Chris D
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Posts posted by Chris D
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We use Eastings and Northings at OS coordinates to set out our buildings, so it's important to have the building at the correct coordinates.
HOWEVER, I wouldn't necessarily advise that you draw the objects at the correct coordinates, as they will be so far away from the Vectorworks origin you will have issues (literally millions of millimetres away from the origin). Hatch patterns are a good example....even a decimal point aberration in the pattern means that by the time the pattern is calculated all the way from the origin to your site, the lines won't meet at all.
INSTEAD, draw at the origin and DLVP the building (or building site) to the correct location. Then you can calculate your Eastings and Northings from there.
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I love my magic mouse, and I miss the multi-touch when I have to use a wheel mouse on my work machine. I do miss the pan feature like you say though, but have got used to the old space-bar method again now.
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We buy ours pre coloured now - imports fine into VW. Promap and others offer this as standard.
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I know we can use dlvp, but there isn't anough control over the class attributes in slvp for the inner dlvp that comes from other files.
You mean to tell me this isn't fixed yet? I hadn't checked it on my 2012 trial but I'd been merrily telling my colleagues that these issues would go away when we upgrade.
We DLVP our plans into our site file, but we want the plans to look different on the site file so we'd like to override classes...but you can't do this in an SLVP. Very frustrating.
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Anyone else got a whole project file set up that gives a good overview of a typical multi-storey building in VW2012?
(We promise not to criticise the architecture or the modelling...)
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Ooh yes please. I need to make more fruitful use of the remaining days on my UK version of the 2012 trial. It would be good to see how it's all supposed to work.
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Works for me as well Vincent. You can also use the 'I' key to toggle the 'retain' mode on and off.
THIS is the way it should always have worked.
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Does the mode bar not have a keyboard toggle for this tool now instead?
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yes yes yes....why the two are bundled together I'll never know
On a similar vein....layer opacity....i'd like to have layer 'fade' as well. The trouble with using opacity to make certain layers fade is that they become translucent and your fills become see-through.
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Don't give me any credit...I didn't spend the time finding the holes and documenting them here.
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Most of this stuff doesn't affect our 2D workflow....but that's probably because the 3D workflow has so many holes in it that we don't use it. A list like this just highlights what's missing....this isn't really advanced stuff....more like stuff that should have been included in this year's release just to stay relevant.
So yeah, count me in.
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Best overview of BIM in the UK I've read so far.
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Very useful thread. You can mess around with the trial version of software but until you run a real job through it, or somebody else does (thanks fellas), you don't really test it.
Shall we say the stories feature is in 'beta'...
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No problem with battery life here. We purchased batteries and chargers for everyone too, so they can all look after their own.
I've been using alkalines at home which is probably a bad idea, but my old NIMH batteries are past their best...maybe time to buy the Apple ones..
We're 'wired' at work...don't think they fancy keeping 35 users in batteries, rechargeable or otherwise..
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Looks good. Same parent company...maybe this investment will trickle down.
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Loving Lion. Still getting used to Magic Mouse sensitivity.
Are you a 'natural' or a 'reverse' scroll man then...? For me, natural is perfect with a trackpad...slightly more odd with a mouse....with magic mouse somewhere between..
Battery life on the magic mouse is terrible though.
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The wall join tool is gonna have to be pretty sophisticated to do these wall junctions and show them in both 2D and 3D how you want them. Not that that's impossible...
Is any CAD/BIM software that sophisticated? My experience of other platforms is too far behind me now to know the current state of affairs.
I do know from my experience of doing "wall patches" at these sort of junctions that even when VW is capable of doing a junction using components, it takes a large number of clicks with the component join tool...in a particular order that is a black art. What you're asking for is a whole lot more....you'd have to manually condition every component interface to tell the software how to connect....even the smartest software can't know what you're thinking.
It makes me wonder whether a whole new tool/paradigm is needed....sort of "Wall End Conditions" that are a series of preferences saved as a junction type somehow, that can then automate the actual wall joining process during drafting....by selecting your pre-saved conditions.
For intelligent wall joining, even the common junction parameters would be quite complex though, with walls being classified according to their function as external wall, party wall, partition etc, and ALSO that components know whether they are linings, cavities, structural, or thermal elements.
What you're asking for is less...just let us do component joins without limits...but you may find that even if this is delivered....the time taken to set up every junction means you may still want to use symbols...? (Our 2D and 3D drawings are completely separate in this office, done by different people even, so I can't speak for the benefits of automatic storey heights etc in practice.)
Just thinking aloud..
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Chris, a reasonable solution is to save different class visibilities by using 'save view'.
However a more usable function has been wished for:
http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=31348&Number=154102#Post154102
Saving views is the same old 'manual' solution. I'm usually doing something very specific like comparing the ceiling grid to the fire layer...but I wouldn't set up saved views for every scenario like that.
Keeping the same zoom/class/(sub)layer settings whilst moving between storeys should be more intelligent. Imagine you're clash detecting a particular area...you've zoomed, got your classes on/off, the relevant layers on/off, but you want to check all storeys...I just wanna flick up and down storeys on a keystroke or at least on a palette.
With regard to the link to your wishlist, I support this for the future. Less abstraction, more building intelligence:
"Computer. Show me the ceiling grid on the third floor at 100 scale!"
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Chris, with the 2012 release we did not give Stories any special navigation capabilities. What would you like to see in this area? (I think this kind of feature has potential, but exactly what the feature would do is not so obvious to me.)
Well, at the moment we draw with several layers per storey (fabric, furniture, fire, ceiling), and would continue to do so in 2012. Now the trouble with navigation is that say I've got a layer and class combo on screen for one storey, and would like to flick up to the storey above...it's all a bit manual...turn 3 layers off, 3 layers on etc. With storeys there could potentially be an easier way...as long as my layers are associated with storeys then it's a simple scripting excercise to make a tool that could switch storeys with the same layer/class combo, isn't it?
Haven't had any free time over the last few days to delve into this, so correct me if this functionality is there.
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Nicholas,
I've generated another serial number from the link you gave, and re-installed the demo, but it's still in US rather than UK english. Rather frustrating wasting my time like this.
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Dworks, I think we can all agree that this wall components not relating automatically to storey AND slab is a bit of a deal breaker for the whole storeys idea. And why you lose wall connections in plan when you edit wall component heights in section is beyond me. I can also agree with your key elevation principle for FFL, SSL etc. I wouldn't want to lose the option to have multiple design layers per storey though.
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I like the idea of multiple design layers per storey, for separate ceiling, furniture, fire compartmentation etc. What I haven't figured out yet, is whether storeys aid with navigation - can I quickly flick up between storeys. I can't see this functionality (only played for a few hours yet though), as the storeys appear in the Org palette but not in the Nav palette....
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Will do. I was doing it inside a 2008 upconverted file and it's definitely repeatable...I thought I was going mad so did it several times.
Interesting that our 2008 wall styles are completely unusable...none of the components show up. The year 2008 is very recent in completing-large-building-projects terms, and not being able to see components on our record drawings will be very frustrating...looks like we'll need to keep 2008 hanging around for this purpose.
stories 2012
in Architecture
Posted
This has been the way VW has been perceived until now - a budget end CAD program with a bit of BIM.
Trouble is, the near future of BIM is ALL or NOTHING.
The chatter about BIM has exploded in the UK this year. There are conferences every week and leader articles in every journal. Almost none of them mention Vectorworks, because nobody is suggesting that VW can play with the big boys.
It's no good talking about IFC and some rosy future of a level playing field - the big boys are not going to let you get a kick of their ball. Major contractors will settle on Revit or...well let's face it, Revit or nothing. Architects will work on Revit or they won't work at all.
As a Mac office using VW, we've had to bluff our way onto jobs that contractually require us to use AutoCAD. This is ok, because we just make sure our DWG output is good enough to thwart any questions. How on earth our we going to bluff it that we use Revit when we're sent Revit project files or asked to supply them?? Please sir, can we exchange IFC instead?... Not a chance.