Import workspace

[Stefan B.]

Hey,

 

So I've reinstalled Vectorworks, and before this exported my customized workspace via the dialog box "Tools>Workspaces>Workspaces...>Export. This exported a .txt file. How do I "import" this text file to my new installation? Or how is this text file used?

[Tom W.]

I'm pretty sure the text file is just for reference + can't be imported as such but I'd love to be wrong on that... I don't find it enormously useful to be honest. I keep screenshots of my workspace as well + find these more useful when it comes to recreating it. 

[Stefan B.]

Thank you for your reply.

 

For reference? I don't understand, so I can read the txt file and "see" my old settings, and manually set it up? I do really hope you are wrong!

[Tom W.]

2 minutes ago, Stefan B. said:

so I can read the txt file and "see" my old settings, and manually set it up?

 

Yes I think it just gives you a written record to refer back to when you manually recreate the workspace...

[zoomer]

Before adding my customizations,

I create Workspaces as a Duplicate, based of an existing VW Workspace.

 

If you save a copy, that Workspace will be saved in your User Folder

(e.g. on Mac : /Users/UserName/Library/Application Support/Vectorworks/2023/workspaces)

as a *.VWX file !

 

You can copy or backup these if you want.

 

Also you can just copy these over to another "same-year" VW Version.

You can even copy it over from Mac to PC and vice versa.

 

Or if you still have an older VW installation, you could start the Migration Manager

and import/migrate your old custom Workspace and its settings.

 

I had expected that Export Workspace would exactly do that .... export

a Workspace VWX.

OK, when you say just a TXT, OK.

As the Workspace VWX are non repairable and not to edit without the

workspace editor, it is at least a nice option to be able to read your

custom settings in text form.

[Tom W.]

5 minutes ago, zoomer said:

Or if you still have an older VW installation, you could start the Migration Manager

and import/migrate your old custom Workspace and its settings.

 

I thought the advice is to always rebuild your custom workspace from scratch each year rather than migrating it over (to exclude the risk of it becoming corrupted). It's a real pain to do but I was told it's not worth the risk...

[zoomer]

1 minute ago, Tom W. said:

I thought the advice is to always rebuild your custom workspace from scratch each year

 

 

You are totally right.

 

I had once a corrupt custom workspace in the past.

There is no way for you or even NNA to repair it in any way.

(But not sure if that was related to migration, as it happened

somewhen middle season)

 

It is just that I meanwhile put so much work into it that I am too lazy

to redo all that from scratch.

So since a few years I take the migration risk. Do some workspace

checking after and so far it worked.

 

If my workspace migration fails one day, I can (or have to) do it

again from scratch anyway.

 

At least I recreated my File Templates, in VW 2022 or so.

But also only about 75% from scratch ....

 

 

[E|FA]

6 hours ago, Tom W. said:

It's a real pain to do but I was told it's not worth the risk...

I learned this the hard way.  I wasted much more time than it would have taken to rebuild the Workspace fighting miscellaneous bugs that a corrupted Workspace generated. 

[Tom W.]

1 minute ago, E|FA said:

I learned this the hard way.  I wasted much more time than it would have taken to rebuild the Workspace fighting miscellaneous bugs that a corrupted Workspace generated. 

 

I will remember this when I'm doing it for VW2024 thank you! Do you recreate template files as well each time?

[E|FA]

17 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

Do you recreate template files as well each time?

I haven't been doing this.  Anyone else?

[zoomer]

33 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

Do you recreate template files as well each time?

 

 

No, not each time.

Every 5-10 years.

 

I had once a corrupt work file, that migrated a few VW Versions.

Someone from said the file originated from even a few versions earlier.

Sounded a bit like, so no wonder your file is corrupt ....

 

The original version of creation is listed on top of the VW file.

 

Must have been because of my file templates, which also migrate from

version to version.

So just as @E|FA, I redo my templates after a few years just to not

provoke issues and have a better feeling.

After 5 or more years you may also do a lot of changes and adaptions

to your templates to profit from newer VW features.

Like newer PIO Styles (Wall Closures ?) and such.

 

[Tom W.]

58 minutes ago, E|FA said:

I haven't been doing this.  Anyone else?

 

I was definitely advised very strongly to do it as a matter of course. So if something does go wrong, troubleshooting is easier as you can immediately discount the template files + concentrate the search elsewhere...

 

34 minutes ago, zoomer said:

just to not

provoke issues and have a better feeling.

 

😁

[Jeremy Best]

If you learn a little bit about data corruption you can more easily understand how to avoid, prepare for and account for them. The Wikipedia page on data corruption is a good place to start. An analysis of file storage servers revealed 1/1500 files are corrupt at any one time. It's not the same but my experience suggests it is fair to conflate this statistic to loosely mean, '1 in every 1500 file-save operations will create a corruption.' Or '1 in every 1500 file-transmissions (to/from a cloud storage service or through a file transfer service) will create a corruption,' although in reality, these will probably have very different rates of data integrity.

 

Operating systems move file data around on your hard drive as part of its autonomous 'house-cleaning' processes. These count as file-save events that might incur a corruption. So you can appreciate that the longer you have a file around [in an active storage device], or the more times it is re-saved, the greater the chances it will incur a corruption. 

 

If you want to maintain a file (of any kind) over time, make a copy on stable storage media that will be predominantly disconnected from your computer. Some storage media maintains its integrity longer than others. There are dedicated products that meet this need, but a quality USB stick might be good enough 🤷‍♂️. 

 

Regarding Workspace files (.vww) specifically, my advice has largely been based on the fact that migrating them forward into a new version has [historically] meant that new tools and menu commands don't appear in the user interface where they are intended to be and will remain unseen by the user. Rebuilding your Workspace each version provides at least the opportunity to discover the new tools and commands, but really, all users should be reviewing the 'New Features' section of the Vectorworks Help manual when a new version is released.