bclydeb
-
Posts
148 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Articles
Marionette
Store
Posts posted by bclydeb
-
-
Twickenhaman,
I don't know if you will return to this post, but I have some additional advice. Gytis' advice and idea about using classes is good. You can also use section viewports looking at each side of the simple Kitchen and limiting the view to section line length, the height of the ceiling, and depth to the fac/center of the wall behind. (Section Viewport>Advanced properties).
This way each wall view has it's own viewport, which can be annotated on the kitchen elevations sheet. e.g. - Title the components, point out the drawer & Door sizes, etc.
Also - if you have an Island, the section viewport(s), passing along the desired elevation side and limited to the depth of the island plus 1" can be shown without background walls creating visual distraction.
And yes, you can use classes to show/hide items to further expand your creative options.
-
I think I have a similar setup to the responders above. I do the drawing on the Bigger monitor and the reference panes and less used pallets, etc. on the smaller screen.
I keep the workhorse palletes arranged right and left of the working space screen on the bigger monitor.
If I have two files open, one for copying from and reference for example, I have it display on the smaller monitor.
Mac 23" display, Powerbook G4, 17" Screen, 1GB RAM, 60GB HD, and the desktop setup displays on two monitors, a 20" CRT and a 23" Apple Cinema display.
Out to client conferences I display the stuff on a wall/screen from the laptop with a DLP projector as the "larger" screen, and do all the out of sight stuff on the laptop monitor.
And on a final Note, I use either the DLP on the wall/screen for in office conferences with groups, or I simply have the client looking at the Cinema display while I sit on the opposite side of the table and work off the Laptop or 20" display on the dual G5 Machine.
-
Gentlemen,
Your help is very much appreciated!
Upon reading your replies I had a Duh-Oh moment - Oh yeah - Menu item, workspace editor. Funny how you get so close to a problem you cannot see the solution even when you know where to look or it is right there in front of you.
Again, thanks for removing the blindness.
BclydeB
-
Propstuff,
It appears from your emphasis on the title block on the sheet that you do not use Viewports. This likely explains your frustrations.
We do not have problems with the Drawing label and sheet numbering. This may be because we put them into viewports where the details are displayed from the design layer they are constructed in.
Cbaarch has told you to edit the sheet number for the Drawing Label in the OIP. This is easily done.
I hope I have helped and not confused you more.
-
I have discovered that my employees, all using my W Architect licensed products, have Export to PDF and Export Batch PDF capability on their machines.
On my machine I have VW Designer 12.5.1 and I do not have a menu item for exporting PDF and batch PDF. I updated to 12.5.2 and still do not have these menu items.
Instead I have a menu item to export PDF (Quartz Only) -that's it!
How come this is so? How do I get the same PDF functionality as the Architect users?
-
rDesign,
I haven't tried VW's Export PDF. One of my associates has and had several problems.
What I have been doing since the advent of OSX 3.x where the print routine for any Macintosh printer dialog has a "Save As PDF" choice at the lower left corner of the print dialog is to take that option. Gives me the true and perfect PDFs every time. Like yourself I have tried Adobe's Acrobat 7 virtuasl printer and gotten good results.
I would stick with wither the Acrobat 7 VP or the "Save as PDF" choice in any Mac printer dialog until VectorWorks gets caught up with making true PDFs.
-
We have been recently experiencing a large slowdown on all of our machines with complex sections through a 5 level - 2 story over basement "Queen Ann" style house with a historically accurate addition.
Our intel Duo core 2.66 Ghz 2GB RAM MacBook Pro and Dual 800 G4 (2.25GB RAM) render the sections the fastest. About 12 mins./section But our dual 2.5 G5 with 8GB takes an hour per section. Why should the supposedly "fast Mac" take so long to render and plot these sections? This started all of a sudden in VW12.5. Prior to VW12.5 (as in VW 12.0) all the machines Updated the sections and elevations in a minute or two on the same project.
-
Francois,
We have always max-ed out the RAM on our machines because it has (in the past) made a huge difference in the performance of VW (and any other program as well).
-
Azizg,
Jonathan a.k.a. Archoncad has the correct way to work. If you use the Joist Object or Steel Beam Object tools in the detailing tool set you get properly sized beams and they render, show up in live sections, etc. as you want them. You can even apply wood grain or other textures to them. Other tools, like the roof framing tool (AEC>Framing?>Roof Framer produce the same kinds of objects. When laying out floor joists use the AEC>Framing?>Joists from polygon tool to get your floor joists layout real fast. Then you can use the OIP to edit them singly or to make a particular change to the group as a whole. While the Framer tool makes the initial layout based on a generic rectangular section, using the OIP you can reset the entire group if joists to common lumber sizes, glulams, steel joists, etc., all of which can be colored or textured.
I hope this info helps you.
B. Clyde Beck
-
The Vector Depot tools work well even in VW 12.5. Major limitation is that only two types of trusses are modeled.
Hip trusses, Girder trusses, "California" Trusses, Pratt trusses, Vierendehl (Sp?), Warren, etc. have to be laboriously modeled in VW.
The truss feature might be a separate tool which acts on the roof forms, since programming truss types is likely complex.
-
For many keynote systems - Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) USA & Canada, Fred Stitt - Guidelines Publications, articles I have written on the subject for CSI in the early 90's, etc.; the better architectural keynote systems use one or two (max. 3) character prefixes. (e.g. C for conc., FN for foundation, M for masonry, W for wood, etc.)
While the VW Keynotes system provides for Alpha character prefixes, Nemetschek does not seem to understand the need for these to appear next to the keynote number in the actual keynote notes list.
The keynote system limitation is that our keynote symbols can have the prefixes, but the notes list cannot and that makes the system very awkward to use.
We like the auto numbering feature. It works well for us as we have a growing set of databases for keynotes and gives us dynamic renumbering when we lose a keynote because of a change in something the keynote referred to. Also the auto numbering allows us to use the notes database feature of Move UP/Move Down to reorder the keynotes & general notes to make sense.
Another keynote limitation is that if you use them in a layer or in a viewport, you can only use one type of notes in that layer or viewport. So If you have a combined Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing Plan you have to be real careful to have separate layers for each sub contract so the all the electrical notes are in one list, all the HVAC in another, the plumbing in another, etc.
Our work around for the lack of prefixes in the notes list is to title the list with a keynote symbol example next to the title of the list. This clues the contractors as to which list the EL 20 note refers to. Awkward and often leads to a long explanations to the contractors as to which keynote goes to what.
The only other alternative is to create a strip of prefixes to the left of the numbers in the keynote list. Again Awkwardly time consuming.
Again - what is it that I wish for? When the keynote list is generated it also prefixes the numbers with the prefix the symbol contains!!!
-
The problems CADD Nark has are part of the limitations of the tool. For many keynote systems - Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) USA & Canada, Fred Stitt - Guidelines Publications, articles I have written on the subject for CSI in the early 90's, etc.; the better architectural keynote systems use one or two (max. 3) character prefixes. (e.g. C for conc., FN for foundation, M for masonry, W for wood, etc.) Nemetschek does not seem to understand the need for these to appear in the keynote notes list.
As for the symbol - Katie has pointed out a good feature. We have been using rounded rectangles for our keynotes and no one has mistaken them for some other type of information (like demolition). Again the keynote system limitation is that our keynote symbols can have the prefixes, but the notes list cannot and that makes the system very awkward to use.
We like the auto numbering feature. It works well for us as we have a growing set of databases for keynotes and gives us dynamic renumbering when we lose a keynote because of a change in something the keynote referred to.
Another keynote limitation is that if you use them in a layer or in a viewport, you can only use one type of notes in that layer or viewport. So If you have a combined Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing Plan you have to be real careful to have separate layers for each sub contract so the all the electrical notes are in one list, all the HVAC in another, the plumbing in another, etc.
Our work around for the lack of prefixes in the notes list is to title the list with a keynote symbol example next to the title of the list. this clues the contractors as to which list the EL 20 note refers to. Awkward and often leads to a long explanations to the contractors as to which keynote goes to what.
-
OK - this is simply a power user using the software to the max, burning the midnight oil on a drop-dead-line and lo? he panics issue. David in Tech Support went through it with me and it turns out that since the sections are through a complex building with multiple roof planes, circular stairs in a round tower and mullioned windows with gothic tops, etc, etc. the computer has to crunch through a whole lot of stuff. So it requires patience. Even with a G% 2.5 Ghz, dual processor with 8GB RAM and 500MB 7200 RPM HD.
-
Vanzini,
Your correct - the method is silly but that is how you do it.
Or google up OZCad and buy their add on for doing windows.
Unless there is a better expert than I who knows about the Window wall.
-
Yes - in wall styles you can edit using the Wall styles in your document resources. In Resource Browser for your file find Wall Styles click triangle to show them - select a wall style in your document. In the menu above you see Resources click and hold for the drop down menu and pick Edit.
In the dialog pick the part of the wall you want to define a line thickness and style for. IF you pick 'Wall' then edit you can set the style for the outside lines of the wall. Pick one of the contained components and you can set dividing line weights (or no line at all) and set their line weights/style and what pattern, hatch or fill you want to set it off graphically.
To do the Windows - before you place any window in a drawing click on the windows PIO and use the menu bar settings box to bring up the window parameters dialog. Setting each parameter creates a Default window definition for all subsequent window entries. Notice that under the View tab you can check "use part line styles" and the drop down boxes to set each components line weight and in the lower part of the View dialog you can set the style class for each component. Doors has a similar feature set.
You can edit each Window/Door individually later too.
You can pretty well define a double hung window with red muntins, blue sash, tinted glass and purple trim! Or perhaps a more tasteful rendition.
The line weights show up in the various views, plan, elevations, 3D and give you a graphically defined set of components.
You can also get too carried away with setting this stuff and miss deadlines too! {;<)
General Hints:
For most parametric objects - use the settings box before you draw and that sets the defaults for all subsequent objects.
Lines and graphic "primitives" like rectangles, polygons, etc. - With no objects selected, use the attributes palette to set the fill/pattern/hatch, line weight and line style. Then each object drawn after that has that styling. Set type face/letter size/etc. similarly.
You can also set Class parameters to particular line weights/patterns etc. and check the box in the Class Edit dialog "Use At Creation". This will forever after in the file use those settings for that Class. Unless you change them. Then, assuming you have the "creation" box checked you get a dialog which allows you to globally change them all or not.
A Caveat: When drawing items in any class with the "Use At Creation" checked the Class setting overrides the Attribute Palette settings. So to use the Attribute Settings you need to be in a class which does not have the "Creation" box checked.
We typically keep the "None" Class as the base class without the "Creation" box checked an so can use the Attributes to set parameters o the fly as we create stuff. We switch to a defined Class to make use of the Creation feature where we want particular features, e.g. doors, casework, plumbing fixtures, etc. If we want to define several Attribute setups we create a new Class for that setup, give it a meaningful name, set the Class parameters and Check the "Use At Creation".
I hope this is clear to follow and not too much knowledge to overwhelm you.
B. Clyde Beck
-
I have emailed a file to tech support. It has a fairly complex house design and we have suddenly lost the ability to update the sections viewports.
This is critical because the client expects us to deliver final drawings this Tuesday! and we have a lot of information in the Section Viewport annotations.
Our current work around strategy is to copy our annotation out of the viewports onto a design layer, then redo the sections.
-
Ooops! I forgot to mention a caveat on my suggestion - the perspective or isometric section will not be Live, but static, requiring a regeneration of the section every time you implement a change.
-
I gather you want more flexibility in seeing into and presumably rendering perspective sections. Perhaps something like the look of classical section drawings. I don't know if the legacy tool for cutting 3D sections the old way still works in the latest VW versions. By using that former tool from the plug ins folder of a prior version to cut 3D sections in a perspective viewport could be a work around to get the view angle you want. Just a suggestion.
-
I generally use the draw a section of insulation, ungroup and drag the resulting polyline pints to fit the figure being filled. Tapering it to fit the roof slope at building edges and filling odd shapes in volume ceiling areas and roof intersections. One secret to efficient shaping is to pick the top of curve and squish that to the guide line. saves a bunch of time in point by point moving because it squishes the intermediate points at the same time.
-
Pao,
Typically door handles are not shown in plan projection for architectural drawing. The swing of the door shows the builder the hinge side and thus the door handle side.
What kind of application for such a feature do you have in mind?
-
Time for me to chime in. Mike Oz has hit the nail, Peter, Christiaan, et. al. are all on target.
For many of my designs, stud walls are the basic component the wall symbol in plan. Then these can have various combinations of siding, brick veneer, cement plaster, etc.
When I look in Section I would like to see the wall modeled so that the stud part automatically has sole and double top plates and insulation! With a sill under the window and a 4x12 header above the windows and doors! In the present now I have to use the cute cut wood tool to place these items and the insulation tool to show the insulation. In cases where the brick/stone veneer comes up to the window sill, I have to use electronic "white out" to show the differential. Else create half walls and stack them up. The latter leads to all kinds of situations where a window is to interrupt the brick veneered lower part of the wall and also be part of the upper part of the wall. Which wall gets the window? How do we get the elevations correct? Annotations are the only tool available to note the sheathing, siding, etc.
I also run into situations where I have partial basement walls of concrete or CMU and have a stud wall above it with a range of choices for exterior finish. currently I have a project where we are modeling the concrete wall to 4' height and then placing a stud wall above it. The stud wall gets the windows inserted in it.
In my commercial projects one of my more common exterior walls is a concrete tilt up wall. typically these get sculpted in some way. The simplest should end up modeled in section with chamfers at the openings and at the top and where each panel butts the next. We can chamfer the window with the window parameters. Sculpting the panels is harder and generally requires we do solid modeling of some kind. However the windows and doors do not "stick" in the openings unless we group them. making edits harder. And good luck creating a spreadsheet to figure concrete volume, surface area (paint) or do energy takeoffs on the wall areas!
Live sections when they are enlarged and cropped make detailing somewhat easier. But as Mr. Oz points out we have to add in all the detail like the hand drafting days.
Some uses of walls in landscapes would benefit if we could show them realistically. e.g. a brick retaining wall with soldier rows at the top. Or a brick wall with an angled top rowlock, or say a brick wall with an overhanging effect automatically in section instead of always doctoring them up.
Sections and detailing would benefit from the program automatically showing the slanted top watershed course of the brick veneer at material changes part way up the wall and automatically under the window sills.
Having done some computer programming I can imagine some of the nightmare this could be.
As Mike Oz points out - the more we have to annotate and innovate with work arounds out here, the more tedious and potentially disastrous changes become.
-
dfortin,
Still begs the question - why all the ill fitting names and having to "know" the secret place where you dig out the field names? Why the abbreviation?
Needs to be more straightforward to be really user friendly
-
MSClark,
The secret is in the sorting icons which appear at the top of the spreadsheet window when you select the database row. The sorts are ascending, descending and the third subtotals (counts) all the same entries.
Drag the ascending icon into the column you wnat to sort by in the database row and it will order the windows (doors) according to your system.
It is good that you know the other secret to proper ordering - to put a zero before the ordinal number so that the schedule will sort properly. e.g your example W-01, W-02 ... W-09, W-10 will sort properly. W-1, W-2, etc. will order as W-1, W-10,W-2, W-20 etc.
I hope this helps.
-
someonenamedlink,
In the spreadsheet menus there is a function under the formulas which collects the names of each wall style. e.g. "wallstylename"
If you set the database criteria to collect all the walls on say, a particular layer, and use the various math functions such as 'wallarea_net' to figure the 'wallstylename' areas of each wall.
Example: If I set the database criteria to Layer = mod-Floor plan 1 and Type = wall
Then in column 1 I placed the function =wallstylename and in column 2 I placed =wallarea_net . The result would be a list of wall styles in column 1 and a list of their net areas in column 2.
Does this help you out?
BCB Architect, USA
How to Handle New / Proposed vs. Existing?
in Architecture
Posted
Billtheia,
My office does a lot of remodels to existing buildings of all sorts, sizes & historicity.
We have a standard file - called a Stationery file in VW, for each project type. e.g. 1 story, 2 story, Tenant Improv., etc.
In the organization of these files we have set the standard to use the Mod-Floor-X layers that VW sets up as repositories for the existing building walls and features.
Similarly for existing plumbing, electrical when necessary, roof etc.
We us the "Create Standard Viewports" menu to add auxiliary plans and sheets to the project file, load our customizable "boilerplate", most commonly encountered details and resource library items. The do a File and pick the "Save as stationery" option into the standards folder. When we do a File>New for a project, we pick the from stationery choice and open the appropriate stationery (think template) file. This comes in initially as an "Untitled" which we change to the project file name at the first Save. The stationery file remains untouched and ready for reuse.
We can return to the "Create Standard Viewports" menu to add even more auxiliary plans, elevations etc. and sheets to the project file without affecting the template. The template is editable to add stuff to it should you choose. Just New> Stationery, load the file and when saving, save as either a version of the template file (keep both stationery files) or overwrite the original to maintain a consistent office standard.
For most projects all work resides in one file. I could spend a large amount of time coaching you through our procedures to overlay the new design, mark the demolition on the existing conditions, then cut to a demolition layer and change to demolition class, etc. etc. While designing the new we use classes to separate scheme A from Scheme B and to make components and symbols appear, become grayed out or disappear in various views, perspectives and sheet views.
Thus we can combine the existing together with demolition to create an as-built, show demolition on the demolition plan distinctly from the grayed out "existing to remain" and then show existing to remain (also subdued because of how we do wall styles) with the remodel or addition, in all flavors of scheme A, B, C, etc. as we have need to do so. Everything is drawn only once and the various options and layer class combinations are done by creating Views (sets of design layers) and Sheet Viewports with appropriate mix and match settings.
Workgroups do not figure in all of our work, but some projects seem to lend themselves to using workgroup file references. Typically these are serial projects for landlords where we are modifying tenant spaces as the tenants change, or we are doing work for industrial or R&D buildings where production lines or labs change and in all cases we need to maintain legacy records to the deep dark past.
By the way - Workgroup Referencing is similar to ACAD but has some simplifications and advantages. Associative dimensioning may not work with WGRs like you would hope. (I admit I haven't tried that.) But you can snap and overlay accurately over the ref. layers. It is also possible to meld all or some of the WGR file layers & classes into the working file, which then makes the workgroup layer an actual part of the file.
I hope this helps you some.