#building sections

Key plans are small versions of the main floor or some other typical storey, to show where each of the sections lies in relation to the plan. They are useful, if not essential, to the client and other viewers of the drawings to quickly grasp what part of the building is being shown in each section. In this lesson we learn how to make them, and configure them.

Copy a viewport of the Main Floor (or a typical) floor plan

For this purpose, go to the overview Plans sheet (A2.0) or to the one devoted to that particular level at a larger scale (e.g., A2.1 – Main Floor Plan). Select it and Copy it (⌘C ; Windows: Ctrl+C) to the clipboard.

Paste it into the Building Sections sheet.

A Key Plan should be smaller than what is shown at 1:100, but (depending on the size of the building) possibly not as small as 1:200. To strike a happy medium, you can always choose a Custom scale by choosing Custom from the top of the Scale: popup in its Obj Info palette [1]. Once you have done so, the Custom Scale 1: field becomes enabled, allowing you to type an intermediate scale figure in between – like 150 (i.e. a scale of 1:150). [2]

Remove all redundant information from the key plan

This means going into its Layers… and Classes… setups, and turning off all the Layers and Classes that aren't relevant to a key plan. In this case, that means turning off the Grid Layer (and any other layer that happens to be showing apart from the level that is intended to be shown),

Customize the key plan's drawing label

This means double-clicking the viewport and going into its Annotations part, changing its text from whatever it was to KEY PLAN [1], but also dispensing with all the drawing bubble information by setting the Number Style and Scale Display Style to None [2, 3]. To render its bubble less prominent (and the whole label more like a key – geddit?), you could also reduce the bubble size by changing its Bubble Scale Factor to 0.5 – i.e., half the default size [4]. Finally, now that the grid is gone, you'll probably want to drag the label closer to the plan [5]. Then Exit Viewport Annotation [6].

Establish where each building section lies

VectorWorks helps you by allowing to trace back from each section where the original section line lies in the plan – on the Main Floor level or any other level that you choose. To do this, select the building section you wish to trace [1], then click Section Line Instances… at the very bottom of its Obj Info palette. [2]

Double-click the specific Design Layer you wish to return to view the section line.

The Section Line Instances dialog shows you the list of all the Layers that feature in the viewport. NOTE: A checkmark means that the section lines will appear on that Design Layer – absence of a checkmark means they won't show on that Design Layer. Double-click the layer you wish to return to – or single-click it and click Activate at the bottom left of the dialog.

Make adjustments if necessary.

The building sections you created are not cast in stone: one of the advantages of the fact that they are Viewports is that if you decide to change the position of the sectioning line, they can be updated. For example, if the section line had gone through a blank section of wall, we could move it slightly down, so that it goes through a door, instead [1].

Navigate back to the building section.

To do so for any building section line, select it [1] and click the Navigate to Section Viewport button in its Obj Info palette [2].

Update and tweak its Advanced Properties…

Update the section to see the result of any adjustment you may have made to the section line. Then click its Advanced Properties… button from the bottom of its Obj Info palette [1], and go to the Attributes section [2]. To avoid having furniture and millwork items drawn in thick lines as if they were part of the building structure [3, 4], turn on the Create Structural and Nonstructural Groups checkbox [5].

Draw a Section Reference Marker

To indicate on the Key Plan where each Building Section lies, choose the Section/Elevation Marker tool [2] from the Dims/Notes toolset [1], and Shift-draw the relevant line [3] – taking care to start and end well clear of the building, to accommodate the large circle at each end. Double-click to indicate the end of the marker line.

Marker line invisible? Check your Active Class, default Attribute settings.

A common problem is that you draw the marker line, but it remains stubbornly invisible. This is a sign that your Active Class is some obscure Class such as A-FLOOR-Tiles, or Style-6, etc. which has been turned off for the Key Plan viewport. Make sure your Active Class is None, and that your default Attributes settings are set (as they should almost always be) to the Class style with regard to Fill type & colour, Line type & colour [2]. To make the marker line nice and visible, however, set the Lineweight to 0.35 or even 0.50 [3] NOTE: To make this lineweight setting automatic, you might consider making a special Class for the purpose set to that lineweight, called, say, A-ANNO-RefMkr.

Tweak the marker settings to suit.

In this instance, for example, we need to Flip the marker [1] so that it's pointing down, not up (to reflect the action section shown in this case). You (or your office convention) may also want to Set Marker Style(s)… [2] to something other than the default, so that the end marker Matches the Beginning one [3], rather than the SectMkrBar which VectorWorks places by default [4].

Change marker's configuration to suit.

The default setting of the marker bubbles is to show the drawing no. over the sheet no. of the section viewport. This is good, but you or the design firm where you work may prefer to label building sections A-A, B-B, C-C, etc. In that case, change the marker's configuration ("Text Style") to Drawing No. Only [1], and type A, B, or whatever letter required instead of the number in the Drawing Number field [2].

Change the Building Section name to match the letter designation of the section marker

Thus, if the section line marker is A–A, the Building Section drawing label should be changed to Building Section A-A.

In which we create and manipulate a Section Viewport. This follows on from 9. First Viewports, but can be applied to any design that is sufficiently developed to display something in section. Section Viewports are different from ordinary viewports in that you can't make one by tweaking an existing viewport: instead, you generate it from scratch from one of the plan views. They are useful in generating not only whole building sections, but also interior elevations of a single level, or even a single room.

First, return to the Main Floor plan.

You can do this in a number of ways: either via the Saved Views menu, or from the Layers pop-down list, but returning to it via the Main Floor Plan viewport has the advantage of restoring the Layers and Classes setup (which are turned on and off) that you see in the viewport. To return to a plan via its viewport, double-click the viewport [1], then in the Edit Viewport dialog, choose the Design Layer option, and then choose Main Floor from the list of layers that it shows [2] NOTE: The list of layers shown is those that make up the visible layers of that viewport. In this case, it's the Grid and the Main Floor layers.

Ask for a Section Viewport

Choose View > Create Section Viewport…

Show section line – and viewing direction.

Click-drag an imaginary line through the building [1–2], then click-drag in the direction that you wish to view – then click again – say, at point 3, to indicate that you wish to look in that direction.

Name and place the viewport.

As with all viewports that are created from scratch, you're now asked to name it and place it. You have the option of having it named automatically by its Drawing No. and Sheet No., but in most cases you'll probably prefer to name it yourself – either Section-1, as per the default, or Section A-A, or similar. For placement, I recommend making a new Sheet – say, A3.0 BUILDING SECTIONS – and give it a suitable Drawing Title such as East-West Building Section. OK...

Result.

Change the Layers setup of the viewport to show all building levels.

The result, with a drawing label added, looks like this. This is good if we just wanted an interior elevation of these rooms, but if we want a section through the entire house, we must get the other Design Layers to appear. To do this – as with ordinary viewports, click the Layers… button on the viewport's Obj Info palette [1], and in the Viewport Layer Properties dialog, click the first column of all the design layers to make them visible, but click the second column of the Grid layer to make it invisible [2].

Move the Drawing label.

Update the result to get a section through the entire building [1]. To move the drawing label out of the way, double-click the viewport, choose Annotations, then move the label where you want it [2] Then Exit Viewport Annotations [3].

Note attributes of Section Style

If you're wondering why the sectioned walls and floors are in a heavy line (which they should be) and filled with red (which you may or may not like) – you'll find that a new Class called Section Style has been created automatically. Right-click it to Edit it [1]. and you can view and change the attributes used by that Class for sectioned objects in the Edit Class(es) dialog.

Change to a Perspective projection.

Sections don't have to be orthogonal projections: you can change them to a Perspective one in the Projection popdown [1]. By default, it uses a Custom Perspective Type, with a Perspective Distance of 0.195 [2]. The result – which you see after clicking Update – is a rather exaggerated perspective view.

Change Perspective to Normal

Choose Normal from the Perspective Type popdown [1], then Update, to get a more realistic and useful perspective projection.

Try an Olique Cavalier projection.

This offers an interesting cut-away effect, showing the rest of the building at an oblique angle behind the section.

Reverse Direction

The Reverse Direction button allows you to view the same section, but viewed the other way. NOTE: It also Flips the viewport on its central axis, so if it extends a long way left or right, it will appear to be "flung" far off in one of those directions.

Advanced Properties…