Construction drawings, residential design workflow

[Christian Fekete]

 Trying to develop efficient workflow for architecture drawings development. Looking at Nick Sonders book based on sketchup/layout workflow which I used and found efficient, I was wandering if anyone  develops VW based drawings from a 3D model refererenced into multiple files for each sheet

of aCD set. It looked to me, coming from VW, that VW has reporting and BIM abilities not found in sketchup and decided to stay with VW. I was wandering if anyone breaks down drawing sets in independent sheets/files and if by doing so one does loose some of this BIM abilities. 

Do you design everything in one file? Do you have 20 classes or 50+? 

[Markvl]

I've gone back and forth on whether to go with one file or two.  If I go two separate files the second file is strictly for very typical details and notes.  With two files it does bring the file size down a bit for the model.  I like the idea of one file but it can get heavy after awhile.  My siteplans are separate files and the the plans are referenced.  When it comes to BIM, right now I only get door and window schedules and a basic takeoff sheet.

 

As for classes...yes 50+ very easily.  You want to keep things as flexible as possible. Lumping to many objects (from notes, text, symbols, etc) together will mean turning of something you need for a specific task/presentation.  My files are used for working drawings and presentations.

 

All of this is still a work in progress as I experiment with the best methods to see what is the quickest.

[Jonathan Pickup]

I say keep as much as you can in one file. If you have multiple people on a project, use Project Sharing. Use layers for structure the file and use classes to control visibility and graphic style.

[jcaia]

The OP asks a good question and one I am having a bit of a struggle working through myself.  Not so much as I can't fumble through the process, since I used VW for years and years just straight 2D.  However, I wish there was something like what Sonders did for Sketchup available for Vectorworks.  We need some good explicit instruction on Best Practices along with some examples and a resource to use as template.  I bought Sonders book on Sketchup even though that isn't what I use for production drawings, just to see their process - thinking I could glean something useful (which I did).

Edited May 15, 2017 by jcaia

[taoist]

Archicad has this Residential Template.

 

Here is link

https://www.contrabim.com/residential-template