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How to organize classes / Ten Commands


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Little has been said about the ability to use different scales with layers; not an option with classes.

Also, if there is a class wish list...

Make it possible to edit classes, i.e. combine classes that may differ only in the way they are named. It gets confusing if you have a space before or after a class name (when nesting classes), through typos or through importing. A-Wall is different from A - Wall, and A -Wall, etc. Combine them all with a single stroke of the magic wand...

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I have been scared and cautious of classes for years, and used to stick to layers exclusively to organize my drawings. We are working on a few townhouse projects, and finally made the jump to use classes on a project we are working on now. We had to do this to use symbols for unit plans in order to duplicate them across a building file and update automatically. Two things that really have helped make using classes easier (compared to older versions of VW that caused me to be scared of classes) are the different snapping/visibility options for classes in the organize menu, and the ability to toggle the cursor command to prevent symbols from jumping into walls when not wanted. The new project organization is working well, but we are also keeping our classes to a minimum- just 'Floor', 'Ceiling', and 'RCP' classes at this point. These have been all we have needed to coordinate with the different drawings and viewports we use in paper space.

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I don't use a plug-in that allows you to toggle on all classes to visible -I make a save view "CLASSES ON" and uncheck everything except the classes box. I also do a view "ALL ON' with both classes & layers on. Seems to work fine. Also I agree with Johnharley that it'd be great to see how others set up layers & classes in their drawings.

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quote:

Originally posted by ErichR:

...Also, if there is a class wish list...

Make it possible to edit classes, i.e. combine classes that may differ only in the way they are named. It gets confusing if you have a space before or after a class name (when nesting classes), through typos or through importing. A-Wall is different from A - Wall, and A -Wall, etc. Combine them all with a single stroke of the magic wand...

Your wish has been granted in VW12. You can now delete a class and assign all objects in that deleted class to another user-selected class.

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Kingram,

I've tried to use the Task Manager without to much success. I've then been told that the TM is more a legacy and the advise was to use the AutoClassing. That's what I'm trying to do now. I do not have enough experience/organization yet to reach a conclusion yet, but it seems nice so far.

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I think of layers as way to describe the location of items relative to other items, above or below. For a simple building we have 3 layers per floor, from top to bottom: notes, plan, texture. All notation is on top and not to be obstructed by anything. Plan layer has all the lines, walls, objects. Texture is any shading or flooring which, if on top of other items would obstruct them. Of course layers also control scale so a site plan will have its own three layer set.

I think of classes as a way to describe the appearance and visibility of items. If all my masonry walls are to look the same it is easiest to make a class which will articulate their appearance and then every time I draw a masonry wall make sure it is on the correct class. In addition, if I ever decide that the masonry wall should have a different appearance, I simply change the class attributes and all the walls drawn on that class will change appearance (this assumes that 'use at creation' is checked in the edit class dialogue, this can be done retroactively as well).

Because we have limited layer options for each plan -intentionally-, we use classes to toggle visibility on different saved views (sheets, pre-VW11). In this way we can turn off kitchen and bathroom fixtures when putting together a framing plan.

By the way, our framing plan will have its own set of three layers, but we will also turn on the plan layer for the floor plan when setting up this saved view. We draw all the framing on the 'framing plan' layer, but the walls are the walls from the 'floor plan' layer. We toggle the appearance of the walls (we prefer they are fine lines on framing plans) we use a tool provided by PanzerCAD, I understand this same capability is available in VW12.

It takes some finesse to set up a good template, but the basic building blocks are: layers=relative stack location (like sheets of paper) and scale, classes=appearance and visibility of objects.

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  • 10 years later...

Hi all,

in order to help the organisation of classes, I have developed a plugin that keeps your drawing structure organised when you paste objects from other drawings.

If you merge incoming classes with the existing ones, the plugin remembers your associations so that you won't have to clean up your file ever again when you import objects from external consultants or other projects.

This works well if you have started using AutoClassing at some point later on, and your drawings have a mix of custom and auto classes.

You'll find a detailed explanation of how you can manage your classes with this tool here: [video:youtube]

To download, visit https://www.smartpaste.co.uk/

I hope this helps!

all the best

Giovanni

Edited by GioPet
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Hi all,

in order to help the organisation of classes, I have developed a plugin that keeps your drawing structure organised when you paste objects from other drawings.

If you merge incoming classes with the existing ones, the plugin remembers your associations so that you won't have to clean up your file ever again when you import objects from external consultants or other projects.

This works well if you have started using AutoClassing at some point later on, and your drawings have a mix of custom and auto classes.

You'll find a detailed explanation of how you can manage your classes with this tool here: [video:youtube]

To download, visit https://www.smartpaste.co.uk/

I hope this helps!

all the best

Giovanni

I will definitely check this out later, but I'd suggest creating a new thread about your plugin. This thread is 11 years old, and people may not read through after noticing it's so old. I almost closed it, but was just curious what the new post was.

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