Viewports - New user

[edmal]

Hi

I'm a new user sole trader so any help would be really appreciated running Landmark VW14.

I need to produce several viewports on different sheets as I am preparing a detailed landscape design over a 14Ha site.

One of the issues im encountering is when I create a viewport on a sheet and then go to the sheet the viewport is nowhere to be seen . When I zoom out it appears way way off the page in the 2 oclock position. I then am struggling to resize and centre on the drawing sheet.

Why is it not coming in central on the sheet ?

Thanks Again

Ed

[PVA - Admin]

It depends what scale you were at when you created the viewport, if youre at something like 1:1 it would make a real-size viewport which would be extremely large compared to the page area on a sheet layer. However, you can change its scale after creating it and then in the Object Info palette, set its X and Y coordinates to 0 and 0, which should move it right to the page.

[cberg]

There are many, many quirks to Vectorworks!

I've never known why viewports appear nowhere near the sheet when you create them, but that is what seems to happen.

The trick I've learned is the following:

1. Once the viewport is created, immediately cut the viewport by typing (Command+X or Control+X) or by accessing these commands using from the edit pull-down menu.

2. Zoom to the page extents.

3. Click down in the middle of the page and paste. (Command+V or Control+V)

[rDesign]

I find drawing a 2D crop box on the Design Layer before creating a Sheet Layer VP works well, see this link from the Help File for instructions:

Vw2015 Help : Creating a Sheet Layer Viewport by Cropping

[edmal]

Thank you for the prompt reply. That worked perfectly.

I'm sure I'll be back with more questions in due course!

[edmal]

and here it is....didnt take long)

So how do you crop a vp once created in the drawing sheet? I see its greyed out in obj info, shape tab ?

[PVA - Admin]

Right click on the viewports geometry on the sheet layer, then choose Edit Crop, it will let you add a crop object.

[edmal]

Bingo...Thank you folks that helps as I need to be on site tomorrow here in the UK!

[Art V]

There are many, many quirks to Vectorworks!

I've never known why viewports appear nowhere near the sheet when you create them, but that is what seems to happen.

If you create a viewport from a crop object it will show up at the same location where you created it.

E.g. if you create a viewport of 200m x 500m at 3 km from the centre of your page (because that is where your objects are located) it will end up at 2km from your page.

It would be nice if viewports would by default center on the centre of the sheet layer page.

[zoomer]

It would be nice if viewports would by default center on the centre of the sheet layer page.

That would not work for me as I have 6x 1:100 Floor Plan SLVP's on

1x A0 Sheet Layer/Paper.

But you can select all of your VP's in Navigation Palette,

Set Selection Center Box to Middle and set both, XY values to 0.000.

Edited October 22, 2015 by zoomer

[Art V]

Yes, that is an option, but then this would basically be the same as you are suggesting.

In my case I often have viewports ending up 10+ to 100+ km away from the centre of the page depending on the area of which I need to make viewports.

If it would be an option when creating the viewport to have it center on the sheet layer page centre then that would work for me as well.

[zoomer]

An options would be ok for me.

But if you say your Viewports will be hundreds of kilometers away,

that would mean you geometry is too - which is not so ideal.

Do you have projects where you have to access these distances at

all the time or would a Custom User Origin be possible.

(Pity it moves the geometry if you edit it after your geometry is in)

Or referenced geometry for the file to set viewports ?

[zoomer]

On the other hand,

you can set the Sheet Layer XY to be far away the same amount too.

(Not sure what hidden problems may occur though)

Just want to repeat,

a "Center VP" option is ok for me

[Art V]

But if you say your Viewports will be hundreds of kilometers away, that would mean you geometry is too - which is not so ideal.

Do you have projects where you have to access these distances at all the time or would a Custom User Origin be possible.

(Pity it moves the geometry if you edit it after your geometry is in)

Or referenced geometry for the file to set viewports ?

For example, when working on georeferenced data and using the UTM coordinate system then typically your X (Easting) coordinate will be 300-700+ km from your origin. The Y (Northing/Southing) will be relative to the equator or the south pole. In the case of being below the equator your Y coordinate will be 1000+ km at the least.

This means that when you have to work AT real world coordinates because the source material is listing coordinates to be set out you have no option than to be at hundreds of kilometres away from your origin, at least for what I am doing. In such cases my "work area" can be 10+ square kilometres.

So yes, for me an automatic centring of viewports on a sheet layer page would be quite useful.

Edited October 22, 2015 by Art V

[zoomer]

OK.

I have no clue about georeferenced data.

I just get Reference DWG's that are 45000 or so kilometers away.

But my projects are small enough that my my actual Drawing Areas are

always just as small as 1-3 km.

In this case I read the coordinates of a suitable point, like a grid crossing,

create a new file, set User Origin in the opposite direction like -45000 km

for all related Files and reimport the DWG's.

This way I work in VW directly at the Origin and everything including Viewports

runs smooth.

If I export again, everything stays at is position far away.

(which can be annoying if you export DXF/DWG to a 3D packages anyway.

Good that FBX and C4D use the internal Origin))

[Art V]

For "plain" dwg files your method should work fine.

The issue with georeferenced data is projection, objects can be set to not reproject, or reproject individually or as a whole.

Which means that upon import of data (e.g. shapefiles) the objects may change shape depending on settings etc. Most of the time the change is small but it does matter. Which is why resetting coordinate origins etc. as you described is not recommended as it introduces the risk for errors when exporting back to shapefiles.

I used to reset origins in the past before I got into the GIS stuff, since then I prefer not to mess with origins, also because in the past versions Vectorworks had issues with changed origins and shapefiles.

[zoomer]

I understand.

So I better refuse any files when being georeferenced

[Art V]

I understand.

So I better refuse any files when being georeferenced

That might be an option to play safe :grin:

With DWG files it is only since recent years that georeferencing info can be stored in the file for plain dwg files (i.e. not AutoCAD Map or AutoCAD Civil generated dwg files) and it depends on both sides whether that information will be read by the importing program (e.g. Vectorworks) or not.

Shape files (SHP, ArcGIS) should be considered to be georeferenced, though it is possible to botch those files if an administrative assistant forwards it without the associated files (like forwarding a dwg file without the associated xrefs).

Once you start working with GIS files it will be fun and "fun"