Art V

Could (negative) indentation in general also be added to the wish list request, as the functionality is also used for bulleted lists it should not be that hard to implement, but it would be nice if it could be applied to paragraphs as well. (Once in a while I need to set a paragraph with somewhat larger margins than the ones above and under that paragraph. It would be nice if that could be done within the same text block.)

Or just create a record and attach that to the object? Then you can also read out the information, though it will not show as text in the drawing is it would be possible with symbols.

It seems like that is the case. That being said, without the intent to be snarky, this is not really a good workflow. The better way would be to simply delete the objects instead of undo to remove them all, then the problem should not occur. (the reason I'm saying this is because I've seen AutoCAD drafters using a lot of undos to get rid of previously created objects instead of just deleting, and even there it could sometimes lead to AutCAD crashing if it was used in a "rinse, repeat" way of working) Regarding pasting the symbol after all the undos after which all objects are gone, I suspect the undos also break the link to the symbol and Vectorworks can no longer find the related data/objects. This should not lead to a crash however, but it should generate an error message stating something to the extent of "cannot past the object, the linked/related object (information) is mising"

Jim, I've found that viewport annotation dimensions do not always adjust properly upon changes on the design layer, even if they are associated. Could it be that the somewhat cumbersome snapping to dimension insertion points instead of the actual object (has been complained about by others before) is the culprit? Or are there other issues to be aware of, e.g when it comes to extruded 3D objects?

Not that I have a solution in addition to what Michael posted, but I do have one question, are you talking about a planar center or or a spatial/volumetric center if the 3D poly is not a flat surface?

It will then create a new folder alongside the old folder with the new name, not as a subfolder in the old folder. Either way this export folder issue could benefit from some more flexibility.

+1 or to save it in a folder without it creating additional subfolders if I have to create multiple dwg files (e.g. for different design layers) where the hatches/fills etc. are the same for all of them.

Yes, as Jim already mentioned. However... I suggest to make a screen capture of the dialog including the full paths instead of just the file names. The reason for this is that sometimes drawings get reused in other projects with or without modifications in another folder or there are some default file names for certain content and then it is important to make sure you get the correct file and not a file with the same name from another project. Another solution could be to get a dwg compatible program for Mac (e.g. DraftSight (free) or BricsCAD/Ares CommanderCorel CAD etc. if you need more than viewing) to see what the x-refs are, as well as linked images etc.

Are you experting from a design layer or a sheet layer? When you export from a sheet layer then you should get viewports on the layouts as it is in AutoCAD. Though I don't use AutoCAD LT I assume that it will work the same as the full AutoCAD in that aspect (i.e. that there are not some limitations re viewports that would cause LT to behave different in certain situations).

a few things to consider: 1. settle on class (VW)/layer (ACAD) names to be used 2. avoid the use of xref's on Acad if possible as this may generate unwieldy names 3. in VW try to stick with the dwg colour palette to maintain consistency. 4. if real colours are used specify the RGB values for both programs to be used 5. if you need to have multiple scales in one document put the viewports on sheet layers in VW and then export from the sheet layer, that way the viewports with different scales will end up on a layout in Acad. Do keep in mind that Autocad does not have an equivalent for VW's design layers so using multiple design layers need workarounds for round-tripping. 6. VW does NOT support dwg document text styles, upon import/export from/to dwg all text will have manual size and font applied and not as per Acad text style 7. Use truetype fonts where possible, as VW cannot use the acad shx style fonts 8. specify the text size and convert to the proper size in the other program. Vectorworks uses line height to specify text height whereas AutoCAD uses capital X height. It's roughly a factor 1.4 difference (e.g. if you want VW's 10 point text to end up at (almost) the same size in Autocad then specify it as 14 point text). The best workaround for now would be to set up an Autocad file with sample texts using the various text heights to be used and then import this into VW. That way the imported text sizes will be correctly specified in point sizes and you can build VW text styles to keep track of them and make sure you end up with proper size in Acad (e.g. call the style XYZ_20 for 2mm text height XYZ_35 for 3.5mm text height in Acad). Do keep in mind that as mentioned above VW text styles to not export to DWG. 9. Autocad can use line thickness, it can be shown by setting the LWDISPLAY variable to ON. 10. In Acad make sure the viewres is set sufficiently high to avoid not-smooth polygons/polylines display. A setting of 2000 is good enough for everything but the most demanding situations. I'll mull a bit more over this later and maybe have a few other things to consider.

If you still need conversion send me a pm with the file or a link to the file. Regarding the crashing on import, I've experienced crashes with previous versions if the dwg version was more recent than Vectorworks was supporting. A solution could be to use DWG Trueview to convert the dwg file to an older version (e.g. 2010) and then try to import again. For the crashing upon exporting I have no solution, assuming you are trying to dwg only. It seems the import/export plugin may have become corrupted/damaged and then reinstalling is probably your best option.

You could try converting the symbol to a group (ctrl-K or Modify>Convert>Convert to group) Then ungroup and you may get a question asking you if you want to keep the records to the items. If you get this question choose yes and then you should be able to edit the individual items while keeping the information (e.g. elevations) attached.

btw, +1 for FBX import as well though I hope Vectorworks can handle large (100+ MB) FBX files fairly quickly if it will support FBX file import.

Autodesk has a converter for FBX files, to convert the file to older FBX versions as well as OBJ, DAE (Collada) and DXF file. http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/item?siteID=123112&id=10775920 I have not tried it myself yet, but it may be an alternative to Blender for some, or useful to convert to older FBX files in case your software cannot import the most recent FBX version.

freezing is hide and lock at the same time. In Autocad it is possible to select objects on hidden layers through the command line with some commands. Besides that, at least in Autocad and the likes, objects on frozen layers are not taken into account when redrawing/rendering pages etc. (i.e. as if they don't exist at the moment until the layer is unfrozen). Freezing of classes/layers works model space (design layers) as well as layouts (sheet layers) For Vectorworks it might be useful to have a freeze option, so that objects on frozen layers are completely ignored for certain operations (.e.g rendering in viewports).

It is possible to give the section viewport a depth range, i.e. in your case further down than just the elevation at which you set the section. E.g. if you put the section elevation just above the roof base, looking down and then specify a depth until the floor level you should see all elements within that range. (at least it works that way for horizontal sections, so it should work similarly for top view sections)

+100 (original request and shell command)

+1 from me too, though I don't use fractions all the time the behaviour should be consistent across all texts. Maybe an option to toggle auto-stacking would be nice too if you have a lot of fractions in regular text.

Yes, it would be useful to have e.g. push buttons for the class/layer visibility etc. , though the number of possible combinations may make it a bit unwieldy to see the settings at a glance.

Jim, Would it be possible to have Vectorworks only render those items in a viewport if lighting is not needed or important (e.g. hidden line render, 2D/planar section views etc). That would be an improvement already.

+10 support for this request Especially if you are creating documentation for reports in Vectorworks this would a very welcome improvement.

+100 Recently I have run into this thing becoming a major annoyance when updating EAP objects, it being converted to NURBS curves made it more difficult than it should have been.

+10 Edges and surfaces should be better snappable and selectable for EAP objects than they are now. I.e. it should become more predictable as well, not just limited to vertices.

Yes, shift+marquee works provided you hold down shift first before you start the marquee when you are above a filled (background) object. It will also work with selecting objects hidden by another object if they are smaller than the overlapping filled object. Without such a background you can hold shift after starting the marquee and it would also work. It's something that still escapes my attention once in a while if the background is almost the same colour as the window background and then wonder why the objects didn't get selected.

How about both? :-)