Slab drainage tool - Unable to places drains where I want them

[Ed Wachter]

I have a very simple rectangular roof slab. I'd like to place four drains, one at each of the loci shown on this screen shot. I can only get the tool to insert a drain along the diagonal dashed lines that appears while using the tool, or at the edge of the slab. Moving a drain after placing it is difficult. Should this be easy? Is it possible to place drains anywhere I want? If the screen shot is hard to read, perhaps drag it onto your desktop to look at it.

 

Thanks,

Ed

Ed

 

Thanks,

Ed

[Jonathan Pickup]

I can place the drains where you want, but be very careful about snapping to the loci, maybe Vectorworks is snapping to the loci and therefore it can’t see the slab. 

 

[Ed Wachter]

Yes, that's what appears to be happening with the loci. I cannot use any guidelines or loci while placing drains. I just need just place them without having precise control of the location. Then, adjust locations afterwards.

 

Thanks @Jonathan Pickup 

 

Ed

[M5d]

A couple workarounds to prevent the drain tool from selecting the loci:

 

1. Place the loci or guides on the Layer above the Slab with both Layers on and Show/Snap Others selected. The Drain tool will snap to the loci without deselecting the slab when you place the drain.

 

 

 

2. Use Sent to Back to place the loci behind the slab on the same Layer. Activate the Drain tool and use the 'B' key for X-Ray Select Mode to snap the cursor at the loci's position, then release the 'B' key before placing the drain.  

 

[Ed Wachter]

@M5d Thanks. These seem like great solutions for me. 

 

Ed

[Jonathan Pickup]

here is a movie on slab drainage, scroll through to aboiut 15min. 

 

[Todd W]

Let's say I have a linear slot drain in a shower floor - is there a way to rotate the drain in the slab?

[Tom W.]

6 hours ago, Todd W said:

Let's say I have a linear slot drain in a shower floor - is there a way to rotate the drain in the slab?

 

I think only by rotating the geometry inside the symbol definition i.e. the Top, 3D + Wall Hole components separately.

 

But another option is not to insert the symbol via the Slab Drainage settings but to do it independently via the 'Add 3D Object to Slab...' command: this way you can rotate the symbol on insertion (+ edit the elevation) then add it to the Slab once you have it where you want it. Afterwards, right-click + 'Edit Modifiers' will grant you access to the symbol again should you need to make any adjustments to its position.

[Todd W]

Thanks Tom - this works very well!