nwfonseca Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 Is it possible to lock or snap an object to a position but still be editable? My thinking was a shape that would be able to snap back to position if moved sort of like locking a border to the center of a page. If you grab and drag it, it will fall back to where it is supposed to be. Does something like this exist or could exist? Quote Link to comment
Pat Stanford Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 It does not exist by default in VW, but you could create a Plug-in Object that had this property. What exactly are you trying to do? Quote Link to comment
nwfonseca Posted December 14, 2020 Author Share Posted December 14, 2020 I guess it is complicated, but we have 3D walls (extrudes, not wall tool ones) that are auto hybrids and they work great. However, we change the colors, textures, decals, or put in doors etc. so they often need to be unlocked to be edited which sometimes ends up with them accidentally being moved or nudged out of position while in the thick of a project I have also accidentally moved the floor. I was trying to figure out a way that if I did inadvertently move them they would go back in place or something. I currently use locked loci as locators at specific corners of the the walls so if they are moved from their location I can be sure they are in the correct position when I put them back. There are elements that almost never need to be edited that I always keep locked and aren't as problematic. It is frustrating when you move something an inch or 2 out of position and later realize that your objects aren't lining up and you have to work backward to figure out what you moved. I guess that is a long winded way of saying I am looking for a way to protect myself from that. Quote Link to comment
Pat Stanford Posted December 15, 2020 Share Posted December 15, 2020 No easy solution to your request. Anything you do will be at least as much work as Locking and Unlocking the objects. Make sure you edit your workspace and add keyboard shortcuts to Lock/Unlock to speed up the operations. 1 Quote Link to comment
Andy Broomell Posted December 15, 2020 Share Posted December 15, 2020 I would personally love the ability to Lock the position of any object while keeping it otherwise editable. But for now, Pat is correct that using Modify > Lock and Unlock with keyboard shortcuts is the current best solution. 1 Quote Link to comment
halfcoupler Posted December 15, 2020 Share Posted December 15, 2020 (edited) just an idea: - for colors and textures you could use data visualization, this overrides the attributes based on data and you do not need to touch the objects. - another possibility would be to use symbols or nested symbols. You could define your wall as symbol and lock it and then do the changes via 3D component of the wall symbol in the recource manager without touching the drawing itself. Edited December 15, 2020 by halfcoupler Quote Link to comment
Reijo Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 Hi, I have been waiting for Vectorworks civil but that wish seems to have gone for good. Anyway, I do civil survey with Landmark. I get dwg files from the designers and then pick up items to be set out on the field with Trimble survey instrument. With working I am to have always the editing mode active and there is a real risk of moving the entire drawing by accident. For that reason I would want to see lock drawing position on and off feature. An other issue is with page centering. GPS instruments use coordinates with many numbers like N= 25748555,256 E= 6685441,255. In case I have a drawing around these coordinates it is difficult to get the page there in order to have a pdf dokument of the drawing. There should be a tool also for that. My third issue is about the stake tool. Always when using the tool I am to covert the units and decimals to suit my drawing. Then each time I am to choose dont show the units. I would change the order so that if you specially would want to have the units then you could choose to view them. Quote Link to comment
station Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 I've used objects turned to hybrid then converted to a symbol placed in walls or in the drawing. If it is complex to edit and just want to look at the symbol - will often put it in another file and import it back. Similar to editing a selection group in Revit. Editing the components doesn't disturb the placement. It is true that it is easy to nudge objects out of place in VW. If I have something complex i am editing i will also generally make a copy on the clipboard to paste back in place just in case. A lot of VW functions just don't 'undo'. Lock function is great but I hate the heavy grey line. I use a class function (greyed) to lock key components sometimes. Would be nice to have a selection group that can be isolated for editing. Quote Link to comment
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