Bret

For those following this thread, I just submitted a bug report describing the unexpected behavior. I also mentioned that it's odd that the Preferences box for steel sections doesn't give a drop-down list for setting a default size...that's definitely a bug.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but this question has just come up at our (structural) office, and I was wondering if there was any update on this. Double-clicking to set a default section size and then using the tool to insert a copy of that section would be the intuitive way to work. Inserting a generically-sized section and then having to edit each member you insert via the OIP is definitely less efficient, and the current double-click option to drop a member of a particular size at a given coordinate isn't as useful. Was a bug report ever submitted for this steel member behavior?

It's not a problem...we'll just put the tool in a flyout menu so it's out of the way. I guess I was confused because double-clicking in most Windows programs triggers an action that's hard-coded into the shell/interface, so it's not intuitive that changing something in a palette would affect it. But we've got it figured out now. I do appreciate the reply...thanks.

We could do this in VW12, and it appears that it doesn't work with VW2008. This was the fastest and most intuitive way to work with polygons, and I'd really like to get that working again if it's possible. Having to choose the 2D Reshape tool every time would be a definite step backwards in usability... I also tried Right-clicking and choosing "Edit," which intuitively seems like it should work, and it doesn't. Is this a bug, or was this done on purpose? UPDATE: I can now get both of these methods to work, but only if the 2D Reshape tool is somewhere in a palette. If you get rid of it (like I had), the doesn't work any more. This seems like a bug to me...

If a basic tool like layer links is being deprecated in favor of Design Layer Viewports, shouldn't the new tool be available to Fundamentals users? This sort of basic incompatibility doesn't make much sense, unless Fundamentals is being intentionally held back to encourage people to pay for a more expensive license. Our office doesn't need 98% of what Architect has, but it always seems that there are a few useful tools held back for no good reason. Oh well...

Okay...I was just wondering if there were some folders I could ignore when I put everything on the server since it's so inconveniently large for our needs. When I actually called in to NNA tech support, one person (I forget her name) said that you could install locally on one machine and then copy that c:/Program Files/Vectorworks 2008 folder directly to other machines. According to her, when you tried opening the program on another machine, it would ask you for your license number and then make all the necessary registry adjustments, etc. That doesn't sound right to me, but it would be nice. Is there any chance of that working?

Our office has several PCs lingering that don't have DVD drives, so it seems that we can't do a direct VW 2008 installation to those machines. We'd like to copy the necessary files from the DVD to a folder on the network so that people can pull the information off the server and then install locally. However, we only use Fundamentals and are already up to date with QT, Adobe, etc., so I doubt that we need the whole 4GB disc. Can anyone tell me which files are the ones we need to install 2008? Is it even possible? Thanks...

Mike, I understand how hybrid objects work, and I don't discount their value for 2D/3D work. For what we do, however, most projects can be handled with structural plan views and a handful of detail sheets. We're not generating multiple views of anything, so we don't use 3D objects (or even viewports, most of the time). The 3D information ends up being dead weight in our files, so we usually do things like convert walls to 2D polygons. For example, it's nice to take a 35 MB architectural plan file, create simplified 2D plans from it, add all our structural information, and end up with a 24 MB file that refreshes faster, saves faster, etc. Until you get into mid-rise or high-rise buildings, or buildings of Gehryesque complexity, I don't see the efficiency of 3D engineering drawings. For architecturals, it makes a lot of sense...but most engineering drawings tend to be straightforward enough that the extra work of generating 3D structural plans isn't justified.

I thought I'd chime in on the 2D/3D discussion with another perspective. A little background first... We are a mid-sized structural engineering firm in California who does a good variety of work: high-end custom residences, light commercial projects, schools, etc. Our office has used VectorWorks since v8 and has introduced several designers in the area to the program. Suffice to say, we like it a lot. My (personal) opinion is that 3D CAD is a great visualization tool for schematic design and client presentations. However, 95% of the time, the first thing we do when we receive architectural plans is to strip the 3D information out and make our own version of the plans in 2D. We do this for a few reasons: better performance on slower machines, savings in server space and network traffic, simpler CAD standards, etc. In the end, we don't use the 3D functions of VectorWorks, and I don't think there would be much (if any) benefit if we did. As for 3D being the future (assuming that BIM is part of that vision), it may be true for users doing complex large-scale projects. However, on most smaller projects it doesn't make sense for clients to pay us the premium required for 3D integration when the result is still going to be (probably) the same paper set of 2D structural plans. On our end, it's just not cost-efficient or time-efficient yet, and for many small to medium projects I think it may never be. So I'm glad to see the 3D end of VectorWorks grow, but I hope NNA does remember that a significant portion of their user base relies on 2D work day in and day out...

One strange thing about this situation is that the dimensions all used to be in Arial and now appear in a different, non-standard font. Other people on other computers have noticed the same thing. Also, we do not use individual symbol libraries--just a folder of Favorites on a server. Petri, I haven't ever written a vectorscript to edit symbols. I'd be glad to make use of whatever code you (or anyone else) would like to share. Please just post it here or email it to me at bret@taylorsyfan.com. Thanks, everyone.

Our office has symbol library files which we reference off of a server. In one of the files, every dimension has spontaneously switched fonts. First of all, does anyone have any idea what might cause this? To my knowledge, no one else touches these files aside from myself, and I am sure that no one went through and systematically changed the fonts one by one in a file with 100+ symbols. Secondly, does anyone know a quick way to change them all back? It's tedious to change them one by one but I don't see another convenient way. Thanks...

A couple of additional items to add to the previous list: 6) If multiple objects with coincident handles are selected, it can be difficult to tell what is selected. Maybe there could be a different color to the handle box to indicate overlapping selections... 7) Several of our in-house macros have multiple text fields and selection lists which we used to be able to skip between by using the Tab key. This no longer works for some fields, typically text fields. I believe we first noticed this behavior around VW 11.5. This might be more of a bug report than a wish list item, but I figured I'd mention it here as well. (I do wish it was fixed...) Thanks, Bret Rooks, P.E. Taylor & Syfan Consulting Engineers

Our office is just stepping into the migration from 11.5 to 12, and here are a few things that we'd like to mention for future versions: 1) Choice of location and naming for backup files. 2) Palettes that all dock in similar fashions (tools/attributes/saved sheets/whatever. Screen space is precious and better options for arranging it would be appreciated. 3) A keyboard shortcut for scrolling through saved sheets (similar to ctrl-up/down for layers and ctrl-left/right for classes). 4) Batch Print/Print Set tools for Fundamentals users. This is pretty much the one tool from the design series that our office would like to have, but it's not worth the upgrade just for that. 5) We noticed that the Leader Line tool has been placed in the "Legacy" section. Our office would hate to see this go, as we tend to use this rather than the Callout tool. I think that's it for now...thanks for an overall great product. Bret Rooks, P.E. Taylor & Syfan Consulting Engineers

Looks like several people have in the past mentioned that not being able to trim objects to a break line is problematic, and I agree. Another thing that I'd like to see with regard to break lines is the ability to modify them like lines in the Object Info palette. I don't find the XYZ/IJK coordinate information that it currently shows to be useful, but line-style XY/LA (i.e. rectangular/polar editing) tools would be great. For example, it would make it much more convenient when I want to draw consistent break lines that extend beyond object boundaries by a standard amount. Thanks, Bret Rooks, P.E. Taylor & Syfan Consulting Engineers Win2k / P4 2.8GHz / 512MB

In our office, we've had increasing difficulty with the snaps in recent releases also, especially Snap To Object. When drawing a rectangle (for example) where the second point is supposedly snapped to a point already defined on the plan, sometimes the second point will "twitch" off-target when clicked. Often, this will be subtle enough that we need to zoom in quite a bit to see it, but sometimes not. I've noticed this twitchiness often when duplicating objects also. For example, when trying to control-click duplicate from the centerpoint of a line, sometimes the snap point will indicate "Center" but once the cursor moves, it is not relative to the center of the line anymore, but to a point marginally off of the line. This happens more often when drafting quickly, but occasionally also when I'm working slowly and methodically. Does anyone know how this problem might be remedied? Any chance it can be identified and fixed for v12? I remember the snaps being rock-solid a few releases ago... Bret Rooks, P.E. Taylor & Syfan Consulting Engineers Win2k / P4 2.8GHz / 512MB

Any advice for those of us who aren't on Macs? I keep my disk in good working order--I defragment it regularly, keep the registry clean, and the disk itself isn't even close to full... Bret

Our office uses VectorWorks on computers running Windows 2000, SP4, most of us using QuickTime 6.5.2. We've had some people move to VW 11.5, but have stopped the migration because of stability issues. Those of us who have switched have noticed that VW often crashes on shut-down, and sometimes in the midst of a rapid series of zoom or undo operations. I've had two crashes this week in mid-save which completely corrupted my files, and trying to open the files then triggers another error which locks up the entire system. Has anyone else noticed anything like this? I think I'm going to have to go back to 11.0.1 for now until I find out how to fix it... Thanks, Bret Rooks Taylor & Syfan Consulting Engineers

I wouldn't rule it out, but there are a couple of things that seem to indicate otherwise... First of all, no other programs we use have this problem. Second, we did not have this problem with VectorWorks itself until release 10.

This thread is a follow-up to the "VW 10, and files on network" thread from last year, addressing a problem that has yet to be fixed as of the VW 11.5 release. Our office uses VectorWorks on computers running Windows 2000, SP4. We keep most of our drawing files on a server which we access across our LAN. Double-clicking on a file on the server in the Explorer window does not open the file. To access files across the network, we must use the Open dialogue in VW or drag the icon into an open VW window. Double-clicking files on local hard drives will open the files. Please let me know if you need more information. Bret Rooks Taylor & Syfan Consulting Engineers

This is a problem that I've run into a lot lately: When I copy an object into a document, where the object exists in a class that the document didn't previously have, the default setting for that class in existing saved views is set to "Don't Save." The issue is that if you use the Saved Views option in the Class menu to change that class visibility in an existing saved view, the new setting doesn't stick in a view until after that view has been used again (after the copying of the object). Practically, this means if I copy in something on a new class and want that class to show up in all my saved views, I have to first copy it, then trigger every saved view, and only then I can use the Saved Views option in the class menu to change my visibility settings en masse. Hopefully this can be fixed in an upcoming version...thanks. --Bret

Thanks... I guess the question now is, is there a way for me to create a .rtl file (or something similar) that would include the transparency? I don't actually need to plot the files myself, I just need to be able to e-mail them elsewhere for plotting. Thanks again, Bret

I'm working on a large set of plans, and I have part of my them covered with a mask on a layer with the transfer mode set to "Not Erase," which creates a "faded-out" area on the sheet. The problem is that none of the printers I have tried (including Adobe Distiller 6, pdfFactory, our HP 1050C plotter, and an HP Laserjet 2100) reproduce this correctly. On the laserjet, the mask didn't seem to be there at all, and all the other printers rendered this area to a flat opaque gray. This also occured with the "Print to File" option chosen. The ultimate goal is to be able to send .rtl files to an architect for plotting. Is there anything I can do to get this to work correctly? Our office is using Windows 2000 computers. Thanks, Bret Rooks Taylor & Syfan Consulting Engineers P.S. This seems like it could be related to the "Lack of transparency with HP500PS printer" topic of about a year ago...

Our office has had the exact same problem with both versions 10 and 11...we are running Win2k as well. We can "Open" across the network and drag the file into VectorWorks to open it, but double-clicking only works if it's on the local hard drive. Thanks, Bret bret@taylorsyfan.com

Is there any way to translate a view in a viewport by a specified amount? The situation is this: I'm creating structural plans for a large building project, large enough that the plans have to be split into two sheets. I'd like to be able to reference the architectural plans from a separate file as design layers, and then set up two sheet layers that show the top and bottom halves of the plan. The trick is that I'd like these views to be vertically aligned and offset by a certain dimension, and the Translate View tool only lets me drag the view within the cropped window. Any suggestions? Thanks, Bret bret@taylorsyfan.com

We've got VectorWorks version 10.5.1, but the problem has persisted since we upgraded to 10.0. No architectural desktop or anything... We have a custom workspace that we've compiled called "Structural" and that's the one that it doesn't work under. The tool works under all the other workspaces (as far as I know), including Standard. We had to recreate the workspace at some point when the workspace format changed, but if that happened earlier than 10.0, then it may be a holdover from 9.0. The problem I'm having is like what was listed in the posts I referenced above: I can select the bubble tool, but as soon as you click on the page it reverts to at standard selection arrow. It makes no difference whether it's set to click-drag drawing or not. Thanks, Bret