[creating classes on the fly]

I make a lot of symbols out of things as I go through the creation process. It seems counter intuitive to me to have to create classes for my symbols prior to starting the project. What would be really great would be the ability to create a new class as I'm creating the symbol itself, much like I create sheet layers as I create viewports

[LIGHT PLACEMENNT IN 11.5]

by changing it's light type however, I can get the original light back to what it was before. However, I must manually (using object rotation tools) place the light.

[LIGHT PLACEMENNT IN 11.5]

when I place a spotlight in 11.5, and then adjust it's tilt the light disappears and is replaced by a little box. No light eminates from the object, even though all of the parameters are still available.

[A Preferences that allow tools to be "left"]

isn't this possible by saving the workspace?

[panning in viewport crops]

I'd like to see a few additions to the fabulous sheet layers.

1-Panning around in the crop would speed up my process a lot, so that I'm not constantly manipulating the crop to find my pieces.

2-It would be nice to be able to see something (grayed out sheet) when entering annotation or crop mode. That way I can be constantly aware of the layout of the page as I'm creating annotations.

[dual monitor crashing in open GL]

It's probably a hardware problem, but I crash when I render in open gl using my external monitor on my laptop. Any suggestions to fix the issue are appreciated.

[shift+tool quickkey selects tool variants]

Much like photoshop does, I'd like to see the ability to hold down the shift key and cycle through the variants of tools. ie.,

If I held down the shift key and pressed 5, I'd get the polygon tool; still holding down the shift key and pressing 5 again, I'd get the regular polygon tool; another press yield the double line polygon tool

[class creation from symbol creation dialog]

It would be nice if, as I was creating a symbol, I could create a class for this symbol from the same dialog( insertion options). That way, as I'm developing the project I can create classes on the fly rather than try to prethink myself.

[batch print in standard version et al...]

Please add a batch print to the standard version. I'm an art director for television and I'm sure that I routinely print more plates per drawing package than a lighting designer using spotlight. I'd also like to see the truss and curtain tools made available to the standard version. For entertainment purposes, those two tools are what the wall and door tool is to architects.

[hidden line renderings not finished in 11]

I know, I thought of this too. But I build everything the same way, starting with a default fill, and progressing into 3d from there. I even have cases of instances of the same symbol not being rendered properly, while others in the same rendering do render properly.

[hidden line renderings not finished in 11]

Andrew,

I believe most of the discrepancies occur in perspective views. I'll look and if I can find any wierdness in orthagonal view, I'll send it along. When is your next release available?

Thanks for your attention.

[hidden line renderings not finished in 11]

I'm glad to see that I'm not going crazy or anything. Hopefully the good folks at Nemetschek can help us out on this one.

[hidden line renderings not finished in 11]

I've noticed that my hidden line renderings are not complete in VW11, either in viewport mode or on design layers. The renderings will leave several objects in wireframe. I'm working on a G5 dual processor 1.8 w/ a gig of ram, so I doubt the computer is to blame. Besides, I used to use a G4 w/ about half the performance capability. In some instances I've rendered the exact same model from a previous file that I used on the G4, and gotten a less finished rendering. Is there something I'm missing?

[object snaps that work]

I have long since given up using the ruler tool in favor of the rectangle tool and it's derivatives for measuring. The snaps and all of VW's smart cursor attachements will occasionally not work just when you really need them. Back to the basics, I use "ghost" lines, make parallel templates etc. Just like the good ol days with the vellum and graphite.

[editing the stair tool]

I'm trying to customize the stair tool, to get the line wts and text more to my liking. When I get to the stair.vss in the resources pallette, alt-dbl clicking it (there is no edit button, contrary to the manual) brings up a script error that says this doesn't look like a script document. Is this not the stair tool script? It's the only thing I found in the tree that looked like a stair.

[symbol editing et al.]

I see. So if I create a symbol all on my own, I won't get to use the dialog box entry format that VW packages things like the stair tool with. I could do this if I knew VWscript, as well as edit the preexisting plug ins like the stair tool. Sounds like I need to know VWscript.

[symbol editing et al.]

I would love to be able to edit attributes of pre existing symbols. Such examples of this are:

being able to change the door swing arc line to a dashed line (and change all line weights for that matter), being able to edit the text and arrows for a stair symbol. These packaged symbols make integrating them into drafting harder because they have their own style, which makes them stand out like symbols. A continuation of this wish would be a nice little macro that allowed users to make their own prefab tools, and set up the dialog boxes as they liked.

[removing old versions]

I've now updated from 9 all the way to 9.5.2. I'm wondering how much of this stuff I can take off my computer. Just 9? 9.5? Everything but the newest update?

[crashing on class changes]

no

[crashing on class changes]

I've got a file (32 meg) that hangs when I try to change class attributes. If I change the name of a class, or change any of the attributes, vectorworks will take a very long time to respond, and on most cases I'm forced to shut the program down and start over again, which puts me back to sq 1. I can change the attributes manually on the attributes toolbar, but this sort of negates the effectiveness of having classes dictate the attributes.

[flipped text irritation]

thanks!

[flipped text irritation]

ok so I found the flipped text check box. That would be me with egg on my face.

[flipped text irritation]

Part of the fun of working on symmetrical plans is diminished for me because text doesn't play fair. I'm making a building that has the same staircases on both sides, but when I make one side and then mirror duplicate the text flips as well. Now it seems that my only option is to either make each staircase manually, or disable text on the staircases and input that info manually. I would like to see text always remain aligned the rest of the universe.

[custom selection tool improvements]

I like the custom selection tool, but am frustrated by the fact that when I want to make a selection based upon class, the list I get shows only the first branch of the class tree. This sort of negates the power of branching classes, and needs to be addressed.

[outputting a pdf file]

I've used both writer and distiller. What settings are you using for distiller?