Structural vs. non-structural in Live Sections

[digitalendeavors]

The live sections feature has the ability to separate structural and non-structural objects into user defined classes. Is there a way to control which objects are structural and those that arent?

Further is there a way to specify structural and non-structural elements by class?

[digitalendeavors]

The companion CD does have a movie on live sections but only a general example of using structural and nonstructural groups. It does not indicate what objects belong to which group.

Also after using the Live Sections for a few hours I may have encountered a bug. When creating a Live Section from workgroup referenced layers (using the structural & nonstructural option) only the nonstructural objects and objects beyond the section plane appear. The section style class is turned on... but the structural objects are not displayed.

I'm using OSX 10.3.9 and VW/RW 12 - AlBook 1.5Ghz

Can anyone confirm?

[mike m oz]

From the movie and my few brief efforts so far it seems to me that as one would expect structural elements are objects such as floors, walls, and roofs. It also includes stairs, and door and window elements inserted into walls and roofs. It also appears to include sites, which I think should be optional.

One oddity I have noticed when you choose to "Use Attributes of Original Objects" is that a converted VW 11 wall will show an overall hatch, wheras a VW 12 wall will not. It is white no matter what you do. So in fact it does not appear to use the original object's graphic attributes. The VW 11 wall provides a much better appearance and enhances the communication. The VW 12 wall does not.

Postscript: I have just worked out that "Unstyled" walls will show their graphic attributes on the sections. "Styled" walls (ie. ones selected from the pop-up list or defined by you using the components will not. Converting a "Styled" wall to an "Unstyled" one does not make the graphic attributes appear. To make the Live Sections truly useful a walls graphic attributes need to show in the Section view as well as the Plan view.

[ 11-13-2005, 07:52 PM: Message edited by: mike m oz ]

[Ramon PG]

I believe the VW 12 Companion CD has a movie on the subject. You do have some limited ability to do changes but I can't recall the extent exactly.

[quigley]

The best option is probably to define classes before sectioning and turn those elemenst on and off as required.

Mike, might be a stupid question but how do you NOT define a wall without setting components?

[mike m oz]

At the Schematic Design stage I tend to use simple walls - ie walls having either a simple fill or a cross hatch. I only add the components during the Detailed Design stage Pre VW 12 I used to change the Plan View of the walls using the Eyedropper Tool. This can now be done more simply using the Replace Option on the OIP

The VW 12 Wall Tool has an option of Unstyled Wall which can have fills and hatches applied to it (unfortunately you get a default width of 152.4 mm or 6"). Once these walls are drawn you can change their width to whatever you want on the OIP. These can then be moved so that their location is correct - it is messy but it works.

The image below shows what I am trying to achieve. To my mind it looks much better than having the walls with white fill, or having every element with the same coloured section fill.

[ 11-14-2005, 08:37 AM: Message edited by: mike m oz ]