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Do you manage to work with multiple view panes?


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I'm interested to know how many people use this in practice.

 

Do you regularly work with multiple view panes and if so, do you have any of them arranged as "floating" panes and on another screen in a multiple monitor setup?

 

I'd like to be able to work with two panes - one on my main monitor and one on a secondary monitor. Every time I try to do this though, I give up; it's just too awkward, I keep activating saved views in the wrong pane by accident and selecting tools is fiddly. On top of this there are various graphics errors that appear once you have more than one pane in operation, and it's my feeling that it causes various things to go wrong with the drawing too... floor slabs misbehaving, things like this.

 

I'm still using 2018 so maybe some of these things have improved in subsequent versions.

 

Or is it one of those Vectorworks features that is introduced as 95% functional and then never touched again, meaning hardly anyone actually uses it? Is it worth me persevering?

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Honestly I work in VW in a single View Pane only all the time.

(In Bricscad either)

 

Don't know why, as I use Quad Views very often in C4D, Modo, Blender, ...

 

Maybe because View Navigation, 3D OpenGL vs 2D Wireframe switching,

Snappings and Tools are well optimized for single Pane usage in VW.

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I tend to make one floating Window on a second monitor and put this into open GL in perspective and then on my main monitor I work in wire frame ortho views. It gets confused sometimes, but in general it's nice to see the perspective while adjusting the model in front or top/plan. Admittedly, I never use saved views, and I could see that making havoc to the system. 

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I use single pane mostly, but have a keyboard shortcut (CMD-L)  for a 2 pane. (70/30 split)

It goes haywire very quickly when working between viewports etc, hence the shortcut to flip in and out. 

If it was usable like the C4D one then I'd use it more often.

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I have a large, floating 3D opengl view on a second monitor and my primary display divided into a large top plan view and then two small front and left views in wireframe mode. Sometimes on the second monitor I’ll creat an additional floating plane in top view with a marionette script open. All tools and properties panes are stacked next to each other on the far left side of the main display. 
 

another thing that has made a big difference. About 6 months ago I upgraded to two 4K, 32” monitors. Very nice to work on for long amounts of time. You can find them pretty cheap now. 
 

when I’m just on my laptop, I rarely use multiple views. 

Edited by jmanganelli
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2 hours ago, jmanganelli said:

 About 6 months ago I upgraded to two 4K, 32” monitors.

 

Which ones did you end up going with?  I'm still using a 30" Apple Cinema Display from umpteen years ago and don't know how much longer it's going to last.

 

And to Line Weight's question:  We just use a single pane almost all of the time.  I think it's just habit as we developed our working styles that way ... but it's also due to screen real-estate.  With all of our pallets open the actual work area is not that big and reducing that further with multiple panes start to make it hard to work effectively.

Edited by Taproot
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It sounds like most people have come to the same conclusion as me - the floating pane configuration doesn't really work.

 

That several people have said they do use something similar in other applications suggests that it's just a poor implementation in VW. Which is a shame because with a bit of effort it could surely be made to be more usable.

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I did use a floating view pane but got frustrated as a lot of my shortcuts didn’t work on it. Also the fvp was always shrunk down (not minimised) when I opened a drawing and I’d need to stretch the window out each time which is annoying.
 

I am using 2x view panes occasionally, usually so I can edit vp annotations in one pane and tweet the design layer in the other.

Edited by Boh
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I use this occasionally on my laptop when creating items in 3D or wanting to reference items on a different layer that I don't want to see in my active pane or is not available in my active pane because it exists on a sheet.

If I was setup on dual monitors, I would probably have a dedicated perspective view pane running all the time during 3D work.

 

I find it is exceptionally useful for placing and sizing items like doors and windows on an existing context model when you have no measurements 🙂

 

 

 

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@jcaia the curve is slight. For most work I don’t notice it. There have been a few final renders that required extra scrutiny. But I generally correct to 2 point perspective, or render that way, so it turned out not to be a major issue. The bigger issue is the color fidelity, in my experience. For that reason, I picked a monitor with good color range and vibrancy. 

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12 hours ago, jeff prince said:

I use this occasionally on my laptop when creating items in 3D or wanting to reference items on a different layer that I don't want to see in my active pane or is not available in my active pane because it exists on a sheet.

If I was setup on dual monitors, I would probably have a dedicated perspective view pane running all the time during 3D work.

 

I find it is exceptionally useful for placing and sizing items like doors and windows on an existing context model when you have no measurements 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

When the two panes are on the same screen like this, it's fairly easy to move between either of them, and the tool palettes. When a pane is on a second monitor, there's then a rather long journey for the cursor to make back and forth (plus my muscle memory keeps wanting to look for the tools in the normal position relative to the active drawing pane).

 

How is this dealt with in other applications - do they repeat the tool palettes on the second monitor? I think that if VW did this, it might be easier to use in this way.

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@line-weight I believe that the new context menus that put tools at tool tips that they previewed a few months ago will address this. 
 

In rhino, it is easy to customize the mmb context menu and to access ALL tools from it so that it is not necessary to go to the tools lining the perimeter of the screen. 
 

there was a discussion about this topic in this forum 1-2 years ago, mostly from the perspective of making vw a better speed modeler see link below). It appears that the vw team listened and addressed this. The new workflow they previewed looks very promising. I look forward to trying it out. 

 

 

Edited by jmanganelli
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7 hours ago, line-weight said:

When a pane is on a second monitor, there's then a rather long journey for the cursor to make back and forth (plus my muscle memory keeps wanting to look for the tools in the normal position relative to the active drawing pane).

 

There is certainly an adaptation and learning curve associated with moving to multiple monitors.  It has been a long time since I've worked on dual monitors regularly, never in VWX.  When I did use that setup, the second monitor was for secondary tasks like having a different application open or viewing a model or video.  I experimented with stacking my PC monitors vertically after seeing a video editor I hired using that arrangement many years ago.  I found the movement of looking up instead of twisting was actually nice for reducing fatigue and eye strain.  It was especially nice when reviewing videos, I would lean back in the chair and suddenly feel the urge to grab some popcorn 🙂  Everyone who visited my office had something to say about how crazy it looked.  The last team I managed all wanted dual monitors for CAD.  I figured it would be a good moral boost to hook them up and maybe see some production gains to boot.  It was comical watching them adapt during that transition.

 

I prefer having a large screen and an iPad to multiple monitors though these days.  I essentially use the iPad as a second monitor for secondary tasks (email, referring to videos or tutorials, etc) and as a primary monitor for doing image editing and mark ups with the apple pencil.

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I was just working on a complicated drawing that necessitated having multiple panes open at once.  The functionality was great!  It took two sections and a plan simultaneously displayed to understand what was going on.  However, I noticed that after a while, the main drawing window didn't refresh correctly and the section displayed disjointed chunks of the image (like a puzzle before it's put together).  We've seen this bug before elsewhere ... while zooming in and out the image draws correctly, but when stopped it blows apart.  Suffice it to say that when I closed the other panes, the main drawing window rendered correctly again.

 

We use a two monitor setup (one big, one small) and locate the resource browser on the second monitor as well as our internet browser (which we use a lot during design).  It works well.  

 

However, as I mentioned earlier our displays are due for an upgrade.  I looked into the monitor recommended by  @jmanganelli and have concluded that we need more screen area.  It looks to me like the 38" ultrawide monitors offer about the same area as my dual monitors and would have fewer cables, power supplies, etc.  Is anyone using one of those setups and if so could they comment on how they like it?

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@Taproot to your point, I initially wanted larger monitors —- but the price for a high quality 4K monitor with great color range goes up a lot after about 32” - at least that was the case as of December, 2019. 
 

If I were not being budget conscious, or if money were not a concern, I would have gone for at least (1) 44”+ or (1) 52”+ monitor so that I could proof a full 24x36 or, ideally, 30x42 sheet at 1:1 scale without having to print it out. But the costs of those monitors were still quite expensive at the time. 
 

I rationalized settling for the 32” monitor because it is big enough to proof a half size sheet of a 30x42 sheet at 1:1 —- which is very useful.  

Edited by jmanganelli
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@jmanganelli Yes, I'm inclined to spend more on the perfect screen up front.  My 30" cinema display cost A LOT, but it's been going strong for 14 years and has been a great experience, so I'm inclined to go with high quality and less frequent turnover.  The 43-44" size is interesting thought.  I hadn't considered it, but will look into it further.  Beyond that, I think I would be turning my head too much and would be tempted to sit further away (which would defeat the purpose).  I appreciate the feedback.

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On 7/18/2020 at 8:07 PM, Taproot said:

I was just working on a complicated drawing that necessitated having multiple panes open at once.  The functionality was great!  It took two sections and a plan simultaneously displayed to understand what was going on.  However, I noticed that after a while, the main drawing window didn't refresh correctly and the section displayed disjointed chunks of the image (like a puzzle before it's put together).  We've seen this bug before elsewhere ... while zooming in and out the image draws correctly, but when stopped it blows apart.  Suffice it to say that when I closed the other panes, the main drawing window rendered correctly again.

 

This is exactly what I've experienced and one of the reasons I've largely given up on multiple panes. Which version of VW are you on?

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