Vectorworks, Inc Employee Nikolay Zhelyazkov Posted June 24, 2020 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted June 24, 2020 On 6/9/2020 at 3:26 AM, Markus Barrera-Kolb said: Thanks @DBrown — one thing that makes me think VW is intended to accommodate drawings sets spanning multiple files is that when you open the Title Block Manager while more than one file is open, it'll ask you whether you want to load the currently open files along with the active one. This would only make sense if all of those files belonged to the same project. If that's indeed the case, presumably the VW developers have also thought of a way to do a drawing index that includes the sheets from multiple files. Does anyone have any experience with this? Hello @Markus Barrera-Kolb, Yes, you can use the Title Block Manager to edit multiple title blocks across multiple files. You will have to make sure you make any edits from the manager with the correct selection, though, so that you keep your project data in sync. Best Regards, Nikolay Zhelyazkov Quote Link to comment
Popular Post jmanganelli Posted June 25, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted June 25, 2020 (edited) The way Vectorworks affords sheet layers, design layers, viewports, worksheets, and classes and uses symbols is somewhat (and surprisingly) analogous to how Bentley's OpenBuildings (i.e., Microstation) arranges types of information into design models, drawing models, sheet models, databases, and cells and somewhat analogous to how Revit arranges sheet views, model views, detail views, its spreadsheets, and families. So it is possible/useful to look at workflows and organization for large, complex projects as implemented in the other BIM authoring tools for guidance setting up Vectorworks for large projects. Also, setting up a project in a federated approach with a shell model, a site model and/or a campus model, and then interior models is a standard workflow for large, complex models no matter the BIM authoring tool (more on this below). I say all of this to say that it is worth looking at how Bentley in particular organizes models, drawings, and sheets for large projects for two reasons: (1) Bentley specializes in design and documentation of large, complex models and has optimized their workflows and tools to this purpose; and (2) given that Vectorworks data structure, features, and functions afford similar workflows as used in OpenBuildings, it is possible to adapt Bentley's methods to using Vectorworks for large projects. Also, FYI, I have worked on large, complex projects most of my career. I have used OpenBuildings, Revit, and a little Vectorworks. For large, complex projects (e.g., multiple buildings, multiple floors, hundreds of thousands to millions of square feet under roof, hundreds of rooms, hundreds of doors, hundreds of walls), it is not possible to efficiently and effectively model a building in a single unified model in any BIM authoring tool. When we transitioned to Revit, we eventually had to use it as we had been using OpenBuildings in order to work quickly and effectively in the models. Neither Revit Server or Autodesk's cloud CDE SaaS could handle very large, unified models, especially with many people distributed between the U.S. and Europe working on them simultaneously, in a way that made it qualitatively different or superior to Bentley or Vectorworks. In the end, we still needed a federated approach on our own servers with Revit because having large, unified models was slow and having 3+ people all making changes in each model simultaneously caused issues with not all changes being saved to the central model and with the models getting corrupted (not a knock on Revit or Revit Server or Autodesk's SaaS CDEs, we were using the tools in ways that pushed their limits). I say this to say that I do not see Vectorworks as deficient in any way for work on large projects. Sure, it may not be as strong as another BIM authoring tool in some ways, but then in other ways it's stronger. Just trade offs between the tools. Anyway, worth looking at Bentley's training for how to set up federated models. Edited June 25, 2020 by jmanganelli grammar 6 Quote Link to comment
Diamond Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 (edited) Hello @jmanganelli, Thanks for the heads-up regarding workflows for large projects on other platforms. What you are saying had definitely been my experience when working with complex Revit models. On 6/25/2020 at 11:57 AM, jmanganelli said: how Bentley in particular organizes models The Bentley video example showing the referencing of storeys for different residential layouts makes sense (even though I would typically split this into interiors vs architectural). The one main amendment I would make for a Vectorworks workflow is to prevent references within references for IFC export. Other than that (and other typical Vectorworks best practice workflows), file structure comes down the project requirements. Cheers. Edited June 26, 2020 by Diamond 1 Quote Link to comment
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