To-do list when converting to Vectorworks 2026

[Christiaan]

I'm gearing up to convert some projects to 2026, maybe after Update 3, and I've seen quite a few issues popping up, so I thought it would be useful to have a comprehensive list of things to do before and after converting a file to 2026.

Please contribute any suggestions in the comments below and I will update this list as we go. Please also suggest removing any if you think they're not needed.

Before converting to 2026:

1. Turn on the Enable Cut Plane at Layer Elevation on all your Design Layers and set them to an appropriate height. Typically 4 feet or 1200 mm, but 6 feet/1800 mm can also work well if you want to pick up windows with a high sill level.
   Reason: Walls now derive their Top/Plan graphics directly from their 3D geometry, and design layer cut planes are no longer optional in the design layer settings in 2026. Making sure Cut Plane is enabled and set to appropriate height may help alleviate any surprises after conversion.
2. Edit all Walls to assign the Attributes Below Cut Plane to a Class.
   Reason: In Top Plan view in 2026 you will now see Walls in doorways where the Wall extends lower than the Door. This will allow you to turn that Class off to hide the Wall below the doorway.
3. Bear in mind that any walls without a component will have a component added when converting to v2026. The current Wall's Fill attribute will be used for the component's Fill attribute in v2026. And the current Wall's Line attributes will be used for the Wall's line attributes in v2026.
   Reason: Vectorworks 2026 requires at least one component in Walls.

 

Converting to v2026

Use File > Batch Convert when converting projects with referenced/linked files, to avoid having to relink the files. The Batch Convert command will also reset plug-ins, which can avoid problems with plug-ins using old code and causing stability issues. Alternatively, after converting a file by simply opening it in v2026, you can use the Reset All Plug-ins command.

 

After opening v2026 for the first time:

1. Do your self a favour and check that your Autosave preferences are active and configured how you want them. Then quit Vectorworks and open it again to make sure those preferences are baked in.
   Reason: Early updates of VW can sometimes be less stable than later updates and if you're Autosave preferences are not configured you're at high risk of losing some work.

 

After converting to 2026:

1. Edit all Door and Window objects/Styles/libraries, under the new Detail Levels section, to show more detail in the Low option.
   Reason: This will allow you to display Walls in top plan view in low detail, without ending up with weird looking doors and windows; in 2026 you can no longer use the workflow of turning off Wall Components to show walls in low detail (i.e. with no components); turning off all wall components in 2026 hides the entire wall.
2. If you have any windows that are not located at the Cut Plane (which is controlled by Design Layer or Wall settings) and are therefore not cutting the wall and you want them to cut the wall, edit the Plug-in Object Options or Plug-in Object Style Options of that Window/Window Style by unchecking the "Use wall cut plane" option and then setting the cut plane for that Window/Window Style.

 

Currently unresolved issues (as of Update 2):

• I've seen an issue where 2026 reverses the inside and outside of Door and Window Assemblies. Hopefully this is fixed in Update 3.

[E|FA]

Thank you for posting this.  I haven't made the leap yet, but will be sure to need this when I do.

 

Other items that may need prep work (creating Styles, etc) are setting up Door & Window Assemblies and depth cuing in Viewports.

[Tom W.]

8 hours ago, Christiaan said:

Edit all Doors to assign the Attributes Below Cut Plane to a Class.
Reason: This will allow you to turn that Class off if you don’t want to see Walls in doorways where the Wall extends lower than the Door.

 

I think this is a typo you meant edit all Walls not edit all Doors.

 

Also, if you're using styles (Doors, Windows, Walls) + have these saved in Favorites or a Workgroup (or a template?) then it will probably be better to edit these first rather than editing them in individual files. Then when you open a VW2025 file (in VW2026) which uses the original styles you can just import the new styles + replace them.

[Christiaan]

Thanks Tom

[Meret Lenzlinger]

Thank you, Christriaan! Can you tell me where I "Enable Cut Plane at Layer Elevation"? I can't find it if I go into edit mode for a particular design layer....

Thank you!

Meret

 

[jnr]

C

Thanks for posting this. Would have saved me about 3 hours (see back and forth with Tom) had this information been out there. So my question is, why is your excellent to do list not front and center from NNA when they threw 2026 out there? 

[Christiaan]

1 hour ago, Meret Lenzlinger said:

Thank you, Christriaan! Can you tell me where I "Enable Cut Plane at Layer Elevation"? I can't find it if I go into edit mode for a particular design layer....

Thank you!

Meret

Hi Meret, you won't find it in 2026 as the cut plane is enabled by default. In 2026 you'll only see a Cut Plane field that allows you to alter the height of the Cut Plane.

In 2025, however, you can make sure the Cut Plane is enabled and set to an appropriate height before converting to 2026. So you don't have to enable Cut Plane in 2025 before converting, but it can be helpful to avoid surprises. 

[rDesign]

In 2025 and earlier, I think you also need to have Architect to be able to see the Enable Cut Plane option on the DL settings. 

[shorter]

On 1/10/2026 at 7:30 AM, Tom W. said:

 

I think this is a typo you meant edit all Walls not edit all Doors.

 

Also, if you're using styles (Doors, Windows, Walls) + have these saved in Favorites or a Workgroup (or a template?) then it will probably be better to edit these first rather than editing them in individual files. Then when you open a VW2025 file (in VW2026) which uses the original styles you can just import the new styles + replace them.

 

...better still reference them from an office or project library, because then you can tweak them in the library and update the reference to apply the amendments without having to import each time.

[thinkingpencil]

Thank you to pioneers Christiaan and Tom and others as you hack through the undergrowth....cutting a pathway onwards and upwards to the sunny uplands of  version 2026 relase 3 or thereabouts. Really appreciated by this follower! Who is reluctant to step onto the trail from 2025 until there's something like a tarmac surface...

[Christiaan]

Update 3 released today:

https://www.vectorworks.net/en-US/newsroom/2026-update-3

 

https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/articles.html/articles/tech-bulletins/vectorworks2026-update3/

 

[E|FA]

Release notes: https://release.vectorworks.net/nnapub/vwim/31/NNA/eng/meta/releasenotes/Update3.html

[Chad Hamilton HAArchs]

Great checklist - thanks!

 

Note that these tips also apply to importing objects from Vectorworks catalogs into 2026 files, at least until the catalog objects get caught up.  This seems to be true even with wall styles in the 2026 catalogs.

[E|FA]

21 hours ago, Chad Hamilton HAArchs said:

This seems to be true even with wall styles in the 2026 catalogs

Further evidence that VW didn’t think through all of the implications and prepare resources and educate users properly about the 2026 Wall changes. 

[Tom W.]

22 hours ago, Chad Hamilton HAArchs said:

This seems to be true even with wall styles in the 2026 catalogs.

 

I was confused by this comment. What are the issues with the Wall Styles in the VW2026 libraries? The only item in @Christiaan's list relating Walls was ensuring you've assigned an Attributes Below Cut Plane class but all the VW Walls have a class assigned as far as I can see, same as in previous versions.

[Chad Hamilton HAArchs]

I recently tried to import a wall from the 2026 libraries into a 2026 file - may have been this particular wall style, but the wall did the disappearing act, and it was not related to classes being on or off.  I moved on and just created my wall from scratch, but if I were going to rely on a wall from the current libraries, I would definitely run through  Christiaan’s checklist.  

[Tom W.]

8 hours ago, Chad Hamilton HAArchs said:

I recently tried to import a wall from the 2026 libraries into a 2026 file - may have been this particular wall style, but the wall did the disappearing act, and it was not related to classes being on or off.  I moved on and just created my wall from scratch, but if I were going to rely on a wall from the current libraries, I would definitely run through  Christiaan’s checklist.  

 

That could be because your file had a cut plane of zero...?

[Kevin McAllister]

I just started using VW2026 on a project this week. A client provided a VW2026 file so it made sense. So far it's going ok though I find 2026 a bit sluggish (slight pauses after each action) so it may be time to upgrade my machine. I've been running a iMac Pro so it is a bit dated, but I'm not sure what the step forward should be. Anyone have good experiences with VW2026 on a specific Mac system? I work entirely in 3d, mostly modelling from scratch, with some use of the theatre resources. I'm mostly producing drawing sets and not finished renderings.

 

Kevin

 

[zoomer]

I was happy with VW on my M1 Mini and today I am happy with my M4 MBP Max.

I think you can't go wrong with Apple ARM offers.

 

If it would not have been delayed, I would have preferred a Mac Studio.

[Christiaan]

1 hour ago, Kevin McAllister said:

I've been running a iMac Pro so it is a bit dated, but I'm not sure what the step forward should be. Anyone have good experiences with VW2026 on a specific Mac system?

You're in for a treat then. As zoomer alludes to, any Apple Silicon machine is a huge leap from where you're at. Just get as much RAM as you can afford.

[Chad Hamilton HAArchs]

On 1/17/2026 at 11:08 PM, Tom W. said:

 

That could be because your file had a cut plane of zero...?

If only - no, the cut plane height is set to 4'-0".

[Tom W.]

1 minute ago, Chad Hamilton HAArchs said:

If only - no, the cut plane height is set to 4'-0".

 

In that case perhaps it was because of the detail level settings for the file? Or was the Wall story bound + the file wasn't set up for stories so had zero height? The point I'm making is that I'm not sure there's anything wrong with the Walls themselves in the libraries (that VW need to fix), it's perhaps more to do with their newfound sensitivity to context. The answer will be in what you had to do to remedy the 'disappearing act'.

[Chad Hamilton HAArchs]

Could be the sensitivity to context, in that my solution was simply to build a new wall type from scratch.  

[nahekul]

On 1/9/2026 at 3:08 PM, Christiaan said:

Make sure any Walls in your file have at least one component and set the Fill to what you want it to be.
Reason: I can't remember the implications of not doing this, but somewhere I think I remember seeing somebody have an issue. Vectorworks 2026 will add a component during conversion if there are none, so perhaps this one isn't needed?

 

This was originally an issue where if you have a Unstyled wall with a fill and pen attribute, the newly created component after the conversion will not take on the same fill and pen colours. 

 

This seems to be fixed in the latest update of V2026. 

 

Interestingly, what it does now is the converted Unstyled wall will take the V2025 fill attribute and apply it to the newly created component fill.

However, for the pen, it doesn't apply it to the component left and right pen, but instead, it applies the attributes to the attributes pallet pen style. 

The end result is the same since in v2026, the attribute pallet pen style controls the Unstyled wall pen styles. 

[jcogdell]

@Christiaan
Do you use the Batch Convert command on your files before opening them in the new version?