markj

This kinda ties in with my previous thread re. accidentally duplicating objects, - it would be nice to be able to turn off the shortcut keys. You just have to hit 'ctrl' '5' every now & again to put yourself back into 'top/plan' view.

Thanks for the input, I think the script/alert idea is the most practical solution - I'll get on the case! Mark

It is a problem because sometimes the ctrl key gets accidentally pressed (at the wrong time) maybe instead of the shift key, say if you wanted to move & constrain. The object then gets duplicated without being noticed. We dont use offset duplication, as dupe & move (ctrl D & Ctrl M) suits the way we work. We use custom tools to draw many of the common objects on a drawing, these also write records to a worksheet, which get counted & costed. Therefore you see one object, but get the cost for two! Not the end of the world of course, but it would be nice to be able to disable it.......

Select an object, & with the mouse still on the object, hold down the ctrl key & move (drag) the object - thats what I want to eliminate. I cant actually find the shortcut to remove it! Mark

A simple question, to which I hope there is a simple answer! Is there a way of disabling the 'duplicate object' shortcut, ie. hitting the ctrl button (on a pc)? We have a system which counts objects on the drawing & if the ctrl key is accidentally pressed at the wrong time (easy to do), you end up with more objects than you think, and a false count. Thanks Mark

Thanks for looking! - The 'Export Worksheet' & 'Import Data' into Excel is longwinded & a pain, especially if there are several worksheets on the drawing. It is so much easier to simply copy & paste the data direct. I guess I'll have to copy & paste into notepad and then copy & paste from there into the excel sheet, (which sort of defeats the object of our rather nifty CAD/Excel system!). Thanks again Mark

Here is another mystifying anomaly with vw2008; I have some custom made tools which draw objects, and then write a record into a worksheet to create an object count/item list. The bit that does this is;- setrecord(LnewObj,rfs); SetRfield(Lnewobj,rfs,'Item Code','POST/TS/W'); SetRfield(Lnewobj,rfs,'Description','Tall Post-Square, Wood'); SetRfield(Lnewobj,rfs,'Material','Wood'); The thing all works fine (& always has done!)and fills out the worksheet properly. The problem arises when I try & export the data. When I copy the columns from the worksheet & paste them into an excel spreadsheet, I get an extra blank line between each line of data, which messes up the excel calculation. To make sure it is not an excel problem, I paste the worksheet columns into a word document - you get the same double line spacing. If I paste into notepad it works fine, with no extra lines. Incidentally the 'Export Data' function works OK, and writes a notepad document correctly also. Pasting into a google spreadsheet also produce the double line spacing. This problem only seems to happen with vw2008 on a PC. It was OK with v12.5, and doesn't cause any problems with a mac. Any ideas where the problem lies? Thanks Mark

Would it be possible to simply replace the v2008 callout tool in the plugin folder with the old one from v12?? - or is that too simple?! Thanks Mark

In v12 I could set the default class for the callout tool by using the 'properties' option in the plugin editor. The callout tool seems to have changed in v2008 & I cannot find it in the plugin editor to set the class. - Any sugestions how I can do this? thanks Mark

In v12 I could set the default class for the callout tool by using the 'properties' option in the plugin editor. The callout tool seems to have changed in v2008 & I cannot find it in the plugin editor to set the class. - Any sugestions how I can do this? thanks Mark

Thats it! - I knew it was simple. When working in 2D it is easy to hit a shortcut key & accidentally switch view without noticing, hence some 'strange behaviour'. Thanks again Mark

Heres a question - I'm not sure if it has come up before; On some drawings a 'group' will show up in the object info window with it's x & y dimensions and it's location, and on others it doesn't show any info at all. There must be a simple preference option somewhere, but I can't find it! I am using v12.5. - any ideas? Thanks Mark

Thanks, yes. 'Hperim(etc...' does the trick! The next problem is I want to draw a wall type object along the polyline. ie. a double polyline with a hatch fill. The polyline/wall also needs to be drawn from its left or right side & not the centreline.

Thanks, Yes, the perimeter is equal to the length of the line. So with the Schematic Pipe example, what lines/procedure do I need to add to calculate its total length?

Heres a question loosely linked to a thread posted a couple of months ago; I need to create a path type PIO, and can base it on the VW example (Schematic Pipe). The problem is that I need to be able to count the total length of the line/pipe. The pipe example draws a polyline, & as far as I can see, the object info box for a polyline doesn't show it's overall length (the wall tool is the same), so therefore it cannot easily be calculated by VW. The polyline object info box does however return the perimeter of the line, which, being a line with very little thickness, is the same as its length. What I want to be able to do is to draw a polyline as per the sample Schematic Pipe Tool, and return its total length. This will then be counted onto a worksheet. - Any ideas? It seems odd that there is no ability to count the total length of a wall with VW. Thanks Mark