Manuals

Get started faster, effectively and simply by using the manuals with the movies!

Over the years we have been helping our clients to get to grips with VectorWorks. Our aim has always been to demystify VectorWorks. Thatıs why all these manuals are written in a simple conversational style of English. We want people to learn the program quickly without the jargon.

All my manuals are exercise based training manuals, or "Hands-On" manuals. This means that you play an active role in the learning from the manual. I believe that you learn better and you retain more by doing it yourself. You are lead through the concepts exercise by exercise. Each exercise is designed to teach you how to use tools or techniques. Then the are exercises that bring these concepts together so that you learn the flow of combining the concepts, moving from the start to the finish. This has proved to be the most effective way to learn VectorWorks.

All the manuals come with a CD that includes imperial exercises, metric exercises and an electronic version of the printed manual that has movies embedded into it. So, you get a printed version of the manual and an electronic version of the manual. If you view the electronic version of the manual on you computer will be able to watch the movies and learn even faster.

Some of the other manuals available are hardcopies, and others are interactive, my manuals have the best of both. My manuals have both the hardcopy and the movies

Essential VectorWorks - Version 12.5

The VectorWorks Essentials manual is designed to take you from no skills in VectorWorks through to a competent beginner level. It is designed to teach you all the things that are need to give you a good, solid foundation in VectorWorks

The manual starts with an introduction to the interface, the way that VectorWorks looks and behaves. This is important so that you learn the concept behind the program. Then we move on to 2D drawing. Then we move on to a drawing exercise that brings all these 2D skills together. This shows you a sequence of drawing and it also reinforces the skills that you learnt earlier.

Then we learn about 3D Modeling (extrusions, multiple extrusions and solid modeling). 3D in VectorWorks is easy if you learn the basics and there are exercises on the main 3D tools. There are exercises that bring these 3D skills together to make an object and modify it.

Drawing 3D objects is all very well, but you need to learn how to create drawings. There are exercises on how to create drawings from a 3D object. This is useful because this will show you how to create plans, sections and elevations from any 3D object (including a building, landsscape or object).

We learn about drawing buildings (walls, roof, doors and windows) and how to use this building to make plans, elevations and sections. There are exercises about using the VectorWorks organising concepts (layers, classes, viewports and sheets ) to create drawings.

There are exercises on using worksheets. Worksheets are a powerful concept that lets you count, schedule and calculate things in VectorWorks.

This manual is the basis of my Essential VectorWorks course, and this is what people have said about my course:

• “Necessary to give a grounding from which to begin. ” ­ Stephen
• “Gives you a good oversight of the capabilities of VectorWorks, and the ability to produce drawings straight away. ” ­ Maggie
• “Great course! Iıve been using VectorWorks for 8 months and still learnt heaps from the course.” ­ Ian

• “Knowing the difficult task of passing on knowledge ( having spend half a decade as an adult teacher) I have nothing but praise regarding his down to earth and straight forward instructions and explanation. His book Vectorworks for beginners is clearly founded in learning by doing, which so far has proved the only way to learn.” - Arne (NZ)
  

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VectorWorks Architect Tutorial - Version 12.5

The VectorWorks Architect Tutorial is designed to build on your beginners knowledge, so itıs recommended that you buy the Essential VectorWorks Manual if you are new to VectorWorks or if you are not familiar with all the basic features off VectorWorks.

Part of this Tutorial is to help you build your office system. We will cover all the concepts that you need to develop and office system; layers and classes, wall styles, how to create a library of wall styles and how to build your office library. This Tutorial also covers most of the architect functions such as Site Models, Roofs, space planning, annotation tools and Notes.

The course is structured in an unusual way, where we learn about a concept by working through a project. Each exercise relates to a VectorWorks concept, and each exercise builds your project.

We start the beginning of the Tutorial with a blank drawing. We learn about drawing sites and site modeling. This creates a 3D model of our building site so that we can place our building directly on the site, and it allows us to create 3D height to boundary recession planes, the 3D constraints to the building project.

Then we draw the start of the building project. This is where we learn about walls, doors and windows and how to use these to build your office system, by integrating theses concepts with your class system.

Finally we create drawings of our project. As we do this we learn about the annotation tools in VectorWorks and how we can control these as part of our office system. We will cover customizing VectorWorks and changing the way that VectorWorks works to suit your office.

Included in this Turorial is an extensive Appendix that covers:

• Layer and Class Standards
• Drawing Complex Site plans
• Importing DXF Files
• More Site Modelling
• Dealing with Walls
• Dealing With Roofs
• Creating an Office Library
• Vertical Transport
• Annotation
• Customising VectorWorks

This manual is the basis of my VectorWorks Architect course, and this is what people have said about my course:

• A must do course! A most valuable time! The three day course is a real eye opener to the way Vector Works operates. If you want to get the best out of Vector Works you really should make the time to do this course, it will save you loads of time and stress in the future, and thatŒs worth investing in! - Phillipa
• Jonathan, thanks for the excellent course you ran, which ....& I thoroughly appreciated and learnt so much. There is no doubt that this lab training process accelerates learning and provides a much better overview on VectorWork's ability to make more cost effective use of our time, and therefore, generate potentially, substantially more income for a Architectural Business. ­ Allan

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interiorCAD Kitchen Tutorial For VectorWorks - Version 12.5
By Jonathan Pickup

interiorCAD is a major boost for drawing kitchens in VectorWorks. interiorCAD can produce quotes and cutting lists of the cabinets that you draw. It is a subtle program with tons of ability. To understand how powerful this program is you need training that will help you to tap into this power.

This manual is designed to get you drawing quickly with interiorCAD, even if you are new to cad drawing. The manual starts out with an introduction to VectorWorks so that you learn the basic concepts that you will need to draw kitchens.

We then move on to draw a large commercial unit that shows you all the basic parts of interiorCAD in one unit, we learn to make drawers, cupboards and shelves.

But that is just an introduction to interiorCAD. Then we start to make a real kitchen and make your library. First we learn how to draw the kitchen that we have measured on site, make some simple units and place them, then we make more complex units until we have made all the units for the kitchen. This will start your company library and it will show you how to edit the units to suit a situation.

Also covered in this manual:

• Once the kitchen is drawn, you will need to be able to show drawings to your clients and joiners. We cover how to make drawings so that you learn this skill.
  
• Some objects need to be created, such as range hoods and drawer handles. This is covered with a series of exercises that teach you the basic concepts of 3D modeling then use exercises with real 3D components to reinforce the skills.
  
• Lighting and textures. Lighting and texturing your kitchen will improve the look of your kitchen and will impress the client. There are a series of exercises to show you how to make your own textures and how light your kitchen designs.
  

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VectorWorks Landscape Tutorial - v12.5

The VectorWorks Architect Tutorial is designed to build on your beginners knowledge, so itıs recommended that you buy the Essential VectorWorks Manual if you are new to VectorWorks or if you are not familiar with all the basic features off VectorWorks.

The manaul is structured in a way where we learn about a concept through working on a series of projects. There are 4 projects starting with a project that is set up ready for you to add plants. In this project you learn the basics of planting an hardscaping.

The second project will start with blank page, we will then work through the project. We will import a sketch of the site plan, add the plants and hard landscape and then scheduling the plants and hardscape areas. We will learn how to edit the 2D parts of the plants so that they look more like our hand-drawn plants.

The third project starts with a blank page. We import a drawing from a client, add plants and hardscape, and schedule the plant and hardscape areas. This project is designed to show you haw quick it is to use VectorWorks when your plant library is correctly set up.

Project 4 moves into the 3D parts of using VectorWorks for landscaping. Many clients are now demanding to see what you have in mind, or see in 3D what you have drawn in plan.

We will start with a blank drawing and we will learn how to start a project, drawing the site, drawing the building as a 3D model and placing it accurately on the site. We will learn how to draw the walls, how to insert doors and windows accurately and how to make a roof for the building.

Then we learn how to make plants, how to edit the plants in 2D to suit you, how to edit the plant data and how to add 3D to your plants. We also lean how to add 3D building elements to the design, so that you clients can easily see what you have in mind.

Included in this Turorial is an extensive Appendix that covers:

• Layer and Class Standards
• Drawing Complex Site plans
• Importing DXF Files
• More Site Modelling
• Dealing with Walls
• Dealing With Roofs
• Creating an Office Library
• Annotation
• Customising VectorWorks

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3D Modelling Tutorial - v12.5

VectorWorks has some powerful 3D modelling abilities. In order to get the best from these 3D abilities you need to understand how 3D works in VectorWorks and how the 3D tools and techniques work together.

This manual is designed mainly for architects and landscapers that want to learn advanced 3D modelling. We start with simple 3D modeling so that you learn the basic concpts of modelling in 3D before you move into advanced 3D modeling concepts. There are exercises to show you how to use these concepts.

Then we will make a bus stop project that needs street furniture (bollard and trash can), cars (from a library) and street lights (also from the library). The Bus Stop will have a curving roof supported on walls and stainless steel columns. This exericse will bring together several of the advanced 3D concepts along with how to make the scene and set 3D views.

Topics covered in this manual:

• Extrusions
• Multiple Extrusions
• Solid Modelling (add and subtract solid objects)
• Loft surface
• Protrusion/Cutout tool
• 3D Primitives
• Shell Solid
• EXtrude Along A Path
• Creating a Surface
• Project tool
• Working Planes
• Extract Surface
• Drape Surface

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Education Resources Kit - v12.5

We are now getting several High Schools and Universties using VectorWorks. We have trained the teachers at several of these schools and in the past we gave instruction on how to get VectorWorks set up. We realised that setting up the resources that you need is a big task and can take several months, or even a year or more.

In order to make it easier to get up and running with VectorWorks we have developed a Resources Kit. This kit has been developed with the help of some schools to make sure that it helps get you and started quickly, but does not take over your course.

Having trained some of the schools and spoken to many of the teachers about what resources they will need to build for themselves, we have decided to provide the these resources for the schools either as part of the training package or as a separate purchase.

The Education Resources Kit Contains:

• Notes - There are extensive notes in this Resources Kit and they are written to back up any course exercises that you plan to use. The notes come in both text book form and electronic form. The notes give step by step instructions for all the exercises. The textbook can be used with the class if you purchase a class set of text books, or if you prefer, you can use the electronic manual.
• Basic Drawing Exercises - the basic drawing exercises are a series of self paced exercises that the students can complete either in class or outside in study time. Each exercise has instructions on completing the task. The tasks are designed to teach basic 2D CAD skills.
• 3D Modeling Exercises - The exercises are designed to lead the student into 3D modeling as the first way to visualise the object, house, product, etc. The notes cover the main 3D modeling concepts so that students can create complex 3D models and then create orthographic drawings from the model.
• Rendering and Animation Exercises - Having learnt how to make the 3D model, this set of exercises shows you how to use lighting and how to render your model. The students will learn to add differnt forms of lighting, how to create and use textures and how to use different rendering methods. There are also note on how to create an animation (movie) of the object.
• House Drawing Exercises - If there is a need to draw buildings then there are notes and exercises on how to draw a simple house in 3D with walls, windows and doors and a roof. How to look at them and see them all together. How to walk and fly around the building. There are also notes on how to create and organise drawings.
• Landscape Exercises - There are exercises that show your students how to use the planting tools in VectorWorks. There are 3 landscpae exerices. The first exercise shows how quick it is to add plants and hard landscape areas to a plan. The second exercise shows how to edit the plants before you add them and the last exercise shows you how to import a drawign from a consultant and quickly add plants and landscaping to it.

Jonathan Pickup
ArchonCAD Limited
Napier, New Zealand
tel +64 21 743 470 fax +64 6 843 7760
email