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Cornerblock snapping issues!


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I posted this question on a Facebook group, and it seems a few of us have this problem. 

 

Overall, truss corner block snapping seems to be very problematic and not intuitive. There is no direct way to select which face things will snap to. 2 problems I've had:

- I was making a 10'x10'x10' cube. I made one face, and attached the horizontal trusses. I duplicated the 1st face, and attempted to attach it to the horizontal trusses. That face wanted to  roll, rotate and flip in every direction except the way I wanted it to. 

- I've had pieces of truss roll so the diagonals on the top/bottom when snapping to a corner block (the structural engineer LOVED that one!)

 

 

Screen capture movie attached of me struggling to snap truss to a corner block. I was attempting to make a simple up-over-down truss archway, and the horizontal truss wanted to snap to every face of the corner block EXCEPT the one I wanted it to. The only fix I had was to pan the camera at a steeper angle.

 

Potential fix:

you can j+left click when attempting to select multiple (stacked) objects. A dropdown lets select which object to select. Can there be a similar function when attaching truss?

 

2020, but I've had this issue with 2019 as well. 

 

 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

@livespace josha Are you able to send me this file by DM so that I can take a look?  I setup the auto connect settings for all of the truss that is shipped in the Resource Manager and I have not experienced this type of behavior that you are showing.  Are those Christie Lites Type A symbols or some other manufacturer?  If they are Christie Lites Type A part of the issue you are having has to do with the corner and the gusset plates.  The gusset plates actually lie outside the "box" of the straight truss and because of how the 3D symbol for the corner is laid out the corner shifts by 3/8" when snapping using auto connect.  In plan view the corner block and upright are not perfectly aligned like the real world and the auto connect is having trouble finding the side snap points.  If you are able to send the file I would love to take a look and see what else could be causing the issue and see if I can fix it in your file and send it back to you or find the cause and file a bug.  

 

I made a quick video using Christie Lites Type A 6 way corner block and a 8' straight piece of truss to assemble a goal post and the auto connect worked as I would expect but I had to use right or left isometric views as I find they help when assembling truss vertically.  When I tried to connect from a top view I did also have the struggles that are present in your video.

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It's Tyler standard bolt 12x12. Various corner blocks. I'll clean up the file and send it over. 

 

Your workflow is a bit different that what I was using. I don't pull individual pieces from the resource manager, I duplicated the individual pieces (or truss sections) and drag them into place. 

- I make the "up+corner block" piece, attach the "over" to the corner block. Duplicate the "up+corner block" and attempt to attach it to the free end of the "over" piece.

 

What is the "Make Active" command you are using at the 0:13 mark? 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

@livespace josha I would avoid duplicating individual pieces of truss or corners and trying to place them.  Sometimes this causes issues with the auto connect and introducing artifacts.  I always go back to the resource manager and grab a new piece of truss much like you would when onsite and you have to go back to the truck or to the pile in the arena to get another piece.  If you are making a run of 100' using 10' sections you can simply keep the symbol active and use auto connect to snap across and you don't have to keep selecting from the resource manager.

 

The "Make Active" command at 0:13 is how I activate all symbols from the resource manager.  Simply choose your symbol in the resource manager and right click to open a menu and make active will be there.  It will activate the symbol as a parametric object and you won't have to use the resource picker like you do if you use a tool. You can also double click to activate a symbol as a parametric object as well.

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