Basic Beginners Help - Symbols

[DE-Tech]

Hi All,

I have finally taken the plunge and purchased Vectorworks Architect 2013. After 13 years of working on AutoCAD I thought I was adjusting to it quite well but I appear to have run up against a basic problem in creating symbols.

If I draw a circle which has a "by class" line colour and "by class" fill pattern and move it to another class it takes on the properties of that class. All OK there. However, if I turn that circle into a symbol and move it to another class the line colour and fill properties stay with the settings from the class on which it was created on (None)! Is there a way of getting symbols to take on class properties?

Also, is there a way of breaking the symbol back into its component parts?

Cheers

[GWS]

You can turn a symbol into its component parts by going to the modify menu Modify>Convert to group>Ungroup.

If you double click on the symbol you should be in edit mode where you can re-assign the class

Edited November 3, 2012 by GWS

[Jonathan Pickup]

I have made several movies on creating and editing symbols

http://learn.archoncad.com/2011/05/4114/epodcast128-symbols/

http://learn.archoncad.com/2010/10/3830/beginnercast025-what-is-a-symbol/

http://learn.archoncad.com/2008/08/1894/epodcast064-making-symbols-for-architects-and-designers/

[mike m oz]

You can't override the graphic attributes of Symbols in Vw. They are what they were when you created the Symbol. If you convert a Symbol to a Group (ie. drawn objects) then you can.

Symbols have a Convert to Group insertion option. This can be check marked when you create the symbol or you can apply it to existing symbol definitions by editing and changing their insertion options.

Note: if you edit a Symbol and change its graphic attributes that will change every Symbol instance of it in the same way. If the Symbol has been converted to a Group it will not be affected by the Symbol edit.