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Fundamental Efficiencies


RMDiekmann

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I want to start off by saying, I have been and avid user of Vectorworks since 1995. I use this tool for my craft week after week and have enjoyed it for the most part.

My wish for Vectorworks, is to step outside of the box for a moment and look back in.

Look at the overall tool that you have created that helps so many create and organize their visions!

I feel as thought, through the years, the fundamentals are lacking attention. See list below and please do not take them negatively. Just constructive criticism!

1. Please rethink, Fundamentals! Give all products the same access to the fundamental elements of the base software. I.E. Classes are a fundamental way of organizing your drawing. We as the consumer should have access to all things related to classes as they are truly the most important thing in organizing my drawing. (Class Mapping being the big one)

2. Control over our classes. I feel that by no means, should any object based tool force me into using someone else’s idea of organization. If the tool is going to be sold to be used with Vectorworks, there should be standard method for dealing with the fundamentals of the software. The hoist tool drives me absolutely insane, I have set my default class to what I want and it works fine for half of the object but all of the labels add there own class out side of my structure. ( If there is another way please inform me)

3. Data flow and efficiencies! Vectorworks has acquired many different 3rd Party plugin tools over recent years and have included them into the products. Please find a way to standardize workflow efficiencies with all tools. I know that all tools are not created equal, but going back to the fundamentals, All tools should include a standardized method of taking care of the fundamentals first. I feel as if all tools should have a preferences dialog pop up that allows you set that tools defaults. The top part of the dialog popup dealing with the fundamentals (Class, layer, color, text, etc…) Then below that, the tools settings. If the tool is not object related it should as well have a preferences dialog pop up that sets its defaults. All default settings are then saved into a user profile such as workspaces. As it stands right now, Some tools already include this, Some allow you to partially do this and some tools don’t have any of it. Not to mention, each tool preference has a completely different layout, Some have default class up front some have it buried somewhere else in the dialog pop up. A good example of this, is the Lighting Instrument insertion tool. It has no preferences button. In order to set up defaults, I have to use the spotlight preferences menu structure to access its default settings. Then the focus point tool has a preferences button, where I can easily access what it default class will be.

Thank you for your time, and I hope that this falls on listening ears.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Adding number 2 to the existing request, many objects that have labels or other components that need to be classed separately from the main object allow this control, Hoists should as well.

For 1, do you mean Class Overrides for viewports? Or mapping classes during DWG export? Or something else entirely?

For 3, specifics will be needed, each of the tools are handled by various engineering teams and "Do this for all tools"-type requests are impossible to distribute and manage in the wishlist system. Lighting Instruments already had a request going for this functionality however, I will add this thread to it.

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Sorry for not having my terminology correct on some of this.

For 2, I understand completely that some objects have many components that need to be classed separately from the main object. But, give the user the ability to add prefixes to those parts. The Andrew Dunning tools and the tools that come with spotlight have this ability and it works beautifully! As of late yesterday I figured out a method of getting the hoist labels into my class structure. Long process but it worked.

For 1. Terminology failure, I meant something else entirely, “The Standard Naming command controls the layer, class, and viewport names used in a project. These names can be changed to a user-defined system other than the default VWArch naming system. Standards can be mapped for office-wide use or to convert an existing file to the office standard. This command can also be used to assign specific attributes to classes in standards, and to change the names of layers, viewports/views and classes in the current standard. The command does not create new layers, classes, or viewports/views.” This seems as if it would very beneficial to all VW products considering that it is dealing with the fundamentals of drawing organization. As it stands right now, not all products have this functionality.

3, Currently, Almost every tool that I know of, utilizes the tool bar for functionality. A lot of the tools have a preferences button included in the tool bar.

This sets the default parameters for that tool. I guess my issue here is consistency. Why does one VW tool allow me to set a default class in its tool bar preference popup and not another? Why does one VW tool that deals with text allow me to format the text in its tool bar preference popup and the main Text tool, I have to use a menu structure to format the text? These are just a couple examples of the inconsistencies that I am speaking of when talking about (Data) work flow and efficiencies. (Sorry for the Typo, I meant work flow not data flow) This wish is for consistency in all tools when it comes to the fundamentals of the software.

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