What is the point of Save Palettes Position?

[ChadL]

I don't understand what this does. I know what it is supposed to do, but it never works. Whenever I switch between 1 screen and 2 screen my palettes are all messed up (this I already know and have talked about on other threads), so I fix them and click 'save palette positions' so that when VW crashes or when I close VW I can reopen to the same positions. It never works, and I have no idea of why or when it saves the positions.

Another thing that is driving me nuts is I cannot get my Resource Browser to open as thumbnails by default. Every time VW crashes (which has been ridiculous lately) it opens in list view, which i can't understand why you would want that.

[PVA - Admin]

Set the resource browser to thumbnail view, then close Vectorworks normally, then re-open it. That should lock in the thumbnail view setting. If it crashes out after you make that change before it closes normally, the change wont be saved. You shouldn't have to do this for the palette positions specifically, but when dealing with crashing out it can help cement the change.

Currently Save Palette Position will work for one monitor, but I have not seen it work here when switching from a one monitor setup to a two monitor setup. There are MANY requests to support this as it is becoming a standard practice. I will add this thread to those requests.

[ChadL]

I do close VW after setting the Resource browser, but that doesn't matter. Everytime it crashes I have to change it no matter how VW was last closed.

I know that there currently is setting for changing between 1 and 2 monitors, but shouldn't the command work if I didn't change my monitor setup. If I saved it with 2 monitors open and VW crashes, shouldn't the save palette position still be good?

[PVA - Admin]

The main problem is that if you're crashing, all bets are off for palette customization being preserved. A lot of the time during the re-launch of Vectorworks, some saved preferences are reset to default or safe settings, in case those settings were what contributed to the crash.

I'm not saying that it is an appropriate behavior, but once a crash occurs there is no guarantee of settings in the UI being preserved. They worked very hard to make the autosave/crash recovery system ensure the integrity of the VWX file itself isn't compromised, (or is compromised at little as possible during a crash,) but those efforts and safeguards do not translate to saving the workspace settings unfortunately.

[ChadL]

So really that command doens't do anything. VW saves all the palette info on an exist anyways. So if VW is operating correctly and you close like normal, saving the palette positions does nothing for you?

[PVA - Admin]

If you use Save Palette Positions and you close Vectorworks normally, the palettes should remain in the same position as before when you reopen. A Save Palette Positions also occurs when you close Vectorworks, but this is how you manually initiate the save.

The real reason for it to exist is so that you can save palette positions manually, as users were annoyed at having to restart Vectorworks to save palette positions when they were changing between workspaces regularly. which used to be the only way to save palette positions.

This is all assuming no crashing and maintaining the same single monitor setup. Support for multiple displays is still in the pipe.

Now if you are using one display, saving positions, closing and reopening Vectorworks without changing displays and it is STILL not saving, then there is an issue with your install and we can have a look if you send the following:

http://kbase.vectorworks.net/questions/627/DirectX+Diagnostics+and+System+Profiler

to tech@vectorworks.net

[Dieter @ DWorks]

IMHO, palette positions should just save automatically on a replacement. The user should not have to worry about restarting VW or running the command to save, hoping it will not crash...

[VincentCuclair]

I have to agree with Chad here, I've never liked the way VWs 'saves' workspace layouts, soon I will be using different screen sizes and layouts again at different locations and I'm dreading the workspace chaos I had a while back.

The way it is now it doesn't matter what settings are set, if you change from one screen to another the auto save function for the workspace on shut down messes up any saved workspace that are present.

What we need is to be able to switch off the auto save palettes positions that is currently in place.

What I want is to set up a workspace for each:

1. MacBook Pro 17"

2. 22" external screen

3. 27" external screen

As it is now when I work on the 17" with the correct workspace close and open VWs on the 22" this causes palettes to jump all over the place and subsequently messing up the 17" workspace....the same for the other screens sizes, exactly as Chad explains. As it is now you need to anticipate before hand what setup you'll be using next time before closing VWs.

What I want is to work on the 17" with the 17" workspace close VWs attach a 22" monitor open VWs choose the correct workspace, work close VWs and the 17" workspace settings to be intact. I pointed this out 5 years ago!

http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=26813&Number=129895#Post129895

[PVA - Admin]

Apparently a lot of the reasons it is lame currently (and it is) are tied to the older Carbon API/QuickTime chunks that are still used for the palette system, which SHOULD be completely wiped out very soon.

FYI, those are some of the same elements that are stopping full 64bit support as well. They are being removed from the application and replaced with modern components as we speak.

I will make sure that a display-aware workspace selection feature in in the request line if it isn't there already, that is much cleaner.

[PVA - Admin]

There was no request specifically about that, created it, made sure to specify automatic monitor detection and make a workspace selection based on that.

[Kevin McAllister]

What I want is to set up a workspace for each:

1. MacBook Pro 17"

2. 22" external screen

3. 27" external screen

I agree it should be possible to set up separate workspaces for each of these. But I would also prefer if you didn't need to. Both C4D and Rhino Mac beta are smart enough to sort it out when you hit the green maximize button on the application window. The drawing area scales up and the tool bars maintain their relationships to it. It makes it very easy to switch between using my laptop screen and my cinema display.

Kevin

[PVA - Admin]

I put in that it should save whatever the palette positions are, and if that needs to be a custom workspace that is saved in the background automatically, so be it, but that the key would be Vectorworks automatically selecting that workspace after detecting which monitors were plugged in during application launch (or ideally, even if the hardware setup changes while a session is already active).

I mean, if they CAN make it all work without having to have Vectorworks create its own custom workspace automatically, all the better, as long as it minimizes (or ideally, removes) effort having to be expended on the part of the user just to get the OIP where they want it when they simply travel from a client demo to their office.

[Shrunken Ned]

BUMP

How are we doing on this? It's been over a year, and this is still a frustrating pain point for me. I (and my co workers) switch between working on mac laptop screen and external monitor many times a day. Every time I dock or undock, I have to take time to rearrange and resize EVERYTHING.

[PVA - Admin]

No changes have been made to this system so far.