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Better typographical control


DSmith2300

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I agree, some sort of page layout level typography and UI should be part of the "one flexible solution" philosophy. I find that I end up creating dozens of text styles that are only slightly different. There should be a visor just like in this post editing box that pops up directly above the text you are editing with a pull down for text style rather than mousing over to OIP and clicking a box. I find the way VW handles text to be very strange.  VW should recognize that you are:

  1. typing a number list hitting return and indenting,
  2. by starting another number, etc. just like the above visor.
  3. image.thumb.png.c871fd928863037312ec6fc7f20dadac.png
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It is the "Tracking Slider" at the bottom of the OIP if you select a Text.

 

And yes, it is a bit unpredictable where it adds space or not.

But with a bit of try and error  with positive and negative tracking I got what

I needed for my own Text Logo.

Not suitable for longer Texts or Typography.

And maybe putting each single Letter in its own Text Block would be faster ....

Edited by zoomer
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Thanks Zoomer.

I know about the tracking slider, and in my humble (but correct) opinion, it's garbage. 

I use it because I have no other option.

 

Spacing out letters in their own boxes makes an absolute mockery of the last 40 years of computer graphic interfaces.

I have the feeling this sums up VW for me.

Great for counting plants, but tortuously inefficient for actual graphic processes.

"like drawing with your good hand tied behind your back" I believe was a quote I saw in the forum somewhere.\

Don't get me started on the lack of polyline editing shortcuts.

 

 

Edited by DSmith2300
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I think I fully understand your needs.

But I don't think any of the CADs I ever worked had even that VW Tracking Feature.

And I am not so firm with Illustrator (replacements) usage as I seldom use it.

 

But I am agreeing that, especially VW with its 2D Layout capabilities, should be the

first App to offer such Typography capabilities.

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Welcome to Vectorworks, you made the right choice!  I use it daily for architectural design and love it for it's ease of use, flexibility and simplicity, however it does have some well known basic issues which need sorting out and you have just discovered one of them!  Vectorworks text capabilities are indeed crap, we all need to make presentations and if you're used an industry standard like  inDesign, for example, then VW text is stone age, even if you try to edit a large text block there is a weird time lag and when you finish typing you have to wait for the text to appear more slowly than you typed it in. We shouldn't need to have to sign up to Adobe Creative Cloud for simple publishing of our lovely projects, VW should give us that ability surely as it's really top end re 3D modelling and realistic rendering etc.

 

In addition to text there are other basic functions still in need improving after years of asking on this forum, e.g. the window tool, the door tool, and the stair tool but nothing gets done yet every year we get asked for £800-£1000 to 'upgrade' to the latest version. I use 2016 and 2020 and VW 2020 has exactly the same text issue.

 

Yes it is embarrassing in this day and age as other software is ahead now in certain respects. (rant over)

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On 12/12/2020 at 2:55 AM, CollaborativeMT said:

 VW should recognize that you are:

  1. typing a number list hitting return and indenting,
  2. by starting another number, etc. just like the above visor.


If we can get 'tables' and 'sections' with the text tool, that would even be better.

We would love to do all our specification within one program, and if Vectorworks can either 'link to' a word document and 'place' the contents, or simply have good text editing functions, it would make our workflow so much better.

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One issue I run into on Windows is that unless I turn OpenGL on (which creates certain other problems with our PDF print program), centered text isn't remotely centered, either on screen or in our printed output. Not suitable for professional output.

 

1527179032_2020_12-01VW2021TextAlignmentError1.thumb.png.64012b0326f726795c419ca3e03ed2e1.png

 

664745764_2020_12-01VW2021TextAlignmentError3.thumb.png.2e36d6c90f58ee1ba52d4a5091cd1c41.png

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On 1/8/2021 at 6:10 PM, Bret said:

One issue I run into on Windows is that unless I turn OpenGL on (which creates certain other problems with our PDF print program), centered text isn't remotely centered, either on screen or in our printed output. Not suitable for professional output.

 

1527179032_2020_12-01VW2021TextAlignmentError1.thumb.png.64012b0326f726795c419ca3e03ed2e1.png

 

664745764_2020_12-01VW2021TextAlignmentError3.thumb.png.2e36d6c90f58ee1ba52d4a5091cd1c41.png

Just to mention it, this continues to be a problem for us, keeping our office using an old version of VW for the time being. We'd really like to see this fixed...this is pretty bad, and it's disappointing that this GDI+ bug persists. Just sent in another bug submittal about it to see if it gets noticed this time.

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On 5/9/2022 at 1:02 PM, Bret said:
On 1/8/2021 at 6:10 PM, Bret said:

One issue I run into on Windows is that unless I turn OpenGL on (which creates certain other problems with our PDF print program), centered text isn't remotely centered, either on screen or in our printed output. Not suitable for professional output.

 

1527179032_2020_12-01VW2021TextAlignmentError1.thumb.png.64012b0326f726795c419ca3e03ed2e1.png

 

664745764_2020_12-01VW2021TextAlignmentError3.thumb.png.2e36d6c90f58ee1ba52d4a5091cd1c41.png

Just to mention it, this continues to be a problem for us, keeping our office using an old version of VW for the time being. We'd really like to see this fixed...this is pretty bad, and it's disappointing that this GDI+ bug persists. Just sent in another bug submittal about it to see if it gets noticed this time.

Pretty disappointed to see that what seems to be a minor (but critical to us) bug hasn't been fixed in another new release...five full versions now, I think it is. Nemetschek - is there any chance that this will be fixed someday?

 

Here's a screenshot from a fresh install of v2023:

 

image.thumb.png.dc45a58803a732555b9b03e9baeb77bb.png

 

 

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Referencing other related threads (I'm guessing there are others):

https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/103142-better-text-formatting/

https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/topic/40158-text-tracking/

 

If anyone at VW is tracking this as a moderator, would it be possible to merge the posts and/or Wishlist votes?

 

EDIT: it looks like @trashcan has already compiled a list of text related threads

 

Edited by E|FA
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On 9/14/2022 at 3:56 PM, Bret said:

Pretty disappointed to see that what seems to be a minor (but critical to us) bug hasn't been fixed in another new release...five full versions now, I think it is. Nemetschek - is there any chance that this will be fixed someday?

 

Here's a screenshot from a fresh install of v2023:

 

image.thumb.png.dc45a58803a732555b9b03e9baeb77bb.png

 

 

 

Checking in again in v2024...nope, not fixed. ☹️ Fresh screenshot after install and turning GDI+ off.

image.png.e8614e2d602feb50dd003fc5ec55ca70.png

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