[increased dormer edit capability]

Jim,

If you are looking at the dormer tool. Can you please look at it properly, including the following:

For example: A Dormer will nearly always have a window in it, so put one is as default and set at a predetermined height - don't care what it is as long as I can change it relative to the finished floor level. If I don't want the window - I can just remove it. This would also mean that you have to fix the laughable roof tool, which really is a bit of a joke.

On the edit roof element dialogue box:

Centre vertically - OK but from the dormer eaves level, not the top of the dormer - This is a turn out size depending on the width of the dormer, offset and roof pitch / type

Offset from top - Totally useless - Should be Offset from roof bearing level (and should relate to the top or cill like a standard window)

Height Offset - Should be from the roof bearing height (come back to later)

Also, if a standard window can be included in the dormer - it can be scheduled. It is currently impossible to schedule dormer windows. - Would also include roof lights in this as well, but you would then have to include them as standard windows (could easily be overcome by including standard window profiles)

The offset from corner should be from the building line - not the roof edge and should also be move dormers / roof-lights along a roof by a predetermined distance relative to a setting point of my choosing

Slopes: No problem

Width: No problem

Depth: No problem(never used it)

Height: Again - should have option to be relative to roof bearing level and not just the roof plane. Roof plane is really a turn out

Should have the option of being able to include a bargeboard (of my choice of size)

Things missing from the dormer tool:

Eaves detail - Facia / soffit - Also, will quite often not be the same as the main roof (defaults from main roof could be included - as long as they can be edited)

Also when installing windows in dormers, it again is very common to set the dormer with a 0 building line offset. In this scenario, the roof profile should by default be broken to allow the external wall to continue up the main elevation or we should have at least have the option of "breaking the roof".

Now the roof tool:

For all but the most basic of shapes and profiles the roof tool is pretty much useless. I am not talking about the freeform NURBS tools, which are great and the ability to create stunning parabolic roof shapes - which are all great. I am talking about being able to create a simple roof with a couple of simple features - like having a gable end on the same plane as the gable of the main roof - just fails. The only way to create that type of roof is to manually draw a polyline around the building and at the gables end create a dog leg which recesses by the same depth as the gable overhang, trace round the gable and rejoin. Doing this creates the roof but does not allow for facia's soffits etc plays havoc with dormers and if you dared to try and create a section - it just looks like a joke, it also messes up the bearing height (you now have created multiple eaves heights) and in plan view - you have additional roof junctions which don't actually exist - but show.

Another big problem with the roof is the requirement of having to create multiple hybrid objects so that I can show a roof and plan at the same time when designing (1.5 storey properties - which are very very common). Up till now, the only way I can display a 1.5 storey building is to draw roof and truss lines over the plans in an annotation viewport with a mask - very difficult to get VW to display what I want it to - not very model friendly!!

Sorry for the rant, but VW needs to still get a lot of the basics corrected before jumping into things like Microsoft HoloLens and the like.

Kevin.

[Title Block: ability to display current revision letter/number separately]

Does anyone know if this problem has been sorted out yet. I have had to manually put the current revision in each sheet since I started using VW - and it is a real pain.

It is really frustrating because it must just simply be a record field with we should be able to reference.

It is also interesting that you can only have one instance on the :rNo or any other revision data on a sheet - Why???

[Renderworks and reference files]

Solution Found.

Haven't been on the forum for a while, but I found the problem - and sorted it. It has nothing to do with the rendering whatsoever, it was the wall construction. I had a fully detailed wall make-up specified in the houses and the breather membrane was the item which was causing the problem.

It seems that VW keels over if each of the components does not have minimum thickness. Normally you would put a thickness of 0.1mm for membranes (so that they don't add to the overall wall thickness), but VW requires a thickness of at least 1.0mm or something goes wrong.

Kevin.

[Renderworks and reference files]

Jim,

I have attached two files.

1st file - "fast renderworks" from the design layer of the root file

2nd File - "fast renderworks" from the main drawing.

The output was meant to be a "realistic render - but the two files show well enough the difference between the original and referenced file.

BTW - There are 11 house types referenced into the main drawing with 78 referenced viewports to create the whole drawing.

I have attached a dropbox link to the two files.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/x2ruc1i5gx1qsy8/vMBqIYoGkF

Thanks,

Kevin.

[Renderworks and reference files]

I am trying to create a housing development layout model using Renderworks 2014 with the houses referenced in from individual VW files. Can anyone tell me why the resolution of the render is so poor. Each of the house files render absolutely perfectly, but when the files are referenced into the development layout (with all the roads, hard and soft landscaping etc) the resolution of the render (whether in the main design layer or a sheet layer) is abysmal.

Please help - Client is not happy with the output, and am unable to say why I am unable to produce a suitable presentation drawing.

Thanks in advance:

Kevin

[New Topics Wanted - Vectorworks Training Content]

Being able to insert doors and windows into a wall construction at a location of my choosing and being able to design cills / thresholds / lintels and reveals that look like the real thing.

Current problems.

Inserting doors and windows into wall constructions - This should be a user controlled option and not set as centre of frame only. If we were allowed to say specify the insertion point in relation to the front or rear face of the door/window frame and specify the thickness of the frame, windows and doors would sit correctly within walls instead of an arbitrary location which has a knock-on effect to everything else in this post.

Reveals: Check reveals not permitted (yes a custom end-cap is possible but it then over-rides everything else) - This has been a standard product in other design packages for a number of years (even back to Autocad 12 + AEC)

Internal reveals to soffit and jambs: Playing around with the No. of wall components to create reveals doesn't work for all but the most basic of wall constructions. The use of insulated reveals and cavity closers (insulated or otherwise) has been common practice for a number of years (at least 10) - why can't VW accommodate?

Window cills (Internal or external)- Just does not work. The only way I can get something to display even partly correct is to create an individual cill symbol for the internal and external leaf and insert as individual wall components - Is this the only way that VW will work.

Lintels: It would be nice to be able to insert a standard lintel into the construction, standard steel lintels have been used for many years. Why does VW not allow for them?

It is also impossible to create a stooled window cill (email me for a description if you wish)

Door thresholds: Work OK but not properly for internal doors the threshold does not extend the full width of the opening beneath the frame (which is the definition of a threshold), but external doors have to have a custom symbol created aka window cills.

Thanks,

Kevin.

Chartered Architectural Technologist

VW Architect 2014 w/renderworks (been using VW since 2008)

imac 27" OS (Mavericks)

3.4 GHz Intel Core i7, 1 TB HDD, 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3