gmm18

What is the problem?

Wow, that is a pretty neat undocumented feature.

This is a great one for the wish list, I agree 100%, it would be really useful.

In the Worksheet, Right click on a Row, Change to Database. Right Click on it again and Set your criteria to "Record TitleBlockRecordName is Present" Then in the worksheet, enter the formulas you want to show: Be sure that you have single quotes around any database name or field that has a space in it. Also be sure it is typed exactly correct. I have had times when it wasn't working, and I swear all I did was retype the entire ='Record Name'.'Field' exactly the same as I had it in the first place and it worked. Your database name and field might be different than these ones. You can find the ones you need either using the Cheat Sheet Worksheet, or right-click on the Record Format in your Navigation Palette. Once you have it ready you can click the "Down Arrow" in the upper left of the worksheet and hide the Database Headers. And drop the worksheet on your Title Sheet how you want it. Note that this is a two-way worksheet, so you can change the Title/Sheet Number, etc. of your Sheets right in this worksheet and it will make those changes on the respective Title Block. You can also Sort by Sheet Number to keep it straight.

There are also the database names for Plug-in Objects that you might be looking for, to use in worksheets. Pat Stanford made a menu command that I find very useful. He shared it with us, the .vsm file is attached. You can put this file in your (if you are on a Mac it looks like this, Windows will be just slightly different): User ->Library->Application Support->VW2008->Plug-ins folder. Then add it to your workspace using the Workspace Editor. The cool thing about this is you click on any Plug-in Object, say a Door, then select this PIO Cheat Sheet command, and by the magic of Pat it creates a worksheet with all of the database parameters for that type of PIO. You just copy the items that you want from Column B, and paste them right into a database row in your other worksheet/schedules. I posted an explanation about it here: Pat's "Cheat Sheet Worksheet"

I like Christian's solution as well, this would be really great. I just wanted to follow up on: For those who do not know, (I am betting Viscard knows this, and it is not a replacement for Christian's idea), Here is one fast way of updating your Saved Views: First go to that Saved View, then change the class & layer visibilities and/or change/rotate the view to how you want it, Then right-click on that Saved View in the Navigation Palette, Select "Redefine..." This re-writes the Saved View with your new settings.

You can certainly do more if you take it into Photoshop, which might prove to be the best solution if you want to do a lot of other image editing, but I generally prefer to stay in Vectorworks if at all possible, it is just quicker. Rather than using an image prop, or renderworks background, to create your image... 1.) Simple method for getting images: File->Import->Image. Right on your sheet layer. Or if you are going to want to crop the image right in VW, then place it on a separate design layer, then create a Viewport of it with a crop. 2.) I explained this strategy using Image Fills in another post (link below). The benefit of this method is that you can use the Attribute Mapping tool, which is a really quick way of manipulating image size, placement, and orientation. (note I was using 2008, but you can do exactly the same thing in VW12, the little tool icons just look a little different). http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=22610&Number=105634#Post105634

Be sure you have installed the latest service pack: http://www.nemetschek.net/downloads/fundamentals/2008/2008SP3.php

Ahhhhh....nice. I guess it was the sky/ground combined with the sketch that tricked me.

Hey, who said this was for posting SketchUp images! Hah-hah. But it is great to have more images/graphics/sketches in these forums!!! It makes it so much easier to communicate, and more FUN.

Okay, just checking, good luck.

You are right, I did make it sound simple, when in fact it is a serious pain.

17" MacBook Pro...of course... Then get a separate monitor and keyboard to plug into when you are at your desk.

I know you said it is not a class issue, but... I think you might want to check again. If you make all classes visible, does this problem go away? If so you might want to go into the Edit Symbol (both 2D & 3D) mode and make all of the objects either in the same class as you would always put that symbol in, or just to be safe you can also just set all of the objects to the "none" class.

I posted a tip that relates to both avatars and posting images to the forums here: http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=107262#Post107262

DWood, exporting a PDF with this the "Black Background" Preference still results in a white background with dark line output.

I posted a tip on this here: Image Upload tip

I thought I would share this tip, in response to Damon Design, who included this note in another post: "(side topic-I can't even figure out how to attach an image here when I need help-no hosted web site and the image hosting sites that I've tried to use the Forum won't take-any recommendations?)" I use a dashboard widget called Image Upload: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/blogs_forums/imageupload.html You just drop an image (I usually just use screen shots using the Command-Shift-4 key command that gives you a little crosshair to draw a box around what you want). When it is complete you automatically have the URL to the image in your clipboard, just use Command-V to paste it into the add image dialogue. First Uncheck the Crush URL button 1. Drop image on the widget icon: 2. Once complete, you now have the URL in your clipboard. 3. Paste URL in the image button dialogue. Repeat as necessary...

But you need a script to update all viewports on the current sheet, otherwise updating all of the viewports in the whole file can take forever...

So you have to use the 3D modeling tools to do it, not really all that hard, but it does make it a bit tricky to get good Plan views in addition to your 3D model.

I have found a work-around when the Usage Rights are Disabled when you are using the Export-PDF Batch command. (Yes, if you just use Print, then save as PDF using the OSX features you don't have to deal with this, as Maartin mentioned). Anyway, the work-around: Open the Exported PDF in Preview. Add a small annotation, such as an oval. Then, without saving, Close the Document It will immediately ask you if you want to save it...select YES. This will RESTORE all of the User Rights to be able to do whatever you want.

What we need is to have Design Layer Section Viewports!!! Then we can add our detail rather than in annotation mode, but on a separate Design Layer.

Use walls w/ white fill, Create your viewport as usual, Then draw a rectangle on the sheet layer, give it a black fill & send to back. Export pdf.

YEAH. One example that is such a pain is when I have the Floor class turned on, then want to drag a marquee to select some objects (say a few furniture objects), but , I just ended up clicking and moving my Floor object. So I Undo, turn off the Floor class, then back to what I was trying to do in the first place. A simple way to draw a selection marquee without selecting the filled object under your first click would be GREAT!

IFA: Check your Worksheet "Criteria" Right-click on the Database Header...then: Note this is useful because say you have a few different design scenarios that you created by duplicating a design layer so you can have a bunch of alternatives to look at. In this case you can set one of the criteria to be "Layer-Is-Design Layer X." Of course there are numerous other ways that this may be useful. This level of flexibility is also probably one of the reasons that Schedules in VW is not as "automatic" as you might expect, but it proves to be a great benefit to have this amount of control at your fingertips.