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How would I create detailed brickwork for the facade of a building?


Ami

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Hi,

I am wanting to create a detailed building showing the unique brickwork on the facade of the building. How would I do this in the most efficient way? Below is a screenshot of the elevation of the facade. Would be great if anyone can help. 

Thanks

 

Screenshot 2020-12-05 at 1.13.23 pm.png

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I don't think you can do this using Walls or any "built-in" tool in VW's... But you can easily draw or model it

 

Depends on whether you want/need 2d or 3d, but for both I would start by actually drawing the pattern. Because of how VW's is organized I would recommend doing this in each frontal view (not in plan view) which will help when you get the the 3d portion, below. Draw each block as a closed polygon (Hint: you can initially  draw all of them such that their edges align, then use the Offset Tool to create the grouted spaces).

 

Now you have the 2d. For the 3d you can go a step further and Extrude the Polygons. Before doing so (or maybe even earlier, maybe this the first step if 3d is your goal) I would go toTop/Plan view and draw the footprint of the building for use in later steps.* (Hint: in VW's, if you select more than one shape and then Extrude, the result will be one single extrude which contains all of the shapes. This will be very helpful here I think. Note that you can always double click into an Extrude to get into the parent 2d shapes, for editing purposes; you can also use Ungroup, which will result in separating the shapes from each other)

 

* Remember that when you extrude in VW's the extrusion is always created at 0/0. You will need to select and then group each discreet wall and then go to Top/Plan View and drag or move it so that it is properly aligned with the footprint. Do this carefully. By holding the Shift key it will constrain the drag to horizontal or vertical, which is enormously helpful.

 

This will be a piece of cake for most of the facade(s), but I suspect  you will need to be careful at the building corners. These might take a bit more thought, depending on how the blocks stack up (pun. haha). I suspect the the sides of each facade (wall) will have gaps that will then interlock with corresponding gaps on perpendicular walls.

 

One thing I always keep in mind when modeling buildings in VW: Almost every material we use to build actual buildings can be described by very basic geometry. Nearly every piece of anything that goes into a structure is a simple extruded form. Think lumber, bricks, plywood, etc., etc. I always try to think ahead and determine the most elegant and efficient way to describe the 2d shape and in which plane it will be extruded. If you think like that this project will be a fairly easy exercise.

 

[Note that for the columns VW's does have pre-made parametric objects you can use.]

 

Let us know how it goes.

 

 

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You can model the fugues in 3D, pack them into a Symbol and

apply that as a Wall recess. Similar to this :

 

 

 

But you could also model each stone by drawing 2D over the drawing

and extrude. Maybe even every stone by itself with multi extrude,

if you want conical fugues.

 

Also I remember older VW demo videos where someone created

complex antique columns. (In VSS video libraries ?)

Edited by zoomer
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Not sure you need to attach to walls. I would probably just drag into place such that the extrusions just barely sit proud of wall exteriors. I would therefore make the extruded depth slightly less than the thickness of the walls. I would also create a new discreet Class and put all the extrusions in there. That way you can make them visible/invisible in various views. Maybe invisible in Top/Plan and visible in Elevations?

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@CipesDesign is right the Create Wall Recess command is really let down by the fact it can't be used at the ends of walls. Perhaps this is something that the 'Wall Modernisation' enhancement in the road Map will address...? 🙏 It would be great to have the same flexibility for editing slabs available for walls also...

 

Like @zoomer says, another option would be to use a Wall Hole Component symbol to create the main horizontal chamfered joints:

1935873170_Screenshot2020-12-06at09_49_44.thumb.png.5e14ab3c7a12acee3773f3b8e2a55028.png

 

This has the advantage of allowing you to use the wall tool + utilise all the functionality associated with walls: make them as long/high as you want, freely add doors/windows/openings/recesses, move them around, etc.

 

Perpends (vertical joints) could easily have been incorporated into the wall hole symbol, I wasn't sure if you needed to show them or not.

 

To do the detailing over the window I used another symbol that also incorporated a wall hole component to clip the wall to remove the horizontal joints in order to replace with the angled joints:

1117124696_Screenshot2020-12-06at09_50_05.thumb.png.d4f13820bd2cc2a1f1fb6cb8cb3b6b49.png

 

This was a little bit fiddly + because it's specific to this particular sized opening would need to be remade if the opening size changed. But if you had several openings the same size once you've made the symbol it's then very quick + easy to reuse it on other windows

 

 

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