EDITING SYMBOLS INDIVIDUALLY

[asolomon]

Is there a way to place a symbol multiple times in a drawing but edit only one of them?  For instance, I have a toilet symbol on one design layer that I want in a solid line and the same toilet symbol in another design layer that I want to show in a dotted line.  Is that possible?

[PVA - Admin]

You would either need to duplicate the source symbol in the Resource Manager and then place the duplicated copy (useful when you need the same exact change on multiple copies of a symbol) or you can edit the symbols insertion options to place as a Group, where each placed instance will ALWAYS be separate from all others and each could be modified individually.

This is me explaining it in greater detail:

http://www.vectorworks.net/training/2017/getting-started-guides/bim-architectural/symbol-types

[Pat Stanford]

No without some work around that might or might not be suitable.

 

Symbols in Vectorworks are exact copies of the same geometry, so each symbol instance will be identical to the others.

 

So if you want toilets with the same geometry that have different attributes on different design layers, you will have to do something other than use a single symbol definition.

 

Here are some different options:

1. Use the single symbol, but convert the symbol instances that need to be changed (the ones with the least instances) to a group and then edit the attributes in the group. This works, but you have to manually change all the instances if required.

 

2. Duplicate the Symbol Definition and edit it so you have two very similar symbols with different attributes. This way you only have to edit the geometry in 2 places (per your example)

 

3. Make a complicated symbol definition with all of the geometry duplicated but with the duplicate in a different class(es) than the original. You can then place the single symbol and just turn on/off classes to get the view that you want. This will only work if you don't have a single view that needs to have both options show at the same time.

 

4. While you say you need these on design layers, are you actual exporting from the design layers or are you using sheet layers and viewports? If so, and you only need to see a single set of attributes at a time, you can use Viewport Overrides to change the attributes of the class(es) as necessary to get the image you want.

 

There are probably other options also. You will really need to think about what your real use case and needs are to determine which of the suboptimal options works best for you.