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| Architosh News Reports | |
| Architosh Staff (info@architosh.com) |
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MacCAD-reView: VectorWorks ARCHITECT - Part 3
Table of Contents for this Review Series
Part 3: Tools for Schematic and Design Development - Continued [Editor's note: this page updated 2 May see red brackets] VectorWorks ARCHITECT offers a number of valuable tools for the schematic and design development phases of the work. Some of these tools are advancements on regular VectorWorks and others are unique to ARCHITECT. One tool in particular, which is an advancement on VectorWorks, introduced in 8.5, is the Object Browser. This tool is very new for many existing VectorWorks/MiniCAD users but it is a tool worth getting to know, especially in VW ARCHITECT. In ARCHITECT the Object Browser has access to 50 new libraries, all organized by main division (as in 1-16 CSI index). In addition, third-party libraries are available from other firms and companies. In the image below we have added a library for furniture. You can see our plan in the background to the left. (We'll discuss the hand drawing thing image in a minute).
The Object Browser can be brought to the screen by selecting Palettes in the menu and then selecting Object Browser [there is a keyboard shortcut as well] from the menu choices. In a new document nothing may show up in the Object Browser, which is typical. You must first add Object Browser libraries to the file before accessing and using libraries (remember there are over 50 new ones for ARCHITECT alone). Hitting the Add button shown at the bottom of the Object Browser palette shown above will provoke the standard OS open dialog box. Navigating to the VectorWorks folder, then the Toolkit folder, and then the Objects will allow you to add specific libraries to your drawing file. If you quit VectorWorks or close your file, the next time you open it the Object Browser libraries will be present for your immediate use, there is no need to reload libraries once you have already loaded them.[This is a very valuable feature. In fact, the user's manual seems to suggest that you add as many libraries as you feel you might need, as the libraries in your document don't consume significan amounts of memory or increase the size of your documents.] In addition, Objects used in your file exist as usable library items in the Object Browser palette menu at the top. For instance, the image below shows that our file, BritasMedia Office, is a choice in the Object Browser, selecting it reveals that we have placed a task chair object in our file, allowing us to quickly access those same items for reinsertion into the file.
In ARCHITECT there are now smarter Objects as well as different ways of handling Objects. Color plays a part in helping you know the difference -- right in the Object Browser. Black objects are ordinary 2D symbols, they insert in the document with a single click and are editable only in the Edit Symbol command. Red objects are Plug-in Objects. These are parametric and editable with the parameters available in the Object Info Palette's Shape pane. Blue objects are a third type which are symbols set at a preconfigured size, shape or other characteristics.
In our scanned tracing layer (more below) we have a small conference table in the studio area. From the Object Browser palette we have selected a 'red' object table to insert into the plan at this location. About the scanned tracing layer. This is one of the more useful abilities of VectorWorks/MiniCAD that people tend to forget about or not utilize. We thought it was great that Diehl Graphsoft featured this ability in its ARCHITECT user manual -- which, by the way, doesn't just cover new features in ARCHITECT, but also covers all of the features of VectorWorks useful to architecture (AEC). It's really a 'guide' for maximizing the features of VectorWorks (and ARCHITECT) for architecture. Tracing Layers in VectorWorks (& ARCHITECT) The image below shows our first floor plan hand sketch drawn at 1/8" scale on white trace and scanned at 300 dpi (grey scale). To bring this tracing image in to ARCHITECT save it as a PICT, GIF or JPEG and go to File menu, then Import, then Import PICT as Picture. Be mindful of what layer you are bringing the image into and the scale. You will most likely need to scale the whole image immediately (we had to decrease its size, I believe, 50% twice). Once in position we sent it to the back using Tool menu, then Send, and then Send to Back. Once locked in place we began using the combination of the structural grid and the scan to guide our drawing activity -- all managed by the Task Manager new in ARCHITECT. (To see a larger image click on the image below).
Other New Features Besides the Task Manager, new and enhanced Object Browser with 50 new AEC libraries, and ease at which you can integrate hand drawings with digital content, ARCHITECT provides many additional features useful to the earliest phases of the drawing process. The new Wall Types features are powerful [and] extend the capabilities found in VectorWorks. You now have the ability to create as many wall types as you like using the Wall Type Library command. Up to 10 of your wall types can be utilized with the Wall Types Tool. There are also Building Objects and Site Design Objects and Solar Animation abilities new to ARCHITECT. The solar animation features allow you to model actual daylight data in your model by completing the data fields in the Create Solar Animation dialog box. For your site you give the program Latitude, Longitude and Time Zone Meridian. Then you give it the time of the year and the page North in degrees minutes and seconds. VectorWorks ARCHITECT with then generate a QuickTime animation movie. You can create this movie for a specific view or look straight down on the model to see "shadow casting" conditions on neighboring buildings, yards, etc. To utilize the Solar Animation features you need to purchase RenderWorks, a rendering and animation add-on package for VectorWorks which gives you advanced abilities over VectorWorks' built-in rendering features. This will give you the ['ray tracing'] abilities which come from Lightworks. In our next review, scheduled to happen much sooner than between the last review and this review, we will get into the new Notation features, more on walls and other production phase items, and perhaps touch on some of the project management features which are [scheduled] for the last review.
Other Architosh News and Special Reports Architosh Seybold Report: Mac products for CAD/AEC - Part 1 solidThinking 3D app coming to Mac OS 9 and OS X VersaCAD returning to the Macintosh! iDisk to be powerful tool for AEC and "design pros"
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