Assembly

Using wall styles creates all the measurement data to be accessed through the Worksheets. The work sheet interface is so tedious and painful to work with. I have written a script that search the document for all wall types in use and creates a new work sheet to report all the component values. It means I can create new wall styles on the fly, or remove other, then rebuild my worksheet knowing I've got every wall component measured. If anyone is interested in such a script I could provide 'a use at your own risk' test command. Now onto slabs and roofs....

When I batch export in 2012 the screen 'locks' into the current view. I have to change layers to a design layer, then rotate the 3D view for the screen to refresh.

I'd like a concept snap shot feature. This would allow for different design iterations inside the same file without lots of layers. Current workflow requires duplicating layers if a new options is to be investigated. I'd like to be able to take a 'snapshot' of the design so I can easily revert back to a certain state.

140 hours at $100/hr = $14,000!, the software pays for itself! hmmm. how much time do you save if you use software that has live sections, elevation, perspectives then?

I hope this will use multi core on mac so that it does not slow down performance of VW while there are renders processing in the background. I hope they make it so that you can control the red out of date VP visibility. If not as soon as you edit an item in the model all VP will be out of date as soon as they are finished rendering.

A few years ago I tried loading up my walls with objects. Created alsorts of problems. Workarround: dont do it.

Well at the office I'm now there are: 2 AutoCAD Architecture licenses, used. 1 VWs license, used. 2 Revit 2012 licenses, unused. a) Why is that? b) Can you sell your Revit License?.

Those videos are impressive. WIll VW ever catch up?. There have been so many #BIMFAIL posts to the forum recently, with no #BIMYEAH posts. There are repetitive requests from users of VW: Live Section, Multiple View editing, Improved Multi User support. More intuitive UI. Smarter Tools: Stair / Window /Door. True drawing coordination. Matched by disappointment at each release for not having it. Some VW users suggest they will pay more for VW if it does the above, and urge more to be spent on R&D to catch up. Arguing that if the software provides more they will be happy to pay more. I don't think this is true. Price is a significant influence in VW market share. When we moved to VW9 from the drawing board, we selected VW because it was the lowest cost option. I'd say the reason most people who are weighing up between VW / Revit / ArchiCAD choose choose VW for it's price. There is much heated discussion on this forum about how successful VW is for BIM. VW is BIM capable. There are a small handful of skilled Vectorworks users who will be using a full 3D workflow. That is: they generate all elevations and sections from the model. And generate schedules through the Worksheet interface. However I suspect that most do not. I can use VW in this way. In my experience the time overhead for a 3D workflow is too high. As the model gets complex the Viewport update times slow. The increased model management is high. As you push VW to the limit you start hitting things you have to 'work around'. The work around time is very unproductive and slow- (I suspect what drives the frustration of users trying a 3D workflow). In my opinion, BIM is not the strength of VW. VW is first in class for 2D. Last project I did I used my old 2D work flow. I delivered the project in record time, and felt refreshed on how productive I could be. The introduction of Revit LT gives me the option of testing that package at a similar cost for me to upgrade to VW2013. I have had a taste of the benefits of an integrated model. If I value the benefits and want them, I can have them today. If Revit fullfil the promise of productivity that BIM should deliver, then the cost to upgrade to full Revit will justify itself. My next computer might have to be Windows.

I've gone back to Vectorscript List and trying to figure out how to use it I am scrolling to the May 2004 folder when I click on it I get "Sorry, you are not authorized to browse the archives of the VECTORSCRIPT-L list from the address you entered in the login screen." I'm always looking for sources of VS info, so keen as to figure out the List Archive. The user manual is throwing up a 404 error. ?.

You link implies the focus is on IFC and interoperability. Two things I don't care about. A call from the NZ seller said that they have added back ground renders for viewports. Once you start a VP render you are not 'locked out' while the VP updates.

Thank you kindly.

Can some please post here the vsoEventsConstants.px list by Charles Chandler.

Actually I'm not. I have signed up and have general access to the site. BUT when i try to search the Archive I get the following message Sorry, you are not authorized to browse the archives of the VECTORSCRIPT-L list from the address you entered in the login screen. Note that your browser automatically authenticates your requests using a "cookie" for the e-mail address Justin@assembly.co.nz. A "cookie" is a short piece of information stored on your computer's hard drive through your web browser, for instance to allow a web site to remember your e-mail address and password for future visits. If you are sharing your computer with other people, this cookie could have been set by someone else. Either way, if you want to use another e-mail address to authenticate this request, you can reset the cookie and try again with a different e-mail address.

Ahh just did a search for Verctorscript List. I think I'm on track now.

Is that in this forum- The search only goes back 6 years?. I tried to google your terms also with no luck If anyone still has this can they post it here. or a link to the page mentioned?.

Some times it is worth calling the surveyor and asking what they have used to create the survey. I had a crappy 2D survey come through recently. I could not get the info I needed for the DTM. I called the surveyor and asked what they could export. I think they just sent me a mesh. I was able to select the mesh and convert directly into the DTM. I set the DTM to have the same intervals for contours as the 2D drawing sent. I overlaid the 2D contour drawing I originally received and incredibly the contours were exactly the same!. Most surveys are now smart 3D models of the land. The info we get is a translation of the 3D into 2D for printing. We then get sent the DXF of the 2D out put. Thus it pays to always ask for both the 3D mesh and 2D drawing.

How do I get the SheetTitle of presentation layer?. GetLName returns the sheet number. I don't see a function that returns this. The procedure below get the layer name and insert it as text. PROCEDURE LayerNamer; VAR; ghObject,ghRecord,ghWall:HANDLE; gObjectName:STRING; gBoolean:BOOLEAN; BEGIN gBoolean:=GetCustomObjectInfo(gObjectName,ghObject,ghRecord,ghWall); CreateText(GetLName(GetLayer(ghObject))); END; RUn(LayerNamer);

Is there an appendix of event constants anywhere?. I've read and reread the Vectorlab documentation. I'd like to know how you enable a double click on PIO action.

Yes, The problem is that GetElementValue & SetElementValue only accept strings. Thus when you use your DARRAY it get truncated. The XML calls thus only have limited use.

Does anyone else have frustration with the length (or lack of) strings?. It would appear that we can't set or get more than 256 chr with the XML calls: GetElementValue SetElementValue

i get the VW crash on quit sometimes. I dont get crash on autosave. My autosave settings are to save every 50 commands with 4 backup files selected.

thanks Josh.

I'm trying to return the value of a PullDownMenu. I think I'm supposed to use: GetSelectedChoiceInfo(PIODialog,kPIOLIST,0,iReturnValue,gPIOSTRING); All I seem to get is iReturnValue=0 I tried other functions on the developer page. This should be an easy answer.. How do I get the values back out of the dialog pulldown? Procedure NewTestPIO; VAR hobject:HANDLE; ObjectName:STRING; X,y:REAL; gPIOSTRING:STRING; PROCEDURE GetPioName; CONST kOK = 1; kCancel = 2; kPIOLIST = 5; kRight = 1; kBottom = 2; kLeft = 3; kColumn = 4; kResize = 0; kShift = 1; VAR PIODialog :INTEGER; cnt, tmp :INTEGER; boo :BOOLEAN; sReturnValue:STRING; iReturnValue:INTEGER; FUNCTION GetPlugInString(ndx :INTEGER) :STRING; BEGIN {Static Text} IF ndx = 1001 THEN GetPlugInString := 'OK' ELSE IF ndx = 1002 THEN GetPlugInString := 'Cancel' ELSE IF ndx = 1003 THEN GetPlugInString := 'Create Pio' ELSE IF ndx = 1005 THEN GetPlugInString := '' ; {Help Text} IF ndx = 2001 THEN GetPlugInString := 'Insert the PIO' ELSE IF ndx = 2002 THEN GetPlugInString := ' ' ELSE IF ndx = 2005 THEN GetPlugInString := 'Help text.' ;END; FUNCTION GetStr(ndx :INTEGER) :STRING; BEGIN GetStr := GetPlugInString(ndx + 1000); END; FUNCTION GetHelpStr(ndx :INTEGER) :STRING; BEGIN GetHelpStr := GetPlugInString(ndx + 2000); END; PROCEDURE dialog_Handler(VAR item :LONGINT; data :LONGINT); BEGIN CASE item OF SetupDialogC: BEGIN AddChoice( PIODialog, kPIOLIST, 'Keynote2011V2', 0 ); AddChoice( PIODialog, kPIOLIST, 'TimberWindow3D', 1 ); AddChoice( PIODialog, kPIOLIST, 'PlaceIt', 2 ); END; END; END; BEGIN PIODialog := CreateResizableLayout(GetStr(3), TRUE, GetStr(kOK), GetStr(kCancel), FALSE, TRUE ); {create controls} CreatePulldownMenu( PIODialog, kPIOLIST, 45); {set relations} SetFirstLayoutItem( PIODialog, kPIOLIST ); {set alignments} {set bindings} {set help strings} FOR cnt := 1 TO 5 DO SetHelpText(PIODialog, cnt, GetHelpStr(cnt)); {run PIODialog} IF RunLayoutDialog( PIODialog, dialog_Handler ) = 1 then BEGIN GetSelectedChoiceInfo(PIODialog, kPIOLIST,0,iReturnValue,gPIOSTRING); AlrtDialog(Concat(iReturnValue)); END; END; BEGIN; GetPioName; END; Run(NewTestPIO);

Where do I find more info on how to use this?.

I just noticed there is a template for a simple beam design. It looks like this might be set up for a beam calculation script. Does anyone know if this is anything more than a layout?