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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 [Editor's note: updated 2 May - see red brackets] In this review we discuss some of the new features in VectorWorks ARCHITECT, different from just VectorWorks 8.0-8.5 alone or MiniCAD 7 or earlier. In particular, we go through the new Task Manager in detail in our faux BritasMedia Office project plans. As we have discussed in the first and second reviews, our detailed reviews of CAD programs for architecture will be reviewed in the context of a "fictional design problem" -- one, by the way, that isn't so fictional but really just investigative and a little farther off in our future. In the last review we looked at our design program for the new BritasMedia offices. As we said, the bubble diagram tools have their usefulness, their strengths and their weaknesses. One of their more powerful and useful features is their ability to stimulate one to ponder a plan relationship you wouldn't necessarily have thought of alone. [This because the computer produces bubble plan relationships objectively based on the data input in the space planning worksheet. However you feel about computers, objectivity and intuition in architecture, such decisions on the part of a program can be very interesting. For an example, look no futher than the book and companion Mac software, Possible Palladian Villas: Plus a Few Instructively Impossible Ones, by George Hersey and Richard Freeman, MIT Press. ] This was the case for us. In the hand diagrams/sketches below and on the third page of this report, that show some basic floor plan relationships and site related strategies, we began to question the relationships between the Principal's office and the Office Manager office: did they need to be on the same floor? Could they have a strong relationship (programmatically) yet exist farther apart on the floor plate as suggested by the programming bubble diagram?
Drawing Standards, AutoClassing and the Task Manager VectorWorks ARCHITECT strives hard to streamline the drawing process by automating one of the most common activities of all CAD software: changing layers and pen assignments between different drawing activities or 'tasks'. Auto-classing is a way to setup symbols to be classed according to standards you either set up yourself for your office or are classed according to their defaults in VectorWorks ARCHITECT. Plug-in Objects are also handled this way. The expanded powers of the Wall Types tool enables walls to be auto-classed to standards as well. The Task Manager addresses the problem of managing drawing activity; that is, it deals with the burden of switching to different layers and classes when you change your drawing activity or 'task', as Diehl Graphsoft calls it. As in the case when you decide you want to [stop drawing] casework and go do dimensioning. This is a 'task' change. In VW ARCHITECT you have switched your task when you do anything like this. To use the Task Manager in ARCHITECT you select it from the Organize menu.
Once you have selected the Task Manager a standard Macintosh or Windows dialog box will pop up. See image below. In this box you have two decisions to make before you can begin your drawing or editing tasks. First you must choose on what "sheet" will you be performing this 'task' or tasks. And then what task will it be. This is the method in which you draw in ARCHITECT, which might feel quite different for some old time MiniCAD and VectorWorks users, or other CAD users.
In the dialog box above you will notice that the window includes a zone with a description. This description is referring to the "task" chosen in the bottom pop-up menu, "Ceiling Penetrations, S..", shown above, and it usually does not include the word "class" in it. Most often it just gives a brief description of what the task is referring to as a specific drawing activity. What's nice about this is that you can edit this description for standard tasks set up in ARCHITECT as well as describe new tasks that you create for your office's unique procedures. For instance, you may wish to draw certain ceiling events differently from standard events such as soffits, raised areas or exposed structure. With the Task Manger in ARCHITECT you are able to create your own 'tasks'. If you want to create a new task based on an existing task you can do that as well. Next Page: The Power of the Task Manager
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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