Vectorworks 2017 Online Courses Available

I have create 4 new courses for Vectorworks 2017:

• Fundamentals
• Architect
• Landmark
• 3D Modeling

These are not like the manuals I have previously written, these are online courses that use video to teach you. The courses are broken up into logical chapters and some chapters have several movies. When you have compeleted the lesson, you can move to the next lesson and so on until the course is completed.

Vectorworks Tip 438 - Things Energos Needs (that you may not have thought of)

There are two things that you may not think that Energos requires. The first is that Energos needs to have a Heliodon in the same design layer as the walls. It uses this Heliodon it on to find the location of the site. It needs have the location of the site because the climate data changes from location to location. The other thing that you may not have thought of is that Energos requires spaces. It requires the spaces so that it knows which rooms or parts of the building are habited, and it also needs these spaces to calculate the volume.

 

Vectorworks Tip 435 - Advanced Energos Settings

These are the settings that you use to control the detail of Energos. There are several options here that you will need to check through to make sure that you have the correct settings. There is also an advanced settings area where you can control even more of the detail.

Vectorworks Tip 432 - Setting up an Energos Project

Energos doesn't just look at the insulation on your walls, it looks that the entire project and looks at the properties of all of the components of your walls, slab, and roof. This means that if you want to use Energos to analyse the energy in your building you have to set up your project correctly. Walls have to be drawn correctly, rooms have to be connected to the walls, and slabs have to be properly constructed. Of course this is using common BIM principles so setting up the project should also include making sure that your stories, layers, and levels are also well considered. It might seem like this is a lot of work to set up a project, but these are the things that you should be doing already because using these BIM principles will speed up your workflow from concept to contract documentation.

 

Vectorworks Tip 429 - Energos - What is it?

Energos is a way of calculating energy requirements of the building. In some countries the building code focuses only on insulation values, which controls the amount of heat that escapes from the building. This is a limited way of looking at energy consumption building because it takes no account of the energy produced inside the building, or any energy that is brought into the building to help keep it warm. Energos on the other hand looks at the entire project including insulation, orientation, ventilation, solar energy, et cetera.

We are covering Energos in the June archoncad Interactive Workshops, Book Now!

Vectorworks Tip 425 – Project Sharing on Dropbox

At present we are not allowed to create project sharing on dropbox. Project sharing has to be set up on a network system, either in an office, or using a VPN (Virtual Personal Network). Sharing systems like dropbox, box, et cetera use a system that project sharing will not work with at the moment. I have no way of knowing, but I hope this will change in the future.

We are covering Project Sharing in the May archoncad Interactive Workshops, Book Now!

Vectorworks Tip 424 - Where To Put Site Modifiers

Many uses believe that the only place that you should store site modifiers is on the same layer as the site model. While this works very well, it is not the only place that you can locate your site modifiers. The site model settings dialog box allows you to choose where site modifiers can be located. They can be on the same layer as the site model, on any layer, on visible layers, or you can select which layers you want to put your site modifiers on.

Vectorworks Tip 421 – Project Sharing – Privileges

When you are setting up a project sharing project you will want to limit the privileges of the users. Not everybody should have administrator privileges. There are a range of privileges that allow users different access to the file. The administrator has full privileges allowing them to add or remove users, change the privileges of users, change any resource in the file, etc. you can also create users that have limited access to parts of the file. The restricted access to the file can prevent people from updating or creating new layers, updating or creating new classes, editing resources, and is also a read-only privilege that doesn't allow any changes at all.

Vectorworks Tip 420 - What Is A Site Modifier?

In simple terms a site modifier is a special object that will allow Vectorworks to change (or modify) a site model. Not every object can be a site modifier, but there are a large number of objects that can be. A site modifier needs a three-dimensional object to tell Vectorworks where to make the changes to the site model (sometimes called a pad), and it also requires an object to limit the extent of the change (called a grade limits).

Vectorworks Tip 413 - What Is Project Sharing?

Project sharing is the ability to have several people working on a project where all theinformation is saved in a single project file. In the past you could use Reference Files, but these only shared information in one direction. Project sharing allows several people to share the information in both directions. We will be covering this in manual and online sessions in May 2016. Book Now...

Vectorworks Tip 412 - DXF/DWG Units

If you get the units wrong when you're importing a DXF/DWG file, you will end up with information that is the incorrect size. This can be fixed, but it is better to get the units correct. One of the techniques I use is to check the scale settings to see if the scale looks about right for the units chosen.

Vectorworks Tip 408 - DXF/DWG - Line Weights.

Older versions of AutoCAD did not carry line weight information and they used to use colours to represent line weights for printing. Some users of AutoCAD still use colours to represent line weights. When you imported DXF/DWG file you can specify which colours are equal to its line weights. Vectorworks uses line weights directly without reference to colours to this technique can convert the objects to the correct line weights.

Vectorworks Tip 404 - DXF/DWG - Drag And Drop Importing.

If you can locate your imported DXF/DWG file in a Finder window (file explorer) and you can see your Vectorworks drawing window, then you can drag your DXF/DWG file from your finder window onto your Vectorworks drawing window, and Vectorworks will then import that DXF file. This is known as drag and drop importing and it works not just with DXF/DWD files but it works with all file importing formats.

Vectorworks Tip 403 - Editing Slabs That Have Used 3D Object Modifiers

Editing Slabs That have used 3D objects. If you have used 3-D objects to edit your slab, you can right click on the slab and choose edit modifiers. You can change the location or some of the parameters (on the Object Info palette) but you are not able to change the shape of the original objects used to create the 3-D object, and you are not able to change or add additional 3-D objects. it.

Vectorworks Tip 397 - What are Subdivision Surfaces?

Sometimes you will hear this technique called subdivision modelling, but what is subdivision modelling. As I started to research this topic I found that concept of subdivision surfaces been around for many years. This is a mathematical concept, but what we really need is an easy to use application of this concept in Vectorworks. Vectorworks 2016 introduced the concept of subdivision surfaces. In simple terms subdivision surfaces allows you to quickly create very complex curving shapes by pushing and pulling the controlling handles around.

We are covering this topic in April for my subscribers. Book Now!

Vectorworks Tip 396 - Google Earth Pro

I found out recently that Google Earth Pro is available for free. It has many features that make it the pro version, but so far I do not know what the all are. One feature I do like in the Pro version is the ability to draw a path and then see the elevation of the path. I recently used this for placing massing models for adjacent sites. I did not have any hard data on the elevations of the adjoining sites, but by drawing a path, and Showing the Elevation Profile, I was able to get the information I needed.

Vectorworks Tip 394 - Project Sharing - Releasing

When you have completed your task on the project, you should release the layers you been working. Remember, nobody else can work on the layers that you have checked out, so in order for other people to work on those layers you have to release them. You can choose to release the layers, but when you do, if you haven't save saved and committed the work to the project file, you will be asked whether you want to commit this work or discard it.

Vectorworks Tip 390 - Project Sharing - Commiting

In order for other people to see your work, you have to commit your work to the project file. From the file menu there is a Save and Commit… command that will save your work to the project file. After you have done this other users will be able to see your change.

Vectorworks Tip 389 - Clip Surface With Slabs

You can use a planar object to clip a portion away from a slab. If the slab has components then you can choose which component the planar object will clip. In these images the slab has three components and I can choose which component the rectangle will be clipping. If I use two rectangles, and use two different components, I can create a coffered portion of a ceiling. If I use several rectangles, then I can create a coffered ceiling.

Vectorworks Tip 388 - What can you use Contours For?

In the previous tip about contours , I said that you could use them to rearrange the model. But that's only one useful contours. If you are using marionette you can use contours to generate slices through an object and then use those slices to create further objects in marionette.