Getting Started Workshops

If you are getting started with Vectorworks or if you are looking to move from a 2D drafting technique to a 3D modeling (or BIM) workflow, then this special interest group is for you. At these sessions, it is interesting to see how many questions there are about getting started.   Some users are worried that the architect or the landmark special-interest groups are too advanced for them. If so, then this special-interest group is for you. Some people don’t realise how much there is to learn about the basic tools and techniques.

Join this session to learn how to get the best from Vectorworks.  

Getting Started January 2018

In this session, we solved text challenges with worksheet columns, revision notes, and objects, as well as covering how to join walls without a mitered joint and discussing how to present your existing and proposed site models without too much clutter.

Topics Covered:

• 00:18    We started the session by looking at a land areas report. Someone was having difficulty getting things to show up properly in the worksheet. The challenge was that the column was too narrow to show all of the text in the cell. The trick is to go to the Format Cell settings and check the Wrap Text box. The solution was just a matter of formatting the cells properly. Once you’ve formatted everything how you want it, don’t forget to save a copy of the worksheet as a template or in your favorites library so that you can just copy it into your next project—saving you lots of time in the future!
• 03:14    The revisions on my drawing sheet were climbing up the page—forming a jumbled mess of text!—instead of descending the page. In the Title Block Manager, I simply needed to select the Down Sheet option in the Direction drop-down menu. I had to double check the settings for each page, ensuring that each had the text direction that I wanted. Again, it had nothing to do with text formatting—I just hadn’t selected the right setting. Generally, I don’t like to have a lot of revisions. However, there are likely to be some, so I create a different class—for example, Notes-Revision-A—for each series of revisions. Because they’re on classes, I can turn them on or off. This is useful because you tend to only note for your client what the newest revision is. If you have all of the revisions turned on, they might be confusing and make the drawing difficult to read.
• 13:22    Someone asked a question about changing the text style of objects. If you go to a text style in the Resource Manager and change it, the objects with that text style will update. If we want the object to have a different text style, just select them and click to apply the new text style to them. When you make changes to that style in the Resource Manager, the objects will reflect the updated text style changes. We tried, but it didn’t seem like we could apply a text style to worksheets, although you can use the worksheet formatting options for that—it seems like it would be a timesaver if it worked that way.
• 21:20    We looked at joining walls. The challenge was that forming an L joint in two walls normally produces a miter joint, but if one wall is taller, the miter joint continues above the shorter wall—which is not how it would look in real life. If you choose the Capped Join Mode of the Wall Join tool, one wall is butted into the other, eliminating the miter joint.
• 28:19    We ended the session by discussing how to best present the difference between your project’s existing and proposed site models. While the site model’s Object Info palette does have 3D Display options for showing only the existing model, only the proposed, or both. There are other things that you can do to present your site model in a clearer way. For example, changing your site model settings so there are fewer contour lines—maybe a Minor Contour Interval of only 500mm and a Major Contour Multiplier of only 2—so that the 2D presentation is less cluttered. You can also look at the site model graphic properties, putting existing major contours and minor contours on separate classes. That way, you could give the major contours a heavy dotted line and turn the minor contours off—anything that helps your clients understand what’s happening in your presentation!