Wall Control Line

[Josh NZ]

When drawing a wall there is the option to pick which part you would like to be the control line, ie left, right centre.

Really handy when tracing a slab for example.

Once the wall is drawn however the only nodes that show up are on the centre. Makes it quite limited for altering.

Where do I pick the control line for a wall once drawn?

Have read a couple of old posts back in 2008 but they had no replies.

[AlanW]

If its the core wall then edit the wall in the Resource browser and change the tick for the core.

HTH

Edited August 23, 2016 by Alan Woodwell

[Josh NZ]

Thanks Alan, I'm guessing then it can only be done with a "styled" wall not an "unstyled" wall.

[AlanW]

Can set core for both styled and unstyled as long as yo have more than 1 component.

Click on the unstyled wall and edit the complainant, you can add more.

Edited August 23, 2016 by Alan Woodwell

[zoomer]

The Unstyled Walls do not behave like Styled Walls.

Don't know why that is though.

Unfortunately they use the middle line later if you want to edit them.

No matter what line you have chosen when creating these.

That's a pity and makes unstyled walls unusable for me.

So I always youse at least one Wall Style,

may be a simple single component Style.

That can be easy duplicated, replaced or altered if you want to add

more details later.

[line-weight]

I've come to exactly the same question as the OP's.

 

But can't make sense of the replies.

 

Whether a wall is styled or unstyled, and whether it has one or more components, I can't seem to work out any way to shift its control line from the centre, after I've created it and when I'm editing it.

[AlanW]

I find that if you have only one component to a wall it always goes down the centre. If you have more than 1 component either styled or unstyled retain their core component still with the ability to set slabs and roofs to bound to all components of the wall. 

True if you select styled or unstyled they only show the centre line.

Walls & unstyled.vwx

Edited April 26, 2017 by Alan Woodwell

[Jonathan Pickup]

am I missing something here? can't you just drag the wall to move it. 

 

 

movinig_wall.mp4

[line-weight]

8 hours ago, Jonathan Pickup said:

am I missing something here? can't you just drag the wall to move it. 

 

 

movinig_wall.mp4

 

You can and that's how it has to be done. But that seems, to me, to involve many unnecessary steps.

 

See my attached screen recording. You'll see I first move the end of the wall to its new location. Then, yes, in theory I can drag it. But actually in this scenario it doesn't want to drag as you'll see. So I have to detach it and then drag it. And then re-attach it.

 

Not only does this involve many steps but I have to zoom in to make sure I do it accurately.

 

Now consider how easy it would be if the first step were to tell the wall that I want to move, to have its control line down its left hand side. Then I simply grab the bottom end of that control line and move it to its new end point. Done (except for tidying up the wall joins if necessary). That would be two operations. Compared to however many are currently needed.

 

(And this is ignoring the unsatisfactory way VW lets you join three walls in the configuration I've shown, which is another issue)

 

 

 

 

 

walls.mov

[line-weight]

Even if we can't be allowed to change control line position during editing - I think it would be more useful for it to default to left or right side instead of the centre. In my example, I wanted it on the left side but had it been on the right hand side and unalterable then that would have been preferable to it being in the centre.

 

I think this is another example of VW not understanding how buildings tend to be put together. It's unusual to set out a wall by its centre line. More common that you want to define its position by the alignment of one of its outer faces (or one of the faces of its components). The type of junction in my example is a case in point. As indeed is the alignment with slab edge in Jonathan Pickup's example. In either case, the centreline of the wall is fairly useless as a reference point.

[zoomer]

Beside larger buildings with a building grid like I often have to deal with.

All Structural interior Walls sit on a middle line.

[line-weight]

26 minutes ago, zoomer said:

Beside larger buildings with a building grid like I often have to deal with.

All Structural interior Walls sit on a middle line.

 

Yes, for sure there are cases when a wall might be set out on a centre line.

 

Even then though, the VW system can easily fall apart if you have a wall that is centred on a grid line but has a slightly different finish on one side compared to the other. Say a blockwork wall with 70mm of drylining on one side, and 20mm render on the other. You'd likely want the blockwork centred on the grid line... but VW would give you a centre line for your wall which was annoyingly 25mm offset from that.

 

 

Edited April 27, 2017 by line-weight

[zoomer]

No, I use the middle of the Wall Core Option.

 

I think I don't quite understand the problem.

Moving the Control Line of a Wall means to move a Wall.

That works for me beside the risk of potentially destroying links.

 

With the control line I am satisfied - as long as Walls are styled.

What I also do not like is for unstyled Walls,

giving the left/right/middle option while placing but ignoring it again when

changing thickness and center always from the middle.

That once for me brought so much havoc in a project until I realized that

behavior so that I never used any unstyled Walls again.

[line-weight]

35 minutes ago, zoomer said:

No, I use the middle of the Wall Core Option.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by this - do you mean that there is a way to set the control line to the middle of the wall core?

[zoomer]

Yes, it is a switch in the second Mode Bar to switch between Core and Standard Mode.

(The Bar controlled by the letter "i" of UIOP...keys)

Edited April 27, 2017 by zoomer

[line-weight]

28 minutes ago, zoomer said:

Yes, it is a switch in the second Mode Bar to switch between Core and Standard Mode.

(The Bar controlled by the letter "i" of UIOP...keys)

 

OK. I think you are talking about when you draw a new wall.

 

I am talking about when I edit an existing wall. If I want to move a wall which I have already drawn, the only option is to have the control line in the centre, and the control line is in the centre of the wall, not the centre of the core.

[zoomer]

Ah, I understand,

when replacing a wall style there is no such option.

So that won't work in complicated cases with some non-symetric components packages.

 

 

EDIT : 

Of course it works, you can choose the needed component in the "Align" box beneath.

Edited April 27, 2017 by zoomer

[zoomer]

When moving and dragging Walls,

yes, there is the middle line (I think needed for mitres ?) to snap.

But at the ends of a Wall you can pick it from the borders of their single components or their middle.

(If snapping division is set appropriately ?)

 

An other help may be setting appropriate master snapping point in the Style.

[line-weight]

Yes, when replacing a style you have the alignment options.

 

Yes, there are snap points for moving/dragging.

 

You can't use these to pick up one end only of the line and move it to a new location though (with the other end staying where it is). Look at my screen recording video I posted above, which shows what I mean.

 

When I want to re-align or move a wall, I have to do this in at least three steps:

1) Get it in the right alignment (that is, at the right angle)

2) Put it in the right place

3) Make it the right length

 

If I can first choose where the control line is sitting, then I can do all these things in the same step, just like I would with a simple line.

 

 

[zoomer]

Found your video.

 

Yes, strange.

Tried other ways by dragging directly step 1+3 but found no satisfying way in general.

The Problem is sticky auto wall joining.

Which doesn't like parallel Joining of Walls with different thicknesses in general.

At least in the way I want or when you also need an additional L-join.

Or as always the case for my projects, the need to join 4 Walls

 

 

That is usually the time when I have to disable Auto Wall Joining completely,

to not accidentally destroy any of my manual custom made component join excesses,

by any Wall 5 Stories and Layers away at the opposite side of the building,

accidentally touching with the drag tool.

Edited April 27, 2017 by zoomer

[line-weight]

Combine those 3- or 4-wall joins with some varying wall heights, and even if you can coax it into working in top/plan you then have a disaster to remedy in 3d!

 

And vice versa.

 

But that's another issue really.