Jeffrey W Ouellette

Richard, Check out the Ellicott Heights project on the new BIM in Practice web page at nemetschek.net. It can be accessed from the Support menu at the top navigation bar or from the Architect product page. This project and white paper should give you an idea about working on large projects in groups/teams.

Chris, You can utilize the summary function of the worksheets/schedules to create a schedule that only displays the unique IDs once each. Just shoe your Database headers, select/highlight the database header row, then drag and drop the little "SUM" icon at the top of the worksheet dialog onto the column you want to summarize.

Chris, I don't understand your feelings that I am ignoring something. The sample projects (Alexandria Lofts and Ellicott Heights) offered for download (the project VWX files in addition to the PDF files) on the new "BIM in Practice" web page are fully modeled. They contain extensive amounts of 3D data. They make heavy use of our parametric objects, doors, windows, spaces, and walls, including structural members such as joists, beams, and columns, that contain record formats for a wide array of data. They have a few examples of interactive database worksheets. I've explained in the descriptions and white papers that these examples are not exhaustive in their presentation of data and drawings, they are not "final quality" construction documents. But, they contain enough information and examples to lead our users down the path. These projects, with more in the pipeline, will be the basis for much of our research and development of VW capabilities and user needs. But user input and precise critique of these projects is crucial, otherwise all we can do is blindly speculate about what those advancing needs and capabilities are. I believe that this is an excellent opportunity for our users to actively and constructively engage NNA in the discussion about workflows, data, and tools needed to "do BIM" with VW. As I said earlier, I am open to suggestions for information that our users would now like to see be extracted from these sets of sample data. Are there particular drawings/model views that you would like to see? Are there particular schedules/datasets that need to be shown? If so, what are they and what format would you like to see? Are there particular methods of modeling, scheduling or presentation that you would like highlighted, explained, or expanded? Regards,

Instead of simply deleting all the symbols in the source document, selecting and "editing" them one by one may help. You don't need to actually change anything, just enter the symbol and exit to help reset. It may simply be a translation/upgrade issue. The symbols just need to be "nudged" into understanding that they are now VW2008 objects.

Rick, Thanks. The Ellicott Heights project is BIG. The file "Building_Model.vwx" is big because it contains the entire drawing set and "Saved Viewport Cache" is turned ON. With all the section viewports and rendered viewports, this adds up quickly. Also, the new class visibility controls for design layer viewports is being implemented, which adds even more to the file as each class set for each file referenced in is "duplicated/cached" in the main file. I put this project together on a 1st-gen MacBook Pro 17" with 2GB of RAM. The main file is quite a struggle even for that hardware. I will say that the new Intel machines make a significant difference. The size of the file and its speed (or lack thereof) do bring up a good topic for discussion on the best way to parcel the project up to get the best performance. I was operating from one set of assumptions, as stated in the White Paper. Others could be debated and explored. Thanks for the encouragement,

Chris, What kind of data do you need to see/show? I've only scrathced the surface with the big Ellicott Height files; it is only in mid-development. The Alexandria Lofts project is more "complete" but the data of it hasn't been fully "mined". That doesn't stop you or I from doing more, but I'm interested in what that more needs to be. Part of the purpose of these projects and this forum is to discuss what else needs to be shown or done (to the project or to the software) to fulfill our users' needs for a BIM methodology. I would really appreciate some more detailed input about the desired output.

For all those VectorWorks customers who don?t receive, or pay attention to, eDispatch: VectorWorks eDispatch Vol LXX December 2007: For VectorWorks customers involved in the building design and construction markets, Building Information Modeling (BIM) continues to be a major topic of discussion. As people consider how to adopt this workflow in their practice, our support teams have received requests for help in how to best structure drawings for a BIM workflow. To most effectively address these needs, a best-practices team was formed at Nemetschek North America last year. This group has two main goals: to generate information about how to most effectively and efficiently use VectorWorks Architect in a BIM environment, and to communicate with R&D about how to improve our features to best match the needs of these types of users. This week we're launching our "BIM in Practice? section on our website. This section will be the collection point for our recommendations. We've moved the information from the old BIM page on our website and published the second of our best-practice example files. Jeff Ouellette, whom you may have seen active on our discussion forums over the past year, developed this example to show how to structure a file for a multi-person design team on a 1,000,000 square feet mixed-use development. The accompanying white paper describes the strategy to break down the project into multiple files for a design team and to re-use design components. It shows a fairly standard U.S. building type, but the structure of the document can be applied to many different types of projects. For those of you who are interested in using a BIM workflow in your practice, we'd love to hear your feedback on our approach. Jeff will respond to comments and suggestions on our VectorWorks Architect tech forum . We're also looking for ideas for our next project. Feel free to let us know the direction that would be most useful for you. Sincerely, Sean Flaherty CEO, Nemetschek North America

Doug, Are you asking for one symbol to be able to be inserted into/attached to two different walls simultaneously? Ouch... I don't know how that would be possible.

1. Establish/rotate to the view you want in the design layer, 2. Draw a Rectangle to "frame" the view that you want 3. Select the "Create Viewport..." from the View menu 4. Designate the Viewport name and where you want it to be located (sheet layer). You can also use the camera tool, layer link or not. You can also create a sheet layer viewport from the camera view, as above. Layer links aren't necessary to view the model as a whole, as long as Stacked Layers is on. If the site is at a different scale and rotation, a design layer viewport (they replaced layer links and are much more powerful) can be created on the floor plan layer. Think of it as a special "symbol" referencing another part of the drawing, but having more object-like properties.

But how does any layer know it is part of, or a container for, a "logical" building model? It doesn't. All design layers are considered "model" layers. So, the schedule is looking, by default, for all info in all the design/model layers. The user has to qualify that search based on how he/she has chosen to organize the model/data. If you chose to re-assemble the building data on another layer via layer links, then you have duplicated the data set and need to qualify the database where to look, or what to redact, the original or the copy. If you simply use the "Stack Layer" option and no layer links, then there is no duplication to be contended with.

Well, David, A building model might be "constructed" of external reference design layer viewports that are inserted on layers representing "stories" or levels instead of walls, windows, door, etc being drawn directly on the layer. The default criteria behavior is to look for all possible objects that fit that criteria in in the entire file, unless limited by user definition. Layers are merely "containers", they don't know if the information they contain is a floor level relevant to a larger model or just a 2D drawing of a detail. Layers know their relative spatial relationship to each other, but don't have the intelligence to recognized their "meaning" or "syntax" to each other. The tools VW provides with Stack Layers, Align Layers and design layer viewports (old Layer Links) allow users to construct a syntax. The database tools then allow the user to further establish syntax and relationships to/between objects.

Well Hawkeye, the easiest way to get your desired results would be to use the new design layers viewports in VW2008. They are a new reference object, a composite of WGRs and layer links, with unique instancing capabilities. But in VW12, you can do what you want by creating the WGRs first in 'scratch' design layers for each level of each building, then creating a layer link in your desired target layer of each building, with the layer links containing all the desired levels of each building. Unlock the layer links then Group them together. Then Copy/Paste and rotate as needed. Heavy work, but possible, in VW12. Not pretty, but servicable.

I am using a Logitech wireless Laser mouse on my MacBook Pro notebook. In order for it to work properly, I have uninstalled the Logitech software. When doing some research after first installing the software and observing strange and disconcerting behaviour, I found that generally, most people advised removing Logitech's software and just using the OS settings. The feeling was that Logitech's drivers weren't particularily stable or friendly to either the Mac or XP OSes.

Heather, Which version of VW are you running?

Petri, The file you are looking for is in the following location: : Libraries : Defaults : Section - Markers : Section Markers.mcd

Petri, With all due respect, I wish to answer his question in my way, by getting more information about his workflow and what he aims to acheive. I didn't give an answer, thus I didn't give a wrong answer. I did understand the question, but I would like to understand more before leading him down a path. If you care to, answer his question as you would, it is an open forum. But don't get in my way while I am trying to help one of our customers. Your tone (and false assumption/conjecture) is not constructive, especially to less experienced users.

hmv, Why not create the interior elevations in the same file?

former Revit user, What need is being served by exploding the PIOs? What are you trying to acheive? Don't any of the parameters in the OI palette address your issue? If not, let us know so we can consider addressing them in a future version.

former Revit user, Do you have the Object Info palette open? All objects, especially PIOs have variables accesible from the OI palette.

Or, you could create the full schedule on a design layer and then create sheet layer viewports for each portion of the schedule. Simply draw a rectangle around the portion of the schedule you want, leave then rectangle selected, then invoke the "create viewport..." menu command. It should prompt you with a question about wanting to use the selected object as a VP crop. Say Yes and specify the sheet layer you want it to appear on. Lather, Rinse, Repeat....

What version of VW are you using?

Christiaan, We are currently revising the Space object to comply with GSA Spatial Validation BIM guidelines, in addition to IFC requirements. There is a publicly available beta on our website: http://www.nemetschek.net/architect/bim.php Can you give be a set of common space planning criteria/headings for the UK/AUS/NZ markets? We would be more than happy to address those as options to the plug-in. I believe as adoption of BIM workflows grow, standards will become even more important in the setup and exchange of data regarding building parts and systems. While many architects, for a long time, in both analog and digital mode, have managed to get projects done with their own systems of description (i.e. window schedules, door schedules, room finish schedules), increasing communication of increasing complexity in the digital world requires data standards that are clear, complete and, contrary to a designer's mentality or desire, closed. Why? Reducing the "arbitrary" helps maintain data integrity (intent) no matter with whom it is exchanged, wherever they are, on whatever platform. I know this is hard for a lot of small scale architects and designers to swallow. The truth is, most larger architecture firms and projects have relied on such rigid standards to maintain quality and data integrity for some time, even in an "analog" mode. But, I believe it is the inevitable path.

Everyone, Thanks for your concern/input regarding the Window (& Door) PIOs. Please be assured that this particular topic has been under consideration/work for a while. But there is a great deal of work to do, so it will take time. I have been intimately involved in seeing these tools evolve for the future. It is a complicated project, with many, many issues and challenges and we wish to move in a direction, this time, that is much more definitive, that is, reducing the amount of radical redesign we seem to have done in the past from major version to major version. Our beta testers have given us a geat deal of help and input toward the design of the evolution of these tools and I look forward to the results... but be patient. We are actively persuing bug fixes for the next release, but, at this time, I can't promise you anything more than that. That is not to say that the bug fixes aren't significant or helpful, on the contrary. Please keep logging/submitting bugs and please consider using the bug submittal option to log wishes, also. Just prepend the title of your bug with "[WISH]-Door / Window PIO - " and I'll be sure to collect them. Regards,

eas, Sorry, no "partial" worksheet workflow, to my knowledge. It is all or none. I, of course, suggest going the "all" route. As painful as it may appear to be, once you've completed a project this way, you'll never go back.

This is a known bug. The fragmentation only occurs in a Section VP.