Picket Fence Tool

[The Hamma]

Updated 07-17-2023:

 

One of the rails was not using the class attributes.  This error has been corrected.  If you downloaded it prior please download it again.  Only "Picket Fence.vso" has changed. 

 

 

Attached is a Picket Fence Tool that I created for Vectorworks.  

Read the readme files for placing the files in the correct location.  

 

Most variables are controled by the picket record which is attached to the picket symbol and the post record that is attached to the post.

 

important: it only reads the record that is attached to the symbol as it appears in the resource manager. It does not read the record of symbol as it appears in the drawing.

 

You can edit those records from the Resource Manger or by going into the symbol to edit it.  
Note that you must not have anything selected to edit the record when inside the symbol. 

 

Picket appearance is controlled by class settings L-FENC-PCKT
Post appearance is controlled by class settings L-FENC-POST

 

Plug-in has no warranty use at your own risk. 
David Hamer 2023-07-12

 

1. When adding new picket and post styles I recommend duplicating a similar symbol. 
2. Edge pickets are centered on the back edge of the picket where centered pickets are centered on the center of the picket. 
3. The post symbol is declared by the picket record. 
4. Post symbols can be modified to extend below the ground plane if needed to be. 

 

Picket record 

 

Post Record

 

Wood picket fences

 

Metal Picket fences

 

Chain Link Fences

 

 

 

 

 

Pickets Fence V2023 V2.zip

Edited July 17, 2023 by The Hamma

[Tom W.]

Before I even look at the Picket Fence tool can I just say you deserve an award for creating a 'Delete DataVis Legend' script? 😃

[Tom W.]

@The Hamma this looks amazing thank you for sharing but I'm getting weird things going on when I change the document units to millimetres which I don't seem to be able to correct... 

 

[The Hamma]

6 hours ago, Tom W. said:

I'm getting weird things going on when I change the document units to millimetres which I don't seem to be able to correct... 

It appears that the records in the symbols are not converting the units correctly when the drawing is converted to mm.  I have to multiply every unit by 304.8 which is feet to mm factor.  Let me see what I can do.  

[The Hamma]

@Tom W. It appears to be a bug with Vectorworks.  But for the meantime you can replace the Picket and Post file with the attached MM converted one attached. 

Pickets and Posts MM.vwx

[Tom W.]

That's great thanks v much I will have a play with it

[The Hamma]

Until the bug is corrected I have attached the unit coverted files in case anyone else uses other unit standards. 

Pickets and Posts Yards cm.vwx Pickets and Posts Yards km.vwx Pickets and Posts Yards Meters.vwx Pickets and Posts Yards Microns.vwx Pickets and Posts Miles.vwx Pickets and Posts MM.vwx

Pickets and Posts Inch.vwx

Edited July 14, 2023 by The Hamma

[The Hamma]

On 7/13/2023 at 12:43 PM, The Hamma said:

Updated 07-17-2023:

 

One of the rails was not using the class attributes.  This error has been corrected.  If you downloaded it prior please download it again.  Only "Picket Fence.vso" has changed. 

 

[Monadnoc]

Will this work on VW 2017 by any chance?

(I know, it's old and outdated... but I'm retired now, so I'm old and outdated too...)

Edited July 17, 2023 by Monadnoc

[The Hamma]

1 hour ago, Monadnoc said:

Will this work on VW 2017 by any chance?

 It did have a command that was new and did not work but it was not necessary for the fence to work.  It also appears that 2017 is plagued with the same document units bug that affects 2023.  This file works in 2017 but it set to use "Feet" or "Feet and Inches".   If you change the document units the fence will create the wrong number of pickets.  If you use another Document Unit let me know and I can convert one of the "picket and post" files above to 2017.

 

Pickets Fence V2017 V2.zip

[Monadnoc]

Thanks I will give it a try. I'm a Feet and Inches man myself, so that shouldn't be a problem at all.

[Amanda McDermott]

Haven't currently got a need for this, but thanks for sharing, looks useful!

[Maury Jensen]

This picket fence tool is really great!  I've modified some of the post symbols to make event site temporary fencing posts with bases. 

 

 What I need now is to report the total linear feet of fencing on my drawing.  I found the "Line length" parameter in the Picket Fence record and that is returning the length of each fence section I've drawn, but it is also returning a ton of 0" results in the worksheet database.  I summed the items to get it down to one 0" entry, but I need it to not show that on my drawing.  In fact, I only need to show the total length of all the fences.  I don't really understand where the 0" results are coming from either making this tougher to troubleshoot. 

 

Related: I don't see a line length (aka fence length) parameter for the standard VW fence tool at all, how can this be?   

 

I attached the file I'm using to test out this worksheet.

 

Any insights greatly appreciated!  

 

Thanks again for the great tool! 

 

 

Worksheet to get line length of fence.vwx

[Tom W.]

17 minutes ago, Maury Jensen said:

Related: I don't see a line length (aka fence length) parameter for the standard VW fence tool at all

 

See: