Art V

Oh yes, have been doing similar drawing too, this is where a (magnetic) connector polyline would be nice so that when something gets moved the line stays connected instead of having to mess with the reshape tool.

Thanks Jim. Glad to know it is probably a bug and not a corrupted install. Then I'll wait with uninstalling and reinstalling VW2017 until SP1 comes out to see if that solves the issue unless something else would require a reinstall.

It could be the anniversary update, though I do experience slowness at times after the previous monthly windows update, though the nVidia drivers got updated as well around that time and lately so it could be a mix of things including something wrong with the graphics card drivers. That being said, Anniversary update does seem to cause some hiccups for quite a few people. One thing you may want to check, as I noticed that on my laptop, after the anniversary update it may default to the on-processor graphics instead of the dedicated graphics card. If your desktop has e.g. an Intel 300 or 4000 graphics chip on the processor it could have reverted to that and this could explain the slowness for Vectorworks. Then you need to set the graphics back to the dedicated graphics card through the control panel. VW2017 puts a higher resource demand on the graphics card so that could add to the mix of less responsiveness, but if that is not installed it is probably the Anniversary update by itself.

It is set to run as administrator because of the libraries catalog updating issue (as non-administrator it fails to update). When "run as administrator" is disabled the drag and drop to import the image file or the dwg file it works for both. But the libary catalog will then fail to update. It looks like I have to choose between two evils 1. Run VW as administrator and not have problem with the library catalog update but have a problem with drag and drop import of file 2. Not run as administrator and have a problem with updating the library catalog every time VW starts, but not have a problem with drag and drop import For the record, File>Import does work properly. Sometimes it is just more convenient to drag and drop than going through the menu and browse to the folder having the file.

Thanks, good to know, sort of, as this most likely means my install must not have gone properly.

A few other things to consider in addition to Alan's link to the videos - When importing the dwg files it might also be convenient to give each import its own prefix for the imported dwg layers so that later on you can tell which imported classes belong to which imported drawing. - Regarding tracing, if the dwg files are of good quality (i.e. well drawn) you could copy the items you need or can use from the dwg layer to your floor layer. Make sure you copy instead of move so that you keep the imported dwg drawing intact for reference/checking. The one caveat would be rectangles, as in dwg these are polygons and you may want to use proper VW rectangles as these are easier to edit for height/width changes. - Regarding having the VW working layer stacked above the dwg layer, this is in general correct except when you are creating filled objects. Then you may want to consider to have your working layer beneath the dwg layer so that you can still see the dwg objects to trace. This will make it a bit easier if you have multiple items in an area that you need to trace (e.g. concentric circles). You can always rearrange the working layer to be above the dwg again at any time.

I my case it were a tiff photo/image and a dwg file in the same folder as the drawing. In VW2016 both import fine when drag-dropping them into the drawing, in VW2017 no import dialog shows up. Are you on Mac or Windows? (In case it is broken only on one platform)

In VW2016 I could drag and drop images and other files (e.g. dwg) to import them into the Vectorworks file. In VW2017 this no longer works with my installed copy. Is anyone else having similar issues?

Thanks for mentioning the multiple delete to replace them all at with a single instance of the copies to be deleted, just tried and it worked like a charm. It also works with "merging" duplicate line types, and probably with most resources. I guess most people do not think of this or simply don't know it can also be done, because this wish has been brought up in the past and I don't recall anyone mentioning this. Normally I use the purge tool to remove non-used etc. after replace duplicate symbols with the replace symbol command.

Yes I agree with your "complaint" about not using the shift key, it can be used for this and I use it when I need to have them 100% horizontal or vertical or 30/45/60 degree angled constraints regardless of snap angle settings. However, the polygon lines we're talking about now are to be similar to the connector lines in e.g. Visio where moving an attached object at the end of such a polyline will automatically extend the line segment and for certain purposes these line segments need to be either horizontal or vertical. For that we would need this kind of new polyline.

When importing dwg files sometimes symbols duplicate and you get e.g. valve, valve-2, valve-3 etc. even though they are actually the same symbol "valve". It would be nice if instead of having to use the replace symbol for each instance there could be some functionality where you could use the resource browser to select the duplicates and "merge" multiple instances of the same symbol into a single symbol (e.g. "valve" in the example above) and it will automatically replace the duplicates with the "master symbol". It could even be used to replace an incorrect variant of a symbol with the correct one instead of just identical variants of a symbol.

+1 Yes, that would make the cloud services easier to use to check on files.

Yes, unless... you're working with objects and attached records having quite a few fields and need to be able to see the properties of both. I run into that quite a bit when doing GIS stuff and would rather have two tabs side by side than having to scroll up and down all the time. (or the OIP with the Data tab detached in this case) For simple objects with limited parameters/records your solution works fine, so that is why I asked JimW to attach your request to the one of the detachable tabs as it is not a case of one or the other but they can easily be combined (I hope) so that the default is what you are asking while still having the option to detach a tab from the OIP .

I agree with you when it comes to communication on output files. However, having it within Vectorworks can be useful too as it would compare the two documents for all changes and not just the ones that happen to be in the output viewports for e.g. PDF files. Comparing output files may not reveal all changes in the Vectorworks document unless you review all output files which in the long run may be more work, assuming that the output files combined cover all objects. For example, I may have some layers/classes with information that may not be shown in my output PDFs but they can be important for the project and then it would be nice if Vectorworks could indicate if there are any changes in those layers/classes as that could mean I may have to make changes to the rest of the drawing.

There is already a request for the OIP tabs to be detachable (as well as for the navigation palette) so maybe Jim can add this to that request. @JimWcould you please add this to the request for detachable/tearable tabs for the OIP?

Because of barkest question about psd files not showing in the resource browser and the windows version not even seeing psd files I checked the supported import/export formats. The Mac version of Vectorworks supports import of TGA, PSD, SGI files whereas the Windows version does not. The Mac version also exports to PSD, TGA and OpenEXR and the Windows version not. I don't mind if Windows or Mac only formats (e.g. MacPaint) are not supported by the other platform, but platform independent formats should be supported equally on both Mac and Windows versions of Vectorworks for import/export so that in mixed environments both versions can use the same source files or export to the same file formats.

Not sure if it is the same on Mac as on Windows but if it is... What may help in figuring this out is to get a good font manager that allows you to group fonts into sets. For Mac Linotypes FontExplorer X is one as well as Suitcase and FontAgent Pro, for Windows MainType and Suitcase could be considered. FontExplorer for windows does not seem to be as actively developed as the Mac version. There are shareware font managers that do work well, so you can look around. Once you have that installed, group all installed fonts in sets, either by use or by application. What I've done is once a clean install of Windows was done I grouped all Windows fonts into a set called system fonts. After that I started installing a software program I went into the font manager to see if there were any ungrouped/uncategorized fonts and put them into a set by application. A good font manager allows you to put fonts into multiple sets (not all do) so afterwards you can also create groups for projects or personal preference etc. What I have noticed is that after installing updates or new applications I go into the font manager and sometimes (or often, depending on the software) come across fonts that were previously part of a set no longer are part of that set and that was most of the time because the font version or manufacturer was different from the previously installed set. (e.g. font version went from 1.01 to 1.02) . This is how you can track if fonts got updated/replaced with a different version. What can happen is a partial replacement of font families, so that e.g. you can have Arial Normal in v1.01 and Arial Bold in 1.02. Most of the time this does not cause issues but sometimes font metrics are slightly different causing tightly fit text to reflow etc. Some software always updates/overwrites fonts regardless of which version is more recent, some leave already installed fonts alone unless their version is more recent (i.e. if their version is older then they don't install that font) It is a bit tedious to do but if it is important to have full control of your fonts, even if it is just a subset of fonts important to you and not all fonts, then I guess there is no way around it than using a good font manager to keep track of things. That way you can ensure you are working with the font version you want to work with.

Like barkest I use 200 to 300 dpi for printing purposes depending on the quality required for the print and depending on the amount of small/fine details. The less fine detail there is the lower the resolution could be if file size matters, but I'd take 200 as a minimum for printing purposes. For digital distribution it depends a bit. If you want to allow for zooming in a bit without getting pixelated images then 300 dpi. If small file size of something with not much fine details up to A3 print is preferred then 150-200 dpi which will still look ok on screen without zooming in. If you want to do further editing on the output image, then I suggest to use uncompressed TIFF instead of JPG to avoid artefacts and haloing in your image due to compression effects.

I've found the fix for DXF output, but it is a plug-in for CorelDRAW and not a standalone product. For those having CorelDRAW and interested in it, the links are below (there is a 32-bit version too) http://macromonster.com/product/james-leonards-standard-dxftool-64-bit-only/ http://macromonster.com/product/james-leonards-pro-dxftool-64-bit-version/ Alternatively you could take a look at this: https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxf2gcode/

In that case I'd like to have them as well, as I do have a use for connector lines in VW. It would even be nicer if those connector lines could also have line jumps (the half circle that shows up when two lines cross each other) as an option. I do make (process) flow diagrams once in a while and Vectorworks in only missing a thing or two maybe three to make it very usable for that. Connector lines would be the biggest one of them. If that would get implemented it could solve 90% of my diagramming needs. I could use them for other things as well such as polylines representing fences, rail tracks etc. that start and end at a specific object and always need to stay connected. The recent update of the resource browser partially fixed one of the other issues.

The answer to this is "yes and no". Yes, when you do an override on text with a text style it will show as "unstyled" in the OIP. No, it may not actually become "unstyled" because I noticed on a few occasions that after updating a style the supposedly "unstyled" text got updated too. It might better if Vectorworks would show styled text without overrides as "normal upright" display of the text style name in the OIP and display the text style name in italics if there are overrides to parts of the text having that text style. That would at least let you know if there is a text style attached to the text or if there is no text style at all attached to that text. Now there is no way to tell whether a text has any style or no style at all because a style with override will show as no text style.

Over here here is a so-called "Vectorworks Interior construction" (translation) version meant for building cabinets/closets/kitchens to complete interiors for whole buildings (e.g. stores) etc. which might be the same InteriorCAD module mentioned above. Though here the local distributor sells it as a complete Vectorworks solution, i.e. incl. tranlation etc. instead as a separate 3rd party add-on.

This is why I would still prefer staying on Service Packs for the non-urgent things instead of a continuous string of small updates. For major bugs the benefits of these preparations etc. for a bug fix update to solve this will outweigh the cost of time to be spent on the update.

This will only work well with a subscription only model, like Adobe's Creative Cloud. Otherwise you will still need major releases once every while, typically within 1-2 years, for accounting reasons. I wouldn't mind small update packs to fix individual major issues when a solution/fix becomes available and then leave the Service Packs for fixes of the smaller issues or improvements of existing tools including the previously released small update packs for the urgent problems. Besides that, a major release will also provide a focus point of deciding what to get done first for the new version based on user input. One of the big complaints about the Adobe Creative Cloud is that improvements and bug fixes are on a (much) slower pace now that they're subscription only (i.e. SaaS) because it seems they no longer have a sense of "urgency" to get things finished/fixed.

Will this upgrade of the Unicode thing also improve the support of OTF OpenType fonts instead of just TTF OpenType?