VW 2018 - Plants and IMAGE Function in Worksheet

[ericjhberg]

We have a new issue, never encountered prior to VW2018. Currently we are having difficulty with Plant plug-in object visibilities...I've attached 2 screenshot videos (no narration, sorry) that show what we are encountering, but I will do my best to explain.

 

We have (8) different classes we use to control the internal visibilities of our Plant objects. Currently, these classes are not responding to simple on/off/gray controls unless you go into each plant individually, after changing the visibilities, and then exiting the plant. Then and only then do they look correct.

 

To make things worse, this error is compounded by the fact that as soon as one database worksheet plant schedule is recalculated, all of the active visibilities and buggy visibilities revert to a pre-altered state.

 

I know this isn't the most clear description and I hope the screen captures do it more justice.

 

Ultimately we need this fixed ASAP. This is a bad bug that affects our ability to produce any documents.

Plant_Symbol_VW2018_Bugs.mp4

VW2018 Plant Bug 2.mp4

[rowbear97]

Eric,

Don't know if I have an answer to your problem without perhaps giving it a look at personally. Is this something you would be able to share, or at least part of it. I will try to recreate on my own in the meantime to see if it happens on one of my drawings.

[ericjhberg]

Thanks Robert for chiming in.

 

After my testing, this is a BAD bug! I have attached a sample file for you to test on your end.  VW2018 Plant Symbol Bug.vwx 

 

This will help us determine if this is a Windows based issue since you are operating on Mac.

 

Do these steps:

1. Open file

2. Notice class visibility settings upon open. 2 classes of the symbol are visible, 5 are turned off

3. Open the Planting Schedule worksheet placed on the design layer

4. Recalculate the worksheet

5. Notice the visibility of the Symbol column (=IMAGE function) does not match the class visibility as it always has before

6. Look at the symbol in the design layer. For us, it changed visibility, some classes that were turned off are now visible. But if you look at the class visibility settings, nothing changed.

7. Edit the 2d symbol

8. Select one of the items from a class that should be turned off, notice you can select it but nothing appears in the OIP

9. Exit the symbol, notice everything goes back to normal, except the worksheet

10. Recalculate the worksheet. Same thing happens all over again!

 

Here is another screen capture video of these steps VW2018 Plant Symbol Bug.mp4

 

As I said above, this one is BAD, it is keeping us from doing anything in 2018 and of course it doesn't come up until we've already started and are ready to produce.

 

[rowbear97]

Eric,

 

Had worked through what I thought was a solution, see below, yet this seems to elude me. I even tried changing elements in symbol from screen to group and all this managed to do is make the image in the worksheet show partially correct and still not perfect. I don't know what else to do. I believe it to be a video issue as now I'm able to make the worksheet show correctly but the design layer information still misbehaving.

 

Started with your instructions and everything happened just as you described. When looking at the Symbol in the resource browser there is only the name no thumbnail. If I change the view to OpenGL then it appears. If I right click and select edit then 2D Graphics while on the design layer the canopy can be selected but nothing shows up in the OIP. Once I exit out the visibilities go back to the way the should be as shown in the Navigation Pallet. However if I then recalculate the worksheet the visibilities return as before with those classes shown as off but still visible. I then edited the 2D symbol from the resource manager and changed the canopy and tree box to Polygons. I thought this resolved the issue with the viability when recalculating the worksheet; however the tree box still shows up even when the visibility is off. And if you zoom in or out the classes that are off show back up.

[ericjhberg]

I submitted a bug report...never had this problem before.

 

This brings up another issue with that I have railed on with the =IMAGE function in worksheets...what if I want to show a PLANT with different classes shown in two different viewports...one CD and one PRELIM for example.

 

When the =image function in worksheets was working, even then, there was no way to have the worksheet calculate and produce an image based on two different visibility settings, only the active visibilities.

 

As I have said in other posts, the =image function needs some serious attention. This is just one of many issues with it, the foremost being the poor rasterized image quality generated. It got better in 2017, but still is a poor substitute and often not legible on final production drawings.

 

Ugh...why would something that worked fine before break now...this is the stuff that drives me insane.

[ericjhberg]

I was able to trace this issue back directly to the presence of the =IMAGE function in the worksheet. When present and recalculated, this functionality will now screw up the visibility settings of any plant symbol as described above, but as soon as it is removed, and things are manually updated, normal functionality and visibility control returns.

 

Again, this is completely new to VW2018, probably with the changes to the worksheets? Either way, this is NOT GOOD!

[ericjhberg]

I was hoping for a fix of this BUG with SP2 of 2018 released today, but unfortunately NO!

 

This is a BIG issue and needs to be addressed ASAP. It dramatically influences the workflow we have streamlined since VW2013!

 

Please FIX!!

[PVA - Admin]

Merged info from a few other cases into one bug:

VB-146631