Worksheets in 2011

[CARMELHILL]

Have worksheets in 2011 been refined at all and made easier? It seems that worksheets, material takeoffs, and budgets always seem to get NO attention in VW. I know 3D rendering sells, adn that's where they put all their programming attention, but the worksheets are WAY too complicated and way too buggy.

[islandmon]

Worksheets are just a GUI into the program's database.

The User's challenge is understanding, accessing, and manipulating specific instances within the database structure using fields & functions.

As VW improves, so too the underlying functionality of the database.

There will always be 'hidden' potentiality which is usually interpreted as unnecessary complexity.

[Peter Eichel]

I asked in an earlier topic who uses VW's worksheets to do detailed quantity takeoffs. Since then I have immersed myself in the study and use of worksheets. I've discovered that it's best to first have a layout planned. How many columns and rows do you need and what information will be in them? Next, organize the worksheets in relation to the project. How many worksheets will you need? Will it be a single worksheet covering everything per building level or material category's for the entire building? Next, learn to use the design tools in the worksheet, they really speed things up when creating a custom worksheet or editing an existing one. Also, it's very helpful to have a list of materials and their specs that you will be adding to the worksheet. It's a real aid in choosing and creating the correct function/equation.

I'm about halfway along in my worksheet creations for residential construction. It hasn't been easy but it was time well spent and my clients are looking forward to their completion as much as I am. I'll be running a few tests to confirm they update properly, but so far, no problems.

[JohnS]

Will be curious to see what you come up with. We are a D&B firm and we really want to take advantage of the database for takeoffs, but are daunted by the potential complexities of this.

[Peter Eichel]

jsibert1: I read you post on VW's wall framer. I recommend you don't use the Wall Framer Tool. It is quirky and if you make any changes to your floor plan you have to re-run it as it does not update automatically (the database rows are eliminated).

The good news: VW's worksheets are very flexible and can calculate any material quantities you need as long as you know how to create them and adhere to an office standard regarding layers and classes.

If you wish, I can e-mail you a foundation take-off file which will give you a good idea of what VW's worksheets are capable of, you'll be impressed.

[JohnS]

Peter,

Thanks for the info. Yes I'd love to see an example, as I am a rookie with worksheets, and am a bit intimidated by the uphill learning curve I'll have to go through during all my "free" time.

Again thanks.

[Jeffrey W Ouellette]

John,

Take a look at this thread:

http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=23837&Number=111911#Post111911

Another user had questions about database worksheets and we worked through an example. Also, the BIM in Practice projects have a number of different kinds of worksheets in them for you to review and use.

[Peter Eichel]

Attached is a file of a simple foundation plan with a worksheet. There are three database rows, one for the foundation wall, one for the footing and one for the basement floor slab. The top of the worksheet in the red box is the data area, the remainder of the worksheet in the black box has items that derive their information from the data area (red box). There are many ways to set up a worksheet, the above is simply my design.

Try selecting a wall and dragging it, the worksheet will update the numbers automatically(after a re-calc). I suggest you study the formulas and text in the cells and their format, for example: General/Decimal/Dimension/Dimension Area/Dimension Volume and so on, it's important. Finally, you have to set the units in your drawing to match what you need in your worksheet and follow an office standard regarding layers and classes. Have fun!

[JohnS]

Jeff,

Thanks for the heads up on that thread, it was very good intro. I think the worksheets are fairly flexible. Hopefully I can set up some standard worksheets. As BIM develops, translating this information into material quantities is going to become more and more important and valuable. Obviously there will always have to be the caveats about preciseness, but with iteration of the software hopefully this gap will close.

Peter,

Thanks for the sample drawings, that was great to see how much you can develop the worksheets.

Here are the takeoff's I'd like to setup up for my company.

1. Masonry (CMU & Brick)

2. Lumber (floors, walls, and Roofs) & bolts (People recommended not using framer, but seems to be ok to me. Will study further).

3. Sheathing (this and the following items will need to do quantities from component pieces within wall styles - is this possible)

4. Siding

5. Roofing

It would be nice if there was a central repository of worksheets that people could contribute to and pull from. Is there such a place?

[Pat Stanford]

Not much there yet, but you can use the Resource Share - Worksheets forum.

http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=32&page=1