MichaelaB Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Hello I'm new to Vectorworks & this is my first forum post. Can anyone help with explaining where to find a good selection of electrical symbols to use on a residential plan (for the electrician to work from). I found a handful in Libraries but not what I need. Thank you for helping with what I'm sure is a very basic question! Quote Link to comment
michaelk Posted March 17, 2020 Share Posted March 17, 2020 Welcome to the forum. In the MEP tool palette there are tools for switches, receptacles, fixtures, etc. I've found that there are often instances where I need symbols in addition to those and I often need 3D representations that are client specific. So I just make my own. You're new to VW. Have you discovered the thrill of making symbols yet? (Are you wanting to learn how to fish, or do you just need one dang fish?) Quote Link to comment
MichaelaB Posted March 18, 2020 Author Share Posted March 18, 2020 I'm surprised I'd have to make the most common symbols (sockets, switch plates, downlights etc)...surely everyone needs these? I don't know yet how to make new symbols, but sure I can learn! Any advice is appreciated. Quote Link to comment
michaelk Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 I'd be happy to share the ones I made with you, but I see you're in the UK, so none of them would be useable :-). I'm not even sure if you have the tools for switches, receptacles, and fixtures in the localized version. Here's a video (great to hear Jim W's voice again) about creating symbols: Quote Link to comment
MichaelaB Posted April 7, 2020 Author Share Posted April 7, 2020 ....I have mastered some symbol making & now have the beginnings of my own electrical library (Hooray!). Another question....I don't have the Resource Browser Palette & can't seem to find where it might be. Is it now part of Resource manager in 2020? Thanks! Quote Link to comment
michaelk Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 The Resource Mananger is the new name for the Resource Browser. Same thing. Just better. Quote Link to comment
MichaelaB Posted April 7, 2020 Author Share Posted April 7, 2020 Thank you. While I've got you, Michael....I imported a pdf drawing of a floorplan. I have been using it to draw on top ( created another layer...hope that's right). All going fine until my pdf disappeared, leaving me with a half finished new plan. I've tried to find it, to no avail. Thinking I accidentally deleted? Do I need to start from scratch? Quote Link to comment
michaelk Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 Make sure your layer options are set to Show/Snap Others or Show Others. If it's set to Grey Others or Grey/Snap Others then PDFs on other layers are not visible. When that doesn't work make all classes visible. I've often accidentally put something in the nonplot class 😀 One last thing to check: When you imported the PDF you may have referenced it rather than imported it and not cached it in the file. If you moved files around in folder or renamed anything, it may have lost the reference. In the navigation palette look under the last tab (looks like an arrow coming around from behind a piece of paper) to see if there is an out of date reference. If there is, right click on it and choose update, then navigate to the pdf. Quote Link to comment
MichaelaB Posted April 8, 2020 Author Share Posted April 8, 2020 Hi Michael I decided to start again & check as I go....Imported pdf, cropped it fine, tried to print & nothing. I've spent an hour (!) trying different things & printer settings. I have printed a pdf before so know it can be done on my kit. Any thoughts? Apologies for being such a beginner! PS I don't know what you mean when you were explaining about pdf being referenced vs imported..don't know what caching a file is...despite googling 😐 Quote Link to comment
michaelk Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 When you print, are you printing from the design layer or viewports on a sheet layer? Can you see the pdf on a design layer? When you import or drag a PDF into a drawing you get a dialog box that looks like this: Make sure that Reference is NOT selected. Then you don't have to worry about it. 🙂 Quote Link to comment
michaelk Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 Also: Make sure that all your layers are set to be the same scale. That can also make things disappear. Quote Link to comment
MikeH Posted June 30, 2021 Share Posted June 30, 2021 On 3/17/2020 at 3:50 PM, MichaelaB said: Hello I'm new to Vectorworks & this is my first forum post. Can anyone help with explaining where to find a good selection of electrical symbols to use on a residential plan (for the electrician to work from). I found a handful in Libraries but not what I need. Thank you for helping with what I'm sure is a very basic question! HI, How did you get on finding some symbols to use? I've just started with Vectorworks and this is exactly what I'm looking for. Any help with UK electrical symbols would be greatly appreciated! Quote Link to comment
Tom W. Posted June 30, 2021 Share Posted June 30, 2021 Like @michaelk says you're probably better to just make your own. This is what I did. I'm not sure there's a UK standard anyway for electrical layout symbols - it seems to vary from engineer to engineer. Plus did you want 3D representations for the devices as well? 1 Quote Link to comment
MikeH Posted June 30, 2021 Share Posted June 30, 2021 5 hours ago, Tom W. said: Like @michaelk says you're probably better to just make your own. This is what I did. I'm not sure there's a UK standard anyway for electrical layout symbols - it seems to vary from engineer to engineer. Plus did you want 3D representations for the devices as well? I'm just after something to get going. Only need 2D for now. Thanks Quote Link to comment
Kevin K Posted June 30, 2021 Share Posted June 30, 2021 Michaela B One other thing that is helpful, after you have created your own symbols (which is pretty quick, really) is to set up a worksheet that has an image of each symbol, the quantity of each, etc. Quote Link to comment
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