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Has anyone ever figured out why VW preferences randomly change (at least on the Mac)

Just now I was just working along, I went into the preferences to briefly turn off adjust flipped text, while I was there verified that the rest of my settings (Offset Duplicates [off] & Autosave [on] ) , went back into prefs and unchecked adjust flipped text, worked for about 15 minutes, duplicated something and it offest my duplicate, went back to preferences and lo and behold Offset duplicates was on and Autosave was off.

I am a good little CAD monkey, I repair permissions often, I run DiskWarrior 3 often, in the past have reformatted the drive and did a clean install of OS and VW yet it still happens. Is this a known issue, is it possible to fix, What in the heck is going on? [Confused]

currently G4 dual 533/1.5 Gb RAM/10.3.4 VW 11.0

Has happened VW10.5.1 PB 17" 1 Ghz/512 Mb RAM

other flavors of VW but don't remember all the specifics so won't bore you with it.

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In our office of 7 VW 10.5.1 machines on OS X this happens quite often. It is especially annoying when the auotsave gets turned off as you sometimes dont realise until after VW has crashed and you go back into the drawing to discover that the amount of work lost was larger than that set in autosave. I know you can turn on the message asking if you want to save but that seems a little bit old fashioned to me. It the function is there it should work....!

Richie

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Ion, it is not a boring question! I too have experienced what you describe. In my case it only happened when the program crashed, and then, all the settings would return to their factory defaults. I have (thankfully) not had it happen in a long time (mayby 2-3 months?), and unfortunately I have no idea what I may have done to cure the condition. But here's a couple possible clues: 1) I had been working with a workspace copied from an earlier version. I was told (in no unceretain terms!) not to do that. So now I have recreated my custom workspace. 2) Most of what I am currently working on was started in the most current version, not updated from an older version (and NOTHING was started in version 9!). Beyond that I am at a loss. Maybe one of those things will help...

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yeah the annoying part is that it has come up before with no answer.

Thanks Peter, I am the "official" VW technology guy here at Pults, so my workspace is a barely modified Architect Workspace exactly for that reason.

Not only was the workspace creted wholly in V11, but the file too was created wholly in V11.

thanks for the interest

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Not to be snarky (honest), but how long have you or NNA been looking into it? I have mentioned it to you (katie) directly during tech support conversations regarding other issues. I did a quick search of the boards and found three versions of VW having this problem.

This is kind of like the Caps lock button locking out ctrl(right)-click on the mac, a problem NNA has been aware of but done nothing about.

Oddly enough Architects have been know to write in all caps, you know occasionally... [Wink]

thanks for the interest

I keep losing VW preferences during a session

10.5 Preferences keep changing

VW loses its preferences

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With all due respect, the first link is not the same as this situation. It's a completely different scenario.

The second and third scenarios did not receive any reply stating my resolution (or Matt's) failed to fix the situation.

The two reports I've heard of this problem (on the message board) are VW 11 only and the only two I've heard of. I am in discussions with the testing and engineering team regarding this issues.

Please keep in mind my focus is not necessarily in fixing every single problem. There are problems that I cannot fix as a tech support specialist, such as programing issues. I can look into them as far as my ability will allow. Sometimes the investigation gets handed to the engineering team to look at. Not everything can be fixed overnight in the software. In addition, the reports are OS 10 only, which only complicates the problem that many more times. (it's not happening on OS 9 or PC) There are known OS issues where certain things can cause OS files, such as the plist files to become corrupt - which can affect the user home folder, which inturn can affect the VW prefs file. There are a million and two factors to consider in this situation. Durring the investigation process, we take the steps to duplicate the problem. Until this point in time, I have yet to be able to duplicate the problem. The inability to duplicate the problem only magnifies the complexity of the problem.

If you truly have an issue in VectorWorks that you do not find a resolution to here, and tech support in unable to resolve it over the phone or via email, please do not hesitate to send a bug report to bugsubmit@nemetschek.net.

I try extremely hard to keep up with all my responsibilities of being a tech support representative. My primary responsibility is to aid in phone support, then email. I often times show up on the message board off hours - I've been on here as early as 6am and as late as midnight lately trying to help where I can. Sometimes things on the message board come after the phone and email support is completed, simply due to order of operations. I can only do so much work. I have always welcomed anyone to phone or email any problems that they feel are not receiving adequate attention on the message board. This is afterall, a discussion board. It's not an exclusive mode of tech support.

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Hi Katie: To answer your question, I use undo frequently but I could not tell you if the change in preferences is linked to that. I do know that it often happens after VW11 quits unexpectedly. I do not believe it is limited to VW quitting.

I hope you know that I appreciate all the time (especially after hours) that you devote to this board. I, (we), look to you for help like a person adrift at sea looks for that lone Coast Guard plane. If you would just "tip your wings" for us to know that you see us and that you will return when you can. Just letting us know that you heard us and that someone will look into it is all I need.

Thanks again and have a great 4th of July.

[ 07-02-2004, 04:48 PM: Message edited by: Kevin ]

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Small rant warning, but it gets better as you go along. I'm trying the counting to 10 before pressing send [Wink] so please finish before getting out the flamethrower [Cool]

With all due respect Katie, these (Line Weight) are settings that change on my computer in addition to the preferences that are referenced in this topic. Maybe I am some doltish amateur in the CAD/Computer arena, but line weight settings are simply another preference. Yes set in a different place, but it is my preference whether I want my line weights in mils or in mm or in points. If it changes on its own, it is the same as Offset Duplicates turning on when I have set it to be off, or the Autosave function turning off when I have turned it on. Maybe these are completely separate places in the code that makes up VW, in the end that doesn't matter to me, the end user, it is still a setting that VW is changing without my interaction. So in that way, wrong or not, I see it as the same thing.

Katie, I don't assume it is YOUR responsibility to find and fix every problem, however I do believe it is NNA's responsibility. In the end that is what we are paying for when we buy these tools. I have worked in and studied software development, so I know that these aren't simple things that can be fixed on a whim.

While you are one the most prolific of the NNA team especially on the general discussion board, you are not the only one. I responded to you because you dropped in. If that was perceived as a personal attack and a diminishing of your very positive influence on the board I humbly apologize. I appreciate your usually informative and candid answers. I have always enjoyed the times when the boards fail and I call tech support.

Maybe I didn't take the best approach in getting attention, but in the end this problem, and the caps lock problem have been around for three versions. I have experienced it, my coworkers have experienced it, other people on the board have experienced it. That being said, that is why I felt the board is an excellent place for this problem, it is an annoyance. there are workarounds. It isn't a work stoppage. It isn't a bad thing that one has to remember to go check your preferences, so one is aware of one's working environment. We know this doesn't work, so while we are pissed when we lose work to a file corruption and we don't have a current backup due to VW changing the setting on its own, in the end we know that we are at fault because we didn't check the setting. Kind of like having an oil leak in your car and not checking the level before you drive, you know it is an issue, so check it. On the other hand if the mechanic would fix it, our life gets simpler, and that is a good thing.

All I was trying to illustrate with the topic links was that this problem has been around for a while. I can't help it if those complainants didn't respond. I tried to point out in my original post for this topic, that I have done what was suggested and more and the problem still exists.

The two reports I've heard of this problem (on the message board) are VW 11 only and the only two I've heard of. I am in discussions with the testing and engineering team regarding this issues.

I believe that in my original post I gave you both version 10.5 and Version 11.

The topic link I included, responded to or not, describes the problem in version 10.5. and the other a similar seeming probem in Windows.

I also have never understood why it is only my VW preferences gets consistently corrupted. I have had others but it is a one time fix. Or once in a blue moon anyway.

Katie, I really don't have a bone to pick with you, as I said before you are a wonderful asset to NNA, and they need to pay you more to make sure you don't go back to school and onward like Matt G. did. Sometimes all that is required is a simple hey you know that is a stupid little thing that happens, and we haven't locked down the cause yet. We are all adults here (whether we act like it or not...) we can handle an answer like that. We've all been there. We have clients calling too, maybe we haven't figured how to make their space accessible, or whatever, sometimes we have to tell them.

Again a I apologize for the way I asked for attention on the board. In the end it was disrespectful of the job you and others at NNA do. My reasoning, however flawed the execution, was simply that I have noticed that once a post drops 10 or fifteen spots it doesn't get picked up.

I have almost always gotten good responses on the board, from users and from those of NNA that patrol the boards, and felt that this was a problem that was best suited for the boards, as you pointed out it is random in nature, so it is impossible to call you and say, "well it's been 2 minutes it hasn't changed yet," ad infinitum.

What was I going to say about the Caps lock problem? "well I've got it enabled, I can't bring up a contextual menu, I disabled it and now contextual menus work." You guys already know about it, again this has been something you and I have talked about on the phone when I've called about other issues.

I am appreciative of your commitment Katie, and it disturbs me that I raised you ire to such a level. Can we still be friends? [smile]

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Well upon further investigation - and it looks like it's what you are experiencing - in both Kevin and Ion cases is undo.

There is a known issue where changing a preference and then undoing will change the VW preference.

B039617: On the Mac, undoing any VW pref change turns autosave off

If this is the case, the engineers are working on a reolution to this for a future version of VW.

Kevin -

Thanks.

I will try better at letting you know I am aware of the post and I'll look into it.

Ion -

No worries.

As for the other problems - that's a little different.

VW Preferences are controled with a dialog box and line attribute or preferences, or whatever you want to call them, is a different entity.

If no one pops in to let me know that the solution provided by us doesn't work, then I don't know that the problem still needs attention. Hence not knowing the 3 posts mentioned were still issues.

Now, as for the problem you are having with the line weights - can you explain that problem a little more?

One little thing - when you say versions, I assume you are refering to .x numbers. When I read "the past 3 versions", I comprehend back to a problem in verion 9 (11.x, 10.x, and 9.x).

So to keep both sides clear, and for others that may read the board, let's make sure we both specify numbers.

OH yeah - I go to school full time on top of working here full time. The fun never ends in my life =)

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Hi Katie,

Now that's and answer! [smile]

Ok, let's see if we can clear this up, I do mean Versions 9.x, 10.x & 11.x have had this issue with preferences changing. I have several preference toggles (vectorscripts) that alter both the Document and Application preferences (B&W, layer colors, Show others in group, zoom line thickness & Black background) absolutely it is probable that I would use that toggle and then undo something. I notice on my machine anyway, that it often turns offset duplicates back on as well as turning Autosave off.

The line weight issue is this, as an office we set our lineweights according to mm's. What happens is that randomly the attribute pallate (and the Set Line Thickness menu) will switch to mils. The lineweights don't change, they maintain the relative thickness, just measured in mils. I've talked to someone from another office who used points as their measue, and that sometimes switched to mm's. This is a minor annoyance, as all it takes to switch back is choose set line thickness and click the mm radio button.

I understand about the school thing, I went back to school three years ago too, some idea of getting my license.... crazy I know. at the moment I am working, going to school, working on my own remodel, and trying to be a husband and a father, it certainly gets confusing after a while.

thanks for the info! It really helps

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I also experience in VW11 the line weights randomly changing to being in mils rather than the mm I prefer.

In previous versions I noticed that this commonly happened whenever the program crashes or a force quit is used due to the program becoming stalled. Would suspect it is still the same issue.

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I often experience the line weights changing from mm to mills. The line thickness does not change, just the unit of measure. It seems to happen for no reason. I have tried trashing the preferences, but it does not help.

I would also like to have access to contextual menus with the shift lock on- as an architect I almost always wright in capital letters when drawing.

MAC OS 10.2.8

VW 11

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Katie,

You might want to suggest to the VW engineers that they add a new option to the "Reset VW Preferences" button. It would help the corrupted preferences discussed in this thread to have a button to "Go Back to Previous (known good) Preferences Setings". This won't stop the corruptions, but it will allow us to quickly get back on track. JE

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Hi Katie,

A definitive yes and no! [smile]

No this symptom isn't happening after a DWG import, but it does occasionally happen in a file that has a base from an import. i.e. import the civil into a blank file, clean it to our specifications, make it a symbol, import that symbol into a existing drawing with our title block and layer scheme, and then use that file as a template to create many lot plans.

other people in my office have this switch when working on files created wholly by them.

Don't know if this helps...

[ 07-06-2004, 06:08 PM: Message edited by: ionw ]

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Hi Katie;

This is VW11 under OS10.2.8. Error message is "The application Vectorworks quit unexpectedly" (This quote is from memory and may vary slightly).

It is possible that I changed zoom line during the session, but the crash caused the preference to change. I normally have zoom line off as I normally only use it to preview drawings prior to printing.

So if I changed Zoom Line during a session it was to turn it off after it turned itself on after the previous crash.

There is something else that I cannot prove but suspect was also a result of the crash. I had a roof of 4 separate roof faces that reverted to a polygon. Prior to crash it was a 3d roof. After the crash it went back to a 2d polygon. I had to reselect each of the 4 polygons and use the "Roof Face" command to restore the roof to 3d.

I did not knowingly change this roof. So I must assume that the crash did it.

Thanks for your help.

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  • 9 months later...

Hi Katie,

An idea on the changing preferences problem. (I have had this problem as well) I have found with OS 10 generally ( I use 10.3.9 / VW 10.5.1 ), that apps (including the Finder) will reset their prefs back to their previous session setting if that app hangs during a session.

An idea that may be a work around until the problem is fixed is to set your prefs and then quit VW's. Reboot VW's and see if the prefs remain after general CAD-iing and undo-ing. Haven't tested this -but will do. All of those in this thread might test it and see if they have any joy.

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Whew ... what a read ...

doth appear to be minor conflicts between User Inputs, VW data I/O and OS I/O.

Solution :

1)Avoid unnecessary Undo's

2) Changes to VW Preferences must = save ( note OSX has 2 pref files )

3) After Crash =first find problem(s) & check Preferences & Attributes beofre continue to work on the file.

Summary: What may appear to be a bug may actually be a "random' or "unpredictable" result of complex interactions between carbon & silicon based life forms. Inter-Species mating can get messy ;>0

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