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Truss in colour


rvanhees

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Hello, using VW 2019

 

Is it possible to change the color of truss?

I tried it through, object info - customize, or pallette attributes, did nog succeed.

 

Its purpose is

1) that we have a lot of truss in black in stock

2) more clarity for the crew which pieces of truss are in which location in the drawing, preferabley linkec to the image in de legend.

 

Example: truss 2 meter is red, truss 3 meter is yellow ...

 

 

 

Knipsel.JPG

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I am pretty sure t would have to import the symbols into a new drawing and update the 2D portion and thereby create a custom library that you would utilize moving forward. 

 

Also note that that information is available in the text field; best used when displaying simplified truss. I always print a page that is nothing but truss displayed that way so the shop knows exactly what type, color and length truss to use where. 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

@rvanheesThe truss geometry is shipped with a Gray 15% fill color on the 3D geometry.  If you edit the 3D component of the symbol and change it to Black or I would recommend Cool Gray 90% so that it does not disappear when rendering.  Changing the color of the geometry will not mess up any of the Braceworks Auto Connect data or calculations.

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  • 1 month later...

@JustinVH I did this in our workgroup, literally duplicate every truss symbol we have, and have made it black... Really a ** job to do.. Isn't a better idea to make an option in the OIP, whether you want your truss silver or black? Will be super cool if it also will change your color in the record from silver to black.

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It’s probably best to have both silver and black truss symbols available in one’s library. That is the way we have done our in house symbols. That allows you to place the correct truss for your usage. 

 

As to the original post, I totally get what you are doing and might be best handled by updating your symbol library so it works as you want regardless of who might be using the application. Two things to consider:

 

- Make sure to utilize the truss labels as this will emphasize type length and, if you do choose, the truss finish. 

 

- consider making the simplified version your specific color. That way you can produce a drawing that simply details truss and all your in house color schemes but still produce lighting plots without a myriad of colored trusses. 

 

 

Edited by scottmoore
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@scottmoore Making double truss symbols (silver and black) is something we do for years in our own workgroup. The reason that we copy the library of VWX is that we can assign our own classes with a prefix, copy our truss so we can make a black version aswell, and put de line types to 0.10 so you can see something on your drawing. 

 

Because of all this extra handling to make it work, it’s a lot of work to copy your whole library, adjust all names, record and color. So that’s why I think a black option in the OIP / plugin script that Will change the record to black instead of silver and fill the truss-truss class to black will / can work

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Knowing whether or not the truss you need is black or not is needed, but whether or not you show it in plan is quite variable among the drawing of different riggers, TDs, and LDs.  You could just have a field that states the truss color but show the different lengths in different colors.  Such a scheme might be better for the crew that needs to assemble the truss sticks, but being able to access and count truss based on length and color.  If the color drawn on the plot is to fit different needs, it cannot be as you describe in the OIP.  It would be possible to use Data Visualization as MarkDD describes, and I have shown that to a couple of riggers, but more than a couple of other systems have been develop by riggers to suit their needs.  I think if you want black truss you need black truss symbols, but you could use data visualization to color truss black based on user field you pick to hold color.  Maybe down the road there will be a "color" field in the "Truss Record" or the "Truss OIP" (I prefer the former).  I think the color black is most needed in ordering truss not in assembling truss structures for which the plot may be used.  Then again rendering black or very dark grey could be important in presentation.  Totally messing with setting things up are the following things

Truss symbols have a "Truss Record" attached.

Truss PIO objects have both the "Truss" PIO record and a "Truss Record" attached.

Hanging Positions can be made up of:

1) a bunch of truss symbols

2) a group of truss symbols

3) a bunch of "Truss" PIOs

4) a group of "Truss" PIOs

You want a to consistently render black truss?   For now, and I thing for quite some time, make some black truss symbols and...

     Be sure to attach a "Truss Record" whose "Truss Color" field has "Black" as a value.

 

It is possible to make a script to change the attributes of symbols and fill truss color fields, but it is not trivial, but not rocket science.   Let me know how much you need it and it might end up in AutoPlot Tools.

 

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Will attaching a simple colour record to each item when using Data Visualisation not be sufficient or is the holy grail for it to be in design layers as well?

1911301008_Screenshot2019-03-07at08_41_28.thumb.png.e5572159444e7446ff68cb87905c0117.png

 

There are a couple of caveats in 2019 though.

 

3D view only works with Renderworks not OpenGL. (this must be an oversight)

2D View only works properly if you change the Graphics performance to best performance and compatability. (known bug that is apparently fixed in upcoming service pack)

Default Instrument Texture needs to be set to Object Attribute rather than default Vectorworks Black. That is a default for me anyway.

 

 

Edited by markdd
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@Sam Jones  Thank you for your reply, but Autoplot is not an option, because we just want to make use of all spotlight symbols.

 

About the black truss, it's not only for technical drawings, but also for visualization, worksheets etc... We just want to select a black symbol or replace it with a silver one if needed.

 

We already make our own adjustments to our symbols (duplicates of the VWX ones). Funny that you talk about a script that's making the adjustments for us, we also thinking about something like that, but time is really an issue.. 

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@gmulder are you drawing for your specific inventory or are you designing for any eventuality using multiple vendors?  In either case I would suggest creating your own symbol library as, while it will take a little time up front, it will save you a ton of time on every subsequent project. If you are typically drawing for your own inventory, then I would seriously recommend this approach; especially if you have more than one person doing the drawing. No need for additional workflow, just grab the truss symbol you need and go. It will have the finish you want and the 2D version will already have the standardized length color code you want. 

 

I am of the opinion that the fewest steps steps to create the desired result is the best way to go. Select the proper truss symbol, insert it into the drawing, raise it to trim, assign it to a class and done. Having to go back to the OIP at that point is begging for mistakes and wasted time. 

 

Of course, having some OIP functionality is great so I am not arguing that at all. It just seems like, for what you want to do, creating the symbols as a library would better serve you for years to come. 

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15 hours ago, gmulder said:

Thank you for your reply, but Autoplot is not an option, because we just want to make use of all spotlight symbols.

I'm unclear as to why wanting to use Spotlight symbols would keep you from using an AutoPlot command to change VW object attributes and/or VW records.  For now, it is not an issue, because the command does not exist.  If it ever existed it would change selected symbols and/or their definitions.  Changes would be document specific, accessible to others if the file was made a template or library file.

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6 hours ago, Sam Jones said:

If it ever existed it would change selected symbols and/or their definitions.  Changes would be document specific, accessible to others if the file was made a template or library file.

I suspect that this kind of functionality will be very popular indeed. 

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@scottmoore hi scott,well this is were i’m know working on.. problem with an own invetory is that if VWX something changes on the plugin or symbols in there yearly update, you can start over.. but for know I have my own workgroup with duplicates of the VWX symbols in the correct classes (including prefix), correct line weight, correct name, and correct color. 

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17 hours ago, Rob Books said:

we have been talking a bit about this topic, and one thing we have been thinking on, is would it be better to have it in the OIP, or just be able to highlight the truss and change it in the Attributes palette?  I was initially thinking of having two options, Metalic and Black; but some countries need a good graphical representation for the crews.  if you could change it by instance for them, it would be great.  things to think on and put into the engineer's hands to figure out how to make it work.

The attributes palette would be my preference. And while you’re at it, why not make this ability available for every plugin and symbol instance in Vectorworks. 

 

This is is a long time wish from many many users and one of the big gaps in functionality that users notice when transferring from AutoCad, which has had the ability to do this for years and years.

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  • 10 months later...

Bumping this up.

Now many truss symbols seem to be locked down so when you try to open and edit or copy/paste just the geometry, all you can do is look at a text field that says some stuff about the company and VWX, thus preventing me from easilly making my own library....

 

Boy, I'd sure love it it the attribute palette would change colors and line weights. Has anyone found a fix or was VWX done something here?

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Thanks Peter.

I should say what I'm trying to accomplish.

I currently drag and drop custom truss symbols from, like, 2015 that are color coded according to size for easy builds. I'd very much like to update this with newer truss models and I'd also like to be able to do this within vectorworks, not having to open this ancient file to drag and drop. I don't really care about specifying if the truss is silver or black.

Anyway, this seems like new and interesting territory for other aspects, but I'd go crazy using this method to seek out and specify every length of truss associate it with a class, then not be able to copy-paste into other clients drawings.

 

 

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