Doors and Windows not Creating Holes in Walls

Anelisa · October 26, 2022

Hi!

I had created a model with windows and doors and it looked all fine. As soon as I section viewported this in order to draft on a sheet later, I have this situation.

I have tried re-drawing and I keep getting this issue. I'm not understanding why this is happening.

I am using Vectorworks Design 2023 trial with MacOS Monterey Version 12.3.1

Please help!

Pat Stanford · October 26, 2022

First thing I would check is that you have not accidentally duplicated the walls in place so that the door/windows are properly inserted into a wall, but the second wall is blocking them. From a plan view, hold down the Option Key and drag a marquee across one of the problematic walls. The OIP should say Wall. If it says 2 walls (or more) then that is probably. the problem.

If one does not fix the problem, then second, select one of the doors or windows and look at what it says in the OIP. Does it say Door in Wall or just Door? If it says just door, then the door has somehow gotten removed from the wall. Grab the wall and pull it away from the wall. Then grab it again by a part that will be between the wall lines and drag it back in. The tip of the cursor arrow has to be inside the wall for the object to be inserted. If you grab the door swing and drag that a door will pop out of the wall because the cursor is outside the wall lines.

If neither of these solved the problem, then post the file, or at least copy and past a few of the problem doors/windows/walls into a new file and post that so we can take a look.

Anelisa · January 25

This has been happening again to me in various projects! I really I am not understanding why this is happening. It looks like a glitch to me. I'm noticing the wall also gets broken up weird. It is part of the gig that things tend to move around and it is frustrating that sometimes when I move doors and windows this keeps happening. I've double checked object info and it appears 'door on wall' or 'window on wall'. I am also making sure that the wall is not duplicated. I've attached a file with an example here.

Thanks so much in advance.

481259182_DoorsandWindowsIssue.vwx

Pat Stanford · January 25

@Matt Panzer What is the current status of this issue? I am seeing it in SP3 684278.

1. I definitely see the problem in the file you attached.

2. There seem to be several thread that talk about similar issues.

3. What Service Pack are you running? If you are not on SP3, I recommend you update before doing anything else.

4. This one seems to be Wall Closure related. Selecting, the Door, a Window, or the Wall and choosing Wall Closure in the OIP and just clicking OK to keep the current standard seems to clear the problem.

5. I would try using Custom Modification set to an Object Type of Wall. From there you can click the Wall Closure at Inserts button, click ok to close that dialog and click OK to close the Custom Modification dialog box and it should apply to all of the walls in your file at once.

6. I have no ideas if this is a long term solution or just a one-off lucky guess.

Good Luck.

rDesign · January 26

I've just had this happen again to me, now with SP3. @Matt Panzer to echo @Pat Stanford, what's the status of this bug? This is one that really makes me want to throw my computer and Vectorworks out the window and go back to pencil & paper.

I tried Pat's suggestion about it being Wall Closure related. I did not have Wall Closures activated with my Window Style (so Window Closure was greyed out on the OIP), so I activated it. Selected the Window, clicked the Wall Closure button on the OIP, and no luck -- none of the Doors and Windows are cutting the walls.

Arrggghhh.... this bug is really killing my productivity.

EDIT: I just sent in a Premium Tech support request via email (case number: 00286919).

EDIT #2: I was able to get the windows to re-cut the window openings by selecting one of the windows and Setting its position on the OIP, not moving it. Still need to get this bug fixed...

Edited January 26 by rDesign

AlanW · January 26

@Anelisai i find this sometimes, if you double click on the window in 3D and then close the dialogue the window corrects itself.

It regenerates the script as i understand.

If you set the selection tool to object type and select all the windows and doors then in settings set open in 3d and all the windows should go into the walls. then set to closed in 3d again and all should be good. HTH

Also i notice the wall becomes one and not all sections.

Edited January 26 by AlanW

rDesign · January 26

Whenever you open a .VWX file, among the steps that VW tells you it is doing while you're waiting for the file to open is 'Updating Walls...'

Why doesn't this 'Updating Walls...' process regenerate the wall openings? It seems like it should.

E|FA · January 26

Another @Matt Panzer trick to try when having door or window problems is to move them (0,0). It often works, and while not a long term solution it does let you get back to work.

rDesign · January 26

@E|FA - Thanks. Yeah, I've tried the move 0,0 trick again - and this time it didn't work.

I had the file working again this morning by Setting Position, but now it's broken again. I've tried all the previously mentioned tricks: Flipping the Doors / Windows, clicking Settings and then cancel, setting Position, etc: Nothing is fixing it.

Off to try the Vw2023 Updater -> Advanced Options -> Repair Installation and see if that fixes anything. I ran it twice yesterday.

It lasted all of two hours before it broke itself again when I was changing component heights on a Wall (which did not have any Doors or Windows).

Still waiting on a response from Premium Tech support, I'd be happy to send them a file.

Edited January 26 by rDesign

Anelisa · January 26

Thank you for your suggestions but I'm still having this issue. Vectorworks please fix this. This is really killing my productivity and affecting my job. I guess I will have to switch to sketchup and start over

Edited January 26 by Anelisa

rDesign · January 26

@Anelisa - I feel your pain. Vw really does need to fix this bug ASAP.

It will probably be a short-lived fix, but I was able to get my windows and doors to cut my walls again by first running the Vw2023 Updater -> Advanced Options -> Repair Installation. Then I opened Vw, opened the problematic file selected one of the Windows, and on the OIP clicked 'Show 3D Open'. It then 'fixed' all of the windows in that Wall. You probably could fix them en masse by using the Select Similar tool as suggested by @AlanW above.

We'll see how long my windows stayed fixed...

rDesign · January 27

22 hours ago, Anelisa said:

Thank you for your suggestions but I'm still having this issue. Vectorworks please fix this. This is really killing my productivity and affecting my job. I guess I will have to switch to sketchup and start over

I heard back from @Rob Nykolaishen about my filed bug report and he suggested that if you are experiencing this issue, to go to Tools > Utilities > Reset all Plug-Ins.

After I ran this command, the doors and windows properly cut the walls again.

E|FA · January 27

34 minutes ago, rDesign said:

go to Tools > Utilities > Reset all Plug-Ins.

@Rob Nykolaishen Are there any downsides to doing this? Does it reset preferences? Other?

Edited January 27 by E|FA

Matt Panzer · January 27

@Anelisa, et al,

Apologies for the delay in my reply. I just got back from a trip to Asia and now playing catchup while adjusting to the 12 hr time difference. 😵‍💫

Thank you for attaching that file! That file seems different than others I've seen in that resetting the wall (by moving it by (0,0) does not fix the issue. I examined the wall hole geometry for the door and window inserts to make sure they existed and they do. So the wall somehow is not seeing that geometry. This may help us shed more light on the root of the problem. I passed this on to the engineer and he's examining it.

We're taking this issue very seriously. Unfortunately, we have still not been able to come up with a reproducible case. However, I will do everything in my power to get to the bottom of this one ASAP. Hopefully this new file will provide the missing key.

If anyone has steps to reproduce this issue, please let me know. What we're looking for is a file with doors/windows in a wall showing their holes correctly and a series of steps that causes the holes to go away. Having this should get us to the root of the problem very quickly.

rDesign · January 28

Update to my previous post -- I just had this happen again, and this time running the command Tools > Utilities > Reset all Plug-Ins did NOT fix the window openings. The other suggested means to fix it did not work either. See attached file.

Back to the drawing board...

bad-window-test.vwx

Pat Stanford · January 28

I just opened your file in VW2023 SP3. I see the bad door and window.

I run the Update All Plug-ins. Problem gone.

Undo

Move(0,0). Problem gone.

Undo

Selected Wall, clicked Wall Closures at Insets. Problem gone.

Undo

Selected the Window. Changed to Full Break with cape. Problem gone. Changes back to without caps. Still fixed.

Undo

Change anything in the OIP. Problem gone.

I have no idea what is going on with this or why the update problem did not solve it for you.

As Matt said above get them a replicable case and they will fix it as fast as possible. 🤷‍♂️

rDesign · January 28

@Pat Stanford - thank you for taking a look at it. That's very strange...

I reopened that same test file, and tried all of the solutions that worked for you: None of them worked for me.

Edited January 28 by rDesign

AlanW · January 28

@Rdesign2000hi i have provide an issue to VW with a similar to this where wall breaks were causing a problem. if you delete the wall vent that has a wall break attached the windows fit to walls.

rDesign · January 28

@AlanW - thanks also for taking a look at this. Unfortunately, deleting the wall vent symbol didn't fix it for me. The door and window still don't cut the wall for me in that file. Maybe it's something with my Vw installation. I repaired it using the Updater this morning.

rDesign · January 28

I just restarted my computer, ran the Vw 2023 Updater > Repair (it repaired 63 files), and opened that test file and ran Tools > Utilities > Reset all Plug-Ins: Now the windows & doors are cutting the openings again, so something was repaired by the Updater Repair.

Matt Panzer · January 28

@rDesign, @Pat Stanford, @AlanW, Thank you all for looking at this and providing the file and/or testing results. Every bit of information we can get is helpful.

@rDesign, I also opened your file and reset the PIOs and/or wall and the problem went away. I wonder what happened to your install that caused these problems! I'll relay this information to the engineer. If it happens again, please let me know. I'm thinking there may be a way to compare your install at the time the issue surfaces to the install after it's repaired (and working correctly). This would probably require you to zip your Vectorworks application folder before and again after it's repaired.

Matt Panzer · January 28

28 minutes ago, rDesign said:

(it repaired 63 files)...

Dis it say which files it repaired?

rDesign · January 28

1 hour ago, Matt Panzer said:

Dis it say which files it repaired?

Unfortunately, no it did not say which files it repaired. That would be too easy.

Do you know if the Vw 2023 Updater application keeps a log in the macOS Console of what files it repairs?

Edited January 28 by rDesign

rDesign · January 28

1 hour ago, Matt Panzer said:

If it happens again, please let me know. I'm thinking there may be a way to compare your install at the time the issue surfaces to the install after it's repaired (and working correctly). This would probably require you to zip your Vectorworks application folder before and again after it's repaired.

I will certainly let you know when it happens again. This week, as I’ve been working on Window and Wall Objects it’s been happening at least 1x per day. Today was 2x.

If it would help resolve this issue, I’d be more than happy to ZIP my Vw Application folder before and after and send it in for review.

Edited January 28 by rDesign

zoomer · January 28

6 hours ago, rDesign said:

Unfortunately, no it did not say which files it repaired.

For me it repaired 57 Files.

But I think that is the about usual number that VW always repairs,

even if you re-run Updater/Repair in a row (?)

AFAIR, someone wrote about having repaired a 4 digit number of files.

That is a "Repair"

🙂

Edited January 28 by zoomer

Tom W. · January 28

3 minutes ago, zoomer said:

AFAIR, someone wrote about having repaired a 4 digit number of files.

Funny thing is VW was perfectly happy operating with 13K-worth repairs needing carrying out. I only ran the function out of habit not because I was experiencing any issues...

Doors and Windows not Creating Holes in Walls

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