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new to vw from autocad


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Hello,

I am new to VW 12.5. I am trying use the BIM approach to a project and I am having tons of question.

For example:

*Can you draw/design in a 3D view?

*The Dims in the 3D view are different - even using the ruler. How do you measure stuff in a 3D view

*I have a 12' wall that I must put an arch into. How do I draw the arch that I want to cut through the wall? Do you use the "protrusion/cutout tool?

*Can more than one person work on the same model at the same time?

*and on and on and on and on and on

Thanks for any enlightenment!

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In VectorWorks, the basic approach to architectural drafting is that you draw in 2D, and sometimes you do a little editing in 3D. Nine times out of ten, if you're drawing in 3D, there's some feature that you don't know about that could have accomplished what you're trying to do with simple 2D drafting.

VectorWorks doesn't really do 3D dimensioning per se. If you just want to check a dimension in 3D, you can rotate the current view until the thing that you want to measure is parallel to the screen, and then use the Tape Measure tool to measure it, or use the Linear Dimension tool to pull a dimension. All of this is working in the screen plane (the "DCS" in AutoCAD), and any dimensions that you create will remain in the screen plane, no matter what you do.

To insert an archway into a wall, place a Door object into the wall, make the configuration "Cased Opening", and then select the type of arch you want (Round, Arc Segment, Ellipse, or Gothic) from the Top Shape pop-up.

Only one person can be working on any given document, but multiple documents can all be brought together into a master document using "workgroup referencing". This is like x-ref'ing in AutoCAD.

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Maybe the above needs a bit of clarification: "drawing in 2D" means that you work in a 2D plan and the 3D-stuff "just happens". Now, "9 out of 10" depends on what kind of buildings you design: I do a lot of 3D editing and create objects in 3D-views.

2D-only objects do not "live" in 3D-space at all. This includes among other things dimensions and text.

The location of any snappable 3D-point can be easily checked with the cursor.

As comes to the BIM-approach, VW has a quite decent database and reporting system. This, combined with the extremely useful "dual classification" (layers and classes) and the quite large lexicon of objects, makes VW a pretty good BIM-program.

Just do not try to use VW in the same way you've used AutoCAD!

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