Architect Special Interest Group November 2017 (pm)

In this session, we showed the flexibility and importance of using object styles in projects, reviewed how to create a slab for a complex set of walls—including adding slab drainage—and discussed setting up interior elevations.

Topics Covered:

• 00:15    We started the session with a simple floor plan. We wanted to look at the advantage of using an object style—which is between a symbol (fixed settings) and a plug-in (flexible settings)—over using a symbol for doors on a project. The challenge is that although using a door symbol can be beneficial when using the same door style over and over on a project, you can’t assign unique tag numbers to the doors. Selecting a WinDoor door object, we wanted to fix all of the settings except for the ID tag option. In a WinDoor object, this can be done by clicking on the Copy or Apply Styles button and clicking or unclicking options in the Setting to Apply box. Using the object, we placed doors in our model. Then, we generated a door report, which in turn created our door schedule. Using an object style allowed us the flexibility of having unique tag numbers show up on the schedule elevations. However, using an object style allows for other flexibilities as well, such as varying the depth of the sill—any additional flexibilities can be unlocked in the object style.
• 17:06     Next, we wanted to take another look at slabs. First though, we used several helpful tricks in setting up our walls: turning on the Auto Join Walls, taking away the bit in the middle by holding down the Alt key, and using the Trim tool. All very cool! With a complex set of walls, we looked at adding our slab. We could have used the walls as the outline for our slab, but we decided to use the Create Polys from Walls command with the Gross Area Poly option. Using the Create Object from Shapes command, we finished creating our slab. We went further and created a waffle slab by duplicating square shapes across the slab and subtracting the shapes from the foundation component. Adding this level of detail to the 3D model really adds a high level of functionality to your sections!
• 26:27    We continued the session by looking at editing the slab. You can easily change the offsets by revising the Edge Offsets settings, which are found in the Object Info palette. It doesn’t move the slab, just the slab edge components relative to the wall. Next, we added slab drainage. First, in the Slab Style dialog box, we clicked on the Tapered option for the top part of our slab, making it the tapering component. This would leave the bottom of our slab flat, while tapering the top in the areas that we selected. In the Slab Drainage Settings, you can change the default slope, minimum slope, drain diameter, drain height, maximum height, and elevation offset—really giving us control over the drainage! We placed our drains, and Vectorworks put in the valleys. The blue handles allowed us to easily change where the valleys went.
• 30:43   We finished off the session by discussing interior elevations. You might think that the challenge in doing room elevations is whether you set up viewports for each wall or draw them manually. Actually, we shouldn’t forget about the Interior-Elevation Marker, which automatically sets up a sheet with a viewport for each interior elevation that you check off. When I do bathroom elevations, I’ll probably have the toilet and shower stall in 3D, but not the shower tiles—so I do a sort of hybrid solution. When it comes to finishing the viewport for the interior elevation, I will already have the door, floor, ceiling, and fixture outlines from the 3D model. Next, I just add the tile as a shape with a hatch. The new toilet and sink fixtures are really clean in 3D!

Architect November 2017 am
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