Worksheets

We’ve just finished the user group meetings for this week. The topic we covered this month was worksheets. The turnout to the user groups was disappointing again. That’s a real shame because the people that came to the meetings got so much out of the meetings...

 we gained a lot from the topics discussed. Especially interesting was the Worksheet tool, that has potential in so many areas. Also the Create Section Viewport tool has convinced us we need to upgrade to Version 12. Each user group session we do makes us realise the power Vectorworks has. Looking forward to the next one.

We have been attending the meetings for approximately the last 12 months and without exception, we have never left a meeting without having picked up at least one hint that has proved invaluable and not only made drawing easier but saved a huge amount of time.  It may only be something small and incredibly obvious to you but is often an aside from the general topic and may be a point made by you or one of the other users attending.

I have always thought that worksheets are an under-used area of VectorWorks. Worksheets are amazingly powerful. They can be used to calculate things like;

- the buliding/Site coverage;

- how many electrical objects in the building;

-  if you’re working on an interior design, how many desks in each are of the building;

- how many plants you have in each area of the landscape design. You can even set the spacing as an option and have VectorWorks calculate the number of plants for a drawn area. If you change the spacing, or change the area the number of plants will change.

All the people that came to the user group had a copy of my essential manual but many had not completed the exercises in the essential manual on worksheets. My advice to them was to go back and try out the worksheet exercises and play the movies, there is a lot of valuable stuff in the movies on how to use worksheets.

If you want to learn more about worksheets, buy my Essential Manual, or the short sharp manual on worksheets.
http://archoncad.blogspot.com/p/manuals.html

Tree Images

I just received an email from this place:

http://envirographic.com/products.htm#

They have high quality images of NZ Native trees. I have tried to import them as images props and they work very well as the short movie here shows you. 

You get the nice image and a great image mask that cuts out the image for you. 

If you contact this site please tell them I sent you. 

Repetitive Unit Tool

VectorWorks Architect has a tool called the Repetitive Unit Tool.
I’ve not used this tool a lot, not until I saw someone on the Nemetschek North America chat list that needed a corrugated iron symbol.

I have a corrugated iron symbol and so I tried placing it in the file that the Repetitive Unit tool uses. And it works really well. For Roofing you need to add your symbol file to the following folder on a windows machine:

Program files\VectorWorks 12\Libraries\Defaults\Repetitive Unit\Roofing

and on a Macintosh:

Applications: VectorWorks: Libraries: Defaults: Repetitive Unit: Roofing:

Now when you use the Repetitive Unit tool you will be asked to choose a folder first, choose the Roofing Folder, then you choose a symbol, choose your symbol for corrugated roofing.

Now draw the line for the roof and your corrugated roofing will be created.  The repetitive unit is really useful and can be used for roofing, wall cladding (siding) and for framing.

The podcast this week shows some of these uses...