3D Modeling Special Interest Group – February 2020

In this session, we covered using Multiple View Panes, including how to configure the panes and how to use them in 3D modeling, when adding interior wall paneling, and when adding customized cladding on the exterior of a project. 

Topics Covered:

• 00:08    The letter “M” on your keyboard brings up Multiple View Panes. The Vectorworks default is four view panes, but I like using three panes: one larger work area on the left and a right pane cut in two horizontally. I turn off the Use Same Visibilities in All Panes setting and have a different view in each—sometimes it’s helpful to have my sheet layer in one and a design layer I’m copying objects from in the other pane. I have saved these settings in my template file. We turned our discussion to using Multiple Panes for 3D modeling. We wanted to make a 3D table, so we had the larger pane in a 2D view, one of the smaller panes in a 3D wireframe view and the other smaller pane in a 3D rendered view. In your Vectorworks Preferences dialog box, choose to use the Allow option-click in-place duplication option—this makes it faster to copy objects. We demonstrated how the added visibility from the three panes aided modeling, but we could also draw from one pane to another. For example, we could draw from the bottom of an object (in one pane) to the top (in another pane) or the front of an object (in one pane) to the back (in another pane). 
•  12:20    We used the Add Solids and Section Solid commands to only have half of the table. We could double click to edit the Section Solid and go back further to edit the Solid Addition. The multiple views helped us keep an eye on the model and draw from one pane to another. We drilled a hole in the table, starting the hole in one pane and finishing it in another.  
• 22:48    The challenge was to use Multiple Panes to make it easier to add paneling on an interior wall. We constructed a wall and then used the Extract tool to add a 2D polygon copy on the face of the wall. Then, we used Distance snapping set for one-sixth and with the Multiple Divisions option selected to divide the wall’s surface into six areas. Once we had the first panel how we wanted it, we used the Move by Points tool in Distribute Mode to add copies of the panel along the wall.  
• 32:09    We used the same concept on the exterior of a house. We added the 2D polygon copy on the face of one side so that we could add cladding that lined up with the doors and windows. I use the Intersect Surface command and the Invert Selection command before deleting to end up with just my cladding with its door and window openings. Just a few steps and I had the cladding on my building! Using this method, I find that I can easily line up different styles of cladding on my buildings. The joints even show up in a building section! 

3D Modeling February 2020

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