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issue issue


ptarmigan

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can s.o remind me how you get a worksheet to show the history stored in issue manager ?

i've got a fully functional title bloc & dwg border arrangement wh works, and is great, and has been a real boon to me since setting it up.

the issue manager dialogue box accessed via the info pal shows the previous issues and obviously gives you the facility to add a new one.

i need a reminder how one can dig that issue history out and display it in a worksheet. it must be simple coz the info is in the file in a v structured way. i just can't fathom how to retrieve it via a worksheet.

ptarmigan

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it is odd how a file can be so littered with so many inaccessible record formats such as the drawing border, that cannot been seen in the resources palette nor, can be purged out. a case of more is less? when i try to make a report of the drawing border record having at least one custom drawing border on a sheet layer, I get no results.

i hope a cunning fox will come along and spill the beans on this issue man.

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The short answer is that the data is stored in a form that can not be easily used in the worksheet database format.

The slighlty longer answer is that you could use a VectorScript to write the same data into worksheet cells, but this would not automatically update when you recalculate the worksheet.

Here are the details.

The issues are stored in a hidden record fomat named 'Issue Data'. The bad part is that there are 200 fields in the record format, four fields each repeated 50 times. The names of the first four fields are 'Note-1', 'Number-1', 'Date-1', and 'Approved-1'. Replace the -1 with -2 to -50 as appropriate.

I was able to set up a database row with a record as the criteria. I then had to manually edit the criteria to 'Issue Data' since hidden records don't show in the list of choices., I could then enter ='Issue Data'.'Date-1' as the formual in a database header row cell and get the data, but I don't know of a worksheet way to get things to align vertically.

If you need more help with this let me know.

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Curieusement, le 'issue data record' appara?t dans le dossier de mani?re intermittente, tout de suite apr?s une ?mission de TOUS les feuilles, en passant par 'l'?mission gestionnaire' des installations. Il ya seulement une courte fen?tre (de temps), dans laquelle l'examiner avant qu'il dispara?t, mais ne vous inqui?tez pas, il suffit de coller le texte =(('Issue Data'.'Note-1')), par example, dans votre base de donn?es cellule. Les r?sultats de cette mise ? jour, m?me si le 'issue data record' pourrait apparemment ?tre absents.

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The issues are stored in a hidden record fomat named 'Issue Data'. The bad part is that there are 200 fields in the record format, four fields each repeated 50 times. The names of the first four fields are 'Note-1', 'Number-1', 'Date-1', and 'Approved-1'. Replace the -1 with -2 to -50 as appropriate.

Dear me. This is extremely bad database design - shocking, in fact. Yours truly has a dynamic database system for versions; each revision just generates a row into the "Revisions" table - with more columns*, but then again, my system is intended for professional designers and big projects where 50 versions can easily be exceeded, when one considers the lifetime of a project from early sketches to as-builts. (A trade secret: two sequences of revisions. One "absolute", the other restarted by stage.)

Anyway, I'm sure Lumberjacks designing McMansions are OK with NNA's system.

EDIT

*) More columns than four (50 x 4)! Not more than 200!

Edited by Petri
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Run a report based on issue data record format and there's no info about the sheet layers or drawings sent

You could circumvent this by individually clicking the dwg border objects for ea sheet layer that u want to issue and then accessing iss man via the OI palette and using the "approval" and "description" form boxes to say something about the drawing no. and revision. That wld work but it's darned clumsy.

Accessing iss man via the OI palette button doesn't implement the issue data record format it wld seem - another peculiarity. The issue data format disappears if you don't access iss man via File>Issue Manager.

What's ndd is something fairly simple whereby iss man picks up a dwg id and a rvsn id maybe via a option select menus w.i iss man. I guess you might have to select the file first w iss man, implying it might store all issue data centrally.

dwg id > rvsn > new issue having specified the dwg file

ptarmigan

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I could of course test this, but I'm lazy and have never used the Issue Management system by NNA... How odd! (Not.)

Multiple drawings from a single VW file, via Sheet Layers. Some are revised, others are not. From ptarmigan's message I gather that this is doable, but only if one uses "drawing borders", whatever they are.

Oh yes, now I remember: they were needed in the Palaeolithic period when you had Blueprints made by a Bureau and the drawings were trimmed by a cutter. (Memo to NNA: today's printers cut the paper automatically.)

But I undigress: this is doable? Sans borders?

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petri,

if you tried using the 'drawing border',

you might find that it actually works fine.

the 'border' can include a title block

customised to suit your graphic standard,

containing the record strings for project/

drawing/revision/issue data

you can toggle the display of the border

itself on + off, define the border width

in from the physical paper size, mask

outside the border etc...

look at the examples in

VW \ libraries \ defaults \ drawing border - title blocks\

i'm beginning to sound like a mac fan boy

so i'll start stopping here...

when getting pissed off with VW one thing i always

try to remember is that i chose it for its flexibility,

graphic capabilities, and importantly, cost...

they are flogging revit here on a never-never basis,

pay for it for 2 years, after which you 'own' it,

but no more 'free upgrades'. about 4 months of revit

payments would pay for VW/A. ie 1/6th of the cost...

i'll cope with a few irritations for that

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Well, Mike - actually "such rigid rules" make life easier for everyone. Since each drawing of a building project is a legal document, I think it is beneficial that drawings adhere to a national standard, not a firm's "graphic standard".

Should I ever need the services of a lawyer (do I have to repeat the reference to California, New Jersey, lawyers and toxic dumps?) I'd hope she or he would concentrate on the content of correspondence, not her or his letterhead. Things like "graphic standards" are one of the reasons why architects are considered useless, but expensive, idiots* in projects. [Censored], [censored], cryin' out loud! Who gives a large rodent's posterior about the [censored], badly designed sorry excuse for a logo, for [censored]s sake!

*) To paraphrase a certain Mr. Lenin. I take that even the esteemed Ms. Katie won't censor comments about Mr. Lenin, although he, too, was a card-carrying totalitarianist. Just a bit too benign for Ms. Katie, wasn't he?

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
there is currently no way to sensibly print out drawing issue history

..except to check the "use revision block" checkbox in the OI palette of the Drawing Border object, and then it prints right on the Drawing Border, where you'd expect it to.

Is there some real problem here, or has Petri just got you all in the throes of his Reality Distortion Field?

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While the use of a custom title block works reasonably well in NNA's system, revisions don't work.

Don't get me wrong: the system is on the right track, does a lot of things in a quite clever way - but since it does not do everything required, it can't be used at all.

Well, it can, but it is silly to do some things "with the system", others "manually", yet others both ways.

Or maybe I'm missing something, like a button which allows one to select/define one's own revision table style.

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Robert

mea culpa b4 i start - it's always v poss that I missed something obvious - but here goes

You cannot, so far as I can see, print off the drawing issue history simply

That's a repeat of what I said b4 so here's some explanation.

It would be great if u could do a worksheet showing all the issues of sheet layers (dwg borders + tit blks) w issue dates and revision

Obviously issue date and number and recipient, revision, and of course sheet no. all have to be correctly related

That's it.

If I'm wrong about this, I'm first to apologise and first to fling my hat and toup? in the air, otherwise it's a pain

Yes, u can do a wksheet based on "issue data" record format but that's pretty clunky

There are other downsides to the "issue data" record format but I won't bother w them now.

ptarmigan

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Some friendly advice to NNA:

Filename: should be inserted automatically.

Date of object update: ditto.

Layer name: this too.

Last revision: as an (automatic) version code in the title block; then at least it would be possible to get the current drawing versions exported to word processing or something.

Global changes should be doable for selected fields.

Revision table should be a symbol & record-based thing as the title block is and able to grow upwards (assuming NNA wants to comply with eg. the SFS-standard). Mapping of user's fields and PIO assumptions should be made easy. (No, "strings" are not easy.)

Resetting the (visible) revision codes while maintaining a "hidden" sequence number is essential in complex projects. I think we all agree that each revision should be a separate data record? It's not that hard, you know!

Finally a little note: in the Issue Manager, there does not seem to be any indication of the layer in question (with Next/Previous -buttons.) While in an ideal world this may not be an issue, in the one I live in, it is.

More later, I hope. Like the big question "how does one generate the current list of drawings across 100 VW files".

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Petri, it seems you're looking for something quite different from a list of user revisions (which are user-controlled and -generated). You seem to be looking for what I would call a drawing journal that is automatically generated by the application on each user action. I may be misreading this, but this seems pretty different from what ptarmigan was looking for.

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No, I'm talking about revisions in the normal user-controlled sense. Nevertheless, things like filename and "last technical update" should be incorporated.

It is anything but exceptional that one needs to clarify and elaborate the entire revision history or at least its turning points. Photocopying the "revision block" of even 200 to 300 drawings and then retyping everything just seems rather silly, doesn't it?

If it is the resetting that causes the confusion:

In Finland we do not send any revised data to anyone without a revision code. (In our firm we have a specific title block style for data exports.) For each stage, we start the letter sequence; however, in our firm we like to keep track of the overall sequence: version D during construction might be version 42 in the entire project.

With my old symbol/record -based drawing register this was quite easy. Then someone introduced sheet layers that can't be referenced and collating a drawing register became impossible.

(I am investigating the possibility of an AppleScript that would "Do Script" for each VW file in a folder (perhaps via Folder Actions?) and generate the data for a drawing register - but I would not mind NNA doing this since I know nothing about AppleScript!

And no, I don't care if it does not work on Windows.)

Oh by the way: I noticed that in some pre-defined title blocks the revision list grows upwards! Could not find the triggering mechanism, though.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Obviously issue date and number and recipient, revision, and of course sheet no. all have to be correctly related

This is straight-forward using a script, but it's most easily written to a text output file rather than a worksheet.

C'mon, Petri. You're always telling us what a good scripter you are, and you apparently have an interest in this. You should be able to do this in your sleep, no?

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C'mon, Petri. You're always telling us what a good scripter you are, and you apparently have an interest in this. You should be able to do this in your sleep, no?

I have it all scripted - 10 years ago! Works just fine and needs only Fundamentals. (Actually, only VW 7.)

Well, I do not have an Issue Manager, so I'd rather that NNA's system would become useful than scripting my own. I'm even willing to provide more (& more detailed) info on the subject.

But I can of course continue to develop & sell mine, so people here do not have to waste their money in Architect or Landmark - or upgrades.

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