Tamsin Slatter

Yes, you can have as many layers and layer types as you need per story. Yes - the layer elevations are offset relative to the story, to suit your needs.

Stories a "virtual" container for a set of design layers that relate to that story. Instead of setting the absolute Z value of the design layers, instead the layers have a Z reference that is relative to the story. This means if you change the elevation of the story, all the layers that are related to that story adjust upwards or downwards with the story - no further adjustments from you are required. In addition, each layer within a story collection is nominated as a level type (e.g. finish floor or ceiling). Objects drawn on the layers can then be linked to the level type rather than a specific elevation - making them grow or shrink intelligently as the story elevation changes. The other benefit comes when drawings are exported as IFC projects. There is no further layer mapping required as the layers are already mapped to stories. Forgive me if you already get all this - I just thought I might help out with "stories are confusing" statement! Hope that helps.

What the settings for your site model? Have you got the 3D model set to Mesh Solid?

CINEMA 4D gets my vote too,

Hi Sorry to hear of your frustrations. Firstly the texture bed... a texture bed has no thickness at all. It is simply a mechanism for replacing the texture of the site model with a different texture, within the boundary of the texture bed. So, it will never have any thickness and you don't really want to change the elevation. If you want to show things that have thickness, I would suggest you look at a) the Hardscape tool (but only if you have Vectorworks Landmark or Vectorworks Designer), or b) the Roadway tools. These are objects that will sit on top of the site model, but can also generate their own site modifiers (pads) underneath them that can mould the site to the bottom of the road. As for the lengthy update times, that does sound a little excessive, but it's difficult to judge without understanding a) more about your source data for the model and b) the other modifiers you have already applied. I am guessing the file is quite large, but I'll be happy to take a quick look at it if you like. If your model was made from contours, it might be worth taking a look at the Simplify 3D Polygons command under either the Landmark menu or AEC>Terrain menu. This can reduce the number of points in the model, many of which will be unnecessary. Hope that helps you get started with solving the problem.

Hi Clive Go to Text>Format Text and just check that text hasn't mysteriously set itself to 0 points.

Oh well done! As you are one of my students, do feel free to email our support line for help... support@vectorworks-training.co.uk. No need to struggle in silence.

Could it be that elements within your title block are in a class which is set to gray? Edit the 2D element of the symbol and check which class these elements belong to.

So, you've imported them into a new file? If so, save the file somewhere sensible on your hard drive. On the Resource Browser, click on the Files menu and choose Add Current to Favorites. This will "bookmark" the file onto the list of files for you to browse on the Resource Browser. Then you will have access to them whichever file you are working on. If you've created them all in your current project, you could export them to another file by locating them on the Resource Browser, right-clicking and choosing Export. This enables you to copy the resources into other Vectorworks files. All the best

Yes indeed you can. Create a new texture (double-click on the Resource Browser and choose Renderworks Texture). Set the Color shader to Image. Vectorworks will prompt you to load the image. You may need to do some work on the image first in an image editor (such as Photoshop) so that it will tile sensibly. Hope that helps

Hi Simon The filled symbol 2D element is draw with lots of arcs. When you fill them, they are filling to their centre point, like a piece of cake. You need to select the different elements that make up the edges of the symbol and use Add Surface to bring them together. In some cases though, where you have simply used lines to denote the edges, there is nothing for Vectorworks to fill. You could use the Polygon tool in its middle mode to fill a shape in those voids. Once those shapes exist, you will be able to use Add Surface to bring them together into one object. Alternatively, use the Polygon tool in its third mode - drag a marquee around the entire symbol and Vectorworks will create a new Polygon based on the outer boundary of the shapes you have drawn. The original objects will still be there, so you will to decide what you are going to do with those, but you will be able to fill the new object. Hope that helps. All the best Tamsin

Don't know what caused your problem, but you can import the layers and classes from the previous file... Just go to create a new layer or class and instead of typing a new name, choose the second option to import and then point to your other file. This will list all the layers/classes in that file. When importing layers, you can also check Import Layer Objects to copy the elements on the layers across too.

Have you set up a Legend? If not, you could draw your plans in the ready made Spotlight template (FIle > New > Use Template and pick the Spotlight one. This automatically assigns a legend to the instruments. Otherwise, you need to set up a legend (Spotlight > Label Legend > Label Legend Manager). You choose the fields you want to assign and then edit the layout to determine where those fields will be displayed in relation to the instrument. Then, you need to select the instruments and assign the legend to them (Spotlight >Label Legend > Assign to Instruments). Hope that helps to get you started!

Yes. Make sure you have Snap to Object turned on in your Snapping palette. Choose your drawing tool, hover the mouse over the first reference point and notice the cursor will "acquire" the point. Move the mouse to the second reference point and acquire that also. A midpoint snap will be displayed between the two points. Click on the midpoint and start drawing.

Yes. Just put your cursor on the "datum" (for example, a corner on your extrude), and make sure the desired plane is highlighting. Press the Tab key and tab to the X coordinate. Fill in the distance you want from the datum as the new start point. Repeat for the Y coordinate, pressing Enter after the second value. Now click and draw. The new shape will start a set distance away from the datum and you can use the data bar as normal to set the desired size.

To use the automatic plane: Draw something on the layer plane in a 3D view, using a 2D tool such as the rectangle. Immediately, click on the surface of the rectangle and pull it up. Now hover your mouse over the extrude. The planes of the extrude should highlight in blue as the planes are detected under your pointer. If this doesn't happen, use the \ key or change to Automatic plane on the View bar. Draw another rectangle on one of the vertical sides of the extrude. Click on the surface and pull. Hope that helps!

We've been playing with this in the office too. It's very cool indeed! Not sure about pricing where you are, but it will certainly be available from us here in the UK.

Have you definitely downloaded the Windows version - not the Mac version?

Use the 2D Reshape tool. If you look at the tool bar, you will see it has several modes including adding and removing vertices, but it also has several selection modes. You can click and drag around those vertices you want to move, leaving the others in place. Hope that helps.

What's the specification of the machine? You can check this on Control Panel and choose System Then let me know how much RAM and with is the GHz value for the processor. You could also try updating the graphics driver.

Hi Yes - you just need to select the spiral path AND the object together before running Edit > Duplicate Along Path. Vectorworks will then highlight the object it thinks is the path - if it has selected the wrong one, use the Next button to select the correct path. Then set your parameters - either a fixed number of copies of a fixed distance between them. Then click Preview to make sure you are happy with it. When you are happy, click OK! Hope that helps!

We have resolved this by using Illustrator to convert the colours to RGB values and then using those RGB values in Vectorworks.

Did you see my email Olivia? You will see that the colours are close, but slightly different. I sent it to your email address on your profile.

Hi Olivia I have had a look at this on my Mac. Unlike the PC, I can use my operating system colour picker to choose CMYK values. However, I have noticed that once I create the colours in Vectorworks according to your CMYK values, they are slightly changed when I go back in to edit them. I am wondering if possibly it is converting to the nearest Hexadecimal value (aka web safe) colour. I will check it out. I have sent you an email with the colours in Vectorworks compared to the colours in Illustrator. I will do some more digging and let you know what I come up with. All the best

Send me the colour values - not the images. I will do some testing on the colour values at this end and send you some screenshots.