Brick Banding and Window Head and Sill Detail

[Tom W.]

5 minutes ago, line-weight said:

@Michael Siggers it's worth being aware that the window tool is one of the absolute worst bits of Vectorworks. As you'll already have gathered, sills in particular are a complete disaster and basically don't work, for most scenarios.

 

The rest of the window tool will get you close-ish to something like what you want, but only really suitable for small scale representations. It's no good at all for anything like a construction detail; the way it puts windows together has little to do with how windows are actually made. Plus, many of the settings are unintuitive and it doesn't help (for us in the UK at least) that it uses north american terminology for most of the parts.

 

I usually use the VW windows only at early stages of a project. Once I am doing construction details I very often end up building the windows from scratch myself, because leaving the VW ones on large scale construction drawings is just embarrassing.

 

We are hoping that some day soon, the window (and door) tool will be completely overhauled. In the meantime, the "windoor" tool is provided as a kind of stopgap alternative, but it has its own, different limitations.

 

NB that you can create window-less window openings with the window tool - then insert your own custom drawn windows into these.

 

There is a lot to be said for this:

 

3 hours ago, Christiaan said:

The plugin object will save you a lot of work over time.

 

@Michael Siggersdon't underestimate how useful the built-in functionality of the Door/Window tools is. If you absolutely can't achieve anything resembling what you want then fine, create a custom window, but understand the disadvantages that come with the advantages... And this is from someone who loves detail/precision!

 

[line-weight]

1 hour ago, Christiaan said:

Okay, so the issue with window glazing not showing can be resolved this way:

1. Select window and go to Settings > General > Custom Configuration Options...

2. Cycle through to select the relevant sash, reduce height to say 500 so that you can see both panels again

3. Now cycle through again to highlight the upper half and then set that to 950 instead

 

It's something weird to do with the way VW is choosing to get the data it needs for the 2D representation.

It's probably something linked to the fact that there has to be a kind of "ghost sash" above or below the visible one which is a consequence of the tool wanting to pretend that casements are always set in a grid with the same number in each "column". But of course, at least in the Uk it's very common to have the kind of window arrangement that @Michael Siggers has shown. So every time you set up a window like that it relies on "tricking" the tool and this causes all sorts of glitches in my experience. And you have to go in and fiddle with everything each time you change the overall height of the window.

 

And... in the UK a "casement" is not a subcategory of "sash", they are two different types of opening light.

[line-weight]

5 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

 

@Michael Siggersdon't underestimate how useful the built-in functionality of the Door/Window tools is. If you absolutely can't achieve anything resembling what you want then fine, create a custom window, but understand the disadvantages that come with the advantages... And this is from someone who loves detail/precision!

 

 

yes this is fair. It really comes down to the project.

 

If it's a project with a lot of windows, many of which are the same or variations on a basic style, then it can certainly make sense to stick with the VW ones, and have some universal details (perhaps drawn in 2d) to show connection details and so on.

 

On the other hand if it's a smaller project with not many repeating windows, and some installed in not completely standard ways, then it may be worth modelling directly.

[Michael Siggers]

One final question for today......... I promise 😉

 

If I create my own Windows as Symobols, which should be ok to do, (in theory) as I have an extensive library already created in Sketchup Pro, these can be inserted into walls in the same way, with the wall creating the internal wrapping etc?

 

It reminds me of the days when I first learnt AutoCAD, before time began. It was quite un-intuitive, but as time went by, it became easier and you realised how powerful it was.

 

Mike

[Tom W.]

2 minutes ago, Michael Siggers said:

 

If I create my own Windows as Symobols, which should be ok to do, (in theory) as I have an extensive library already created in Sketchup Pro, these can be inserted into walls in the same way, with the wall creating the internal wrapping etc?

 

Yes absolutely 

[Tom W.]

See this video:

 

https://university.vectorworks.net/course/index.php?mycourses=0&tagfilter[category]=content+category-3-buildings&tagfilter[type]=0&tagfilter[difficulty]=0&mycourses=0&search=Coffee+break&langfilter[]=0#coursestab

 

[Michael Siggers]

Just now, Tom W. said:

See this video:

 

https://university.vectorworks.net/course/index.php?mycourses=0&tagfilter[category]=content+category-3-buildings&tagfilter[type]=0&tagfilter[difficulty]=0&mycourses=0&search=Coffee+break&langfilter[]=0#coursestab

 

Yes, thankyou for this. I have been using that quite extensively and found it very helpful, but not got round to the creating Symbols detailed instructions.

 

Mike

[Tom W.]

Also this one:

 

https://www.andybroomell.com/custom-doors-windows-vwx

[Michael Siggers]

On 2/27/2023 at 8:23 PM, Tom W. said:

This is exactly how I do it. Albeit using NURBS Surfaces rather than Extrudes:

Hi Tom

 

Apologies for going back to this thread, but now that I'm progressing quite well with Vectorworks having completed a few projects, (still loads to learn but perseverance is paying off), I just wanted to pick your brains on this a bit more.

 

Are the brick corners drawn as 3D polygons and then converted to Nurbs, then assigned a Class with the required Texture?

 

I do have an upcoming project where I will need this.

 

Mike

[Tom W.]

4 hours ago, Michael Siggers said:

 

Are the brick corners drawn as 3D polygons and then converted to Nurbs, then assigned a Class with the required Texture?

 

No. In the earlier screenshot the Walls are brick then the flint panels are NURBS surfaces superimposed on top. Yes I drew them as 2D polygons on the surface of the Wall then converted to NURBS + nudged them away from the Wall. And yes they are all in a 'flint panels' class.

[line-weight]

6 hours ago, Tom W. said:

 

No. In the earlier screenshot the Walls are brick then the flint panels are NURBS surfaces superimposed on top. Yes I drew them as 2D polygons on the surface of the Wall then converted to NURBS + nudged them away from the Wall. And yes they are all in a 'flint panels' class.

Why nurbs rather than simple extrudes?

[shorter]

6 minutes ago, line-weight said:

Why nurbs rather than simple extrudes?

 

probably because of their irregular flintyness?

[Tom W.]

9 minutes ago, line-weight said:

Why nurbs rather than simple extrudes?

 

No particular reason. Probably just because to convert to NURBS surface is two quick keyboard shortcuts? Plus it is less visible in plan. But having said that I've since realised both NURBS surfaces + Extrudes you can set the line thickness to none + they are completely invisible in plan anyway...