Not a wishlist just 21st C essentials

[unearthed]

I'm still using 2012 which some folk think is old but it works. From looking at issues on the forums it looks like the basics are being ignored and lots of Baroque 'features' added. 

So I'm thinking long and hard before I upgrade. No bells and whistles just the daily needs of a landscape professional. Things I'd need to make upgrading worthwhile considering:

 

Worksheet
 - two-way excel red\write
 - ability for cells to read colour info from classes including alpha level
 - cell commenting like excel
 - full keyboard fcn shortcuts for all actions - like Excel
 - ability to export xls files
 - ability to read text (from  csv  txt md mdown xls) into worksheet cells 
 - worksheet access to text blocks and vice-versa

 

Simplified arraying - even circular arrays are a real trial, just something simple like ACAD and Sketchup.

 

MS Word, a real working live link from VW to word.

 

Keyboard access to rotation in object info.

 

Image file export
- Has this been improved?, e.g. for image export of non-standard size, in 2012 it was Alt F E R and the image default settings are  jpeg 2000 and marquee, image filetype can't be changed in marquee so click to another Export Area type and back to format to change that and then back to reset to marquee, then draw marquee (would be great to have dropdown of remembered marquee draw boxes) and finally save.
- What new files are enabled? Can the default filetype and format be changed?

 

Property Line \ Landscape subdivision lot module
- full control of annotations
- topolological polygon editing \ autoupdate of adjacent polygons.

 

Text formatting; kerning, easier handling of mixed formats in a single text block. Ability of system to retain focus on a text block - I'm a non-touch typist and often look up and see I'm no longer in the txt dialog.

 

Plantline lines like Acad had 20 years ago where basic line is drawn and output can be changed at will - makes for much smaller file sizes too.

 

Has the snap-to-all fcn been removed?

 

Alpha \ opacity control for gradients allowing one to have a gradient that fades out to 100% alpha\transparent (a very basic part of GIS's and R).
Very useful to show graded actions on plans such as planting densities.

 

Layers and classes - has there been any integration between these? If Classes are truly sub to Layers why can they not all be on same panel? Big time savings potential.

 

How is reading of live data feeds, especially GNSS \ total-station data?

 

Support for old vw formats including .mcd AFAIK Acad goes all the way back, why not VW??
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Nice to have:

Colour palette referencing has been awful - has it been improved? Having to remember where a colour is as you move around the interface is just silly.

 

Ability to filter exploded pdfs by shape and class them automatically.

 

Printing
Having saved views in batch print is annoying and wastes time. Is it still like this?

 

Digital file export with all referenced files - like old Acad pack'n'go 

 

Inclusion of a duplicate \ overlying polygon tool.

Edited March 11, 2020 by unearthed