Setting Up the Building Structure with Stories
Setting Up the Building Structure with StoriesThe Vectorworks Architect product includes an additional document structural feature called stories. Stories define absolute elevations for the various floors of a building, and allow architects to manage defined story levels within those floors for construction elements like slabs, finish floors, and ceilings. The levels in a story have a Z height relative to the story; the story controls their absolute elevation, and if the story elevation changes, the levels and certain objects that are associated with them automatically change their elevation or boundaries along with the story.
Story levels can be optionally associated with a layer that contains objects (such as furniture, fixtures, and walls); these layers associated with stories are called story layers. To add objects to a story, at least one layer is required. The story levels that make up a story act as a top or bottom constraint for special bounded objects. These bounded objects can be defined at their boundaries by the levels that make up a story, such as a slab or a ceiling. For example, an exterior wall (or one of its components) can extend from the top of the slab on one story to the top of a slab on the story above it. Slabs, walls, wall components, curtain walls, spaces, stairs, escalators, and columns can be set according to a top and bottom boundary layer; the location of these boundaries is controlled by the elevation of the level and ultimately by the story elevation. Both walls and slabs can have their dynamic height information set and saved in a wall or slab style, so they can automatically take on their defined height condition. The insertion point of symbols can also be story aware, as enabled in the symbol definition, automatically setting the elevation to a story level (symbol instances can be set to a different story level from the Object Info palette). This method of using bounded objects allows flexibility and accuracy when defining a model, from the early to the final stages of design.
Begin project setup by creating the stories and their associated levels. Stories are created and managed from the Organization dialog box; either pre-defined standards or custom standards can be used. As the stories are added, any associated design layers are also created according to story level definitions. Finally, associate the applicable objects to the story level at the object’s top and bottom boundaries, creating a cohesive model that is structured and controlled by its building stories.
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