Architosh News Reports
  Architosh Staff (info@architosh.com)
 
 

 

MacCAD-reView: VectorWorks ARCHITECT introduction - Page 2

10 March 00.

Introduction & Setup - Continued

 

For our little test case design (a fictitious new BritasMedia office building) we would begin with inputting our data here in one of the first dialog boxes. The VA Setup Assistant wizard is a series of dialog boxes with instructions that guide you through the process of setting up your project on ARCHITECT. For VectorWorks users, this setup process is very similar to the AEC Setup Assistant still available in VectorWorks (even when you install ARCHITECT). For our project we chose Small Commercial and used a slightly unconventional scale of 1"=16" feet for our site plans. Click OK to go to the next screen.

One of the key dialog boxes is the one shown above. Here is where you determine what types of project plan sheets you want to incorporate in your project. If you later want to add a sheet you can do so as well. Because we already defined our plan scale as 1/4"=1'-0" all of these plans will be at that scale. If for some reason you wanted to use a different scale you would set that up on a different screen.

You proceed through all of the dialog boxes until the end. And at the end of that process you have given VW ARCHITECT enough information to set up all of your drawings in ARCHITECT for you automatically. The image below shows one of the dialog boxes asking for dimensions so that ARCHITECT can determine how many sheets you need for elevations.

In the end you have provide the program with information such as the sheet size, scales for different types of drawings in the set, view and snap grid sizes, units, and vertical dimensions used to determine the Z-height of layers for 3D modeling. ARCHITECT automatically creates layer links for model layers. And if you use the ConDoc standardized title blocks, you gain access to ARCHITECT's new Task Manager tool, something we will use in the next part of this review.

At the end of the VA Setup process ARCHITECT generates your 'blank' project drawings, each with its own layers and classes automatically organized and setup for you as saved sheets, accessible from the Saved Sheets button in the left lower portion of the main window. (click on the image below and choose to open the image to see it at a larger size).

Now we are ready to begin our drawings in VectorWorks ARCHITECT. All of our sheets are setup for us and because we conformed to the AIA Condoc titleblock standard we can utilize the programs new Task Manager features -- features designed to help simplify and streamline the CAD drawing process. What the Task Manager does is determine what layer and class you should be drawing on, what the line weight and type should be and other features -- all editable and customizable so you wont be forced to do things different than how you've grown to do them.


Other Architosh Stories Relevant to this ReView

For more on what new menus and palettes are like in VectorWorks ARCHITECT, see our older article on ARCHITECT and our sneak peek of a late beta.

< First Page


The Apple Store now sells a selection of leading, third-party Macintosh software!

The Ultimate Macintosh CAD machine: Power Mac G4/500, custom configured. starts at $2,199

Essential for your design or engineering business, FileMaker Pro 5 handles all your data business needs. $249

click on our screen grab to go there now!


logo

 

Help support Architosh by shopping at our Associate Apple Store. Thanks!

 

Feedback Back to Architosh News

 
 
| Pro Mac | CADD | Applications | News | Bookstore | Forum | Main |
| Mac OS X | PowerPC | Architects | Opinion |

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact Us
Copyrighted 1998 BritasMedia Publications. All Rights Reserved.
Architosh is a Trademark of the BritasMedia company
A BritasMedia Designed Web Site
For advertising on this site click here.

Help support Architosh by shopping at amazon.com Thanks!

 Search:

Enter keywords...

Amazon.com logo

 


Click Here!