I recently received my copy of Vectorworks Designer 2010. It contains Vectorworks: fundamentals, architect, renderworks, landmark, spotlight, and machine design.
I've been using this software since it was mini-cad, sometime around 1997 or so. Before VW, I used auto cad, sketchup, and chief architect.
In general I've found VW to be the most practical, full featured, and easy to use design software available. The price is also the most competitive in it's class.
I have had mixed feelings and mixed results about upgrading over the years, some upgrades seem to take lots of time to learn, with small results.
Other upgrades have yielded big results with little pain. 2010 has been huge results with almost no pain! I'll digress to the early days of mini-cad.
The first few upgrades came with nice, easy to follow manuals, and good tutorial cd's for a modest price. After a few upgrades, no more books! I complained and was told
that it was a decision aimed at saving trees, how could I argue with that? I have to admit that one aspect of VW software that has consistantly left me underwhelmed
has been the help files. In 12 odd years of using the software, I don't know that I've ever learned anything from the help files, or even found the right file for any issue.
However, that's the only part of VW that I haven't loved - they've more than made up for it in every other detail and about a year ago I solved the help thing.

A year or two ago I easily tripled my use and efficiency of VW by the addition of the manuals, podcasts, video files and personal help of Jonathan Pickup of Archoncad in New Zealand.
He offers invaluable advice and materials to maximize the value of the software, as well as being very pleasant to relate to. I basically use Jonathan's books instead of help files -
they sit next to my computer. Before I even installed 2010, I bought and watched everything he has produced about it and thus the transition was seamless.

2010 is really amazing! The features that I use are mostly in Architect, as I'm an architectural designer and builder. The new associative dimensions, chain dimensions,
object constraints, joining, and being able to dbl click to change dimensions is worth the upgrade by itself. Plan views are much easier, faster, and more dimensionally
accurate for me, and I love going from plan view to a 2D/3D hybrid called unified view. Unified view is a much better version of stacked layers with full editability.
I find that I can work for hours without changing layers, where I was constantly changing before.Because of the type of drawing that I do, pre 2010 I was always making walls,
adding or subtracting to or from them, and having them change from walls to adds or subtracts and losing many of the options that you have with walls.
Now walls are fully editable as to their shape, recesses, additions, etc. and they stay walls! If you've read any of my BIM rants, you know that I design in 3D almost always.
The new working plane tool is awesome, as are the 3D snaps!! The stair tools are now really good and I can actually use them! If you'll notice the stair a couple of blogs down,
you'll see that I used to draw them from scratch because the old stair tool was only useful for the most rudimentary stair. The window and door tools are really good and
have the controls that I need. I still have to make most of my own trim for them, but every other element of the objects is available. I haven't managed to browse through
all of the new libraries yet. There are tons of new objects, hatches, textures, etc. and I'm looking forward to spending less time driving around with a camera to find a texture
that I need. Viewports, drawing labels, sheet numbers, and headings are all automated now so that they update themselves - a big timesaver for me. These are just the features
that I've used in less than 20 hours of drawing and the longer I type, the more that I keep thinking of. I love that when you tweak dimensions in sheet layers, they update the design
layer! I imagine I'll keep discovering others. I recommend that everyone upgrade. I was using 2009, which I only upgraded to less than 8 months ago and 09 to 10 has been huge!
A big reason that I went "all vectorworks" back in the 90's was the quality of the customer service. When I call them up I get a human immediately who can actually help me.
I don't have to give them my ss#, mother's maiden name, password........Often they have given me free help for products that they don't even support any more.
Through the years the customer service has gotten even better! How many products can you say that about?

Now that I've talked about Vectorworks for a while, I have to sign off and go back to using it. After 12 years, I'm more excited about it than I've ever been!


 

My friend and Vectorworks teacher, Jonathan Pickup, recently turned me onto a Vectorworks 3rd party plug-in that is fantastic!
Jon sent me his manual and I downloaded Camera Match from Matt Panzer in San Francisco. The tool allows you to insert models accurately into photos.
This is especially useful for me to demonstrate what a building will look like in its future site. I found the tool to be very easy to use, and by following Jon's
manual produced my first example in about 10 minutes - and here it is.....
This is the fishing cabin I previously wrote about sitting on the future site of the frame that I just blogged about.

I can see myself using this tool extensively for not only presentation drawings, but also to use in designing renovations and additions.
Here is Jon's youtube video that does a nice job of demonstrating camera match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3229qXnJ9-8
Check out the learning materials on Jon's website: http://www.archoncad.co.nz/ and purchase Camera Match from: http://www.panzercad.com/
 

This will be the next frame that I cut. I'm working on the design of a small "off the grid" house. It will be miles from the nearest neighbor,
solar powered, geo-thermal and wood heated, with rain-water collection, grey water reclamation, super insulated....

Last night I received a manual from Jonathan Pickup at Archoncad which is written in his latest improved format which he calls his "vectorworkout" series.


The subject matter is BIM (building information modelling), which is a 21st century method of designing in CAD. Early CAD was basically a digital pencil
that approximated drawing boards and parallel rules that I used when first learning design skills. I've written before about why BIM is the only approach to
design that I consider viable in current times and I won't expound on it now.

This manual is far and away the best training tool and guide that I've seen to date. It came as a download from an FTP site and is viewed as a PDF.
What you see is a column on the left that has all of the topics that an architectural designer could want and a screen on the right that plays movies of those topics.
The manual works as a step by step tutorial, a technical reference library, or a collection of skillbuilding exercises. It's easy to use and I found it difficult to stop watching.
For the majority of design that I do (specialty residential) this manual can easily be the "one" essential tool for using Vectorworks Architect - though I plan to keep all of the others.
As soon as I upload this review, I will be going back and reviewing "drawing 2D details" in the BIM manual, as I'm constantly amazed at how much there is for me to learn.
As I keep working with this manual, I'll blog further findings and I'm also just installing VW 2010 and so will review that. Here is the youtube video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEhOJqTSV2Y

This week I've designed and built a small timber framed screen porch which will attach to a barn that I built a few years ago.
The design took a few hours and the off-site cutting and fitting has taken a few days. Again I'll mention that I believe that designing in a digital modelling environment
is far preferable to designing something in a person's brain and then representing it with lines and text. 
In designing in a 3D modelling environment, a design is compiled from 3D digital objects, much as a building is a collection of 3D objects. 
The resulting views are actual views of an actual digital building, as opposed to lines and symbols designed to give an impression of a building that only exists in someone's imagination.





Here are a couple of pics of the porch in it's final resting place.

One situation where I find 3D modelling really beneficial to the design process is; in constructing stairs in a difficult or confined space.
It's relatively easy to construct the existing situation in 3D digital space, and solve the design problem in as close to real time as you can get on a computer screen.
This is also a situation where I feel that an integrated design-build process really shines in efficiency, as opposed to the designer and the builder being seperate.
The following photos should demonstrate what I'm talking about. Designing the stairs took a couple of hours and building them at my home took about 2 days.
I will bring them to the barn that they were built for tomorrow morning (dis-assemble and re-assemble).

Here are the finished stairs in a barn that I built a few years ago.

I have a fascination with shipping containers and try not to miss any opportunities to incorporate them into things that I build.
Basically; a container is a recycled steel structure that is both a watertight box and a massively strong beam - $8000 worth of steel that you can have delivered to your site for about $2400, depending where your site is.
Here are two examples of my uses so far, one is a two story cottage and the other is a two car garage with lots of storage space.
The two car garage can be built for well under $20,000, depending on how it's finished and mechanical systems.
I like to set containers on geo-thermal piers, which serve as both heating ballast and foundation.
The drawing of the two stacked containers which form the base for the cottage were done with Vectorworks Architect in under an hour -
a totally accurate representation of a complex object drawn in 3D. The other drawings were made in Sketchup, which I used to use for schematic drawings,
before I became efficient in Vectorworks.

A couple of years ago I was drowning in a need for more storage space. Being a typical american consumer,
I rejected the idea that I merely had too much stuff and decided to look for affordable ways to increase my space allotment.
One solution was to buy a shipping container, which holds a bunch of stuff, is watertight and secure, was inexpensive ($2400 delivered),
but which really annoyed my wife. I rebounded with a method of turning 2 containers into an inexpensive 2 car garage that looks like a traditional barn -
but I'll save that for a later blog.
My second solution was to look for a small, inexpensive building. After looking at chain lumberyards and a local supplier of little buildings
I found that these small buildings were expensive (over 5K for an 8x12) and not particularly elegant. This produced a flash of creativity "I can do better".
The following is the result of this idea - which turned out to be elegant IMHO, though not inexpensive.
I went to the drawing board (a pc with vectorworks architect software installed in it)
and concocted an 8x12 timber framed structure with very simple and traditional lines. I want to plug my software here as I believe it's on the leading edge of architectural design.
BIM (building information modelling) defines the future of design, as software that duplicates pencils is on it's way out.
I want to also plug the guy that writes the manuals that make this software usable - Jonathan Pickup of Achoncad.

With a design in hand that I felt good about, I proceeded to cut a timber frame out of locally sawn hemlock.



I let the frame sit out in my yard for a couple of months before covering it, as I like the look of a weathered frame.
It attracted quite a bit of attention from passing motorists, as there is something about a traditional frame that moves people.
I've noticed that there is also something about small buildings that attracts people, much as a puppy attracts cute girls at the beach.
After a couple of months I put a roof on it, pine roof boards spaced 1-1/2" apart covered by red cedar shakes. Cedar had just taken a price hike
so the roof cost over $1500 with cedar fascia boards and ridge board. When I use cedar on a roof, I give it plenty of air and this roof breaths in all directions.
After the roof, I added a 12 over 12 double hung window to one end - oversized for the building, but I wanted plenty of light without needing more than one window.
With the window in place I built and hung a door made from fir wainscotting painted a traditional red.


Finally I added simple corner boards, door and window trim, and novelty pine siding. I painted the novelty siding on both sides
before installing, as it comprises the entire wall covering. I particularly like the contrast of painted wood against the natural weathered timbers
and believe that people go far wrong in designing their houses with too much natural wood and no contrast, ending in a muddy colored mess.



I finished the eave overhangs in a way that I felt was simple and pleasing to the eye. For some reason, many builders seem to trip up on this area.



Door hardware is simple and functional and made by a local blacksmith.



As I wanted this building to be self-sufficient, I added two 60 watt solar panels, a voltage regulator, deep cycle battery, a couple of 12 volt lights, and a 110AC converter. Total cost was about $1500.





The building has taken on a true multi-use function for us. It's main job has been 3 season extra bedroom. My wife has had a couple of jewelry sales in it.
My son and his friends hang out in it. It's been a quite office space for me at times. I store my motorcycle in it in the winter (I really pamper my vintage motorcycle).
With materials and labor, including solar components, it ended up costing just south of 12K, but has been more than worth it to us.






 

Thanks for checking out my blog. I'm currently building a 16'x16' timber framed fishing cabin. I'm cutting the timber frame at home,
out of hemlock timbers, and I thought it might be interesting for some people to see the process in a step by step format. If this doesn't sound interesting to you,
please go directly to huffington post to see what strange thing that Sarah Palin said recently. If you decide to stay and check out the cabin,
I'll do my best to try and post pictures and descriptions of the building process. I particularly enjoy "timber framing", as the frame of a building
is constructed similarly to a traditional piece of furniture, with mortices and tenons, doveltails, and various other joints held together with wooden pegs.
This is as opposed to modern framing with dimensional lumber, plywood, nails, and metal fasteners - which is designed to be covered up and
never seen after it's initial construction. I have nothing against modern framing - but appreciate the ability to do both. It makes me sad
to see people who know that they want to experience a traditional timber frame, but don't have the actual knowledge and ability to do so.
Thus they go to town with timbers, bolts, simpson hangers, etc. and end up with something that is well intentioned and probably utilitarian,
but could have been so much more elegant with the application of some technologies that are thousands of years old.....

Back to the cabin: I was approached by some folks who had a general idea of a building that they wanted.
After spending some time listening to their wants and needs for this building, I submitted some schematic  drawings to them for consideration.

After some minor tweaks and changes, the clients approved a cabin design. At this point I started detailed drawings of the frame.
I design in a software environment called "vectorworks architect", which I believe to be the wave of the future for designers and architects. I
nstead of making 2D multiview drawings, as I would on paper or on autocad, I build a 3D digital model of the building and building site.
I then extract views of that model for plans, elevations, sections, and 3D renderings. This is a more intuitive process than 2D drawing
and I believe accesses creative design solutions that other methods would not tend to encouage.


After designing the frame in detail, I developed a "cutting list" of timber and called my local lumber supplier to cut my timbers.
These were hemlock 5x6's, 5x5's, 4x5's, 3x4's.... The biggest pieces were 5x6x18' top plates - which weighed in excess of 200 lbs. apiece in their wet state.
This frame has about the biggest timbers in it which I can handle by myself. The lumber was ready 2 days later and I headed off to pick it up.
It was 3 trips of about 3 hours apiece and in retrospect it would have made sense to have them deliver it.



With the timber here, framing design complete, and level spot to erect the frame as I cut the pieces, I was ready to start laying out the frame.
I started with the deck and I planned to erect each section as I cut the pieces - so as to ensure the final fit of the joints. With buildings with larger timbers, I don't usually have this luxury.



After laying out the deck timbers (sills, summer beam, and joists), I started cutting the mortices, tenons, and dovetails.
The layout and the cutting needs to be very accurate (within 1/32), as the frame will be not only structural, but also asthetic.



After cutting all of the deck timbers, I start to assemble - fine tuning joints where necessary. Eventually I assemble the entire deck.
Rough times that I have into the frame up to now are: meet with clients and talk back and forth - 3 hours, schematic drawings - 3 hours, final design
12 hours, get timbers 9 hours, set up building site 3 hours, layout deck 6 hours, cut deck 16 hours, assemble deck 2 hours. total - 54 hours






I should mention that since this frame will be dis-assembled once it's completed, to be delivered to the client's house, all joints are clearly labeled.
There are 172 joints in this frame, so labeling is pretty important. After fitting deck together, I go through layout, cutting, and assembly of the posts,
diagonal braces, and tie beams - basically completing everthing below the top plates.

After 4 days of dodging showers, working in light rain, and heinous heat and humidity, I have the 3 rows of posts up, along with their diagonal braces and tie beams.
The last step for this frame will be top plates (5x6x18') and rafters (4x5). If you look at placement of the braces and tie beams,
you'll see that it's an exercise in having enough of them to stabilize the building, while keeping them out of the way of doors and windows
and not taking too much meat out of critical parts of the frame.




 I've gotten some questions about why the joists are tapered at the ends. The reasons are: 1- They need to be reduced in depth
so that where they knotch into the sills and summer beam doesn't remove too much structure from sills and beam, 2- By tapering back gently instead of a stepped cuts,
the joists are less likely to split, 3- The main force that the joists need to counter is deflection, which is most pronounced in the center of spans,
and thus they need to be thickest in the middle.
When I get the frame together, I'll take a picture of each of the joints and explain why I used them. FYI,
the best music to listen to while cutting a timber frame is Gypsy Jazz - Django, Oscar Aleman, Jimmy Rosenberg....

Because this building is relatively simple, there are a limited number of types of joints. These include: housed mortice and tenon,
cog, dovetail, slip joint, dovetail, bridle joint, rafter to top plate knotch, and tie beam joint. Most of the joints mentioned work best
where the main stress to the joint is compressive or shear. Most timber frame joinery doesn't hold up well to a tensile (pulling) load.
In "tie beams" (the 3x5's that run horizontally from front to back of this frame) the load is at least 50% tensile. A relatively good joint for this
is a 1/2 dovetail. The 1/2 dovetailed tenon is placed in the mortice and then wedged into place and pegged. The added friction of the
1/2 dovetail more than doubles the tensile strength of the pegs in the tenon.
 

My friend Dave stopped over this morning to help me put the top plates in place. He's a famous TV star, so I can't say his last name
without sounding like a name dropper. Fortunately the plates dropped right in without mishap - always a tense moment when putting something heavy,
with lots of joints, in place. It's 90+ and humid in the shade - another sweaty august day in the Berkshires. I have the first 2 rafters cut and in place.
They are knotched into the top plates and held to each other with bridle joints. The following pics should illustrate the rafter knotchs, the bridle joint,
and the posts morticed and tenoned into the top plate. I will also mention that when finally assembled on site, the frame is "draw pegged" together.
The holes through the mortices and tenons are offset (in this case about 3/16") so that the peg going through the holes pulls the joint tight.
The flexibility of the white oak pegs keeps the joints tight as the frame drys out and all the timbers shrink.

As I look at this relatively small and simple frame, I'm reminded that even a small timber project tends to have a variety of joints. In this one I'm counting at least 8.
This next joint forms the outside bottom corners of the frame. The 2 sills come together in a slip joint, or open mortice and tenon
and the corner post comes down with a tenon into a mortice in the middle of the slip joint. The post sits in a 1/2" deep "housing",
which helps to keep it in place and straight, and the tenon from the corner post locks the slip joint together. Here's a drawing that should show you what's going on.

Frame is complete! It's ready to dis-assemble and deliver to the clients, who will hopefully have many years and generations of fulfilling times in it.
I thoroughly enjoyed building it and am very happy with the lines and proportions - even more so in person than on paper.