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Wish - "world" Z awareness for all objects


P Retondo

Question

I just made the mistake, against my better judgment, of setting up a project with different layer z values for different stories.  What a mess it makes of my work process - and all because of one crucial, missing bit of functionality.

 

Let me give an example:  I have maybe 100 surveying stake objects from a survey on a steeply sloping site.  I can't look at these objects from the side and tell which is which (labels from side view wish?).  So I copy a particular locus, and paste-in-place on the appropriate layer to see if my measured floor finish corresponds accurately to the floor level of a particular story in this 4-story structure.  Guess what - because of layer z values, that object does not paste in at the correct height.  It pastes in with respect to the layer z value of the layer I am working in, not the z value relative to "world z".

 

If we could have the option to paste in place relative to world z, that would be a great help and I could use the "story" structure that VW promotes as a major feature.  I use paste in place across layers very frequently, maybe a dozen times a day for various purposes.

 

I would post this in the Wish List forum, but I don't see that in forum navigation - does it no longer exist?

Edited by P Retondo
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10 hours ago, P Retondo said:

If we could have the option to paste in place relative to world z, that would be a great help and I could use the "story" structure that VW promotes as a major feature.  I use paste in place across layers very frequently, maybe a dozen times a day for various purposes.

 

Agreed, that would be useful. But I'd also like to see the need for multiple Design Layers removed altogether.

 

It's still there, just the navigation has gone for the moment (they're doing some updates, so temporary state of affairs)

https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/forum/19-wishlist-feature-and-content-requests/

Edited by Christiaan
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7 hours ago, Christiaan said:

But I'd also like to see the need for multiple Design Layers removed altogether.

Only as an option, as there are situations where design layers will be very very useful to maintain mental sanity, i.e. it could become very messy without them.

 

Though the simple thing would be to  model everything in a single layer, so I guess it is already possible.

That being said, a paste across layers for real world Z-value would be nice to have IF the model allows for that (i.e. it won't disrupt what you want to achieve). So for that I'm game.

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The reason may be,

that you just did not realize that you have drawn in 3D for 53 hours on a wrong Layer with wrong Z height.

Or that Story setups won't follow when you transfer objects between files.

Or that you want to setup a Story System for an older project or geometry delivered by an import.

Or that you want to get rid off your story system for any reason.

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10 hours ago, Christiaan said:

I'd also like to see the need for multiple Design Layers removed altogether.

 

Christiaan, tell me more.  I can't imagine looking at my model with everything jumbled into one view, so what is your vision of how to do things differently?

 

Zoomer, in addition to your catalogue of horrors, as my example points out, there are layers - such as site measurements on a sloping site that span all stories - where you have to pick a layer z level, which will necessarily be out of whack with all your design layers except for one of the stories.  That's why I just use layer z = 0 for all design layers, and why I'm kicking myself for trying the longstanding VW recommended way of doing things. To me this is an example of putting a lot of engineering time into something of limited value, when other ways of doing things could have been pursued that would have been "truly great" (- Steve Jobs) and possibly less complicated.  E.g., ever try to get a wall height correct when you have 3 values (wall height, upper offset, lower offset) that are (seemingly) randomly interdependent?

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14 hours ago, P Retondo said:

Christiaan, tell me more.  I can't imagine looking at my model with everything jumbled into one view, so what is your vision of how to do things differently?

 

Think:

  • Edit Section In-Place but for plans
  • Walls that are vertically continuous, no more lines between storeys where they don't really exist.
  • Windows and doors that can span multiple storeys and be correctly represented in plan view
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Christiaan, I like removing the wall lines and windows spanning stories, but thinking about a wireframe 3d view of the whole building gives me a queasy feeling!  I would think that writing the code to eliminate hard lines between walls that butt each other (I assume hidden line view is the issue) could be done.  If you "corner join" two colinear walls, you can already eliminate that vertical line, so more of the same?  I think windows could be layer-aware in the same way stairs are - granted, that idea is a bit cumbersome, but being able to view the building layer-by-layer seems a reasonable tradeoff.

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10 hours ago, P Retondo said:

Christiaan, I like removing the wall lines and windows spanning stories, but thinking about a wireframe 3d view of the whole building gives me a queasy feeling! 

 

Clip Cube ?

 

That could be improved to have some Presets, like being generated from Story Settings.

Controlled by checkboxes which Stories or parts of buildings you want to see

at the same time.

 

I extend the initial wish to all Objects having a Story Level Options.

Wouldn't it be nice to know your rectangle will always rest on Level X ?

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14 hours ago, P Retondo said:

Christiaan, I like removing the wall lines and windows spanning stories, but thinking about a wireframe 3d view of the whole building gives me a queasy feeling!

 

You wouldn't work in wireframe, you'd work in Edit Plan In-Place, like you can now with Edit Section In-Place.

 

14 hours ago, P Retondo said:

I would think that writing the code to eliminate hard lines between walls that butt each other (I assume hidden line view is the issue) could be done.

 

A never ending quest of wack-a-mole it seems to me.

 

VW layers could well be pushed and pulled and squeezed to eventually eliminate such issues, but I'm not going to hold my breath. They exist in the first place because we're separating the model into parts that are better off dealt with by dynamic view features like Edit Section In-Place.

Edited by Christiaan
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