Dieter @ DWorks

The problem is that they don't fase out legacy stuff quick enough....

Or have a chimney object that automatically cuts out the roof? and adjusts its height according to the roof.

You could go with one story and that list as level types, or with 2 storys like in my example, where your roof will be that second story.

That's how we always build, so I thought it is logical, but apparently not.... That's the whole point. You can define stories, and in those, you can define all the types you want and want to use, and give them the name you want. These types are just a set of predefined heights, relative to the story elevation, so that objects can bound to them. You just have to remember that objects can only bound to types of the own story and the one below/above. So for split-levels use one story, and don't use to much stories, like for the foundation, just use a type as you automatically get a layer for it. I define my stories like this: If you have a split-level, just make the same level types with a suffix/prefix. This works really well! Don't use too many level types, you can always add some when needed.

Great tip: Do not use the ceiling layer on it's own story, but on the story above, so that all layers are elevations of the slab of that story. This way, you will have no troubles with split-levels etc.... Stories can be confusing at first, but play with them a bit and you will see what's possible and what will work best for you.

??? There is a button on the attributes palette which will turn the attributes to by class. Click on the down arrow at the bottom of the palette, and choose the option you need.

A really big problem they have is that they want new things every year to attract more people. These new things take so much resources that they are always half baked, and all other things stay half-baked and are never truly finished. As an example of this, why after two releases that stories are a part of VW, have not all objects got the possibility to link to story types? Every object should be able to do this in order to get the benefits of being able to change story type heights and having all of the objects adjust themselves. Now I always have to check the whole drawing and adjust all objects that aren't able to connect. It's a lot of work........ I see a good future in VW if they can put their act together and just finish the whole thing before adding new things to it. Or maybe the need to do what Microsoft did with Windows? Starting from scratch with a whole new methodology in mind? Or they can just remove old stuff that is deprecated but in it for compatibility and just make sure older drawings are converted to the new stuff. As an example: why are we able to use the old raster fills(or whatever they are called)? If only they just got converted to some normal hatches so they can be gone..... It would be so much easier and old deprecated code could be gone, and as a plus, the users will take the time to use the new stuff in it..... Just some thoughts as I really want that VW gets better....

Maybe VW needs an in-application help system, or whatever they should call it. Like some sort of windows that shows the user some possibilities on the current selected tool or current step of a tool process. Something like you have in SketchUp maybe? This would help many users to get the most out of the program. This window could also contain tips to create special things, or tips to better understand things that happen, like extra lines in hidden line renders due to the fact that a wall component has a corner on it's end....

Use the wall join L Mode like Vincent says. It works. I know it feels strange as it isn't really an L join, but it works.

True, but in the case of working for a client who dictates a specific CAD standard with naming conventions, there is no flexibility to call it what makes sense. You can have names that follow a standard + a readable name like I also do: 24 Stair - Text

Exported pdf files from VW are vector based, thus you can snap to them.

Worksheets need a serious update....

You can use my plug-in for updating a title block with the current date, so you don't have to use a data stamp. See on www.dworks.be

I found the problem: The glass texture I was using, from my library. apparently became corrupted in the update from 2012 to 2013. Recreated it, and all is fine again. Other than the multithreading of rendering we have, I did not know there were other improvements on textures....

I think this has become through copy paste and just do not care how it is drawn, just that it looks ok. I know a lot of people who draw like that, and it's a disaster.....

We should need drawing labels for each viewport, which can be manipulated through the oip of the viewport and have control points to place it without going in the viewport annotations. This would speed up the work so much.....

My renders took max. 3min. in 2012, and with the exact same settings, they take over 10min. in 2013. Anyone know of settings that have become different or behave/act different?

+1000

To not make it complicated, attributes should be defined by materials and classes should be used for classing objects and text styles. To make it simpler, only have materials and object types somewhat like Revit. Then user can work with these object types instead of classes for worksheets and overrides. Then you could say for example, give me all the insulation of material X for all internal walls, and show it in a red color on my presentation plan....

You should be able, with those materials, to override a material for a type of object, like material x in walls,...

What I meant is what if you want to override material X in walls to a yellow fill and in columns to a red fill and in .... I know this is maybe going to far, but in my practice, I have to create a lot of presentation/commercial plans and then I need to have such control over the drawings, so I can easily create then like the customer wants them, and then I have to override 'materials' to different attributes depending on where it is used.

You can create any roof in the massing model. If you can't get the roof through parameters, you can draw the 3D geometry yourself in the roof container of the massing model.

Probably too late for VW2014, but like asked multiple times, we need better attribute controls for classes for use in many places like the autohybrid. Classes should have 2 fills, one for section and one for visible things. So that when you use an object in the Autohybrid, it will show by class when cut and when seen from above. To take it even further, let us set a linestyle/fill for the invisible part, but maybe this should be a general setting for all classes? VW really need to be simplified and streamlined. Too many things, too many ways, and they make simple things too hard to get right. Some will not agree with me, but just force the users to work by class and VW can loose so much code and parts that it will be so much simpler and more automatic. It's far more easier to setup classes then all the other attributes for all other objects.... It will also remove so much choose that doesn't need to be there in the first place.... Users will also have an easier time setting up the drawing and will get and see the benefits automatically..... I really hope VW2014 is a start of this....

And what with class overrides?

VW can tell the difference, but what if you can't draw a certain wall with the wall tool? Then you draw it with something else. But then you won't be able to tell VW that it's actually a wall (something Revit can do). So therefore, a system with classes for materials combined with takeoffs isn't good, I've been there and I wished it could be done, but not. And the things we draw here, we have all sorts of things drawn not the way it is meant to be case VW can't do it yet.