third party. Maybe they're wrong... On the subject of difficulty of reverse-engineering of AutoCAD's format, we must admit that other software, such as TurboCAD and Microstation, seem to have been able to accomplish this rather handily. I am not intending to imply that this is not a difficult task, nor am I volunteering to take it on! I just have to be able to edit DWG drawings and send them back to other users. In one case recently, my editing added so many 'proxy objects' that the entire drawing had to be re-drawn from scratch. People were not happy with me about that one! Has anyone had good results in importing complex 3d drawings? Are there any clever tricks? I have spent some time on the tech support line with David and Jim, trying to work this out. Any additional help would be most welcome. Thank you in advance.

I have to import drawings from other sources on a regular basis, into Vectorworks 12.5.1. This leaves me with a great deal of work to do, just to get the drawing into shape to use. Virtually everyone in the construction business is using Microstation(DGN) or AutoCAD(Dwg). Naturally, I am not in a position to require that a project change software to suit me. Is there any hope that a better, more accurate engine will be included in an upcoming version of Vectorworks? If I open a DWG in Microstation it opens fast and looks beautiful. Why is this so difficult to achieve in Vectorworks? I know that the other programs cost much more than VW, but I cannot bear the thought that I might have to abandon the time I have invested in VW, and have to learn AutoCAD. Is it possible that an 'extra-cost' import engine could be made available?