Mysterious classes

[JennieYeung]

I am using Chinese VW2013.

Mysterious classes are often automatically introduced, any way to control them?

Comical ones include a class named ?Window? was introduced before I even put anything into the drawing, i.e. a completely blank document. And when I plug in lighting instrument, classes with English names are introduced - ?Clamp? and ?None? are there twice, once in English and once in Chinese. The symbol only responds to English classes.

In the case of imported files from DWG, it can be in the order of hundred.

[michaelk]

I can't help you with the Chinese classes.

For imported dwgs, don't import them directly into your drawing.

Import the dwg into a blank Vectorworks drawing. Save it. Call it "Import Raw" for this example

In your "real" drawing create a design layer viewport and reference Import Raw. The design layer OIP will have access to all the layers and classes in the DWG, but they won't populate the class structure in your drawing.

hth

mk

[klinzey]

Are you starting from a blank document or from a template? Make sure there is not a Default.sta in your templates folder otherwise that will be your default blank document and may have classes already created.

Clamp and None probably come from the lighting device symbol imported into the document. If you are using symbols from a file that was not translated then the classes and object names are probably still in English.

Vectorworks does not automatically translate names used in the document. Names of resources, classes, layers etc. are kept in what ever language they were originally created.

I would recommend that you contact tech support directly since your issue is with the Chinese translation. Most users on this forum are going to be using the English version and will not be able to replicate your issue.

[JennieYeung]

Thanks.

I got the idea from the VW tech forum, disable "enable auto classing"

http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=190129#Post190129

That is such an option in VW architect, is there something similar in Spotlight??

[michaelk]

You can auto class lighting instruments, but the auto classing feature discussed in that thread is for Landmark and Architect. It puts things like cabinets and irrigation objects into preset classes.

mk

[VincentCuclair]

It sometimes works to rename these classes and then future objects will still be assigned to them though they have changed name (in auto classing).

[JennieYeung]

Can you expand the ?auto class lighting instrument? feature? I cannot find anything on the topic.

I am using the default template when creating lighting files ? ?Spotlight (Metric).sta?.

Is there any way to merge classes together, thinking of merging all the mysterious ones that the file can be cleaner.

[michaelk]

File > Document Settings? > Spotlight Preferences will bring you to the dialog box that controls auto classing lighting instruments. You can either have all lighting instruments go into a specific class or go into a class depending on the value in a field.

Merging classes is a little counter intuitive. Right click on a class and choose "Delete...". A dialog box will pop up and ask if you want to Delete all the objects in that class or reassign them to another class. Choose the second option and you can quickly merge one class into another.

hth

mk

[JennieYeung]

Thanks for quick response.

I tried the method that you suggested, at Spotlight Preference, I set my light device class to be ?window?.

After inserted an ETC lighting device, the OIP showed that the device was in ?window? class. Great! Though, once again classes ?Clamp? and ?None? were generated.

To test, for both layer and class options I picked ?Show/Snap/Modify Others?. In the Navigation Pallet I manually toggled the visibility for ?None? and ?Window?. For the lighting device to be able to be seen, both ?none? and ?window? had to be on, i.e. by setting either one of them to be invisible the device will disappear.

Does it mean that the lighting device belong to both classes??

[michaelk]

Think of the lighting instrument - like all symbols - as a container. A special container that is invisible.

The container obeys the visibility of its class assignment, but not the graphic attributes.

The objects inside the container have their own class assignments. They do obey the graphic attributes of their classes as well as their class visibilities.

So if you set the class of the objects inside the symbol (container) to invisible, they will go invisible. So it's possible to have the container class "visible" but have all the objects in the container invisible. Which makes the symbol seem to be invisible.

Another way to think of it is this: The class of the symbol is like a master visibility switch for the objects in the symbol. If the symbol class is visible, then you can see whatever classes of the objects inside the symbol that are set to be visible.

__________________

The default ETC lighting symbols have a clamp in the clamp class. So that class will always appear the first time you insert a lighting instrument into a drawing.

The None class is in EVERY Vectorworks drawing. It can't be deleted. Yours is a special case with 2 None classes - one in Chinese and one in English.

I suspect that the English None class and English Clamp class come into your documents the same way. There are objects in the lighting symbols assigned to those classes. So they are brought along for the ride. Not sure what is happening with the English Window class. I wouldn't use that class for instruments if I were you. Especially if you ever use a window object, you could get both windows and instruments assigned to the same class.

hth

mk

[JennieYeung]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. It makes sense now!!

[RickR]

Many with AutoCad experience learn that the Vectorworks "None" class is much like "Layer 0". Always keep it on and almost never draw on it. The main exception is for the contents of general purpose symbols.

[JennieYeung]

For a file with three ?none? classes, two in Chinese and one in English, the response from Vectorworks Chinese tech support is,

the first " none " in Chinese was generated when the file was created with CHINESE VW,

the second "None" in English was the generated when the file was opened/worked on using the ENGLISH VW,

The tech support did not go on to the third one. Along with his explanation, I, reasonably assume the class ?none? is generated because the file was subsequently opened in Chinese, i.e. the class ?none? is generated continuously whenever a different languages is used??

Assure you, the tech support there is serious?. You guy appreciate why I come to you for help rather the native language support in the VW package I am using.

[PVA - Admin]

Checked with engineering and this was most likely bundled with an issue with object libraries. The issue should not appear again after Vectorworks 2014.

It was a transitional problem when the object libraries were converted from older versions before the requisite language support existed.

[JennieYeung]

Thanks.

What about the issue with numerous (I mean numerous) empty classes generated for no reason. Some of the names are in both Chinese and

English.

[PVA - Admin]

Should be related, if you still end up with that issue after 2014 let us know.

[JennieYeung]

I still have two none classes with Chinese VW2014 - one in English and one in Chinese.

[PVA - Admin]

This happened in a document created after Vectorworks 2014 SP3? Or was it one that already had the problem in a previous version?

In either case, please send me a file with that issue at tech@vectorworks.net and we will take it up from there.

[JennieYeung]

Both the Chinese and English VW are VW2014 SP2.

According to VW techs it is as design, i.e. VW designs the files to have more than one "none" classes.