Exercise 2 – Drawing a Floor Plan

Arch4/510 Basic VectorWorks * Winter 2004 * Brehm

 

Due before the end of class on January 21, 2004 in the "DropAssignmentsHere" folder:

Submitting Exercises

NOTE: The next several exercises will be based on a small building of your choosing. You may decide to design a house, document the house where you live, draw an existing building that interests you, or use a project from a design studio. In any case, the building should be small -- one floor is preferred, with an area of perhaps 1000 to 2000 square feet. See me if you have any questions. The assignment is to develop and draw the floor plan of a small building, as described above. Create and use a logical layering and class system. Draw the plan at 1/4"=1'-0" (this is determined in the Layer Setup dialogue). Don't worry about adding a lot of detail -- just do the walls, and any doors and windows that might be appropriate. Be sure to differentiate line weights between things that are cut through (walls) and things that are seen in profile (window sills). Once you are satisfied with your work, save the drawing with the filename "<Last Name>-Ex2.mcd" to the location shown above (i.e. If your name is William Richard Lethaby you would call your file "Lethaby-Ex2.mcd").

A couple of suggestions:

Set fill pattern in Attributes Palette to "None" before you begin. Try using the wall tool to draw the walls, but feel free to use the basic line tool if you run into any problems. Using the wall tool will allow you to create and automatically insert door and window symbols. Use the Data Display Bar to draw accurately. Use the Classes to control line weights. (If your line weights aren't visible in your drawing try going to File>Preferences>VectorWorks Preferences>Display Tab and checking the box for "Zoom Line Thickness") It doesn’t really matter where in the drawing space you draw, but it makes sense to draw within the page outline for now. Remember to use the on-line help if needed.