VWA11.5 Viewport File Corruption

[Kevin]

Normally I am pretty tolerant of bugs. I often rise to the defense of NNA regarding comments and complaints on this board.

Right now, I am not tolerant, nor calm. I just opened a file and once again my viewports are empty. This has happened before. I have listed the problem here:

http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=004058;p=1#000024

With most bugs, it means that I/we avoid using that tool or proceedure. The result is either undesirable behaviour or nothing happens at all. This however is different.

I have a fully formated set of working drawings that has already gone into city plan check. Now when I open the file to make plan check corrections, the pages are blank!!!

I had planned on making these minor corrections and then printing and re-submitting the drawings to the City. I cannot do that now as I must rebuild the drawings to simply get back to where I can start working.

What do I tell my client? "Well no sir, I did not submit your drawings to the City because they dissappeared".

This is serious enough that I will either leave Vectorworks or go back to version 9.5 and not even start using my new copy of 12.0.

[eric.rktek]

Kevin,

as an FYI, we haven't experienced any of the disappearing viewport issues in V12 yet.

[Guest]

Kevin,

Are your viewports completely gone or are they just off to the side, like in your other files?

The old file that I evaluated appeared to have lost the viewports, but they were there - just off to the side and small. This happened because the scale command was executed with "entire drawing" enabled.

[Kevin]

Hi Katie,

The behaviour appears to be the same as before. When NNA reviewed the file that I submitted, I was not given a cause for the behaviour. I was told the obvious of what was wrong with the drawing, but not why it happened.

I volunteered the possible idea that I had inadvertantly enabled "entire drawing" when using the scale command. NNA did not acknowledge my input. Your comment here is the first from NNA to link the scale command to the behaviour.

However, I have not used the scale command since then. This latest viewport behaviour is not a result of my using the scale command again. Katie are you positive that there is a link between scale command and the viewport behaviour?

Other users have experienced the same or similar behaviour. Have their experiences been tied to the scale entire drawing command?

This behaviour is like "a theif in the night". It occurs without warning and it steals my time, effort, and income.

NNA needs to establish a positive cause for this behaviour and then alert users on how to avoid it.

I am at a crossroads. I cannot and will not continue to work with a product that arbitrarily loses my work. I have VWA12. If I can be assured that this viewport behaviour is limited to version 11, then I will move on to version 12.

Eric,

Thank you for your input regarding version 12. The key question is: did you experience this viewport behaviour when using version 11?

[Guest]

The other customers' problems are unlikely to be similar to yours. We only received one other file from another customer and their problem, too, was an error made by the user.

Our lead engineer was able to determine the cause of the one file within a matter of seconds.

If you scale the entire drawing, everything gets small (or large) and coordinates are no longer the same.

Take for example, a square on a layer scale of 1:1.

Now scale it .25 - you'll notice the coordinate is no longer the same.

This is the expected behavior when this command is executed.

You are welcome to send this new file to me and I will try to take a look at it. I can't promise anything right now because we are still addressing issues from 3 weeks ago. Until we are all caught up, the turn around time is a little longer than usual.

[eric.rktek]

Katie,

Our problems with viewports in V11.5.1 had nothing to do with a scale command. We have a couple viewports on a sheet that come in fine when the file is opened. After working in the file for a few minutes, all the information from the design files in just a couple of the viewports in the sheet would disappear. All Annotations were still visable. Most of the time we could close and reopen the file, and the information would be visable again, and disappear again shortly thereafter.

[Kevin]

Eric,

Did you find the cause of the viewports disappearing? It sounds like you have not.

[GJ]

This happened to me and it was tracked down to the rediculous ease with which one can click "Scale Entire Drawing" accidentally, instead of "Scale Text".

That check box has got to move (and should require an act of congress) because it is not immediately discernable and once you go beyond your undo limits, you're in alot of trouble.

GJ

[Kevin]

Katie,

The key question is whether the viewport behaviour is tied to the user or the software. If you are certain that this behavior is not the fault of the software, then I am satisfied.

The problem is in the same file as before. Based on your comments, I will have to assume that the file became corrupted and that corruption has reappeared.

I simply do not want to invest more of my time into version 12 to find that this unacceptable behaviour still exists. The fact that others had experienced this problem led me to believe that it was a software bug.

I would like to know what the other causes of this behavior are, that you found. It would help me and others to avoid this problem.

Thank you, Katie.

[Kevin]

quote:

---

Originally posted by GJ:

This happened to me and it was tracked down to the rediculous ease with which one can click "Scale Entire Drawing" accidentally, instead of "Scale Text".

That check box has got to move (and should require an act of congress) because it is not immediately discernable and once you go beyond your undo limits, you're in alot of trouble.

GJ

---

Thank you for writing. This is exactly what I did. It is good to know that this may be the root cause of my problem.

I agree, that the Scale Command needs to be revised. It needs a second confirmation dialog. Something like:

"Warning, you are about to rescale your entire drawing. Serious consequences may result. Are you sure you want to do this?"