Reality check on the latest show pony

[Chris D]

That screenshot of the new Resource Browser is a bit disappointing - I was hoping for a more radical overhaul. Can we have resizable thumbnails and longer descriptions please - if we add codes to our hatch names with a 'friendly' name after the code....we can only see the code part of the name in the current thumbnail view.

Also Wall Types in the resource browser - we make plan and SECTION wall types (with vertical coursing) here, but the browser shows them all horizontal, which looks dumb. Can we have a display option for thumbnails to orient them.

Chris D

[Guest]

Chris,

I'll be sure to add this to the Wish List.

[Guest]

The home button is handy, too. Instead of having to scroll up a long list of favorites to get back to the active document's resources, all you have to do is hit the home button (which is grayed out in the image because the active RB document is the same as the active application document)

[Christiaan]

Yeah I was expecting that dog of a thing to get a modern OS overhaul too, but if these under-the-hood changes had to be prioritised then I prefer that they were.

[Peter van der Elst]

Another reality check for us Fundamental users... Will classifiable wall sections be part of the Fundamentals? When looking at the new features, I'm not quite sure which ones are for the fundamental version. I mean are there enough reasons to upgrade this version as well. How about standard .3ds and .pdf export with fundamentals, etc. ? Could you give any insight in this Katie? Will there be a list available with all changes per version?

Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Peter van der Elst

Bias Architects

Rotterdam, The Netherlands

[Guest]

Peter,

Yes, the features broken down by product will be available Sept 13 on the website.

Classable wall components is part of Fundamentals.

[Petri]

So, Katie, classable wall components do not rely on wall styles?

Clever. Maybe. Probably. On behalf of all non-US users in the field of Architecture (who have little, if any, use for most Architect-features), thank you!

EDIT

Is "classable" a word? Of course, according to Winston Churchill at least, there is not a single word in the English language that cannot be verbed, but I thought the verb is "to classify" and the adverb (?)"classifiable".

Edited September 7, 2007 by Petri

[Guest]

I was misinformed about the classable wall components.

Wall components, and thus classable wall components, is part of Design Series - not Fundamentals.

If you open a file with with classed wall components in Fundamentals, the components will be classed, but you will not be able to edit or add the component class in Fundamentals.

[Peter van der Elst]

@ Katie:

That's too bad. Back to seperate wall it is. I wonder if it will be interesting to upgrade if so many "basic" features will only be part of the design series. I guess I just have to wait for the 13th. Thanks anyway!

regards,

Peter

[Guest]

In my personal opinion, there are many Fundamental-based features worthy of the upgrade. I say that as an NNA rep, but also as a user of the software.

Heads Up Display alone saves me quite a bit of time not only while drafting, but I've noticed it's much easier to teach to new users vs the Data Display bar.

Obj Selection Highlighting is another one I can't live without now. I used to go on man hunts trying to figure out what object I had selected. I often reverted to changing the color of an object and glancing at the Attribute palette to help identify which objects were selected. The visual cue is definitely a nice addition.

Context menu improvements put editing options right at the mouse, so you don't have to go through several different menus and dialogs to get to the "meat and potatoes" of editing.

Move by Points tool, one missed by many AutoCAD convertee's, is another one I couldn't do without after using 2008 for 4 months. You can move and duplicate, and even distribute, objects (even ones in walls) by specifing a distribution spacing line OR a duplicate interval.

The ability to select more than one object in walls is something that cannot be ignored. If anyone is working with objects in walls, I think they will genuinely appreciate the ability to select more than one object within a wall(s) and make universal edits.

DXF/DWG improvements are a must for anyone communicating with associates with this file format. The ability to not only import/export the latest version, but also the ability to export worksheets, makes the demand for this feature a must when working with multiple CAD programs. For shuttle file purposes primarily, you can even append a prefix to all the DXF/DWG layers, so they are not only listed together in the classes drop down and Nav palette, but can quickly be found and deleted if not needed.

That's just a short list.. I can keep going if you want!

[Peter van der Elst]

All right Katie, you've got my attention now! As I said earlier, I just have to wait a little longer, but some teasers are always welcome! The HUD, obj selection highlight, move by points and selection of more then one symbol in a wall all sound great! Could you give any insight on importing more than one image at the time? Is this possible then? This would be a great timesaver for us, since we sometimes use Vectorworks for making presentation books as well!

Thanks again!

Regards,

Peter

[Guest]

Importing multiple images is not yet supported. I'll be sure to add it to the wish list.

[dontevenjoke]

Katie, do you still have the data display bar, or can you rely on the head up display and the OIP. Also, can the data display bar be removed?

[Guest]

Heads up Display will replace the Data Display bar. You can have a shortened (preferred) display, or a long display (with all the fields of the old Data Display bar) visible next to the cursor.

You can disable Heads Up Display and have the "old" function available - but I can tell you from using Heads up Display for the past 4 months, it's hard to go back to the old way. I taught VW 12 a few weeks ago and really saw how much time the new Heads Up Display saved me.

In addition, the display can be off until you want it on - usually by pressing a numeric key - and goes off as soon as you lock in a value. It's pretty nice!

This is one of my personal top 5 features in 2008, easily.

[Guest]

The data display bar is no longer in place, as you know it in VW 12.

Instead, a View bar replaces that area of the screen. The view bar provides quick access to classes, layers, layer scale, magnification, fit to objects/page, stack layers, rendering modes, rotate plan view, and a few other things I'm forgetting at the moment. You have the freedom to customize this bar to turn on / off any of the View Bar components.

I will be in the office tomorrow and I'll post a sneak peek at the interface then.

[Graphite Studios]

Hi Katie:

The heads-up display sounds like a great feature. Does it support input based on mouse gestures/inference (movement in horizontal, vertical, along line, etc.) to determine the appropriate input field? This would be a huge feature for my workflow and greatly enhance my production if a 'smart' feature such as this automatically highlights the appropriate input field based on the direction of the mouse movement, rather than needing to 'tab' to x, y, etc.

Thanks!

Patrick

[Petri]

You have the freedom to customize this bar to turn on / off any of the View Bar components.

Ah-ha! We, the regular crowd, are all in a mood for this kind of melody! Please tell us that tabbing can also be defined by the user!

While the good old Data Bar is quite a nice little local establishment and I've spent countless hours on its sticky carpet, I'd essentially like to place my orders in my preferred sequence, not the way the bar tender likes to make them.

So far shaken, not yet stirred. But I'll be very, very stirred if the music in the View Bar is not to my liking.

[Petri]

More mysteries:

* Global object editing by criteria

* Improved 2D stair graphic

Well, the latter is not actually mysterious, but I would have liked to see

* A completely rewritten stair tool

Obviously we still aren't allowed to have concrete stairs? You know, the ones most fire regulations pretty much require in buildings larger than McMansions. But I digress...

And then

* Stand-alone plant database

By stand-alone, you mean exactly what?

Edited September 8, 2007 by Petri

[Guest]

Bauhaus - I posted a screen shot of the "short" heads up display interface. I think it's under the other 2008 thread. Check it out to get a better picture of what it is - the illustration is what you get when drawing a circle from the center point.

[Guest]

I was going to head in to the office today to get some presentations working, but I had a change of plans. The illustrations (mainly the view bar) I promised to post today won't be posted until Monday since they are at work. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

[Guest]

* Global object editing by criteria

* Improved 2D stair graphic

* Stand-alone plant database

By stand-alone, you mean exactly what?

Global Object Editing by Criteria:

This is really called Custom Modification. It works similarly to Custom Selection. When you run Custom Modification, you get the same criteria selection dialog (and the option to save the selection as a script) and can select a group of objects - say windows or windows of a certain type of configuration.

Custom Modification goes out and finds / selects all those objects -- regardless of layer / class visibility, layer scale, view.

You are then presented with a Properties dialog where you can change properties of the objects which are similar. In addition, you can globally change the attributes via an attributes button in the properties dialog.

(I'll post an image on Monday)

Improved 2D Stair Graphic:

You get a dashed line representing the portion of the stair beyond the stair break rather than seeing nothing at all.

Stand Alone Plant Database:

This is incredible, and my hat goes off to the engineering team who worked on this.

Prior to VW 2008, you had this text-based database storing all the plant information that typically populates the plant lists / schedules / worksheets.

In 2008, the database is a FileMaker-based databased external to the application. There are a lot of benefits to this, and I can go into them if someone so desires. One is the database can be stored on a server and everyone access the same database, and everyone can provide input into the database.

You don't have to have FileMaker to get this to work, either.

It's also much easier to work with your own databases you have created with the stand alone database.

A few steps better -- you can attach/add movies, images, details, audio clips to a plant database entry. This is nice when you want to add an image to the plan representing the plant - the images are centrally stored for easy and consistent access. You can also store crediting info in the database.

In addition, you can link directly to the internet from the plant database (granted, you are currently connected to the internet) and grab images, audio, movies, details, or other specs from the internet.

I know I'm missing some of the other details of the plant database... I'll post more as I get involved in that part of the presentation.

Edited September 8, 2007 by Katie

[Petri]

Stand Alone Plant Database:

This is incredible, and my hat goes off to the engineering team who worked on this.

Quite impressive indeed. Has someone secretly implemented SQL into VW?

One is the database can be stored on a server and everyone access the same database, and everyone can provide input into the database.

You don't have to have FileMaker to get this to work, either.

AFAIK, with runtime-FileMaker, only one user at a time though.

It's also much easier to work with your own databases you have created with the stand alone database.

Especially if the database structure is not password-protected so you can add your own fields. This of course requires a full version of FileMaker.

In addition, you can link directly to the internet from the plant database (granted, you are currently connected to the internet) and grab images, audio, movies, details, or other specs from the internet.

And this is the show pony section!

Edited September 9, 2007 by Petri

[Petri]

When you run Custom Modification, you get the same criteria selection dialog (and the option to save the selection as a script) and can select a group of objects - say windows or windows of a certain type of configuration.

This does sound not too much different than what we have now. You do a custom selection and use the object info... But maybe there's more - like this potentially dangerous aspect:

Custom Modification goes out and finds / selects all those objects -- regardless of layer / class visibility, layer scale, view.

Not sure if I'd like to see some of "my" users running loose with this loaded Gatling-gun!

Improved 2D Stair Graphic:

You get a dashed line representing the portion of the stair beyond the stair break rather than seeing nothing at all.

Well, this is better than nothing at all, but...

[Christiaan]

Improved 2D Stair Graphic:

You get a dashed line representing the portion of the stair beyond the stair break rather than seeing nothing at all.

Well, this is better than nothing at all, but...

It's still next to useless for us if it hasn't been optimised for multi-storey usage, which includes:

1) 'Height-by-Design Layer' for more than two levels

2) Concrete stair support

3) Ability to independently control left and right handrail offsets and extensions

4) Ability to extend handrail into a landing balustrade in any direction

5) Double line breaks to show mid-level stairs (and *up and down* arrows for the U.S.)

6) Integration of main-landing floors

And that's the problem with parametric tools. If they have minor deficiencies, let alone major ones like the stair, they become unusable.

[islandmon]

In 2008, the database is a FileMaker-based database external to the application

Many Professional Users have integrated VW with Filemaker for years.

This powerful new feature opens the door to exceptional progress with a clear path to integrate... just about everything.

happy camper... happy camper ... where's my tea ....