Dieter @ DWorks

In the part of code for the button event, you have b := b + 12; b will be 0 because you didn't set a value for it. You need to change this to b := Px + 12; to get the original value with an added 12 units. PS: Be aware that when you type +12 in your script, VW will add 12 units, so if the document is in mm it will add 12mm, if it is in cm it will add 12cm. If you do not want this, then add the symbol for the units like + 12cm for example to always add 12cm, no matter what the document units are.

Totally true. Also reminds me that I didn't return the layer visibilities to show/snap others. EDIT: Maybe we need another some other things? What if we can set show/snap others and being able to bound slabs to walls on the other layers? It's just letting VW now which walls to use, so it's not like we are selecting/moving/modifying them.

Yeah me too, up till now, however with the need to create slabs, spaces etc. using (the paint bucket tool and) elements in other layers I have found it necessary to actually change to using Show/Snap/Modify Others....... The tip is to only change it to modify other when bounding slabs etc... All other times you can not use it!

I have filed several bugs for this in previous version, but file one for this version please, so that this can finally be resolved.

You can also do some basic math.....

What do you mean Dieter? 1. A group always stays on top once you have used the Send to Front command!? or 2. Create a group because that is easier to 'Send to Front' once it ends up below because one has made changes? The second one. But an options for stuff that needs to stay on top would be fine. We would then have a splitted stacking order: Two "Groups", one for the normal stacking order and one for the elements always on top. In each group, you have a stacking order between their own elements. This would complicate things as all items need to have a parameter in the oip for it to get feedback on where the element resides and other stuff.....

This is an awful tool that really can't be trusted! Another example is the classes used in wall components. They get checked as not used by the purge command, even though they are used in the wall styles for components. Never use this tool! (Once I always recommended it.....)

You can use a group for that.

A better way for this is to use a layer for these loci/lines that's always on and that is on top of the stack, so you can't accidently move these items (if edit all isn't on.) and you will always see these lines. We always have one layer for the top of the building layers and one at the bottom to show objects and things that must be shown through the building like center lines, shafts, plot lines, ....

And as a separate snap option in the snap palette, with many hatches in a file this could be a snap hell if it cannot be turned off. Good! That way we can turn the snap to hatch on, and only those hatches that where set snappable will be.

That's a story of the past... Windows has gotten so much better and can't be blamed anymore of this. Windows XP is more than 10 years old and 3 versions ago. And if it doesn't function, most of the time it's because of the user or some software. Plus the new Windows 8 is more like Mac OsX in that way that the user can't change things easily and he just needs to go with it (unless he knows what he is doing and how to do it (Most users think they know what they are doing...), which can't easily be done on a mac.) I never had any troubles with Windows that where related to the OS.

Yes please, make this an option in the hatch properties.

I also worked on Win7 with VW2010 without a non-vw problem

This bug is in all versions, perhaps worser in others. For example in VW2012: When I work on our library and need to open and close a lot of dialogs like wall styles, class attributes etc... VW has this problem in the hour!

and expensive... I was just looking at the iMacs at the Apple site because I wanted to know how "good" the specs are for graphics dependent programs. It seems that the "cheaper" ones aren't any good, and the "good" ones are way to expensive. I really can't see how people can pay that much for it... (PS: Don't tell me design, because I find them ugly.)

This one is a long time thing with VW. It's in it for as long as I can remember, even before version 12.5! The thing is that VW uses memory, but doesn't release everything, so when time passes VW have less and less memory to operate. Only quitting VW releases all the memory. So restarting VW from time to time can solve this.

Or let us draw ONE wall that goes up all the way instead of several walls.

Don't get me wrong, but this kind of error mostly comes in to play when not drawing in a way you are certain that an object is at the correct position. To better clarify what I mean: In VW, when an object like your wall is off by a very small amount, you can't get it right by just moving it manually until it snaps to it's location. VW will let you think it does, but it doesn't. The only way to make sure it's at the correct location is by manually dragging the wall far off the location (yes farther away first.), and then dragging it back until it snaps to it's location. While doing this, you NEED to see the exact screen hint that's correct. Only then you are certain it's at the right spot. The screen hint is a very big factor. When you know it needs to be at a crossing of two lines, the screen hints has to show this, because otherwise the object will be off! Many people I know doesn't care that much about screen hints and the precision issue, and their drawings are always off by little amounts, which lead to bigger issues every time they need to work on the drawing.

The first is possible. It's a checkbox. Make sure you got the correct one because you have two type of handrails.

Using the push/pull tool makes the history tree in most situations not needed anymore. So I think they are working hard to completely make the history obsolete and make sure all works fine. But in some cases, being part of the history would be very handy. Now I always do the fillet/chamfer in the last step, so when it is needed to edit the history, I can ungroup, edit the history and do the fillet/chamfer again.

This is something that has bugging me for years now....

Phewwww... I just spend the whole weekend trying to get my example building into Revit to see how really 'good' the program is. This is what I could get on my first time use for two days: Now for my experiences and personal ideas: Revit is not able to produce the kind of graphical goodness I can get out of VectorWorks. I personally love color, and being spoiled by VW with all it's colors and fill types, it was hard to be satisfied by the way things look in Revit. Out of the box, Revit is just some black and white splatters, but you can edit stuff to get colored plans like you can see in my result, but it all comes with a price that you can't have a dark color in section and a light color in plan view for the same material. You can override colors for objects, but not for materials, so overriding is for all objects of a same type, even if some are glass and some wood. I know that this is really personal, but for me, this is a big issue. What I did like about the graphical possibilities is that you have 3 different grades of detail and that this is consistent over the whole package. So you can tell in which states objects need to be showed and have different representations/colors for the different grades of detail. I think this could be a powerful feature for VW. (I know VW has a similar thing, but it's not consistent for everything and the user can't really decide stuff for it.) I also do like the surface patterns you can give materials. This can give elevations a nice 2D touch to them, but Christiaan, they are really not vector-based and not snappable, so it's just for presentation purpose, although you can align them in the drawing. Materials are really good and are in a sense the classes we know in VW. Revit doesn't have classes, only materials and it's for the graphical attributes only. Objects can be viewed on type etc. The BIM part of Revit is really good, not excellent. There are much small problems comparable to the one VW has. The main idea is actually quite the same like levels etc, they are only implemented in another, mostly more intuitive, more consistent way. Each object is actually at it's root one type of object: a family. So many things are the same for all objects and it makes it easier to understand them. But there it just ends. VW has it's bim problems, but at the end of the day, you only need VW to complete all your task as an architect/engineer. With Revit, you always need a lot of other programs to do all the stuff that Revit can't do. I find this really bad, especially when you know that Revit really is costly. Plus VectorWorks is really far superior for its 2D, 3D modeling and graphical respresentation. The ribbon in the user interface of Revit is really nice. When selecting an object it shows what you can do with it so all is more clear. It also gives much message boxes to let the user know critical information about things that will happen to the model when doing stuff. I really like this. It connects you more to the program. Some other thing VW is far far better in is the control over the position of elements and the general correctness. In Revit it seems not possible to draw things from a certain point. You can only draw from other objects. This really irritates me because I'm always really precise in what I do and I want everything to be correct. You can't even place a viewport on a certain location or crop the view to a certain distance from the objects in it. You even can't see any coordinates of objects. Also snapping isn't that good and it makes everything slow to edit. Navigation and selection is also a problem when many objects are in the model. You need to make extra views to be able to select them or to be able to edit them, which I find ridiculous. There will be stuff I forgot and I may be missing the experience with Revit to know if what I'm saying is really true, so please correct me if this is the case. But my preference still goes to VW. It really has to be a great job they offering for me in order to switch to Revit.

Chris, I have a question about revit and floor plans. I understand that revit creates it's plans through a section from the model, but I want to know if the symbols used for cabinets etc... will just show up in hidden line or if they can have another presentation in plan view then in all other 3D views like we have a 2D and 3D component in VW? Another question: Is this kind of plan possible in Revit?

Nope. You could save two workenvirenments

You can do that in the annotations of the viewport.