Go away – Component Edit palette!

[Kaare Baekgaard]

Why is the Component Edit palette/Bar the only one, that I cannot make disappear – when it is also the only one, that I am never ever going to use?

 

There is this menu item called Palettes, where every other palettes can be turned on and off. Please include the Component edit palette in this menu.

 

Be gone Component Edit Palette – and good riddance.

[Tom W.]

How is it that you never use it? You are editing symbols but never need to change component or make 3D visible or change detail level etc?

[EAlexander]

I agree - I have never in 10+ years used this and just want it to go away.

[mjm]

Sooner rather than later would be good

[MGuilfoile]

I agree. It serves no purpose and it always covers exactly the area I need to get to on my screen. I was interested in what it is supposed to do, so I did click on it a few times, but it didn't do anything useful. I feel it needs to go.

 

MH Brown

[Jesse Cogswell]

Whoa!  I use this all the time to bounce back and forth between the 2D and 3D components of hybrid symbols and personally love that I can go back and forth without leaving the edit container.  I guess if you either only draft in 2D or 3D it could annoy you and it probably should be a Vectorworks Preference setting whether you see it or not, I would hate to lose it.  It was one of my favorite additions to VW2019.

[Mark Aceto]

Bury it with Legacy 2D.

 

If I wanted to waste time isolating a Hidden Line render, I have Schematic Views for that.

 

[Tom W.]

I think the palette remembering its size/shape + location would be an improvement + this has been requested elsewhere. It is a pain each time you open VW afresh having to resize + reposition the palette then have it forget it again when you close the software. But I am genuinely surprised that so many people don't use it + think it serves no purpose. I use it daily. Is it because people aren't using hybrid symbols? Or are happy accessing the components from the right-click context menu + not switch between them once inside the symbol?

[mike m oz]

19 hours ago, Kaare Baekgaard said:

Why is the Component Edit palette/Bar the only one, that I cannot make disappear – when it is also the only one, that I am never ever going to use?

 

There is this menu item called Palettes, where every other palettes can be turned on and off. Please include the Component edit palette in this menu.

 

Be gone Component Edit Palette – and good riddance.

Kaare, can you please post a contextual image of which palette you are referring to.

[line-weight]

Are we talking about the palette that only appears when you are editing a symbol?

[Tom W.]

That's what I assumed

[line-weight]

I find it a little annoying that it floats around and would probably prefer it to be somehow "docked" but I find it useful while working on symbols.

 

Recently I have been using it quite a bit flipping between 3d component/wall hole component/wall closure component.

 

That process could be smoother (often the view position seems to jump when moving between these components) but that's a separate issue.

 

One thing I like about this dialogue is that unlike so many VW dialogues it gives you a clear graphical indication of what's going on.

 

 

As well as making it easy to choose which one I want to edit, I can immediately see which component I'm currently working on, and which are empty or not. This is so much nicer than all the dialogues that convey information in hard-to-understand grids and tables.

[Tom W.]

7 minutes ago, line-weight said:

would probably prefer it to be somehow "docked"

 

See:

 

The other thing that would improve it for me would be if 'Show Other' didn't always default to 'None'. I am forever changing it to '3D'. I asked elsewhere if it was possible to make a script to set it to 3D so I could create a keyboard shortcut but never heard anything... If it remembered your last setting that'd help as for me having 3D as the default would be preferable.

 

[Mark Aceto]

8 hours ago, Tom W. said:

I think the palette remembering its size/shape + location would be an improvement + this has been requested elsewhere. It is a pain each time you open VW afresh having to resize + reposition the palette then have it forget it again when you close the software.

I need to start a list of everywhere I can play Whack A Mole in VW.

 

8 hours ago, Tom W. said:

But I am genuinely surprised that so many people don't use it + think it serves no purpose. I use it daily. Is it because people aren't using hybrid symbols? Or are happy accessing the components from the right-click context menu + not switch between them once inside the symbol?

Right click: Generate 2D components from 3D

 

Every other (3D) view is just a hidden line view that will render in hidden line anyway. Hence my snarky comment about Schematic Views.

[line-weight]

38 minutes ago, Mark Aceto said:

Every other (3D) view is just a hidden line view that will render in hidden line anyway.

I don't understand what you mean here.

[Pat Stanford]

I think what Mark means is that the Front/Back/Right/Left/Bottom 2D views are only shown in Section Viewports that are rendered in Hidden Line. In any other view, viewport type, render mode you just get the 3D model.

[Mark Aceto]

21 minutes ago, line-weight said:

I don't understand what you mean here.

The 2D geometry is ostensibly a hidden line render, so if I want to see a hidden line render of a 3D view, I’ll just render that VP in hidden line. I don’t have a use case where I will mix a few hidden line rendered objects in a wireframe elevation view.

 

The same thing happens with Schematic Views when using Braceworks / truss workflows or any vertical structural member that can’t be tipped up from a laying flat position (truss tower, goalpost, torm). The end result is just another hidden line elevation view, so there’s really no point in creating extra work my myself.

 

That said, if I’m missing the utility of this feature beyond bathroom fixtures LOD, someone please post a screenshot of how you use it.

[Tom W.]

10 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

are only shown in Section Viewports

 

Actually any orthogonal view square-on to the object I think

[Mark Aceto]

6 hours ago, Tom W. said:

 

See:

 

The other thing that would improve it for me would be if 'Show Other' didn't always default to 'None'. I am forever changing it to '3D'. I asked elsewhere if it was possible to make a script to set it to 3D so I could create a keyboard shortcut but never heard anything... If it remembered your last setting that'd help as for me having 3D as the default would be preferable.

 

Upvoted this one too but not holding my breath. Just seems like another half-baked feature that got abandoned instead of iterated into something more useful. #snowleopard

[Tom W.]

Just now, Mark Aceto said:

The 2D geometry is ostensibly a hidden line render, so if I want to see a hidden line render of a 3D view, I’ll just render that VP in hidden line.

 

Yes but you then have no control over how the object is translated into HL. Using the 2D components allows you to control exactly how the object is represented, which is often really useful.

[line-weight]

1 minute ago, Mark Aceto said:

The 2D geometry is ostensibly a hidden line render, so if I want to see a hidden line render of a 3D view, I’ll just render that VP in hidden line. I don’t have a use case where I will mix a few hidden line rendered objects in a wireframe elevation view.

 

The same thing happens with Schematic Views when using Braceworks / truss workflows or any vertical structural member that can’t be tipped up from a laying flat position (truss tower, goalpost, torm). The end result is just another hidden line elevation view, so there’s really no point in creating extra work my myself.

 

That said, if I’m missing the utility of this feature beyond bathroom fixtures LOD, someone please post a screenshot of how you use it.

 

Do you work in a lighting/entertainment rather than architectural context?

 

I'm not familiar with braceworks and I don't know what a "Schematic View" is.

 

But for many of us working on architectural drawings, hidden line sections are rather crucial.

 

I don't actually use those 2d components as much as I could - but intend to start using them a bit more. And if you want to customise them at all, then flipping between these different components (and being able to see the 3d component geometry in the background) is rather useful.

 

[Mark Aceto]

Just now, Tom W. said:

 

Yes but you then have no control over how the object is translated into HL. Using the 2D components allows you to control exactly how the object is represented, which is often really useful.

Would love to see a use case. I’m all about building the Mise en Place in my custom library. 

[Mark Aceto]

All I’m saying, snark aside, is bury it in the Legacy 2D settings. As an entertainment user, I enable screen plane in my template file. A simple checkbox would solve this for all users in all industries. At the same time, add some standard behavior to control position and settings. Maybe this is something that was not possible before but with the new SaaS model, can be achieved in a future update.

[line-weight]

12 minutes ago, Mark Aceto said:

All I’m saying, snark aside, is bury it in the Legacy 2D settings. As an entertainment user, I enable screen plane in my template file. A simple checkbox would solve this for all users in all industries. At the same time, add some standard behavior to control position and settings. Maybe this is something that was not possible before but with the new SaaS model, can be achieved in a future update.

 

Well, maybe let it be enabled/disabled. But it's not a legacy feature - it's a feature that's required for current workflows to work.

[line-weight]

Here's an example - here's a threshold drain where I've modelled the slots in the grille (because then I can use it in a close-up section detail)

 

But when I come to create my GA floorplan, for which I use a horizontal section viewport, that grille is a mess drawn in hidden line - because VW draws all those lines next to each other and I get something that looks like a solid black rectangle:

 

 

I haven't fixed this yet. Actually this already caused a problem when the structural engineer thought that represented a solid wall.

 

Anyway, the way to fix it will be to symbolise it and then give it a custom 2d component in top view that will just be a simple rectangle. I can't generate that automatically because I'll have the same issue of the closely spaced lines.

 

[Elite Exhibits]

6 hours ago, line-weight said:

That process could be smoother (often the view position seems to jump when moving between these components) but that's a separate issue.

@line-weight maybe you know this - we have found the above to be another aggravation of Unified View

 

Peter