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2017 Looks Awesome!!...Wish List Cont'd


ericjhberg

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Before I get going, Vectorworks’ much anticipated 2017 release has me very excited for several new additions as a landscape architect, most notably irrigation and the resource manager…nice work! Take a deep breath and maybe some time off!

It is great to feel like a part of a community of users with a voice directly to the Gods, in this case…software developers who have the ability to make my life easier and more productive. This is an exceptional opportunity afforded to the users by a remarkable company. Thank you Vectorworks! I can’t wait to use the new software and really dive in. Don’t let the rest of this article dissuade you of my passion for your product.

With that in mind, large releases like this are often a point of frustration because amongst all of the fancy new tools lies many smaller, missed opportunities to further develop and enhance existing tools. This is a compiled list of all the requested features I have submitted on the forum that have yet to be answered in the most current release, in order of priority. I know it is long, but it is a comprehensive history of our hopes for future releases! Maybe next year?

  1.   TEXT HANDLING
    • This  comes from an old post that didn’t get transferred to the new forum https://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=43962&Number=220315#Post220315

    •  I find this one the most baffling/frustrating. Text handling seems so basic of a concept that it should have been handled in Version 2, and here we are in 2017! The basic gist of this wish list is that the text in Vectorworks needs to step up its game. Some of the obvious advancements that NEED to happen are:

      •  Tabs and Indents – Come on! Why are there no controls for paragraph indenting? You can even do it on the Forum! In order to achieve a nicely indented list, you must manually add TABS, and when the width of the text has to change, guess what, your text is all messed up because there are weird TABS everywhere. This is amateur stuff in my opinion.

      • Auto – Numbering, Lettering, Bulleting – Again, amateur hour here. Auto-numbering for lists, along with the aforementioned tabs and indents, makes sense. I know there is the general notes tool, but that doesn’t help when I am working on a written document that needs a list embedded into a paragraph.

      •  Columns or Text Box Overflow Linking – Imagine a notes or specifications sheet with text spilling over several columns. The only way to accomplish this now is with multiple text boxes and a lot of copying and pasting from one to another as columns increase or decrease in length and width. I am so tired of copying and pasting text from one column to the next, one sheet to the next when my sheet size/text box size has to change!

  2. CREATE OBJECTS FROM SHAPES - ALTERS VERTEX CONTROL
    • https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/43106-create-objects-from-shapes-alters-vertex-control/
    • Another frustrating bug in my opinion. There is a complete loss of fidelity when carefully drawing an original object and a polygon/polyline using point on arcs and tangent modes for design accuracy and then using the CREATE OBJECTS FROM SHAPES tool to convert that into…you name it! Why would the arc mode change from arc on line to a Bezier of some sort? Fix this so we can feel comfortable using all your fancy new tools without losing data!
  3. SELECT SIMILAR TOOL TO WORK FOR PLANT OBJECTS
    •  https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/42968-select-similar-tool-to-work-for-plant-objects/
    •  Baffling. Every other symbol (I know plants are plug-in objects) can be selected individually by the Select Similar tool with a selection criteria for Symbol Name…why not plants? If I want to select all instances of one type of plant, I have to use a custom selection criteria? And even then, the field length for record name is limited, so when I am trying to find all of the Arctostaphylos uva-ursi 'massachusetts', I can’t even enter the right string. Come on…
  4.  IMAGE FUNCTION IN WORKSHEETS
    •  https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/43284-image-function-in-worksheets/
    •  Plans require precision and the ability to update information quickly and effectively without sacrificing readability. We have used =IMAGE function in worksheet database headers to quickly update our symbol based plant legends during design, but the problem is, the resulting image is often too pixelated to even comprehend or compare to the plan. This makes the tool almost unusable and forces us to use an antiquated workflow of placing instances of the symbol over the top of a worksheet in order to make the legend read correctly. When the legend needs to change, all of the symbols are now wrong…bad BIM capability.
  5.  SHEET LAYER OR VIEWPORT LINKING TEXT
    •  https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/42925-sheet-layer-or-viewport-linking-text/
    •  This has the potential to save us time and prevent mistakes. If we could somehow, in the flow of a notes section, as part of a callout, or simple text box, be able to link a specific text string to a viewport. Using the matchline example, “MATCHLINE – SEE SHEET L-1.03”…when the associated sheet number (in bold) changes, I don’t have to track down every instance and change them. Instead, every instance would change to say “MATCHLINE – SEE SHEET L1.04”
  6.  PROJECT SHARING: DESIGN LAYER AND SHEET LAYER HIERARCHY
    •  https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/42924-project-sharing-design-layer-and-sheet-layer-hierarchy/
    • This one is necessary for us to move together in the right direction. It seems the point of project sharing is to allow everyone to work on the same file and to keep everything together, eliminating the reliance on viewport references of separate files. In order to achieve this goal, I see two things need to happen first
    • Design Layer and Sheet Layer Management – Some of our files can contain multiple design layers and sheet layers, so the thought of combining multiple files together to create a master file for sharing scares me due to the fact that now there will be potentially tens to hundreds of design/sheet layers. How do I organize these? How to I keep from having to scroll through an immense list to find the one I am looking for. The answer seems simple…hierarchical naming similar to classes!
  7. HARDSCAPE COMPONENTS
    • https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/42560-hardscape-components/
    • This one is a little different. The functionality does exist and was implemented back in 2017 to have different components for hardscapes similar to slabs, roofs, or walls; however, something was missed. First of all, the functionality is only available through a hijacking of a ROOF style! Apparently in order to make hardscape objects slope, slabs weren’t an option, so roofs were called into duty, but instead of at least renaming the feature, it remains a roof style, not a hardscape style…confusing to the average user. Second, the functionality is so deeply embedded in the hardscape (only available through a right-click menu and not from the OIP) it is easy to miss. It also doesn’t transfer from one similar object to another with a saved hardscape type or with the eyedropper tool. Third, even if I manage to implement the profile, I cannot query/calculate areas or volumes from the individual components. This is the ultimate functionality desireable, being able to quickly tell the quantities of aggregate base or sand under a concrete/paver/hardscape surface. I hope to further explain my hopes for this tool in the future.
  8. HIDE DATABASE HEADERS ON EXPORT
  9. GENERAL NOTES NEEDS COLUMNS
  10. BEWARE: FLOORS AS PART OF SYMBOLS DO NOT EXPORT TO DWG!!!
  11. TAG/CALLOUT BASED ON RECORD FIELD (LABEL GIS)
    • https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/42971-tagcallout-based-on-record-field-label-gis/
    • It seems you getting closer to something like this. I see the new data visualization opportunities in 2017 and I’m excited. Along with this needs to be the ability to quickly label data based on a record field, and have it auto-update when the field changes. My classic example is GIS data of a city’s street network. With 2017, it seems I could easily visually differentiate all of the “Arterials” from the “Collector” streets, but I would also like to include the NAME of the arterials in a label (both in a viewport annotation and in a design layer).
  12. SITE MODEL CONTOUR LABELLING
  13. BP:REFERENCING TITLEBLOCK SYMBOLS IN DIFFERENT FILES, BUT SAME PROJECT
    • https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/41885-bpreferencing-titleblock-symbols-in-different-files-but-same-project/
    • This is reflected along with the Project Sharing concerns mentioned above. Currently we use reference viewports/files to separate our workflow and drawings. This requires a way to manage project level titleblock information in between multiple files. We currently reference symbols into the separate files (another slight headache with sheet border>titleblock symbols), but we can’t use a P_ record field for the project information. Instead we have to modify the symbol everytime the date changes and update the references accordingly.
  14. CONSTRAIN DIMENSIONS RESIZE
  15. REFERENCE VIEWPORT CLASSES
    • https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/43817-reference-viewport-classes/
    • I haven’t yet had time to see if this got fixed or not. It is difficult to track all the additions and changes that happen to classes over the course of a project, especially when they don’t show up! We could better notice and manage class/layer change visibilities if we were able to recognize that they are present first.
  16. DASHED LINE ENDINGS - ROUNDED/SQUARE OPTION
  17. CIVIL3D INTEGRATION
  18. ENHANCED CLIP CUBE OPERABILITY

I know it hasn't even been a full day yet, so I apologize for seeming disenfranchised...I'm not. Just an admitted perfectionist. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HARD WORK AND TIME!!!

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1 hour ago, ericjhberg said:

BEWARE: FLOORS AS PART OF SYMBOLS DO NOT EXPORT TO DWG!!!

So you're telling me the bug that doesn't save slab 3D geometry to the file unless it's visible at time of save still exists! After all the improvements to slabs they are still hamstrung by a very fundamental bug.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
Just now, Matt Overton said:

So you're telling me the bug that doesn't save slab 3D geometry to the file unless it's visible at time of save still exists! After all the improvements to slabs they are still hamstrung by a very fundamental bug.

That's Floors not Slabs, they are two different object types. Slabs do not have this issue and they were what got upgraded so heavily, Floors have not been touched in some time and likely once Slabs can do everything that Floors can do, Floors will probably be retired.

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