AStein Posted October 17, 2023 Share Posted October 17, 2023 So, I'm still very bummed that the new hoists are so... not good... But I can't keep using the legacy hoists because they're slow and non-riggers never use them... Anyway, My current gripe is that I can't figure out how to change the maximum chain length. I have to be pretty clever about how I move these things around or it throws hanging positions and hook heights around. I've tried attaching hoist data records and modifying that (as I saw suggested in another thread), but that only changed the data record, not the useability of the hoist symbol itself. Any ideas? Vectorworks people: I would LOVE to spend a little time on the phone with someone to help you design a useful hoist symbol. I'm not sure where the disconnect is here but, to a person, I do not know a single production rigger who likes this thing. Please let me or somebody help you out here. The only reason I keep hearing about the "production Assistant" software is because we're desperate for something. I just spent the past few days wrestling with this and making workarounds for a tool that isn't nearly as complicated as many of the other wonderful and not broken tools in the VWX arsenal. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee JustinVH Posted October 17, 2023 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted October 17, 2023 Have you tried changing the ChainLength field in the HoistObjectData record of the symbol? I just did this in VW2024 and changed the max chain length to 40m and I was able to make the chains longer when I inserted the symbol using the high hook height in the OIP. When I tried to make the high hook height longer than the maximum chain length I received a dialog popup telling me that I will need to add a bridle. Keep in mind those lengths are in mm in the record. 1 Quote Link to comment
AStein Posted October 17, 2023 Author Share Posted October 17, 2023 I have, but there were a ton of those data records in my resources. I tried 5 of them (in mm of course) to no avail. Maybe I need to attach all of them, see which one works and tag it somehow? I wonder if a data tag will talk to the object as a workaround? I could give that a try... But wow these are broken... Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Scott C. Parker Posted October 18, 2023 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted October 18, 2023 2 hours ago, AStein said: I tried 5 of them (in mm of course) to no avail. What were the steps you did when trying to change the length? To change a symbol's default, you'll need to right-click it in the resource manager and choose the Attach Record option. Find the hoist record and edit the record. Save, and you should be good to go. I entered 30000mm for one as a test, which worked as expected. Once I changed the max, I could enter the 80' chain length shown in my screenshot. 1 Quote Link to comment
AStein Posted October 18, 2023 Author Share Posted October 18, 2023 That did it, thank you Scott. I was trying to attach a record over in the data pallet, but it looks like every hoist object has this record already attached, so no wonder it did nothing when I was attaching random others. Your walkthrough above got me there. I'm having trouble understanding how some data records can be referenced by symbols and "live" inside those symbols while others just seem to ride on the symbols, but not be able to talk to them... Maybe that's for future me... While I have you... I'm wondering if there's some kind of way to attach data tags to hoist symbols by default? Not a huge deal because the option to tag all eligible objects is powerful, but it would be nice if I could set a few tags ahead of time. Thanks for your time. Quote Link to comment
BRSebbe Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 On 10/18/2023 at 4:40 AM, Scott C. Parker said: What were the steps you did when trying to change the length? To change a symbol's default, you'll need to right-click it in the resource manager and choose the Attach Record option. Find the hoist record and edit the record. Save, and you should be good to go. I entered 30000mm for one as a test, which worked as expected. Once I changed the max, I could enter the 80' chain length shown in my screenshot. Has there been a recent update that removes this way of doing it? I work with several different suppliers, all of whom have different hoists and lengths of chain, im trying to find a quick way to either make symbols for each company, or make some attachable records to use. The way discussed here seems good, although i cannot seem to be able to do it! When i right click a symbol in the resource manager all i get is this Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee JustinVH Posted February 26 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted February 26 @BRSebbeYou need to have the symbol downloaded into your document before you can access any of the symbol edit commands. It does not need to be inserted into your drawing, but it does need to be in the Resource Manager of your working document, not on the cloud. Quote Link to comment
BRSebbe Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 On 2/26/2024 at 2:55 PM, JustinVH said: @BRSebbeYou need to have the symbol downloaded into your document before you can access any of the symbol edit commands. It does not need to be inserted into your drawing, but it does need to be in the Resource Manager of your working document, not on the cloud. Ah, that does it. Thank you. Quote Link to comment
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