VIEW TEMPLATES IN VECTORWORKS

[malonso]

Hi everybody,

This is my first post here. I am new to VW and am trying to get up to speed with it.

One thing I am missing and I am not sure if exists is a view template, in which you can set the appearance of different objects, applying it to different drawings (the way it works in Revit basically). Particularly, I am trying to apply colours to different wall types just for a wall types drawing, while keeping them with white fill for the normal drawings, I cannot find how to do this anyway. I thought also about using something like filters, but haven't find it either.

Is there something I am missing?

Thanks.

Regards,

Miguel

[Neil Barman]

Welcome to the Forum, @malonso!

 

It sounds like what you are are wanting to do is what Classes can do. Using Classes, you can set the graphic attributes (pen colour, file colour, etc) for objects so that you can visually differentiate them while working with your project on a Design Layer. When it’s time to create the drawings, you would then create Viewports of what you wanted to show on the drawings. Viewports can be set to override the Class settings you previously assigned, so walls, for example, that appeared with colour when you were designing, can be set to appear black and white (or any colour really) for print/PDF.

 

Since you are new to Vectorworks, I highly recommend checking out the Getting Started Guides here. The first four guides (Basics, 2D, 3D and BIM-Architectural) should be especially useful for getting you acquainted with many key core abilities of Vectorworks.

 

I hope this information helps.

 

[malonso]

Hi @Neil Barman,

Thanks for your message, sounds very good! I will give a try to the guides and to the classes, sounds like I should be able to get the result I want with them.

Thanks again!

[bcd]

Hi Miguel,

Yes, welcome aboard.

By drawing you are probably referring to Drawing Sheet - which in Vectoworks are equivalent to Sheet Layers.

Your Vectorworks drawing can have any multitude of such Sheet Layers

You create a Veiwport - a virtual window if you will - of your Design and place it on one of theses Sheet Layers.

In this Sheet Layer Viewport you can control the visibility of the Design Layers and various objects of your model.

You can even set custom coloring - via the use of Viewport Class & Layer overrides.

 

Doing a help search for Overrides may be another good place to start.

 

At a broader level - you can set the color of everyting on a single layer to display with the preset Layer Color.

again - a search fora Layer Color will help here.

[Jeff Prince]

@malonso here's a quick visual example of what has been said.  I made this a while back to communicate what class overrides do.

 

 

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by jeff prince

[malonso]

Hi all,

Classes is just what I needed, it works perfect now, once each wall is in a separate class, I can override it in the viewport.

Many thanks for your help.

Regards,

Miguel

[malonso]

Hi,

I have been working with classes overrides, and it works very well, however when it comes to sections, the way I do it is I assign to the object (let's say wall) a class, and the to each component another class. Then I try to override those component classes in the section viewport, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it works in a weird way...has this been reported already? Is it a bug?

Thanks

Regards,

Miguel

[Boh]

For overrides to work both your wall object attributes and wall component attributes must be defined by class. This may require editing the wall styles. 

[malonso]

Hi Boh,

I have done it like that, and the weird thing is that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and it seems a bit random...I don't change any settings, I don't know if anybody has seen anything like that happening...

Thanks

Regards,

Miguel

[Neil Barman]

@malonso Might you be able to share your Vectorworks file here so we can see how you have it set up?

[Boh]

Hey Miguel.

 

there are also a various options to change attributes in section viewports in the advanced settings on the oip. I suspect that is the issue. Shld have mentioned that previously. 

Othrrwise yes if you can share the file so we cld look at it?

[Jalkana]

Hello Everyone,

I have followed the thread and although the answers provided work to change the parts of a drawing they don't however provide a workflow solution like a "view template" in revit which works as one action to turn a drawing's features as the template has specified. 

For example - In Revit,  if I had 10 building section drawings with hatches and I wanted to change the visual presentation so the section cuts all read as black I have to go to each drawing and apply the view template, done - it changes everything in the drawing with how I have set up the template(changing hatches and lines) in one click.  The answers above suggest that in Vectorworks you need to go to each drawing individually and adjust the classes accordingly, which means going through my class list turning the appropriate classes on, off, and adjusting for each drawing.   You can imagine if you have many drawings to change for a particular presentation this could be quite time consuming.  Even more time consuming if one needed to revert back to the original hatch/line types for a different presentation.  So back to the original question, is there some sort of "template" that can be applied to a view that can change all the specified classes in one click similar to Revit's "view templates"?

[E|FA]

@Jalkana The eyedropper tool might be what you're looking for.  You can use it to transfer attributes, including class visibilities and overrides,  between viewports within the same document.

 

https://app-help.vectorworks.net/2020/eng/index.htm#t=VW2020_Guide%2FAttributes%2FTransferring_attributes.htm

 

Watch out for the "Pick Up Sets Defaults" checkbox.  You probably want to leave this unchecked in most cases.

Edited November 6, 2019 by E|FA

[Jalkana]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the quick response.  Yes I am familiar with the eyedropper tool however using it still requires manual clicking of every element on every drawing that needs the visual attributes to be changed.  I am guessing that VW doesn't currently offer a "view template" tool.  If possible I would like to put a request in to place it on the "wish list".  This tool would provide an incredible amount of drawing control with little to no time expenditure for the user.

 

thanks

[Boh]

You can do global edits of viewport visibilities via the organisation dialogue however, as far as I am aware, overrides can not be edited globally. It would be good to be able to have this capability. Having the vp class overides listed in the organisation dialogue would be a good start. Also it would at least be good if you could edit the class overrides of more than one vp at a time.

 

All that said I tend to use viewport overrides fairly sparingly and they tend to be unique to a certain viewport or at least to the viewports on just a few sheets. If there is a need to do it throughout a file then I would consider changing the class and/or attributes of the objects in question.

[Pat Stanford]

Class and Layer overrides can be transferred using the eyedropper tool. As can lots of other viewport properties. At least in VW2020.

 

No, you can not set Overrides for multiple viewports at once from the Organization Palette, but you can for any single Viewport.

 

It probably also would pay to lear about Saved Settings for the eyedropper tool to make it easier to get only specific settings.

[E|FA]

@Jalkana Iff it helps at all, I think you should be able to select multiple viewports on a sheet layer and paint-bucket the attributes at the same time.  I haven't checked that it works.  I also haven't looked into selecting viewports on separate sheet layers at the same time.  Maybe one of the Vectorscript wizards can come up with something.

[Jalkana]

Hi Pat

 

Thank you for your response.  I would like to give you an example.  I am working on a series of building sections in one file:

 

1.  3pm - My structural consultant calls me and asks me to send him the sections which clearly show where wood, concrete and any other structural materials are shown with different hatches. 

2. 3:02 pm - As I am exporting these drawings for structural my client calls me and wants magazine type sections for their shareholder meeting (i.e just black cuts - no material hatches.)  They apologize for the sudden request but they need to get the drawings from me by 330pm.

3. 3:10 pm - My structural consultant calls me and asks to do a quick work online work session (as he is going away for two weeks and this is the last time he has before he goes) and I want to share my screen in vectorworks to discuss the sections with the appropriate hatches in play.

 

Although the eye dropper tool helps with this you can begin to see why I am asking about a class override template or something that can do this in a simple way.  Is there a way in VW to manipulate drawings in this fashion quickly?

[Neil Barman]

@Jalkana It sounds like you may be asking for something like “Viewport Styles”, according to the current way Vectorworks allows the user to set common options for objects. You would still need to set up the Overrides once somewhere – no software can read your mind, yet – but then you could then save the Viewport Style as a resource to be used at another time. Also, you may also need to tell each viewport to adopt a certain Viewport Style, but you can describe how you would like this to happen with the fewest clicks possible, or from a “central location” like the Organization dialog box. Whatever the case, I would recommend that you post this request in the Wish List section of the Forum. Include a description of what you would like to achieve, how you would like to achieve it, and how such a feature would be beneficial to your workflow and possibly for the workflows of others.

 

(And not to diminish your request at all, but if you did actually run into the time-crunched scenario you describe above, you might need to have a serious talk with your structural consultant and especially your client about your Working Relationships. You would certainly need to say no to one of them – Most likely the client. Last minute information, requests and emergencies on their part do not need to equate to making you panic or work in a compromised way.)

[Hans-Olav]

@Jalkana May I propose yet another solution? 

http://app-help.vectorworks.net/2020/eng/index.htm#t=VW2020_Guide%2FViews%2FCreating_a_new_data_visualization.htm&rhsearch=data visualization&rhsyns= &rhhlterm=data visualization

 

You can set up different graphic attributes based on classes or IFC parameters or almost anything defined in the drawing.

[Jalkana]

Hi Neil

The "viewport style" is exactly what I am asking for!  So it doesn't exist...yet. I will post it in the wish list section.

 

I guessed the example itself would generate some questions however I was having trouble explaining what exactly I was looking for and how the eye dropper tool and individually setting overrides just weren't addressing the issue that was being raised.  I am about to have a look at the data visualization option and see if that works.

 

thanks everyone for all your help!

[killafornia]

Did this feature end up being added after wishlist discussion?

 

Getting tired or manually setting the same viewport classes for every new project.  Or are people just adding empty viewports to their template files?  That seems weird..

[KrisM]

Not done yet. Definitely needed.