VW2026 Issues

[Dubman]

I'm noticing a couple of things I can not get to work correctly.

First my Custom Commands/Tools. I have a Leader Line Tool made that uses line weight 5 & places the leader line in my Text Class which it does, but it is changing my current class to the Text class, not switching it back to None which I use mostly. This works correctly in VW2024, but not 2025 & now in 2026

 

Secondly, I can not get my wall styles to show visibly correct, even with using a wall style included in Resources. It is like the Hiding Wall Components is turned on & stopping all components from being visible. But I never have that selected to not show the components. There must be another setting somewhere for this. It works fine in 2025 & 2024

 

I have down a repair re-install & it did not find any bad files.

Any suggestions would be appreciated  

File included

VW2026 Issues.vwx

[Pat Stanford]

Leader Line tool is not in the file but rather in your workspace (unless it is actually a script, but there are no scripts in your file). So without seeing the actual tool, it is very difficult to even guess at a solution.

 

There were major under the hood changes made to Walls in VW2026 to allow for future improvements. Biggest changes:

 

All Walls must now have at least one component

2D is now generated from 3D. Top/Plan view is now effectively a horizontal section viewport. If the section height is set so it does not pass through the wall you will not see the components.

If you want to show a wall without components you have to use a Low Level of Detail. That means you may have to set the LOD for Doors and Windows differently so you get the detail you need in simplified walls.

 

 

Lots of improvements to wall in Update 1. More in Update 2 that was released yesterday. If you are not too far along on a project, you may want to reupdate the 2025 version into Update 1 or 2.

 

@Tom W. @Matt Panzer Any other deal breakers I am forgetting?

[Tom W.]

12 hours ago, Dubman said:

It is like the Hiding Wall Components is turned on & stopping all components from being visible. But I never have that selected to not show the components. There must be another setting somewhere for this. It works fine in 2025 & 2024

 

As @Pat Stanford says in VW2026 you need to be aware of the Cut Plane setting as this dictates how Walls display in Top/Plan. Generally the Cut Plane elevation comes from the Design Layer settings but it can also be overridden on a Wall by Wall basis (if 'Use design layer cut plane' is disabled) so you might need to check here too. What you're describing sounds like the Cut Plane is set higher than the Walls. If this is the case, the Wall is displaying with whatever attributes are assigned to the Attributes Below Cut Plane class ('Bel Attr Cls' in OIP).

 

Have just checked your file + the issue is that your Walls have zero height. Give them a height + as long as it's greater than 4' they will display as you expect in Top/Plan.

 

[line-weight]

Come on vectorworks - you very urgently need to make a video explainer that is somehow pushed to all users moving to 2026, so they understand what's going on with these changes before wasting hours of their time in confusion.

[Tom W.]

17 minutes ago, line-weight said:

Come on vectorworks - you very urgently need to make a video explainer that is somehow pushed to all users moving to 2026, so they understand what's going on with these changes before wasting hours of their time in confusion.

 

This one is pretty good although not very discoverable (+ I imagine easily passed over given the title):

 

https://university.vectorworks.net/mod/overview/view.php?id=8198

 

[line-weight]

8 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

not very discoverable (+ I imagine easily passed over given the title):

Yes.

 

I'd argue for an alert to appear here each time an old file is brought into VW2026:

 

 

"Note that important changes have been made to wall objects in VW2026: please click [here] for more information before proceeding with the conversion"

 

With a "don't show this warning again" tick box.

 

[Tom W.]

9 minutes ago, line-weight said:

Yes.

 

I'd argue for an alert to appear here each time an old file is brought into VW2026:

 

 

"Note that important changes have been made to wall objects in VW2026: please click [here] for more information before proceeding with the conversion"

 

With a "don't show this warning again" tick box.

 

 

I still think that 9 times out of 10 Walls will come into VW2026 looking no different from previous versions. How many files of yours have Walls with a height of zero? But yes, many ways it could have been better publicised.

 

[dhughes3]

19 hours ago, Tom W. said:

 

This one is pretty good although not very discoverable (+ I imagine easily passed over given the title):

 

https://university.vectorworks.net/mod/overview/view.php?id=8198

 

 

Thank you for posting this - I would never have found it with that title (the narrator mentions non-architects just once when explaining components, but spends the rest of te 6m video explaining the changes and reasoning behind the changes in VW2026!)

 

My 2025 walls worked perfectly in the design layer, but in viewports where we had hidden the components so it would appear with the wall-class display settings the walls disappeared! I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out the issue, (and still waitiing for support to reply to my ticket from several days ago), when luckily I found this thread.

 

Thanks again!

[Tom W.]

25 minutes ago, dhughes3 said:

My 2025 walls worked perfectly in the design layer, but in viewports where we had hidden the components so it would appear with the wall-class display settings the walls disappeared!

 

Ah yes that's a good point. I'd overlooked this. This (turning off Component classes in VPs) will likely have a much more significant impact on people + involve a bit of work to resolve if means editing the Detail Level settings for multiple Doors/Windows so they look as desired in Low Detail. 

[line-weight]

20 hours ago, Tom W. said:

 

I still think that 9 times out of 10 Walls will come into VW2026 looking no different from previous versions. How many files of yours have Walls with a height of zero? But yes, many ways it could have been better publicised.

 

None of mine do but I suspect that many more than 1 in 10 VW users are still using it basically as a 2d drawing package.

 

Even 1 in 10 is a large number of people having their time wasted.

[Tom W.]

32 minutes ago, line-weight said:

None of mine do but I suspect that many more than 1 in 10 VW users are still using it basically as a 2d drawing package.

 

Even 1 in 10 is a large number of people having their time wasted.

 

Plus as above I'd forgotten that loads more people will probably be affected in VPs where they've turned off the component classes to show the walls with solid fills, only to find in VW2026 the walls have disappeared completely. 

 

Just seen the Read Me note again + it is actually very clear + helpful on this + other matters, if only we stopped to read it (@zoomer excluded 🙂). They should email us these notes directly or include them in their newsletter emails.

[Dubman]

Thanks very much for letting me know VW changed that setting in 2026, I have never had that option selected in previous version because the majority of my drawings are 2D & never needed that design layer wall ht.. And YES now it looks like my previous walls in plan.

And Yes I did not read the Read Me Notes this time.

[Dubman]

24 minutes ago, Dubman said:

Thanks very much for letting me know VW changed that setting in 2026, I have never had that option selected in previous version because the majority of my drawings are 2D & never needed that design layer wall ht.. And YES now it looks like my previous walls in plan.

And Yes I did not read the Read Me Notes this time.

I will not be using VW2026 until another production because the TV production I'm working on now I've already have many stage sets drawn & is a mess when opening them in VW2026. As far as the Custom Command light weights I can deal with that.

[Dubman]

On 11/26/2025 at 3:48 PM, Pat Stanford said:

Leader Line tool is not in the file but rather in your workspace (unless it is actually a script, but there are no scripts in your file). So without seeing the actual tool, it is very difficult to even guess at a solution.

 

There were major under the hood changes made to Walls in VW2026 to allow for future improvements. Biggest changes:

 

All Walls must now have at least one component

2D is now generated from 3D. Top/Plan view is now effectively a horizontal section viewport. If the section height is set so it does not pass through the wall you will not see the components.

If you want to show a wall without components you have to use a Low Level of Detail. That means you may have to set the LOD for Doors and Windows differently so you get the detail you need in simplified walls.

 

 

Lots of improvements to wall in Update 1. More in Update 2 that was released yesterday. If you are not too far along on a project, you may want to reupdate the 2025 version into Update 1 or 2.

 

@Tom W. @Matt Panzer Any other deal breakers I am forgetting?

Hey Pat, attached if my default file with the Leader Line Tool & Break Line Tools that I'm having issues with. the leader line tool is changing the class to where I want the leader line but leaves that class as the default. The Break Line tool does not use the light weight I have selected. it used the default one that is selected in the Attributes panel.

I see these along with other custom tools in the Resource Browser folder Custom Tools. Thanks for any advice, but if needed I can change it as I use them.

Default-Studio.sta

[Dubman]

On 11/27/2025 at 8:21 AM, Tom W. said:

 

This one is pretty good although not very discoverable (+ I imagine easily passed over given the title):

 

https://university.vectorworks.net/mod/overview/view.php?id=8198

 

Thanks Tom for posting this, I've watched it many times & now have my walls core component of hatching visibly shown. As I can tell from this video we now have to have 2 new classes, Wall at Cut Plane & Wall Below Cut Plane in each VW file. Would be nice if they explained this more. I would like to see the see the settings for each. Also, think I am figuring out we can not use 2D doors & Windows in our walls any more. The Bel Attr. Cls. is not highlighted to be used when wall is selected, guess I have to make that class first, not sure. So far I can not get my 2D doors to insert with no wall where door is. I'll keep trying when I can but will be using VW2025 to get my projects down.

[Tom W.]

3 minutes ago, Dubman said:

As I can tell from this video we now have to have 2 new classes, Wall at Cut Plane & Wall Below Cut Plane in each VW file

 

You only need to consider what the Wall looks like below the cut plane if you are working in 3D + you have a low height wall or a sloping or stepped wall or whatever. If you are mostly 2D-only then you can probably ignore it. 

 

You don't need any new classes for the Wall at the cut plane: the Wall will display as it's always displayed, the only difference is now it can't have zero height + you need to ensure the cut plane intersects the Wall. But yes it would be best to create a 'Wall-Below Cut Plane' (or whatever) class as this will control what you see under Windows or if you have a low/sloping/stepped wall (perhaps not applicable if you mainly work in 2D-only). Now (since Update 2) this class also controls the visibility of this geometry (previous it just control the attributes) so if you want your Windows to display blank underneath (like they used to display) then you can now turn this class off.

 

6 minutes ago, Dubman said:

Also, think I am figuring out we can not use 2D doors & Windows in our walls any more.

 

Correct. I believe that in order for the Wall to display with a break in Top/Plan it requires a hole to be cut in 3D (although I haven't actually tested this as all my symbols are hybrid).

 

20 minutes ago, Dubman said:

The Bel Attr. Cls. is not highlighted to be used when wall is selected, guess I have to make that class first, not sure.

 

In a styled wall you set the Attributes Below Cut Plane class in the 'Wall Attributes' dialog (Edit Wall Style dialog > Edit Wall Attributes... button) which is why it's greyed-out in the OIP. In an unstyled Wall you control it from the OIP.

[Dubman]

4 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

 

You only need to consider what the Wall looks like below the cut plane if you are working in 3D + you have a low height wall or a sloping or stepped wall or whatever. If you are mostly 2D-only then you can probably ignore it. 

 

You don't need any new classes for the Wall at the cut plane: the Wall will display as it's always displayed, the only difference is now it can't have zero height + you need to ensure the cut plane intersects the Wall. But yes it would be best to create a 'Wall-Below Cut Plane' (or whatever) class as this will control what you see under Windows or if you have a low/sloping/stepped wall (perhaps not applicable if you mainly work in 2D-only). Now (since Update 2) this class also controls the visibility of this geometry (previous it just control the attributes) so if you want your Windows to display blank underneath (like they used to display) then you can now turn this class off.

 

 

Correct. I believe that in order for the Wall to display with a break in Top/Plan it requires a hole to be cut in 3D (although I haven't actually tested this as all my symbols are hybrid).

 

 

In a styled wall you set the Attributes Below Cut Plane class in the 'Wall Attributes' dialog (Edit Wall Style dialog > Edit Wall Attributes... button) which is why it's greyed-out in the OIP. In an unstyled Wall you control it from the OIP.

Thanks Tom, I now see that I have to create an Wall Closure component that is at a height above the selected cut plane, then it is visible the same as VW2025.

One other question is in VW2026 help I'm reading the Wall Closure Settings but do not see where this setting is to change. I do use 2 different styled walls each with a core component. But in both I do not see where the Wall Closure Setting in the Edit Wall Style dialog box. Mine does not give this option.

[Tom W.]

1 minute ago, Dubman said:

Thanks Tom, I now see that I have to create an Wall Closure component that is at a height above the selected cut plane, then it is visible the same as VW2025.

One other question is in VW2026 help I'm reading the Wall Closure Settings but do not see where this setting is to change. I do use 2 different styled walls each with a core component. But in both I do not see where the Wall Closure Setting in the Edit Wall Style dialog box. Mine does not give this option.

 

Click on the 'Definition' tab + look for the 'Wall Closures at Inserts...' button in the bot RH corner. But Wall Closures control how Wall Components wrap into the opening formed by the insert (e.g. Door/Window/symbol). Wall Closures are great but they don't cut the hole in the Wall. If you have a 2D-only symbol + you want it to cut a hole in the Wall you need to give it a Hole Component: