Design Series Layers, Classes, and Viewport StandardsDesign Series Layers, Classes, and Viewport StandardsThe standards for the Vectorworks Architect and Landmark products take advantage of layer and class characteristics.
Each drawing object is assigned to a class, as well as a layer. The class determines the object’s appearance, while the layer determines the object’s location. Classes apply to the entire file and control the visibility of objects. The currently active class is visible; but classes can be set to be visible, invisible, or grayed when they are inactive. Complex objects, such as symbols or plug-in objects, may contain more than one class; if so, different parts of the object can be hidden or shown. Classes can also be used to assign graphical attributes, textures, and text styles to objects.
Many plug-in objects that are included with Vectorworks Architect and Landmark products are set with pre-assigned classes. The appropriate classes are created at setup and by certain other commands (see Automatically Created Classes). The use of automatic classing is determined with the Standard Naming setup command. For more information, see Importing Drawing Structure from Standards or Other Files and Classes.
A layer is a named container that holds items. There are two types of layers: design layers and sheet layers. Design layers are used for drawing and modeling the elements of a project. Sheet layers are created for the presentation of a finalized project, and can contain viewports, title blocks, notes, and other annotations. A viewport, located on a sheet or design layer, is a particular combination of visible, grayed, and/or hidden design layers and classes.
Layers have certain characteristics that are used when drawing and structuring files:
● Design layers can automatically set default elevation values for objects they contain. They create natural structural divisions within a project for objects on different floors or different vertical locations within a floor.
● Design layers can be visible, invisible, or grayed. Sheet layers are always set to Active Only.
● Design layers, as well as viewports, can be displayed at different drawing scales, for the display of all aspects of a project plan from the site model to details.
● Design layers, as well as viewports, can have different 3D views. A building can be viewed in Plan view in one viewport and in an elevation or perspective view in another.
● Layers can be contained in different files and shared using workgroup referencing.
Projects set up according to standards contain both design layers and sheet layers with viewports. An architectural project file contains, at a minimum, stories with design layers for every level, as well as a number of viewports on sheet layers.
A typical Vectorworks Landmark product standard file setup includes landscape site plans composed of shared model information on four layers:
● Mod-Site-Arch – contains any buildings or other improvements
● Mod-Site-Civil – contains topographic and survey information
● Mod-Site-DTMData – contains the site model output
● Mod-Site-Landscape – contains tree and planting data
When a file is set up with the Create Standard Viewports command (Vectorworks Architect required), the appropriate classes and layers are created automatically. The number and types of layers and classes created depend on the setup selections. In the Vectorworks Architect product, design layers are created by stories, and begin with “Mod-” (model layers, since this is where the model is designed). The Create Standard Viewports command creates the appropriate viewports and sheet layers for the viewports (beginning with “Sheet-”), along with the appropriate classes if they are not already in the file (see Standard Viewports).
The Standard Naming command establishes or changes the naming conventions used for these classes, design layers, sheet layers, and viewports or saved views (see Standard Naming).
Set up a new, blank file with standards, and then save as a template for future use.
Setup standards are determined by the LayerMap.G worksheet, which can be imported and customized by advanced users. If an existing file already contains a set of custom standards and the LayerMap.G worksheet is present in the file, the Import LayerMap.G dialog box opens when selecting Create Standard Viewports (Vectorworks Architect required). Select whether to keep the imported and customized worksheet, or whether to revert to the standard setup. See Using the Layermap Worksheet for more information.
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