Viewport workflow improvments

[grant_PD]

Here's a quick one I did yesterday, total time from phone conversation to emailing the pdf....5 minutes.

I usually don't do the "sketchup" style dimensioning, but it has it's usefulness in a quick situation like this one.

But there are some things about this drawing that I really wish VW could improve upon:

1- Please let us save viewport render settings. I really only use a few set ups (hidden line + white model, dashed hidden line + white model). I want to be able to save them, I want to be able to eye dropper them from viewport to viewport. That would be a huge timesaver.

2-The dimensions look ragged. I know this is because of the white model rendering effect. I don't care. I can't see a reason why a dimension should ever be considered in a rendering solution, so please, omit the dimension class from the rendering engines' raytracer.

3-I took the time to trace a heavier weight line around the object. It's important to me to get that border to pop in a lot of drawings. I don't want to take the time to do it, I want VW to have some method whereby I can get an outline of an object quickly, from inside the viewport.

4-There are only two types of annotations in this viewport: dimensions and callouts. Dimensions default to the dimension class, and so I never worry about them. They always look consistent. Love that. Why can't I set callouts or any other tool to default to a certain class? I have a custom class I call "labels" which has the lineweight fill etc set just the way I want for all things annotation that are not dimensions, but if I don't make that class active when I'm working in the viewport, it's all for nothing.

At the end of the day, I really want a product where I can set up the workflow step by step, beginning to end, and then forget about it. Each repeated step that I have to do slows me down, increases the chance for error. Repeated steps are why we invented computers in the first place, they are better left to machines than humans. I find the viewport/annotation/crop thing great, because I have painful memories of VW before it had viewports. But I am looking ahead to a better version. If I was not a user, and saw a demo from a sales person that incorporated these changes I listed above, I would be hooked no questions asked. The simple reason is that I would immediately see the savings in time that VW offered me, coupled with the quality and consistency of the end product: THE DRAWING. The thing that the client pays for.

[PVA - Admin]

1) This has been on the list for awhile, I'll add this post to it.

2) I see this here too. It can be slightly mitigated by increasing the DPI of the sheet layer (which slows everything down unnecessarily, since 300DPI is fine for most 3D objects and 1200DPI+ is required to start improving the dimension lines), but still is obviously jagged or doubled, especially when using a Renderworks mode as the background and Hidden Line as the foreground. Submitting this request now.

3) Submitting a request for controllable edge line weight per-object for Hidden Line renderings.

4) Pretty sure I have seen this request recently, control for a default class for callout objects, but if it hasn't been submitted recently I will do so now.

We have to add these kinds of functionality item by item. They become part of the application via posts like this and feature requests that we process here.

Unfortunately it isn't possible to predict completely what all users will want or need, (unlike in simpler applications like video games, where there are strict limits imposed for users to remain within) components have to be discussed, reviewed and then ironed out one at a time until the end product shines.

[grant_PD]

Understood and thank you.

It's true that we as humans are unpredictable creatures.

I do think that VW needs to take a look at it's functionality with a present day point of view. All of the pieces are there, but unfortunately the ease of getting to that functionality is lacking. Perhaps it's from 20 yrs of CAD drafting, but I no longer want to scroll through classes and layers and whatnot to get my settings right. I want to run a macro and have it all done for me. There's no way to create an actionscript like photoshop.

[PVA - Admin]

I agree. It had become sort of a "we have always done it this way" mindset in a lot of aspects here, which luckily have finally begun to be shaken loose.

I personally am in the more "radical" mindset in thinking that time would be wisely spent going back over the nearly 30 years (!) of features Vectorworks has with a sledgehammer, knocking out outmoded UI elements and workflows and simply replacing them with more efficient and automated methods, at the expense of adding "new" features. But there are some who feel we should take a slower and more deliberate pace and continue new feature additions while improving the older components at the same time.

This second mindset mainly comes from the massive influx of complaints that come from any changes made at all to the UI. I think you would be surprised how much resistance from a huge section of our users there is to even a minor change.

Then you have the majority that fall somewhere in the middle. I can't go into details of course, but things to seem to be taking turns for the better here. More eyes and ears are open than previously and I am seeing much faster response to feedback than I did historically.

[Kevin McAllister]

I vote for the sledgehammer +1

KM

[Kevin McAllister]

And of course for all of Grant's suggestions. I use a similar workflow.

KM

[Kizza]

But there are some who feel we should take a slower and more deliberate pace and continue new feature additions while improving the older components at the same time.

Tell em that mindset is why VW is in the predicament it's in today. Very experienced users wishing for items they shouldn't have to in 2014. For example, why is it that certain annotation objects cannot be autoclassed?

I agree with Grant, VW has the potential to be great.

But the current status quo reveals otherwise.

R&D and the programming engineers have their work cut out, thats for sure. Ban leave, approve overtime and cut the excuses...lets see some results.

[PVA - Admin]

I'll make sure these opinions are conveyed.

If I had the power to make the decisions directly... well, then I would be driving a much nicer car.