Access to the "Help" in the Workspace Editor

[AndiACD]

Once i get to grips with the Workspace Editor i've got to say, i love it. It means i can put things just as, when and where i like them.

i would however very much appreciate the addition of a little button at the foot of the WS panel with word "Help" scrawled across it. Or for it to be accessible with the "?" shortcut.

Why? Well i forget things, not to mention those icons found in the depth of the WS that i've never used or been bothered to find out about and having to exit the Workspace just to go and find out what a Tool you are never going to use does, is, to say the least . . . . . . . .

Annoying!

Previously one received a thousand page Manual that described what you were getting yourself into when the upgrade to VW popped though the letter box, that was fine. one picked up the "Brick" and skimmed through the pages to find out what one was looking for.

Now bricks only come through the window and to know what something does i have to drop the Tool rearrangement to get to the Help.

Please add access to the "Help" to the Workspace Editor.

[Ray Libby]

As a workaround create a shortcut to index.html located in the VWHelp folder in the Vectorworks folder.

[islandmon]

Now bricks only come through the window and to know what something does i have to drop the Tool rearrangement to get to the Help.

geez .. i knew it was gettin pretty bad over there ... but now their rioting in the streets ; )

You make an excellent point ... ideally, every Tool could be linked to it's Help Topic

with the click of a mouse or key-combo ...

why not ?

[AndiACD]

Ray, i found the index.html with no problems, but getting a shortcut to open it up is proving a little more tricky as every attempt the icon is greyed and unaccessible. Both from the OS(thought i might place an icon in the "Dock") or the System Prefs.

And from the workspace i can't even find any reference to help files.

Nevertheless i've set my browser to open a new page with the index so all i have to do is that.

Not Elegant i warrant you, but, it will do. if you can suggest a practical approach to my "Ham Fisted" solution . . . . .

Thanx Ray.

[AndiACD]

Yeah that makes sense too Ed.

As for bricks, generally they remain attached to the buildings they are holding up, but i'd prefer the Ten Tons of Paper that used to accompany MiniCAD and earlier v's of VW.

[mike m oz]

If you open Vw Help in your browser before you start trying to edit a workspace you can access information about each tool or menu command without having to exit the Workspace Editor. You have the 'name' and can access the documentation on it via the Index or Search function.

[brudgers]

There's some sort of problem with the underlying code.

I just tried opening the workspace editor and then hitting (in hopes of making a snarky comment about Macs).

After hitting f1, I get a popup saying:

"Cannot find the c:\....workspace editor.HLP help file. Check to see if the file exists on your disk...."

So the workspace editor isnt calling up the main vectorworks help file (at least in 2008 SP3)...even though the information is there.

Edited May 5, 2009 by brudgers

[mike m oz]

Brudgers comments prompted me to try the F1 key whilst in the Workspace Editor.

It works in Vw2009 but not in Vw2008.

[AndiACD]

That's the one!!!!

Like i said, "i forget things". i had become so used to accessing stuff offered by the "F" keys at the other end of the range, "F1" completely slipped my mind.

i suppose really i should try them all every now and again to see what pops up, but until about 5 years ago i'd given up on them altogether, only recently a few of them seemed to have become of more use to me. To worried about messing something up i guess to assign my own uses.

Thanx Guys, ALL of you . . .

BTW Ben, i was never cool enough for anything much, the above and possession of a red van i think proves that. i just got tired of crashes and taking 3 months to do half a project and 3 weeks to finish the other half on a different platform. i leave it up to the rest of the world to guess what caused this.

Admittedly that was well over 15 years ago.

[AndiACD]

Another thing i just remembered is that on exiting the WS i always get the following:-

The following Plug-ins are not in the Plug-ins folder: RenderWorks Camera

Actually, it is. So how do i stop stupid from making this error all the time?

[Ray Libby]

Remove it in the Workspace editor and add it back. Your workspace is pointing to an older version of Renderworks Camera.

[AndiACD]

Tried that. The Camera is present in the Visualisation list on the right but i can't find it anywhere in the Tools or Menus list on the left. i could understand if it was the other way round.

[mike m oz]

You need to look for Renderworks Camera.

[AndiACD]

Mike it's in the Plug-ins folder but in Workspace Editor only visible in the Visualisation palette on the right hand column. Do i just delete it from there and see if it reappears in the main left hand column of tools/menus?

[mike m oz]

Andrew do you have Renderworks? If you don't that will be why you aren't seeing it.

[AndiACD]

Mike PM in transit . . . .