Double-curved green roof - How to?

[Max Le Creurer]

Hi,

I am trying to get a design I am currently working on into Vectorworks.

But there are a couple of things I plainly don't know how to approach. Around me, most people do work on Revit, but I must admit that for having given it a try myself... Not my thing!

But one of the function everyone keeps on referring to seems not to exist in Vectorworks, I name the "roof by face"

My design has a NURBS-based roof (say, shaped like a hill top), and is supposed to become an intensive green roof. The initial shaping has been made in Rhino, and for experiment's sake I imported just the roof's polysurface into VW.

This is how the mass of the building will come to look like.

From what I have discovered so far, the non-existence of the "Roof by face" function means I will have to build the roof like it would be build for real, first by setting some primary beams, then secondary, to create a grid where plates could be fitted.

Though it might come across as an obstacle at first, I gather that in the end I will be thankful for that approach.

But is it actually how I would need to do it? Or have I missed some "easier" method?

[zoomer]

Maybe a task for a Marionett Scientist.

I think I would model that manually, and better in Rhino and reimport into VW.

[Art V]

Does it actually have to be a roof object or would a a modelling of the roof do?

Modelling this roof was not that difficult in VW and it may require some tweaking at the edges for a better result.

(Two extrusions for the ground shape and the curved roof, intersect the solids and then shell solid to create the roof itself). I can upload my trial file if you want.

Edited March 31, 2016 by Art V