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Curbs and edging- taking up a small height difference


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Hi, does anyone have any good links, tips and tricks to model curbs and edging? I often need to have an edging around part of my hardscapes which are maybe10cm or so above the hardscape its self (also sometimes the adjoining planting  will be lower).

 

Whats the best way to approach this? i have 2 main challenges to overcome:

  1. modifying the site modell itself
  2.  Modelling and controlling an object that represents the curb stone (for visualisation and quantity takeoffs).

 

A way to combat both of these would be a curb object that alows allows allignment at a different level on either side. but i understand this tool does not exist yet.

 

my idea (which i have not tested yet) would be to create two 3D polygons that act as site modifiers, and  then use somekind of modified railing (or wall object) as the curb stone, that would be alligned to one of the polygons (or maybe would have to be adjusted separately). 

 

Does this sound feasable? I am very new to both Vectorworks and object based modelling, and having used civi3d for the last 10 years, i am probably thinking about this completly wrong, so apologies if what i am saying is complete nonsense!🙃

 

Any advice would be more than welcome- its an exciting but confusing new world in Vectorworks!

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@Rob Norris separate hardscape objects work well for this.

 

1 for the paving, 1 for the edging in within a planting area, 1 for the adjacent planting area (counter intuitive, but yes, use hardscape to define a planting bed).

 

Your paving hardscape can make use of a border within it's definition, this border can have a different height than the adjacent hardscape

Your edging hardscape object can have the same slab style as the border used in your paving, control over the height of this feature is done within the style

Your planting area defined with the hardscape tool can have the difference between finish level of the paving and the finish level of the planting bed defined in the style.

 

Why would you do this? Well it makes it easier to define the paving, edging, and planting areas as having the same base elevation without doing a bunch of coordination in elevation.  I'll post an example shortly that will help this make sense...

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

 Just use the hardscape and set a border. set the border height to be what you want and done. As for the plant beds you could use a modifier or sets of modifiers to create your grade or berm.  This will help you control your site appropriately.

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I treat the top of finish level of my paving areas as my datum for components and build downward.  For grass and topdressing areas, I typically want those to sit some small distance lower than the datum of paving, so...

 

Keep the datum level relative to paving surface, but trick VWX into lowering area areas by inviting my "gap" method to the party.  Note the use of an invisible class for that gap.  Also note the oops, I forgot geotextile between the sand and gravel, and gravel and grade.

Control borders above paving datum in their styles as well, if you want to.  Just be consistent in your method and life is good.

 

154558479_ScreenShot2021-03-04at12_21_40PM.thumb.png.88cc023e367af4c42859f34e5bfa5960.png1623199249_ScreenShot2021-03-04at12_25_41PM.thumb.png.f05cf2fdef9ffa140064025b27b33eac.png

 

 

 

 

 

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45 minutes ago, bgoff said:

 Just use the hardscape and set a border. set the border height to be what you want and done. As for the plant beds you could use a modifier or sets of modifiers to create your grade or berm.  This will help you control your site appropriately.

 

Good advice..

If you are willing to accept Vectorworks texture mapping faults and curvilinear failures 🙂

 

This is where using separate hardscape objects and styles for edging can be very beneficial, especially if you have curvilinear features that start as banding within a hardscape and then continue by projecting out into landscape areas.  Some people use curved walls that are very short for the same.  Simple curvilinear design features like that always throw a ball of the same style 🙂

 

 

1265859667_ScreenShot2021-03-04at12_37_53PM.thumb.png.1b751e81546c7754b346bbb647168a14.png

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On 3/4/2021 at 7:31 PM, jeff prince said:

I treat the top of finish level of my paving areas as my datum for components and build downward.  For grass and topdressing areas, I typically want those to sit some small distance lower than the datum of paving, so...

 

Keep the datum level relative to paving surface, but trick VWX into lowering area areas by inviting my "gap" method to the party.  Note the use of an invisible class for that gap.  Also note the oops, I forgot geotextile between the sand and gravel, and gravel and grade.

Control borders above paving datum in their styles as well, if you want to.  Just be consistent in your method and life is good.

 

154558479_ScreenShot2021-03-04at12_21_40PM.thumb.png.88cc023e367af4c42859f34e5bfa5960.png1623199249_ScreenShot2021-03-04at12_25_41PM.thumb.png.f05cf2fdef9ffa140064025b27b33eac.png

 

 

 

 

 

This is very interesting - definitely seems a useful way of doing things in terms of producing detail sections. Does it produce correct results for producing a plan view showing levels, because the invisible class isn't picked up by the stake object, or is that too much to hope for?!

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