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SYMBOL TEXT AND RECORDS


HOUCAD

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HOWDY,

I AM NEW TO VECTORWORKS BUT COME FROM 10 YEARS EXPERIENCE USING ADT.

I AM TRYING TO MAKE A SIMPLE DETAIL BUBBLE THAT IS SIMPLY A CIRCLE AND A LINE WITH A NUMBER IN THE CIRCLE. I HAVE MADE THE SYMBOL AND CREATED A RECORD AND ATTACHED THE RECORD TO THE SYMBOL AND ATTACHED THE TEXT TO THE RECORD BUT IT WILL NOT LET ME CHANGE THE TEXT. I WAS THINKING THIS WOULD WORK LIKE THE BORDER TEXT WHERE YOU HAD THE OPTION TO CHANGE THE INFORMATION ATTACHED TO THE SYMBOL. WHAT AM I MISSING?

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You're probably missing ADT.

You cant put text in a symbol and have it work as logic would dictate.

Symbols in Vectorworks cannot be scaled.

You have to create:

a symbol (without text)

a record format

a peice of text.

Then:

attach the record format to the symbol

select both the text and the symbol

menu--->tools--->records--->link text to record

Of course you must know exactly what scale you wish to use it at because the point size of the text will change depending on the layer scale (in other words the text will maintain a fixed height).

So you cannot use the same symbol at two different scales once you incorporate text into it.

Unless you don't care about having a consistent text size.

Edited by brudgers
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Yea I am Missing ADT. I am using it occasionally through VMware on a mac but its not very stable.

Brudgers wrote:

"u have to create:

a symbol (without text)

a record format

a peice of text.

Then:

attach the record format to the symbol

select both the text and the symbol

menu--->tools--->records--->link text to record"

This is what I did but it doesn't give me an option to change the field when I insert it into a drawing. I thought it would work the same way I set up my border and title block where you update the fields from the object info pallet. Maybe I missed something in creating my record. I added the field I needed but it doesn't give me the option to change the field when it is inserted into a drawing.

I am thinking this should work like an attributed block in ADT/ACA. It worked for the border I made but that was a little different.

Thanks for the reply.

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Borders are PIO's.

The functionality is specifically programmed for that object (in an essentailly non-reusable form (as far as the user is concerned)).

Attached records are edited through the data pane of the OIP.

In vectorworks double clicking on an object has inconsistent results due to the PIO paradigm...at best it just depends on what some programmer imagines that architects do.

It's slightly more useful than right clicking, since there is little contextual intelligence in the menu system.

It appears to me that this is just a manifestation of the difference between the hybrid objects of vectorworks and the intelligent objects found in other programs.

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Thank you for the replies.

I have a somewhat related question regarding the drawing label tool.

Is there any way to customize this tool to use a custom style title? It has options for a circle or square circle but is there a way to change the definition of the title? This office uses a different style and I like how this tool works at least how it puts the scale in automatically. I am just curious if stuff like this can be customized.

Also, the title defaults to the drawing file name but I am using it for detail titles as well. Is this tool designed to keep track of section or detail references in a drawing set or is there another tool that does this when you are referencing other sheets or a specific detail on another sheet or is this all manual entry? What I am thinking is that if I have a few sheets of details that reference different sheets and for some reason the referenced sheet numbers change, is there a way to keep track of this and have all the referenced titles update? Wishful thinking? I know Revit does this so I am just curious if it can be done with vector works.

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Thank you for the replies.

I have a somewhat related question regarding the drawing label tool.

Is there any way to customize this tool to use a custom style title?

Not really unless you're into programming and writing your own PIO's.

There might be a few options in the Plug-in editor but certainly nothing which would allow changing the shape options or adding another field.

Bascially, Vectorworks does not incorporate the concept of a profile.

Also, the title defaults to the drawing file name but I am using it for detail titles as well. Is this tool designed to keep track of section or detail references in a drawing set or is there another tool that does this when you are referencing other sheets or a specific detail on another sheet or is this all manual entry?

Pretty much manual entry after the orginal insertion. The scale will adjust, but the lablel will not.

There's no automatic tracking of details (there's really no support for detail composition at all). The exception to the detail tracking is with section line object.

The section line object will fill in the "item" with the name of the veiwport object, and will fill in the "sheet" with the sheet on which the viewport sits.

However, for me this is completely useless.

First, I label details "A," "B," etc. But vectorworks does not allow two objects to share the same name (or at least two sheet layer viewports).

Second, I label my sheet layers with descriptions such as "A100 First Floor Life Safety Plan." To many architects the reasons for doing may be obvious.

Alas, this is not what I want to appear in the Section line object. The reasons for this should be obvious to anyone, but apparently aren't to the good folks at NNA.

I tried to create a workaround by naming the viewport with both the detail and the sheet to create a unique name for each e.g. "A/A100," "A/A310," etc.

However, section lines automatically create a lovely dash at their midpoint. Having meaningless extra bold lines smack in the middle of my building is something I try avoid even on my bad days.

Some people suggest to just white it out in each plan viewport using a filled object...

When automatic features require hand crafted workarounds in all viewports...You know the kool-aid is potent.

Oh...did I go off topic?

Edited by brudgers
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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

I am coming back around to this as I am laying out a couple of sheets for a project. Is there no way to at least position the title and scale side by side and adjust the position of the text? I can move both the title and scale together but there doesn't seem to be any other options.

I want to be able to use the automatic scale in a viewport but it seems I will have to only use the scale and do everything else custom.

I decided to just use the number and scale and add my own custom features but there is a line that remains with the bubble that I can't get rid of. I have the bubble style set to none and the line length fixed and set to 0 and there is a line through my detail number. If I set my line length mode to auto fit or control point the line is smaller but I just cant get rid of it. This is nuts.

Edited by HOUCAD
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