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Saturday, November 30, 2013

Vectorworks Teachers online webinar

If you are teaching Vectorworks this is a must! This session will help you to teach Vectorworks, it will give you a place to discuss teaching strategies and it will help you to use existing exercises, or help to develop new exercises. There are a huge number of resources on this site, these meetings help you to find the ones you need.

Book now (free to subscribers)

Vectorworks Webinars Bookings Page

Archoncad has updated the webinars booking page for December and January 2014. Don't wait, book now.

It is important at the end of the year to look back at the main topics we have covered this year. These sessions are are a quick run though all the topics we have covered this year. These sessions are a great way to get an overview of all the topics for the last year. 
There is a lot of talk about BIM and IFC at the moment. The UK is moving to a situation where all building projects will have to be created using BIM principles. But what are these? How do you set up your projects to achieve this? This workshop is an introduction to setting up your projects correctly. We will be having a new manual for this session, and it will lead onto IFC later in the year. Make sure you book for this session. 
Don't forget about these. A special interest group is interactive online webinar that lets you get drill down deep into Vectorworks. The interaction between attendees allows you get the best information, tried and tested by users around the world, but Jonathan keeps control over the session, making sure that everybody understands the topics. 

Friday, November 29, 2013

podcast160 - Converting a PDF from Vectorworks to Greyscale

podcast159 - Calculating the Volume of Concrete with Vectorworks

podcast158 - Clip Cube in Vectorworks

Vectorworks Guide to Productivity 2014

Here it is, the Vectorworks Guide to Productivity. This is the ultimate productivity guide. This is a collection of all my tips and tricks. I have designed this guide for people that can use Vectorworks to a basic level, but want to be really effective. So, you might find there are really basic topics here, and really advanced topics. I have included several basic topics to ensure you are doing the basics well, and the advanced topics for users that need to know much, much more.

There are 194 movies and a total running time of 5:44:49. 

On sale now for Black Friday...

Reviews of this manual:


Review 1 : 5 stars 
Just downloaded your file,,,,,,, whoooo, this is excellent, Just excellent, I went over some of the items, and its a great way to see and find the videos on any subject, I watched the roof dormer, excellent. Just used the search tool and found all the items I wanted with ease, the videos are just perfect.
Review 2 :  5 Stars
I purchased the first “Guide to Productivity” for Vectorworks 2010. The text, videos and exercises were very easy to follow and actually fun. Jonathan has an incredibly easy way of explaining and demonstrating the power of Vectorworks. Searching and finding topics is very easy. Building your BIM model or presentation marketing can easily be created when following the steps in the manual. As a production resource it is invaluable. Since I purchased it I’ve kept it on my computer desktop, sometimes open on my second monitor. I am delighted to have the update for 2014.
Great work Jon !!

Monday, November 25, 2013

Cadmovie 1000 Posted

For the last seven years I have been making cadmovies for my subscription web site, This month I posted the 1000th movie. That is a lot of movies to make. Subscribers get access to all the movies, manuals and webinars that I post each month.

If you want to see the 1000th movie, you can click on this link. To celebrate this achievment, I have made this movie public. 

Sunday, November 24, 2013

podcast157 - Settings for a Roof in Vectorworks

This is a short movie showing you how to set the attic, soffit and fascia on a Vectorworks roof. The attic settings can be useful for setting a ceiling height in the roof layer.





Thursday, November 21, 2013

Learn to Customise Vectorworks in 29 mins

I have just added a new product to my store, a movie called "Customising Vectorworks". This movie works though several parts of Vectorworks and shows you how to edit the Vectorworks workspace to make it easier for you to find the tools you want and how to start creating custom tool (without learning any programming).

Table of Contents
  • Workspaces
  • Move Palettes
  • Editing The Workspace
  • Creating a New Menu
  • Adding a Menu Command
  • Adding a Keyboard Shortcut
  • Removing a Command
  • Removing a Menu
  • Adding a Separator to a Menu
  • Contextual Menus
  • Tool Palettes and Tool Sets
  • Create a New Tool Palette
  • Adding Tools
  • Adding Tools Together
  • Hot Keys
  • Deleting Tools
  • Export Workspace
  • Custom Selection
  • Custom Tool/Attribute

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

cadmovie995 – Basic Editing Tools – Part 5

Rotate Tool – This tool is used to rotate objects, groups, symbols, etc. Do not use this tool to rotate your view. You can rotate the selected object, or by changing your options in the Tool bar, you can rotate a copy of the selected object.

see movie...

cadmovie994 – Basic Editing Tools – Part 4

Reshape Tool – This is one of the most powerful tools that you need to learn and Vectorworks. Not only do you use this tool to reshape polygons, you also use it to reshape all polygon-based objects (plants, roofs, site models, etc.).

see movie...

cadmovie993 – Basic Editing Tools – Part 3

Attribute Mapping – The attribute mapping tool can be used to adjust your graphics ( hatches, gradients, etc.) as well as being able to adjust textures and decals.

see movie...

cadmovie992 – Basic Editing Tools – Part 2

Select Similar – This tool will select all objects that are similar. This makes it easy to select all of your walls, without accidentally selecting other objects.

see movie...

cadmovie991 – Basic Editing Tools – Part 1

Eyedropper – This tool is used to copy attributes from an object and apply them to other objects that may or may not be selected. This is a very powerful tool and can be used to copy more than just the graphic attributes.

see movie...

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Layers and Classes

Layers and classes are always confusing until you have a good straegy for when to use Layers and when to use Classes. The manual is desinged to help you develop this strategy.


 Design layers and classes are the two most important organising concepts that you need to understand in order to create drawings in Vectorworks. I still find some users are confused about when to use a Design Layer and when to us a Class to organise their drawings. I use three simple rules to decide when I need a new Class, and three simple rules to decide when I need new Design Layers. 


If you understand layers and classes fully, you will find it a lot easier to create your drawings because you know when whether should be applying a class to an object or whether you should be putting that object in a layer. 

This short manual is a great way to understand when to use layer and when to use classes. 

Friday, November 15, 2013

archoncad store now open

For the last seven years I have been making movies and manuals for my subscribers. I have created a lot of content over this time (1500 movies, 80 manuals, numberous posts). But I can understand that some users do not want to subscribe to regular payment. I am making some of my manuals and movies avaialble on this new web site:

http://store.archoncad.com

The breth and depth of manuals, movies, podcasts and online webinar is unbelievable, and far beyond what you can find on any other site.