Most People Don’t Use the Power of Vectorworks

I was teaching some of my clients the other day and I mentioned being able to count the number of symbols in the plan. We were looking at the interior design of commercial projects. They were not aware that you could count all the symbols easily with worksheets. Counting the symbol is only the start though, there is so much more you can do.
In this image you can see the plan, but no floor finishes. I have created the walls, shopfront and changing rooms.
The walls have been linked to the layer height. If i edit the layer settings the walls will automatically adjust. Some BIM programs do not work like this, but this is a good time saving.
 
 
The Polygon tool makes it so easy to add the hatching to the flooring. With a few clicks, you can place all the floor finishes.
 
 
 
 

If you place the floor finishes first, the furniture can be placed on top of the finishes. Some CAD programs can’t do this, they make you cut the floor finishes around the furniture. This must be a lot of work. Vectorworks has always been able to do this. I tend to move the furniture around, so this is a huge time saver for me.
 
 

An easy way add extra units is to mirror the units that have already been placed. Not only is this a fast way to work, but it is accurate as well.
 
 
 
 
It’s not just about placing units though. Vectorworks also has the ability to add data to your units. You can choose what kind of data you want to add to objects. There is almost no limit to the sort of data you can add to the objects.
In this case, I’ve added information about the joinery units, the number of clothes you can put on each unit, the cost of the units, and the number of graphic panels needed for each unit.
 
I could use the report to count the units, but you could also use the report as a packing list to make sure the correct number of graphic panels are supplied, or the correct number of hanging or boxed clothes. There is not limit to what you can get these reports to do.
If you want to learn more, start with the Introduction to Worksheets manual, then the Intermediate Worksheets manual, and there are several cadmovies to watch
 
Here is a youtube movie showing this file in action. It is amazing how fast the report  can be generated once you assign the data to the objects. You can assign the data to the symbols so that they are preloaded as you place them in the design.