Enter text in the Search box and press Enter, or click the search loupe, to search the help system. The search tab opens automatically.
While searching, the progress is displayed under the Search box. When the search is complete, the number of results found displays. If no results are found, “No results found” displays.
If the search is progressing slowly or appears frozen at 0%, connection or bandwidth issues may be impeding the search progress. The Session tab of the Vectorworks preferences allows switching to the local version of the help in this type of situation.
When entering search text, enter text within quotation marks to search the help for a text string. For example, searching for the words color palette finds topics that contain both the word color and palette. However, searching for the string “color palette” (with quotation marks) finds topics that contain the term color palette.
The search results list the topics that contain the search text or string. Topics are listed in order of relevance, and display the topic heading, an excerpt from the text, and the breadcrumbs for you to determine the topic’s relevance.
Click a search result title to open the associated topic. The located search terms are highlighted within the topic.
At the end of certain topics, a list of additional topics with information related to the current topic is displayed. Click one of the topics to view the additional information. To return to the original topic, use the browser’s Back button.
Cross-references located within a topic are underlined and in color. Click these links to navigate to more information about the underlined topic. To return to the original topic, click the browser’s Back button.
The browse sequence buttons allow you to scroll through the help topics, in order. These special navigation buttons display at the top of the topic window (the buttons display at the bottom of the topic window for tablet or phone view). Click Previous and Next to navigate through the topics.
At the top of each topic page, breadcrumb navigation displays the current topic path and facilitates navigation to other topics along the path. Click any part of the breadcrumb path to navigate to that topic.
In desktop view, longer topics include a Go to top button at the bottom of the page. Click the button to return to the top of the topic.
Tablet and phone view do not include back to top functionality.
The Vectorworks YouTube™ channel contains video technical tips with an audio/visual explanation of various concepts. If a topic in the help has a related video tip, a link in the help directs you to the associated Vectorworks YouTube movie.
The parameters of every dialog box are described in tables. By default, these tables are hidden so that you can read the steps of a procedure easily first. To view or hide a parameter table, click the link “Click to show/hide the parameters.” This link toggles the table display on and off.
When you open a topic from the search tab, the tables that contain search terms show automatically.
Click the Commands and Tools button from the navigation pane.
The Commands and Tools tab provides a filterable, alphabetical list of all the commands and tools in the Vectorworks program. Click on a command or tool name to view the associated documentation. The command and tool names can be filtered by typing a term in Filter Keywords.
Click the Glossary button from the navigation pane.
The Glossary tab displays an alphabetical listing of frequently encountered terms in the Vectorworks program. Scroll to the term of interest and click it to view its definition. The glossary definitions can be filtered by typing a term in Filter Terms.
Click the Print button (desktop view only) to print the currently displayed topic. Use this button rather than the browser’s Print command for best results.
Printing from certain browsers with the Print button may crop the help contents. If this happens, try using a different browser.
