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Coordinate Fields


zoomer

Question

Some Objects like Walls or 2D elements have their position show in the OIP.

These positions can be even edited. That is great.

Pity, many other Objects don't have that Info in OIP.

At the bottom of the View Window there are Fields that show World and Relative

XYZ coordinates instead. You can also snap to a point and read its coordinates.

So these Coordinate Fields are quite important.

Therefore I wish :

1.

Keep these fields fixed.

So that VW doesn't hide or overwrite these by Render Progress Bars or

"File saved successfully" messages.

2.

With 2016 Palette Docking these Coordinate Fields moved even further

out of Focus since they moved to the total right end under the right

Palette Docking Row. F.e. put them in the middle of the view window

bottom or similar.

3.

Give these a proper Size according to their Importance.

It feels even smaller in 2016 since decreasing the view border size.

4.

If possible make these Fields editable like in C4D

5.

To make it better understanding, keep the Z Value even in 2D also.

Just gray it or fill it with "------"

Or why not let it even active as an option to make users able to overwrite

Z-position even in a 2D view, if a user want to overwrite it.

Edited by zoomer
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Good ideas.

In reality every object that's not a screen object could have x,y,z in the OIP. Even screen objects could just have an "S" in the z field.

KM

+1

An indicator of Screen would be great in OIP and even drawing window highlight color or selection handle color or something to let me know. I use screen sparingly, but sometimes I forget or fail to convert to layer/3d plane. Then things go wonky in a new view orientation..

-B

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Good ideas.

In reality every object that's not a screen object could have x,y,z in the OIP. Even screen objects could just have an "S" in the z field.

KM

+1

An indicator of Screen would be great in OIP and even drawing window highlight color or selection handle color or something to let me know. I use screen sparingly, but sometimes I forget or fail to convert to layer/3d plane. Then things go wonky in a new view orientation..

-B

++1

Currently I avoid using the Screen plane altogether because of this issue even though it could be useful at times..

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[

Currently I avoid using the Screen plane altogether because of this issue even though it could be useful at times..

I avoid that too.

Still did not get why screen plane needed at all.

Do 3D, make a (2D) view port and all your labels, annotations, ... will be

"screen plane" anyway.

How ever,

many people have the problem that 2D element creation will not stay reliable to

Layer Plane, even when set to Layer plane only in VW preferences.

Same as setting Attribute Palette to by Class Only when no element is selected

and Use Class Settings, will not hold Attribute Palette from switching to local

assignment when creating objects from time to time.

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  • 0

+1

Additionally, I have often found with the Offset distance text box (on the tool bar) will cut off the dimension. This was also the case in Vw2015.

If you input an offset distance of say, 155'-10 1/2", the Offset distance text box will only show 10 1/2". If you click in the box you can scroll or cursor up to see the 155', but you can't see it all in one line.

This for me is a big pain: Make the the text boxes large enough to see the number.

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5.

To make it better understanding, keep the Z Value even in 2D also.

Jut gray it or fill it with "------"

Or why not let it even active as an option to make users able to overwrite

Z-position even in a 2D view, if a user want to overwrite it.

With Layer Elevation, we even have 2d top plan objects with z values, so that field could be valuable if left active. Maybe a color to indicate non default ground plane?

-B

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5.

To make it better understanding, keep the Z Value even in 2D also.

Jut gray it or fill it with "------"

Or why not let it even active as an option to make users able to overwrite

Z-position even in a 2D view, if a user want to overwrite it.

With Layer Elevation, we even have 2d top plan objects with z values, so that field could be valuable if left active. Maybe a color to indicate non default ground plane?

-B

Well, I move these 2D things along Z axis with Move by Points or Selection Tool

all day long anyway.

As for the Layer Elevation, I look at the Coordinate Fields, there are 2 sets.

XYZ and X'Y'Z' one give the world coordinates, the second the coordinates

relative to the Story Height - or vice versa.

But why just a shy color indicator and not simply add a strong Z Value to the

existing 2D XY indicators already available in OIP.

So it would bring more consistence and the 2D fans could recognize and

repair when something went wrong.

Just kidding.

Color Indicator is good.

Edited by zoomer
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Still did not get why screen plane needed at all.

Do 3D, make a (2D) view port and all your labels, annotations, ... will be

"screen plane" anyway.

I work only in 3D in the design layers and mostly work with Layer Plane turned off. I hate it with a passion because its so poorly implemented. The biggest problem is that the snaps are terrible in orthogonal views (front, back, left, right, bottom, top). Its always trying to snap into or out of the screen which you don't really want to do in a true view. It also has a hard time creating snaps where lines visually intersect which you often want as guides. I draw 2d guide lines to work to or within and screen plane objects are much more reliable and the snaps work.

You only need to turn layer plane mode on and edit a solid addition inside a symbol in a true orthogonal view to see how broken it really is.... If this were fixed I wouldn't really need screen plane either but it remains eternally broken. (Rhino works like Layer Plane mode and I've never had a problem there. The snaps are just so much better.)

KM

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Still did not get why screen plane needed at all.

Do 3D, make a (2D) view port and all your labels, annotations, ... will be

"screen plane" anyway.

Screen plane is a remnant from the old version as it was the only plane available. At some point (Vectorworks 12 (not 2012) or later) layer plane got introduced for improving 3D user experience and to allow to use 2D tools/objects in 3D space (if I recall correctly) the old way was then called Screen Plane.

Before the introduction of layer plane 2D and 3D were strictly separate.

I guess it is still there for compatibility with older versions of Vectorworks (e.g. Minicad 7) which only have "screen plane"

Edited by Art V
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You only need to turn layer plane mode on and edit a solid addition inside a symbol in a true orthogonal view to see how broken it really is.... If this were fixed I wouldn't really need screen plane either but it remains eternally broken. (Rhino works like Layer Plane mode and I've never had a problem there. The snaps are just so much better.)

KM

I agree that snapping in 3D is less than optimal :crazy:

There was a wish list request recently for improved 3D snapping so I hope that will be implemented in the next version.

That being said, I do use 2D backgrounds (plans/maps) combined with 3D objects to give at least some idea of the surroundings without having to recreate those things in 3D too. For that layer plane is really useful as in screen plane that does not work well by default without turning all objects into 3D objects first.

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OK, so there isn't any need to set screen+layer plane on anytime.

Yes, Snapping isn't able to f.e. find intersections between 2D+3D objects.

And for me it is also very important in true 2D "3D" views to not jump in

3D depth at any time. 3DSMax called it 2.5D snap.

Just a limitation on the 2 axis you will see in an orthogonal view, but snapping

to objects at an other level of course.

F.e., the band measure tool is unusable without always using the "T" key.

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