Architect Special Interest Group March 2016 (pm)

Topics covered:

• Libraries
• Default content
• updating default content from 2015 to 2016
• exporting resources to your default content

Libraries
In this session we looked at libraries and default content. We started by looking at why bother with default content at all. A lot of what we spoke about has also been covered in a previous manual (1407 – Libraries). This manual looked at default content and libraries in detail.
Default Content
We looked at the concept of default content. The concept of default content is that it is a way of storing vast amounts of information but storing it in a way that makes it easy for you to access. For example when you create a rectangle and you want to apply hatch to that rectangle, use the attributes palette. When you look for a hatch, Vectorworks presents you all of the hatches that are available. It doesn’t present you anything other than hatches, and in order to do this it uses a structure that stores information in the right place.
There are three places to store your default content:

• application folder
• use a folder
• workgroup folder

We Looked at each of these locations and looked at the locations for what default content is contained – each part of the default content needs to be stored in the correct location. For example, hatches need to be stored in the Attributes – Hatches folder. If you store your hatches and any other folder they will not appear when you need them.
The User or Workgroup folder should be used to store all your customised default content. These folders are not changed if you uninstall or reinstall Vectorworks.
Updating Default Content from Vectorworks 2015 to Vectorworks 2016
There are two commands you can use to update your default content, the Migration Manager and Batch Convert. The migration manager is designed to migrate your entire user folder (including preferences, workspaces, et cetera) from an early version of Vectorworks to the current version. This can be used to migrate all of your default content from earlier versions of Vectorworks to the current one.
Batch Convert on the other hand allows you to select just one folder for updating. This is a useful command to migrate your workgroup folder on your server from one version of Vectorworks to the current one, rather than using migration manager to migrate everything from you use a folder.
Exporting Resources to Default Content
When you are working on a project it is common to create new resources (symbols, hatches, wall styles, et cetera) which would be useful to storing your default content. The technique is to export these from the current project to your default content. On the resource browser, you can use the right click then choose export, to export these resources to your default content. If you do this when you create new resources, your library (your default content) will be up-to-date. This is a very effective way of keeping your default content up-to-date.
Slabs
We finished off the session with a short introduction to using slabs with components to create set downs on the slab. We looked at using clip surface to put a set down that was one component thick, and we also looked at using a 3-D object to create set downs to suit a specific design.
Architect March 2016 pm
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