Simulations Ltd. Architects

Sims


Background

The clients had a standard semi-detached house with a (badly-built) conservatory addition.

They wanted to:-
1. Include the conservatory into the house as a garden room.
2. Be able to seat 12 for dinner on Christmas Day.

A better-built conservatory is easy enough


Options
We were concerned that the new dining room was too long and narrow (see plan, Option 1)
We therefore proposed a wider version, opening up into the kitchen and adding a new island (Option 2)


Although we showed the clients various perspective views, it was not until they experienced the two options in VR that they saw and felt the difference.

You can download the model for yourselves by clicking the link at the bottom of the page.
The link opens a view of the model, initially from the outside.

Click off the QR code and you can twirl the model round and zoom in or out.

You can get quite a bit more information from this model without using VR:

At the base of the image is a set of icons (buttons) on a dark grey background.

Click the right-hand 'full-screen' option to enter or leave full screen. 

The other options are, reading from the left:
Home. Takes you back to your start viewpoint.
Classes, Layers, Saved Views. The Layers tab is the most useful. Switch layers on and off to get 'before' and 'after' views and to see any alternative views. Each layer toggles 'on', 'greyed' and 'off'.
Clip cube. Draws a white-outlined 3D shape round your model, useful for making cut-away views. 
- Start from well outside the building. 
- Click on the clip cube button to turn on the clip cube.
- Move your mouse over a face of the white-lined shape and the face turns red. You can now push or pull on this red face to cut away part of the model. 
- Deselect the clip cube to 'freeze' the clipping so that you can walk into and through the clipped model. 
- You can also click the little cube on the right of the picture to toggle between clipped and unclipped views.
Walkthrough. You start in 'flyover' mode. With 'walkthrough' mode selected you can move around using either your mouse or direction arrows on your keyboard. 
You can also use keys to move: Q=down, W=forward, E=up, A=left, S=back, D=right.
Controls. Allows you to play with lighting, shadows, walk speed and so on.
Question mark. Reminds you of your flyover/walkthrough controls.

Got all that? To move on to VR you need a Quest 2 or better. Download the Vectorworks Odyssey app, then, on your desktop model, look for the 'VR code' button at the top of the screen (it looks like two eyes in a headset). Click that button to get a six-character code to input into the Odyssey app. Download the model and get moving around in it. You can use the 'Fly' button (left-hand thumb) to walk through walls.


Here is the sample file. It has four main layers, which toggle on/off. Use your right-hand controller to 'shoot' the layers button on your left-hand controller screen to choose between ground floor slab only (useful for orientation); existing; option 1 and option 2. Which would you choose?


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Semi options