Design Options - procedure?

[grant_PD]

I wish wish wish that VW would let you have text option control(color, bold, italicize, etc) over layer, class, and sheet naming. My eyes go blurry trying to find the layers and such once they get beyond five or so.

[Amorphous Team]

Thanks for asking the question @Russ@Summit.

 

This is also something our office has spent a lot of effort to find the right workflow.

 

Before I start going into our solution, I’d like to state that I’m now learning revit, and can report they have very good optioning functions built into their software.

 

Now back to the best practices we have worked out for optioning in Vectorworks- we actually use ‘group’.

 

In BIM ‘classifications’, you don’t want to lose the original ‘class’ that objects have assigned too. So in the above example of an optioning  kitchen designs. You might want the classes of Tapware/Joinery/Applianced to remain separate, but still have a container to identify the different options.

 

So we ‘group’ the items we want to option, and give this ‘group’ a different class ‘Options - Kitchen 1’ etc.

 

Then using saved views we can switch between the different options.

 

When client makes a decision you simply ‘ungroup’ the option and the BIM model stays intact.

Of course if there are better built in tools for options that would be even better. I wonder if the team has looked into this @Matt Panzer

[line-weight]

12 hours ago, Amorphous Team said:

So we ‘group’ the items we want to option, and give this ‘group’ a different class ‘Options - Kitchen 1’ etc.

I quite often use this method too.

 

One problem that I find with using class to control visibility is that over time, the saved views that are used to switch between options can start to pick up odd classes that aren't supposed to be affected by that saved view. And I have to go in to the saved view settings and tidy up. I think this usually happens when a new class is created, and the already-existing saved view includes this class as "visible". There is probably some way in which in theory I can stop this happening but a dedicated optioning tool might make things easier to manage.

 

Elsewhere there's been a request to allow Saved Views to be shown in a hierarchical menu. That would also be very helpful for this - so I could have a sub-menu that just contained saved views to do with optioning. It's easy to end up with a long and cumbersome Saved views list.

 

Finally - sometimes, instead of using groups/classes to make options I use layers. I make a duplicate of the design layer(s) where I want to create an alternative option. This can feel less fiddly to manage.

[Matt Panzer]

On 11/29/2024 at 5:10 AM, Amorphous Team said:

Of course if there are better built in tools for options that would be even better. I wonder if the team has looked into this @Matt Panzer

 

The idea of design options is not currently close on our radar but it is something we'd been thinking of recently as we look into phasing because they share some similar implementation ideas.

[Amorphous Team]

Thanks for your response @Matt Panzer, Phasing and optioning would both be amazing.

 

I have some questions regarding phasing I’d like to ask… if you can point me to the correct VW forum post for phasing, that would be appreciated! But just to jot down a few thoughts first…

 

The most exciting thing about phasing is creating phasing animations to show clients- but this always requires a separate software for other BIM packages. If this can be done entirely within vectoworks without having to rely on a third party software that would be amazing and making phasing very powerful.

 

Another thing about phasing I’d like to ask is how does the VW team envisage the sequence of modelling new items into demolished items.

And example might be, if you had a 1300h x 1100w existing window in a wall, that you want to demolish, and replace it with a smaller 450h x 450w window.

 

Do you phase the larger existing window as ‘demolished’, and then model a ‘new wall’ into the ‘empty opening’ left by the larger window, and then insert a new window into this ‘new wall’? I can imagine how challenging it can be to work with two overlapping walls.

 

From memory, in Ozcad’s windoor tool by Julian Carr, you can specify how much a new window will patch the opening wall on the top, left and right of it, and can also show in elevation how much of the wall around the window is ‘new’ with a different hatch.

 

Working with existing buildings, and communicating what is ‘demolition’ and ‘been on drawings can become so complex in the BIM process, and I look forward to seeing your team’s ideas on the best workflow on it!

 

( I understand this thread is not the right place to post about phasing, so you don’t have to respond here… please provide a link about where to post those questions, and I’ll copy my questions across)

[Matt Panzer]

36 minutes ago, Amorphous Team said:

Thanks for your response @Matt Panzer, Phasing and optioning would both be amazing.

 

I have some questions regarding phasing I’d like to ask… if you can point me to the correct VW forum post for phasing, that would be appreciated! But just to jot down a few thoughts first…

 

The most exciting thing about phasing is creating phasing animations to show clients- but this always requires a separate software for other BIM packages. If this can be done entirely within vectoworks without having to rely on a third party software that would be amazing and making phasing very powerful.

 

Another thing about phasing I’d like to ask is how does the VW team envisage the sequence of modelling new items into demolished items.

And example might be, if you had a 1300h x 1100w existing window in a wall, that you want to demolish, and replace it with a smaller 450h x 450w window.

 

Do you phase the larger existing window as ‘demolished’, and then model a ‘new wall’ into the ‘empty opening’ left by the larger window, and then insert a new window into this ‘new wall’? I can imagine how challenging it can be to work with two overlapping walls.

 

From memory, in Ozcad’s windoor tool by Julian Carr, you can specify how much a new window will patch the opening wall on the top, left and right of it, and can also show in elevation how much of the wall around the window is ‘new’ with a different hatch.

 

Working with existing buildings, and communicating what is ‘demolition’ and ‘been on drawings can become so complex in the BIM process, and I look forward to seeing your team’s ideas on the best workflow on it!

 

( I understand this thread is not the right place to post about phasing, so you don’t have to respond here… please provide a link about where to post those questions, and I’ll copy my questions across)

 

I recommend creating a new thread (with these questions) in the Roadmap forum: https://forum.vectorworks.net/index.php?/forum/158-roadmap/

🙂

[Amorphous Team]

Ok will do thanks