Drawings open blank while using two monitors

[mebennion]

I recently upgraded to Vectorworks 2021 on MacOS and have been experiencing an issue while opening Vectorworks files. My current configuration of monitors is my iMac on the left with a second monitor on the right. My drawings all open up fine when I have them open on my iMac but when I put an active drawing on my second monitor and then go to open another Vectorworks file, it opens up blank. It is just a white screen with no drawing being displayed in the window.

 

Any idea why this might be happening? I work with two other engineers and they both are experiencing the very same issue with Vectorworks 2021. We are all able to duplicate the issue with our second monitors and we all use MacOS.

[michaelk]

What was your previous VW version?  (And what Mac OS are you running?)

 

 

[mebennion]

Our previous VW version was 2013. We are all running MacOS Catalina. We all have different Macs as well (Mac mini, iMac 2015, iMac 2020)

[michaelk]

That's a fun jump from 2013 to 2021!  I don't think 2013 had tabs (?).  Does the second file open as a tab in the VW application window or does it open in another window?

 

I'm not sure what either answer means :-).  Just trying to think about the differences between 2013 and 2021.

 

If you go to Preferences > Display, is Navigation Graphics set for Best Performance?

[mebennion]

Yes it was quite the jump from 2013 to 2021! Surprisingly, there was nothing too drastically different between 2013 and 2021 that gave it a hard learning curve.

 

We currently have it set to open new drawings in their own separate window instead of doing tabs. Window > Use Application Window, is unchecked. That was something we noticed about 2021 compared to 2013 was the default to have tabs. 

 

Navigation Graphics is also set for Best Performance.

[michaelk]

We are going to quickly hit the end of my understanding of how this works 🙂

 

When you open an existing drawing on the second monitor and it appears blank - 

- if you zoom in or out does the geometry on the drawing appear?

- if you select all does the OIP show anything selected?

- if you select all and then Fit to Objects does the drawing move and do things appear?

- if you turn turn Use Application window back on, open a drawing, and then drag the tab out of the application window to the other monitor does it behave?

 

I'd forgotten what it was like before we could dock palettes in VW on the Mac.  

I'm also running Catalina on a 2019 MBP.  I've tried turning off Use Application Window and opening files in the external monitor.  Works as expected for here.

[michaelk]

One other thing to maybe check.  I've made a point of not keeping up with what used to be called spaces and is now mission control.  But do the 3rd and 4th checkboxes do anything?

[Pat Stanford]

Are you using a custom workspace? If so, please try one of the standard workspaces. I have seen all sorts of wierdness caused by migrated workspaces.

[mebennion]

Nothing is selected when I try to select all. Zooming in on the drawing does display the drawing background (instead of blank white) but no geometry appears. There is nothing for me to select on the drawing. I tried using tabs again and dragged a tab onto my second monitor but still nothing. 

 

I did try the mission control suggestion. The fourth checkbox was selected by default "Displays have separate Spaces". So I unchecked that and the drawings seemed to be opening and functioning normally. However I don't prefer having my dock and finder bar only available on 1 monitor. For now, it sounds like it is an issue dealing with "separate displays" with the mission control. I will update if anything changes.

[michaelk]

Oy.  

 

That's weird.  I'm sure I've never changed any of those settings and I've never seen this issue.  

 

Glad it worked.