Service Pack 3 changelog

[J Lucas]

And the ad/PR hacks at NNA can be held blameless in this decision as it was made by the CTO hack.

I have to say that one of the things I like about Nemetscheck is the un-unified front. It gives the imperssion of an organization that enables its employees to make independent decisons while working toward a common goal.

Edited June 4, 2008 by J Lucas

[brudgers]

I so am glad that umlauts are now fully supported.

The inability to name symbols after metal bands was impeding my workflow.

; )

Edited June 4, 2008 by brudgers

[sig_eigei]

Paul,

Thank you for the update. It's clear a lot of bugs were fixed in this release. I think the forum's frustration was not getting any sense of what the release actually did when it appeared online the first day. I know, in my own case, if VW goes down I can have serious problems with my work so having an idea what to look for in an upgrade, even if only a minimal description, makes me feel more secure as I test out the update. True enough, the brief description about the major changes was sufficient but I think everyone was just expecting that summary at the outset instead of having to beg for it. Thank you for including a part of the bug-fix list as well - it is interesting to see what's happening 'under the hood' and I am glad to see it seems the loss of drawing origin upon reset of a rotated Design Sheet seems to be fixed.

Anyway, I'm off to update now...

[Pharr]

I personally don't disagree (& please forgive my morning sarcasm). I like those details as well, but we are just trying to prioritize the work we do so we are as effective as possible. We'll continue to make those judgments in the future, but your opinions will be considered.

Thanks!

[Guest jkelly]

The information I provided you earlier on returning to SP2 is now out of date. DVDs and previous updaters will now upgrade to SP3 automatically.

If you need to return to SP2 to resolve your issues, please contact me directly via email and we will work something out to ensure you can return to SP2.

[thinkbuild]

My SP3 nightmare

by thinkbuild

I know this is now a bit off topic, but as a second theme running through this thread I have been cataloging my experiences with SP3.

This morning, first arrival in the office, I spent well over an hour backing up, then erasing VW, then re-installing, then re-upgrading with my precious SP2 CD backup. My intention is to return to the promised land of SP2.

And then, twice (!) it put me back in SP3 land. The first time, I thought I had made a mistake, so I went through the whole thing AGAIN. After it happened a second time - really really painful - I checked the board.

I have to say, I am at this moment hugely disappointed. I rarely want to complain, but hey, I followed direct advise as listed on this board by a tech moderator. I know things move quickly, I agree they must, but I don't think it is fair to give advise which is wrong (6/03/08 10:11 AM), then correct it (06/03/08 02:40 PM), then change it AGAIN just over 24 hours later. (06/04/08 05:52 PM).

Frankly, this sucks. And SP3 continues to be unstable, the move bug is so strange.

I really wish that I had been sent a PM or email right away when the information changed, then I wouldn't have lost a good hour and a half this morning. jkelly, I also sent you a message on this directly! Certainly I am concerned about this!

Please, post, once and for all, a way to get back to SP2.

As a suggestion, I also would appreciate it if, during the install/update process, there was a simple check box: upgrade to SP2? upgrade to SP3? etc. Then we are given back control and not carried along for a ride.

OK enough rant.

I have to say though, I really like VW. And I deeply appreciate Paul's attention on this form. I think this is just a (speed) bump.

[billtheia]

I'm really sorry that people have been having trouble with SP3.

Just wanted to note that I've been using it for a few days now and have not yet noticed any of the problems mentioned.

I'm running OS X 10.4.11 (not 10.5.x,) though.

Thanks BTW to thinkbuild - I didn't know that I could make a copy when moving by points by holding the option key.

Hope that all those who are having trouble find sanity soon.

[Guest jkelly]

This morning, first arrival in the office, I spent well over an hour backing up, then erasing VW, then re-installing, then re-upgrading with my precious SP2 CD backup. My intention is to return to the promised land of SP2.

And then, twice (!) it put me back in SP3 land. The first time, I thought I had made a mistake, so I went through the whole thing AGAIN. After it happened a second time - really really painful - I checked the board.

I related this to you in response to your PM, but I'll also put it here so everyone else can see it, the proper method to return to SP2 is to reinstall from the DVD, without checking for updates (because of course that will give you SP3), and then download the SP2 updater again from our website and apply it. Of course, one should delete your existing application folder before beginning this process.

I'll note that the normal behavior of an SP2 updater will be to update to SP3. We've altered that for this situation. If you are reading this, and you try that, and it doesn't work, that probably means we've returned the SP2 updaters to their normal behavior. That means you should contact me (email is better than PM) so we can work something out. Of course, we may just leave the SP2 updaters updating to SP2 if more people have issues. Right now, this is the only request to go back we've seen.

I have to say, I am at this moment hugely disappointed. I rarely want to complain, but hey, I followed direct advise as listed on this board by a tech moderator. I know things move quickly, I agree they must, but I don't think it is fair to give advise which is wrong (6/03/08 10:11 AM), then correct it (06/03/08 02:40 PM), then change it AGAIN just over 24 hours later. (06/04/08 05:52 PM).

Well again, I don't think there has been a change in what I was saying at all the first time. I merely pointed out that it was incorrect to interpret what I was saying as the ability to downgrade. The second change was part of a normal effort to get most people to SP3. It's unfortunate that this ended up wasting your time, and I'm sorry for that.

Frankly, this sucks. And SP3 continues to be unstable, the move bug is so strange.

I really wish that I had been sent a PM or email right away when the information changed, then I wouldn't have lost a good hour and a half this morning. jkelly, I also sent you a message on this directly! Certainly I am concerned about this!

I didn't send you a PM initially for two reasons. One, I'd like everyone to be able to see our progress in resolving your issue, in case someone else has the same problem. Two, by default the forum doesn't send you a message when you receive in PM, so it wouldn't necessarily have notified you any faster. I can't even change it to get it to notify me of new PMs when I try, so I didn't expect you to have it set to do that. And finally, I didn't email you because I don't see an email address specified in your account.

As a suggestion, I also would appreciate it if, during the install/update process, there was a simple check box: upgrade to SP2? upgrade to SP3? etc. Then we are given back control and not carried along for a ride.

Actually, this is one of the changes that is slated for 2009. As I said before, I don't see the ability to downgrade any time in the near future, but updaters that give you options on what service pack to upgrade to will probably be here for 2009. Obviously, that doesn't help you a lot. But it's a non-trivial change both to our back-end infrastructure and our installer front-ends, so unfortunately it won't be seen on 2008.

I have to say though, I really like VW. And I deeply appreciate Paul's attention on this form. I think this is just a (speed) bump.

What about my attention?

[Guest jkelly]

Oh, and as a follow-on, I again encourage you to file bugs or work with tech-support on the issues you are seeing with SP3. The feedback can go a long way towards improving the product.

[Chris D]

Here is the unedited list - I hope it proves useful and brings back your confidence. [if I included the full descriptions, this document would run 50 printed pages.]

B059244 unneccessary regen - on Viewport - when opening old WGR dialog

B061104 Heavily referenced document has issues.

B061887 OpenGL creating strange artifacts when rendering extruded objects

B062347 There is a trouble ?i Round Wall ?jM&W .

My eyes hurt.

Anyone find anything compelling in this list, or should I wait until the bugs are ironed out?

[brudgers]

Support for dwg on 64bit Windows.

[gScott]

paul

thanks for publishing that list. it's clear

that a lot of bugs are being sorted out, and

reading between the numbers, it

appears that in that list alone, hundreds

aren't...

the old lists weren't a lot more than that,

but they did note what version the bug was

reported in, + in which version it was fixed.

e.g.

bug.............reported in.........fixed in:

=============================================

stair tool........8.0.0.01..........15.5.6.7

doesn't work

=============================================

for me the value of having a list would help

weigh up the gains to be had by installing an

upgrade against the pain of having to re-customise

everything to get it all back to how i like to

work. in particular, if something really important

to me was fixed <>

i would jump for it, umlauts? probably not...

i'm also impressed with the snippy tone,

thanks for helping me stretch my imagination.

[Chad McNeely]

"We are committed to providing continual improvements of our software based on user-feedback and internal testing. With this update, we focused on enhancing the behavior of referenced files in rotated plan, custom user origins, and design layer viewports when used in combination with each other," explains Paul Pharr, Chief Technology Officer for Nemetschek North America.

This quote (and a review of the list later provided) suggests the bulk of the effort went toward fixing the new features, as well as typo-level glitches, rather than making existing core features (wall joins, roofs, DTM's, solids, stairs,) work correctly.

Bummer.

[Thom]

Heck, they have not even fixed some of the simple bugs that have been identified since day one of version 2008 - ie plant worksheets - need to change botanical to Latin, so we do not need to do it manually to get the worksheet to function properly.

Only slight frustrated.

Otherwise this is a much better program then AC. Their bug issues make ours seem minor.

[billtheia]

...the bulk of the effort went toward fixing the new features, as well as typo-level glitches, rather than making existing core features (wall joins, roofs, DTM's, solids, stairs,) work correctly.

Bummer.

Agreed - bummer.

I really don't understand why NNA doesn't seem to put any energy into things like the wall, stair, window, and door tools.

Is it that the architectural segment of VW's audience is so small that NNA can't justify committing resources to it?

Does anyone know what percentage of VW sales is on Architect or Designer purchased by architects?

[Dieter @ DWorks]

Oh my god, they released VW2009 months ago! And still no info

B065458 Vectorworks 2009 error message.