mralistair

but then I need to select both the sheet layer and the saved view each time.... defeats the purpose really.

Following a thread in general discussions someone suggested I added these items to the wish list. I work with existing buildings mostly and tend to use vectorworks very much as a 2d LINE drawing tool. and the basic functions of line creation and editing are sorely lacking. 1. Point to point copy. moving an object relative to different objects. I know it's available as a plug in. it should be built in. 2. rotate copy (come on people, why isn't this there?) 3. A copy tool (!?) 4. A Move tool (!!?) I know these are possible by dragging etc but it is inconsistent not to have the tool, plus it confuses new users Improvements are also needed to moving and copying procedures. If i've selected an object, then click to drag it, if i select a point that is also shared by an other unselected object, i loose my selection and get the new object rather than moving my first one. this is irritating. the basics need to be right, at the moment they are vague and incosistent... and no-amount of us-centric housing plug-in tools is going to make up for it. oh and rotate view.. but you knew that already... i hope.

go to the eye dropper tool and click 'pick-up sets defaults' i do this every morning as there is no way to set this as the default setting.

michael.. the difference between '25% of the NA marcket' and '25% of our sales' is a huge one. but interesting points. we pay approx ?600 for 'second user' license and ?900 for the first license (approx $1200 and ?1800 US$) which is cheap compared to acad etc... but the price is simply down to how much we will pay.. and since on a mac there is little option i cant see them cutting it soon. plus MS Office is ?300, and their economy of scale must be massive.

tools/class and layer mapping will convert all layers and classes to different names in a file.. this can be saved and taken to other drawings. only works if the ones you are changing from are reasonably consistent

Am I being really dim or is there no way to have different classes visible on 2 different sheet layers in the same file. I want to use classes to change the key-plans on title blocks. but making the class invisible changes all the sheet layers. i'm sure there is a way to do it... or at least I hope.

1- i found the manual to be useful on this.. it takes a bit of reading but it is all there 2- We do this on large projects, it allows more people to work on plans at once and limits the damage if one corrupts.. is a bit slower and more fiddly. only use if you need to 3- the Viewports exist shwoing a window onto the design layers. it can manipulate layer and class visibilities and do cunning things like scale text and line weights and stuff. it can be confusing to staff so explain well! 4- no idea.. doesn't make much sense. basically it works like acad.. best to try and play with it. I can send you our sheet set up if you want. 4-

Is there a way to stop vectorworks from creating a new blank document every time it is opened? I'm suffering from window clutter on a mac it does it every time you click on vectorworks icon in the dock and there is no window currently open. I think I am up to untitled 12 today.

when i export to dwg from a sheet layer with the drawing in a viewport, all the resulting lines are moved to dwg layer 'none' the option to convert classes to dwg layers is greyed out. exporting from the design layer works fine

Dworks... how do you do it without typing in the dims?

Mike yep I want to draw and occasionally model. and yes i know about drag a copy but i find dragging a pain to do accurately, and in the project i'm working on (an existing twisted building) that means clicking point to point. i fail to see why we should need to mess around with third party solutions for the basics... the lack of rotate copy makes me think that NNA are NOT working on it and/or don't care. FYI, I've used a mixture of autocad and Microstation, mostly microstation. i'm no acad fanboy

RSA. thanks a lot for that perfect.

I personally will stop using vectorworks as soon as i am allowed to, (there are some nice bits but generally I really don't like it) I think one of my key worries and dislikes is what is being hinted at above, the very basics of how a cad program works, move, copy, draw, rotate, snap, flip. just aren't as tight and controlled and stable as they should be. (for example the lack of a ptp copy and rotate copy). BUT in the meantime there are rows and rows of tools for things few of us ever need, some half baked some irritating to use. I don't need NNA to draw my cupboards, fireplace or decorative architectural column (round using the well known classical order of round mushroom capital since you ask) for me. I want them to provide me with a tight, accurate efficient way to draw.

my god this is all a bunch of dirty work-arounds for a problem that shouldn't exist. the solutions seem to work if you are simply drawing something once, on an ever changing scheme with multiple angles and an existing building this is very messy indeed.

Is there a way to edit multiple titleblocks at once? I have a file with multiple sheet files and i'd like to update one of the fields in the block in all the blocks at once.. is there an easy way to do this? even better if it could be done over multiple files

cheers, do i have to do this every time I insert a symbol or can it be done in the original symob definition?

the 'faster' debate is probably un-solvable. having come from autocad and microstation i'd say that if you want something that feels very solid and accurate and prefer to draw in lines, use acad, if you want to do new-build residential type plans with pretty fills and repetative symbols (and don't mind putting up with the near-constant resetting of inches to millimetres) use vectorworks.

How can you tell a symbol NOT to attach itself to a wall when placed on it? it is very irritating.

mike thanks a lot for that... if i'd have thought of that it would have worked fine! as it is it's too late... but next time.

I have created a 3 terrain thing using AEC which when viewed from the top/plan view appears as contours. how can I flatten these contour lines to be a standard 2d collection of lines? I don't want the 3d bloat. if i convert to lines it converts the terrain model to a bunch of squares.

what reall bugs me in vectorworks (and it's been a long list-expanding day) is that you cannot select and object then move it a distance/direction that is defined by clicking other points. If I have an object in one bay and the relationship to the grids is the same in each bay, in microstation i'd select the object define the start of the move from some handy point on the grid then end the move on the corresponding part on the next grid. vectorworks thinks i want to move the grid. alos why the feck is there no move icon. (or rotate copy come to that) oh it's been a long day

workgroup reference trick didn't work unfortunately... I'll just have to re-draw it.

on a network.. we normally do nightly back-ups but we were moving office and they hadn't been set up... typical! sent the file to address above an no response.

I'm sure this has been asked before, what is the best way (if any) of recovering a corrupt file? i'm on a mac and get the message 'failure on attempt to open file' it was working fine yesterday and I think the file was open with one mac whilst the file was copied for backup heyalp

most of what you describe will have been set when they drawings were exported to pdf. not on the import to DWG pdfs have no seperate classes and layering is at the level of "what's in front"