3D Vectorworks

A roller coaster first week back at college, scrambling to finish something resembling the required documents before a Tamsin led whistlestop tour of Vectorworks 3D.

Our two days has been crammed into one day for some reason which I can't quite fathom, something about 3d VW not being relevant which in fact turns out not to be the case as we wend our way through manipulating contours and building sweeping solids. My laptop, a supposedly wizard gaming machine, struggles to render at times....I ponder changing to an iMac and inwardly groan at the cost.

From Desktop

The course is nothing if not a rapid change of schedule and covered topics.

Bi-continental tech support rocks

Back in like with Vectorworks after finding this http://kbase.vectorworks.net/. Donny from tech support really rocks!

And of course more locally but still virtually our tutor Tamsin Slatter, who made me realise how much I have to learn to be even a rookie at VW as opposed to a n00b.

Thanks Guys

Vectorworks 2010 Training days

2 very intense days of VectorWorks training with Tamsin Slatter of Vectorworks Training. FANTASTIC.

This is the first time I have used a CAD type package, well Sketch Up I suppose but this is really in a different league (as promised by TS!). Learning the whole thing from scratch is always daunting but it was a fascinating tour through the basics and a good level of repetition and trawling through functionality.

I feel fortunate to be in a group with 3 CAD experts, 2 interior designers and a Landscaper all of whom brought clarity to various elements, be it explanations of functions in AutoCAD through to the basics of real life wall building (a 101 for dummies like me!). Being with a group who are much better at something than I am makes me take a step up and try and match them. I love that!

TS sailed us through the exercises and knowledge with aplomb, not in the least phased by the vargaries of hardware, user foibles, OS's or anything else for that matter. She even helped me change my memory cards (from Crucial.com) in record time. I am now loving he double speed action of my new 4gb RAM.

Exhausting all this learning but very satisfying, now for the 30 mins a day to build the real foundations to work from.

And of course saving pennies for that iMac with 27" screen... totally green with envy over that

Week VI, already

Busy week this week. Wednesday began with an early start, 04:30, to get over to Oxford in plenty of time for a 09:00 start on the SketchUp training day with Tamsin Slatter. An interesting day and certainly one where I learnt quite a few good short cuts and techniques to improve the existing drawings. Even attempted a spiral stair case successfully!

Thursday and Friday were filled with hand drawing techniques and an introduction to Chartpak Markers. I struggled with perspective drawing technicalities. Jo Chance passed on a good set of techniques but doing it by eye was far more successful for me than all the measuring and planning. No doubt with some practice I can make it work. Thankfully CK sat next to me both days and proved a fount of useful tips - she has taught this particular skill to interior design students for about 13 years apparently!

Rendering, or coloring in, was fun and some of the years of sketching through art A' level and a design degree, came flooding back. I really enjoyed this day, although the scent of acetone had most of us wild eyed and a tad headachey.

From My Pictures

Now I just have to knuckle down and get the UP1 design tweaked and humanly possible to build, re SketchUp'd, Rendered, Elevated and that'll be homework done ready for the next annihilation, sorry crit next week