Friday, 28 November 2008
Doors and Windows
Vectorworks has what are termed Hybrid Objects. These objects can look different in 2D and 3D, making them perfect for both architectural plans as well as visualisations. Vectorworks doors and windows are Hybrid objects, for example in plan view a door will show an arc for opening radius but act just like any other object in a 3D view.
Plug-Ins:
The Resource Browser contains many ‘Plug-Ins’ for your Vectorworks model.
Vectorworks has a huge library of pre-built door and window objects which correspond to real-life manufacturing standards. To activate a plug-in simply select it and drag into the drawing space.
If you know exactly which door or window you require then this is very useful, today however we will be looking at making our own from the default window and door symbols (These can also be found in the Building Shell Pallette).
Doors and windows can be snapped into walls and then repositioned in plan view by selecting the plug-in at one of its ends and moving it along the wall (make sure you use the double-headed angled arrow cursor).
Using the Object Info Palette we can now adjust settings such as height, width and configuration (along with the option of having a door open or closed in 3D). You can also adjust the elevation height of a window.
Extra editing controls are accessed by double-clicking on the plug-in object. This will open up a large box with a number of different tabs. Here you can adjust in more detail the makeup of the object (For example you can adjust the thickness of a sill or add a door threshol.
Plug-Ins:
The Resource Browser contains many ‘Plug-Ins’ for your Vectorworks model.
Vectorworks has a huge library of pre-built door and window objects which correspond to real-life manufacturing standards. To activate a plug-in simply select it and drag into the drawing space.
If you know exactly which door or window you require then this is very useful, today however we will be looking at making our own from the default window and door symbols (These can also be found in the Building Shell Pallette).
Doors and windows can be snapped into walls and then repositioned in plan view by selecting the plug-in at one of its ends and moving it along the wall (make sure you use the double-headed angled arrow cursor).
Using the Object Info Palette we can now adjust settings such as height, width and configuration (along with the option of having a door open or closed in 3D). You can also adjust the elevation height of a window.
Extra editing controls are accessed by double-clicking on the plug-in object. This will open up a large box with a number of different tabs. Here you can adjust in more detail the makeup of the object (For example you can adjust the thickness of a sill or add a door threshol.
Floors and Ceilings
There is no 'Floor' Tool in Vectorworks as such, instead we draw the floor area using a 2D Tool and then give it a depth (usually a negative extrusion as discussed in session 2). In todays session we will look at two different ways in which to achieve this.
When drawing walls around the Floorplan template make sure that you use the appropriate wall drawing mode from the mode bar. You do not want to have your walls sitting inside the floor area if you have spent time constructing it accurately!
The Floor shapes that you construct can often simply be duplicated and moved up to act as your ceiling object as well!
- Drawing the Floor Area: It is often useful to draw the floor first and then use this as a guide around which to construct the walls. This is especially useful when modeling one room for visualisation. You may have done a site survey and have all of the internal measurements, in this case it is easier to construct an accurate 2D shape rather than straight away determine the individual lengths of multiple walls.
When drawing walls around the Floorplan template make sure that you use the appropriate wall drawing mode from the mode bar. You do not want to have your walls sitting inside the floor area if you have spent time constructing it accurately!
- Using the AEC Command: Vectorworks has inbuilt commands which can be used for quick and easy construction of walls and floors. They are located in AEC>Architectural menu.
The Create Polys from Walls command can be used to create flooring and ceilings from multiple walls. Select all of the walls that form contained spaces and access the command (Note that you must select wall objects only for the command to work). Select either Gross or net (room) Polys and see the results.
It is useful to first group all of the polygons created so that they can be edited easily. Enter the group , they can now be extruded either individually or together. The benefit of extruding individually is that they can all have separate textures applied.
The Create Walls from Polys Tool takes a polygon and constructs walls around it. The polygon can include curved points but the program may have trouble with excessively complex shapes.
The curved part of the polygon will produce curved walls made up of many individual straight walls. This is different to the curved wall tool which is made of a single wall. This means that it is trickier to position symbols into the wall where desired.
The Floor shapes that you construct can often simply be duplicated and moved up to act as your ceiling object as well!
Drawing and Editing Walls
Up to now we have looked at modeling walls using extruded 2D shapes (e.g Double Line Polygon Tool or an Off-Set Floor Area as in Session 2). Vectorworks however has a set of advanced Tools to draw Walls.
The Building Shell (Green Roofed building Icon) is found in the Tool Sets Palette and contains all of the tools needed to construct and edit walls in Vectorworks.
Straight Wall Tool:
This tool works by clicking and moving the mouse to determine the length and angle of the wall.
The lengths of walls can be adjusted in two ways:
We can also Re-position both the end and centre points of a wall on the grid using the x/y settings in the Object Info. Palette. Make sure that you select the appropriate point on the Box position Indicator.
The Object info Palette also contains controls for these other settings:
This tool has many modes and requires a bit of practice to understand but acts just like the straight wall tool in many respects.
Wall Join Tool:
New walls can be ‘snapped’ into existing ones at any angle and also at corner points. However for more complex wall operations we use the Wall Join Tool.
There are five modes to this tool and each one corresponds to a particular situation, use the diagrams as clues. They all work by clicking on one wall and then drawing a line to the wall to join to. It makes a difference which wall is selected first so if the result is not what you expected try again in another order.
Remove Wall Breaks tool:
When removing or moving walls away from another a hole may be left, we can use the Remove Wall Breaks tool (Wall Heal Tool ) to fix this. Simply draw a box marquee around the 'break' and it will be filled in. This tool can also be used on walls which have mitred ends resulting from previously being joined to another wall.
Fillet Tool (Basic Palette):
Use the fillet tool to produce rounded corners to two walls that meet each other. Select the Fillet mode and Set the Fillet Preferences in the mode bar. In top view click on one wall and then on the second.
Try out the three settings for different results. The Fillet can be either 'external' or 'internal'.
Individual and multiple walls can be picked up and moved and you will find that it is often useful to nudge them into place by holding down shift and using the arrow keys.
Take care when editing walls, to lengthen, rotate and move walls requires different cursors. Get to know them and have patience at first when trying to find a particular one!
The Building Shell (Green Roofed building Icon) is found in the Tool Sets Palette and contains all of the tools needed to construct and edit walls in Vectorworks.
Straight Wall Tool:
This tool works by clicking and moving the mouse to determine the length and angle of the wall.
- To draw a single wall, click, drag and then double click to finish.
- You may draw multiple walls at one time, simply click once and then continue to draw a second wall length. Double-Click as normal to finish. They will all be selected once you have finished drawing them, this makes it easy to give them heights and attributes quickly.
The lengths of walls can be adjusted in two ways:
- manually by dragging one end of the wall to a new position. Take care to select the correct cursor (double-headed arrow, angled cursor).
- or in the Obj Info. Palette. Adjust the L value, found under the polar co-ordinates settings. (Note that we can also change the angle of the wall here as well).
We can also Re-position both the end and centre points of a wall on the grid using the x/y settings in the Object Info. Palette. Make sure that you select the appropriate point on the Box position Indicator.
The Object info Palette also contains controls for these other settings:
- +Z : Sets the overall height of the wall.
- Bot Z : Sets the height that the wall starts at (Can be both positive and negative).
- Thick : Sets the thickness of the wall (If changed the wall will alter from its center-line).
- Caps : Draw lines to 'cap' the start and end of a wall. This is for 2D work only, wall ends will always be solid in 3D.
- Type: Set the Caps to be either Round or Flat.
This tool has many modes and requires a bit of practice to understand but acts just like the straight wall tool in many respects.
Wall Join Tool:
New walls can be ‘snapped’ into existing ones at any angle and also at corner points. However for more complex wall operations we use the Wall Join Tool.
There are five modes to this tool and each one corresponds to a particular situation, use the diagrams as clues. They all work by clicking on one wall and then drawing a line to the wall to join to. It makes a difference which wall is selected first so if the result is not what you expected try again in another order.
Remove Wall Breaks tool:
When removing or moving walls away from another a hole may be left, we can use the Remove Wall Breaks tool (Wall Heal Tool ) to fix this. Simply draw a box marquee around the 'break' and it will be filled in. This tool can also be used on walls which have mitred ends resulting from previously being joined to another wall.
Fillet Tool (Basic Palette):
Use the fillet tool to produce rounded corners to two walls that meet each other. Select the Fillet mode and Set the Fillet Preferences in the mode bar. In top view click on one wall and then on the second.
Try out the three settings for different results. The Fillet can be either 'external' or 'internal'.
Individual and multiple walls can be picked up and moved and you will find that it is often useful to nudge them into place by holding down shift and using the arrow keys.
Take care when editing walls, to lengthen, rotate and move walls requires different cursors. Get to know them and have patience at first when trying to find a particular one!
Duplicate Along Path tool
We can also duplicate objects and symbols along pre drawn paths (any 2D object) by using the Duplicate Along Path tool.
In the Preferences Box we can decide to place the object at set intervals along the path or decide on the number of duplicates to be placed.
Select Tangent to Path to place the duplicates consistently at right angles to the path.
When modelling architectural schemes it is often useful to use the same path for more than one task. For example if we use a path to model a curved sofa we can use it again to place a set of tables in front of it.
For this to work however we must first off-set the original path to the required distance so that the tables will position themselves parallel to the sofa path.
It is always useful to keep copies of paths that you use as you may need them later on.
We can also duplicate Light sources along paths.
Exercise : Model of seating and table/ Model of Bar area.
Websites: www.designboom.com (Becks Bar Competition)
In the Preferences Box we can decide to place the object at set intervals along the path or decide on the number of duplicates to be placed.
Select Tangent to Path to place the duplicates consistently at right angles to the path.
When modelling architectural schemes it is often useful to use the same path for more than one task. For example if we use a path to model a curved sofa we can use it again to place a set of tables in front of it.
For this to work however we must first off-set the original path to the required distance so that the tables will position themselves parallel to the sofa path.
It is always useful to keep copies of paths that you use as you may need them later on.
We can also duplicate Light sources along paths.
Exercise : Model of seating and table/ Model of Bar area.
Websites: www.designboom.com (Becks Bar Competition)
Multiple Extrudes
Another tool with interesting results is Model >Multiple Extrude.
By drawing a series of 2D shapes on top of one another (or by placing them in a specific hierarchy), selecting them and then using the command, an extrude of a particular height with varying cross-sections is created. These can be edited afterwards by double-clicking on the Multiple Extrude.
By drawing a series of 2D shapes on top of one another (or by placing them in a specific hierarchy), selecting them and then using the command, an extrude of a particular height with varying cross-sections is created. These can be edited afterwards by double-clicking on the Multiple Extrude.
Sweep Tool
By far the most enjoyable tool to use for the first time is the Sweep Tool. Sweeps include tables, stools, glasses or bottles and even whole buildings!.
Sweep Tool :
This tool works by drawing half of an objects profile and sweeping this around its center (we always draw the right hand side of the objects profile). It is often useful to draw a vertical line to act as a guide to draw to, this can be deleted later before activating the sweep command.
This makes the sweep tool ideal for quickly trying out different design ideas for say a table.
Sweep Tool :
This tool works by drawing half of an objects profile and sweeping this around its center (we always draw the right hand side of the objects profile). It is often useful to draw a vertical line to act as a guide to draw to, this can be deleted later before activating the sweep command.
- Sweeps can consist of individual lines, 2D Primitive shapes and multiples of both.
- Sweeps are made up of Segments, each segment has a degree value. By adding segments we can make them smoother in appearance (the smoothest being 0.1). By decreasing the segments we can turn them into sweeps of different shapes . Four segments of ninety degrees will create square sweeps!
This makes the sweep tool ideal for quickly trying out different design ideas for say a table.
- For more advanced sweeps we need to include what is termed a 2D Locus Point. We can place this wherever we want and this will now become the sweeps center of rotation. This creates sweeps with space at their centers (such as a bar counter or information desk).
- The sweep tool can be set to rotate through any number of degrees (either less or more than 360). A sweep of 180 degrees will result in half a swept profile. A sweep of 330 degrees will produce a bar counter with an access point!
- By adjusting the sweeps Pitch higher and the rotation above 360 we can create spiralling sweeps. For example if we sweep a circle with a diameter of 100mm and an off-set 2D locus we will get a dough-nut shape as a result. By changing the pitch to say 150mm and the sweep to 3600 degrees we will get a spring!
- By un-grouping a sweep (Modify> Un-Group) made from multiple shapes we can then apply individual textures to each sweep as well as adjusting the settings for each one.
Extrude Along Path Tool
So far we have looked at simple linear extrusions which keep a constant profile in one direction. Today we will be looking at a range of advanced modeling tools that extrude in all sorts of directions and have some great results!
Extrude Along Path Tool:
The ‘Advanced’ Extrude that you will probably use the most frequently is Model >Extrude Along path.
As the name suggests this requires at least two parts to complete the extrusion. It is made up solely of 2D shapes one of which acts as the path object and the other/others as the profile.
Extrusions along paths are always positioned flat on the ground plane despite which view you create them in. You will have to rotate them afterwards to position them vertically etc.
Also note that the center of the extrusion is placed at height=0. The Extrude Along Path will require moving up and re-positioning in an elevation view.
Both the Path and the Profile can be edited/added to by double-clicking on the extrusion and selecting the desired part to alter from the command box. Click on the 'Done' button to see the updated extrusion.
These tools are all kept in the Model Menu.
Extrude Along Path Tool:
The ‘Advanced’ Extrude that you will probably use the most frequently is Model >Extrude Along path.
As the name suggests this requires at least two parts to complete the extrusion. It is made up solely of 2D shapes one of which acts as the path object and the other/others as the profile.
- Paths can be either simple primitives (circles, rectangles, arcs) or Polylines/Polygons. When drawing paths it is often useful to construct one from a series of separate lines/polylines, this ensures a level of accuracy to the path. Make sure that the lines are connected at their end points and connect using Modify> Compose. This will result in a new single polyline.
- The ‘Profile’ can be formed of single or multiple 2D shapes. Each shape can have its own colour- but not its own texture!. Note that the profile is extruded along the middle of the path.
Extrusions along paths are always positioned flat on the ground plane despite which view you create them in. You will have to rotate them afterwards to position them vertically etc.
Also note that the center of the extrusion is placed at height=0. The Extrude Along Path will require moving up and re-positioning in an elevation view.
Both the Path and the Profile can be edited/added to by double-clicking on the extrusion and selecting the desired part to alter from the command box. Click on the 'Done' button to see the updated extrusion.
Saturday, 22 November 2008
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