Mouse Wheel Zoom

[SLFY]

As a former AutoCAD on a PC user, I am used to using a 5 button mouse with a wheel. I could set the 2 side buttons for key entry, like enter and esc. These buttons have little use with vectorworks. However, what I miss most is the wheel/button. I would navigate around a drawing in a split second by zooming out, moving the mouse over the area I want to go to and zoom in again with the wheel, all while a command is active.

The saved views script is very handy, if it could be combined with a wheel zoom I would be a happy camper.

I work from home often, as a stay at home dad. I used to be able to have the mouse set up so that I could hold a baby in one arm and get some real work done with the other hand. I love it, but VW is 2 handed all the way.

[jan15]

Yes, everyone agrees that it would be nice to have Autocad's wheel zoom/pan feature. But, on the other hand, it seems appropriate to have one feature on the $3500 product that's better than on the $950 product.

And, besides, working in VectorWorks doesn't require as much zooming as in Autocad. It's much easier to pick objects and points while zoomed out, especially if you take advantage of VW's Groups and its more easily modified complex polylines and their built-in hatch and solid capability. You should learn to make full use of what VectorWorks can do, and get out of the habit of frantically zooming and panning all the time as you have to do in Autocad. It'll save a lot of wear and tear on your carpal tunnel also.

And do you know about the drag-pan feature? If, while drawing, stretching, moving or copying something you go off the screen, the screen moves with you automatically.

A lot of one-armed people set their computers up to allow modifier keys (shift, crtl, alt) to be pressed and released instead of pressed and held. Have you tried that? I don't remember what it's called on MacOS, but on Windows it's in the Accessibility Options control panel.

It's hard to understand why you think that being able to use the side buttons for Autocad's constant use of Enter and Esc is better than VectorWorks' not having to do that at all. Why not program those extra mouse buttons for something you use a lot in VectorWorks, such as the Select tool, or maybe the Object Info palette?

[ 07-10-2005, 10:42 AM: Message edited by: jan15 ]

[SLFY]

Thanks for the input Jan15-

This is a wish list. This is feature I think would be benefitial. I'll take your first sentance as agreement.

I agree vectorworks snaps are much more user friendly than AutoCAD, and working in 3D is also much more user friendly. Thus zooming is less nec. However, I am not an architect. Most of my work is for the custom woodworking industry, etc. I need to dimension to 1/32" or better, and objects can be even closer together, yet the drawing may cover a 25' span. So, I find I still need to zoom frequently.

Again - just a wish list. As for the $950 vs $3500. I think most CAD users would agree that AutoCAD gets $3500 because they managed to become the industry standard, NOT because it is a better program.

Thanks

[LarryAZ]

I would be lost with out the wheel zoom. On my Logitech I have to hold the option key to zoom in and out. I also always pan with the space bar down to drag the drawing. Using these two methods is very quick. I also have the right button to ESC and the wheel click returns to 2D select. No matter what mode a right and center click gets me out and ready for my next command.

[JasonWD]

This whole wheel thing is absurd.

I'm sure there is a very simple way of making Vectorworks work in the conventional way with a wheel mouse. How jan15 can argue their first point that AutoCAD is a more expensive program and that it is more appropriate that it has that functionality is ludicrous! If you take a program like Sketchup for instance; a cheap, amazing program that uses intuitive mouse functions that work.

The second point that you don't need to pan and zoom that much in Vectorworks is also redundant. Unless you were designing something that is 1:1 or larger you always need to zoom and pan. How else do you get around a 30 hectare factory plot?

I have a feeling that Vectorworks (Nemetschek) is just being stubborn about this topic and that a lot of people who are defending the way the wheel works are ether working on the Mac platform and have been used to drawing with a boxing glove on their mouse hand for the last couple of decades, or have never used another CAD platform.

Adapting Vectorworks to use wheel scroll and zoom (without having to press any other keys) won't effect the way others use Vectorworks, it will just improve the life for all the people who have come from platforms such as Architectural Desktop, CATIA, IDEAS, Pro Engineer, CADDS, 3DS, Maya... etc

[ 07-26-2005, 02:19 PM: Message edited by: flame ]

[jan15]

quote:

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Originally posted by flame:

...How jan15 can argue their first point that AutoCAD is a more expensive program and that it is more appropriate that it has that functionality is ludicrous! If you take a program like Sketchup for instance; a cheap, amazing program that uses intuitive mouse functions that work.

---

I wasn't saying that it's more appropriate for an expensive program to have wheel pan-and-zoom. Just that it's badly needed as a palliative to all of Autocad's weaknesses, and not so badly needed in VectorWorks. Yes, of course, as you said, "you always need to zoom and pan", but you don't need to do it nearly as often in VectorWorks. You may wish to do it as often, perhaps because you've developed a habit (as have I) of frantically zooming and panning, from working in Autocad, where the only quick way to do anything usually entails zooming way in, but you can make good use of VectorWorks without doing that. And, besides, VectorWorks has a lot of other ways of panning and zooming that Autocad doesn't have, and those alternatives happen to be easier on the Carpal Tunnel.

The price comparison I made was part of my agreeing that their wheel zoom-and-pan is one way in which Autocad is better than VectorWorks, but at the same time pointing out that it's the only way in which Autocad is better. Mentioning the price comparison in that context was supposed to be humorous, but, obviously, I don't do humor very well. I think it's unfair of you to turn my price comparison around to compare the prices of Sketchup and VectorWorks. I love Sketchup, have done all my preliminary design with it for the last 3 years, but it's not fair to compare it to VectorWorks and Autocad, which are roughly equivalent to each other in terms of what they can be used for, but both of which can do so much more than Sketchup. Sketchup is excellent at the one thing it does, and wheel zoom-and-orbit is key to that excellence and was part of the original concept of the program.

I didn't disagree that wheel pan-and-zoom would be a welcome addition to VectorWorks. But even if you are, as you said, "sure there is a very simple way of making Vectorworks work in the conventional way with a wheel mouse," I'm not. Do you have some technical basis for that confidence? I assumed that there isn't a simple way, only because Nemetschek has shown a strong desire to incorporate every Autocad feature, whether good or bad, into VectorWorks. On that basis, it seems likely to me that they would incorporate this one really good feature if there weren't some technical conflict that makes it difficult to do so. I buy into a lot of conspiracy theories, but I can't share your "feeling that Vectorworks (Nemetschek) is just being stubborn about this."

[ 07-28-2005, 08:22 PM: Message edited by: jan15 ]

[G-Pang]

Hold Option Key for Mac or Ctrl for PC.

[ 07-27-2005, 09:17 PM: Message edited by: G-Pang ]

[Chris D]

Hey - Apple have finally gone and brought out a two button mouse - with a scroll wheel.

How about Nemetschek now support this mouse and use it as an opportunity to finally give us proper zooming!!

[JasonWD]

@jan15 Maybe I am just an enraged Autocad/ADT>Vectorworks switcher and was/am venting a bit. There do seem to be a lot of things that seem to be going the AutoCAD direction (like the whole viewport thing). Maybe I am not using Vectorworks in the way I should. There are a lot of things that could be improved and I get irritated about the whole thing as I have moved to a Vectorworks environment and my workrate has been halved despite one of my colleagues being a CAD lecturer and my decade of experience in many systems.

I sometimes even use sketchup to draw surveys, then import them in; it seems to be the fastest way of getting data into vectorworks from a paper drawing!

@Chris D Yeah right!

We are going to have to put up with scrolling around randomly in nipple pointer styliee

I'm loving the option of having a fiddle with that speaker thing built in to the MM though!

[jan15]

quote:

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Originally posted by flame:

I sometimes even use sketchup to draw surveys, then import them in; it seems to be the fastest way of getting data into vectorworks from a paper drawing!

---

I do that, too. I take a laptop to the site, and as I measure I create a 3D model in Sketchup. You just can't make a mistake that way. Back at the ranch, I use Sketchup to push and pull the surveyed model to roughly model the new space, and then export that to VectorWorks via DWG.

I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble adapting to VectorWorks. When I switched over, after ten years of AutoCad, I almost immediately became more productive in VectorWorks. But that was back in version 5 and 6, when VW didn't have any AutoCad-like features and so you were forced to do everything the easy way.

[ 08-03-2005, 08:23 PM: Message edited by: jan15 ]

[alanmac]

Each to there own and what they are happy with but I've been using VW8.5 for a few years and this last year moved up 10.5 and 11.5 and I'd never want to go back.

The increased functionality I'd miss straight way, and because of the flexability of VW I know that a little time spent customising my workspace I could get rid of the stuff I don't use or want.

Double click editing, better zoom, improved increased keyboard shortcuts, easier nudge tool, palette docking, to name but a few I'd miss straightaway.

I've never used, or want to use Autocad but I've always read that the difficulty that Autocad users face with Vectorworks is they want to work the "Autocad way" in it rather than start anew from a different perspective on how to work with a CAD program, maybe using their previous experience to understand terminology rather than work procedures. I think people used the old Apple marketing line of a few years ago, Think differently at one point.

Nemetschek do a CD to assist in the transition I believe.

Glad I'm only required to learn one CAD program.

All the best

Alan

[JasonWD]

Alan, I wasn't referring to Autocad alone, it just seems the lowest (sic) denominator.