Dimensions

[jmartinarch]

It appears that dimensions are automatically placed in the dimensions class.

That was fine when working on my floor plans. Now that I am working on a floor framing plan I need to add a couple of dimensions for some cantilever situations.

I don't want all of my dimensions visible.

How do I change the automatic dimension class behavior?

[michaelk]

Document Preferences > Dimensions > check or uncheck Create dimensions in dimension class

Attached are a couple simple scripts that change that setting without having to remember where it is.

hth

mk

[jmartinarch]

Thanks it does help. I thought I had passed over that before. I hope I haven't committed the deadly sin of putting dimensions and other annotations with my model. Because I'm still a VW rookie I'm really just trying to get a set of 2d's complete. Learn along the way, try to set up a template etc.

I have imported some autocad stuff thinking it would save some time but it has contaminated my fresh new VW drawing with tons of layers now classes.

Different subject, should make a new post.

Wall height, layer height, when and what to put in different layers.

I read some threads where Peter C. and Jonathan P. offered some explanations that helped.

In my area 90% of the time we have crawlspace foundations for houses.

I assume it is its own layer. Its elevation starts at … bottom of footing? top of footing? Includes footing, concrete wall, wood mud sill? floor joists and plywood sub-flr?

I really don't even know what my question is at this point!

Thanks for helping with the dimension issue.

[AlanW]

You can use custom select to select all dimensions and put them on the class you want.

Where to put the walls, I use the foundation walls (crawl space) area on seperate class and make a wall style. We often have a sandstone wall from footing to u/s of floor joists so I start style at footing and end say 250mm below FFL. Many options for start and finish but I have found styles and stories the way to go. Look at Wes Gardners posts on this they are very informative. HTH

[michaelk]

Glad it helps.

Just keep in mind that when you run the script DimInActiveClass that you want to keep track of what class is active whenever you create a dimension object.

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I really recommend NEVER importing a .dwg directly into an active .vwx drawing for this exact reason. Class pollution.

There are two methods I like to use.

1. Sacrificial .vwx method. This is really helpful if you need to explore the drawing to see what's what. In older versions of Vectorworks, this was SOP.

Import dwg into a blank drawing. Make sure everything is scaled correctly.

Use the visibility tool to turn off the classes you are not interested in.

Save

In your real drawing…

View > Create Viewport > Create on Layer [select a DESIGN layer] > Select Source > External Document > Choose… > Navigate to the drawing above > make sure Reference cache to disk is selected.

NONE of the classes from the .dwg will be imported to your drawing, But you can control the visibility of all the classes from the .dwg in the OIP for the viewport.

2. Reference method

Tools > Organization > Reference Tab > New… > Navigate to .dwg.

This will import a reference to the dwg. If the .dwg is updated, it will update in your drawing. Again all the classes of the original .dwg will be controllable through the OIP for the reference, but will not pollute the classes in your navigation palette.

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If you've already got classes you want to get rid of try this:

Right click on the class in the navigation palette > Delete. You will be presented with a dialog box. You can choose what happens to the object in that class, including an option to move all the objects with that class assigned to move to another class.

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I would probably give the crawl space it's own layer. There are probably some mechanical things going on down there that might be nice to keep separate from the footings.

Wes has a great example tutorial on using stories. But to start out you might find it easier to just use layer elevations and layer wall heights. After a project or two you'll be ready for stories.

So the layers would look like

First Floor Layer - walls, cabinets, appliances, etc. - Elevation 0, Wall Height = plate height

First Floor Slab Layer - slab object, floor joists, etc. - Elevation 0

Crawl Space Layer - crawl space walls and ? - Elevation =(0-slab thickness-crawl space plate height)

Foundation Layer - foundation