MartinBlomberg Posted September 27, 2022 Share Posted September 27, 2022 Hi, I've been struggling with some features in VW that I just can't find out a way to solve. Can someone guide me how to... - Make a cut plane in Top/Plan so I can view, i.e, only the first floor in top/plan-view. I don't want to show holes in the wall for windows placed on floor 2 when I only want to show floor 1. - Make dashed lines for certain stuff that is above an object, for instance, the kitchen shelves above the sink should be dashed, but not the sink. - Change the color of the wall fills, am I stupid here? I want a single color fill, not all the components (I use the Low quality view, but want to change the color inside the walls) - In hidden line, why does some of my object, in this case chairs, show above another object, the table top, but not in Top/Plan? I've used stock stuff from VW library - How on earth to you make the roof and walls meet nicely when I have a gable roof? The walls won't snap to the roof, neither on the inside nor the outside wall. That's some of the things I'm fighting with now, hope you can help a non-educated architect-wannabe like me! 😃 Thanks all! Martin Quote Link to comment
Popular Post Jeff Prince Posted September 27, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted September 27, 2022 A lot of these questions can be best answered by seeing how you are organizing your Design Layers and Classes. Perhaps you can post a file that is giving you difficulty. People will dissect it and give better advice. If you haven’t seen it, there is a good architectural template that comes with Designer and Architect that will walk you thru how to set up a file. Also, a thread here on the forum called “no stories, no problem” is good. Further, there are many courses on Vectorworks University about creating buildings that can be helpful. The main idea here is to be organized with your design layers, classes, and stories (if you use them). To get you started… Quote - Make a cut plane in Top/Plan so I can view, i.e, only the first floor in top/plan-view. I don't want to show holes in the wall for windows placed on floor 2 when I only want to show floor 1. If your floors are on different design layers, you simply turn off the ones you don’t want to see in a viewport and set the view to Top/Plan. If you are wanting to cut a horizontal section, that's different. Quote - Make dashed lines for certain stuff that is above an object, for instance, the kitchen shelves above the sink should be dashed, but not the sink. This is a good job for Class overrides in the viewport. If you put your overhead cabinets on a different class than your lowers, this graphic task can easily be accomplished in the viewport settings by selecting the viewport, hitting the class button in the Object Info Panel, and changing the graphic characteristics of the Class. There are other ways to do the same thing with Data Visualizations, but that too benefits from good Classing for best results. Quote - Change the color of the wall fills, am I stupid here? I want a single color fill, not all the components (I use the Low quality view, but want to change the color inside the walls) This depends on how you define a wall style and what Class you place it on. I find it best to control the graphics of object using Classes. Put your walls on a Class (that would be known as a container class holding a complex object), set your fill for the class to meet your needs. Your components can have different Classes and graphic control, giving you the best of both worlds. Simple plan graphics and detailed sections for instance. Data Visualizations are also a means to achieve this, great class on the topic as it applies to architecture on Vectorworks Uni. Quote - In hidden line, why does some of my object, in this case chairs, show above another object, the table top, but not in Top/Plan? I've used stock stuff from VW library Presuming you are using hybrid 2D/3D furnishings, that shouldn’t happen unless you have placed them at the incorrect z elevation. Draw Order governs the display in Top/Plan, so it is possible to put a chair at the wrong z elevation and have it show above the table in a Top view while showing under the table in Top/Plan. Yeah, Top and Top/Plan are different. Quote - How on earth to you make the roof and walls meet nicely when I have a gable roof? The walls won't snap to the roof, neither on the inside nor the outside wall. You should post an image or file demonstrating and describing the problem. It sounds like you want to extend your walls to meet the roof, if that is the case, there is a tool for that… Fit Walls to Objects. Helpful to put your roof on one design layer and your walls on another to get the most of this feature. hope it helps, Jeff 5 Quote Link to comment
E|FA Posted September 27, 2022 Share Posted September 27, 2022 You might also want to try dissecting a sample project from VW University to see how they put the drawings (and model) together. I think this is the latest one that incorporates VW 2023 updates: https://university.vectorworks.net/mod/page/view.php?id=3150 3 Quote Link to comment
Tom W. Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 7 hours ago, MartinBlomberg said: - In hidden line, why does some of my object, in this case chairs, show above another object, the table top, but not in Top/Plan? I've used stock stuff from VW library See the 'Edit Component Location' settings for hybrid symbols: https://app-help.vectorworks.net/2022/eng/VW2022_Guide/Symbols/Relocating_2D_components_of_symbol_definitions_and_plug-in.htm?rhhlterm=2d components component&rhsearch=2d components 2 Quote Link to comment
MartinBlomberg Posted October 2, 2022 Author Share Posted October 2, 2022 (edited) Hi again! Thanks @jeff prince, @E|FA and @Tom W.for getting back to me, and sorry for a bit late reply. 1. Since the walls are inserted in windows it automatically connects to the wall layer, which in this case is Floor 1. So when I look on a Top/Plan view the windows show up even if I chose only to view floor 2 or floor 1. The solution might be to use only Top view, but then all 2D objects turn into rendered items instead of 2D objects. Is there a way to fix this or do I need to use only Top view? 2. The walls are their own wall style with different components. I managed (sometime in the past) to change the color to gray on outer walls, but on inner walls, I just can’t remember how I did it. 3. The Z elevation is fine and looks good in the rendering. But, when looking from above on Top-view, it’s messed up. But, I’ll have a look at the link that Tom W sent. 😃 4. The fit to object is what I used to make the walls fit the roof. But, it’s quite hard to explain in words, so please see the attached drawing. I’ve attached the drawing here, with flaws and all. Since I’m not sure how “real” drawings are made, since I’m self-taught, I’m looking for general improvements for more or less everything. Please let me know your thoughts if someone would have the time and effort to look at the drawing. Many thanks again! Martin (Also, the drawing is unfortunately in Swedish, please let me know if there's anything specific that need translation and I'll get to it) House2023.vwx Edited October 2, 2022 by MartinBlomberg 1 Quote Link to comment
Tom W. Posted October 2, 2022 Share Posted October 2, 2022 No file attached. 3 minutes ago, MartinBlomberg said: 2. The walls are their own wall style with different components. I managed (sometime in the past) to change the color to gray on outer walls, but on inner walls, I just can’t remember how I did it. In a Top/Plan viewport if you want to display Walls with a single fill colour you should 1) turn off all the individual component classes in class overrides + 2) set the desired fill colour using a class override on the container class for those walls. Alternatively, if you are setting the detail level to Low to turn off the components, all you then need to do is set the fill colour in the container class. You can also do something similar using Data Viz as Jeff says. 7 minutes ago, MartinBlomberg said: 1. Since the walls are inserted in windows it automatically connects to the wall layer, which in this case is Floor 1. So when I look on a Top/Plan view the windows show up even if I chose only to view floor 2 or floor 1. The solution might be to use only Top view, but then all 2D objects turn into rendered items instead of 2D objects. Is there a way to fix this or do I need to use only Top view? Without seeing the file a bit hard to understand exactly what you're saying here. You need each floor of the building to be on its own design layer (again as Jeff already said). You can do everything you need with Top/Plan, you just need to organise the model appropriately with layers + classes. 1 Quote Link to comment
MartinBlomberg Posted October 2, 2022 Author Share Posted October 2, 2022 Sorry, my file didn't upload correctly until now. It's in my reply earlier from now. Quote Link to comment
Tom W. Posted October 2, 2022 Share Posted October 2, 2022 The way I would do it would be to give your Walls a top offset of 2300 then place a second set of 300 high walls on top. The 2300 high walls would have the doors + windows in + the 300 high walls would just be walls. These upper walls would be on a new layer + would allow you to display a mezzanine plan without any doors + windows showing. The same goes for the gable ends: divide them into two sets of walls with the door + lower windows in the lower walls + the mezzanine windows in the upper walls. Then you can control what exactly you want to see in your Top/Plan VPs. Always think of layers in terms of what you want to see in plan. 2 hours ago, MartinBlomberg said: 4. The fit to object is what I used to make the walls fit the roof. But, it’s quite hard to explain in words, so please see the attached drawing. I'm not sure I can see what the issue is. Do you mean the walls at the eaves rather than at the gables? To get the walls at the eaves to meet the underside of the roof you need to bound the walls to the roof + tell the roof to clip the walls. Or you can get the walls to clip the roof: it depends on the detail you are trying to achieve. It's a bit fiddly but by editing the top offsets of the individual wall components + the edge condition of the individual roof components + telling one to clip the other you can generally achieve quite good results in section. Quote Link to comment
Tom W. Posted October 2, 2022 Share Posted October 2, 2022 This is in the OIP for the Roof: I should have said 'associate' the walls with the roof, not 'bound' them. And this is in the Roof Component Settings: 1 Quote Link to comment
MartinBlomberg Posted October 2, 2022 Author Share Posted October 2, 2022 2 hours ago, Tom W. said: The way I would do it would be to give your Walls a top offset of 2300 then place a second set of 300 high walls on top. The 2300 high walls would have the doors + windows in + the 300 high walls would just be walls. These upper walls would be on a new layer + would allow you to display a mezzanine plan without any doors + windows showing. The same goes for the gable ends: divide them into two sets of walls with the door + lower windows in the lower walls + the mezzanine windows in the upper walls. Then you can control what exactly you want to see in your Top/Plan VPs. Always think of layers in terms of what you want to see in plan. I think I got it! Much easier now to understand what's associated with what floor, thanks! So, a follow-up on that: now when I make two different layers with walls, how do I match the texture on both floors? Now it looks like this: 2 hours ago, Tom W. said: I'm not sure I can see what the issue is. Do you mean the walls at the eaves rather than at the gables? To get the walls at the eaves to meet the underside of the roof you need to bound the walls to the roof + tell the roof to clip the walls. Or you can get the walls to clip the roof: it depends on the detail you are trying to achieve. It's a bit fiddly but by editing the top offsets of the individual wall components + the edge condition of the individual roof components + telling one to clip the other you can generally achieve quite good results in section. This seems a bit tricky to say the least. I'll dig into this and see what I can find. Thank you! 1 Quote Link to comment
Tom W. Posted October 2, 2022 Share Posted October 2, 2022 10 minutes ago, MartinBlomberg said: how do I match the texture on both floors? There is the 'use world Z for origin' setting in the Render tab of the OIP for the Walls plus now in VW2023 the additional 'use world origin' setting (which I haven't used yet - I am holding off moving over to VW2023 until SP1 or 2 this time...!). Or if that fails you can use the 'offset H' setting. 13 minutes ago, MartinBlomberg said: This seems a bit tricky to say the least. I'll dig into this and see what I can find. Thank you! Just getting the roof to clip the walls at the correct angle is easy enough to do + often this is all you need to do. Getting 8 or 9 roof components to interact correctly with 11 or 12 wall components however can be a project in itself. It would be GREAT if you could do this interactively with a widget rather than having to work out the offsets + entering the values manually one by one. 1 Quote Link to comment
MartinBlomberg Posted October 4, 2022 Author Share Posted October 4, 2022 On 10/2/2022 at 2:52 PM, Tom W. said: There is the 'use world Z for origin' setting in the Render tab of the OIP for the Walls plus now in VW2023 the additional 'use world origin' setting (which I haven't used yet - I am holding off moving over to VW2023 until SP1 or 2 this time...!). Or if that fails you can use the 'offset H' setting. Nice one! the "Z"-command didn't do the trick, but "Use world origin" did. Not sure why, but now I'm good 😃 Many thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment
Tom W. Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 Ok cool! I think 'use world Z for origin' just aligns the textures vertically whereas the new 'world origin' option aligns them in all directions 1 Quote Link to comment
MartinBlomberg Posted October 4, 2022 Author Share Posted October 4, 2022 On the same note @Tom W., would you know by any chance how to do the same thing, but the other way around, when it comes to section cuts? My end-goal is to have a section with the most up-close objects in more bold lines and fills, and the ones behind the cut plane to be a specific line- and fill color. To create some kind of depth to the drawing but not have to fiddle around with the classes if I change the section cut. Cheers! Quote Link to comment
Tom W. Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 In the Advanced Section Properties dialog you have settings for how objects beyond the cut plane are displayed: Create a 'beyond cut plane class' with the attributes you want + save this in your template file for use in all projects. In my case I have it set to use a 25% grey pen. Is that what you mean? Quote Link to comment
MartinBlomberg Posted October 4, 2022 Author Share Posted October 4, 2022 48 minutes ago, Tom W. said: In the Advanced Section Properties dialog you have settings for how objects beyond the cut plane are displayed: Create a 'beyond cut plane class' with the attributes you want + save this in your template file for use in all projects. In my case I have it set to use a 25% grey pen. Is that what you mean? Wonderful!!! And, hopefully, last thing: how do I edit where the section depth? 😃 Many, many thanks! Quote Link to comment
Tom W. Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 7 minutes ago, MartinBlomberg said: how do I edit where the section depth? You mean the extents beyond the cut plane? Either in the 'Extents' tab of the Advanced Section Properties or interactively using the section elevation line (drag the dotted line to include the geometry you want to see) 1 Quote Link to comment
MartinBlomberg Posted October 18, 2022 Author Share Posted October 18, 2022 On 10/4/2022 at 7:33 PM, Tom W. said: You mean the extents beyond the cut plane? Either in the 'Extents' tab of the Advanced Section Properties or interactively using the section elevation line (drag the dotted line to include the geometry you want to see) Sorry for such late reply. I didn't see that I got a reply from you. Many thanks, I'll have a look into this! 1 Quote Link to comment
MartinBlomberg Posted October 22, 2022 Author Share Posted October 22, 2022 On 10/4/2022 at 7:33 PM, Tom W. said: You mean the extents beyond the cut plane? Either in the 'Extents' tab of the Advanced Section Properties or interactively using the section elevation line (drag the dotted line to include the geometry you want to see) I'm trying like a crazy-one but just can't find the interactive dotted line you're mentioning. Here's what I can edit (as you see, not much more then the actual position of the section cut) Quote Link to comment
Tom W. Posted October 22, 2022 Share Posted October 22, 2022 Do you have the extents beyond the cut plane enabled for the section VP? Quote Link to comment
MartinBlomberg Posted October 22, 2022 Author Share Posted October 22, 2022 3 minutes ago, Tom W. said: Do you have the extents beyond the cut plane enabled for the section VP? Yes! Quote Link to comment
Tom W. Posted October 22, 2022 Share Posted October 22, 2022 In the advanced VP properties set the depth to finite: 1 Quote Link to comment
MartinBlomberg Posted October 22, 2022 Author Share Posted October 22, 2022 3 minutes ago, Tom W. said: In the advanced VP properties set the depth to finite: I see. I thought there was a way to visually draw a line to where I want the depth to "end". 1 Quote Link to comment
Tom W. Posted October 22, 2022 Share Posted October 22, 2022 Just now, MartinBlomberg said: I see. I thought there was a way to visually draw a line to where I want the depth to "end". With finite depth enabled you get a dotted line which you can then drag to wherever you want it + the value in the 'Finite Depth' field will update accordingly. So pretty much the same as drawing your own line I'd say...? 1 Quote Link to comment
MartinBlomberg Posted October 22, 2022 Author Share Posted October 22, 2022 4 minutes ago, Tom W. said: With finite depth enabled you get a dotted line which you can then drag to wherever you want it + the value in the 'Finite Depth' field will update accordingly. So pretty much the same as drawing your own line I'd say...? AH! Now I see! I didn't realise it appeared when I activated this setting. You're the best! Thank you!! 1 Quote Link to comment
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