Multiple floor plans

[MaltbyDesign]

Greetings All,

I'm slowly transitioning from Autocad to Vectorworks 2010. I've gone through Mr. Pickup's 'Vectorworks Essential Tutorial Manual" and believe I have a decent understanding of the basics, but am a little unsure of a few things. What I'm really struggling with is how do I go about setting up a drawing that will have more than a single story. The exercise in Mr. Pickup's book shows a single story house. Now I could use some help in determining how I set things up for a two story house with basement. Is there a recommended standard for setting up the layers and classes? To have the work translate to a 3D drawing, how do I handle the wall heights? Any help would be terrific and greatly appreciated. Are there sample drawings that are floating around showing a simple, multi-floor building to learn the layer and class management from? Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Cam

[mike m oz]

Download the Modern Home Prototype and Alexandria Laundry Lofts projects and look at how they are structured: http://www.nemetschek.net/bim/projects.php

Architect also has a Model Setup routine. Menu: File/Documenting Settings/Model Setup...

If you use one of the Standard Naming protocols you can then use Document Setup... and Create Standard Viewports... to get most of the setup requirements.

[MaltbyDesign]

Mike, thank you! That's just the information I needed. I'll stumble around with those settings and explore the drawings you linked to. That should get me well on my way. Thanks again, I do appreciate the help.

Cam

[Don@Black Dog]

Cameron, getting this was the coolest thing whenstarting to use vectorworks, since you could have a rudimentary model immediately.

I typically (works for me) set the main floor to 0' and the other floor layers from that (basement is -9', Z+ 8', for example)

so, for example:

Mod-Floor 1 Z = 0', Z+ 8'0" (Height of ceiling)

Mod-Slab 2 = Z = 8' Z+ + 8'10" (thickness of floor)

Mod-Floor 2 Z = 8'10" z+ 8'0"

Mod-Slab 3 (attic) Z = 16'10" Z+ 6"

Roof Z = 17'4"

Floor alternate floor plans, duplicate a layer after you have drawn one out, and modify it as needed.

There are tons of variations depending on complexity, but this has worked well for me.

Don

[cbd]

I have found being accurate with the heights is very imporant to the final construction drawings. If you are using standard stud walls in Canada they will equal 9'1 1/8" and then the floor slabs will be the total of the I-Joist and subfloor. Once you have set the entire 2 storey Model Set-up and Viewports it is easy to save this as a template and then it is all done for you the next time. As Don said, you let the top of the Main floor be 0 and all of the rest are based above or below that.

Jon's Architect Manual expands on the basic drawing and is an excellent 2nd step to your learning curve.