Custom Selection

I had an interesting challenge today, I had a few hundred spot levels that were at the wrong height. Due to importing a DXF file and scaling, the stake objects were out by a factor of 10. I had to select each stake object and multiply the height of the object by 10.

I used the Custom Selection command from the Tools menu. This allows you to select objects immediately, or create a script.

[ms-protect-content id=”34491,34492,34493, 34494, 34495, 34496, 344927″]If you are not used to the Vectorworks scripting language, then you can execute immediately. I know a little about the scripting language so I used the Create Script option.

On the criteria settings for the selection, I used the object type is Stake Object and then I chose look for object by their Field Value. I choose the Z elevation of the objects as the Field, then I entered the elevation I was looking for.

When the script is run, Vectorworks finds all the objects that meet the criteria. In some cases Vectorworks found over a hundred Stake Objects. Because they are all at the same height, I could use the Object Info palette to multiply the height by 10, and this lifted the stake objects to the correct height.

I then opened the script, edited the number to the next height, and ran the script to find the next line of Stake Objects. Multiply by 10. And so on, until all the Stake Objects have been moved to the correct heights.

Now when I make my site model, it is at the correct height.

[/ms-protect-content]What a time saver though. Changing the heights in this way took about 5 mins, much better than the 90 mins it took to place all the stake objects.

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