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More user-friendly folder structure for resources


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17 hours ago, Rob Books said:

I will agree with you that we should not have separate locations for Subscription libraries and for Vectorworks libraries.  At least for Spotlight, there could be an updated library in the Subscriptions and a non-updated library in Vectorworks libraries.  If a user looks in one but not the other, they could miss some new content that they are looking for.

As to the Defaults section; that is actually content that is generally part of a tool or feature, not general content like the Objects folders. 

As to the Arroway files, or other manufacturer content in general; sometimes our agreement with them requires us to present the products in a particular way.  If you go to the Arroway website, you would see that each of our files for them corresponds to a library of their textures.  I will agree that sometimes their layout is not logical, but we are stuck with their layout.

Some layout of content we can fix, other bits our hands are tied on.  But we in the content department are always trying to make sure that the users can find our content, and sometimes we have to have long discussions with the engineers on why a particular layout will not really work (Spotlight Instruments in Object Styles last year, anyone?)

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

While there might technically be a logic to the "default" folder I don't think it's meaningful or useful to the user.

 

I'm guessing that some of your arrangements with manufacturers involve them hoping that the inclusion of their products mean that people might be led to specify them, and they don't therefore want them to get lost amongst other stuff, or become non-identifiable as their product. But surely it's also in their interests that people can find them easily? I would have thought the identifiability could be dealt with using a suitable file name. Once I've imported, say, an Arroway texture into a drawing, I have no memory or interest in which folder volume I took it from. Maybe it's worth a discussion with manufacturers to see if they can see that it might be their interest to have their products easily discoverable within a logical file structure.

 

Alternatively perhaps there could be a high level subdivision into "generic" and "proprietary" textures. If manufacturers insist on their own folder structures, then they can be allowed to exist in the "proprietary" section and users can look in there if they can be bothered picking through endless files. Meanwhile if I just want to find something quickly I can do so easily in a clean and orderly "generic" section.

 

Going back to the "defaults" folder - looking in there just now, there are quite a few things which don't seem to be of any use to a user browsing for resources. For example, there is a folder called "plug-in components" which contains two files (eg "blank default") which look like things that are used by some tool or other but which are of no interest to me when browsing for importable resources. I don't think this kind of stuff should be cluttering up the folder structure. There should be a folder at high level that is named such that the user understands it contains stuff they don't generally need to look at.

 

I've attached a screenshot of the "vectorworks libraries" section folder list, with the "defaults" folder open. This is the point a user needs to get to to find where renderworks textures are (it's obvious that they are not going to be in any of the "objects..." folders). The list is longer than will fit on my screen. I think anyone can see some groups of items that could be put together within a sub-folder (all the objects stuff to start with). Doing this, and clearing the clutter that doesn't even need to be normally accessible, would make the list much more manageable. I think a good principle would be, that once I've got down to the resource file level, the expanded tree of folders containing it should be compact enough that it can fit within the height of a screen.

Screen Shot 2017-10-13 at 10.23.54.jpg

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On 12.10.2017 at 5:43 PM, Rob Books said:

As to the Arroway files, or other manufacturer content in general; sometimes our agreement with them requires us to present the products in a particular way.  If you go to the Arroway website, you would see that each of our files for them corresponds to a library of their textures.  I will agree that sometimes their layout is not logical, but we are stuck with their layout.

 

These weren't so cluttered in versions before 2018.

And I saw no similar sorting of the Textures on the Arroway site.

It resembles more the previous VW Arroway Concrete 1-3 files.

 

I find the Arroway Materials pretty useless that way in VW.

Especially as the new Resource Manager's preview is still much too small to

even estimate what these will look like, nor even see if these will work when tiled.

 

If I could at least select more than 1 File at a time in RM tree left,

that would be a different story.

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Thanks Rob.

 

So would it be possible for VW to just migrate the combined 2016 Arroway files to VW 2018 for

your online ressources ?

Or were there some updates/changes to the 2018 source files, like new material options ?

 

Or is there still a download size/convenience limit for VW 2018,

so I would need to do that manually for my workgroup libs.

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Yes, will do so.

 

But I realized that the Arroway Textures aren’t in the subscription libraries

but in VW default library. So delivered with the VW App.

So is there also a new file limit, when I use the complete ones ?

 

btw,

I deleted my VW 2016 + workgroup folder just a week ago ....

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OK, had a VW 2015 arroway backup.

 

Added these to my workgroup folder, did a lib refresh, everything there now.

But as I always experience, when batch converting previous file versions,

NO large thumbnail view in RM.

(Until I manually open all files and do a save file)

Edited by zoomer
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On 10/13/2017 at 2:43 AM, Rob Books said:

As to the Defaults section; that is actually content that is generally part of a tool or feature, not general content like the Objects folders. 

I have to disagree with this.

I mean the standard steel section I pull out of the my library to sketch around for the builder, is the same item I want the framing member tool to use for the model or the repetitive unit tool to use for hand crafted sections and details.  Having multiple copies is not a good solution, having to dig every time in an interface that actively discourages it is not great either.

 

One well organized library mirrored in file for project specific items and each tool having favorites (instead of defaults) to hot link the best parts would be ideal in my book.

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15 hours ago, Matt Overton said:

I have to disagree with this.

I mean the standard steel section I pull out of the my library to sketch around for the builder, is the same item I want the framing member tool to use for the model or the repetitive unit tool to use for hand crafted sections and details.  Having multiple copies is not a good solution, having to dig every time in an interface that actively discourages it is not great either.

 

One well organized library mirrored in file for project specific items and each tool having favorites (instead of defaults) to hot link the best parts would be ideal in my book.

I agree with this, real duplicates should be avoided if possible. It would be better to have hot links to common content for tools using the same library content.

Also, some libraries that have just a few items (i.e. less than 5 or 10) could perhaps be grouped into a more common library. Yes it will cause some tools to have some extraneous things showing up but in the longer run it would simplify the library options and make it more manageable for users.

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