Maximum Undos

Vectorworks has a maximum number of undos. The number is set in Vectorworks Preferences.

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Massing Models can show shadows based on a Document Preference called Plan Shadows. You can also set the option on your plants to use the same shadows so that massing models and plants all show the same shadow direction, graphic style and size.

If you set up a saved view while you have the clip cube activated, when you restore that saved view, the clip cube will be re-activated. This is a very handy way to save your clip cubes.

This Vectorworks preference is extremely useful for making sure that when you change your views the selected object is brought to the centre. When you do not choose this option, you will find that when you change from a plan view to an isometric view your objects don’t remain in the centre of the drawing window – sometimes they disappear altogether. When you activate this option, your selected object is always brought to the centre of your drawing window when you change views, which means that you don’t have to go looking for your objects.

The option for showing a cropped perspective used to be in the View menu, but in Vectorworks 2015 this has now been moved to a Document Preference. The assumption is that you will always want to use a cropped perspective all that you will always want to use and a cropped perspective. Therefore you can set this up as your preference and you won’t have to go back and change it again.

When you open a file that has viewports in it, you will have to update those viewports if you do not turn on Save Viewport Cache. This can save you a lot of time waiting for viewports to regenerate, especially if you have a lot of rendered or section viewports. However, the downside for this is that your file sizes will be huge compared to the files that do not save the viewport cache.

When you insert many of the standard Vectorworks objects, they automatically assign themselves to particular classes. If you don’t want this to happen you have to turn off Auto Classing. If you tun on Auto Classing, all of your standard Vectorworks objects will be assigned to their standard classes.

This is a Vectorworks Preference, which means it applies to all files. You will find this preference on the Session tab in the Vectorworks Preferences. If you activate Use Sound, every time you move near a clickable point you will hear a click from your computer. Some people find this useful, other people find it extremely annoying. You can turn down the volume of the sound so that when it  clicks it is quiet.

When you insert many of the standard Vectorworks objects, they automatically assign themselves to particular classes. If you don’t want this to happen you have to turn off Auto Classing. If you turn on Auto Classing, all of your standard Vectorworks objects will be assigned to their standard classes.

This is a Vectorworks Preference, which means it applies to all files. You will find this preference on the Session tab in the Vectorworks Preferences. If you activate Use Sound, every time you move near a clickable point you will hear a click from your computer. Some people find this useful, other people find it extremely annoying. You can turn down the volume of the sound so that when it clicks it is quiet.

This is a Document Preference. It controls the linking of the Sheet Borders to the sheet number and name. If you activate this preference, standard sheet borders will automatically update when you edit the sheet numbers and names.

This is a Document Preference that tells Vectorworks to save the rendered viewports. The advantage of this is that you do not have to update the viewports each time you open the drawing, which could save you a lot of time. The disadvantage is that saving the rendered viewports can make your files much, much larger. In a simple example, turning on the viewport cache made the file grow from 7MB to 12MB.

This is a Document Preference that tells Vectorworks to place all dimensions into the Dimensions class. This is OK as long as you don’t want to have dimensions for different drawings on the design layer. In that case, turn this off and have different classes for various viewports.

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This is a Document Preference. It is so important. It makes the dimensions associate with the objects so that when the object moves or changes size, the dimensions update automatically. This can save you from making dimensioning errors. It has saved me so many times. If you do not activate this preference, you will have to manually check all your dimensions if you change anything.

When you mirror objects with text in them, or when you rotate objects with text, you might find that the text is upside-down. There is a Document Preference that will fix this. Activate Adjust Flipped Text and Vectorworks will automatically adjust any text that is rotated more than 90º.

When you are drawing multiple click objects like walls, polygons, etc. it is easy to make a mistake. To fix the last click, use the Delete key on the keyboard, it will remove the last click. Keep deleting to back to the start of your object. This works on almost every tool and command.