Building Permit Common Questions

Design Layers:

Design layers is for the house model.  Create these layers:

1. Ground Floor

2. First Floor

3. ... second, third floor.  (As appropriate)

4. Roof

5. Land surveyor, structural engineer, service engineer.  (As appropriate)

6. Misc 3D items.  (This layer is for slabs and decorative items.  For a model that client can 'walk through'.)

Notes:

• Do not create other design layers.

• Do not create 3D site, 3D structural, 3D service etc.  This is not required for 2D drawings, nor for client presentation.  

• Use 'Classes' to control what's shown in different Sheets.  Refer to Classes below.

• Show all wet items.  (Bath, WC, sink, shower)

• The 'Design Layer Note' Class (or similar) is for:  

  • Notes from the designer as they design the house.  

  • These notes for internal reference only.  

  • Sheet layers should hide 'Design Layer Note' Class.  Add suitable notes on Sheet Layers.

Sheet Layers

Sheet layers is our 'Output'.  These are pages of information for Builders to build the house on site.  Use the Sheet Layers setup in the Vectorworks file template above. 

Notes:

• Use Design Layer as the background.  Turn irrelevant Classes off.

• Draw 2D on sheet layers.  

• Do not repeat same notes on different sheets.  For example, show sustainable engineer notes on 'Sections' only.  Show Planning Permit conditions on 'General Note' only.  

  • Other page can add a note referring to the relevant page.  For example: 'Refer Planning Permit condition to A02 General Note'. 

• On the floor plans, turn off wall lines on the internal doors and windows.  Turn off Class 'ceiling plan'.  Reason: Lines on floor plan indicates floor material change.  We will draw one line if there is a floor material change.

• All sheet layers (plans) must have same north point.  Do not orientate the drawing to fit the sheet.  (confuse readers)

Special:

*House outlines.  Draw other floor outline on 'Sheet Layer'.  Recheck house outline at the end.  (Reason - Drawing house outline on model layer means...  For example, on Ground Floor Plan: we need to:

• turn First Floor model layer on, and; 

• turn every First Floor classes off, other than the house outline class.  

Classes will clash, the process is more inconvenient compare with rechecking house outline at the end.

Classes

Setup the Class under these 3 categories (Prefix):

• Existing & Unchanged - Usually no fill or light (0.08 or 0.13) grey fill, light solid line.

• Demolish - Usually no fill, dark (0.25) red dotted line.

• Propose - Usually filled with wall layer information, dark 0.25 solid line on the outside, light (0.03 or 0.08) line weight between wall layers.

Text Class:

• Notes on Design Layer - only one Class [Design Layer Note]

• Sheet Layer - Any class is ok.  Label as 'Annotation' in the Sheets.

We normally use the following Class under the Prefix:

• Walls

• Furniture

• Fixtures (Items fix to the building.  E.g. Kitchen bench, Stove, Oven)

• Plumbing (All water items - WC, Bath, Shower, Sink, Laundry)

• Door

• Window

• Window & Door Tags

• Roof

• None

• (Add anything else as required)

Other Consultant's import file.  We import on another new Vectorworks file and test the scale.  We then copy and paste to the VW file we are working on.  Refer to this link.  

Add the following Prefix when importing:

• Land surveyor - LS

• Structural Engineer - EngS

• Acoustic Engineer - EngAcu

• Civil Engineer  EngCv

• Quantity Surveyor - QS

Draw in the following order:

1. Sections.  Work out building element heights.  Cut Section across stairs.  (Structure, plumbing, stairs head height.)

2. Roof Structure (Showing down pipes & any penetrations.)

3. First Floor Structure (Work out joist direction, plumbing.)

4. Slab Plan and Retaining Walls. (Show plumbing.)

5. And then all drawings in the order you preferred.

The reason in that order is we work out the building heights and key building elements first.  We then adjust the building height and floor plan layout in the Model Layer as appropriate.  

This adjusts the Floor Plan & Elevation design.  We then label all dimension and add suitable notes to the correct design.

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