Grouping classes so you can turn multiple classes on / off with 1 click

[Sam Lee]

Im running vwx fundamentals 2008, and some of our drawings are getting very class heavy, to the point were we are having to spend 5 minutes turning off tons of stuff to get the view we want.

Coming from a Photoshop background, im aware you can put you classes (or in Photoshops case layers) in folders and then turn those folders on / off, at which point all of the folders children turn on / off.

The grouped class structure could look something like this (below), so for instance with one click you could turn off 'Structural' and the walls, windows, doors classes would all turn off.

Classes :

Structural

• 
  
• walls
  
• doors
  
• windows
  

Furniture

• 
  
• sofa
  
• chairs
  
• tables
  

Notes / Dims

• 
  
• dims
  
• construction notes
  
• decs notes
  

Is this possible to do in Vectorworks either in fundamentals 2008 or later versions ?

Edited April 30, 2013 by LLI Design

[Dieter @ DWorks]

You can also use saved views and only save the class settings....

[Bruce Kieffer]

It is new in VW 2013. Hierarchical Classes.

[Nicholas Kargel]

Just found a reason to upgrade to 2013. Although I try to keep classes in check.

In previous versions, if you name class with a hyphen, it will nest in the drop down (but not the navigation pallet). Using multiple selection should allow you to turn multiple classes on and off together.

[Bruce Kieffer]

Yes, you can turn off all the sub-classes with one click of the header class. This is nice, but naming and creating the sub classes needs improvement. That's been discussed on the wish list.

[patmanley]

Thanks for posting this, Bruce!

Everything I do that involves importing AutoCad drawings from multiple sources, by multiple authors, requires that all the classes be turned on ALL THE TIME.

This is a huge timesaver for me for what should have been a simple option on previous versions.

Thanks,

Pat

[Benson Shaw]

In case you did not discover this already:

Reset ALL classes at once to Visible, Grey, or Invisible by option clicking anywhere in the corresponding the Nav Palette class column.

Make a Saved View of any class/layer setting you plan to view again before you do the option click! You may run out of undos before you get back to it.

-B

[Hippocode]

What I don't like about the grouped classes is that when you change the visibility of a group, it changes all the sub classes the same way, I hoped it would overwrite instead.

A vis

A1 vis

A2 not vis

A3 grey

If I want to turn all the classes A unvisible for a small period, I have to reset each setting of each subclass afterwards??

Edited May 19, 2013 by hippothamus