VW Class equivalent to AutoCAD 0 Layer

[poxod]

Hi-

I'm relatively new to VW, having been using it for about a year. I'm more familiar with AutoCAD and I'm looking to replicate a feature which I used to take advantage of a lot.

In AutoCAD, if you put the lines within a block on the 0 (zero) layer, those lines will take on the display properties of whatever layer the block is inserted on. Lines on the zero layer are like plain vanilla - ready to be flavored by anything. In Vectorworks however, objects always retain the properties of the Class they are drawn in.

In my workflow this has made things quite difficult - hunting down symbols and groups that sometimes end up in Classes they shouldn't be on is difficult, and implementing viewport overrides is much more difficult, since VW gives VISIBILITY priority to the highest element - the group or the symbol, but gives DISPLAY priority to the lowest - the Class the objects are on originally.

If I could only put things in a Class where the lines change appearance depending on what Class their group or symbol is inserted on things would be much easier. Is there any way to do this?

Would posting an example help?

Thanks

Chris

[Pat Stanford]

One of the options in setting Object Attributes is to set them to "Use Class Settings". You can then change the fill, color, line weight etc. of the class and have the objects change.

In the Class Setting dialog box there is check box labeled "Use at Creation" if this is checked, new objects will use the characteristics of that class if it is active.

[poxod]

Thanks for the reply. What I'm looking to do is, rather than have lines take on the properties of the class they are drawn in, have them take on the properties of the class the *symbol they are within* is inserted on.

I'm having trouble finding any mention of any feature like this--guess it doesn't exist?

Chris

[_c_]

Hello,

a symbol is a "container", so it can have a class but not it's attributes. So there is no picking attributes from a symbol.

There is no inheritance of pen and fills to the objects within.

There is nevertheless group-like inheritance of the opacity, which will be additive: if a symbol has opacity of 30% any object within will also be equally transparent (and if within there are other transparent objects, they will be more transparent).

There is also visibility, which is the main reason for classing symbols.

A fast method to draw objects by class is to use the "create similar" tool which will set the active class and all attributes according to the chosen object, but doesn't compel you to draw the picked object type.

In your case:

* pick an existing symbol using the "create similar" tool --> this sets the active class from the symbol

* enter your symbol

* begin drawing what you need

orso

[billtheia]

I, too, struggled with VW's lack of that ACAD feature. However, I have discovered that almost all of my symbols are class-specific (only ever go in one class) so creating the line-work for the symbol on the class in which the symbol will be placed and setting it to "by class" works quite well the vast majority of the time.

For situations where that doesn't work, you could set the insertion options for the symbol to conniver the symbol to a group that could more easily have it's attributes overridden. Or you can simply convert an existing symbol to a group and then move it to the correct class. In most cases, VW will ask if you want To move the objects within the group to the new class.

Good luck.

[mac@stairworks]

If you want to insert a symbol using the attributes in the active class, right click on the symbol/edit/symbol options. In the dialog box, assign to: (check) active class.

[billtheia]

If you want to insert a symbol using the attributes in the active class, right click on the symbol/edit/symbol options. In the dialog box, assign to: (check) active class.

I think that simply inserts the symbol on the active class. It doesn't do anything to the geometry within the symbol.