New in 2009

In this issue, we have a few very simple items that once learned can provide a big payoff. These are drawn from common conversations in our training courses and while providing technical support.

1. Change your prefs for Pre-Selection Highlighting

New to Vectorworks 2009, Pre-Selection Highlighting provides a coloured outline of which objects will be selected by a marquee, or which object will be selected if you click at your mouse’s current location. It’s handy when several objects are touching each other, and you want to make sure you select the right one. But we’ve seen some users turn off this feedback, complaining that it’s confusing and that they want it to behave like it did in older versions. One quick change that often makes this feature more valuable is to change the colour of pre-selection highlighting. By default it’s set to the same orange as objects that are already selected, so it’s hard to know what’s selected and what’s only pre-selected. With a different colour chosen, the whole thing makes sense.

2. Option/Alt to rotate objects

A hidden timesaver that’s new in Vectorworks 2009 is the ability to rotate 2D objects (such as rectangles, rounded rectangles, ovals and bitmaps) by using the 2D Selection Tool and a modifier key. Simply press the Option key (Macintosh) or Alt key (Windows) while dragging one of the object’s handles. Note that you get a different centre of rotation depending on whether you click on a corner or a midpoint handle.

3. Custom Modification

Although not new to this version, the Custom Modification command remains unused by many customers, often because they think it’s the same as the older and more familiar Custom Selection. It’s not the same, it’s far more powerful! This command really comes into its own with changes to parametric objects. With it you could, for example, select only 2’-8” doors on the first floor layer, and modify their frame type. Without this command, a change like that would require individually editing each object.