In this session, we looked at exporting DWG files, ensuring that new classes have the visibility that you want, managing your saved view settings, attaching images to plant tags, and changing your Callout Tool preferences.

Topics Covered:

• 00:18    We started the session by looking at how to export a DWG file. We opened up a file with a drawing that we wanted to send to a client and walked through all of the steps in the Publish dialog box. It really helps if you have a program that you can use to preview what you’re sending; there’s a free version of DraftSight that is handy for this.
• 06:22    When you create objects and place them on a new class, it can be a challenge to find and turn on those classes in the correct viewport. When you create a new class, the New Class dialog box has Creation Options that allow you to change the Saved View Visibility for New Class(es) and Viewport Visibility for New Class(es) options so that the classes’ objects show up as Invisible, Visible, or Gray. However, there’s an alternative way to do this! The Organization dialog box gives you a very flexible way of looking at all of this in one window! You can control the class settings for your viewports by clicking on Visibilities and turning classes on or off for all of your viewports—you can even change the class visibilities on more than one viewport at a time! Of course, it helps if you have clear, specific names for your viewports; otherwise, it can get confusing. Next, we walked through how to ensure that a view in Vectorworks shows us what we want when we use the Save View command. In the Organization dialog box, you can change the class settings or add new classes to your saved views, too. For a saved view where you just want your building to be rotated, it is probably most helpful to just unclick the Save Layer Visibility and Save Class Visibility options in the Save View settings.
• 29:00    One of the things that has changed with plant tags is the speed with which you can make custom tags. In addition, it is easier to go into the Definition of a plant and connect it to your plant database. Once you find your plant in, for example, the NZ Plant Database, you can select Use Currently Selected Record to bring that information into Vectorworks and attach it to the Plant Definition in your plant database. Using the Web Data command, you can also bring in a Detail Image, Plant Form Diagram, and Plant Form Image to fill out the record. Clicking on the Plant Settings button on a plant’s Object Info palette allows you to change its custom settings. In this way, you can, for example, turn on Image Detail so that the Detail Image is included on your drawing sheet. Under the Annotation option in the Plant Settings dialog box, you can change the size of the Detail Image. We tried but couldn’t figure out how to include the Detail Image on a plant schedule through the Create Report command.
• 39:26    To end the session, we took another look at setting the preferences on the Callout Tool. The thing to remember is that, if you open the Preferences dialog box before you place your first callout and establish your settings, then it will use those settings on all the callouts that you create from then on. The Preferences dialog boxes of other tools, such as Door Tool Preferences, also work the same way. We finished by looking at an easy way to align all of your callouts!

Landscape October 2017 am
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