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is there an area dimension tool?


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Is there some tool that I can use to click on an object have it place the square footage like a dimension?  Right now I'm just creating a polygon in the annotations, getting the square footage from the OIP, and writing it down.  Seems pretty Fred Flintstone to me...

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51 minutes ago, grant_PD said:

Seems pretty Fred Flintstone to me...

 

Well its a bit clunky, but this does the job for both area and volume (obviously volume highlighted)....

 

5aa18e4fc5916_ScreenShot2018-03-08at19_24_06.thumb.png.08013067bfad602aea9f24b32e8ef398.png

 

Select 2d or 3d  shapes and choose engineering/volumetric properties. Have a look and see how it works out for you.

 

You can also 'call' the information into worksheets, but I believe this is more like what you seemed to be wanting.

 

 

Edited by Gadzooks
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Wish it were helpful, but it's not.  The space tool requires there be walls when I am trying to calculate square footage of flooring that has no wall boundaries.  It is very common in set design, to cover the existing stage floor with flooring product for different looks.  I'm actually quite surprised that there is no tool for this.  Even in "event design," which is a reduced form of set design, flooring plays a big part.

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You can have it manually bound and not connected to walls at all. Sometimes it is somme fiddling with the settings to choose the right symbol for the space label . I usually start with "Simple with area" and edit it later to suit my graphic style and  include the info i need. 

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1 hour ago, grant_PD said:

I can create a floor object, but I can't get the square footage of said floor.

 

The Space Tool is pretty simple if you set the parameters accordingly (otherwise it can be very powerful and therefore somewhat complex.)

 

Keep it simple - have a look at this video and you'll see you can use it to provide exactly what (I think we understand) you're trying to do. Quickly and efficiently.

 

https://youtu.be/8wfZP9KIOzo

 

Drawing shapes is dealt with later on, but its very worthwhile having a look at the whole thing.

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  • 2 years later...

grant_PD: I'm with you.

 

Its a completely simple thing for Vectorworks to just show the area in the OIP but it is bereft of a lot of data. The Vectorworks help shows a lot of data including area for slabs in the OIP but that is not true for floors.

And the Volumetric properties as someone suggested gives the area all around the slab (top, bottom, sides) so that is useless when trying to get floor square footages for various purposes.

Consequently, to reference the size of a floor, we have to go back and draw another polygon over it to find out. 

 

It is this kind of thing that makes Vectorworks so frustrating to use.

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2 hours ago, Mik said:

Thanks Wes but my VW 2019 said this was from a previous version and would convert it but then could not do it.

I'm almost 100% certain that the file @Wes Gardner posted is the Vw2020 version. When you get that error message and the file refuses to open, it means that the file is newer than your version of Vw. That error message is completely confusing / unhelpful.

 

It would also be very helpful if the person uploading the original file to the Vw User Forum would always include the Vw file version at the end of the filename, like 'Floor sq ft Tag_v2020.vwx'. Especially when it is being uploaded by Vectorworks employees. My 2 cents.

Edited by rDesign
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Guest Wes Gardner

@Mik...make sure you have the correct mode for the Data Tag selected...the first one is for some sort of dummy tag (and of course, nothing happens)...the second one, for setting a SINGLE instance seems to work . See attached screen shot.. The tag will then be interactive - as you change the shape/size of the floor, it'll update..

 

Another distinct possibility is that it doesn't work in versions older than 2020???

 

Wes

 

 

Screen Shot 2020-04-28 at 10.37.11 AM.png

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