Garry Steinhilber

You can try seek.autodesk.com. They have a variety of symbols for different CAD file formats including .DWG and Sketchup. Both of these should be importable into Vectorworks.

I am trying to create windowwalls for a residential tower. My plan is at origin 0,0 but when I orbit the view to 'right rear isometric', my 3D walls appear 36,000 feet away. Is there any reason for the extreme separation between drawing entities? I guess I am expecting the orbit to work like SketchUp or AutoCAD 3D.

Is there a "Best Practices" guide for using Vectorworks for mid-sized architectural projects on a multi-person team? A few years back, several users got together and hammered one out for Revit because so many projects were in trouble. It is really a collection of tips and tricks for setting up the project in the right way. I have been searching the web for about a year now and I still haven't found a guide like this for Vectorworks. I would like to do 3D BIM in Vectorworks but I am even OK with 2D + scheduling at this point. We are doing multi-storey residential towers in Vectorworks but it always seems we are fighting with the program. We also have a very poor file sharing system set up, only one person can be in the plans at a time. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks! Garry Steinhilber WT Leung Architects Inc. Vancouver, BC, Canada

I just read your post again. Do you want to stretch one end of your box larger? You can type in the new box size in the Object Info Palette, or you can select your box, click on the Reshape tool, make a 2 point rectangular pick around the parts of your box you want to stretch, and click and drag to stretch or use the move command to enter X and Y relative distances. Unfortunately the 2 point move command can't be used here because it cancels the Reshape command. Garry Steinhilber W.T. Leung Architects Inc. Vancouver, BC, Canada

I am also from the AutoCAD camp. You can use the move command and type in the relative move distance in the X and Y fields. You can also do a 2 point move command: pick your first point and press tab and type in the X and Y relative move values you want in the on screen fields. Garry Steinhilber W.T. Leung Architects Inc. Vancouver, BC, Canada

Thanks for the tip. I have the Vectorscript guide as PDF on my iPad and it really helps. What I am looking for is a PDF of the Vectorscript function reference. Thanks.

I just thought how nice it would be to have the Vectorscript Function Reference as a PDF document so I can use it from my eReader. Does anyone know if there is one available? As it is now, my only option is to print the HTML pages out to PDF on the iMac. Garry Steinhilber WT Leung Architects Vancouver, BC, Canada

I see there are not many takers on your request for script help. You can try asking on the Vectorscript forum. The challenge with your script is that you need the specific classes present to keep the script from failing. So far I have been using scripts to create objects, not to edit them. I use them to create the window schedule for our residential tower drawings. Garry Steinhilber WT Leung Architects Vancouver, BC, Canada

The firm I worked with did an airport terminal in AutoCAD using a BIM mindset and it worked really well. This would map very well into Vectorworks. The rule we followed was that each consultant was in charge of the geometry that they were the best authority on. Architectural had the walls, doors, windows and furniture; Structural had the concrete columns and grid, Mechanical and Electrical had ceiling fixtures. Each of our files were referenced into each others' drawings. Each week we would save our files and send them to each other. All we have to do was drop the consultant's files in our directory and everything updated. We did not touch the consultant's files in any way. This meant of course that if I wanted a gridline moved I would have to ask Structural to move it, or if I wanted the light fixtures moved I would have to ask Electrical to move it. The project was a coordination dream and ran ultra-smoothly. Something like this can work in Vectorworks even if some consultants are on AutoCAD. Oh, one more thing, we kept the annotation in a separate file and only shared the geometry files into the common model so we did not have to struggle turning off layers we didn't need. Everything was visible with no secret settings. What can I say... it worked! Garry Steinhilber W.T. Leung Architects Inc.

Having come from a Revit using firm to a Vectorworks using firm, I can say there are times when I miss Revit. Although to be honest there are many times using Revit that could send you running screaming out into the street. Most people mistake Revit as a 3D program, it is not. Revit is a giant database that multiple people can edit. The different views are really queries into the database, ... show me this plan at this height, show me this section starting from here and ending there, show me all the doors in a schedule. Once you get that, you can get Revit. Things are not really drawn but inserted into this giant database. Revit is not 3D but can generate 3D views from the database. Sketchup is a pure 3D tool. That said, I have been eyeing VW to see how it can be made more BIM but haven't found the solution yet. All the best in your leap to Revit. Garry Steinhilber W.T. Leung Architects Inc.

When you do your work in Vectorworks you will have to assign a separate line thickness to each of the AutoCAD colors at the class level. So all the green(3) pen objects are the same line thickness. It does not have to match their line thickness just so all the green(3) pen objects are the same. When it comes time to export to AutoCAD, make sure the option "map line weights to colors" is checked in the dialog. You will then get an additional dialog that lets you assign the DWG index color to your line thickness. This is tricky because you have to find the AutoCAD color to match in the dialog. white(7) is easy because it is first, but green(3) is a pure green color and you have to scroll down to find it! I haven't found grey(8) but I am sure it is somewhere there. I would get a free viewer or a lightweight CAD program like Cadopia or ProgeCAD to verify your output and make any changes. No sense in losing your work! The title block should be drawn at 1:1 scale in the design layer of a new file and saved. You only need to include project based items in this title block file. You then reference this into the Sheet layout and add the sheet based items like sheet number and sheet title and revision block there. Hope that helps! Garry Steinhilber W.T. Leung Architects Inc. Vancouver, BC Canada

I just upgraded to Vectorworks 2012 Architect SP3 from 2008 and our space names disappeared. I tried to apply the tech support suggestion to go to Finder > Go > Applications > Font Book and remove duplicates for the Arial Narrow Font. Nice idea, but it didn't work. I then noticed the font size inside our space symbol was scaled down by 1/144. Our area calculations used to be in square inches and now Vectorworks 2012 converted them to square feet. So somehow during the conversion the font was scaled along with the units! I set the fonts back to 14pt and everything is back! Just to let everyone know who is facing the same situation. Garry Steinhilber W.T. Leung Architects Inc. Vectorworks 2012 Architect SP3 iMac 10.6.8 Intel Core i5 8GB memory