The standard Vectorworks pre-selection colour is orange. The standard Vectorworks colour for selected objects is also orange, which makes it hard to see when object is selected and when it is pre-selected. This can cause some confusion. If you change the pre-selection colour it to make it easier to see the…
The Projection Tool has three modes. In the first mode you can use a planar object to split a NURBS curve. In the picture I have used a rectangle to split a curving NURBS surface. In the final image you can see that I have separated the original NURBS surface…
Unlike the standard Vectorworks animation, Animationworks allows you to create moving objects inside your Vectorworks files. This means that you can create a walk-through movie where objects move as you walk through. There are several options for this. The first option is when you get an object to move along…
The normal way of looking at 3D views and Vectorworks has been to use wireframe with orthogonal projection. Lately I have been trying Vectorworks with OpenGL rendering and perspective projection and it works very well. When you use it in this method you can see a false ground and false…
The snap box is the area around your cursor that allows Vectorworks to snap onto objects. If you go to your Vectorworks preferences you will find that you can change the size of the snap box and change the size of the selection box (this is the area around the…
I use the Extract Tool to extract the faces of 3D models. You can then use the extracted face to apply planar graphics. In this image you can see that I have applied hatching to the walls and roof of the building. This is using the extract face option from…
One of the things that I really like about Animationworks is the ability to use multiple cameras along the path. This allows you to set some cameras that look along the path and some cameras the focus on a particular point. For example, you could create a walk through of…
Learning to use the Smart Cursor is fundamental to learning to use Vectorworks effectively. The Smart Cursor allows you to find adjacent points to line up with, it allows you to find the point between two other points on screen and it has several other options which can really speed up your…
I have a friend that was having trouble tapering the edge of a curved object. In this movie I will be showing a different friend of mine how to use the Taper Face tool to taper the top face of the object.
Snap to Object is one of the snaps that you absolutely must turn on if you want to draw accurately in Vectorworks. If you do not activate this snap, you cannot draw accurately relative to other objects and you will not be able to dimension accurately. If you double-click on…