Foundations?

[No Repeats]

Outside of drawing a 3d block for both the stem and foot. Does anyone recommend a better solution?

[Don@Black Dog]

I use wall types for each of the stem and footings (I think it was an idea from one of the Peter's), on a Foundation Layer. Or set up a Foundation and a Footing layer, so the depths and wall thicknesses are set ahead of time. Make a wall type of your typical foundation walls and footing widths (make them in the Library file so they are available everywhere) and draw one, copy/paste-in-place to the other layer, and change the wall type. Or draw new, whatever you prefer.

To do them together would be a cool tool to have (NNA?) but this allows tailoring. You could extrude the "inverted-t" form, but why bother?

As a note, whenever I make up wall types for projects (I do a lot of renovations to old stuff) I eventually copy and paste them to the Library file to use later. Just remember to save it when we get herded into the new versions.

[mike m oz]

You can model footings (foundations) with walls, though I'd prefer a dedicated tool for the concrete footings that included the capacity to have steps in it where necessary.

Blackdogarch there is an option in VW 2008 to export resources to other files. It makes managing personal library files relatively easy.

[Damon Design]

I wonder if one could use the column tool -per Peter's Cipes clever use of the new width and length adjustment parameters for a wall with a cap (no column base)- and just have a wide column with a base but no capital for a foundation?

[Jeffrey W Ouellette]

Tad,

I would offer that using the wall tool is really the best way to handle foundations and footings. In the end they aren't any different than most above ground monolithic walls and can be reshaped and connected to database functions accordingly.

Typically, my own experience has been that footings are poured first and then stem walls/foundation walls second. They are connected by reinforcing and sometimes a keyway.

I say, model it as close to reality as you can...

[Don@Black Dog]

I agree with Jeffrey, in that using the wall tool allows connections at corneres and intersections. It would be handy to be able to step it without resorting to separate wall segments. How to do that keyway, though...

Thas for the tech tip, Mike. There's tons of stuff in 08 I haven't even looked at yet.

[mike m oz]

You can use the Fit walls to Roof command with other geometry to profile the top and bottom of the footing wall (see image below). I tend to use a temporary layer for this.

This method works relatively well, but it does become more difficult as the model becomes more complex. That is why I would prefer to have a dedicated tool for footings so that you can insert a step into the footing by inserting a point into its path. Then once the footings where completed to be able to select the walls and have them fit to the footings.

[brudgers]

In the real world, footings and stems are often a component of the wall.

In my opinion, it makes sense that the software should allow modeling of these as a component of a wall.

[islandmon]

The integral concepts of "Assembly" and "Force Path" readily come to mind.

Perhaps, it's time to transition from stacking of parametric objects to the creation of load-bearing Force-Component-Assemblies.

[mike m oz]

Brudgers, there are many different types of footings, and whilst the type you describe might be akin to walls, for many of us that is not a type we use (in 30+ years I've never used them).

Footings are identified as a separate structural element in the IFC schema. Four types are identified (footing beam, pad footing, pile cap and strip footing) with two further categories of user defined (for unique circumstances) and not defined. It seems to me that having a dedicated footing tool would simplify the IFC implementation and negate the possibility of error because a footing has been modelled with a wall.

With the type of construction you are referring to I would define it as consisting of a concrete footing and a wall with a concrete component. Yes the two concrete parts are contiguous, but that is no different to the relationship between a concrete slab and a concrete column in a concrete framed building. We all accept that these are different component parts of the concrete frame, and refer to them by separate names accordingly. The contiguous footing and stem wall can be considered in the same way.

[brudgers]

Mikemoz,

I said "often."

I said "the software should allow."

Handle the simple cases simply...like allowing a footing to be placed under a wall automatically...like allowing these footings to be relocated when the wall is relocated automatically.

There were many suggestions about handling footings floating around in the thread. I added mine.

Given the tendency to hard code options into vectorworks plug-ins, I would'nt be optimistic about a dedicated footing tool.

Just because you have never used a strip footing in 30 years doesn't make them uncommon. When I worked on hospitals and parking decks, I never used them either.

But that didn't change the fact that they were far and away the most common type of foundation througout the Southeast US.

[jmhanby]

Any updates for this topic for version 2022?  I have made a foundation layer that is set below the main layer and then added walls on this layer however that don't show up in my 3d view view port and I have the layer to show.  They show plan.

[zoomer]

For me that worked (at least in the past).

 

I had a Foundation Layer with "thick" Walls for "stripe ?" foundations,

a Sub Layer with standard cellar Walls and one or more standard Stories

above the Foundation with regular Wall Styles and Story+Level Settings.

[rDesign]

8 hours ago, jmhanby said:

Any updates for this topic for version 2022?  I have made a foundation layer that is set below the main layer and then added walls on this layer however that don't show up in my 3d view view port and I have the layer to show.  They show plan.

Maybe you created / used a Wall Type which is bound to Levels / Stories, and your file doesn't have any Levels / Stories? In case Stories are a new concept to you, there is a Coffee Break webinar coming up this week about Stories. 

 

Also, if you don't want to use Stories, HERE is a thread on how to set up a model without the need for Stories.

 

[Note that this is a really old thread you're posting on, so things have advanced a bit since 2008.]

Edited August 22, 2022 by rDesign

[TomKen]

I've mostly used two layers one for the strip footings and one for the stem walls.

I've also have done this where I create a CIP wall type with three components the two outside components are the footing extension beyond the wall with an offset from the top of the wall to create my footing height.
 

In the component settings you set the line weight of the left or right side of footing extension to be 0 so that in section the footing and stem wall appear as one object.

 

This method works well if you have a consistent wall height and footing size,  and the wall and footing now act as a single unit that moves and joins as one.

Strip footing.vwx

[Scott Schwartz, AIA]

8 hours ago, TomKen said:

I've mostly used two layers one for the strip footings and one for the stem walls.

I've also have done this where I create a CIP wall type with three components the two outside components are the footing extension beyond the wall with an offset from the top of the wall to create my footing height.
 

In the component settings you set the line weight of the left or right side of footing extension to be 0 so that in section the footing and stem wall appear as one object.

 

This method works well if you have a consistent wall height and footing size,  and the wall and footing now act as a single unit that moves and joins as one.

Strip footing.vwx 10.36 MB · 1 download

We leave them as a separate footing and stemwall (2 layers) visually intentionally, as 97/100 times they are poured separately in custom work. Board formed or exposed form ties lends itself to a 2 step pour for precision of the finished wall. 

[taoist]

On 8/23/2022 at 11:18 AM, TomKen said:

I've mostly used two layers one for the strip footings and one for the stem walls.

I've also have done this where I create a CIP wall type with three components the two outside components are the footing extension beyond the wall with an offset from the top of the wall to create my footing height.
 

In the component settings you set the line weight of the left or right side of footing extension to be 0 so that in section the footing and stem wall appear as one object.

 

This method works well if you have a consistent wall height and footing size,  and the wall and footing now act as a single unit that moves and joins as one.

Strip footing.vwx 10.36 MB · 12 downloads

While great for drawing purposes. (2) Things.  1st, If the walls are not a closed shape, you sill see the 4" footings.  Second, footing calcs will not report properly