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No Stories, No Problem


Guest Wes Gardner

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Hello All. Thank you for providing such a comprehensive guide for transitioning from 2D to 3D BIM workflows, especially for those of us who may not be as comfortable with the concept of stories in Vectorworks. Your hands-on approach of learning by "reverse engineering" is particularly effective for understanding the practical implications of wall styles, slab styles, and offsets.

 

Best Regards,

Edward.

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  • 6 months later...

I have a similar but far less complicated basement situation

at a sloped site.

 

I divided Foundations over 2 Stories,

the lower Foundations with Walls on top in between,

the upper Foundations and all Walls starting from there.

 

Then there is an extra non standard Foundation, so it will get

its own (Wall)Style anyway and so it can also get its own Level.

 

Everything else that does not match gets local overwriting in OIP.

 

 

In your case it is a bit difficult.

Generally it looks more like custom modeling with Solids.

For IFC's sake you may want to put it on a Story and use VW Walls

or just tag it manually.

 

You can use a non level bound Wall Style for foundations and base

Walls. But you can also add 30+ of your Levels to assign them manually

to Walls in OIP, in case this can help organizing your modeling.

 

I did so in some cases where I had not enough data of existing and

had to correct some of the levels later over time when modeling.

This was quite handy as when you adapt such a Level, all related bound

Walls will update automatically.

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On 1/2/2024 at 3:44 PM, line-weight said:

If not, just put everything in one storey. Then you don't need to worry about storey elevations. Just have a zero datum for the whole thing & relate all your levels to that.

If you're doing that why use Stories at all?  Take a look at the original post in this thread to see the No Story workflow.

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4 hours ago, E|FA said:

why use Stories at all?

 

A Story is mandatory to have access to  Story Levels.

And with Levels you can add some useful parametric control

to make later changes easier.

 

OK, VW's Story Level Settings Design is the worst of all option available

to make later changes in Levels any comfortable ...

 

But the more a project tends to go from completely chaotic to more

boring standardized and more changes/adaptions while design

expected, there comes a point where the unnecessary tedious

Story/Level setup starts to bring an advantage.

 

I basically like Story/Levels or parametric in Arch Modeling in general,

so I set them up wherever possible, even when renouncing of it would

likely be a bit faster at the end.

But it always depends on the special project and is a personal preference.

 

 

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5 hours ago, E|FA said:

If you're doing that why use Stories at all?  Take a look at the original post in this thread to see the No Story workflow.

 

Like Zoomer says, it's mainly about accessing Levels.

 

The parametric possibilities are one reason, but also the ability to have reference levels that I can use to create elevation benchmarks on elevations/section viewports. Even if I never really change the levels, I find them very useful for making sure everything is in the right place. It's a visual check that things are at the correct height relative to things like finished floor levels, and is also useful when I have "existing" vs "proposed" and need to match a height somewhere. I like that the elevation benchmarks will always be correct automatically. Similar to grid lines in plan views.

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@zoomer I understand the use of Stories, but in the particular instance referred to in the suggestion:

On 1/2/2024 at 3:44 PM, line-weight said:

If not, just put everything in one storey.

it doesn't seem like there's any benefit to using them.  If you have a building with multiple floor levels + foundation, can you get any benefit from setting Story Levels, and if so is the benefit worth the added complications?

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19 minutes ago, E|FA said:

and if so is the benefit worth the added complications?

 

I think Assigning (multiple Stories is the easiest thing and applicable in 98% of buildings.

Just @digitalcarbon screenshot looked a bit like it may either not have further Stories

or if that these may look similar chaotic.

So in the 2% where Stories may not help, I think @line-weight  proposed to use

a single Story anyway to have access to Levels.

 

28 minutes ago, E|FA said:

if so is the benefit worth the added complications?

 

Sometimes it is, sometimes it may not.

 

E.g. if you just have a singly Story defined - you do not need "default" Levels.

You can assign Levels directly to Story and don't get the mess when changing

Level Zs afterwards.

 

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I dont' use Stories or Levels. Can those of you who do please comment on if there is any benefit to using them if you are not using Walls and PIOs that can automatically associate with the levels?

 

If I am only using modeled solids that won't automatically adjust when I change levels is there any benefit for me?

 

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1 hour ago, Pat Stanford said:

If I am only using modeled solids that won't automatically adjust when I change levels is there any benefit for me?

 

So far only PIOs and Symbols can make use of Levels ....

For mainly custom Solids geometry, Story/Levels are indeed useless.

 

If you are doing BIM with mainly sophisticated stylized Level bound PIOs

on Component Level, maybe similar repeating projects,

VW Story/Levels, once pre set, can be a great help and time saver.

 

But working the old school, less abstract, pre-Story/Level way,

with Layer and Layer Wall Heights,

in many cases may not be much less effective.

It is more a preference of how you like to work.

 

Since manual height overwriting in OIP works reliably in VW and

is needed in both cases.

 

Similar to Stair Tool, some hate it in general for its abstraction, complexity

and on the other hand its limitations and prefer to model a Stair manually.

I like to set up a Stair Style parametrically and reuse it,

but get annoyed when it can't make it look the way I want.

Edited by zoomer
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2 hours ago, Pat Stanford said:

I dont' use Stories or Levels. Can those of you who do please comment on if there is any benefit to using them if you are not using Walls and PIOs that can automatically associate with the levels?

 

If I am only using modeled solids that won't automatically adjust when I change levels is there any benefit for me?

 

As l said above, the ability to use elevation benchmarks is benefit enough for me. Even if no objects are actually associated with them.

 

I no longer need to have the bit of paper stuck next to the screen with a project's significant levels written on it.

 

Part of the attraction for me is that I don't really like giving layers elevations, because I like to be able to paste-in-place between different building storeys. Having a single storey with a number of important/useful "levels" proves to be a good way of keeping Z values organised and recorded. For me and the kind of projects I do.

 

I find it quite satisfying/reassuring when I can make, say, a steelwork setting-out drawing and with a couple of clicks have things like finished floor levels, or top-of-steel levels, or whatever appear in the right locations in viewports.

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20 hours ago, line-weight said:

I don't really like giving layers elevations, because I like to be able to paste-in-place between different building storeys

EXACTLY! I do this a lot.  I paste to another layer only to have it move on me because I set elevations to the layers.  I stopped doing that. 

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