For any construction project, details are an important part of the drawing set. It can take a long time to fully detail a project, so let’s look at how to draw a detail and some strategies for speeding up the drawings. We will look at importing details, applying the principles of detailing, creating details, creating multi-use details, and using details from your library.
[image]
For any construction project, details are an important part of the drawing set. It can take a long time to fully detail a project, so let’s look at how to draw a detail and some strategies for speeding up the drawings. We will look at importing details, applying the principles of detailing, creating details, creating multi-use details, and using details from your library.
Continue reading
In this session, we reviewed whether to put information on a design layer, class, or sheet layer as we discussed how to set up a helpful file template.
In this session we looked at the concept of a template file and how much we should store and it. It’s tempting to include everything that you think you might use in a template file, but with a layer and class standard and a library file you can keep your template file to a minimum. There are some things that really have to be in the template file such as tool preferences and dimension standards.
In this session the users wanted to look at the Resource Manager. In the past we have discussed Default Content. In this session we looked at default content from the point of view of only having one single library file.
The Resource Manager is an extremely important part of your Vectorworks interface. It allows you to look for resources (hatches, line styles, wall styles, plants, et cetera). So it’s important that we understand how to use it because it is will make you more efficient and improve your productivity.
The Resource Manager palette that you see on your screen is just one part of the total concept. Vectorworks uses the Resource Manager for many objects and tools to allow you to find the resources that you need when you use that tool.
In the session we looked at the new Resource Manager, especially looking at how we should be using the new manager, how we should be organizing resources, how we should take control of the resource manager, and then we looked at updating our library files.
Topics covered:
Every year Vectorworks updates, which means that every year you have to prepare for it. The purpose of this workshop is to go through the various things that you have to do to prepare for an update.
We looked at the Visibility tool, it is perfect for turning off the classes of unwanted information and it even works on classes of objects inside viewports (without entering the viewport). Holding down the V key will temporarily turn all the classes back on so you can see information that has been turned off.
This session looked at Libraries (any type of library), their basic concepts, how to access, create, edit and where to store them (as since version 2015 there have been changes / improvements). It also showed how to add and edit categories in the Plant Database and how to create your own Plant List (e.g. Create Plant List from found Favorites) that serves as a quick link access database when creating a new plant (Editing Plant Definition). It also covered how to create your own report (schedule, worksheet), how to edit it (data and graphic-wise) and how to use it. Finally it showed how to export this new worksheet to your library for future use in other files. In the process the topics also covered were: Add New Favorite Files, Locate Symbol in Resource Browser, Create Symbol (Convert to Group option, Assign to Class, Insertion Point), Create New Design Layer, Change Layer Scale, World vs. Page based Units, Create New Folder (for symbols), Edit Plant Definition.
A user has pointed out that Elevation Maker 2010 no longer works with Vectorworks 2015 SP3. That was a surprise to me and it turns out that they were right, and the error is because Vectorworks has changed some of its code, which required updating of my plug-in’s code. The Elevation Maker has now been updated and is called Elevation Maker 2015.
I have updated the plug-in and I have added it to this page….
Many of the Vectorworks tools have default content associated with them. Tools like Walls, Plants, Framing Member, etc. have a location in your User Folder to store the default content. If you save files in the correct location, you can make these tools easier to use. If you don’t, these tools will not seem to be easy to customise to your liking.
There are several parts to your graphic library. We have already covered using classes for your line weights, colors and line styles. But there are other graphic things you can store in your library. Hatches, gradients and images each have their own folders for quick access from the Attributes Palette.
Layer and class standards are part of developing your library. When you create symbols you will use specific classes. When you create other information on the drawings you will use layers and classes. It would be easier to have a set of layers and classes that you use in a place that makes them easy to get to.
The structure for your Library should follow a structure that you can understand and use.
For example, when I am drawing details I like to have a symbol folder with all my steel sections, another symbol folder with all my timber sections and a symbol folder with all the standard window sections. When I put a detail together it usually consists of typical construction elements, the timber, steel and window for example. Then there a many components that you draw that do not fit a regular shape. The concrete slab is one that will not always be the same.
If you are going to use a library, you have to create symbols. When you create a symbol, you have to think about how that symbol will be used because this will have a major impact on the insertion point you use for the symbol.
In order for your library to work, you have to turn on the option to Display default content. You access this in the Vectorworks Preferences. Default Content is where Vectorworks looks into specific folders for content that will work with the tool or command that you are using.
Libraries seems to be the one area of Vectorworks the cause the most confusion. It seems that users are confused about their own Vectorworks library, where they should store parts of it, and where the best place to store all their information is. It is tempting to think that you only need to have one library file that you can put all your resources in there. However this is not how Vectorworks is set up.
Libraries seems to be the one area of Vectorworks the causes the most confusion. It seems that users get confused about their own Vectorworks library, where they should store parts of it and where is the best place to store all their information. It’s tempting to think that you only need to have one library file and you can put all your resources in there, but this is not the way that Vectorworks likes to work.