[Door schedule disorder]

How do you get your door in symbol to have a unique tag? Or are you scheduling by general type?

[Closed Polyline Checkbox]

A cursory search didn't turn up anything on this, but I would like to see the polyline OIP have a "Closed" checkbox like polygon does.

[Ideal Workgroup Referencing Strategies]

Note:

Most networking file systems do what is called "write locking". This essentially means that whoever opens a write filehandle first can write to it. Everyone else can just read it.

When you open a file in VW, it always tries to open a write handle and if it fails, you get a message that you will only be able to read.

[Door schedule disorder]

If you click on the database header line, there should be little sort icons in the worksheet tool bar. You just drag one of these to the column you want to sort on.

[Pie in the sky]

Thanks for the links Christiaan.

Sounds like the master/satellite model is using a kind of version control where the file is divided into parts and only one person can check out a part at a time.

It's definitely a step in the right direction.

[Invisible Class of Pasted Object]

Yeah, I hate that also.

[Pie in the sky]

Version control is cool, but that's not what I'm talking about. It is doubtful that a binary VW file would ever be mergeable, which makes version control less useful for people who want to edit the same file at the same time.

I've already made a wishlist post about being able to integrate a VC system into Vectorworks. It is definitely doable with the SDK, but I haven't had the time...

[Pie in the sky]

I think it would be awesome if VW drawings could be based on a server based transactional database (like mySQL) instead of a file so that multiple users could do edits to the same drawing at the same time.

Like I said... pie in the sky.

[Workgroup References - Multiple Users]

There's the big file thing of course, but we seem to do a lot of work in the viewport annotations on the sheets. If they are all in one file, you can only work on one sheet at a time (you can copy the file and manually merge changes later if you are really desperate, but I wouldn't make this a practice)

That's just how the workflow in our office has evolved. I'm sure there are better ways to do it.

[Workgroup References - Multiple Users]

After working on one fairly large project with VW12.5 the main thing we have gotten from it is to split up the master sheets file into seperate files.

Section viewports work somewhat the way they are supposed to, but are seriously hampered by a couple things-

1) They take can take FOREVER to render, and while they are rendering, VW is unresponsive. The "Update all viewports" command does not work with larger projects, so you cannot leave a file to render overnight. This is a huge time sink for a workstation, unless you have the cash for an extra seat and maybe an intern to babysit.

2) While you can supposedly assign objects that occur beyond the section line to a seperate class, this feature does not work, which leads to wonky line weights in your sections and elevations. There are workarounds, but they are cumbersome.

I'm not sure about repetitive layering. I haven't tried it. I imagine such a thing would be better implemented by symbols.

[Workgroup References - Multiple Users]

It still needs to be saved for changes to show up though.

[Using VW on a network - Best Practices]

Christiaan,

Thank you for your clear and succinct answer.

I like your idea of adding the toggles to the contextual menu.

So, how do you do it?

wezelboy & islandmon,

Wow.

You da "man" and I guess one of you is da "man 2"

Seriously, I do appreciate the help but I don't know what type of device I am supposed to type this alien language nor what War Games I might accidently start if I did.

I apologize for my ignorance.

Please, tell me more about what VW files you coordinate, merge or sync?

I do really want to know about Best Practices for setting up VW on a smallish network for Construction Document production.

The main thing I am trying to do right now is to make it so that when one person creates new Door Hardware Sets or Room Finishes it shows up when the next person goes to edit or make corrections on their machine.

I'll tell you this its harder than you think. I have not got it working yet.

I'm pretty sure this can be done by having a copy of your (Vectorworks Folder)/Plug-Ins/VW_Arch/Data/Prefs_Def folder on your server.

You can either replace your local copies of this folder with an alias or symbolic link, or you can use some kind of synchronization method between the local and server copies. The advantage of the former method is that it is easy and automatic. The main disadvantage is that you might not be able to use VW if your server goes down. A synchronization method can be done any number of ways, and that is where UNIX becomes very handy (cron and rsync being the main tools for this kind of thing). Synchronizing folders will allow VW to still function even if the server is not functioning.

I don'

[Max values VS]

You could win the obfuscation prize and strip out all of your newlines. In theory, it should still work ;-)

One thing that I have noticed is that if you copy and paste between a third party editor (TextEdit in my case) and the editing pane, editing can get hosed where you often cannot insert a new line.

[Using VW on a network - Best Practices]

symlink will only help you if you are writing code. It won't work from the command line.

[Server problems with Vectorworks files]

I spent many years as a UNIX geek and I still can't decode permission masks without looking at the man page. (chmod has a nicer letter based interface thankfully)

A permissions problem won't usually cause a server disconnect though.

[Using VW on a network - Best Practices]

With Servers avoid "alias" for reasons mention and use symbolic links instead:

NAME

symlink -- make symbolic link to a file

SYNOPSIS

#include <;unistd.h>

int

symlink(const char *name1, const char *name2);

DESCRIPTION

A symbolic link name2 is created to name1 (name2 is the name of the file

created, name1 is the string used in creating the symbolic link). Either

name may be an arbitrary path name; the files need not be on the same

file system.

This is a function call from a man 2 page. The appropriate terminal command for a symlink is ln -s

[Best 'hand lettered' font for VectorWorks]

Tekton. Reputed to be the font used in the Frank Ching books. Provides quite a nice hand lettered look.

I'm not a big fan of Tekton. It has weird vertical alignment issues in VW. Still, it is what we use.

If you want to really tick off the comics geeks you could try Comic Sans. It isn't as cool as Tekton, but it does have that hand lettered look.

[Hybrid Groups]

If you want hybrid in a group: use symbols in a group. That way it will be hybrid, the symbols self would not change size. Only the composition will change if you resize. For example: If you have a desk (not a symbol) and a chair (symbol). You can change the size of the group, thus also changing the desk but not changing the chair. so it's quiet handy to have this.

Just thing about it.

I already do this where it makes sense, but I still would like to see hybrid groups as I have described. Adding group editing functionality to symbols might be nice, but I also think it would be overly confusing to users.

[Max values VS]

Is it a limitation on the editing pane, or a limitation on the interpreter?

If it is the editing pane, you might want to try moving a bunch of your functions to an external file and then use the #INCLUDE compiler directive to access them.

[Hybrid Groups]

A hybrid group would have seperate 2D and 3D representations that can be edited like a hybrid symbol, but with one notable exception- if indicated in preferences, the rest of the drawing is visible while editing- like a group.

The hybrid group would be its own instance and changing it would only effect itself.

In drawing, the hybrid group would display its 2D representation if the view is in plan and display its 3D representation if the view is not plan- just like a hybrid symbol.

[Hybrid Groups]

I'm already doing the class thing, and it is rather cumbersome.

But so is having a symbol for every collection of hybrid objects.

[VectorScript objects and IFC]

You obviously do not work in building design or your sarcasm gene is heterozygous, as opposed to non-existent- as evidenced by your feeble attempt at it.

Everyone knows that no one actually looks at the drawings!

[Hybrid Groups]

Don't get me wrong, I love symbols. It took me a LONG time to give into PIO doors and windows. I still use them as much as I possibly can.

The thing is, I want a hybrid group that does draw like a hybrid symbol- turning parts off or on depending on the view.

[Using VW on a network - Best Practices]

If you have a mac office, knowing a little bit about the UNIX can be extremely powerful. You can do a lot of cool synchronization with cron and rsync, and it's free.

[Update all viewports broken]

I second this.