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Teaser Tuesday - Class and Layer Filters - Vectorworks 2019


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  • JuanP pinned this topic
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
7 minutes ago, Patrick Fritsch said:

Still hoping for more efficient detailing tools...geez their old.


Not in the scope of this task, but for 2019 we do indeed address a few different aspects of detailing! Not sure if those features will make the cut for Teasers but they''ll be in the rollout materials for sure.

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This looks pretty useful, especially for Classes. Two questions come to mind -

 

  1. Do you have access to the instant search in the Layer and Class dropdowns in the OIP when an object is selected? I can see this being the most useful place to have it for Classes, since really the only time I change a class is through the OIP and that's when a long list of classes is difficult to navigate. I'll admit I never use the dropdowns in the mode bar. I always work in the Navigation Palette when changing the current layer or class.
  2. Can you assign a tag to layers/classes during a DWG import, much like you can assign a prefix?

I love that this years focus is "Quality"!

 

Kevin

 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
4 minutes ago, Kevin McAllister said:

Do you have access to the instant search in the Layer and Class dropdowns in the OIP when an object is selected? I can see this being the most useful place to have it for Classes, since really the only time I change a class is through the OIP and that's when a long list of classes is difficult to navigate. I'll admit I never use the dropdowns in the mode bar. I always work in the Navigation Palette when changing the current layer or class.


Yep! It's also in a number of different and less obvious places where we interact with classes, like in the Class and Layers override lists for viewports. It isn't absolutely everywhere (I noticed it not being present deep within some dialogs from some PIOs), but nearly all places where there is a class dropdown on the top level or one level deep in UI elements.
 

7 minutes ago, Kevin McAllister said:

Can you assign a tag to layers/classes during a DWG import, much like you can assign a prefix?


I have to avoid answering this for the time being because there's something related to it that I can't discuss yet.

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Cool!

 

3 hours ago, Jim Wilson said:

AND these filters can be saved and shared between files, meaning these preconfigured filters can be attached to your templates and included in company standards.

 

 

Meaning it has to be pre-set up in a template, or will there be a way to share between existing files (similar to Resources)?

 

Another question - is there a way to see what tags have already been assigned to classes, aside from right clicking a class and going to Assign Tags? For example, does the Organization dialogue box have a new column for Tags? I feel like I'd want a place to see an overview of what tags have been applied to classes throughout a document, especially when working on files that have been started by other people.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
7 minutes ago, Andy Broomell said:

Meaning it has to be pre-set up in a template, or will there be a way to share between existing files (similar to Resources)?

 

You can do it with a template or you can use an "Import" option that will let you bring filters in from a targeted file. They don't appear in the resource browser though, they are handled in the background as a kind of file metadata.

 

8 minutes ago, Andy Broomell said:

is there a way to see what tags have already been assigned to classes, aside from right clicking a class and going to Assign Tags? For example, does the Organization dialogue box have a new column for Tags?

Yes, there is a "Tags" column in the Org dialog that will display them.No new column for them in the Nav palette, but there's a contextual "Assign Tags..." menu shortcut to jump right to class tag assignment from there instead.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Jim Wilson said:

Yes, there is a "Tags" column in the Org dialog that will display them.No new column for them in the Nav palette, but there's a contextual "Assign Tags..." menu shortcut to jump right to class tag assignment from there instead.

 

Cool, this is about what I would expect 🙂. I agree that having them in the Nav palette would be too much, but glad to hear they'll show up in in the Org dialogue box.

 

Slightly off-topic, but related, any chance the "Description" attribute for classes and layers was given a column in the Org dialogue box? I was surprised to not see it there when that functionality was added a version or two ago.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
2 minutes ago, Andy Broomell said:

Slightly off-topic, but related, any chance the "Description" attribute for classes and layers was given a column in the Org dialogue box?

No change there, I know there was talk of it but there were some problematic issues with potentially putting that much text into those columns. I believe it was tested and found to be unstable, so it was benched until we revisit the underlying guts of the Org dialog.

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8 minutes ago, Jim Wilson said:

No change there, I know there was talk of it but there were some problematic issues with potentially putting that much text into those columns. I believe it was tested and found to be unstable, so it was benched until we revisit the underlying guts of the Org dialog.

 

Understood. Also, I hope when those underlying guts are revisited, we'll gain the ability to directly enter information in each field (or changing color, etc) by clicking directly in the Org dialogue box, without having to go into the Edit dialogue box for each thing. Just putting that out there.

 

Sorry, back on topic now.... 😄

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
Just now, Andy Broomell said:

Also, I hope when those underlying guts are revisited, we'll gain the ability to directly enter information in each field (or changing color, etc) by clicking directly in the Org dialogue box, without having to go into the Edit dialogue box for each thing. Just putting that out there.


This is exactly the kind of deep dive into functionality I'd like to see for serious UI improvements. Maybe a coat of dark paint afterwards 😉

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1. Will it be possible to use the pipette tool to transfer the filter setting from one viewport to another?

2. Will the tagging as well as the filtering be accessible via vectorscript/python? Would be nice to be able to write a script that runs through the viewports in the sheet layers and assigns the right filter to them.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
2 minutes ago, elepp said:

1. Will it be possible to use the pipette tool to transfer the filter setting from one viewport to another?

 

Well the filters are specific to those dropdown and palette lists, it isnt a filter applied to the viewport itself, its the ability to filter the class and layer slections when using class and layer overrides. Those class and layer visibilities CAN already be transferred by the eyedropper though, so I suppose the answer is Yes unless I misunderstood your question.

 

3 minutes ago, elepp said:

2. Will the tagging as well as the filtering be accessible via vectorscript/python? Would be nice to be able to write a script that runs through the viewports in the sheet layers and assigns the right filter to them.

Unsure! i will check. I'll try to make sure to get an answer before the livestream so it can be included.

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3 hours ago, Jim Wilson said:


Yep! It's also in a number of different and less obvious places where we interact with classes, like in the Class and Layers override lists for viewports. It isn't absolutely everywhere (I noticed it not being present deep within some dialogs from some PIOs), but nearly all places where there is a class dropdown on the top level or one level deep in UI elements.
 


I have to avoid answering this for the time being because there's something related to it that I can't discuss yet.

 

This smells like a possible class remapping tool might become a reality 🙂

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I was watching the video hoping that you were going to move over to the right and show us that the 'saved views' dropdown had received similar treatment.

 

Because that's the one I use more often now. I don't often go into the class or layer dropdowns except to get things set up in preparation for creating a saved view (and increasingly I do that from the navigation palette instead).

 

I'd particularly like to be able to have saved views nested in submenus like we can do with classes.

 

Just having a think about why I don't much use the class or layer dropdowns...if I'm about to draw a new object I'll often activate the class I want by doing a right-click on a similar object nearby. But perhaps I'd start using them more, with these improvements.

 

 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Limited to Classes and Layers for this year, but there have been a number of places (many mentioned during Beta testing) that we want to bring this same UI to in the future. Font list, Saved Views, Viewports, all came up in these talks and I would not be surprised to see it becoming more prevalent elsewhere as well.

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9 minutes ago, Jim Wilson said:

Limited to Classes and Layers for this year, but there have been a number of places (many mentioned during Beta testing) that we want to bring this same UI to in the future. Font list, Saved Views, Viewports, all came up in these talks and I would not be surprised to see it becoming more prevalent elsewhere as well.

 

The font list and the Marionette node search field would be prime candidates for immediate search without having to hit enter.

 

I could see tags being used for Viewports. The Viewport pane in the Navigation Palette definitely needs something to help it to be more useful. Right now there's no way to know where a viewport is (eg. it would be great to be able to organize the list grouped by sheet for example).

 

Kevin

 

Edited by Kevin McAllister
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If you've filtered Classes in the Nav Palette, will there be any actions that trigger it to reset to viewing all classes? (Besides hitting the little X of course).

 

For example, what happens when:

-Switching to different tab in the Nav Palette and switching back (I'd expect class filter to still be in tact)

-Running a Saved View (I'd expect class filter to still be in tact... unless Saved Views have been given the ability to save or not save filter states).

-Closing a file and reopening (I'd expect class filter to be reset, though I could see this going either way.)

 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
16 minutes ago, Matt Overton said:

Why doesn’t creating a tag auto create a basic filter for that tag?

 

Well, you can use the search function on tags manually as well. I dont know if I'd want that filter list at the bottom to be as long as the number of tags id want to make. The Filter system is more designed to be a way of calling up conceptual groups of filtered items by multiple criteria, like items that include more than one similar tag or are in a specific state and have a specific tag, etc. If you just wanted to find things based on a single tag, then i would think the search would be faster than scrolling through a now-50-item Filters list after making a few dozen tags?

(I realize now that my quick example filter in the video of just one tag doesn't clarify this or make the intended usability obvious, my fault.)
 

12 minutes ago, Andy Broomell said:

If you've filtered Classes in the Nav Palette, will there be any actions that trigger it to reset to viewing all classes? (Besides hitting the little X of course).

 

For example, what happens when:

-Switching to different tab in the Nav Palette and switching back (I'd expect class filter to still be in tact)

-Running a Saved View (I'd expect class filter to still be in tact... unless Saved Views have been given the ability to save or not save filter states).

 

Right now they stay as you left them in these scenarios, so you can go back and forth without it resetting on you. There was some debate over whether it should ALWAYS reset back to "All Classes/Layers" when you click away and that users might get confused if they have a filter enabled they forgot about, but having it stay the way you last left it seemed overall to be more intuitive and if a user did make that mistake once, they likely won't keep making it once they're used to the interface.

 

15 minutes ago, Andy Broomell said:

-Closing a file and reopening (I'd expect class filter to be reset, though I could see this going either way.)

 

If you close/reopen, the filters do reset back to the default Show Everything state, as I would also expect and agree with.

 

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