Editing Solids in Place?

[trashcan]

I'd love to be able to edit solids in place - I.e., if you move a solid and then go to edit it, it takes you to another position in the design layer. Any ideas? 

[markdd]

The solid object doesn't go anywhere. Just make sure that Show Other Objects.... is enabled in the Quick Prefs bar or in Vectorworks Preferences and you should see the object in context.

[zoomer]

32 minutes ago, markdd said:

Just make sure that Show Other Objects....

 

But will still not work when in SLAB Editing Modes.

Or when in Edit Mode of rotated SYMBOLS

 

Or working, but very irritating when in EXTRUDE Edit Mode,

which was either rotated after or created in any other Plane

than XY.

 

 

[markdd]

@zoomer I know. But the question related to Solids……

[zoomer]

Yes but it can't be about generic Solids, as these don't have Edit Modes.

So it should be at least an Extrude or worse things like EAPs and such ....

 

And for Extrudes I very often have the problem mentioned above,

plus some especially VW 2021 (and VW 2022 ?) novelties that the environment

may suddenly disappear or that snapping or Axis constraint (T) is not working.

 

TL;DR;

Your answer was completely right.

I just misused your post for placing some long year VW feature imperfection frustration 🙂

[trashcan]

To clarify - I created an object, then mirrored it. The mirrored object goes somewhere else in the sheet when I edit the solid. The non-mirrored object (the original) stays in place. Just a thing to remember when I don't see an object in context when I go to edit it! 

[LarryO]

When creating and assembling solids try to do so at the origin of the document and move them into their final place.

What is frequently happening when you mirror or change standard views is the action is done so about the origin.

Much like symbols, most solids store the relationship to the origin at creation. When they are moved the relationship to the drawing environment's 0,0 origin that shows in the object info palette is to this stored object's origin.

 

Think of a vase in the corner of a room. The actions you perform in the drawing environment will occur about the centre of the room and not the centre of the vase.

If you remove the walls and save the scene then mirror it the vase will jump to a new location in the view because the centre of the room was saved as a reference for future operations.

[markdd]

When objects are mirrored they are flipped. It is this flip action that causes the CSG object to lose its relationship with it’s surroundings. I am not sure that moving it will make any difference to its relationship to the model outside of it, but flipping it will. 

 

[LarryO]

Ah yes, you are correct Mark, 3D assemblies do behave like symbols in that regard.

Even though I have been working with 3d more frequently I had forgotten that aspect. I tend to avoid flipping/mirroring solid structures that are not symbols and I realized when you said it I also tend to decompose and reassemble flipped 3d objects, I had forgotten why that step became routine.

[trashcan]

All super useful workflow info. Funny that the side effect of learning this is that I didn't know about "Show Other Objects While In Edit Modes" - what a great feature! I usually want other objects visible but not ALWAYS. And it's great to turn that off when necessary.