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Concurrent Open Documents?


Concurrent Open Documents?  

35 members have voted

  1. 1. How many documents do you normally keep open on a regular basis in Vectorworks?

    • 1
      1
    • 2-3
      22
    • 3-5
      9
    • 5-8
      0
    • 8+ (The limit of 8 documents interferes with my workflow)
      3


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I frequently have about three to five documents open consisting of the following: 

  • One main file. 
  • One or two files of stuff that I am referencing. 
  • Sometimes another file for another project I am working on (when I get a phone call).
  • One or two files where I am working on tasks discretely from my main file.  I do studies, or copy things out of the main file more easily work on them.

I frequently come up against the maximum file open dialogue box, and then I realize I have to close things up.  

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I keep individual "units" in separate drawing files and then reference these into a master drawing file.

 

So at any time I will have 1 to 3 pipe and instrument drawings (separate files) along with the master layout, and multiple (at least 3, on the last project I would have liked to have had 6) unit layout files open. that way I can easily switch files, make the edit and then update the reference to fix the master layout.

 

When reading the forum and trying to help other users I often open a new file (or 3) and tend to look back through my historical files to see what might be applicable. Often I hit the file limit.

 

Neither are likely typical use cases for anyone other than me.

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Because I keep everything for a project in a single file whenever possible, I often only have one file open. I open and close other files when I need to access other projects or resources but I tend to close them again when I'm done, knowing that it can affect VW performance depending upon the file sizes. My project files can be quite large because of the one project / one file workflow.

 

Kevin

 

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At our office (VW Architect) we do often work either with 2-3 files (e.g. building model + schemes/diagrams + utilities such us references etc.) or with  3-5 files when working with referenced files on final design stages (e.g. landscape general model + building models + details).

Something I would really appreciate/need would be the possibility to work/browse  (zoom/pan/etc) with 2 different drawings/files while a command/window is open/active on one of them. For example:

  • File 1: 3d building model > editing wall styles/components
  • File 2: 2d details drawing > checking/verifying some information (thickness, materials etc) needed for wall components

It may sound silly but right now we do often use screenshots to copy data or old style writing notes (and copying data) on paper.

Edited by STR
  • Like 1
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It's not so much how many I open when working, but how many I need to open to print the fabrications drawings (could be 50).

 

It's not reasonable to print as I go since they get lost in the communal printing pile. I like to print them in alpha-numeric order in one pile so the job doesn't separated and get lost.

 

If VW doesn't allow more than 8, maybe a printing macro is what is needed.

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I usually have the main project file open,  then open other project files to grab details as needed.
One issue i have found with having multiple files open at the same time is that sometimes the navigation browser gets stuck on one of the files and won't switch to the other files.

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  • 2 years later...

Max of three like when I'm updating my template file. I never use referencing. I'm always wary of pushing vw's boundaries as it crashes randomly, especially with copy operations IME. Tend not to browse other files much as content often made in other ways and brought in.

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  • 3 months later...

I'm printing 140 files today. 8 at a time 😔

 

Not unusual to print many.

 

We use VW to create a construction GA ( think of a house ).

 

For fabrication, we draw separate drawings for each item ( 10000 x bricks on one drawing, 1 x front door on another, 2 x windows on another, etc. )

 

If it can't be infinite, at least make it 10. I hate counting in eights.

 

 

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It depends on how many projects I am working on simultaneously!  I voted 3-5.
 

Also, I try to get in the habit of creating new symbols in a blank file, then saving that to my symbol file and then importing into a project file. The blank file helps avoid mistakes and placing the new symbol into the symbol file seems to be a good workflow to avoid frustration later on. 
 

Sometimes I have to open a reference file to make an update but not often. 

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Just printed another 35.

 

Hi Pat.

 

It's been suggested that I use Viewports, however, it's too slow from what I can achieve.

 

Just imagine a small jigsaw and taking each piece to dimension. Include a Bill of Materials and a quantity and a title specific to that piece.

 

I'm open to suggestions in another thread but I'm not seeing the speed advantages since I can copy and paste a piece into another file and run a macro that adds dimensions and all of the above from just one click, or use a worksheet that achieves similar results without listing all the other pieces in the GA file.

 

My continued vote is still 10 or more 😉

 

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