Formatting text in the general notes tool

[nonplussed]

Hi Guys,

Does anyone know how to format text within the general notes tool? I can only format everything or nothing at the moment. All I want is to make particular words bold or underlined. Unless I can do this the tool is pretty much useless. Thanks!!

[Miguel Barrera]

Convert the plugin to a group and then you can format it as a text object. However, with the conversion you loose the Notes functionality.

The purpose of the tool is to call back predefined notes which are organized in related libraries so it is useful to me because I do not have such strict formatting rules.

[nonplussed]

Thanks for the help.

Is there any better way of writing notes than just using the basic Text Tool? Some of our notes are just a whole page of text so having particular important lines bold or underlined is essential so that the builder won't miss it by accident. Using the Text Tool is really inconvenient and a time waster for obvious reasons.

From reading these forums it seems that a lot of people import their notes as PDF from word?

[Jim Smith]

That is how we import our Building Code Matrix, work on it in Word then import the PDF

[Jim Smith]

That is how we import our Building Code Matrix, work on it in Word then import the PDF

[AlanW]

Hi,

Unless I am missing the point, don't you just highlight the section of text you need to change and in the OIP change it.

If a lot of notes are standard you can set up a database and insert text and also set up a numbering system with references to a list on the side of the drawing.

http://app-help.nemetschek.net/2015/NNA/eng/index.htm#t=VW2015_Guide%2FNotesManagement%2FPlacing_Database_Callouts.htm&rhsearch=notes&rhhlterm=notes&rhsyns=%20

The attached above is from the VW help file and describes how to place notes from a database.

HTH

See attached

Edited January 5, 2016 by Alan Woodwell

[Jim Smith]

For what it's worth, our Building Code Matrix is between 2 & 5 pages depending on the project. The Matrix has formatting already in place & it is fast & easy (once the code analysis is done) to just make the additions to the matrix in Word. As drawings can come in many shapes & sizes having a PDF of a Letter size PDF allows one to quickly resize the PDF to suit the size of the document.

[nonplussed]

Thanks for the help guys. I think I am just forced to use the basic Text Tool even though changing column widths is a right pain in the *** since the text wrapping gets competely screwed. I guess technology is just not there yet.

Alan Woodwell: The attached pic is what I mean when I say specific items cannot be formatted unless I completely ungroup the notes. Only the whole body text can be formatted.

As for importing PDFs, how does anyone save time by doing this, and importing an image into vectorworks for every job will just eat up your hard drive space in no time.

[Jim Smith]

I've given the General Notes PIO a wide berth as it's not really that user friendly. In some conditions we have used a Worksheet as we've found that's much easier to use.

As I said about the Building Code Matrix it's formatted in a specific way in an existing Word document (this is a standard document used throughout the Province) one could take the time to mess around with this and have each iteration of the Matrix as part of a Drawing Template ... to save 200-400 K in a document I guess. Our drawing template is 20mb or so, and many files are 100mb or larger.

BTW most of our standard notes are saved symbols so if we need to add or subtract we place the symbol in the document, then Edit the symbol or change it to a group & Edit the formatting no biggie, just work.

Edited January 6, 2016 by Jim Smith

[nonplussed]

Thanks mate.

[AlanW]

I don't use the callouts, if I have a long series of notes I copy from a word document and paste in, all the formatting remains and I can edit it just like a word document see attached.

Top right direct pasted, left formatted a bit and bottom callout where you have little choice for formatting.

Just double click on the top notes to edit.

HTH

Edited January 7, 2016 by Alan Woodwell