How to Dock Palettes

[Anellermann 0]

How can I dock palettes to the drawing window, so they are not all loosely floating around. I am having trouble with setting up an efficient workspace. (I have the Fundamentals version of vwx 2018

[Pat Stanford 1,430]

I the Window menu of the standard workspaces, make sure that Use Application Window is selected. You should then be able to drag the palettes and have them dock.

[Chad Hamilton HAarchs 28]

You will get a screen hint when a blue bar appears - if you release your mouse button when the blue bar appears at the docking location, the palette will dock.  You sometimes need to search around as you drag the floating palette to find the blue bar.  Normal docking locations are to the left and right margins of the program window, outside the drawing area.  Once you've docked a palette, the area immediately below the top and immediately above the bottom of the program window becomes available for docking , as well as the area between other docked palettes.

[ford519 5]

This isn't working for me. I can't place the palettes.

[RGyori 45]

Just to be sure, go to VW Preferences > Sessions > Palette Margins and make sure NONE is not selected. I prefer BOTH. With that said manually moving the palettes and invoking the blue highlight as Chad described is at times tricky and requires patience. HTH.

 

 

[ford519 5]

Yeah it's on BOTH. Not sure what this is supposed to do, but it's still not working...

[RGyori 45]

OK, have you selected "Use Application Window" in the Window drop-down menu?

[PVA - Jim 2,382]

1 hour ago, ford519 said:

This isn't working for me. I can't place the palettes.

Do ANY palettes allow docking? You have Attributes and Snapping split up and are not trying to dock them as one to other palettes, correct?

[ford519 5]

Yes - use application window is checked.

None of the palettes dock. 

Edited February 8, 2018 by ford519

[Jamie Morris 0]

I struggled with the same thing. After doing everything suggested above, I just quit the program and re-opened and tada! It worked! I'd suggest trying that if you haven't already.

[AllisonCPA 0]

I am having the same issue except I can only dock on the left side, not the right. My palette margins are set to both and use application window is selected. 

 

Did you ever find a resolve for this? I have restarted Vectorworks and my computer multiple times. Very annoying! 

[Jeffrey J. Hummel 2]

I was having the same issue with Snapping and Attributes.  I like them both on the left side below the Tool Sets.  I tried restarting and that didn't change it along with the other ideas mentioned above.  I found the way to get the blue line to show up was to break the Snapping from Attributes and dock them individually...that worked for me.  Good Luck!

[Jeffrey J. Hummel 2]

What's the "Greenhorn" crap under my name for?  I've been working in Vectorworks since the first version came out...hardly a "Greenhorn"! 

 

[AllisonCPA 0]

I found a fix also, I just turned on the visualization/lights palette and when I turned it on it was pre-snapped to the right side. I was then able to snap my object info to that palette. So.. perhaps I got lucky?? 

[Pat Stanford 1,430]

2 hours ago, Jeffrey J. Hummel said:

What's the "Greenhorn" crap under my name for?  I've been working in Vectorworks since the first version came out...hardly a "Greenhorn"! 

 

But you are new to the forum 😉. Which is what is used to calculate that. Make a few more posts, get a few more likes and you will move up the heirarchy. And no, I don't know  what all the levels are or what it takes to move to each level.  🙂

 

[Neil Barman 164]

Once you get the palettes docked where you would like them please do make sure you then go to the Window menu > Palettes > Save Palette Positions.

 

 

(and @Jeffrey J. Hummel, you are listed as a "Greenhorn" because you just joined the Community Forum and have only posted a couple of times as of now. Such membership "level" are fairly typical on public forums and simply indicate how long or how much a member has been involved/active. As you post more, your level will change. If you would like to indicate more about your history with Vectorworks, your Vectorworks version, your computer spec's, etc I would suggest that you enter this info into your forum signature. You can find this area to edit under your name at the top right > Account Settings > Signature.)

[anewman3 0]

Hi, I continued to have this problem in 2020 and called tech support, they were very helpful.  You need to dock palettes to the side margins one at a time. That is, if you have 3 palettes docked to each other, then try and drag them all at once to dock on the side margin, it won't work.  I took the visualization palette, which I don't usually have open, and docked it to the side. For some reason it was easy to dock this palette when I had trouble with the others that I usually have open.  Then I was able to dock the Basic palette to the side of the docked visualization palette. Then I could close the visualization palette and still have the Basic palette docked on the side. Then I could add my other palettes, one at a time, to the top or bottom of the basic palette.  Not very straightforward, but it worked!

[TRC 0]

@JimW 

On 2/8/2018 at 12:38 PM, PVA - Jim said:

Do ANY palettes allow docking? You have Attributes and Snapping split up and are not trying to dock them as one to other palettes, correct?

 

I'm having a similar issue - specifically it is Attributes and Snapping that aren't docking on my Mac, but they do on my PC...

[Neil Barman 164]

16 hours ago, TRC said:

 

I'm having a similar issue - specifically it is Attributes and Snapping that aren't docking on my Mac, but they do on my PC...

If the Attributes and Snapping palettes are docked to each other, then you can't dock those two, already-docked palettes to other palettes.

 

If you separate the Attributes and Snapping palettes from each other first, then you can dock each one individually into the locations you wish.

 

And as far as I have found, the Snapping palette on Windows doesn't dock. I'm not sure why this is though.

[Design for Laughing 2]

Thanks to all for the tip about splitting up floating docked palettes to reattach them.  AND the note about saving palette positions - this is probably why they weren't where they were supposed to be after I carefully "migrated" my user data from 2020 to 2021.  I shall save the positions now.  For the record, and to prove we can always learn something new:  I've been using VW since it was called "MiniCAD" in the late 1990's - so long ago I don't remember exactly what year I started, but I think it was around 1997 or '98.  I use it almost every day, and I'm still on the help website all the time.  There's just a lot to know, and of course things change (often for the better!).

[Neil Barman 164]

@Design for Laughing Thank you for the appreciation! And you point out something very crucial about using any pro-grade application (as the same thing occurs with users of Adobe’s apps): Amount of time spent using an application doesn’t equal depth of knowledge.
 

Case in point, I used Vectorworks for many years as a 2D only tool, early on because because I didn’t know any better, then briefly because I was hesitant to change, and finally because the offices where I worked forbid 3D. It was only when I went out in my own, jettisoned my hesitation, and finally made the time to dig a bit deeper did I discover how much Vectorworks could do. And while I know a lot about Vectorworks now, I still learn new things about it almost every day.

 

You are so right – We can always learn something new.