AlanW

Hi, You could certainly do all your fences and handrails with draw handrail from the Furn/Fixtures pallet. The Chain extrude is very good for doing repetitive things like canopies and pergolas. (bit hard to get the hang of it but once you do you can create some quick things. Any repetitive items are best set up as symbols as they will keep your files smaller. I am sure you only have a finite number of items you place in the park so this is probably the best way to go. You can scale the symbols also without making another symbol. HTH

Hold your curser over the spot and in the bottom right you can see x,y,z co-ordinates. These give you the exact location of that point in 3d.

Hi, Have a look at this simple video about textures on walls and roofs. Like everything pretty simple when you know how.

HI, Not sure why you would use separate files for Sheet Layers as Sheets are your final drawings and compose the full set of documents for construction or whatever. All your design layers are referenced to different sheet layers and each viewport is manipulated by adjusting the classes and design layers to create your sheets. All in one is best as you constantly have to zip in and out of them when finalizing each sheet /Drawing).

With VW 2015 and before we often used separate files so that you can have a few people working on the same project and used XRVP from say a base plan but now with collaboration in VW2016 I think we will stay with one file.(Thinking about residential, not for a stadium etc)Now I would still work with the base plan and use viewports on design layers to build the detail over but only enough to show what the builder needs to see and leave the rest. No use detailing the whole building in 3D or 2D just the important bits.No need for separate files for different scale details, just use differnt classes for each detail level. Even 1 class for the notes and drawing at 1:5 and another for 1:20 etc. Just control the classes in the viewports to see what you need. DLVP are good but its another step that you probably don't need to do if you use the classes to define the detail work and notes. We will do a design layer and viewport the base kitchen and wet area plans in then do the detail work over the base then reference that back into the base drawing if needed and off to the detail sheet with all the detailed plans and elevations. HTH

Detail viewports can only be placed on a sheet layer so you have to do the detail work and notes in annotations. Section viewports you can place on either Design layers or Sheet layer but i tend to do the detail work in annotations also. Its all not that user friendly yet so i am from the old school even though I would love to have the program set up an easy way to do this. So after the design has been approved the 3D model starts to become sort of redundant except for elevations and i am off drawing in 2D my construction details. Plan i will work over the main plan with different classes and viewport them to a detail sheet. Had it on a wish list for the program to have a work flow from Design to Construction but looking at the marionette concept the program seems to be concentrating on programming and 3D work and not for architectural construction documentation.

I have used annotations to add notes and highlights directly, and the other way was to add notes and highlights on the design layer with scaled down text. A few ways to do it to get the same results.

What you can do is create a viewport, either a sectional one or plan of the area you want to detail and use that as the base and draw over the viewport that is a direct reference to my 3D model." Then viewport this to my final sheet and adjust the final line weights in the viewport. One thing I tend to do is have almost all my line weights set to 0.05 except a few specific ones that I will never want to change and adjust all my line weights in the viewport. You might wonder why until you look at a hidden line drawing building elevation and wall lines around Windows look strange, sone fat and some thin. You could do notes in annotations but this way they are all in my design layer in a different class and can flick them on and off and work on 3D or 2d easily. HTH Check out this post about line weights, this I'd how I set up things and the reason. https://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=42295&Number=210631#Post210631

Various ways to do it but I tend to draw with a few design layers, site works, ground floor etc all drawn at 1:1 and set my viewports at different scales. Set and dimensions for each scale and seperate class for each scale so my 1:100 notes and dimensions only show in the appropriate sheet layer. I will work over the 1:100 in either a different class for larger detail or design layer to produce my 1:10 details and simply viewport it at 1:10 and turn on only the larger detail work. This way you are still working with the original sketch work and working it up to final construction work, layer on layer and control what you see in the viewports. Many ways to get the drawings done but that one way. HTH

I think yo may have to untick when you export the "Export Design Layer Viewports as Separate Files".

You have 3 tabs on the bottom when you select "Fill Color" Active Document (All the colours you selected are in here.) Maybe you are opening the other palettes first. Others are classic and standard. If you select a color from any of the other pallets and put in your drawing it shows in the original palate and the Active document palate. Even if i go back and forth between colors the chosen one highlights in the appropriate pallete. This is how it appears on my screen. 2015, Still waiting for Aus?NZ 2016 to be released, (Sad)

Choose the stair tool and select a standard configuration for say a single or double landing in a straight run, see (attachment 001_. Set the number of risers in each run and the length of each landing. (attachment 002). You have access to 4 separate stair tool icons although the may not be in your current tool palette. You will have to install them from your legacy area.\ HTH

I think you will find that you window geometry symbol is vertical when you go into the symbol. Rotate it to be horizontal and all should be ok.

I have VW2015 and I simply downloaded and placed the "ResetwallElevations.svs" file into my "C:\Program Files\Vectorworks2015\Plug-Ins" location, started VW and go Tools/Plugins/Run Script and scroll down to the script and if you have walls with peaks it will flatten them down to a chosen height. HTH

Well that "remove roof peaks" is a wonderful piece. Works a treat, Thanks for the info. With the Dummy layer, so you create a high layer that you can turn off in plan so it doesn't hide your windows in the lower base level????

One way is to double click on the wall and you get nodes, click on point you want to change and drag down or up and tab into the line and type the height you want, hit enter and the wall changes height. If you have a wall like in the attachments you lower or raise the end nodes then delete the nodes between and you get back to a level wall. HTH

If you select the wall tool then hold the curser over where you want as reference and hit "G" then tab in to say to y and then type in the offset you want and hit enter you get an new reference location and simply draw you wall as you are still in the wall tool mode. Just keep in mind which side of the wall you are going to draw so if you want 2m then you will get 2m between. HTH

One thing I found was that if after you render the viewport it should export immediately, unless you have "update visible out of date viewports prior to exporting" ticked. (Bottom Left) I couldn't figure out why it was stalling till I realized I had about 10 viewports across the page that the program started to render after I tried to export.

This is a bit strange. I set up a wall style and used the cavity fill using a tile and chose Wall Insulation on Batt-o2-TF and no matter how wide i made the cavity it stayed correct. I converted the wall to unstyled and still ok then i exreferenced it to another drawing and still it was ok. Maybe post the VW drawing

Other programs as I understand have the ability to control the line weights based on the depth of field, so the front ones are heavy and the ones in the background are light. So there is no going into annotations and tracing over the lines to get the black and white presentation that is required for construction and most Council submissions. This is one aspects where the program falls down, you have created all this 3d and then for sections you have to redraw them and Elevation you have to draw over most. Add ons like stairs, handrails etc don't seamlessly unite in elevations or sections. Getting this step resolved would go a long way to allowing the work flow to be seamless from concept to construction. Could you please look into this.

Don't you just hold the shift key down to select more items or hold the shift key down to de-select less items. Each item you select while holding down the shift key either adds or subtracts form your selection group.

The way to do it is to explode the window you want and convert it to a symbol then you can replace it with another symbol. Make sure you have the same insertion point.

Actually the if you create your own VAA title blocks and sheet borders you don't get the line. Create your title block make it a symbol and export it to your template file from your resource browser.

I think and hope the elevation you are talking about are elevations such as the construction drawings. Other programs as I understand have the ability to control the line weights based on the depth of field, so the front ones are heavy and the ones in the background are light. So there is no going into annotations and tracing over the lines to get the black and white presentation that is required for construction and most Council submissions. This is where the program falls down, you have created all this 3d and then for sections you have to redraw them and Elevation you have to draw over most. Add ons like stairs, handrails etc don't seamlessly unite in elevations or sections. Getting this step resolved would go a long way to allowing the work flow to be seamless from concept to construction.

This is a puzzling one. The line is not the page boundary in page setup because its not a black line. Select the sheet border and in the OIP untick Lock to page center and you can move the sheet border off and you can see the two separate lines. Ungroup the Sheet border and place the border on a new class and set the class pen to none and the inside line disappears but not the outside line. Turn class of and all disappears. But a workaround is to (with the sheet border on the sheet layer) Click the sheet border on the OIP on the sheet Layer and click the Border settings and change inside dimensions to outside dimensions, then you can set you dimensions so that the border in inside your printed sheet and your other line is outside. Must be a way to turn that line off????