Architectural Drafting in Vectorworks

In preparation for my retirement after 21 years of teaching Vectorworks, I'm releasing the training reference notes for my classes at my last gig (at the Pacific Design Academy) “into the wild”, for the benefit of all and sundry. Since the lessons are presented in no particular order, use the Search tool above to find the topic you're after. Hope you find these lessons useful. If you do – click on an advert here that appeals to you. If you don’t, what the heck – the lessons are free, and I'm retired! If you find a mistake, let me know (by adding a comment at the end of the item) and I’ll drag myself from the beach chair to fix it. (I might even draft an answer to a new question.) Arrivederci and thanks for all the fish! - Jonathan Stoppi P.S. These lessons are based on versions prior to v.2012, but most instructions are valid for more recent versions, as well.

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Dimensioning: manual, and automatic

External dimensions of a building can be done manually, or automatically. Here's how.

Move Grid bubbles away from the building

To make room for the external dimensioning of the building, make sure the grid bubbles are pushed back, say, about five bubbles'-width away from the building. To do this, go to the Grid layer [1], and make sure to Shift-move them, so as not to move them out of alignment. Do this at the top for the vertical gridlines set [2], then click the handle at the tail end [3] to move the bubbles at the other end. Repeat the process for the left and right bubbles.

Dimension Exterior Walls – the manual method.

For this, used your Saved View of the Main Floor Plan to go to the Main Floor Plan on the Main Floor design layer, and use the Constrained Dimension tool [1], in Chain-dimension mode [2], then click at the outside corner of the building [3], then at the Midpoint of the first window or door opening [4] then pull away to indicate the offset that you wish for the entire chain [5]. NOTE: Make sure this is clear of the entire building, including projecting bits further along the wall, but leaving room between it and the grid bubbles. After that, you need only to click consecutively at each of the relevant points: the Midpoint of the next window or door [6], the centreline of the interior wall meeting the exterior wall in a T-junction [7], or the outside corner of the building [8]. To finish the chain dimension, remember to double-click at the last point. [With thanks to Kim Abbott/ID2B for the base drawing]

Change dimension font size to 9 or 10pt.

Dimension text should usually be 9 or 10pt in size (anything less risks being too small to read; anything more is wasteful of space). While the dimension chain is selected, change its font size to either of those sizes, through the Text menu.

Repeat the process within the Annotation part of the viewport.

To demonstrate why we should carry out all our dimensioning – and other annotation – strictly within the Annotation part of the viewport, now go to the Viewport of the Main Floor plan on the sheet where it is shown by itself, at a scale of 1:50, and repeat the process, positioning the new chain slightly above the previous one.

Now duplicate the viewport, change its scale to 1:100, and position it next to the original 1:50 viewport.

Change your Zoom to Normal View – i.e., the size simulating the size of objects were the drawing to be printed. Note how to the dimension text that we created in the Annotation part of the Viewport has remained at the stipulated 9 or 10pt [1] – while the text of the dimensions we created on the Design Layer has shrunk to half its original size [2], following the change in display scale, and is now quite unreadable. This is not the only reason why we should always dimension or annotate within the Annotations part of viewports, and not on the Design Layer – but it's probably the main reason.

Dimension Exterior Walls – the automated method.

Now that you've seen how exterior dimensioning is done manually, you might want to avail yourself of the automated method. Go to the Main Floor Plan (either directly to the Design Layer, or by double-clicking its viewport on one of the sheets, and going to that design layer that way) then choose AEC > Dimension Exterior Walls… You get a dialog offering you this operation on any of the design layers applicable. Choose the one you want (say, Main Floor, for now), and note the other default settings, but don't change them. Then OK…

Result.

Within seconds, it will have completed a exterior dimensioning of the entire building at that level, in three separate chains: for openings; for interior-wall T-junctions; and for overall length of each exterior wall. Because dimensions should not remain on a Design Layer, we now remove this dimension set from here, to paste into the annotations part of an appropriate viewport: while they are selected, immediately Group them (⌘G ; Windows: Ctrl+G), then Cut them to memory. NOTE: Make sure the Group itself is in the None class, and not some obscure one that might be turned off in the destination viewport.

Paste into the Annotations part of the relevant Viewport

With the dimension group still on the Clipboard, go to the Sheet where this plan is shown in a viewport set to 1:50 (not 1:100 – too small), double-click that viewport, and enter its Annotation section. Then paste in the dimension group anywhere. NOTE: Paste-in-Place won't work properly, because the coordinates at the Design Layer and within the Viewport are different. The trick now is to match the dimension set with one of the building corners: move it approximately into position, then zoom in on that area.

Drag to the relevant corner

If you hover with your cursor over the point where the two corner witness lines would meet, a screen hint Point will appear: click and drag it to the corner in question, and you're done.

Make manual corrections, where necessary

The automatic dimensioning is not always faultless: things like window label bubbles can throw it off – so make corrections manually where needed. NOTE: Consider not using window and door label bubbles in this case.

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Fitting up a bathroom

In which we demonstrate the adding and customizing of various plumbing fixtures to a bathroom.

Introduce a door into the space.

Use a symbol of a suitable door from the Resource Browser, or Opt-drag (Windows: Ctrl-drag) a duplicate from another washroom, at a point to suit on the wall.

Create a Plumbing Fixtures Class

If you imported a kitchen sink earlier, you will already have a Plumbing Fixtures Class, which came with it [1]. Right-click it to change its name to edit it and change its name to A-Plumbing-Fixtures, to tie in with our other Classes, and while we're here, make sure its Use at Creation option is turned on [3]. Give it a Solid, white colour Fill [4], and a Pen that is a Solid line of a colour that is distinct from that of walls, millwork, etc. – e.g., purple [5]. Set the Line weight to 0.13 or similar [6]. NOTE: Other plumbing symbols that you import will like recreate the plain-vanilla Plumbing Fixtures Class, so will need to be reconciled with this new Class – which we will see later.

Add a bathtub

The Bath-Shower is a parametric/plug-in tool in the Furn/Fixtures toolset [1]. With A-Plumbing-Fixtures as your current Active Class (so it gets assigned to it automatically), drag one into the drawing [1].

View in 3D to customize

Switch to a Right Isometric view to appreciate the various options available through the Obj Info palette. NOTE: To gain an unobstructed view, turn off the Wall-Exterior Class to make the exterior walls disappear. As you can see, the tub's Depth (in effect, horizontal width), and Width can changed from default 2'8 Config. can be changed from Oval to Dee, Hexagonal, Bullnose (as shown), Shower and Corner Shower [1]. Note that the unit has a Surround by default [2], measuring 6'8" high, and it can also have a Back Ledge [4] (turned off by default), in which case it will have certain default dimensions [5], which you can change. Last but not least, make sure Show 3D Details is turned on (it is, by default) to ensure it is seen in 3D views [6].

(Compartment Sink not applicable).

The next tool in the Furn/Fixtures toolset is the Compartment Sink – useful for commercial kitchens, but irrelevant to our purposes at the moment.

Insert a toilet.

The toilet is a plug-in immediately after the Compartment Sink. In reality, it is an entire Toilet Stall…

View it in 3D.

Switch to an isometric view to gain a better appreciation of what it looks like. As you can see, it comes complete with left, right, and front partitions, and a door. It also has, by default, a Dividing Partition, in case you choose to have more than 1 stall [1] (e.g., in a public washroom). You can vary the stall width, depth, partition, thickness, etc. The Partition Type can also be various types: by default, it's Floor Mtd w/ Head (Floor Mounted with Head bars) [2], but you can choose another type. Since we're using it in a private residence, turn off all of the checkbox options.

Add a fixture.

What we really need – and isn't provided by default – is a toilet fixture. To this end, scroll down the Obj Info palette and turn on Show Fixture [1], then click Choose Fixture… [2]. You're given the choice between a default set of fixtures or the Top Level of your file's own Symbol Library. Choose Defaults [3], then click on the popdown button on the right [4], and choose a fixture of your liking.

Place where required.

With no partitions, you're left with just the fixture and four Locus points, which are useful as they show recommended distance from the fixture to walls or other fixtures. Drag the object by one of its rear locus points to a suitable corner [1] – as always, making sure that Wall Insertion Mode is turned off [2], so the fixture is not "swallowed up" by one of the walls.

Place a vanity unit.

For this purpose, use a standard Base Cabinet of the sort that we used in the kitchen [1] – in a Sink Front configuration [2]. NOTE: As in the kitchen, make sure that its own Countertop is removed [3]. Measure the distance between the toilet locus point and the wall to establish its required length, and enter that figure in its Obj Info palette [4]. When it's ready, drag it by the corner to the relevant position [5].

Fetch a lavatory sink.

For the sink – since there is no bathroom sink plug-in object – fetch a ready-made symbol, as we did in the kitchen – from the VectorWorks Libraries. In this occasion, a good source would be from Object Building Services > Sanitary-Kohler Lavatory Sinks.vwx.

Import it into the current file.

In VectorWorks 2009 and above, you can do this by drag-and-dropping them into your workspace, or by right-clicking and choosing Import (all versions).

Add countertop and position sink to suit.

As we did with the kitchen sink, insert a Countertop [1], resize it to fit the base cabinet underneath [2], and set its Sink Shape to Oval or Rectangular, to suit your chosen sink. Then Group (⌘G ; Windows: Ctrl+G) the sink, note its dimensions, and set the Countertop Sink Width and Sink Depth to slightly smaller than that [4], to make a hole big enough for the sink basin but small enough for its lip to overlap all around. Position the sink over the hole, then adjust it in elevation, too.

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Garden Shed: setting up a presentation

Changing between plans, elevations, isometric etc. can become laborious, especially if there are layers that need turning off and on. To switch quickly and easily between different views, one uses VectorWorks' Saved Views facility. To make it easier to present these views simultaneously on a sheet, e.g. to a client, one uses Viewports.

Switch to a plan view of the main floor.

This means switching to a Top/Plan view [1], then turning off all layers except Main Floor [2], and deleting the square that we made earlier as the basis for the new roof [3].

Save this view as "Main Floor - Plan"

Switch to Front view, and render

Change to Front view [1] and – since elevations need to be shown not in wireframe – choose a rendering mode, such as OpenGL in the Rendering popdown [1]. By default, OpenGL doesn't show the edges of objects with a drawn line, but you can change that by choosing OpenGL Options… [2] at the bottom of the Rendering list, and turning on those options [3].

Render in Artistic Renderworks

Another option is Artistic Renderworks [1]. This is actually not one, but twelve different modes of rendering in a manner that is "artistic" inasmuch as it is not plain straight lines. The list of options is available at the bottom of the list [2] once you've chosen Artistic Renderworks as your renderer. In the dialog that follows, choose the option you want from the popdown. The default setting is "Cartoon", which is similar to OpenGL with Edges. NOTE: All Renderworks options are available only if you have the Renderworks module installed.

Render in Hidden Line mode.

Perhaps the most common mode for rendering elevations in particular is Hidden Line: this produces a plain black-and-white rendering with the lines that should be hidden, hidden.

Create a Viewport of the Main Floor Plan

Switching back and forth between the various saved views is fast and convenient, but not good enough for presentation to the client. For that one needs to have the views ready for viewing simultaneously on a single presentation "board", or sheet. To that end, VectorWorks offers the ability to create viewports: custom "camera views" of specific parts or angles of the design, which are always up-to-date in terms of the state of the design. Switch to the Main Floor Plan view, then create a viewport of it by choosing View > Create Viewport…

Create Viewport dialog

You get a dialog where you're asked to name the viewport (Viewport Name), then the text that you would like its drawing label to state (its Drawing Title – not necessarily the same thing as Viewport Name). VectorWorks doesn't allow naming any two things by precisely the same name, so it's a good idea to make the Viewport Name and the Drawing Title slightly different [1, 2] (e.g., with Viewport Names, I tend to use lower-case only, and periods instead of spaces; in the Drawing Title I use Title Case with spaces). The dialog also asks you where do you want to place this viewport – on which layer (it could be an existing design layer, or on a Sheet Layer, which is the kind of layers one uses for presentation. Choose New Sheet Layer (since we don't have any, as yet), and a new dialog appears, asking you for a Sheet Number (typically A-# if you're an architect or architectural designer, and ID-# if you're an interior designer). Type in ID-1 or A-1 as appropriate, and in the Sheet Title – since we're going to present the design in plan, elevations, isometric, etc., type PROJECT OVERVIEW [4]. NOTE: I tend to type Sheet names in all caps, to distinguish them from Design Layer names and viewports – but that's entirely up to your discretion.

Make a viewport of it.

Move the viewport on the Sheet

You won't notice much difference at first, but the Layers popdown now says you're no longer in the Main Floor design layer but in a Sheet Layer of the name that you provided [1], and you can now click and move the entire design as a single object to any part of the sheet [2]. Drag it up to the upper left.

Identify the viewport.

This is typically done with a drawing label, which you'll find in the Dims/Notes toolset [1]. Drag one in just to left and below the viewport and double-click to position. [2]. When you zoom in on it, however, you'll notice that it's not quite right: it says the Scale is "Actual Size" when in fact it's 1:50 (or whatever the scale was in the Design Layer), and there's no Drawing Name above that (although we had given the viewport a Drawing Title. This happened because this is the wrong way to annotate a viewport: the correct way is to annotate it from within. To do, we have to "go into" the Viewport – specifically, its Annotations section

Double-click the viewport: an Edit Viewport dialog appears, offering you three editing options: - Edit the viewport's Annotations - Edit its Crop - or return to one of the Design Layers that produced it. Choose Annotations, and OK.

Reintroduce a drawing label now

You're now "inside" the viewport – specifically, in its Annotations part. Now if you introduce a drawing label [1], you'll see that it is automatically given its intended name and scale [2]. To return to the Sheet level, you must click Exit Viewport Annotation at the top right [3].

Duplicate the viewport.

Option-drag it (Windows: Ctrl-drag it) to the right – adding Shift to constrain it to the same horizontal line.

Change what the duplicate viewport is showing

One of the great things about viewports is that they are entirely independent of each other in terms of how they show the design. We can change the View of this duplicate viewport, for example, to something other than a Top/Plan that it shows initially – to, say, Right Isometric [1] – in which case, that's what it shows [2].

Change its Drawing Title

Note that VectorWorks automatically gave it a new Drawing Number [1]. However, its Drawing Title, however, doesn't change automatically: that we need to do manually, ourselves [2]. You'll note that only the main floor walls are showing: that's because this viewport was created from one of the Main Floor Plan, which only showed the Main Floor level objects. Fortunately, we can turn on the other layers in the viewport as we please, by clicking its Layers… button in the Obj Info palette [3].

Turn on other layers in the viewport

In the dialog that appears, turn on the other layers by clicking in their first column to the left, and OK [1]. All the layers are now showing in the isometric [2].

Duplicate the Main Floor Plan directly below it.

Change this viewport to a Front view.

Change the View this time to Front [1], then click Layers…[2] to turn on all the layers again [3] and rename its Drawing Title to Front Elevation [4].

Render this viewport in Hidden Line.

Change its Background Render from Wireframe to Hidden Line [1]. A thick dashed red line will appear around the viewport [2]: this indicates that it is not updated: it is set to render, but won't do so until you tell it to. NOTE: The reason for this is because rendering may take some time, which you may not want to wait just yet. Click Update [3] to get it to update, i.e. render as you wished. The result, after a few seconds, is a hidden-line rendition of the front elevation of the structure, foundations and all [4].

Crop the elevation.

Since we don't want to see the foundations below ground level, we need to crop the result. We do so by double-clicking the viewport again, and this time choosing Crop, and OK.

Crop the elevation.

Cropping is typically done with a rectangle, but any polygon enclosing a surface area will do (including circles and ellipses). Only one object, however, is allowed within the Viewport's Crop environment at any given time. Use the rectangle tool [1] to create a rectangle that extends to about a foot below the Main Floor level [2]. NOTE: We can tweak it to be precisely at that point at any later date. Then Exit Viewport Crop [3] to return to the Sheet.

Make crop line invisible.

You may not want a "box" to appear around your design [1]. To retain the crop, but without actually showing the cropping object, double-click the viewport, go back into its Crop, select the line [2] and make its pen style None (or set its lineweight to zero) [3]. The rectangle remains, but its boundary line disappears. Exit Viewport Crop.

Adjust the drawing label to suit.

Return to the viewport's Annotations to adjust the drawing label to be closer to its new, cropped version [1]. Remember to Exit Viewport Annotation to return to the Sheet [2].

Duplicate the front elevation to make a side elevation.

Opt-drag (Windows: Ctrl-drag) with the Shift key down to create a duplicate horizontally aligned with the existing elevation, and change its View from Front to Right [2]. Note that the crop needs adjustment: this is often the case when changing the view of a viewport, since the centre of the "frame" in one viewpoint may not correspond to its centre in another. Fortunately, this is easily fixed.

Move the cropping object.

Go into the Crop part of the viewport and Shift-move the cropping object in alignment with its current position to fit the structure's new position in this view [1]. You can see the result when you Exit Viewport Crop and Update [2].

Create a Roof Plan.

We'll do this by Opt-dragging (Ctrl-dragging) a duplicate of the Main Floor Plan viewport sideways (pref. in alignment, of course) [1] and changing its Layers… setup [2] to show the Roof instead of the Main Floor or other layers [3].

Change the drawing numbers to suit the new composition of the sheet.

Because of the order in which we created the viewports, the Roof Plan – which should really be Drawing #2, since it's the first one to the right of the Main Floor Plan – is now #5, while the isometric is #2. We can resolve this by swapping the two numbers – but VectorWorks monitors which numbers have been used and does not allow the same number to be used twice. So to switch between the two numbers we must temporarily change both numbers to a hitherto unused number.

Change the number of each of the viewports.

This is simple enough: double-click one viewport , go into its Annotations, and change its Drawing Number to one that hasn't yet been used -- e.g., 9 or 11. Then Exit Viewport Annotation, go into the other viewport and change its Drawing Number to something else – say, 10 or 44, or whatever. Now you can go back into the Annotations of the Roof Plan and change its Drawing Number to 2, and that of the isometric can be changed to 5.

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Creating a Garden Shed (walls, foundations, roof)

In which we design a 10'x10' garden shed, using Building Shell tools – a kind of one-stop summary introduction to the application for new users.

Create a new file and do a basic setup

Follow the procedures set out in the lesson Creating a new file in VectorWorks, or use the template that you made from it.

Set your Drawing Area to 11"x17".

Click Drawing Area: Change… [1] Turn on Choose size unavailable in printer setup [2] Choose One Printer Page [3] NOTE: This will allow you to create a PDF, for example, of the drawing of the desired size, without dividing it into "tiles". Click Printer Setup… [4], where you'll tell it the size of the drawing you want.

Set your Printer Setup to Tabloid

First – since your printer may not have Tabloid as an option – choose Any Printer in the Format For: popup [1]. Then choose Tabloid from the Paper Size: popup [2]. Finally, choose a landscape Orientation, if that's what you want [3].

Resulting Drawing (Printed) Area

If you zoom out you'll see the outline of the Tabloid-sized drawing area you've just defined. NOTE: In reality it's the Printed Area: you can draw beyond it, but only things within the grey area gets printed.

Customize the default design layer.

Click the Design Layers icon [1] to access the Organization dialog. Double-click the default, Design Layer-1 [2] – or click it once and click Edit [3] to open an editing dialog. Type in Main Floor instead of its current name [4].

Make three other layers in similar fashion.

Click New… to create a new Design Layer called Roof, and twice more to create Foundation and Footings, respectively. Note how they all emulate the same display scale as the Main Floor.

Rearrange the order of layers

Visually, it makes more sense for Foundation to be below Main Floor, and Footings to be below everything else. You can do this by dragging a layer by its number in the # column down or up to where it should be. NOTE: This is the only column where you can drag a layer to move it to a different location in the list.

Save the file.

Name it 1104-Garden Shed, or something similar [1] (1104, because it's the fourth project in 2011), and save it in a new folder of the same name [2].

The logic behind "Z" and "∆Z"of Design Layers

So far, we haven't defined where each layer "begins" and "ends" in the third (z) dimension. This is important, since the design we're about to create will be made in 3D. The logic is simple: – the Z of a layer is its starting height in relation to the grade (ground) (which is usually counted as zero) NOTE: starting heights below grade are given as negative numbers. - the ∆Z of a layer is the vertical extent allocated to it. Users sometimes differ in how they divide up the building into layers: some allocate a separate layer for each floor slab, some incorporate the floor slab into the ∆Z of the design layer below it. We will use the latter convention, to cut down on the number of layers.

Allocate Z and ∆Z of the layers according to the scheme above

This means that: - The Footings layer has a Z = -2'8" (-32"), and a ∆Z of 8" - The Foundation layer has a Z = -24", and a ∆Z of 36" - The Main Floor layer has a Z = 12", and a ∆Z of 8' - The Roof layer has a Z = 9', and a ∆Z of 8' Double-click each layer to access the dialog where you give it its Z and ∆Z.

Create a square measuring 10' x 10'

You can create any old rectangle and then change its dimensions in the Obj Info palette, but a quicker way is to : - Click to start the rectangle, then - Press tab on your keyboard, leave the mouse alone, and type in 10' in the light blue readout that pops up beside it. NOTE: Don't forget the type the apostrophe: without it, VectorWorks will assume you mean inches. - Press Enter to confirm the dimension, and a dashed snap line appears, NOTE: This confirms that whatever happens, the ∆X (horizontal extent) of the rectangle you're drawing is sure to be 10'0". - Press tab again – repeatedly, if necessary – until you get to the ∆Y field in the readout, and type 10' , then press Enter again. Now return to the mouse and click to finish the rectangle, which is guaranteed to be 10' x 10'.

Move it to the Main Floor layer, if necessary

If you find yourself in the Roof layer or something other than the Main Floor layer, simply select the square and tell its Obj Info palette that its Layer should be the Main Floor. This effectively "transports" it to the other layer, without the need for Cutting-and-Pasting.

Draw a wall around the perimeter of the square

In the Building Shell toolset [1], click the ordinary Wall tool [2], and – making sure that the Snap to Object constraint is turned on [3], draw a sequence of four segments by snapping to each of the four corners of the square. Note that, by default, the wall is being drawn by its "top" line – that is, by its outer face, assuming you're drawing in a clockwise direction. That happens to suit us, but had we wanted to draw by its notional centreline or by its inner face, we could have chosen that mode in the Wall tool's Mode Bar [5].

Change the walls from a "generic" to a more realistic wall style

Shift-select them [1–4], then choose Replace… from their Style popdown in the Obj Info palette [5].

Replace Wall Style with another

This is the dialog where you tell one wall style to be replaced with another: in this case, the existing wall style is a "generic" 150mm thick wall, with no indication of its composition [1]. Click on the popdown on the right [2] to choose a wall style of your choice from a long list of pre-made Ext(erior) and Int(erior) wall styles. Say we choose Ext-2x6-Siding. The next question is, how will the new wall sit in relation to the existing wall, given that it's a different thickness? The convention is that the outside face of the generic wall refers to the outside face of the 1/2" sheathing sheet. Assuming we drew the walls in a clockwise motion, the outside face of the wall is its "Left Line" – so we click the Left Line of the existing wall [3] to line up with the Left Line of the 1/2" Sheathing of the new wall [4]. And OK.

Change walls' height to be that of the layer's ∆Z.

While the walls are still selected, click Link Wall Height to Layer ∆Z. Notice how the walls' height change from the default 8'2.425" (2.500 metres) [1] to the 8' that we assigned to the Main Floor layer [2].

Copy the walls for pasting into the Foundation layer.

Select them [1] , Edit > Copy [2], go to the Foundation layer [3], and Paste in Place [4].

Change the walls' style from whatever it is now...

Similarly to how we did before, Replace… their Style from their current wall style...

... - to plain 8" concrete

In the Wall Styles list, it's under Ext-CIP [Cast in Place] Conc 08"-Plain. Make the Left Line of the sheathing of the existing wall correspond to the Left Line of the concrete wall.

Note how the new walls have automatically assumed the appropriate height

Since the height of the copied walls was Linked to the ∆Z of the layer where they were copied, the height of the pasted versions are also linked to their local layer, which in this case is 3', so their height is adjusted automatically (circled).

Zoom in to see check the alignment of the stud wall on the concrete

To do this, your Layers list in the Navigation palette [1] should be set to Show Others or Gray Others [2], and the Main Floor layer set to Gray [3]. You should then be able to see the composition of the stud wall of the Main Floor superimposed in grey on the concrete (circled), with the sheathing aligned to the outside edge of the concrete.

Copy-paste the foundation walls in the Footings layer

When you've done so, Replace their Wall Style to Ext-Conc 12" Plain in a similar fashion as the two previous occasions. NOTE: In truth, they should be 16" wide, but 16" concrete walls is not a ready-made option in the list -- we'll learn how to make a new wall style for the purpose later. Since these walls are also Linked to the ∆Z of their local layer, they are now only 8" high. If you switch to a Right Isometric view [1], you should see the result [2]. Note, however, how when you do so, the other visible layers (Main Floor and Foundation) remain in Plan view [3]. This is because the layer orientation is not "synchronized".

"Synchronize" the layers by turning on Unified View

By turning on Unified View (through its icon in the View bar [1] or in the View menu [2]), all layers that are currently set to be visible [3] are shown in whichever projection you have chosen from the current active layer [4]. As long as Unified View is turned on, if you change the projection (from plan to isometric, to elevation, etc.), all visible layers will change to suit, neatly piled on top of one another, in accordance with their Z settings in the Organization dialog.

Prepare to make a roof

To add a roof to the structure, switch back to your Main Floor Plan using your Saved View.

Create a rectangle covering the structure

You can do this in one of two ways: use the rectangle tool and click from outside corner to outside corner [1] – or get VectorWorks to do it for you, based on the walls themselves: select the walls, then AEC > Create Polys from Walls [2]

Create Roof...

Once you have the rectangle (or any polygon defining a building's outline), get VectorWorks to make you a pitched roof automatically by choosing AEC > Create Roof. NOTE: "AEC" stands for "Architecture Engineering & Construction" – meaning, this menu is for operations specific to professionals in those three fields.

Create Roof dialog

Here's where you give the intended roof its parameters. Choose Vertical from the Eave Profile [1]. VectorWorks will warn that a vertical profile is not recommended if your Eave Overhang is nil, so set the Eave Overhang to something appropriate, such as 18(") or 24, or whatever is recommended in that region [2]. The next question is what will the roof's Bearing Height be [3]. If we were to create this roof in the same layer as the walls, we would say that the Bearing Height is the height of the walls (8', in this case), but since we're placing it at the Roof level [4] – whose Z is already set to be 8' above the Main Floor floor finish, we can leave the Bearing Height at zero [5]. Finally, click Create Accessories… [6].

Create Roof Accessories

This allows you to create an Attic (don't click if you want an open-space roof, as in this case); a Soffit [2] and a Fascia [3].

The resulting roof

This is what the roof looks like in plan [1]. Note that the Obj Info palette allows us to tweak some of the aspects that we customized in the Create Roof dialog [2].

In Right Isometric

Note that each hip end has a blue handle at the midpoint of its bearing line. Click on a blue handle to call up the Edit Roof Settings dialog, where you can turn an Eave into a Gable [2]. Note that, by default, the gable's overhang is the same as that of the rest of the roof, but you can change it to something else [3].

Result.

Turn on all layers, and render

Make sure all other layers are turned on (made visible) [1], set Layer Options to Show Others [2] then render in OpenGL [3] NOTE: OpenGL (Open Graphic Language) is a quick efficient rendering method that shows colour, a sense of the material texture, and shading.

Result.

Give the roof a more realistic rendering

Choose a material for the Top (roofing) surface

Select it, and in the Render section of its Obj Info palette [1], select the Top from the Parts popdown [2], and choose a texture for it from the Texture popdown [3].

Repeat the process for the gable end

This comes under the Walls part of the Roof [1]. If you allocate it to the same texture as the walls in the Main Floor [2], then the gable will look like a natural extension of the wall below.

Save this view.

To make it easier to return to this view at any time quickly, without having to reconfigure the Layers setup, etc., save it by choosing Save View… from its popdown menu in the bar [1]. In every view you save, specify the orientation and what part of the structure you're showing – e.g., Right Isometric - Whole Garden Shed. It then appears in a growing list of saved views beneath the Edit View… menu command [2].

Switch to a plan view of the main floor.

This means switching to a Top/Plan view [1], then turning off all layers except Main Floor [2], and deleting the square that we made earlier as the basis for the new roof [3]. 

Save this view as "Main Floor - Plan"

Similar to how we saved the Right Isometric two steps ago.

Switch to Front view, and render.

Change to Front view [1] and – since elevations need to be shown not in wireframe – choose a rendering mode, such as OpenGL in the Rendering popdown [1]. By default, OpenGL doesn't show the edges of objects with a drawn line, but you can change that by choosing OpenGL Options… [2] at the bottom of the Rendering list, and turning on those options [3].

Render in Artistic Renderworks.

Another option is Artistic Renderworks [1]. This is actually not one, but twelve different modes of rendering in a manner that is "artistic" inasmuch as it is not neutral, colourless straight lines. The list of options is available at the bottom of the list [2] once you've chosen Artistic Renderworks as your renderer. In the dialog that follows, choose the option you want from the popdown. The default setting is Cartoon, which is similar to OpenGL with Edges, only with finer lines (which ironically makes it less cartoon-like). NOTE: All Renderworks options are available only if you have the Renderworks module installed.

Render in Hidden Line mode.

Perhaps the most common mode for rendering elevations in particular is Hidden Line: this produces a plain black-and-white rendering with the lines that should be hidden, hidden. 

[archdraftingvectorworks-blog]

Line lights, Area Lights

A few other tricks you can use to spruce up your interior design.

Make a Line Light

This is good for creating effect lighting such as produced by a fluorescent light above a coving, or under a display cabinet. Draw a line corresponding to the light's actual size [1] – e.g., 48" – then Modify > Convert > Convert to Line Light… [2] NOTE: This is a Renderworks-only tool, and only seen in Renderworks modes: it is not part of VectorWorks without Renderworks.

Set Brightness and other settings

500 Lumens is very bright -- you might find 200 or 100 sufficient, but can change it later in the Obj Info palette.

Check the light's parameters in the Obj Info palette

Move up to the required position.

Do this in an elevational view where you can see the line as a line, instead of "head-on" as a dot. In this case, we're moving it to above the coving.

Check its position in plan.

Add a ceiling (if you haven't already)

The easiest way to do this is to create a "floor" out of a rectangle covering the entire unit, and setting its Bottom Z to the required ceiling height.

Assign to a suitable Class, and Send to Back

If you have a "Ceiling-Main" class, assign this to it – if not, make one and assign it. (This will allow you to set its material and/or turn it off when necessary.) Then Send to Back (⌘B ; Windows: Ctrl+B) so it doesn't obscure the plan.

Set a suitable camera view to see the light.

Symbolize the light if intend to duplicate

Display Camera View, and Render FQRW

Click Display Camera View… in the Camera View's Obj Info, click on the Zoom in Selected Objects [2], and render at Final Quality RenderWorks to see the result. NOTE: You can see the lighting effect in any Renderworks mode.

Duplicate Array, perhaps

Duplicate Array… allows you to create several duplicates at once, at intervals of your choosing – e.g., something a little bigger than the size of each light.

Result.

TO MAKE AN AREA LIGHT...

Take (or create) any polygon, in the projection of your choice (in this case, I've chosen an elevation view, to hang it on the wall – but I could have created it in plan, to put on the ceiling as a fluorescent panel).

Convert to Area Light

Move the light in plan more or less into position.

The red arrow projecting from the light object, by the way, indicates the direction of the light projection.

Zoom in and rotate it (if necessary) and position accurately

(⌘L ; Windows: Ctrl+L) to Rotate it Left 90° twice.

Result.

[archdraftingvectorworks-blog]

Make a 3D retail sign

VectorWorks's "Text to Truetype" facility makes it possible to create 3D versions of logos for placement above shop windows, on walls, etc. Here's how it works.

Start by creating the text at a suitable size in a suitable projection

If you know this will be use on a wall or shopfront, do it in the appropriate elevation, to avoid having to rotate it later. Use the Obj Info palette to set the font, size and style that you want.

Convert to Polyline

With the text still selected, choose Text > TrueType to Polyline [2]. This will convert the text into a Group of polyline equivalents [3]. NOTE: This only works with TrueType fonts (fortunately, most are). Fonts that are only Postscript may not convert.

Ungroup and Extrude

This will give a thickness to the letter shapes. Ungroup them first (extrusion doesn't work groups of objects), and choose Model > Extrude… (⌘E ; Windows: Ctrl+E). A dialog will appear, asking you for the Extrusion (thickness). Type in a thickness of your choosing, e.g. 1/2", and OK.

Examine in an isometric view

You should be able to see the letters with the specified thickness.

Double-click to edit the extrusion profiles.

Like a floor profile, you can access the underlying polylines by double-clicking the extrusions, where you can fill them as you could any 2D surface object [2]. Exit Extrude when you're done [3].

Assign to a class of its own

Make a class for the letters and assign them to it, so you can render it by a texture of your choice later.

Move into position in plan

If you need to change the orientation of the letters...

– for example, if you created the letters in plan and now need them standing up to place against a vertical service, switch to a suitable view, and Rotate them as needed.

[archdraftingvectorworks-blog]

Make a coving

Import, paste in, or draw a profile for a coving

You can find these online, or just sketch one yourself, and import it or cut-and-paste it in.

Traceover with a polygon tool

Instead of trying to mimic the curves with tiny straight increments, draw a series of right angles, as shown...–

Convert straight corners to radial arcs

– then double-click the completed polygon to activate the 2D Reshape tool [1], then, using the Convert Vertex mode [2], converting to radial arcs [3], click on each of the relevant right angle corners [5, 6, 7].

Fill the resulting polygon

– if for no other reason than to see what its shape is, as far as VectorWorks is concerned.

Then make it up to a right-angle object

Draw a complementary polygon [1], then select both and Add Surface them together to make the final profile [2].

Measure the result.

Chances are, it's the wrong size for a coving (I used the tape measure tool, but you could also use a dimension tool, or just select and see the Obj Info readout). So it needs to be rescaled.

Scale Objects...

Select the profile and Modify > Scale Objects...

Use Symmetric by Distance

Click the built-in dimensioning button [1] to return to the drawing and quickly measure an aspect of the profile [2], and return to the dialog, where it gives you the measurement that it's found [3]. Then type in the dimension you would like it to be [4], and OK. The item is scaled accordingly.

Change the lineweight and colour of the object to

Now that we've finished tracing over, there's no need for its extra-thick line, or special fill colour. Change these to a thin and a white fill.

Draw path(s) of intended coving along perimeter of the space.

Now that you have the profile of the coving (or baseboard, or whatever it is), you only need to outline where it goes. For this purpose, select the profile [1], the Chain Extrude tool [2], and draw the path where you want the profile to run. Double-click to indicate its end. NOTE: The Path must be a polygon – i.e. at least three points – so if you want to do just one wall, make it out of at least two segments that make up a single straight line.

Assign coving to its own Class

Accept the default settings

Flip the result.

This is because this tool was conceived originally for exterior coving features, so the profile is projected outwards, instead of in. Simply click Flip in its Obj Info palette to project it inwards.

Result.

Odd corners [1] are a sign that the end and beginning don't quite meet: fix this by double-clicking and editing the path, so that they do.

View it in elevation -- and move up.

Zoom in for accurate placement

To edit the coving...

– double-click it. A dialog appears, offering you to edit the Path, or the Profile.

To edit the Path...

You get a view similar to that of editing the profile of a floor: double-click it to modify it much as you would any polygon – including Clipping, Adding Surfaces, relocating or converting any of the vertices, etc. When you're finished, click Exit Path at the top right.

To edit the profile...

– you can do much the same. In our case, for example, we need to apply Flip Horizontal to the profile [1], to make its straight back go up against the wall, instead of inwards into the room [2].

Result.

Create a Camera View to see the result in perspective.

Result.

Customize OpenGL options to show edges and shadows

Render with OpenGL [1] , and you'll find this dialog at the bottom of the Render dropdown list once you've rendered in OpenGL [2].

Result.

Result in elevation.

Create a class for it, and assign

[archdraftingvectorworks-blog]

Use Google 3D Warehouse to widen your 3D object collection

There are many fine resources in the Libraries that come with VectorWorks, but sometimes – as in the case of furniture, table lamps and other accessories – the selection is somewhat limited. Fortunately, VectorWorks can also use models in Google's 3D Warehouse of free 3D models.

Go to Google's 3D Warehouse

You'll find it at http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/

Find the type of object you're looking for.

Type it into the Search field, and click Search [1]. Click on the name or icon of any object to examine more closely [2].

Examine the item as an Image and in 3D, review others like it.

Click on the object's 3D View button [1] to see from all angles, with cast shadows. If you like, peruse the Collections in which it is included and Related items [2] , and click the right and left arrows in the Cover Flow-like selection at the bottom right to see Other models you might like [3].

Click Download Model on the object you like. In the dialog that follows, Save File [1]: it should be downloaded to your usual Downloads folder.

Import the model into VectorWorks.

Use File > Import > Import SketchUp…[1] – and navigate the hard disk to your Downloads folder. Double-click the object file to bring it in [2].

Indicate the thicknesses involved.

Since the original purpose of Google's 3D Warehouse was to provide a repository of 3D building models to put on Google Earth, VectorWorks assumes that most 3D Warehouse models are buildings, so it asks you to indicate the thickness of the walls, floor and roof of the incoming model. If the item you're bringing in is not a building, give it appropriate thicknesses for all three. NOTE: In SketchUp, the software behind most Google Earth 3D buildings, walls, floors and roofs have only a nominal thickness.

Result of import.

The importing process automatically creates a new Design Layer, called Layer0, at a scale of 1:1, and shows you the object in Top/Plan view [1]. Switch to an Isometric view to verify that it came in still a bona fide 3D object [2].

Move it to the design layer of your choice, and position.

Cut and paste the object in your design where you need it – first in Top/Plan [1], then move it from its default z position on the floor to the height where you need it [2].

Make new Class(es) for components of the new object, if necessary.

In this case, I've made a new Class for Lampshades

Assign components to relevant Classes, and do a test rendering.

In this case, for the lampshade, I selected the lampshade components and assigned them to a Glass Bronze Tint texture that I made for the purpose (see How to: "Roll Your Own" Texture).

[archdraftingvectorworks-blog]

Use Google 3D Warehouse to widen your 3D object collection

[archdraftingvectorworks-blog]

Setting up key views, texturing walls, & lighting

With the subfloor, floor finish and roof in place, we can start studying perspective views of the dining area in question.

Set up a perspective view.

Start by creating a perspective view of the dining area towards the lower left corner. It is best to use the RenderWorks Camera tool In the Visualization toolset for this purpose. As with Set 3D View, it works by clicking first where you, the viewer, is standing, then at the point that you're looking at [2]. To allow us to turn off the Camera "cone of view" in future at will, assign the Camera object to its own Class – A-Camera, for example. When you're done, double-click on its centreline, or select it and choose Display Camera View from its Obj Info palette.

Render as is.

For maximum realism, Render the result in Final Quality RenderWorks.

Rendering with no lights, no textures.

Initially – with no lights or special textures to the walls – your view will look something like this. Save this view for future reference: call it something like Persp. View - SW Dining Rm [FQRW], (to indicate that you're looking towards the southwest, and rendering in Final Quality RenderWorks). Now, let's introduce some sunlight.

Introduce a sun object.

For this, choose View > Lighting > Set Sun Position…

Set Sun Position dialog

This dialog allows you to specify the precise sun position based on the site Latitude [1], Longitude [2] (if in doubt, check the popdown of Time Zone Meridians to see if your area is in the list - [3]), and where the North is in your current site plan [4] (In our case, north is precisely at 12:00. Finally, choose a late spring kind of date, to avoid an angle that is too low (winter) or too high (summer) [5], and a time of early afternoon [6]. And OK. NOTE: You don't have to switch to a Top/Plan view for this purpose, but it helps for the next step.

Group the sun to avoid accidental changes to its orientation

NOTE: THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT STEP! – as otherwise it is very easy accidentally to change its orientation when trying to move it. The sun in VectorWorks is known as a directional kind of light: it projects light in parallel across the entire scene. It looks like a 3D arrow, with the arrowhead showing as a cone: if you see the underside of the cone, the sun is shining in the direction away from you. Once it is grouped (on itself – that's OK), drag it outside the building, because it has likely been created within the building perimeter.

Rendering: with sunlight (no customized textures)

Choose the Saved View you made a moment ago for the rendered perspective of the dining area. With the sun now shining through, you should get something like the above.

Add textures to walls.

The walls as they are by default are grey and boring. Through the Resource Browser, open the resources of the Textures_Interior Finishes file and locate texture(s) that you would like for the walls (any other non-symbolized surface, for that matter). This is the easiest and most intuitive way to experiment with new textures.

Introduce a point light.

From the Visualization palette, introduce a new light to, say, the wall between two of the windows on the southern wall [2]. Leave it at its default settings [3], and OK the dialog, then return to the Saved view. It looks like a small sun.

If the light is not of the Point type – change it

By default, the new light should be a "Point" type of light: if it's not, change it from Directional or whatever else it is, to Point, in its Obj Info palette.

Check it out in a side elevation view.

Switch to a Right or Left view. As you can see, it comes in by default at zero height [1]. Scroll down to the bottom of its Obj Info palette, and change its Z to a height more suitable for a wall sconce – say, 6' [2] (press Enter to confirm).

Rendering: with sunlight, textures, and single point light

Switch back to your rendered view of the dining area. With sunlight and the point light, it should look like this. To make this more realistic, however, we must fit this light within a light fixture.

Introduce a light fixture

You'll find a good selection of fixtures in the VectorWorks Libraries > Objects Building Services > Electrical-Lighting Fixtures Int & Ext. Use the Browse a Document… command in the upper of the two popdown arrowheads [1] to find it. Drag a wall sconce to your liking into the drawing to import it. Move it where you want it in plan… [2]

Adjust it in elevation.

Like the light itself, the fixture comes in by default at floor level: change its Z to 6' or whatever height you choose.

Watch your Visualization palette

A palette that we've had closed until now – the Visualization palette (Windows > Palettes > Visualization) is useful to have open in these situations. It gives you a listing of all the light sources in the file, which you can individually turn on or off [1] (you can right-click and Edit… each of them to give them more meaningful names, such as "Sun", "Wall Sconce 1", etc.) and all Cameras [2] (which can similarly be named and edited). You can also double-click a light to locate it in the file (works best in Top/Plan view).

Rendering: no sunlight, wall sconce lighting only

If you turn off your Sun object and switch back to the Saved rendered view, you should get something like this.

Carry on from here – but with caution

Bring in table lamps (from 3D Warehouse, or from the library) and insert point lights into them, too to help illuminate the room. NOTE: It is best not to incorporate the lights into the lamp symbols, but rather simply Group them together. This will allow you greater flexibility in placing lamps with no light in them, and turn them on or off in any configuration. CAUTION: Inserting lights and rendering scenes with them is potentially a lot of fun – but it also adds considerably to the rendering times (and to the memory overhead of the file). Save your file frequently, to minimise risk of memory overload and crashes, be careful in how many lights you introduce, and use the Visualization palette to manage them.

[archdraftingvectorworks-blog]

Creating the Ceiling grid

For general instruction on making a ceiling gride, see the lesson created originally for the Cafe Concept project.

Create a ceiling grid for all the rooms.

Probably the easiest and quickest way is to make a marquee around everything [1], and choose AEC > Create Polys from Walls… [2] (Net Area option). This will create a polygon for each of the fully-enclosed spaces. NOTE: if there are some faults in the polygon creation, don't worry for now: the main thing is that the entire dining hall area is in a single polygon.

(Optional) Give the polygons a slight fill.

While they're selected, choose a light-coloured solid fill from the Attributes palette [1]. This will help you note whether their presence later, when you wish to edit them. Then assign them to the A-CLNG-Susp Class [2].

Turn the dining hall polygon into a ceiling grid by the "infection" method.

With A-CLNG-Susp as the Active Class [1], choose the Ceiling Grid tool [2] and make a small piece of ceiling grid with it over the dining hall ceiling polygon [3]. Then Shift-select the dining hall polygon, too, and Modify > Add Surface them together.

Adjust the ceiling grid to suit.

Change its orientation to what it is in reality by changing its default Angle of 0° to 90 [1]. Then (with the Selection tool) drag its handle to the top right corner, to maximize the use of whole ceiling tiles [2].

Clip out the part of the ceiling grid that tilts up.

To do this, first Send to Back (⌘B; Windows: Ctrl+B) to reveal the rest of the plan. Then use the Crop tool [1] in standard rectangular mode [2] – starting from the point where the two slanted ceiling grids start [3].

Clip the diagonal bit off, too.

For this, use the Clip tool in polygon mode

Raise the ceiling grid to the appropriate height.

Select it, and in its Obj Info palette, change its z from the default 0 to 8', and press Enter to apply.

Make the roof above.

It's a flat roof, set within the tops of the four exterior walls, so to make it, select the four walls [1], AEC > Create Polys from Walls… [2], choose the Net Area option [3].

Move it to the Roof level, and Floor…

Cut it to the Clipboard, go up to the Roof layer, and Paste in Place (or change its Layer to Roof Level in its Obj Info palette), then Floor… it, give it a Bottom Z = -12" and a Thickness of 12. For the sake of simplicity, assign it to A-FLOOR-Conc.

[archdraftingvectorworks-blog]

Scale Bar

Stating the scale in the drawing label of a viewport is all very well – most building professionals develop a fairly good idea of distances at the common scales of 1:50, 1:100 or their imperial equivalents. However, a scale bar – a kind of ruler showing actual distances in the viewport – gives that extra bit of information that is often invaluable to the client and even the contractor. Here's how to make one.

Go into the Annotations part of the viewport you wish to add it to.

Like most annotations, you won't be adding a scale bar in a Design Layer, but in the Annotations part of a viewport where it's applicable (typically a plan). Double-click the viewport in question and go into its Annotation part.

Add a scale bar object

You'll find it in the Dims/Notes toolset. Make sure that your Active Class is None or something other appropriate (e.g. A-ANNO-BlackFill), and just drag it where you want it to start.

Set scale bar parameters to suit.

Change the Minor Length from the default 1/4" to something more sensible for this sort of scale, e.g. 12" (1 ft.) for each Minor Length increment, and 10' for each Major Length one. To make for a sensible ruler, provide five or ten Minor Length increments, say, 1 ft. each, and 4 Major Length ones of 10ft. each.

If you change the Units from imperial to metric (or vice versa)…

The readout won't change automatically – however, it will if you turn off then turn on the Adjust Units checkbox. In this situation, you should also change the values of the four affected fields (Minor Length, # of Min Divs, Major Length, and # of Major Divs), to provide for a more logical set up – e.g. 2 increments of 10,000mm (10metres) instead of four of 10 ft. each.

Set Style to suit.

Personally, I find the Flip, or possibly the Checker style from the Style pop-down the most illustrative. If you also assign it to a Class with a black Fill (e.g. A-ANNO-BlackFill that we made for the Reference Markers) [2], you'll also get the distinctive black-fill look [3]. Don't forget to Exit Viewport Annotation when you're finished.

[archdraftingvectorworks-blog]

Flightchecking

"Flightchecking" (named after the checklist that pilots go through before take-off) refers to final checks of your file before dispatch. Here are a few tips to cover items that have not been covered before: 1. Ensure Classes are set to "Use at Creation" 2. Check Visibility of each Class in the various Viewports and Saved Views 3. Check Visibility of each Design Layer in the various Viewports and Saved Views 4. Validate class affiliation of all symbols 5. Update Drawing List worksheet.

1. Ensure Classes are set to "Use at Creation"

The laborious way is to Edit… each Class and check that indeed its "Use at Creation" checkbox is turned on. But there's a much quicker and more efficient way, which is to review the Classes list in the Organization dialog. Go to the Classes section of the Organization dialog. The quickest way to do so is to double-click the Classes tab in the Navigation palette.

Organization dialog: Details

The column to the right of each Class name tells you at a glance whether it is set to "Use at Creation" or not: if it says "N" (No), then it's not. Not absolutely all Classes must be set to Use at Creation (the None Class, for example, may not need to – nor does Non-Plot), but most do, and if you see it's set to "N", double-click the Class to edit it, and turn it on.

Validate Visibility of each Class in the Viewports

Next, check the visibility of each Class in all the Viewports and Saved Views: click the Visibilities button at the top right, then select each Class [2] in turn in the leftmost pane, and check to see if its visibility setting for each Viewport [3] and Saved View [4] is correct: if not, make the correction.

Cross-check with the Classes and Layers visible in each Viewport.

In the Viewports tab of the dialog, click the first Viewport, then move down the list (with the down arrow key) to review which Classes are visible for each Viewport. This will help you catch many errors that you might have missed in the Visibilities of each Class in the previous step.

3. Visibility check for Design Layers

Repeat the exercise for each of the Design Layers: click on a layer in the left pane [1], and check its visibility in each of the Viewports, and correct if necessary [2]. NOTE: it's less essential to repeat the process with the Saved Views: in many cases (e.g. Main Floor Plan), the layer in question may be turned off in that Saved View, but it's OK, because it's also the Active Layer in that view, which ensures that it is visible nonetheless.

Validate Class affiliation of all symbols

A common tendency among VectorWorks users is to assign the instances of, say, door symbols to Doors Class, rather than (or in addition to) the door object inside the symbol packaging. It should be the other way around: the symbol contents should be assigned to the Class in question, while the symbol instance itself should be neutral (i.e., in Class None). NOTE: By way of analogy, thinking of public restrooms: what determines whether you go into Men's or Women's is not your clothes, but your gender. Another analogy is the HOV (High Occupancy Lane) on major highways: what determines whether a vehicle can travel in it is not the vehicle itself, but what's inside it. So you should go through your files to ensure that your symbol instances are all None, and that their contents belong to the appropriate Class. This can be tedious if you do it one by one – so fortunately, there are two tools you can use to speed up the process.

Custom Select all objects of the type "Symbol"

For this we use the Custom Selection… scripting tool that we've used on several occasions before. As before, choose Select Only (to ensure that only the requested objects will be selected), and Create Script (so you can have something you can easily invoke again in future). Then press Enter on your keyboard, or click Criteria.

Choose Type: Symbol

In the Criteria dialog that follows, choose Type in the first popdown menu [1], ensure the second popdown is set to is [2], and choose Symbol from the third popdown [3]. Click OK, and name the script something like Select all Type Symbol, or similar [4]. Then double-click it to activate.

Change their Class to None

All the symbols present on the current design layer will be selected – as confirmed by the Obj Info palette [1]. Since in all likelihood their Class affliliation varies, the Class popdown in the Obj Info palette will be blank. Choose None from that popdown to assign them all – at the symbol instance level – to the None Class [2].

Warning: Say "No" to the dialog that might follow!

If "None" has certain attributes assigned to it ("Use at Creation"), you will get this dialog, which is asking if you want to apply the "None" class to all the components inside those symbol instances. You should emphatically say "No" – because otherwise all the textures and other attributes you or someone else painstakingly assigned to various components inside the symbol will be erased in favour of whatever attributes you assigned to the None Class. We only want to assign the None class to the symbol packaging, not to the objects within. * OK, that's half the work done in validating symbol assignments. Now for the other half.

Change Symbol Attr[ibute]s…

Choose Tools > Utilities > Change Symbol Attrs… (short for Attributes). This allows us to change the attributes of the contents of symbols on a wholesale basis.

Change Symbol Attributes dialog

For this to work, your symbols must already be sorted into symbol folders. Say, for example, you want to ensure that all the doors inside the door symbols are assigned to the A-Door Class. Assuming you have a symbol folder for Doors, choose it from the first popdown, then choose the A-Door class from the second popdown. Turn on the attributes that you want all doors to have (by default, all attributes are turned on). And OK.

Result.

VectorWorks will tell you how many symbols were affected by the change.

Check and see.

Do a spot check on one or two of the changed symbols to verify.

5. Update Drawing List.

This is one of the final checks you do before submission: to ensure that the Drawing List you created automatically from the Sheet titleblocks is up to date, double-click it on the drawing to edit it [1], click on the small handle at its top left and choose Recalculate [2].

[archdraftingvectorworks-blog]

Room Finishes Schedule

VectorWorks can produce a Room Finishes Schedule automatically, based on information that you enter into Space objects if your design. As with Drawing Lists and Door and Window Schedules, this information is "hotlinked" to their items in the Design Layers, so any changes you make to the items is reflected automatically in the Schedule.* This is a huge benefit compared to the traditional method of drawing such a table by hand, or by entering the information manually into a spreadsheet. Here's how to do it. __________________ *(at least, it is when you Recalculate…)

What we're aiming for.

A Room Finishes Schedule is a spreadsheet-like table, like Door and Window Schedules, which tell the builder precisely what finish goes on the ceiling, walls, base, and floors of every room of a design. To keep it concise, codes are used, which are explained in a separate spreadsheet known as the Room Finish Legend (see below).

1. MAKE SPACES CORRESPONDING TO THE ROOM FINISH "ZONES"

There's a certain logic in this process: since the goal is to minimize risk of misunderstanding with the builder, every time there is a change in wall in any given direction you should consider designating the area facing it as a different "zone". In this case, for example, although technically the entire seating area is one space, the eastern wall of Seating Area Central [1] is distinct from that of Seating Area South [2], so they warrant being defined as separate zones as far as the Room Finishes Schedule is concerned. NOTE: This also gives you the option of more easily assigning a different treatment to the walls of each zone.

Draw polygons corresponding to each of the distinct room finish "zones" in the design.

You can do this by using the polygon tool and clicking the precise outline [1], or by drawing a rectangle roughly corresponding to the space, and then trimming it (see next step).

Trim polygonally, or orthogonally

For trimming purposes, use the Clip tool [1] in polygonal [2] or rectangular mode [3]

Create Spaces from Polys

As always, by choosing AEC > Space Planning > Create Spaces from Polys

Rename each Space to suit.

Select the Space object [1], then type the required name into its Space Name field in the Obj Info palette [2].

Reassign to the Spaces class.

For some reason, even if you assigned the Space objects to the A-Space Class while they were still polygons, the moment you turn them into Spaces, they revert to the None Class – so select them and reassign them to the A-Space Class.

Put the Spaces On Schedule, and Assign Room Finishes.

To assign room finishes to the Spaces, select them and scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Obj Info palette [1], turn on On Schedule [2], and click Assign Room Finishes… [3] NOTE: If you don't turn on On Schedule, the Spaces you've selected will not appear in the Room Finishes Schedule.

Assign finishes to ceiling, walls, baseboard, and floor, for each (or all) objects.

Choose the appropriate finish from the pop-down for Ceiling, the walls in each direction, Baseboard and Floor [1]. Note how each one has a code associated with it: this is to save space in the Room Finishes Schedule. Don't see the precise finish that you need? Click Edit Finishes… [2] to access the dialog where you can edit one of the ones in the list, or make an entirely new one.

Assign room finishes "wholesale"

Assigning finishes to individual spaces is laborious – so if two or more spaces have a particular aspect in common – e.g., they all have the same wall base – Shift-select them [1], then choose the appropriate finish from the popdown menu [2].

Edit Room Finishes dialog

Choose the Location where you want to edit or add a new finish [1], then either choose the finish you wish to edit [2] and Edit… [3] or click New… to create a new one – e.g., one with the code "-" and the Description "n/a" [5] – for use when there is no wall, or baseboard, or floor in a particular space. There are no hard-and-fast rules for the Key codes: you could make up your own [6], provided you follow this schedule with a Room Finish Legend (see below) that explains each of your code items.

2. CREATE A ROOM FINISH SCHEDULE

Once you've assigned finishes to the various spaces, you can create an automated Room Finish Schedule. Choose Tools > Reports > VA Create Schedule… [1] The choose Room Finish Schedule, and OK. NOTE: The many other types of schedule possible by this method [2],

Place it on the drawing

The cursor will turn into a bullseye, waiting for you to click where you need it. Place it on the Sheet that you have created for the purpose (either the same sheet as the Doors & Windows Schedule, or a new sheet on its own).

Typical Room Finish Schedule.

Format Cells… to suit.

Remove boundary line on the Room Finish Schedule.

As with all worksheets, to tweak its appearance, remove the boundary line by selecting it and giving it a zero line thickness, or None kind of line. Remove the grid lines by going into its arrowpopdown > Preferences… and turn off Grid

Change font size.

Align table cell text to the Center (Horizontally)

3. CREATE A ROOM FINISH LEGEND

The Room Finish Legend default appearance needs improvement.

The default presentation of a Room Finish Legend is not nearly as nice as the default Room Finish Schedule: the heading isn't enlarged and filled in the same way [1], the column headers are missing [2], and the description column is way too wide [3]

Select the header of the too-wide column

To fix the width of the too-wide column, click its column header ("C"), then choose Column Width… from the popdown arrowhead at the top left [2]

Enter an appropriate column width

300 pixels is a good width for this purpose – and OK.

To emulate the appearance of the Room Finish Schedule

Copy the cell of the Room Finish Schedule worksheet name (A1)

Paste into the relevant cell in the Room Finish Legend worksheet.

4. CREATE A KEY PLAN TO SERVE AS A GUIDE TO THE SCHEDULE.

Name it, and assign it to the appropriate Sheet.

Crop it - and serve.

[archdraftingvectorworks-blog]

Referencing details

Referencing is a method used in design to highlight a part of an overall design scheme and refer to another drawing (viewport) on the same sheet or some other sheet where that part is shown in greater detail. The referring drawing can be a plan, an elevation, a building section, interior elevation – pretty much any drawing. References allow us to show small versions of plans, elevations, etc. with comparatively little cluttering detail (which would be too small to resolve, anyway) to give us an overview, and to provide context for the detail drawings, which we would not necessarily know where they fit in the overall scheme. Here's the procedure for making these in VectorWorks in the context of the JCC renovation scheme.

The aim is to do something like this.

References typically have two parts to them: a rounded rectangle with a thickish line with a distinctive dashed line type [1], known as the Reference Bubble, and a Reference Marker linked to it with a simple line [2], showing the Drawing Number of the drawing (viewport) where the detail is shown at a higher scale (if this is on another sheet, then the Sheet number is also shown).

Start with a Viewport of the plan

Since referencing is a type of annotation, and annotation is almost always done only in viewports, we start by creating the viewport necessary – in this case, the Main Floor Plan.

Make a "RefBubble" class

This will allow us to create the reference highlight ("bubble") with the requisite lineweight and dash pattern [2] automatically, whenever it is the Active Class. NOTE: The Reference Marker can be made within the A-ANNO-Blackfill Class that we made previously (which you might want to rename A-ANNO-RefMarker, to avoid confusion

On the referring viewport, draw the reference with its marker

Do this in the Annotations part of the viewport: - with A-ANNO-RefBubble as the Active Class, and using the rounded rectangle tool [1], draw the reference bubble over the area you wish to highlight [2]. - Then with the A-ANNO-RefMarker class [2], draw a short line and snap a Reference Marker [3] so that its diameter line touches the end of the line [4]. - Select the Reference Marker on its own, and in the Obj Info palette, enter the Drawing Number and Sheet Number of the viewport where the highlighted area is shown at a higher scale. Then Exit Viewport Annotation.

The required settings for the Reference Marker

Reference markers for details (which is what these references are) should be set to: Type: Detail [1] Config: Config 1 (if the destination is on another sheet) [2], or Config 2 (if on the same sheet) [3] NOTE: In these cases, you might find it more suitable to reduce the size of the marker to 0.75 of its default size, or less [4] Finally, set the Drawing Number and Sheet Number to whatever the destination viewport is [5].

Duplicate and position the viewport where required.

This could be either on the same sheet, or on another – e.g., the Plans sheet, or a Details sheet. In its Obj Info palette, change its Drawing Title[1], its Layers… and Classes… setup [2], and its Scale [3].

Use the reference rectangle to make the actual crop

Go into its Annotations, and delete the Reference Marker and link line, but leave the actual rounded rectangle: you'll need something to crop the viewport with to precisely this area, anyway – so why not Cut it to the clipboard to use as the cropping object? Exit Viewport Annotation, go into the Crop part of the view and Paste in Place the rounded rectangle to crop the viewport in the precise position where it was in the Annotations part of the referring viewport. Then make it invisible – by choosing a None kind of line, or a zero lineweight. Then Exit Viewport Crop.

Annotate from outside the design

Annotations are immune to the crop object – deliberately so, so that you can place most if not all your annotations outside the cropped area, and pointing to things within the design. For a tidy and professional look, align your annotations either horizontally or vertically with each other [1, 2, 3], and wherever possible, using the same leader-line angle.

Final outcome of sheet

The overall sheet drawing where the detail viewport resides may look something like this: the detailed viewport takes pride of place [1], with the original (referring) viewport serving as a keyplan to identify where the detail viewport is in the context of the overall scheme [2]. Often, the detail viewport itself contains references to further details within it [3].

Detail reference within the detail

This is an example of a detail reference within the larger detail viewport – referring the viewer to a viewport where this detail is shown in even higher scale, such as 1:10, 1:5 or actual size. Typically, there are several such references in a 1:50 or 1:25 viewport. Use them to highlight and explain any new detail in your proposal, to communicate clearly and unequivocally to the client and to the builders what it is and how it is constructed or installed.

[archdraftingvectorworks-blog]

Crop Interior Elevations, adjust drawing label line, and align them

Interior elevations should not show the buiding shell components – walls, floor, ceiling that are sectioned in them. To exclude them, we crop them out. Here's how.

Crop each interior elevation to suit.

Go into the Crop mode of the viewport, make sure your active Class is None, or a suitable annotation Class (e.g. A-ANNO-NoFill or some such) [1]. Choose the Rectangle tool in default orthogonal mode, and crop from the inside face of the bounding wall on one side to the inside face of the other bounding wall, and from ceiling to floor [3]. Then Exit Viewport Crop [4].

Result.

Set Drawing Label line to "Auto-Fit"

By default, drawing label lines [1] are fixed at 5" on the printed sheet [2]. While the drawing label is selected, choose Auto-Fit from the pop-down [3], to make it fit the length of the actual drawing label name text precisely [4].

Align interior elevations: floor lines

Assuming all your interior elevations are cropped correctly to the floor in each case, align them by their bottom edge by dragging each one by the Bottom Left corner, snapping to the Bottom Right of the one left to it, then Shift-dragging it to the right.

Align interior elevations: drawing labels

To align the drawing labels (after the cropped parts are aligned), go into the Annotations mode of each one, drag the drawing label to its neighbour (it's greyed out, but snappable), then drag it back in alignment.

[archdraftingvectorworks-blog]

Create and add Interior Elevation Marker (parametric method)

Interior Elevation markers are placed within the key plans at the top of the Interior Elevations sheet. Ideally, they have the ability to point in four (or even more) directions, to provide a compact reference to interior elevation viewports of each wall. Unfortunately, there is no single four-way parametric marker in VectorWorks toolset, but we can fashion one ourselves. In this lesson, we demonstrate one method of doing this, which involves a little fiddling, but produces an object that can be used in key plan viewports of any scale.

The idea.

The typical Elevation reference marker is a circle with a tangential arrowhead pointing at the wall in question, with the Drawing no. and Sheet shown within the circle [1]. However, when you have four walls to reference, such a marker uses too much space, so a common device is to fashion a four-way version of this, pointing in all four directions [2]. VectorWorks has no such single parametric object, so it has to be made manually.

First, create a suitable Class for the marker

Since annotations are usually specific to a given viewport, in many cases we can place them in the None Class. However, to ensure the marker has a black triangle and not a white one, it is easier if we create it within a Class that will give it this attribute automatically. Call it, say, A-ANNO-BlackFill NOTE: ANNO is a common Class/Layer name abbreviation for "annotation." To go straight to the Editing dialog from here, make sure the Edit Properties After Creation checkbox is turned on. And OK.

Set attributes of the new Class

Turn on Use at Creation [1], give it a Solid black fill [2], and a Pen Lineweight of 0.13 [3].

Make a White Fill version of same Class

Right-click it in the Navigation palette, Duplicate…, and Edit… it to rename it A-ANNO-WhiteFill. Change its Fill colour to white. And OK.

Add a Reference Marker

Set A-ANNO-BlackFill as your Active Class [1], go into the Annotations part of one of the Interior Elevation key plans, and drag an instance of the Reference Marker in from the Dims/Notes toolset. By default, it will probably look as shown here [3].

Change to an Elevation type.

Section/Elevation Markers have three possible Types: Section (the default, as in the previous step), Elevation (as shown here), and Detail (a plain circle). Choose Elevation from the Type popup [1]. Each of these Types have three Configurations. The default Elevation configuration (Config 1, shown here) is the standard, but for our purposes, it uses too much real estate. We need something more space-efficient, so change it to Config 3. As you can see, this leaves something to be desired, as the triangle initially covers over the text.

Coax the text into appearing behind the triangle.

Change Drawing Number to generic value

Use 00 or XX, or some such– because often the drawing number will get into two digits.

Mark the intended rotation centre with a locus point – and Duplicate Array…

Duplicate Array dialog

Result.

Relabel.

Replace the default values with the actual drawing number of the viewport for each view. If the drawing in question is not on the same sheet as this key plan, enter the Sheet No. in the Sheet Number field, and a forward slash (/) in the Separator field [1]. If there is no viewport in one or more of the directions, simply delete that marker [2]. NOTE: The Drawing Number has a tendency to hide behind the triangle after entering the figure. If that happens, type a single character – anything, even a space – in the Sheet Number or Separator field, and Enter. That should "wake up" the Drawing No. and get it to reappear.