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Improvement to Grid Bubble Tool


Jim Smith

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+100 to all of this.

In addition,

- we need a to be able to draw the grid in plan (2D on the Design Layer) and have an option to show it on certain viewports as vertical representations (elevations/section sheet layers), the same way section lines work.

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I agree completely. Last night I had to add a sub grid for a new column such as a Grid 6.4 between Grids 6 and 7 and to my shock it was not an option with the Grid tool.

After lots of wasted time I just created a separate new Grid object just for that and turn the first grid off. It wouldn't even allow me to create just a single grid bubble line.

if that's the only method that's ridiculous.

I would like to see the other grid object tool improved as well. It should be like an easy to edit matrix that can handle any unique variation and "odd" grid bay size. How often on a project is every column bay the exact same width?

Yes, and ideally that grid object tool and the grid bubble tool should be able to relate to each other.

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I totally agree 1000%. You should be able to right-click on the Grid Line object and have an option to 'Insert new Grid Line', and be able to do this without messing up any other grid lines.

Grid lines should also be visible in section and elevation viewports as TWK suggested.

Right now, they are not smart objects.

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 The Grid tool is just like all the other tools & rounding errors creep in. In one project for example, the overall dimension between Grid 1 to Grid 13 (just shy of 48M) has a rounding error when one adds all the Grid Dimensions up of 4mm. Not the end of the world but it takes time away from the important tasks & the advantage of the Grid Tool seems to be less than stellar. Here are my suggestions to improve the tool:

  1. Add the ability to strike an overall dimension so rounding errors to the overall Grid are eliminated
  2. Allow for a choice of what side of the Grid the dimensions are struck. (At present one must Flip the Grid then realign it - this can cause errors)
  3. Have the Dimension lines act like Dimension lines, and have them able to move independently 
  4. Allow for adjustment of Grid Bubbles so when two Grids are very close one may move one that might otherwise cover another
  5. Make the Bubble's text and the Bubble scaleable so different scaled drawings may illustrate a bubble that looks correct regardless of scale (i.e. constantly printed at 5mm for example)
  6. Allow for the insertion of intermediary Grids (i.e. 1a, 1b) 
  7. Allow for manipulation of the location (right or left / up or down) of the occurrence of intermediary grids Bubbles independent of the Main Grid (i.e. Main Grid has bubbles on plan Left but some intermediary Bubbles would be located on either side of the Grid)
  8. Allow for editing of the length of individual Grid lines (see #6)
Edited by Jim Smith
sp
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3 hours ago, cberg said:

We really do need a 3d grid tool.  How do people show column lines in elevation or section?

Co-ordinated by hand so they remain a significant legal liability of the current system.

 

To me Vectorworks isn't BIM till I can define grid lines in one place and have them appear everywhere I need them to.

This comment applies to vertical grids (Storey Levels)  and other organising plan lines like boundaries as well.

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12 minutes ago, Matt Overton said:

Co-ordinated by hand so they remain a significant legal liability of the current system.

 

To me Vectorworks isn't BIM till I can define grid lines in one place and have them appear everywhere I need them to.

This comment applies to vertical grids (Storey Levels)  and other organising plan lines like boundaries as well.

I agree.

 

It's weird that seemingly basic, universally useful things like this remain completely absent, whilst specialised and to me somewhat obscure extra features are touted in new releases of the software.

 

Surely a working 3D grid would be useful to a wider portion of VW users than an irrigation tool is, for example.

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15 minutes ago, lineweight (née col37400) said:

I agree.

 

It's weird that seemingly basic, universally useful things like this remain completely absent, whilst specialised and to me somewhat obscure extra features are touted in new releases of the software.

 

Surely a working 3D grid would be useful to a wider portion of VW users than an irrigation tool is, for example.

 

All model cut sections in the marketing material have been dressed to show both structural and elevation grids. So someone in the company understands it's important.

 

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There's rather a lot of "dressing" of drawings used in marketing material, I think.

 

There are drawings I see in material accompanying new releases and think "oh we can do that easily, now - great" but then it turns out that actually, no, it's just the same as before: we can't produce something that looks like that without a lot of fiddling around and manual intervention.

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On 5/28/2016 at 8:50 AM, rDesign said:

I totally agree 1000%. You should be able to right-click on the Grid Line object and have an option to 'Insert new Grid Line', and be able to do this without messing up any other grid lines.

Grid lines should also be visible in section and elevation viewports as TWK suggested.

Right now, they are not smart objects.

 

You can do this by "reshaping" the gridline object and then using the "+" option (add point) to add another handle to the grid line at the location where you want another grid line to appear.

 

For my part, I would like to be able to double click on the gridline dimension and input the value directly (just as with standard dimensions).

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21 hours ago, BG said:

This has got our vote for 2018. I think it's been mentioned, but automatically showing the floor level lines on elevations and sections is also a 'basic' function currently missing.

 

In the hopeful case that the engineers are building a system that can auto-display and dimension Storey Levels in veiwports.

 

Would it be worth considering that building grids should also be an organisation system similar to storey levels and layers instead of a graphic element we place?

- Then the same code would take care of drawing them on page for us.

- Like levels we could then define object relative to a grid or offset from grid  (like a column could be X= grid A , Y=grid 1 + 200 , Z = storey 3 slab)

Might help with the rounding issues as well. Given this is how we always avoid the problem in large drawings anyway. Dimension critical stuff off the grid allow the float to occur between.

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Agree with the above!

 

A reliable grid system that's not just a graphic element would make it easier to keep drawings organised. The grid should be the starting point of dimensioning - define the grid, then all dimensions are relative to closest grid line instead of in unwieldy chains prone to rounding errors.

 

I would vote for the ability to have "working" grid lines as well as the ones shown on drawing output. Lines that help as reference points during drafting but can be switched off when producing production drawings.

 

In fact ideally you would be able to select per viewport which gridlines you wanted to see. So, each grid line individually switchable on/off. Sometimes there are grid lines in plan that are only relevant to certain storeys, for example.

Edited by line-weight
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also is there a way to control the location of the actual bubble number/letter? as for example we have two grids that are quite close to each other, one bubble overlaying the other, so you can't see the actual name / letter for the gridline. which is very annoying... and again not very flexible.

 

kind regards anton

 

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Just an FYI on Girds:

- We don't use the tool

- On small projects this is a graphic 2D symbol (with 3 or so classes for different sized bubbles) locked in place

- On larger projects our Grid is a Hybrid symbol so the the Gird is is visible in both 2D & 3D

- We often have several classes with duplicates of Grid bubbles so they can be viewed in at least 3 different scales

 

This is a pain in the poutine but, it saves TONNES of work & mistakes & work-a-rounds. It would be nice to have what we do with a 3D symbol as a tool.

Edited by Jim Smith
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On 10/21/2017 at 0:21 AM, Jim Smith said:

Just an FYI on Girds:

- We don't use the tool

- On small projects this is a graphic 2D symbol (with 3 or so classes for different sized bubbles) locked in place

- On larger projects our Grid is a Hybrid symbol so the the Gird is is visible in both 2D & 3D

- We often have several classes with duplicates of Grid bubbles so they can be viewed in at least 3 different scales

 

This is a pain in the poutine but, it saves TONNES of work & mistakes & work-a-rounds. It would be nice to have what we do with a 3D symbol as a tool.

Does this work with cropped viewports on sheet layers though?

Because I often want to crop viewports, I have the gridlines (also locked) set up in the design (layers) but then end up adding the ID bubbles as annotation to viewports.

Also a pain in the poutine - but it means that at least I know that the gridlines themselves are in the right place, even if I have to be careful that I add the right ID bubbles in the right places (and if I move a gridline in the drawing, I have to go and update all the relevant viewport annotations).

 

All this is why I don't think the grid should be a graphic element or symbol.

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Yes & no. I would say it works for seven out of ten instances, but in some instances we still have to insert either a Grid bubble in the annotation layer (this is always dangerous) or most frequently a second viewport with just the grid bubble in it moved to align & agree with the grid position.  

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