Greg_at_ils

Is there a way to save a vw file that contains vw file references to a new location and have it copy the referenced files to that new location? Kind of like the AutoCAD "Pack and Go" feature.

This looks pretty sweet. Come on NNA! http://www.9to5mac.com/28702/autocad-ws-is-now-in-the-app-store-for-ipad-and-iphone

Please allow hatch attributes such as color and pen to be controlled via their class.

Upon the import of a DWG file, please give us a way to force all the attributes of all imported objects, symbols and hatches to be controlled by their respective classes.

No

Every time I import DWG files from my clients, there are a large number of blocks and hatches that get converted to VW symbols and hatches. For imported symbols, even though the attributes are set to ByLayer in ACAD, their fill is set to" by symbol" after import to VW. For hatches in general, there does not seem to be any way to change the hatch colors via the class. I have to edit each hatch individually. Am I missing something?

This is going to be an interesting decision I am going to have to make. I moved to VW from AC when I moved to the Mac platform. Almost all of the issues I have with VW revolve around having to work with AC users which is just about every project. It's going to be a tough decision to make. I feel like I just got my workflow in VW to happy place too. I'll wait to see what people think of the Mac version first but the draw to switch is great.

That was one of the first things I tried and it does not work.

I am not able to reproduce this in 2010. Make sure there are no funny symbols in the file name too.

You copy them from somewhere and paste them into your VW text. Both Windows and Macs have a character map to find and insert these symbols as well as shortcuts. For the Mac: 1) Hold down the Option, or ALT and shift keys, and press another key. The key can be a letter, a number, or a symbol. When you do this, a new symbol will appear. There are two lists of symbols below. One list shows symbols that can be created by holding "Option" and a key, and the other lists symbols that are created with "Option", "Shift", and a key. It should be noted that on a keyboard the Option key is either denoted by saying Option / Alt on a keyboard visually designed for a Macintosh computer, whereas it will be simply ALT for a keyboard visually designed for Windows. (The Windows key and Command key have the same relationship) Symbols With the "Option / ALT" Key Pressed Option and ` = ` Option and 1 = ? Option and 2 = ? Option and 3 = # Option and 4 = ? Option and 5 = ∞ Option and 6 = ? Option and 7 = ? Option and 8 = ? Option and 9 = ? Option and 0 = ? Option and - = ? Option and = = ≠ Option and q = ? Option and w = ∑ Option and e = ? Option and r = ? Option and t = ? Option and y = ? Option and u = ? Option and i = ? Option and o = ? Option and p = π Option and [ = ? Option and ] = ? Option and \ = ? Option and a = ? Option and s = ? Option and d = ∂ Option and f = ? Option and g = ? Option and h = ˙ Option and j = ∆ Option and k = ˚ Option and l = ? Option and ; = ? Option and ' = ? Option and z = Ω Option and x = ≈ Option and c = ? Option and v = √ Option and b = ∫ Option and n = ? Option and m = ? Option and , = ≤ Option and . = ≥ Option and / = ? Symbols With the "Option / ALT" and "Shift" Keys Pressed Option, Shift, and ` = ` Option, Shift, and 1 = ⁄ Option, Shift, and 2 = ? Option, Shift, and 3 = ? Option, Shift, and 4 = ? Option, Shift, and 5 = fi Option, Shift, and 6 = fl Option, Shift, and 7 = ? Option, Shift, and 8 = ? Option, Shift, and 9 = ? Option, Shift, and 0 = ? Option, Shift, and - = ? Option, Shift, and = = ? Option, Shift, and q = ? Option, Shift, and w = ? Option, Shift, and e = ? Option, Shift, and r = ? Option, Shift, and t = ˇ Option, Shift, and y = ? Option, Shift, and u = ? Option, Shift, and i = ? Option, Shift, and o = ? Option, Shift, and p = ∏ Option, Shift, and [ = ? Option, Shift, and ] = ? Option, Shift, and \ = ? Option, Shift, and a = ? Option, Shift, and s = ? Option, Shift, and d = ? Option, Shift, and f = ? Option, Shift, and g = ˝ Option, Shift, and h = ? Option, Shift, and j = ? Option, Shift, and k =  Option, Shift, and l = ? Option, Shift, and ; = ? Option, Shift, and ' = ? Option, Shift, and z = ? Option, Shift, and x = ˛ Option, Shift, and c = ? Option, Shift, and v = ◊ Option, Shift, and b = ı Option, Shift, and n = ? Option, Shift, and m = ? Option, Shift, and , = ? Option, Shift, and . = ˘ Option, Shift, and / = ? 2) Go to System Preferences. -Select "International". That is the fourth (fifth, in 10.5 (Leopard)) icon over in the row marked "Personal". -When you get to the "International" page, select the tab that says "Input Menu". -Look for "Character Palette" in the menu that appears. When you find it, click the checkbox next to it, but do not un-check the box next to your native language. -Quit System Preferences. -To use the character palette, open a text document (AppleWorks, TextEdit... or even some internet browsers work). -Look for a new icon in the menu bar at the top. It should be the last one in the row, and will look like the icon you saw next to "Character Palette" in System Preferences. -When you are ready to insert a symbol, click on the icon, and choose "Show Character Palette". -Select a category from the menu on the left. -From the list on the right, click on a symbol, and then click "insert". -When you're done adding symbols, click the little red button in the upper left corner of the Character Palette. For Windows: (1) How to Use the "Character Map" in Windows: Another method is to use the "Character Map" to copy and paste the required symbols. In Windows (XP), you'll find the Character Map by clicking on the Windows Start Menu, then All Programs, then Accessories, System Tools and Character Map. The Character Map box pops up. Choose the font you wish to use from the drop-down menu at the top. Place your curser where you'd like to insert the symbol, click on the symbol you wish to insert, click on the Select Button, then the Copy Button and then paste the symbol onto your page (using Edit, Paste or the "Control v" shortcut). You'll also see the Alt Key shortcut at the bottom of the Character Map, for future reference. (2) How to Make Keyboard Symbols with the "Alt" Key and Numeric Keypad: Another way is to use the "Alt" key and numbers - making sure to use your numeric keypad, not the numbers on the top of the keyboard. NumLock needs to be ON. Using the numeric keypad, hold down the Alt key, and hit the numbers (in succession) shown below for the symbol you want to use. For example for ? Copyright, hold down Alt, press the number 0, then press the numbers 1, 6, 9. Then you can let up the Alt key.

To clip a symbol you could just draw a solid object over the symbol to either hide a portion of it or cover the entire symbol and then clip the portion of that object to create a window so to speak that would allow you to see through it to the symbol. Kind of like creating a mask. Then you could just group the two objects. If your fill is the same as your background and you turn off lines you wont see the mask.

I feel your pain Vodsonic. There are some previous posts already that discuss this text issue. I have a similar problem with text. Currently there is no good way to normalize text size in a viewport on a sheet layer where the scale of the viewport is different than the design layer the text was drawn on. Now there is a function in the "advanced properties" for viewports that lets you rescale text and other items in the selected view port, but not all text will maintain it's position properly. Callouts are the biggest issue but I'm not sure about text in a symbol. You may get lucky. But again, it's a viewport wide change. I end up drawing on layers according to what scales I will need to display on a sheet. This of course means that if you want to show the same thing at different scales you need to copy it to different layers with the right scales and adjust your text to the right size and position. This is a hugh pain if you ever have to update it. It would be nice if there was an automated setting you could turn on that would ensure all text in a sheet layer viewport displayed at the same size it was drawn as in the design layer.

Just an FYI to anyone trying to use the help file to figure out drawing coordination as it relates to the title block, there is an error. In help file under: Vectorworks Fundamentals -Dimensioning and Annotating --Adding a Sheet Border ---Creating a Custom Title Block in Vectorworks It currently states: "Use an SN_ prefix to indicate that a field should gets its value from the Sheet Number of its sheet layer. If Use Automatic Drawing Coordination is enabled in document preferences (Design Series required), the SN_ prefix also means that when this title block field is updated, the Sheet Number of the sheet layer and of annotation objects on the layer are updated." It should state "_SN suffix" not "SN_prefix".

In a text record for a title block, if you use the "SD" or "SN" drawing coordination suffix in the field name you can not also use the "#" suffix to create multiple line text. If you do try this the "Edit Title Block" dialogue box will display multiple lines but the actual title block will not.

Yes yes yes!!

Maybe I'm missing something here but I don't think any of that makes a difference with callouts. The text moves in relation to the leader geometry and makes a mess of things. There is no way I can see to change that.

I would love to see this new feature expanded to all of the reference markers. Now that would be a huge time saver!

Amen!

It would be nice if the viewport text scaling option in the advanced properties maintained the proper position the text. Every time you change the text scale of a viewport, the text shifts it's position. Callouts, markers etc. turn into a mess which defeats the purpose. I end up creating layers of various scales to match the scale of the sheet viewports the information will be displayed in just so I can have text that is the same size across viewports of different scales.

Actually they don't do it themselves, they just hire the guy down the street who uses AutoCAD and charges less because he doesn't have to deal with this stuff. Not everything deserves payment. Let me clarify my previous post. A couple of extra hours beyond "how long it should take" is one thing, but 25%-30% of my drafting time is way too long. It should take a very small percentage of my time to import backgrounds and that is what I can charge for. Beyond that, I am working for free.

VW needs to be able to recognize XRef cropping in dwg files. This is basically the same thing as cropping a design layer viewport in VW. This is an old old feature in AutoCAD. When we try and import a dwg containing an xref that's been cropped, VW ignores the crop and imports all of the xref geometry. This creates a huge mess when the AutoCAD file has several xrefs with crops or the same xref copied and cropped multiple times. As one can imagine, the person drafting in AutoCAD moves around these cropped xrefs and the hidden geometry for each ends up overlapping. When imported into VW we see all of this overlapped geometry. It makes it impossible to work with these dwgs.

Well said Mike. I'd also like to add that we should have a feature that prevents the creation of referenced files when exporting by merging the various layers of geometry. If you have DLVP and different layers in VW it creates XRefs when exporting to dwg.

Yes please!

+1 I agree. This would be a huge time saver! Easily 25%-30% of my time drafting is importing DWG files for backgrounds and it's all non-billable time.

In AC, these arcs register as 2D arcs. Now I have no idea how they were created in AC. I can only assume they were created by some method other than the arc tool which seems to work fine for importing into VW. I do know that the original file was never meant to be 3D and there don't seem to be any 3D objects in it. Regardless, I can't tell my clients how to draft in AC. I need to deal with what they give me. Yes, I use both AC and VW. I've been trying to just use VW but it's not always possible when I'm dealing with complex and large projects. Too much just does not translate well.