In this session, we discussed working with layer and class visibilities, speeding up publishing by using VSS Cloud Services, speeding up workflows by using Saved Views, joining collinear walls, remedying a bad file, and selecting files when adding an issue or revision.

Topics Covered:

• 00:16    We started by opening a file that had a building with some furniture on a Furniture-Main class, but we wanted to add furniture on a different class. We imported outdoor seating from the Vectorworks Libraries through our Resource Manager and added a class called Furniture-Outdoor. Examining the Creation Options part of the New Class dialogue box, we noticed that there were only three settings—Visible, Invisible, and Gray—for Saved View Visibility and Viewport Visibility. This is a general approach—these choices will be applied across all of the Saved Views and viewports. I typically choose Invisible so that the furniture won’t show up unless I tell it to. We reviewed our drawings to see where we might want to have our outdoor furniture visible. Opening up the Organization dialogue box and clicking on Visibilities, we found a much more specific approach to visibility. Here, you can click each class, drawing sheet, viewport, and Saved View where you want your outdoor furniture to appear. Going through these, you’ll quickly find why it is important to give your viewports and classes specific names!
• 12:40    One technique that can speed up publishing is using the Cloud Services offered through Vectorworks Services Select. Using the Publish feature, you can take files that you uploaded to your Cloud Services folder and have the rendering done for you in the cloud.
• 15:05    Vectorworks has something now called Teaser Tuesdays, where each Tuesday they announce some feature that will be coming out in Vectorworks 2019. The other day, their website talked about speeding up looking at classes—Vectorworks 2019 will have a way to filter layers and classes. Something that we already have, and should be using more, is Saved Views—it can set up your layers, classes and zoom for working on a particular part of your model, without you having to go through setting up the view each time.
• 25:05    We looked at getting rid of unwanted lines when working with collinear walls. If you turn off the wall caps option in the Object Info palette and use hidden line rendering, they shouldn’t show up in your renderings. As long as the walls line up perfectly, the line shouldn’t show up when using OpenGL either. We discussed how to add an extrude to your wall by using the Create Wall Projection command—however, in a top/plan view, it’s difficult to make the graphics of the extrude match those of the wall. Then, we added a pillar, which we could give the same graphic attributes as the wall and add to the walls by using the Wall Join command. If I have three or four walls that overlap, I draw a shape that covers where they join, give the shape the same graphic attributes as the wall, turn the shape into a pillar, and then join the walls to the pillar. It doesn’t have the wall components, but it’s not bad.
• 34:24    Someone had a problem with a bad file, where they would go to a 3D view and only some things would show up. First, you should go to the Vectorworks Preferences dialogue box and try the various options under Navigation Graphics, to see if that solves the problem. If that doesn’t work and you suspect something is wrong with your file, open a brand new file—do not use a template—and create a new design layer. Browse for the file that’s giving you the problem and, going one floor at a time, import the layer objects. Once each import is done, check to see if you can see everything in a 3D view. Keep going layer by layer until you find the layer that is causing the trouble. Then, you can check through and see what symbol or other object is causing the problem. Sometimes, you don’t discover what was disrupting things, but you have a brand new file that works—so off you go!
• 37:17    We had many title blocks and we needed to determine which were active for various printings. The challenge is that you want to assign a new issue or revision to your active sheets, but a printing for the contractor might have more active sheets than a printing for building control. Another option might be to use the Selected Files option, rather than Active Sheets. The Selected Files dialogue box allows you to pick which files you want to add the issue or revision too. We then created a report that can track which files were active.

Architect August 2018

[ms-protect-content id=”34491,34492,34493, 34494, 34495, 34496, 344927″]

[/ms-protect-content]