Article Archive Contact Features List 10

Media Pack Subscribe Privacy Policy

Construction Computing Online Training Map Recruitment

News

Review

From CAD User AEC Magazine  Vol 22 No 1 - JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009

David Chadwick is intrigued by the possibilities provided by mechanical and architectural modelling in Vectorworks Architect 2009

Build four walls, then in free 3D space above them create a couple of freeform curves and produce a NURBS surface from them. Shell the surface to give it a bit of thickness, then select the walls - and then select the tool that allows you to extend the walls upwards to connect with the roof. Click and its done! Simple, really.

Vectorworks Architect 2009 really caught my eye - a brilliant combination of mechanical with architectural modelling, which can be adapted to create some quite exciting freeform shapes and to incorporate them within architectural models. Roofs are not the only things you can do with it, you see it can be used to create offset features, such as balustrades, after extruding shapes along a 3D curve, or split level foundations, where you can use the software to constrain the bottoms of the walls to fit the 3D geometry of a split level floor.

That's just one of the features of the architectural version of Vectorworks 2009. Not familiar with the software, but probably know the name? You should do, as it has been around for over twenty years, since its inception as a 3D modelling package for Apple Macintosh computers. Now it has incorporated the Parasolids engine to supplement its own capabilities, and provides all of the essential requirements of an architectural 3D parametric modeller,

along with 2D draughting.

Vectorworks was bought out by Nemetschek but still maintains its own identity, software development team and reseller network - led by Computers Unlimited - and has a well established base of users, including some local authorities who use it for a variety of purposes, such as architecture, planning, and urban development, because of its range of tools. It's a viable alternative to mainstream architectural packages that cost more than twice as much, and boasts full export/import capabilities with most of them - including mainstream mechanical modellers such as SolidWorks.

SketchUp users will be delighted to learn that if they import their models into Vectorworks, the software will apply a bit of intelligence and turn them into architectural structures by converting vertical objects into walls, horizontal ones into floors and ceilings - and diagonal ones into roofs!

LAYERS AND CLASSES

Which brings us, pretty early on, to some of the differences between Vectorworks and Autodesk, fundamental to an understanding of how Vectorworks operates. It still has the two design modes - model space and sheet space but these are described as design space and sheet space. Layers in Vectorworks, however, are called levels in AutoCAD, whilst AutoCAD Layers become

Vectorworks Classes. When an AutoCAD model is brought into Vectorworks the Layers are automatically converted to Classes. Classes, therefore, in Vectorworks speak, are very much groups of objects, whilst in the same software you build your houses in Layers.

TOOL PALETTES

Again, whilst the modelling tools in most architectural packages work in much the same way as each other, the differences lie in where to find them. Vectorworks has them assembled in context sensitive palettes on the left of the screen, and cover every aspect of the subject from site and space planning to MEP and detailing.

There are tool sets for creating the Building shell and inserting doors and windows and such, 3D modelling, visualisation, furniture and fixtures (predefined wall types, and a range of different libraries coded using RIBA Product Selector codes). And we mustn't forget the basic tool set that contains all of the 3D modelling tools, including those that allowed us to create the NURBs surfaces at the beginning of this piece.

There are even sets of human figures available in the visualisation tool set, complete with articulated joints for performing ergonomic studies. And the site planning tool set includes trees and basic highway features, such as roads, junctions, car parking slots, and the

Henn Architects – H.G. Esch – Glaserne Manufacture Dresden: a Vectorworks project TEC Architecture – Inotera Headquarters – Taipei ability to handle cut-and-fill calculations.

For new users needing a bit of assistance in navigating the tool sets, they can be displayed along with textual descriptions of their functions. There is a pretty comprehensive Help section, I might add, that allowed me to investigate unfamiliar features beyond those described in the QuickStart Guide.

WORKING WITH VECTORWORKS

Having set the modelling scale, users can work in 2D or 3D, switching easily between both. The basic shape of a building can be created very quickly, using the straight and curved wall tools in the Building Shell tool set, and adding doors and windows at will. Each tool in the palette brings up associated features in the top Tool Bar, which, amongst functions such as determining the direction of a wall for installing rows of windows etc., allows users to specify wall types from a substantial drop down menu. These can be selected to create the walls from scratch - or used to replace the original vanilla walls from the Building Shell menu.

Walls are actually built up from classes of objects, specifying each component. Why is this so useful? Well, you might want to produce one set of drawings for structural engineers, and seeing as they won't want to know about the interior plasterboard components etc., they can be switched off!

As with walls, doors and windows, other

features such as stairs can be created from basic types by invoking the preferences in the Tool Bar and modifying the feature settings. Windows, for instance, can be built up in many styles - including Gothic and half-ellipse, with different sash and transom arrangements, and with clear, smoked or opaque glazing!

The software actually provides two methods of creating windows and other features: the Tool Bar preferences for Window settings, or by double clicking on the window command Create Object. And, whilst you can create curved walls, you can also create curved windows to fit them - specifying dimensions and spacings for each of the mullions.

Stairs are equally flexible, as Vectorworks provides a substantial library of styles, including spiral and elliptical, that can be infinitely modified, specifying riser heights, platforms, tread depths and so on. They can then be dropped directly into the model.

VECTORWORKS 2009

Those familiar with the software will want to know what the company has done to improve the product. One of the most helpful and significan improvements is the improved snapping - designed to minimise the need to zoom in and out to snap to awkward points. Now users can Zoom and Snap in one quick operation, minimising the clicks required to do so. Users can also pre-highlight objects

before snapping.

There are 3D wall improvements too, mainly mainly concerning the use of Parasolids. Users can also duplicate arrays of objects (windows, doors, etc.) in walls - citing the direction of operation, and even handling rises and curves in walls.

Other enhancements include editing mode improvements and enhanced modelling tools with more efficient fillet tools, stitching, trimming and lofting surfaces - 3D modelling features that, as we have seen, can be used to great effect to create non-uniform roof shapes. And then there is the new drag and drop import - just import files by dragging and dropping them into Vectorworks, letting the software handle the necessary conversions automatically!

PLAYING AROUND WITH THE SOFTWARE!

We finished our demo of the solution conducted with Martyn Horne of Computers Unlimited - by exploring ways of converting our free-form NURBS surface roof into structural elements, so that we could actually build it. There were quite a few ways we could do this, but the easiest appeared to be using contours to section the roof into separate elements, and then to isolate and work on each section to produce detailed cross sections to hold the panelled glass sections. Fascinating!

www.unlimited.com

Review

Click here for a Print Friendly Version

©2006 Business and Technical Communications Ltd. All rights reserved.
No part of this site may be reproduced without written permission of the owners.
www.CADUser.com