Bob Holtzmann

I am interested in finding out if the 3D cube, in an oblique 3D view, can be shown in a Sheet Layer Viewport. This would be great for showing a kitchen cabinet layout as an oblique overhead view showing more 3D information. Sometimes a RW Camera view does not show enough of a small area like a kitchen, because the camera is confined to a room or adjacent room. This approach would be done on a design layer by putting a Cropping Cube around a Design Layer Viewport model, if possible.

Hi Balitog, I guess you want to understand what's going on with that Elevation Benchmark. It's just a 2D graphic tool, that's used in the Annotations of the Sheet Layer Viewport -- so if you set up the layers, one for each floor, and have Elevation Viewports on the sheet, then you just note away there (not on the design layers). This is true for Vectorworks and Revit: it's easier to draw walls first, and then create the floors from the walls' boundary. Anyway, I hope this addresses those two issues, and you can find your way around the program better.

I noticed that the Clip Cube had objects auto-highlighting, giving credence to whether or not the objects are editable. We'll need to have that verified, but it looks like we've got a feature similar to what Revit users have been boasting about.

You're just emphasizing the point I'm making, Christiaan -- Autocad for the Mac is a waste of time.

Such a heavy voice... It's not making me love what they show. And the song is so depressing. Yeah it was more to do with my comment that I posted that: "Wake me up when a Mac version is released." The Mac version of Autocad is a good indicator of how well it would work - read Ralph Grabowski's experience with it at World Cad Access

So it looks like Wes is next up to bat.

I thought they were tossing us a bone with showing us rendered views while panning in plan view. If there were more in the video about navigating in rendered 3D views, it might make the needle slightly jump on the "woo hoo" meter.

Are you exporting image files? PNG should work the best.

If that's what you want Kizza, you don't need my permission. Go for it!

Actually Buzz, you do. One of them is the Rendering modes - they made the tea pot different. The other menu button looks like a "show light objects" toggle, or something like that.

Background rendering for viewports is significant - I'll take continuing working in a Vw file, instead of watching the progress bar on the lower right corner any day.

Buzz, what you see is the Navigation Palette, and the buttons along the edge are classes, layers, viewports, etc. There isn't much change to it, except for the grouped prefix classes in the class name list. And this seems to be getting more attention than the zoomed images.

A previous post was hoping that the Attributes and Object Info palettes will be integrated in some way for 2013 -- naaah, hasn't changed at all.

As with all plug-ins, it's just a matter of copying the items to the Plugins folder (including the occasional special data folder), then finding them with the Workspace Editor, and installing into menus and toolbars. So the installation of Stickpage is fairly standard. It is likely that the Workspace file is not needed.

I had a look at the manual for the Vw 2011 version of StickPackage. It translates: ----------------------------------------------------- Please copy in, "Plug-Ins" folder with its contents "StickPackage16J" folder. (For Macintosh version is also available with a copy of the library into the user> Application Support> VectorWorks> 2011> Plug-ins for MacOSX.) Please copy the contents of a folder in the file of "Into the Workspaces" of, "Workspaces" folder only (VW2011_StickPackage.vww). (For Macintosh version is also available with a copy of the library into the user> Application Support> VectorWorks> 2011> Workspaces of MacOSX.) After re-launching the VectorWorks2011J, work screen menu> Please select your VW2011_StickPackage.vww (VW2011_StickPackage or). Because some of the functions of VectorScript that are used in StickPackage has become deprecated future, check if they contain items display a warning> VectorScript Other Preferences> Vectorworks> the menu, the execution of the script If there is a warning dialog to that effect is displayed at (Does not contain a check by default) will you. Use as it is because it does not affect work in this version of Vectorworks. ----------------------------------------------------- Generally, 2011 plug-ins work fine in 2012, so it's worth giving a try. The errors don't affect it. I have not tried this version, but I did try an older one, in which clicking at locations on the screen will place a vehicle shape with tracks leading up to it.

Tool> Scripts > Vectorscript Plug-In Editor will let you get into the Default Parameters for the Truss Plug-In tool. I noticed the units were putting metric values into imperial units as a default, and thus distorting it. So individually changing the parameters should fix this. The changes will take place after restarting Vectorworks.

And it gets "better" than that. Any Revit 3D object can not be rotated about the X and Y axes. I tried it - can't be done.

Here's a little tip about working off the server. Autodesk's Revit Server doesn't let users work off server-based files. Instead, Revit saves a copy of the file to the local drive. Then when it saves and exits the file, it overwrites the server-based file. Vectorworks users could similarly be trained to use this same workflow, albeit using manual saves to the local drive, and then when they are done, save it back to the server. This could possibly keep the workgroup references intact, if they have relative paths, and they are also saved locally. Just an idea.

Thanks for the tip. I recently saw an "unconventional" use of the Floor command in a theatrical job. This involved tracing the existing walls (from an image) of a theatre and using the Floor Command to create the walls - essentially extruding it to the wall height. The nice feature of this is the walls (as a floor object) can be irregularly shaped, and later re-edited as a poly. And speaking of poly, I always tend to use the Modify > "Objects from polyline..." command, too - great time saver.

I've been getting familiar with IFC entities in the VWX drawing, after creating my first one. They don't show up in the Vw Resources for a drawing, which I don't like - I was hoping they could be exchanged between documents this way. I guess they can't be used as symbols.

So true. And have you also noticed the working plane only shows up in 2D "on edge" view, and how it can't be moved or rotated? Objects and offsets can be tied to them, making them even more difficult to work with. Compare this to the Vw Move Working Plane tool, and how it moves and changes orientation in 3D views, and snaps to surfaces. The working plane can also be rotated on axis in 3D.

DWG import does have more flexible options than IFC - I noticed the DWG can be "referenced" as a symbol, to keep it separate from the drawing. This is useful for later on, when you need to update it with a newer updated DWG, by just replacing it with a new symbol. I'm not sure IFC files can be swapped out as easily.

Thanks Garry. I never thought about using Vectorworks as a coordination tool. I'll have to remember to use that "reference DWG" command instead of "import DWG". I do know that most engineers use CAD instead of building modeling software.

I found the answer - The Wall End Cap Tool -- Didn't know I had one. [img:left]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1931541/EndCapTool.png[/img]

Is the Vectorworks Cloud Services getting much attention by A/E/C today? I might be getting access to it soon through Service Select.