Two Questions about setting up Graphic Legends / Worksheets

[cberg]

I am trying to set up a graphic legend for my wall types.  I understand that the default legend counts walls that have been assigned a wall style.  I would like to set up a graphic legend that identifies walls with a certain mark.  Or maybe even only walls that have a mark.    Why do walls not show up in the "Field Value" list of options? 

 

 

 

My second question has to do with counting objects on layers.  From the pulldown menus, the defining Criteria can only be "All" or "Any" ;  "Is" or "Is Not"   If I wanted to count something in two Layers, is there a way to say, only look for objects on this and that layer?  One way to get around it is to exclude all the other layers, but that is cumbersome.  I'm not super code-y.  So maybe I am not thinking about things the right way.

 

 

 

 

[Pat Stanford]

Answering the simpler, second question first.

 

The ANY and ALL make sub-groups in the logic. Notice that items under the ALL in your screen shot are indented. You can use the ADD button to add a ANY/ALL just like you can to add a different criteria. And then you can drag them up/down to get what you want.

 

After the ANY and ALL groups are calculated, the group results are then ANDed together to get the final output.

 

So something that looks like:

 

ANY

    Layer is Layer-1

    Layer is Layer-2

ALL

   Class is Dimension

 

Would be equivalent to:

 

(Layer is (Layer-1 OR Layer-2)) & (Class is Dimension)

 

In English this is  Everything on Layer-1 or Layer-2 and whose Class is Dimension.

 

Ask again if this is not clear enough.

 

HTH

 

[cberg]

That makes sense.  Maybe where I am getting stuck is figuring out how to "un-indent" the criteria.  I can't add the "And" that you mention above. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pat Stanford]

You can change any (not a pun) of the criteria lines into an ANY or ALL line. Just click in the criteria column and choose it from the top of the list even though it is in the grey area.

 

Hopefully this movie will help.

 

 

 

[cberg]

Thank you for your patience, Pat.  Your video is super helpful.  I have two more questions. 

 

 

1.  Why would doors show up from layers that are not in the above set?  Doors are coming into my worksheet from a layer that is is not specified...

 

 

 

 

2.  Why would my worksheet include 1082 blank cells.  By the logic above I would imagine that we would be reducing the number of objects in the selection set.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe this is just what I am used to, but the old way of making this felt a little more intuitive.  It was also much simpler.

 

 

Edited January 27, 2023 by cberg

[Pat Stanford]

Notice the ALL Criteria is indented making it a part of the upper ANY criteria. So it is saying return Anything that is on Layer 1 OR Layer 2 OR is a Door AND On Schedule.

 

You need to have both the ANY and ALL at the same indent. I think you need to have an extra ANY or ALL as a wrapper to do this.

 

 

So this one is saying return ANY object and Layer 1 OR Layer 2 AND has a Type of Door AND is On Schedule.

 

Those last two are actually a little duplicative.  Since the On Schedule Field is part of the Door Record, it will will not exist for anything that is not a door.

 

But there is really nothing wrong with listing them both. It might make later troubleshooting easier since the Window object also has an On Schedule field.

 

Hope this is enough to get you what you need.

[cberg]

Thanks! I will have to look at your video again and see how you unindent. The graphic interface is a little counterintuitive.

 

C

[Pat Stanford]

I didn't un-indent in the video. I went back and redid it to get the latest screen shot.

 

The criteria builder is better than it was in 2020, but could still be better.  😞

 

[cberg]

Thank you so much.  I finally see how it works.

C. 

 

 

[Pat Stanford]

And now back to your first question that took more research.

 

You can't access Wall from the Record/Field pull down because a Wall is a Vectorworks Primitive, not a Plug-In Object and therefore it does not have a Plug-In Record.

 

You can attach a custom record or use an IFC record and then use that as part of the criteria. And (I think) you can use the Data Manager to automatically transfer a value from the Door information into either the IFC or custom record format so you can access them in the criteria builder.

 

That is about all I know about it at this time.

 

Good luck.

[cberg]

Thanks Pat!

 

I was able to find a workaround.  I appreciate your sleuthing! 

 

I wonder if VW is "modernizing" the wall tool and at some point it will have Plug-In Record data.  A quick look reveals that slabs have record data.  Roof / Roof Faces do not.  In terms of its taxonomy, what exactly is a Vectorworks Primitive? 

 

(Some days, primitive is my preferred adjective for the wall tool. 😄)

 

 

[Pat Stanford]

"Primitive" is my term. I don't know what VW refers to them as.

 

Basically there are a few objects that seem to be hard coded into the core of VW and these objects support the ability to build higher level objects on top of them.

 

So to me, Walls, Roofs, Dimensions, Circle, Arc, Rectangle, Polygon, Polyline, Solid Addiiton/Subtraction/Intersection, NURBS, etc. are all primative objects. Unless there have been specific Vectorscript functions or Worksheet functions made available to access these objects there is very little you can do to them outside of the standard tools and menu commands.

 

Other higher level objects are Record/Style based (Door, Windows, Slabs, etc). These are much easier to manipulate via script because you can usually access even more through a script than you can via the menus and tools.

 

HTH