bugman

Hi, If I answer it is rather like the blind leading the blind, but I keep asking enough of my own questions so perhaps I have learnt enough to help others out. I have found this blog really useful for learning. Being an architect that used to teach CAD the guy explains it in layman terms. If you start at the beginning of the series it will help build your knowledge in easy chunks. Personally I prefer to see it written down than seeing a video, with the video you miss a lot of the keyboard shortcuts that take place. http://archdraftingvectorworks.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/adding-doors-of-various-kinds.html

Hi, I will try and post some images tomorrow but as I'm not near my workstation right now I will try and explain the problem more clearly. I was creating a roof using the roof tool, I know the angle/pitch, eaves height, bearing height and shape of the ends of the rafters with a vertical cut and fascia. When I punch the data into the appropriate boxes using the tool the roof is formed with the eaves height of the soffit too low. I have performed the task numerous times. However, when I omit to enter the data for the vertical cut at the eaves and enter 0mm for the vertical eaves cut the roof is formed at the correct height, however the eaves shape is wrong as it simply has the horizontal undercut to the ends of the rafters and the overhang is too large. To add the vertical mitre cut to the ends of the rafters I can simply enter the dimension in the object info pallete. However doing this does not add a vertical cut to the length of rafter at eaves that has been designed which would inturn would reduce the overhang to the correct distance. Instead the rafter length becomes extended down to add a vertical downward cut resulting in a roof with larger overhang and a lower soffit. In effect adding the vertical mitre cut to the eaves overrides the info that I have already entered relating to soffit height. The way I have overcome this is to add the height of the vertical mitre cut to the soffit height at the time of forming the roof. I don't think my expectations of the software are too great, but my expections of it are waning every time I use it.

Hi, You have simply described how to form a roof. I have done all of that. Making an arbitary roof is no help to me, as I don't know how big the overhang should be or the eaves height. When I know specifically the eaves height, roof pitch and bearing height I end up with different heights of roof when I either have a vertical cut or not. Adding a vertical cut to the rafters adds that height to the overall height of the roof. It extends the soffit down thus lowering the eaves height rather than pushing the overhang in.

I can't explain why your walls changed but the whole roof tool and fit walls to roof tool seem very finicky. Last week I changed position in the 3D mode and my whole model disappeared. I could not locate by undoing so reverted to a saved view. I think this is the same problem I am experiencing. Having fitted the walls to roof once I believe the tool does not work a second time on the same wall, not that there is a pop up or warning to tell you this in advance, so if you modify the walls or roof after using the fit walls to roof you appear to be prevented from refitting the walls. Unfortunately the manual solution of fitting walls to roof also appears as a bit of a fudge. You can select individual walls and using the 3D reshape tool pull them up and down, but what you cant do is prevent the thickness of roof poking through the roof slope whilst having the walls the full height of the internal bearing. The top of the wall cannot be chamfered or stepped to fit the roof slope with the reshapping tool, in that respect the 3D reshaping tool is very limited in what it can do.

Yep that answer sounds doable, thanks again for your help.

Hi, just thought this thing through and typing up the above rant helped me focus my thoughts. If adding a vertical mitre cut of say 150mm drops the eaves line by the same amount of 150mm, adding the same height of vertical mitre cut to the eaves height will give me the correct roof which it does. Is this what you guys do when you are using the tool? OK so I got there, but where does it tell you when using the programme or in any users guide or help button that if you want a vertical mitre cut you need to add that height (of the mitre) to the eaves height? Why can't the programme simply do the maths automatically. It would have saved a new user a couple of hours of wasted time.

Ok, so have been wasting several hours trying to get the all singing and dancing roof tool to function properly. The only combination I can use to get the roof and eaves at the correct height involves having the vertical mitre cut set at 0mm in the first dialogue box 1. This gives me the correct height of the roof and eaves but calculates a roof with too great an overhang. On elevation whilst the roof is of the correct height for bearing and eaves the eaves does not have a vertical mitre cut on the rafters for the fascia board as a result of the overhang being calculated too great. Whilst in elevation I can see the roof at the correct levels and then when I introduce the vertical height of the mitre via the object info pallete rather than leave the eaves height fixed at the correct levels the programme retains the oversized overhang and lowers the eaves height to accommodate the fascia. Before someone shouts have I entered the correct heights for the layer and the bearing and eaves, the answer is yes and I have tried a combination of different heights. Why should introducing a vertical cut to the mitre change a dimension of eaves height that I have entered into the system?

Thanks for that tip, it sounds that I would have much greater control with that approach. I have one last question about my model, I need to create a bay or bow window curved on plan window in the opening below the dormer. This window comprises of 5 flat windows each positioned at different angles around the curve of the bay. The bay does not extend to the floor with walls so that you can walk into it, the feature is simple within the window opening. The window has a little flat roof over curved to match the plan shape of the window. Any tips or advice on how best to produce the bay window will be appreciated.

Hi,I am working on my first project and am in the process of creating an existing house that is going to be remodelled. The roof shape is non standard with one slope running from the main roof down to the ground floor. In the UK we call this type of roof a catslide roof. To create the roof I ungrouped the roof object then added the rectangular surface to the front roof slope to create the catslide. I now need to add a flat roof dormer that exists on the front of the house (see red outline for position) but find that the dormer tool does not work on this surface. Firstly was there a better way to create the roof shape and how best am I now to model the dormer?

Thanks Peter that seems to work.

In the Custom Sash Options every time I tab through the panes the previous settings change and it ends up in a mess. I have a a single window 2300mm wide with a single fixed panel of glass in the middle and openers each side. I am trying to create two side hung sashes to the side each 600mm wide with top vents 600mm wide x 300mm deep above each of the side casements flanking the middle panel of glass.

Thanks Buzz and Benson. Jonathan, I came on this forum to get practical tips and advice from other users of VW who use it in real life situations. You may wish to speak to me as though I am some sort of fool that doesn't realise foundations go underneath walls, but you can be rest assured that if I wanted to buy your book or subscribe to your videos I would have done so.

Thanks Tom, Very easy to get confused over this as Jonathan said and I take your point about the misnaming of layers. As a beginner it is most frustrating, but I am sure you have all been through this. I have bought a software package called Vectorworks "Architect", am planning to use it to architectural work. I am not designing the London Gherkin but simple residential house extensions. Yet the 2000 odd pages in the PDF guide offer no real guidance at all in how to set up the basics for run of the mill architectural projects. Yes the so called guide is crammed full of tables and summaries, but a guide it certainly is not. It was Albert Einstein that once said; "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

Thanks for that atari, Your firm deals with exactly the type of projects I do. Can you tell me what goes in the Demo layer, is that just for clients, furniture and the like?

Thanks for the reply Jonathon, On my first point of an existing and proposed project, what you are saying is that they all appear in one file and I either have them set to view or off depending which one I am working on. I'm not forgetting the foundations. I was talking about the existing plans. On most projects in the UK the planners require existing plans and elevations of a house that is being extended. On simple extensions there is no need to go to the trouble of exploratory work of digging trial holes to ascertain the size of existing foundations or the height of the existing wall below ground etc, so I have no need to show them on any drawing. Given that scenario, am I correct in saying I would need a layer with a wall height set at 150mm or is there another way? Naturally the proposed plans which would show the new extension to the house will have foundations and I can design those. You are probably correct about me not understanding the concept, I read the PDF guide which says "the highest layers in a story cannot overlap with the lowest layers in another storey...." It was for this reason that I had the question about the eaves of the roof storey being lower than the storey below it. I have looked at a lot of the stuff you have on the internet and I like your approach which is more easily digestible than the PDF guide that comes with the programme. I will have a look at your recommended link. Many Thanks NigeL

Hi all, New to Vectorworks and getting to grips with its many quirks. My immediate beginners questions are: 1. In working on a remodelling project do I need to create two files? The first for the existing property as is and the second for the project as it is proposed. I cannot see how with the layers/storeys set up of Vectorworks it could be anything other than two separate files. If it is indeed one can someone explain how that works. 2. In setting up the storeys layers say for the existing property, am I right in saying that if the ground floor of the property is say 150mm above ground level I would need a layer below the ground floor with a wall height of 150mm? 3. My last question relates to creating the roof layer. If parts of the building need to be entirely in one layer or another, how does the eaves of a building fall in the roof layer when the eaves line is below the ceiling height of the floor below? These are probably easy questions to answer by real users but I have wasted hours if not days looking for the answers to these two questions on the internet and users guide. My apologies if these issues have been covered before.