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Screen Scrolling


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An operational detail which has been changed in V9, is the way the screen automatically scrolls when creating objects. So, drawing a line off the edge of the window automatically brings new terrain into view.

It used to be that dragging the cursor off the edge scrolled the screen. Now, dragging the curson off the edge does not scroll the screen. Instead one must place the cursor in a particular (small) region for the scrolling to occur.

Quick bold movements used to work and no longer do. Now, I have to get the cursor in just the right spot, not too far one way or the other. Now I overshoot and undershoot. So I have to slow down the motion to make things work.

I regret to report that this looks to me like another example of some change that must have been seen as an improvement but in fact slows down the workflow. The cummulative effect of all these improvements is, for me, reduced productivity.

Don't get me wrong, this program is on balance a very good CAD program. But I would like it to be a great program (it's got the right DNA) and the difference is, I think, in the subtle details of operation. These difficulties are not enough to compell me to return to 8.5, but in some ways working with the old version was more fun because I could really fly with it.

Another oddity about the scrolling I've noticed, is that if a save reminder comes up in the course of creating a polygon, dragging the cursor to the "magic zone" does not scroll the screen at all. It is necessary to abandon the object and start over.

Regards,

Donald

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Note that you can still use the old autoscrolling behavior if you drag the mouse outside the window. By "drag" I mean "move the mouse while holding the mouse button down."

Example:

1. Select the line tool.

2. With the cursor somewhere inside the document window, press the mouse button and hold it down.

3. With the button held down, move the cursor outside the window.

4. Observe that the window autoscrolls as it did in previous versions.

The new behavior (autoscrolling using the window border) isn't an arbitrary change; it lets you do useful things with the mouse while you're in the middle of drawing an object. You can now start drawing an object and then move palettes, move or resize the document window, change attributes, change drawing constraints, enter a field of the data bar by clicking in it, use the scroll bars, change views, and even set the origin. If the document were to autoscroll every time the mouse moved outside the window, those things wouldn't be possible. Still, we knew that some folks really liked the old behavior, so we tried to keep it as an option. That's why it works when the mouse is dragged outside the window. (And that dovetails nicely with the new behavior, because in order to do any of those things I mentioned you'd have to first let go of the mouse button anyway.)

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Caleb,

If it worked as you said, then I never would have frothed at the mouth. With the mac version, and click click drawing, it will *not* scroll once I go outside the window. A bug perhaps?

Since starting this thread I have started to use the new modes and I find they work better than autoscrolling simply because I can cover more screen real estate in less time.

Donald

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Right ? drawing in click-click style won't get you the old behavior. As I said before, you need to drag the mouse outside the window. That means that you must hold the mouse button down as you move the mouse outside the window. Note that it doesn't matter whether you've got your VectorWorks Preferences set to click-click or click-drag mode: you still need to drag that mouse to get autoscrolling with the mouse outside the window.

Another example: using the 2D selection tool, drag a marquee around some objects. If you move the mouse outside the window as you do this, you should see the old autoscrolling behavior. If you don't, please let us know.

This does represent a change from VectorWorks 8 in that you must hold the mouse button down. But I think the new capabilities more than make up for the change, and I'm glad to see that you're finding them useful.

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  • 17 years later...

I have the same problem.  It used to autoscroll when you moved the mouse way off the screen.  Now it's very particular as to when it will and will not autoscroll.  I upgraded to 2019 from 2016, so I'm not sure when this changed, but I'd like it to go back to the way it was...

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