Wish there was a command to create a viewport on a sheet from every design layer in a file...

[shorter]

Having just received an abundance of survey files (I am sure there is probably a more appropriate collective noun) all issued as modelspace data, I now have the task of 'plating' up, and creating a sheet for each layer, with a viewport at an specific scale.

 

We have had 'model setup' etc in the past, and we have 'create multiple viepworts, which automated certain processes, but it seems an obvious one is 'create drawing(s) from design layer(s)'.

[markdd]

A quick workaround would be to create one viewport on a single sheet and then duplicate the sheet as many times as you need.

 

Then use the Visibilities section of the Organisation Dialog to sift through them one by one and turn on a Layer per Viewport. this section of the Organisation dialog is very powerful and you can get loads done very quickly if you know what you want to do (which you clearly do!)

 

Just a thought...

[shorter]

Indeed, and I would, except I am after a command to do the same, that takes me a second, and not half an hour.

 

This is the 'wishlist' section...?  Perhaps we should start up a 'Workaround' section! 😉

Edited September 8, 2022 by shorter

[Jesse Cogswell]

@shorter Here's a menu command that will do the trick.  It opens a dialog box allowing you to select Design Layers and specify a starting Sheet Number.  When you press OK, it will create a separate Sheet Layer for each selected Design Layer and a Viewport looking at only that Design Layer.  It uses the Design Layer's scale to set the Viewport scale, and uses the class visibilities as they are when the command is run.  The Sheet Layer and Viewport Drawing Title are named based on the target Design Layer, and the Viewport is named based on the standard VW VP naming (Drawing #/Sheet #).  There is an added option to center the created Viewports on the new Sheet Layers, otherwise they'll appear in relative space similar to when you just run the Create Viewport command.  The page setup for the Sheet Layer will be based on the current page setup options.  The Sheet Number will automatically increment around existing naming conflicts (IE if you specify starting sheet "A1" but a sheet A1 already exists, the resulting sheet will be changed to "A2").

 

 

To install this plug-in, follow the steps below:

 

1. Download the attached Sheet Layers from Layers.vsm file.
2. Open up your User Folder for your Vectorworks installation.  The easiest way to find this is to open the Vectorworks Preferences, navigate to the User Folder tab, and press Explore / Open in Finder.
3. In the resulting explorer/finder window, open up the Plug-ins folder.
4. Drag and drop the downloaded .vsm file into the Plug-ins folder.
5. Restart Vectorworks.

When Vectorworks starts up, it will see the new file and recognize the plug-in, but the command will still need to be added to the workspace.

 

1. Go to Tools - Workspaces - Edit Current Workspace
2. Select the Menus tab
3. In the box on the left, find and expand the category JNC
4. In the box on the right, find and expand a menu to place the command in (such as View)
5. Drag and drop the Sheet Layers from Layers command from the box on the left to the target menu on the right.
6. Press OK.

This command should work on any version of Vectorworks 2019 and newer.  Let me know if you see any unexpected behavior.

Sheet Layers from Layers.vsm

[shorter]

Thanks. Perhaps I wasn’t being clear. We have ways of doing this. What I’m asking for is for this functionality to make its way into vectorworks itself.

[Thomas K.]

hi
just stumbled in here as I am facing a similar question/task.

I have an imported ifc-file with about 800 ifc-space objects. these should each be placed as a separate viewport on a layout layer with matching scale to fill the sheet. these should be named to match the room number.

the selection of the rooms should run via attached database with an entry as criterion. 

the sheet format, the database and the entry of the criterion should be disbursable in a dialog.
has there ever been something like this or is my thinking too far away.

@Jesse Cogswell

[Jesse Cogswell]

Are you talking about the Space object or is the ifc-space object you mention different?  I do not have the full Designer suite, just Spotlight, so if it's a tool relegated to Architect or Designer, I won't be able to help you much.

 

That said, I can imagine a menu command that works very similar to this tool that builds Viewports from Saved Views. 

 

After running the command, you would be presented with a list browser window with all Space objects listed with columns like Space Number, Space Name, Layer, Destination Sheet Layer (with an option to create sheet layers with a dialog to set sheet size and naming rules), VP Scale, and VP Name (with an option to auto generate based on the Space Name and Number).  These columns would be sortable and there would be options to Select All, Select None, Invert Selection, etc.  Upon clicking OK, the tool would go through each selected Space and create a Viewport using the current layer / class visibilities.  These Viewports would use the Space's polygon as the crop object (with an option to include a "buffer" in case you wanted to extend the crop out a bit, but would still use the Space shape).

 

One tricky thing is fitting the Viewport to fill a sheet layer.  In past experiences with scripts generating Viewports, there's no way to ascertain the size of the complete Viewport until after the script completes, so it would have to be done as a separate command.  This command, called something like Fit Viewports to Sheet Layers, would launch a list browser of all Sheet Layer Viewports sorted by VP Name but also sortable by Sheet Layer and similar selection buttons as mentioned above.  When you click okay, it would determine the current VP size, the sheet layer size, and scale the VP to fit.  If you wanted to find a scale from the more common scales, I would have to write a little bit to determine the largest possible scale while fitting on the Sheet Layer, and you would have to make a choice whether to use engineering or architectural scales.

 

All of that is very doable, but I won't have time to actually work on it until mid-September.

[Thomas K.]

Hi

 

sorry for mixing up and not being exact.

 

What i am talking about is the space object that could be generated out of spotlight and of course with a lot more options out of the design suite. 

 Both of them show the default ifcspace database. 

Via the data manger an extra database could be attached to mark the spaces to work with. Or pushing them into an extra class.

 

Fitting the viewport with a "buffer" to the object sounds good.

 

Placing a title block on the sheet layer (with a choice option upfront) really helps.

 

Have you ever seen this marionette script attached? Have a look at the comments. It comes close.