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Viewports on Design Layers


dcont

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In VW2008 Viewports are now able to be placed in design layers. I'm starting to realize that this could be quite useful for drawing 2D elevations and interior elevations without making copies of my original plans all over the place. Instead I would have copies of a viewport that is rotated for the elevation and always updated.

Just wondering how everyone else might be using this feature.

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That is one thing you can do. Using the crop feature it can also facilitate the drawing of 2D sections as well.

Other uses for Design Layer Viewports are:

- Backgrounds for Reflected Ceiling Plans, structural drawing overlays and services drawings (They can be brought in grayed).

- Part plans for larger scale drawings of areas like kitchens, bathrooms etc., as they can be cropped.

- Part plans for details and the like (using the crop feature).

- To reference in external information from other files eg. a survey plan.

Layer Links can do some of this too but Design Layer Viewports have the advantage of being manageable - ie. you can control what Layers and Classes are visible in them. You can also choose whether to:

- Show the Wall Components.

- Whether you want them as Black and White only.

- Whether to adjust any flipped text or not (irrespective of the global VectorWorks Preference setting for this.

For me Design Layer Viewports and the improved referencing are the big plusses in VW 2008 because of the way they improve workflows. They make life a hell of a lot easier.

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Mike, do you think that this is mainly for folks who still do their printable output on Design Layers instead of Sheet Layers?

I use Sheet Layers now for all output. The only use I think I have for Viewports on a design layer would be when I want to have more than one version of a detail on my Sheet Layer in a case where the detail is composed of 2d objects drawn over a Viewport.

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Sorry to disgree, I'd say primariy No.

Design Layer view ports are much more powerful when used in regards to BIM rule that has been floating arround here. "model it once"

If you have a building with highly repeative elements that are to be the subject of ahigher scale drawing then you can draw them at the higher scale then use a viewport in the same way you would have used a symbol to place a version of that information in to the general model. these Veiw port can be duplicated any number of times.

Best of all they stay current without you having to remember to update the symbol. Yet you get to control how much is seen at the location, keeping your main model focused on the big picture, yet it has a low overhead for computer power.

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For a highly repetitive element, I would go with a symbol but I can see that being an issue if the symbol lives a referenced file and is not updated. We should probably have a way to update symbols if they have been modified in a referenced file.

I think the intention here was to give people the option of printing from where ever they want, design layer or sheet layer. Although I think all presentable printing should be composed in sheet layers, in a pinch I do print from the design layers just to see what I'm drawing or to doodle on it.

For me, having VPs on a design layer makes for a useful tool to draw other drawings such as interior elevations at the same scale. You can not change the scale of multiple viewports that live on the same design layer so that would defeat the purpose. I would not use them to present other drawings.

Edited by dcont
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