Internet updating

[Ken]

I wish Vectorworks had Internet updating like the Mac OS X with Software Update or Lemke Software's GraphicConverter where a command allows the user to check for occasional minor patches and fixes. What else is this called? Online updating. Remote client updating. IP updating?

That way, minor fixes, like the erratic on/off behavior of the first mode button affecting the 2D Selection Tool, Eyedrop Tool, etc., can be downloaded as they're released instead of having to wait for the next semi-major chunk like 12.5. (Please don't tell me this has never been acknowledged as a bug)

[P Retondo]

Okay Ken, you got me. What is the erratic behavior? "u" toggles stretch mode on/off, right?

Having minor updates sounds like a good idea, but I wonder if NNA can afford to do it with the testing involved. If it's economically feasible, it would save us all a lot of headaches.

[Ken]

These were the first problems I noticed after upgrading to 12:

1. 2D Selection tool stretch mode (toggled on/off with the U key) would sometimes be on, sometimes off -- erratic as I go about regular drafting. Too often I have to press the U key to get it back to "on." In regular drafting I take full advantage of all the keyboard shortcuts including V for zoom-out (with U toggled for its Interactive mode) AND also C for zoom-in (both tools used together, one in marquee mode, the other in interactive), plus temporarily pressing the space bar to pan and to go to other tools, etc., in rapid succession.

2. Eyedrop tool is called by pressing Option-E. The option modifier key (this is on a Mac) toggles temporarily to put-down when it would otherwise be pick-up by default. But the mode is erratically one or the other without consistency. Now I totally forget which is default. Sometimes it's put-down sometimes pick-up the first time I call the tool.

FYI, I have confirmed this erratic behavior on a client's machine (new Intel iMac with fresh VW install). Hopefully I'm not the only one taking full advantage of keyboard shortcuts in rapid drafting, which may or may not be the reason these modes are erratic in 12. They were fine in 11.5 and earlier.

[Guest]

Arch.Ken,

Typically, updates/patches are included in maintenance releases. These releases are available for download at various intervals throughout the year. It is not customary for VW to release a series of small patches on a regular daily or weekly basis.

You will find that the VW way of bug fixes is common for the majority of software applications on the market.

[Ken]

Microsoft Office is another example at the forefront, Katie. They provide a separate application called Microsoft AutoUpdate. All I'm wishing for is some quicker availability of minor stuff that is already solved/fixed/improved by your programmers, sitting idle "in the docks" waiting to be shipped out in your next maintenance release.

In other words, for the minor stuff, why make us wait?