Don@Black Dog

I agree with Jeffrey, in that using the wall tool allows connections at corneres and intersections. It would be handy to be able to step it without resorting to separate wall segments. How to do that keyway, though... Thas for the tech tip, Mike. There's tons of stuff in 08 I haven't even looked at yet.

I use wall types for each of the stem and footings (I think it was an idea from one of the Peter's), on a Foundation Layer. Or set up a Foundation and a Footing layer, so the depths and wall thicknesses are set ahead of time. Make a wall type of your typical foundation walls and footing widths (make them in the Library file so they are available everywhere) and draw one, copy/paste-in-place to the other layer, and change the wall type. Or draw new, whatever you prefer. To do them together would be a cool tool to have (NNA?) but this allows tailoring. You could extrude the "inverted-t" form, but why bother? As a note, whenever I make up wall types for projects (I do a lot of renovations to old stuff) I eventually copy and paste them to the Library file to use later. Just remember to save it when we get herded into the new versions.

yeah, yeah, yeah...better call my credit card company...

I am also a single person firm, and tend to work like Bill's description. I set up different layers for different plan options, with the primary "Floor xxx" Layer being constant elements. This gets tricky if there are significant differences, but has worked ok so far. I use Saved Views to work with the different options. I haven't really looked at the new DL viewports methods yet (I know, I know..). When going to CD's, just set up the Sheet Layer viewports with the final schematic design layers, or duplicate that layer as a CD layer. There are inevitably elements from the other options that come into play, so there is always some copy and pasting and acommodation, but that is no different than "adjusting" the final design into Design Development. Most of the time I find I have already set up most of my viewports during the design and presentation process, so I copy and psst them for the other (Elec, struc, etc) VP's and I am off and running.

I spoke too soon. I am in 2008 and have no shaft width and depth option. Is this new to 2009 or a Mac special (I am PC)? So close, yet so far...

Well, that certainly fits as an "oh, duh" moment. Missed that dimension option completely. Thanks.

Just to pile on, if you have to use music, make it something sophisticated, like the rest of the site is aiming at. Those colored bars are unnecessary, too...but in a nice way.

Is there a way to make a low wall with base and cap with one tool, similar to the attributes for a square column, only a rectangle (or a curve) the length of the wall?

I always put the additions onto their own layers, for the simple reason Mike stated, it lets you turn them on or off, or grey, at will. It also lets you do several design options that you can easily access through the saved views, or in a view port, changing the layers as needed. I have also used this to make the outside walls of a room transparent to allow a fly-over (when doing an inside room, for instance.

Allow white lines in the B&W only setting, so minor editing can be done in the viewports (ie, draw over lines you don't want).

Thanks, Peter. I don't want the curvature lines, unless you mean in a shadow area. Actually, I just found my answer. In the Hidden Lines Background Render Settings, set the Smoothing Angle to greater than 10 or 15 degrees and the lines disappear. I should mention this to Tech...

Thank you both for the clarification and suggestions. Tech at Nemetschek sent the following, which would work as well: "Unfortunately there is no such setting or feature within VectorWorks. However if you make the changes first, then convert them to lines and ungroup you should get the desired result. You could also make the changes and create a symbol out of the modified column and use the new symbol in place of your current column choice." Sounds like an opportunity for some enterprising sort, to make a series of tapered classical column symbols in typical widths and heights.

Is there a way to not have the lines indicating the curvature of an object such as a column when rendering in hidden line? All I want is the profile of the columns. I would prefer not to have to convert to lines, since the columns may be changed or adjusted and a global setting would be more effective. Thanks. Don

Good point. I will mess around with that. I had the viewport set to black and white so I did not get layer class colors, which negated the shading of a polygon, but I could revert the overlay viewport to full color.. Thanks.

I am trying to do a simple color overlay rendering of a sheet layer viewport. The base viewport is a line in sketch mode. I know there were suggestions a while back for using an overlay viewport to do this but can't find the. Any kind person witha suggestion on doing this?

Thanks all. Mike, is it best when exporting for engineer coordination, to export sheet files or from the design layers? I still get huge files on a modest house, even when most layers and classes are turned off when using a sheet layer.

When showing a pocket door partly open (45 deg) the leaf is drawn as if the exposed part is the entire leaf,rather than partial. If open only a bit, just for ecffect, this is a terrible look. Please make it so the leaf renders to properly reflect the door position.

I think you are right, about just deleting and reinserting another cutout. I was just looking for additional versitility. I could not grab the edges with the 2d reshape tool. Thanks, all. Back to work!

Well, I'll be.. To think of a hole as an object. Makes sense in CAD-land but takes me back to Star Trek. I knew it had to be something direct. Thanks very much for all your help! BTW, Can you partially fill a hole? I can't seem to grab just one edge of the hole object. Thx

Yeah, thanks. I was hoping not to ungroup it so I did not loose the ability to modify it (eaves, etc). In the end I bit the bullet and remade it, but would still like to be able to fill in a hole that is made in a roof object, or move a hole, as one can to in a floor.

There should be a way to fill in a hole in one's roof as simply as to cut it out. Ah, dreams!

I simply made a roof object and selected it. Then went to Edit Group and pasted in a rectangle where I wanted a cut out. I exited Edit Group and had the hole in the roof that I wanted. Only then, things evolved and it is now 12" over from where I want it. How can I relocate that hole? Generally it is easier to just remake the roof, but sometimes there are other items already associated with it so it would be too time consuming.

Thanks, Jonathan. I was using the 2D reshape tool, but there is nothing to grab in the cutout hole I made to accomodate a shed dormer.

Thanks for the advice. I think I have somehow corrupted the roof object, since one end (gable) will move fine with a 2D move, but the other end generates this odd object. I will suffer through the remake (actually not too bad since I am more used to the tool now.) One other thing: a dormer cutout hole needs to be shifted. Can it be moved or can a section be added to fill in the hole (Add Surface)? I can take out a chuck via the Edit Grooup actions, of course. Thanks.

I have a roof object I would like to extend a foot (along the gable) Normally i would just remake it but there are a number of dormers etc that are already coordinated with it. When I try the 3D reshape (per the manual) it creates a separate eave object. Any ideas?