Pre 12.5 Wishlist Items

[eric.rktek]

I am including a couple of my top wishlist issues in hopes that they can be included in 12.5 or sometime soon. I encourage anyone who feels similarly to respond to help keep these items on NNA's front burner.

1) Better Referencing Capabilities. I think several of the improvements I am hoping for could be addressed by expanding the capabilities of Layer Linking. Take on some of the abilities of viewports would be great. I'm talking about the ability to turn on and off layers and classes, and clipping as to key features. This would help bring VWs xref capabilities closer to the competitions, as well as greatly help our ability to coordinate larger projects.

2) UCS/Grid/View Rotation. It's been asked for many times, and I would just like to repeat it again. We really need the ability to have a fast and efficient way to rotate a view to take advantage of drafting/working in an orthogonal manner, regardless of the angles involved in a plan. Actually moving the data with a rotate tool is a completely unacceptable solution, particularly when you have that information referenced to different places.

[mike m oz]

Having "Viewport' like controls over Layer Links would be a great boost to useability. If the Layer Links were a single entity with the ability to manage layer + class visibilities, and to crop and rotate them, this would solve many of the referencing issues raised by others.

[Christiaan]

Pre-12.5 wishlists at this point really have no basis in reality if such a release is imminent. If they haven't been included already then you're probably shooting for post-12.5.

[eric.rktek]

Either way. Just want to keep the pressure up.

One more thing I'd like to see improvement on-

Date/Issue control in the Issue Manager. I'd like to be able to access and modify this information for existing date/issue stuff without having to go to the data pane of the OIP.

[P Retondo]

I don't understand the desire to have layer visibility control with a layer link. By definition, a layer link is a link to a single layer.

Class visibility, yes, cropping, yes.

If these two things can be done, that would solve the need for a UCS control in some, but not all instances. Where some portion of a project (a separate structure in a multi-structure plan, for example) could be linked in via a rotated layer link, double-clicking on that link would bring you to an orthogonal view. Often, though, we have a building where portions of the design are rotated. Controlling a UCS is the only easy way to improve production output in that instance.

[eric.rktek]

Part of the reason for my requests are based upon the way we set up and handle drawings. It is based upon working on several different CAD platforms and taken the setup the has worked best for us in several different work environments. We make separate sheet files for each printed sheet with the associated vector data referenced in. This makes it very managable for multiple people in an office to locate and work on projects. One problem with using a layer link as a substitute for a rotated UCS is that you have to recreate the layer link in our sheet files, which is a pain and a problem. If layer links were referencable, this wouldn't matter, but I don't think that is the best solution to the problem.

The reason I am asking for control of which layers are shown or linked in a layer link is based upon the following: I think the use of the layer link tool has grown to compensate for some basic reference capability deficenies in VW. I used it for years to link layers in a file to work on models, etc.-works great for that However, we now use it extensively when working with referenced files, etc. in all our projects. It works so-so at best, and somewhat weakly when compared to the referencing capabilities of VW's competition. I think the tool could be modified in the way I've described in posts above to help VW play catch up to some of the other CAD programs. I wouldn't care if they made a new tool that basically provides some viewport capabilities to the layer link tool -minus the scale feature because it would be for design layers. I keep talking about upgrading the layer link tool because that is all that is available right now.

A good example of a problem we face is that we are trying to work on our template files. We have our plans files pre-layer linked to other files for elevations and sections. We have to guess that we have every possible layer in place in all files beforesetting up the multiple layer links we use in every file. If we eventually have to add a layer down th road, we have to go through an extensive process of updating our referencing, adding a new layer link, and positioning it the multiple times in the file accordingly. Part of my comments are driven by the power and benefits that robust linking and referencing capabilities provides in other CAD environments. I tend to see the most puzzlement or resistance from users who only have experience with VW and not other platforms. It is sometimes hard to understand the benefits of something if you've never used it before. Once you try it, it can be hard to imagine how you ever worked in the past. I feel that VW is far superior to the competition in many, many aspect of the program. The referencing area is the one where there is so much work to be done.

I know that some of these issues go away if you use the BIM approach to project design. We haven't made the leap to that yet. We also believe one of the strong points of VW is that it allows you flexibility to work in different manners depending on preference and desire. I strongly believe that the improvements to referencing/layer linking are extremely important to our productivity and ease of use of the program. I also strongly believe that this improvements would greatly help most other users- those that do use BIM and otherwise.

[P Retondo]

Eric, I think I understand what you are saying. It would probably be helpful to describe the "layer selectivity" part of this wishlist item in terms other than as a modification of layer linking. When you say "layer linked to other files," I wasn't aware that layer links can link to an external file, so perhaps you are talking about Referencing?

I don't use VW in a multi-user environment, but I have worked in AutoCAD multi-user situations. From what I know of VW's Workgroup Referencing, it does seem capable of referencing layers selectively. It sounds as though you want improvements in the capabilities and management of Workgroup Referencing, and perhaps Layer Linking as well, but these are two separate issues.

[eric.rktek]

Pete,

These are two separate, but extremely related issues. One big weakness in VW's referencing capabilities is the lack of being able to rotate, clip, copy, or mirror referenced layers. Layer linking is the workaround that lets you do the move, copy, and mirror. However, Layer linking has a lot of short comings in handling this. A lot of my comments focus on these short comings. I feel they could be considered shortcomings of referencing too. I do think some expansion of layer linking capabilities could provide a solution to these issues. They have already included a shortcut to provide a layer link when you reference a file in the WGR window. It might be better in the long run to call a layer linked reference layer(s)/viewport in design layer type component a new term, so as not to spread the use to layering link too far and wide.

[Ken]

I'm not sure how "extremely" related the two issues are, Erik. I searched back in these discussions to try to understand where exactly it applies (and posted a reply elsewhere regarding using WG -> LL -> VP that may solve your vaguely described referencing needs).

As for drawings that need to be globally rotated, then rotated back, I, too, have voiced the lack of a comprehensive solution at one time. However, the VW solution seems to be rotating the grid angle. An example is a left wing of a floor plan that must be created at some 39.237 odd degrees to the right wing. I was clamoring just for an improvement to the MOVE command, where CARTESIAN would change accordingly to the rotated I-J orientation -- because most other tools and commands seem to work fine. That alone would make it immensely more useable. Would that alone also address your needs?

[eric.rktek]

That would help the UCS issue to some degree. However, Microstation used to have a little rotate grid button in the lower left next to the zoom in and zoom out, etc. and you could rotate your grid in a matter of 3 clicks. It was so, so easy- way easier than Autocad's UCS commands. A move about I-J is a nice option, but I believe there are better solutions to these challenges. As this is a wish list board, I am going to push for as much as possible. I also appreciate any other positive ideas and suggestions that come out of it. I just hope some of them make their way to the powers that be at NNA.

[Ken]

Eric, I'm just trying to understand what exactly you're wishing for -- a similar "little rotate grid button" like Microstation's?

You're only writing a lot of words in the sentiment of "there must be better solutions to these challenges" but what exactly are YOU suggesting? I would love to hear specific problems and tool descriptions.

I still think that if the Move and Duplicate Array commands are updated with automatic I-J orientation when the grid is rotated, that manipulating objects in a rotated space is completely addressed. Perhaps a few extra clicks in VW (double-click on the A key to bring up Set Grid, tab 3 times to enter grid angle) compared to others, but it would work.

Then WG to LL to VP solves all the referencing problems. Unless you have a specific suggestion?

[eric.rktek]

Microstation had a tool that quickly rotated everything on screen to a user definable angle, allowing you to always just use X&Y when drafting. It kept track of the original grid rotation, and could get you back to it quickly. I found it a lot easier to edit and work on things that way than having to deal with another coordinate plane like I-J when trying to move things. Rotating the screen in this matter would also allow one to keep using the tab key to enter into the X & Y fields in the bar at the top of the drawing window. I'm sure it might present some interesting challenges as to how things are displayed in the OIP for rectangles for instance, but maybe they should all just be polygons anyways.

[Ken]

Yes, the OI palette also needs improvement for clean I-J information.

Edited July 9, 2006 by Arch.Ken

[P Retondo]

What I would like to see is a 2d version of working planes. Click on origin, click for x axis, click for y axis, save the orientation as a UCS, keep a palette for the saved orientations and to navigate from one to another. Make it very easy (keyboard command) to return to the normal coordinate system. This system probably would be best implemented intially as a Top/Plan view option only.

[eric.rktek]

Pete,

That sounds like a great option, and could be coordinated with saved views, etc. etc.

[mike m oz]

I would also like the ability to toggle the grid visibility on and off with a single key or icon click. I never have the grid visible in 2D, but it is useful in 3D when you are useing Working Planes. Turning it on and off through the grid constraint is too time consuming.

[C. Andrew Dunning]

Make the following into a menu item and asign a hot key to it. I think the source was a collection of toggles someone posted a few years ago.

Procedure TogglePref;

VAR

PrefID:INTEGER;

PrefStatus:BOOLEAN;

BEGIN

PrefID := 35;

PrefStatus := GetPref(PrefID);

SetPref(PrefID, NOT PrefStatus);

Layer(GetLName(ActLayer)); {succeeds where ReDrawAll fails ****}

END;

Run(TogglePref);

[mike m oz]

It works well. Thank you Andrew.