Windows
The Vectorworks Design Suite products provide the Window tool to create windows and insert them into walls, including into curtain walls as special “curtain wall windows.” Additionally, the Vectorworks libraries include window symbols in standard sizes and various configurations, as well as some manufacturers’ catalogs. In Vectorworks Architect, additional symbols are available, and energy-related information specified for windows is considered when conducting an energy analysis.
The Update Plug-in Objects command may need to be run on files containing windows that were created in an earlier version of the software. This command converts the windows to the latest format; see Migrating from previous versions.
Creating a window style allows you to set fixed values for some of the parameters for all instances that use the style, while maintaining the ability to edit other parameters for each instance of the window. See Concept: Plug-in object styles. Once a window style is created, you can select it from the Resource Selector on the Tool bar or on the Window Settings dialog box (see Window settings).
Alternatively, a window can be customized by adjusting various parameters, and then saved as a symbol so that its parameters are preset upon insertion. This eliminates the need to repeatedly apply parameters, maximizes memory efficiency, and allows global editing of symbols. See Concept: Vectorworks symbols.
If a custom window is unique (that is, it has only one instance) in a project, creating a symbol or style from it is unnecessary. However, making a symbol/style of the installed window makes it easy to reuse it in other drawings should there be a need to do so in the future.
Currently, there is no direct way to create a bay (bow) window. An advanced approach is to start with window resources and model the associated elements, and then create a custom symbol out of a combination of the window units and modeled elements.
After the symbol is created, it can be selected from the Window Settings dialog box (by selecting Use symbol geometry as described in Window settings: General pane), where it can take advantage of functionality such as embedded IDs and data, cavity wrapping, splays, and wall offsets.
To enable automatic ID labeling, from the ID Tag pane of the settings dialog box, select Include on schedule, and specify the ID parameters. If necessary, set the class to which the ID is assigned to visible.
