Data Tag Returns Stake Object X and Y Coordinates in Millimetres Regardless of Document Units.

[MethodDesign]

In Vectorworks Landmark 2026 I'm trying to create a custom Data Tag for Stake objects which displays the Description, X coordinate, Y coordinate and Z coordinate, with units.

 

However, the X and Y coordinate values of the Data Tag, obtained from the Stake object's Easting and Northing fields, are displayed in millimetres despite the document units being set to metres. Meanwhile the the Z coordinate value obtained from the Stake object's Z Value field displays correctly. The Units dropdown menu is greyed out when selecting the Easting and Northing parameters, whereas it's active when selecting the Z Value parameter, which indicates that they function differently. Unfortunately X Value and Y Value aren't available in the Stake object parameter list - it would be great if they could be added in a future update.

 

Here's the Data Tag field definition (note the Units dropdown is greyed out with Easting selected):

 

 

And here's the result applied to a Stake object, with the Data Tag values in blue on the left, and the Stake object's native X and Y coordinates in black on the right:

 

 

As a workaround I can add /1000 after the easting and northing parameters in the field definition to get the correct numerical values (note also that the Units dropdown is available with Z Value selected):

 

 

However, doing this makes the 'm' after the formulas invisible, as seen below. Also a different version of the tag would be required when switching document units, and the formula for imperial document units wouldn't be nearly as simple.

There appears to be multiple threads describing similar isses since 2020 (linked below), with some quite complex explanations, case-specific suggestions, and workarounds.

 

Is there something fundamental about how 'data' is processed in Vectorworks that lies behind all of these issues, that might be worth looking into?

In the case of Northing and Easting values, which adhere to the document units in every other situation that they appear, it seems particularly strange and counterintuitive that they'd be locked to millimetres, especially in the context of a tool dedicated to customised data display.      
 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 27 by MethodDesign

[Tom W.]

I agree it's crazy that easting + northing are returned in mm regardless of the document units. But if your User Origin is set to match the Georeferencing coordinate system then you could always use these formulas instead:

  

 

Then you can set whichever unit you want + have the unit mark show.