Luka Stefanovic

Hi @Poot The VECC can be used in any industry or project really, and the latest version (2024) has no Door/Window section, only Materials and individual objects, which are handled through Record Formats. In short, if you assign Materials to Vectorworks objects their quantities will be calculated automatically in the worksheet and EC obtained based on Material property (such as density and EC factor). Additionally you can attach a Record Format to any object that has a manufacturer's EPD data, say a bench Symbol in your model, you can add declared EC for the bench as a product and the worksheet will count how many of those are there in your project and tell you the total EC for all benches. In terms of negative carbon, you would simply enter a negative value for the EC in the Material property and the calculation would take that into account. I hope that makes sense, but to repeat - VECC is really adaptable to handle different projects as it is based on model quantities of Materials and Material properties, the only reason it has an architectural flavour in the presentation is because I am an architect!

@Tim Harland I still think it would be possible to do it through Excel Referencing, but I'll need those examples to understand what exactly needs to be done. Let me know when you put it together and I will try to do it. @Amanda McDermott Can you also send me an example of what you're trying to do along with a Vectorworks and Excel file and I can see if I can put that one together for you. It sounds like it should be possible to do. Thanks! And happy holidays!

Hi @Tim Harland it sounds complex what you're trying to achieve. Can you send an example of what you're trying to do, in Excel and in Vectorworks, and I can try to put it together as a sample. I think what you describe should work but it's easier to understand by looking at actual examples rather than just a description 🙂 Thanks, Luka

@Tim Harland In short, there are two ways you can use referenced Excel data in Vectorworks - just bringing a worksheet in and viewing it as such, for example a consultant list, or a product data sheet. The other, more complex way, is to use referenced Excel data in another database worksheet - for example, creating a furniture schedule that counts the Symbols in your model and hooking that up to a product price list from a manufacturer. In both cases, integration goes both ways - if you make a change in Excel and update the reference, the data in Vectorworks worksheet will be updated. If you make a change in Vectorworks, you can push it back to Excel and update the worksheet. What you seem to be describing is the complex workflow in reverse. It is certainly possible, but I think it's overly complicating - taking advantage of reading the model as a database, then pushing that data back to Excel to be a plain spreadsheet just for the sake of formatting in Excel, which can be done in Vectorworks too, seems overly complicating the workflow to me. As I said, you should be able to do it, but I would recommend a simpler way of formatting a door schedule in Vectorworks. Good luck with setting it up!

My apologies @Tom W. I've been beta testing for too long! Wall Tag reading IFC mapped Data v2023.vwx

There you go! Hope that makes sense how it's set up and what it does. This one looks at component names and thicknesses rather than Materials, but the principle would be the same. Correct, currently it's not possible to list subparts (Components) and break them down into further parts in the reporting system. Something I know engineers are looking at, but I don't know if there is a solution coming.

@Tom W. @Samuel Derenboim I'm a bit late to the party so there is a lot to unpack here - let me start by saying that Data Tags can only tag Walls, but they can't tag Wall Components. This is why you need to use formulas like ComponentMaterial. I sometimes use the Data Manager to map formulas to Wall data, IFC in particular has fields for Materials that you can populate with concatenated information like component material name + thickness etc. This would allow you to potentially enter different data to these fields but still use a single Data Tag to display it. As far as I'm aware, there is no way of showing Simple Materials that constitute a Compound Material - you can get their accurate volumes for example Concrete = 0.95%Cement + 0.05%Rebar, so if you ask for quantity of cement, you will get a correct volume (which you can later use to calculate weight via density, or cost or embodied carbon) Of course, it depends what you're trying to achieve but there is a lot of flexibility between the Data Manager, Data Tags and Worksheet formulas to get you pretty much all data about objects in Vectorworks.

Sorry I'm a bit late to the conversation, but the reason for using a class in that particular webinar was that at the time, you couldn't hide objects completely using Data Viz. Now you can so you could use only Record Format and Data Viz to render objects invisible in both Design Layer view and Viewports. However there is still a benefit of using a dedicated Demo class and dedicated proposed and existing sets of Design Layers - you can use Grey or Show / Snap other Layers or Classes. While Data Viz does make pen and fill invisible, the objects are still there and you could accidentally select them or join a Wall with an invisible one. So it's a kind of safety net, both workflows are valid and will do what you need graphically, it's just a matter of workflow preference.

Hi @Samuel Derenboim let me try and answer this question: There are several prescribed methods to accurately determine a compound material R-value taking thermal bridging into account. One of those is called Isothermal Planes method, and uses lambda values of individual materials within the compound and applies percentages to obtain the lambda value of the compound material. This method is described by ASHRAE and is what Vectorworks uses to calculate compound material lambda values and it works well for timber studwork and masonry, bit less so for metal studwork which needs a complex modelling assessment to get accurate lambdas or R-values. If that's what you need and the Isothermal planes method is not precise enough, you have the option of doing manual calculations separately for those wall assemblies and inputing that R-value in the Insertion tab of the Wall settings instead of using the automatic calculation. Interior and exterior surface resistance (air film layer) is automatically taken into account - you can actually see those if you go to Edit List under Object Boundary Type in Energos section of Walls, Slabs and Roofs. These are constants depending on building element position and whether the thermal flow is upward, downward or horizontal so you just need to choose a correct option for each element. As a general comment on compound Materials, they provide you with a solution for multiple distinct materials within a single thickness component. Without them, there is no real way of handling something like insulated studwork. Using compound Materials allow accurate quantity take-offs for example, and embodied carbon assessments to include correct areas/volumes of each of these materials. Hopefully I've answered some of the queries, but as you said - it starts a productive discussion. Thanks for asking these great questions!

Hi @Dan Ryder VECC won’t work in 2020 because it’s based on Materials and quantity take-offs that haven’t really been possible before we introduced Materials. Vectorworks 2021 version is available as a standalone file to download but it has limited functionality as a first iteration of the calculator. Full version has been included since 2022 and can be found in preformatted worksheets.

Hi @Christian Fekete These values are calculated automatically, but the Spaces need to be auto-bounded to Walls and also the Walls with Windows/Doors inserted in them need to be checked as Exterior in Data pane of the Wall Settings. When both of those conditions are met, you will see the Glazing areas automatically calculated.

@sixfootzero I've had a look and I presume the reason for this is that your model is at a very early stage where it's essentially a really well insulated box form an energy point of view - if you create a label, it gives out A+ rating! There are no windows in the model, so there is no solar gain and I think between good insulation and ventilation set to mechanical, that's probably more than enough to handle cooling. There is an actual cooling energy demand value, but it's very low, which means you need very little energy over a year to keep the set comfort parameters. Load is the cooling required at hottest period and I think it probably has a value, but it's smaller than two decimal places so it's not showing. Having said all that, if you go into advanced ventilation settings and into summer ventilation, then drop your overheating limit to say 73F, you'll start seeing cooling loads appear. Also, when the model starts developing further and you have glazing, then solar heat gains will also come into play and it will become a more realistic scenario with cooling loads becoming a much more prominent factor. Early stage assessment is useful for many reasons, but it's crude based on what information is provided to the model and should be taken with a good chunk of salt!

@sixfootzero It could be a number of things - it's hard to tell like this. Have you checked U-values/R-Values of the Building elements (Doors/Windows, Walls, Slabs, Roofs)? Are you using Spaces to give you areas and volumes? Also under advanced set of parameters you should include the cooling system, and potentially check advanced ventilation settings to set overheating limit. Just a few things off the top of my head, let me know if it still doesn't work and it would be best if I have a look at the model in that case.

@Tom W. I'm still not sure why some of the Windows won't show if the Space doesn't have the projection towards it - though if you set the boundary of the Space to Auto-boundary, it creates those automatically and the worksheet will display everything correctly. The trick with the Door is to uncheck 'Show 3D open' as that only shows the Space the Door is opening into.

Hi All, Delighted to say that VECC is now available for download - you can find the link here: https://university.vectorworks.net/mod/page/view.php?id=2508 Please let me know your thoughts and feedback, it would be very useful in the further development of the tool. A webinar on the topic is in plan, but I'm happy to schedule some time to go through how VECC works. Happy Embodied Carbon calculations!