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macOS Catalina (10.15) Compatibility


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I’ve been struggling on with VW 2018 on Catalina. It just about works on newly created drawings but I have to switch computers and use Mojave if I want to open an older drawing.

 

It seems to be modifications to closed polylines that crashes the drawings on Catalina. Also opening older files from VW sometimes results in a blank screen (although they can be opened from Finder).

 

I have some sympathy with Nemetschek in that Catalina is an awful OS and has caused problems for other applications too. Having said that, although I will buy 2020 to allow access to completed work, it will be the last VW purchase.

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I've been a loyal user of mc/vw since 1997.

 

Figure it out--we vw'18 users have been abandoned. And to those of you quick to point at Apple as the culprit I'd ask you why you have upgraded to Catalina. hmmm?

 

Sorry folks but I'm accustomed to getting a little more wear out of a release...my support of VW has ended with VW's lack of support of me.

 

 

Edited by zorkonius
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I kinda agree with you. I have also used VW for many years. I think Nemetschek should offer more support to a product that is only 2 years old. 

 

It's equally true Catalina has broken other applications, so I do have sympathy with VW. But on balance I think it's more important to keep the OS up to date for reasons of security and I did not expect the 2 year old software to become obsolete. 

 

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11 hours ago, Alvar said:

I’ve been struggling on with VW 2018 on Catalina. It just about works on newly created drawings but I have to switch computers and use Mojave if I want to open an older drawing.

 

It seems to be modifications to closed polylines that crashes the drawings on Catalina. Also opening older files from VW sometimes results in a blank screen (although they can be opened from Finder).

 

I have some sympathy with Nemetschek in that Catalina is an awful OS and has caused problems for other applications too. Having said that, although I will buy 2020 to allow access to completed work, it will be the last VW purchase.

VW 2019 is OK with Mojave now. I have delayed Catalina due to horrendous issues with 2019 when Mojave was released.  VW 2019 may be OK with Catalina now but I havn’t seen anyone confirm that yet. 

That is what I need to know.  

 

Down the line I will be interested to know whether VW 2020 works OK with Mojave and/or Catalina.  First things first however as above. 

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VW 2019 is OK with Mojave now. I have delayed Catalina due to horrendous issues with 2019 when Mojave was released.  VW 2019 may be OK with Catalina now but I havn’t seen anyone confirm that yet. 

That is what I need to know.  

 

Down the line I will be interested to know whether VW 2020 works OK with Mojave and/or Catalina.  First things first however as above

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On 2/7/2020 at 1:46 PM, RonMan said:

I chose the Razor Chroma X. It has GB Ethernet and four USB ports . To get two FireWire ports I would have spent another $300. I didn’t see the value.

This is interesting.  I've got a 4k ultra fine monitor and 5k antra fine (both USB-C bought direct from Apple)

 

I get poor performance (MacBook Pro 16", Backmagic eGPU, Catalina).  I have been waiting 20+ minutes to "Edit section in place" and it's not even a complex model.

 

I wonder whether it's the amount of pixels I have with a 5k and a 4k screen together?   Maybe I should have gone for 2 x 4k or even just 2 x 1280?

 

Can that make a difference?  Driving me nuts...

Edited by Andrew Davies
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4 hours ago, Andrew Davies said:

This is interesting.  I've got a 4k ultra fine monitor and 5k antra fine (both USB-C bought direct from Apple)

 

I get poor performance (MacBook Pro 16", Backmagic eGPU, Catalina).  I have been waiting 20+ minutes to "Edit section in place" and it's not even a complex model.

 

I wonder whether it's the amount of pixels I have with a 5k and a 4k screen together?   Maybe I should have gone for 2 x 4k or even just 2 x 1280?

 

Can that make a difference?  Driving me nuts...

Which graphics card are you using? I have the Radeon Pro WX-7100 and everything is fine. I would check your memory when using VW. Istats Menu lets you see what the GPU is doing. I also have an i9 in my MacBook Pro 15"

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Hi

 

I am using a Blackmagic eGPU with a Radeon Pro 580 graphics processor with 8GB of GDDR5 memory

 

My MacBook Pro 16” has 32GB RAM

 

Had a bad VWX day - several crashes.  About 4 altogether.  Really not a complex file I am working on.  Just one referenced VWX file, no meshes etc.  Very frustrating.  Spent 3 hours doing what should have been no more than 1.

 

I’ve said it many a time, but VWX really needs updating / refreshing.  I am a long time user and just put up with the oddities and quirks.  Shame.

 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

HA,

 

I wonder if the work 'compatible' needs defining in the context of VW and Catalina?

 

I am running the latest version of VW 2020 and Catalina and getting a crash every few minutes, mainly while saving. The error msgs claim it's a graphics kernel bug but the bombs happen after a save. This is a bit of a catch 22 since I have my version autosaving after every 20 operations. I guess I'm only losing 20 minutes of work an hour recovering from each bomb.

 

Is this normal compatibility?

 

D

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Hi DMcD

 

It is logical to me that the problems you have described have absolutely nothing to do with the compatibility of Vectorworks with Catalina.
Does the termination happen every time when you manually select the "Save" command? And the automatic backup every "x" minutes works fine? Could it be that you have a "special" location to store the files? (e.g. directly on a cloud solution, etc.)
Does the termination also happen when a new, empty document is saved on the desktop?
It is important to search a pattern of the problem and to work in a process of elimination:
If Step 1 works fine and Step 2 let crash the application, then let try to split Step 2 in several smaller steps.

 

Best regards, Marc 

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>>It is logical to me that the problems you have described have absolutely nothing to do with the compatibility of Vectorworks with Catalina.

 

I guess it's always logical unless it's happening to you. Since I cannot downgrade to Mojave or VW 2019 (which were good in the last 6 months I used them) I have to sheet this home to both the current version of VW and its relationship to the current OS… Oh, and VWs reluctancy to do much about this sort of thing unless it's stating 'it must be something you are doing' or 'it must be your video card' or 'perhaps try using just one monitor' or 'what happens if you don't turn your computer on?'

 

Since VW 2020 had so many problems with my previous Mac Pro and Cataina demands it, everything is on the main HD in the docs folder. No network, no external drives. Clean install of everything. I can't see that saving onto the desktop would make any difference.

 

The crashes happen for all sorts of reasons… perhaps saving or autosaving being one of them but by the time the crash has happened, the times on the autosaved files are not exactly current so you can't say that it was one keypress or another which caused the bomb. It's largely a graphics kernel error which happens when changing layers, changing views, saving, etc.

 

>>If Step 1 works fine and Step 2 let crash the application, then let try to split Step 2 in several smaller steps.

 

It's difficult to split saving into more than one step. That being said, the menu highlights for a while after pressing the save command and the crash happens afterwards, and the file itself is not saved suggesting that VW collects everything before spitting the dummy and does not save anything.

 

Only in the last few frustrating hours has it has been when pasting a group from an autosaved file back into the main file and saving I have had crashes. If I don't save, I can work for a few minutes… but what's the point? The group copied from the autosaved file has the same geometry as the main file and is opened from a saved… obviously. But the backup file has a warning that shapes cannot be regenerated so all I'm interested in is the last 10-20 actions on the objects in the copied group.

 

However, it's not just that. There are a lot of oddities with this version of VW, from the inability to dimension anything other than corner points in viewports to inaccuracies with dimensions in general which were in most cases, not there in earlier versions of VW. I have submitted many repeatable bugs over the years but rarely if ever seen any fixed, even to the point that in one instance I was told that 'this is unlikely to get fixed since (though repeatable) it's fairly obscure. Really, any full bomb signifies a problem somewhere which should be fixed.

 

For me, VW 2020 and Catalina are the most buggy versions of VW since… well VW 2019 and Mojave in the early months. Normally obsessive saving and autosaved backups mean I only lose about 1/4 of the day.

 

I don't need most of the new features but I do need stability. I also don't need being told that my setup, whatever it happens to be that month, is unusual and therefore a cause which doesn't need following up.

 

D

 

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Does this happen from the outset ie when creating a brand new file and copying a group?

 

is the view rotated when you copy?

 

is the data far from absolute 0,0?

 

does the file contain scaled symbols?

 

are you using PS?

 

are you using design layer viewports?

 

does the file contain legacy DWG import data eg line styles, hatches, symbols?

 

how large is the file or does it not matter?

 

which version was the file originally created in and has it been converted to 2020? Check by opening a copy of the file using TextEdit.

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On 2/13/2020 at 1:44 AM, Alvar said:

I’ve been struggling on with VW 2018 on Catalina. It just about works on newly created drawings but I have to switch computers and use Mojave if I want to open an older drawing.

 

It seems to be modifications to closed polylines that crashes the drawings on Catalina. Also opening older files from VW sometimes results in a blank screen (although they can be opened from Finder).

 

I have some sympathy with Nemetschek in that Catalina is an awful OS and has caused problems for other applications too. Having said that, although I will buy 2020 to allow access to completed work, it will be the last VW purchase.

Hi there, we are also having these issues (above). We recently did an OS update and VW not working as usual.

Any fixes/ things we should do to get back to normal?

Thanks

G.

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17 minutes ago, NeedHelp said:

Hi there, we are also having these issues (above). We recently did an OS update and VW not working as usual.

Any fixes/ things we should do to get back to normal?

Thanks

G.

If you are really running VW2018, you are either going to have to run it under an older operating system than Catalina or you are going to have to update to VW2019 or preferably 2020.

 

 

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We did the combo Update and still same issues: The sheet layers work and show the drawn designs, but nothing shows up on the design layer, and the drawing tools are acting funny, for instance when I draw a square and enter desired sizes, hit enter, the sizes change... is it a settings issue?  All our classes and layers are on. Not sure how to fix.

Thanks for the help.

G.

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Hi @NeedHelp

 

If Vectorworks behaves poorly after upgrading your operating system (to one that is supported for that version of Vectorworks), then you're best to run the dedicated Uninstall app (in the Vectorworks application folder), then reinstall Vectorworks. I suggest you preserve your Vectorworks User Data and Preferences Folder first, but don't reinstate it until you've tested the fresh installation without it. Search the Vectorworks Help for more info on each of the concepts mentioned here. 

 

If this process doesn't rectify the issues you're experiencing, then it might be that your operating system upgrade went awry. In which case I'd call Apple for support. 

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