Benefits to Dimensions in Viewport?

[KWiley]

Could some of you long time users tell me what the benefit of dimensioning in the annotations on the viewport is compared to say having a Dims/Notes Layer? 

[Jeff Prince]

I think it's personal preference, either approach gets the job done.

 

My personal preference is to keep annotations in the annotation space and keep my model free of such clutter.

I think it helps you create cleaner and more beautiful drawings when you have to pay attention to how things are sheeted.  I also think it prevents a lot of errors like things being cut off or omitted when you are in a hurry.  It's also faster to send a model update to a collaborator when you don't have to worry about turning off the annotations and tag design layers.

 

But really, it's personal preference.

Back in my AutoCAD days, I placed annotations in model space because there wasn't as good of a way to do it in Paperspace compared to the Vectorworks method.

 

Some people don't even use sheet layers...

I think that's crazy for AEC work, but that's my personal preference again 🙂

[KWiley]

Yea that makes sense to me, we're in the process of switching over from CAD so we're still somewhat Layer minded. I wasn't sure if there was a specific reason VW says to do the dimensioning in the annotations. 

[E|FA]

I transitioned from a Design Layer (2D) only workflow to a 3D, SLVP annotations workflow, and am happy with the change.  Once I realized that Design Layers are only for building the model and Sheet Layers are for presenting the information it was pretty easy to keep things straight. 

 

For 2D details, I'm not sure it's as helpful, but I still think it's an improvement on my previous workflow. 

[Jeff Prince]

32 minutes ago, E|FA said:

For 2D details, I'm not sure it's as helpful, but I still think it's an improvement on my previous workflow.

 

Agreed.  I do my 2D illustrated details and their annotations on dedicated design layers.

Almost all details linked to my model use annotations in the annotation space.

[shorter]

There are different types of annotation and therefore are placed in different places in the file.

 

There is no point having dimensions that are associated to and update with walls, for example, in the viewport annotation just as there is no point drawing in the viewport annotation.

 

Similarly, a note saying 'Line of Roof over' is not something you want on every drawing, so should remain in viewport annotation space.

 

However, grids and their dimensions are generally repeated across multiple drawings so should be placed in modelspace.  Ditto door numbers, room names, etc, and any other 'working' annotation as I call them.

 

So it depends on the annotation.

 

The downside of annotation in the design layer is knowing where it's going to end up on the sheet, particularly if you reuse the design layer in multiple drawings either within a single file or a more sophisticated referenced array, and of course how it scales.  Classes help.

Edited June 3, 2023 by shorter

[E|FA]

@KWiley As you can see, one of the disadvantages (and benefits) of VW is that there are many ways to accomplish your goals, so you're sure to get conflicting advice in the forum.