Ability to lock plan rotation

[Christiaan]

Edit: I've posted a different solution to this problem here (suggested by somebody on the VW team), which I think is an eloquent solution, more likely to be implemented and more easily implemented:

https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/112096-topplan-shortcut-should-take-us-to-rotated-topplan-before-topplan/

 

---

 

I want to be able to lock Plan Rotation.

 

Crucially, when locked, Top/Plan View would obey the rotation and not unrotate the plan.

 

This could be done by providing a checkbox next to the Plan Rotation field in the Viewbar, providing a quick and visible way to toggle it on and off. Or it could simply take over from the current behaviour, which is when you click on the Plan Rotation icon in the Viewbar it deactivates the field, a soft lock.

 

Nothing would unrotate the plan, unless you toggle off the lock.

 

Reason:

My favourite way to set up projects is to orient everything to real-world coordinates so that you never have to rotate anything when referencing or copying and pasting across files. It saves time for those working on the project and avoids placement errors.

 

But there have been a few sources of friction that make this way of working a bit tedious. Some of those things are bugs, some of which have gone away (e.g. editing a Space used to unrotate the plan), some which haven't gone away (e.g. Interior Elevations get distributed very badly on Sheet Layers) but the biggest source of friction is that Top/Plan View unrotates the view.

 

A rotation lock toggle would make working in rotated plan view seamless.

[Christiaan]

There is this option, but I'm still trying train myself to do it:

 

[demetris ktorides]

Such a great idea! 

 

Struggled with this myself, every time I wanted to retain the true orientation of the project.  Essentially we need an intuitive and easy way to jump between 'project north' and 'true north' - unless there is, and I haven't managed to understand it yet. 

 

The plan rotation works great as a tool - but yes! it totally needs the ability to get locked!

 

Hope this gets implemented soon. 

[Christiaan]

A little bird at Vectorworks ran a great idea past me that might just work, which is to make CMD-5 a conditional command: if you're in a rotated view tapping CMD-5 would take you to Rotated Top/Plan, and if you want to go to Top/Plan (unrotated) you just tap CMD-5 again.

 

[Pat Stanford]

Would this apply to the Zero key on the number pad as well?  It should.

[Elite Exhibits]

@Christiaan - Just commented on the aggravations Rotated Plan is, with our Workflow, in your Working Plane Views mode post

 

We don't NOT rotate the plan, yet VW assumes that we have and it makes for added effort to use a Work Around when Standard Views do not act like Standard View

 

A LOCK would be great - We would want it to be in the Rotated Plan Off position

 

Peter

[Christiaan]

16 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

Would this apply to the Zero key on the number pad as well?  It should.

ah huh! Is this a trick question? I see the zero key works in exactly this way (single tap for Rotated Plan, double-tap to go to Top Plan). CMD-5 should work this way too.

[Pat Stanford]

Not intended as a trick question.  I rarely (as in never. not needed for what I normally work on) use rotated plan unless I am demoing it for someone. So If Zero already does this great. I just wanted to make sure that the performance was the same between the two primary keyboard shortcuts to get to Top/Plan. I have VW locked up on something else right now so I can't test at this moment.

 

[Tom W.]

43 minutes ago, Christiaan said:

I see the zero key works in exactly this way (single tap for Rotated Plan, double-tap to go to Top Plan). 

 

As discussed in the other thread:

 

[Christiaan]

I think it makes a lot of sense for CMD-5 and 0 to work in exactly the same way. Same command, different sides of the keyboard.

[shorter]

Use a saved view.  Simple.

 

[Christiaan]

1 hour ago, shorter said:

Use a saved view.  Simple.

 

That's what I do now but this doesn't solve the problem of CMD-5 unrotating the view.

 

Changing CMD-5 behaviour to go first to Rotated Top/Plan before Top/Plan (like the 0 key on the numeric keypad) would solve the problem.

[Christiaan]

I've posted a separate solution to this problem here, which I think is far more likely to be implemented:

 

[shorter]

Cmd - 5 is the most secure way of returning to unrotated view.

 

Rotated views should always be defined as the option, imho.

 

Being able to assign shortcuts to saved views... now that would be useful...  where have i hear that before?

[Christiaan]

1 hour ago, shorter said:

Cmd - 5 is the most secure way of returning to unrotated view.

 

Rotated views should always be defined as the option, imho.

For CMD-5 to take you to Rotated Top/Plan you would already need to be in a rotated view. Tap CMD-5 when Plan Rotation is at zero degrees and you go straight to Top/Plan. If you're in a rotated view and want to go to unrotated Top/Plan, then you just tap CMD-5 twice. It couldn't make more sense.

[Elite Exhibits]

On 11/6/2023 at 7:53 AM, shorter said:

Being able to assign shortcuts to saved views... now that would be useful.

@shorter

 

This script should work ...

 

VRestore('111');

 

It brings up the Saved View 111

 

Peter

 

 

Edited November 7, 2023 by Elite Exhibits
added FORUM URL

[shorter]

18 hours ago, Elite Exhibits said:

@shorter

 

This script should work ...

 

VRestore('111');

 

It brings up the Saved View 111

 

Peter

 

 

 

@Christiaan Create the plugin.  Create the rotate view.  Call it 'Project North' or 'True North' depending if you are rotating to for from Trye North, and give it the command option cmd 5...

 

VRestore('Project North');

 

Couldn't be easier.

[shorter]

But... it would not 'lock' the rotation, which was your initial request.

[Christiaan]

On 11/8/2023 at 11:53 AM, shorter said:

 

@Christiaan Create the plugin.  Create the rotate view.  Call it 'Project North' or 'True North' depending if you are rotating to for from Trye North, and give it the command option cmd 5...

 

VRestore('Project North');

 

Couldn't be easier.

But then I can't use CMD-5 to get to Top/Plan, which is the beauty of this solution:

 

[shorter]

Well, I will look forward to your solution in 2035.

 

For now, we set up saved views, and create a plugin that we give the short cut 'option cmd 5'.  We then use 'cmd 5' for top/plan.

 

#fedupwaiting

[Christiaan]

Ha, yeah, thanks for the tips. In the mean time I will try to push for CMD-5 to work like the numeric pad zero key before 2035!

[Kyle Sutton]

The version of this request linked to above will be implemented for Vectorworks 2024 Update 4.

[Christiaan]

That's gotta be a speed record! Thanks Kyle!

[Elite Exhibits]

@Kyle Sutton So my question in this thread... (Ability to lock plan rotation)

 

How do we keep Rotated Plan from happening at all? 

     We would like to Lock the Plan Rotation at Zero

ie: We want Standard Views to always show the view in real world terms

    Top Plan is Top Pan - NOT rotated  / Custom / etcetera

 

 

Any advice is appreciated

 

Peter

[shorter]

7 hours ago, Elite Exhibits said:

@Kyle Sutton So my question in this thread... (Ability to lock plan rotation)

 

How do we keep Rotated Plan from happening at all? 

     We would like to Lock the Plan Rotation at Zero

ie: We want Standard Views to always show the view in real world terms

    Top Plan is Top Pan - NOT rotated  / Custom / etcetera

 

 

Any advice is appreciated

 

Peter

 Use fundamentals! 😂