Using Colors for Line Weight in Vectorworks

I have just had a call from a client about using classes in Vectorworks to control line weight. When users come from AutoCAD,  they are often used to using Color by Layer. This allows the user to see the line weights of the lines on the drawings by the color of the lines.

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Vectorworks has a Zoom Line preference. To get to this preference, go to the Menu bar, choose Tools > Options > Vectorworks Preferences… Then click on the Display tab.
Vectorworks warns you that this can slow down Vectorworks. I haven’t noticed this, but there are times when you want to use it and times when you don’t. More about that later.

You can use this to show the line weights when you zoom in to the drawing. But it only works when you zoom in.
It does help you to see which lines are heavier, but it doesn’t tell you exactly what line weights they are.

When I first learned CAD, we did not have line weights that have in Vectorworks. Instead, we had to use a color to represent the line weight. It do not take me long to learn how to read the line weights on the draw using colors.
Here is the same view with the line colors. I can tell from this that the beam is drawn in .25 pen, because it is magenta, the rafter is drawn in .18 (red) and the purlins are .10 (black).

You can see the line weights when you zoom in with the Zoom Line Thickness turned on, but if you zoom out, you loose all the line weight information.
But, you can still see the colors on the lines, so you can still tell what line weights are on the printed drawing. Using colors to tell you line weights really helps to read the drawing.

When you look at elevations, it is nice to embellish the elevations to help read the drawing. I use a combination of line weights and hatching to tidy up and embellish the elevation. But when you look at the whole elevation, how can you tell if you have used the correct line weights on the elevation?

I use my line colors to tell me what the line weights are. Then I can be sure that I have the correct line weights.
You can use custom tools to help you set the line color and line weight and you can use classes to set the line color and line weight.
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