Window Boards (Window Stools)

[Chris D]

Not sure how we missed this one in the UK localisation of the window terminology, but window stools should be called window boards in the UK version. I had to google what a 'window stool' was supposed to be...

Can anyone get window boards/stools to work correctly for modern windows with deep window boards? I've no idea why they are lumped in with sills...you don't seem to be able to add a window board without adding a sill. The little diagram in the dialog box looks like the window sill of some nineteenth century colonial cabin and when I set a modern 250mm deep window board, with a short external cill, the sill and board sit in the wrong place relative to the window itself. Any ideas?

[Chris D]

The Vectorworks window sill needs updating thoroughly.

This sill arrangement is unrecognisable in the UK:

Here is a typical modern window sill arrangement (uPVC window):

And the optional stone/brick sill below a window is called a sub-sill:

VW needs to handle window sills and sub sills independently because a sill is part of the window assembly and needs to be included within the frame size and within the structural opening (rough opening), but a sub sill is part of the masonry and is not part of the opening.

Window boards also needs to be handled separately.

Edited April 13, 2012 by Chris D

[Chris D]

And while I'm on a rant...the world went metric in the last century or the one before that!

Just because you americans stick to your quaint olde imperial hands and feet and thumb-inches measurements (alone with Burma and Liberia), we don't want them!

Every little default in the PIOs is some random factor of 25.4mm from your stupid thumb-inches! Gaahhh!

Go metric! It's the 21st Century!

[taoist]

Chris D,

Just tried it on a 2x4 wall with brick veneer.

I set the stool (board) depth to 12" and it shows fine.

Also adjusted the sill depth and height.

Enjoy your rant!

fwiw

[taoist]

Chris D,

BTW,

Here is the states, new double hung windows typically have (1) sill which is essentially your sub sill.

Replacement windows leave the jambs and sub sill intact, although we can order them with new sub sills also.

This applies to casement windows as well.

[Christiaan]

Go metric! It's the 21st Century!

I expect the U.S. congress will apologise to the Japanese people for the fire?bomb?ing and nuclear bombing of hundreds of thousands of civilians before they change to the metric system.

[taoist]

Chris D,

Sorry about the multiple posts.

Here is an Andersen window double hung section detail from their website.

[Chris D]

Here is an Andersen window double hung section detail from their website.

Looks like a detail the Amish would recognise.

[Chris D]

I expect the U.S. congress before they change to the metric system.

Apparently even Burma has seen the light...

[font:Courier New]"...reports from Burma suggest that that country is planning to adopt the metric syst[/font]em"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication

[taoist]

Chris D,

You have a great sense of Humor!

Andersen DH windows are typical of how they are built in the states. That does not include vinyl / aluminum windows.

I understand your pain.

Here is a section of Andersen Casement windows

[Chris D]

Here is a section of Andersen Casement windows

Hey be careful...there's some modern measurements on there in brackets...the Amish wouldn't like those.

Don't you think 73mm is easier than 2 and 7/8" ?

How do you cope with decimal inches mixed with fractional inches??? Whats 5/8" + 6.3" ?? How do you cope with it at all? It's so much easier to add 16mm to 160mm to get 176mm. You guys must make mistakes all the time....no wonder you still build like the Amish.

[taoist]

We do not mix decimals and fractions, Our tape measures are in feet, inches, fractions.

It is a question of what one is used to.

Edited April 13, 2012 by taoist

[Christiaan]

Don't pick on the Amish. They're better builders than most and they invented barn raising, which works a lot better than our mortgage system.

[Chris D]

Don't pick on the Amish.

I wasn't really picking on them - their craftsmanship is excellent. But they don't need BIM software and we do, and we don't design barns for a living.

[Chris D]

Thumb inches! How quaint.

[taoist]

Maybe quaint but it works!

Some of us do design barns & post and beam for a living.

Hope you get your stool (stoolcap / board) issue resolved.

Enjoyed the discussion.

[Kevin McAllister]

Its all a bit backwards still. Canada is a metric country but so much stuff is still built using Imperial measurements, mostly because of stock materials. When I worked with an Australian colleague on the Olympics, I joked with him about material sizes and the elusive sheet of metric plywood. 4'x8' is a pretty simple size to do calculations with until you metricize it - 1219MM x 2438mm is not intuitive at all. Now 1200mm x 2400mm, that make way more sense....

Kevin

[bcd]

If only we all had 12 fingers - decimal would be base 12 and fractional & decimal would coexist happily for ever & ever or a very long time.

[Ozzie]

Remember being a young landscaper deliberately using my first metric tape - still talk in feet and inches sometimes

Very smart how a litre of water is a kg and 1000 litres is a tonne

[Thomas Donalek]

Thread hijack theme: As an American, I would gladly ditch Imperial units for metric. (and while we officially don't use decimal inches, I somehow have lots of practice doing decimal conversions for eights (and occasionally sixteenths...) in my head) In all seriousness, CAD helps a lot, but how many millions of dollars a year are lost to mistakes in adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing base ten feet, base 12 inches and base 2 fractions? It clearly happens all the time...

OP's original points: I would welcome a window type like the "typical modern window" with the sub-sill for commercial brick&block with fixed aluminum windows. (But it would be nice to turn the window stool/board off and have the drywall wrap back in for clerestory windows and similar.)

Also, regarding US vs. UK vs. Irish vs. Aus/NZ vs. Indian vs. other English localization - given the endless list of arbitrary jargon, truly localizing seems like a nearly impossible task...

(woops.. I forgot about Canada in the list of types of English that have their own construction jargon - eaves troughs, eh?)

[Christiaan]

regarding US vs. UK vs. Irish vs. Aus/NZ vs. Indian vs. other English localization - given the endless list of arbitrary jargon, truly localizing seems like a nearly impossible task...

Far from impossible localisation is actually quite straightforward. VW and most other software I know of has the facility built in. It's simply a matter NV or local distributors inputting the relevant localisations.

[Christiaan]

These can also be referred to as "internal sills" in the UK (and NZ). I wonder if this a better terminology given that sometimes we might tile the internal sill directly over tile backer board (in which case, incidentally, there'd be no window board projection or thickness)