Vectorworks Tip #238- Levels and Simple Walls

image082Levels can be used to control the elevations of walls. If you set up the required levels, you can use the Object Info palette to connect the walls to the levels. If you change the level elevations, it will update the walls.

Comments

  1. Stories is a bit of a pain in the ass for me. Powerful but very convoluted. You need to work with Slab Styles and Wall Styles and totally forget about floors and regular walls of before.

    1. I was going to say that it is a real shame that you feel that way, but as I started to add my reply, I realized that I find stories extremely powerful but I find the interface is not easy to understand. It is a real shame that stories and levels are not easily accessible for you, because as you say, they are powerful.

      1. I apologize fot the untimely term above. I do my research before bothering anyone with questions, Help, old emails, Techboard. It’s frustrating that the Help file is not very helpful sometimes. Your approach to complement with videos is by far the best.

    2. Yes, it is a new way of working, so you would have to change the way you do things a bit. Levels (and Stories) are very powerful though, and the interface does take a little effort to understand, but I would say it’s worth it.
      For me, I have always thought about projects in terms of stories and levels (essentially datums) so now to have the ability to control whole stories and consistent levels for items in Vectorworks is fantastic. It saves me having to keep endless notes on the side about what various datums are and saves me having to adjust walls and components manually.
      Growth and change may be challenging, but I feel that this is one of those features that’s worth tackling and learning. (Just don’t try to learn it in a rush, with a deadline looming.)

  2. I understand the principle, but I set everything up and all my walls end up 2″ above the finished floor 0″. But not the columns, they sit nicely at 0″… And they both (walls and columns) are set to 0″ as their bottom reference.
    And the way parts of VWs do not work with each other. Why, for instance, Create Standard Viewports does not work with Stories even when a dialog tells you to set up Stoties beforehand? I just hate to see new silly tools each year and vital features like Create… broken for years.
    Letting off some steam.

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