VW 2008 2-way worksheets

[wezelboy]

To anyone who has gotten their hands on it...

How well does the new 2-way worksheet feature work?

Does it work well with customized worksheets and schedules where multiple record formats are referenced in a single row?

[Guest]

The two-way worksheets works on a cell by cell basis. You change the configuration or value of the selected cell or cells within a column. If the cell/column is a PIO setting, the various configuration options are available in a drop down box. .In the cell/column is a static value, say 3' for a 3' wide door, the change is made in the data bar of the worksheet on the select cell(s).

You are actually changing a field value for some record attached to a specific object(s)

It's important to keep in mind two-way worksheets work bi-directionally and work only with database worksheets. Spreadsheet worksheets are not linked to objects in the drawing, therefore changing cell information in spreadsheets is a change only stored in the spreadsheet.

[Heather S]

Can you add custom columns on the data based worksheet? or can you subtract existing columns?

[Guest]

This hasn't changed - you can add and remove columns to spreadsheet and database worksheets

[Heather S]

How?

[Robert Anderson]

Go tothe topic "Worksheet commands" in your online help. All is revealed.

[Heather S]

How do you edit room finish locations in the project preference set?

[Robert Anderson]

How do you edit room finish locations in the project preference set?

Draw a Space object.

Check the "On Schedule" checkbox.

Click the "Assign Room Finishes..." button

In the "Assign Room Finishes" dialog that appears, click the "Edit Finishes" button at the bottom.

Edit your room finishes in this dialog. Add, delete, or change as necessary.

[Heather S]

Ok, how do I edit the finish locations? I mean the default categories such as "wall, floor, ceiliing, etc"

[Robert Anderson]

I think these are fixed. I mean they're resource strings, so with some effort, you could change them, but what would you change them to?

[Heather S]

I would like to use a different format for the Finish schedule such as adding and deleting the catagories. Another example would be the use of north, south, east, west in wall locations doesn't always apply. For example, if I have a triangular room or if my building is not oriented n/s/e/w/.

How do I access the resourse strings to manipulate this to fit my needs?

[Petri]

Not to mention those common situations where some (or all) of the 20 or so walls of a space have several finishes...

The issue has, of course, been addressed in the Finnish Product Modeling System. Not sure of any CAD-implementations, but the clever buggers have indeed developed a database structure which pretty much does what my Schedule of Finishes has done for many years.

[wezelboy]

Ok, how do I edit the finish locations? I mean the default categories such as "wall, floor, ceiliing, etc"

When the default PIO Parameters aren't doing it for us, I create a record with the additional fields, name it "(PIO Name)Extended", and add relevant columns to the schedule.

[Robert Anderson]

hmv, if you have a triangular room, use only three sides. The NSEW conventions (at least in the US) are "plan" north, south, etc., meaning 'plan north' is 'top of page'. The simplest way to solve your issue is to simply change the labels in the Room Finish Schedule worksheet on a per-project basis.

[Petri]

Should I? Shouldn't I? OK, I shall.

In my world, spaces only rarely have four walls with finishes that are applied to entire walls. Take a 19th century building and renovate it: half of the rooms have 6 to 8 walls. Each wall may have more than one finish both vertically (eg. - in my previous life - a dado panelling) or horizontally (eg. we have marble tiling only to this point).

I'm nowhere near an ideal, idiot-proof solution and in the wonderful world of VectorWorks, eediots must be catered for. Anyway, I use a FileMaker Pro database with tables populated with Worksheet Exports. At present, wall finishes are defined as rectangles and polygons as Annotation of Viewports. A data record is attached to them, so that I can enter the space number and wall reference*, be the latter North or Northwest.

The said export produces a set of (technically) good quantity data that I can use to generate Room Finishes Sheets.

Far from ideal, indeed. Nevertheless, even in my wet dreams I can't really conceive a better concept.

Wall references? Yes, it would be lovely to be able to have a (sequential) numbering of walls when one uses the Space Object. However, even a tiny design change - addin just one corner - would throw all existing data out of whack - unless each segment of the Space boundary would be an object with a persistent ID (GUID in fact.)

Well. As the Resident Inane Idiot I hereby donate this concept to the good people at NNA. Maybe, just maybe, someone in the fair Commonwealth of Maryland can follow the logic, despite the fact that few, if any, of their customers (especially in that state of the U.S.A. which did not get the first pick between toxic dumps and lawyers) do. I'd love to implement it myself, but the Gatekeepers and Keymasters do not provide Enabling Technology.

EDIT

Dear me. Microsoft was just fined by a milliard (a billion to mathematically challenged Americans) Euros by the EU court, for not providing sufficient details of their technology to 3rd party developers.

Edited September 20, 2007 by Petri

[Dieter @ DWorks]

I never use space because they are too limited. We built lots of houses with rooms under the roof. So they are not a box in volume. Thus the space object is useless.

I think NNA should try to do something about this

[Petri]

The Space is indeed useful mainly, if not only, in non-residential projects.

However, "rooms under a roof" is not they key factor: I can have 200 spaces within the "envelope" of one floor, 20 to 50 external walls and one ceiling. As long as all spaces have no more than four walls, the NNA Space Object can, by stretching one's imagination, be useful. Unfortunately, I don't have that luxury.

---

I've not built residences without walls going to the ceiling/roof, except one for ourselves. Somehow, most ordinary people do not like the idea of rooms with no acoustic separation.

[Heather S]

Thanks for all the great info.