da_muel

Hi Pat, Thanks for that - very useful. I think Ill try out a few different options on importing layer refs and actually just copying and pasting all the elements that I need into files to count them. I wondered whether you could help me to find a way to make my worksheets count / split items a bit more effectively. So far I have only be able to count all the symbols in the drawing but Id like to find a way to break the count down to items per layer so I get a spreadsheet that looks like the jpeg called "Kit usage per job" in my previous post ie. Id like to get a count of the the symbols on the VW layers in individual columns so all count of symbols on 'Library' layer in one column, symbols on ' Job 1' layer in the next column etc. I need to do this so that I get a complete list of all items of stock that we own even if none are needed on a specific job. Is there likely to be any functionality built in to enable symbols to be counted in DLVPs with refs? Thanks for you help Sam

Hi, Firstly thanks to anyone taking a look at this - its been boxing my head for ages and any advice anyone can give is greatly appreciated. I've uploaded four sample VW files and one jpg file to help explain what Im trying to do. I work for an exhibition company designing and building exhibition stands. We have a stock of standard kit that we use to build our stands and Im trying to find a way to output a spreadsheet that will tell me the names of every piece of stock that we have and how many of each item we are using on each job. I will be passing the data collected from the VW worksheet to a colleague who will put it into Excel to calculate when we might experience a shortfall in stock. I have constructed a library document that contains a symbol of each item we have in stock. Each symbol has a record attached to it that details the items Code / Number (default = 1) / Name / Notes. When designing a stand I pick items from the library and then use a worksheet to count the number of items with a particular record on that job. I have put together some simple sample documents that should help to explain what I need to achieve. The files Job 01, Job 02 and Job 03 are test job documents that contain a couple of stock items with the record BLOX attached to them. The file Test Library File is a scaled down version of the library file I currently use for all our jobs. There are four layers in this file; the library layer contains all of the objects that have a BLOX record and the layers Job 01, Job 02 and Job 03 contain a viewport of the referenced files Job 01, Job 02 and Job 03. I have created a worksheet that counts all of the BLOX records on the library layer but what I want to end up with is something like the spreadsheet shown in the jpg 'Kit usage per job'. My worksheet works perfectly for items in the document (library layer) but not for anything that is in the referenced viewports. I don't mind if I end up with a library document that references all of the other jobs or individual job files in which i reference the library - the important this is that I end up with a list that shows all of the items that are in our stock and a count of how many of those items are used on each job. Its essential that I have a count for a stock item even if that count is 0. I hope this makes sense and thanks again for your time. If any further files or explanations are required then please let me know. Sam

Can anyone help or am I missing something here??? Dont understand why I can see / count the symbols but not their records. Can upload files if it helps . . . Would really appreciate any help anyone can give me with this - even if its just to say "its not possible" so that I can stop banging my head against this brick wall. Thanks Sam

Having folders for renderworks textures and materials would be really handy. Only just started using Renderworks and would find it really useful to be able to catalogue textures in specific folders eg. plastic, wood, metal. I know that I can save them down into custom library files but it would be great to be able to organise them in the document.

Thanks Will, That's how I have it set up at the moment but VW doesn't seem to see the records. If I go in to edit the criteriaI I can get the worksheet to count the symbols but not the records. Does anyone know if it is even possible to count records in referenced layer viewports - I cant seem to find a way? I really hope it is! Cheers Sam

Hi, Does anyone know if its possible to count symbols with records in referenced layer viewports? Ive tried every way I know to list the symbols with a record in a referenced layer viewport but with no joy. Can get the worksheet to count the symbols in a referenced viewport but it doesn't seem to see / count their records - can anyone help me please? Want to be able to reference multiple files on separate layers and get a count for each layer viewport. Thanks Sam

Hi Kevin - thanks for the file. This will work well I think. Sorry for the delayed response but Ive been out on site for a couple of weeks. Cheers Sam

Thanks Robert, will take a look at this - sounds like a good way to go but if pos would like at least the name of the object rather than a reference number to appear in the callout / id label. Means I and my client can look at one drawing and very quickly see what is accounted for / placed and what is not with out having to refer back to a spread sheet with descriptions for all the identifiers. Only just started to look at this so not sure what is possible with ID tags. Thanks Sam

Thanks Vincent C - I think this will work in some places but some of the items have long descriptions with multiple text fields and when they are laid one on top of the other on shelves in a case it will be very hard to read. Ideally I'd like to be able to pull out information in perspective views too and be able to do it selectively. Thanks tho - can definitely use this for some of the larger free standing items. Cheers Sam

Hi, I am drawing up a design for a museum exhibit that has aprox 250 individual artefacts to display. Im trying to find a way of assigning a record (or similar) to each artefact that will enable draw a call out label (or similar) that will display info about the object (its size, case, mount style and other notes). At the moment I have to select the object, copy the data from the record and then past it as a note on the annotations layer which seems like a very long winded way of doing things. Have read through a couple of posts and the help section relating to callouts and have had a quick play with it but cant find any way of linking info to a specific object so that I can list / count it on a worksheet to export to my client but can also annotate its inclusion and postion on a drawing. Ideally I would like to be able to do this in 3d viewport as opposed to just on a plan or elevation viewport as many cases are very full and have several layers of artefacts. Can anyone offer any advice on this please. Am happy to upload a portion of a file if it helps. Thanks Sam

I have just re-read the knowledge base article on custom title blocks and have found the following info "If you add a new record fields or text blocks, the Issue Manager will ignore this new information." Thats all well and good but the fields that are in the revision data block and issue data block are not relevant to my industry and I feel that leaving them in will cause confusion to the people on my team and on site. Does anyone know of a way around this so that I can create my own custom revision data block / fields. Again, any help would be gratefully received.

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me to resolve an issue I have been having with a custom title block. I have created a custom title block and have added a revision data section. I copied the revision data text strings but I want to be able to change the info in one of the fields and also delete another field. I would also like to know how to get the text to flow properly once I input it in the :Note field. Ive attached a VW file with the custom title block in and also a jpg snapshot to show what is happening and what I would like to change. Any help people can give me would be much appreciated. Sam

Hello all, I have managed to find a way to resolve the issues that I was originally having with drawings disappearing when I zoomed. I contacted my VW distributor here in the UK and was informed that the issues I was experiencing were possibly due to my graphics card not being compatible. Im not sure how many people who have posted or read this have the same graphics card as me but it would be worth reading the section under Additional Details on this page which highlights some issues with several cards and the latest couple of releases of VW . . . http://kbase.vectorworks.net/questions/711/Vectorworks+2010+System+Recommendations. I have now replaced my old card which was a an NVIDIA GeForce 7300 and replaced it for an NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT. This has cleared up a the vast majority of the problems I was having but not all of them. Objects no longer disappear when I zoom into them, quartz imaging now works fine (previously having it on would crash my machine), and overall VW seems a lot more stable. However I am still noticing that when I go in to edit a solid addition or subtraction the selection handles do not appear in the right place on some objects but this could be a separate issue? Hope this helps a few people . . .

Whenever I double click on a solid subtraction to edit it the objects that make up the solid subtraction are either unselectable or appear in a different plane to their selection handles (viewed from top but selection handles appear for left elevation for example). Does anyone else have this issue. Im having several issues with things disappearing (see my other post) so am wondering whether its a hardware issue or a software one. If anyone else has experienced this and found a way round it then please let me know. Am running hardware tests tonight to check that side of things. Thanks in advance

Hi, Can anyone tell me how to get snapping to work with objects that are greyed out. I am working in a group and I need to snap to an object outside the group but I can't seem to get any snap points to come up on the greyed object. Recently had to re-install VW an have lost my settings. Any help much appreciated.

Hi, Thanks for the help with this. I have tried your solution ecomike but Im afraid that Im still having the same problem. Objects are disappearing when I zoom, leaving me no snaps and no ability to select the object. They even disappear when I have them selected. Its driving me mad! The only thing that I have found that works is turning off everything in apart from selection highlighting in . . . Preferences - Interactive - Highlighting Ill report it as a bug . . .

Hi, Im trying to figure out how to view an object while Im moving around it using the flyover tool. In VW 2008 I was able to have the model displayed in hidden line, then I could select the flyover tool, move around the object and everything would display as wire frame so I knew where I was. When I stopped using the flyover tool the scene would re-render in hidden line. Now in VW 2010 if I select hidden line render and then try to use the flyover tool, the model disappears until I stop rotating, then it re-renders in hidden line. Its really hard to orientate myself when I cant see the model, especially when trying to set views for viewports. Does anyone know how I can change this so that the model will display in wireframe when the flyover tool is being used and then re-render in hidden line. Thanks

hi whocando, Yes - thats exactly what I have found, you can zoom so far and then objects start to disappear? Have only found this with one drawing so far, one that I created from scratch in 2010 but if it happened on a drawing that I had put a lot of work into then it would be a bit of a nightmare! Anyone from Nemetschek got any ideas?

I have been playing around with VW2010 and am confused by something that is happening when I zoom. I created 3 boxes - two with the class none and one with the class none-2. I am viewing them in left isometric view and whenever I zoom into them they disappear. Ive attached a three screen grabs. The first image shows what I see once I have zoomed into a certain point and the second image shows what is on screen when I move on click further in on my scroll wheel (the objects have disappeared) and the third image shows what happens when I zoom to a different part of the screen (a different objects disappear)! I have also attached the file that I have been working on just in case. I thought it might be an issue to do with the size of the objects to have scaled them up x10 but they disappear at the same point? I haven't had to use VW2010 for any heavy drawing sessions yet but this will be a nightmare to try to work with. Has anyone else found the same thing.

Hi, Ive literally just installed VW10 and am looking forward to checking out the new and improved features. I just thought that I should report a small (well tiny actually) bug that I've found. When viewing a worksheet if I scroll down to the bottom using my scroll wheel and then try to scroll back up using the scroll wheel nothing happens - the slider bar on the side moves up but the view of the worksheet stays the same. Its a tiny bug I know but I use worksheets a lot so . . . Other than that I have to say that at first glance VW10 looks good but will have a proper look at it over the next week or so.

Ok - just spotted my dumb question. But does anyone know a formula to add in the date that the worksheet was updated or will I just need to re-enter it manually.

Hi, Ive set up a worksheet and I want to be able to add the date it was last updated into one of the cells (3A). Ive gone into format cells and have changed the format the cell to date but i keep getting the date coming in as 3rd Jan 2004? The date today is 26th Sep 2008 . . . Ive attached a screen grab of the open worksheet and the worksheet as it appears on the page. Can anyone explain why this is happening? Thanks

Hi, Ive looked around for answers to this and havent been able to find anything definitive. Can anyone tell me if there is a way to make the auto row height and text wrap controls in worksheets actually work. I can get the text to wrap and the row heights to auto adjust when Im editing my worksheets but only very occasionally. Then when Ive finished editing and I go back to viewing the worksheet on my page, all of the formatting disappears and the row heights go back to the default and I cant read my records. This happens every time and its driving me nuts - i cant fit my worksheets onto a page unless its A1 (see attachment) and then it fills a third of the page area. This is a really frustrating bug that it appears has been an issue since 08 was released. We recently upgraded to Architect and so wont be upgrading to 09 for some time. Surely it cant be that hard to resolve in 08 - can it . . . ?

Good news on the excel'ish worksheets - will look forward to seeing them (being able to fit my worksheets onto an A1 page).

I second that Bob. The worksheet functionality could be a lot better. Ive been having some issues with wrapping text (apparently is a VW2008 bug) and am also very frustrated that I cant get my row heights to match the amount of text thats in them. I cant fit my worksheets on my page because the amount of information in some of my fields is quite large and dictates the height of all the rows. This seems crazy to me as Im using A1 sheets and the information that is contained in my worksheets would fit onto just over half a page of A4 in excel. Worksheet request from me would be, ??a tool bar (excel style) to allow easy editing ??a text wrap tool that works! ? individually adjustable row heights that work with wrapped text so that rows are as high as the body of text in them demands (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE) ? the ability to put returns into record fields so that it is possible to make a list in a record rather not long line of words ? scalable worksheets on drawing ? the ability to export the information easily to other formats (excel, word, plain text . . .) Would love to see these in the 09 release . . . Thanks