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Slab Drainage query


Tom W.

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VW Help says that the Slab Drainage tool is suitable for designing not only roofs but industrial floors + concrete pavements yet the Default Drain Symbols in the tool settings are all roof outlets. Is there a way to introduce other symbols such as floor drains for showers/wet rooms or channel drains or industrial floor gullies? You are not taken to the Resource Selector when you choose the drain symbol so it looks like that's the choice + that's it.

 

What about yard drains for outside areas? Or in this case would you use a series of separate sloping Hardscapes to form the falls + just manually place a gully symbol in the middle?

 

Any thoughts appreciated thank you.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Good question Tom. 
Yes, the Slab Drainage options look at one file only for the symbols. But there is no reason why you couldn't add your own symbols to a copy of that file (I would recommend you put the copy in the same location under your User Folder instead of the installation folder, so that your changes are not lost if you reinstall.)

The file is called DrainSymbols.vwx and can be found here:
 

image.png

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Tamsin that's really helpful thank you.

 

However now I've been looking at the tool further I'm afraid I've got a whole load more questions! I've realised that the drain symbols look great in Top/Plan view but in 3D they don't locate at the correct height relative to the surface of the slab: the part of the outlet that is meant to sit above the roof is half-submerged or in some cases fully submerged. I can edit the symbol to raise it to near the correct height but it's a bit hit + miss: isn't the origin in the edit screen meant to correlate to Z=0 in the drawing, which is the height of my slab where the drain is? I have to raise my symbol higher than I was expecting relative to the origin to get it sitting in the right place in the drawing. Another choice of symbol I have to raise even higher.

 

In addition to this when I take a section through it the symbol shows at a slightly lower height for some reason. And also has a weird additional bit lower down that can also be seen in the clip cube, although here it's lower down still....

 

None of this is a massive deal. I'm just playing with the tool trying to understand how it works + what you can do with it + have realised in the process that it probably isn't going to show shower drains, channel drains or any other kind of gully that's flush with the surface of the floor properly anyway (apart from in 2D) because the symbol doesn't clip the surface of the slab so you only see what sits above it. Fine for raised roof outlets but not so good for anything on or just below the surface. However it would be good to understand why I'm getting these discrepancies between the different views + what I'm doing wrong...

 

Many thanks!

2137420905_DesignLayer3D.thumb.png.33a58f81ac7160ebdbc01cf2ad40cf03.png1601336398_Symboledit.thumb.png.696df17b6a857186620b85e481584881.png364008785_SectionViewport.thumb.png.055c51a1375259734f435bcaed62bac0.png1024549153_ClipCube.thumb.png.b6c08b70654fdf5217b6a7359e76fcb9.png

 

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Guest Wes Gardner

@Tom W.  ... you can add some elevation to your drains to get them to seat correctly, however, you are correct, they do NOT cut the slab.  You can do this manually by creating a solid and then use "Clip Surface" to clip the slab at the drain - see screen shots

Screen Shot 2020-09-09 at 9.35.55 AM.png

Screen Shot 2020-09-09 at 9.35.44 AM.png

Screen Shot 2020-09-09 at 9.44.52 AM.png

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Thanks Wes but the Drain Elevation setting, for me at least, simply raises up the whole top surface of the slab, maintaining the falls as they are + leaving the drain symbol unchanged in its semi submerged state. The Drain Elevation after all refers to the low point that the slab falls to regardless of whether you choose to show a drain symbol there or not.

 

But what I failed to realise before is that there IS a 3D Wall Hole Component to the symbol that cuts a hole in the slab corresponding to the part of the roof outlet that's meant to be located beneath the surface of the roof. That's why I was getting a weird effect last time, because I was just moving the 3D component + leaving the wall hole component behind.

 

SO if I painstakingly move both components of the symbol upwards bit by bit, one at a time, I can eventually get the roof outlet symbol exactly where it's meant to be + it looks great:

 

456920579_Screenshot2020-09-09at21_37_08.thumb.png.99e7dd17f4c36bc369236e0c0d8d72d3.png

 

But this can't be the way the tool's designed to work??? Even if the tool can't place the symbol in the right position from the off there must be a way of measuring how far the symbol needs to move + do it in one hit rather than a bit by bit trial + error approach???

 

Incidentally, if I go through the drain symbols one by one most of them are actually fully submerged within the slab + it's only a minority that show anything at all through the surface...

 

So to go back to my original question that Tamsin answered, if I model a shower drain or floor gully symbol I would also need to draw a 3D wall hole component to add to it for it to work with the slab drainage tool - if there were also a way to easily position it at the right elevation that is...

 

 

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  • 4 months later...
On 9/3/2020 at 12:14 PM, Tamsin Slatter said:

I would recommend you put the copy in the same location under your User Folder instead of the installation folder, so that your changes are not lost if you reinstall.

 

@Tamsin Slatter a copy with the same name (i.e. DrainageSymbols.vwx) will block any new content that gets added with an update from being seen, no? This might be desirable but might not.

 

I use a fresh file with just my symbols in it and use different name (e.g. DrainSymbols-BH.vwx). The drainage tool then sees the default content in the application folder + any content I add to my own user/workgroup file.

Edited by Christiaan
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That is my understanding also.

 

For Default Content if you have the same file name in the Applications folder, the Workgroup Folder, and the User Folder, the one in the User folder will be used and you will not see items that are in the files in the Applications folder or Workgroup Folder. And similarly, a file in the Workgroup Folder will hide objects in the Applications Folder.

 

As Christiaan says, it may or may not be desired based on your needs. You can still manually navigate to those files to access the data if needed.

 

Setting up to hide default content is a little like bringing a custom workspace forward when you upgrade versions. It will still work but you won't get any of the new features until you do some work.

 

For things like Text Styles you probably don't want or care about the default content and only want to use your own versions. For something more complicated (maybe Doors or Windows), you probably at least will want to take a look at the factory Default content and see if any of it is useful on the next major upgrade.

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