Introduction

The Advanced wall closure is one of the new features of Vectorworks 2023, and offers you the ability to create a window with splayed edges. This feature is still a beta version, but never fear, we created this tutorial to guide you step-by-step. In our next releases, we will be optimizing this workflow. So stay tuned!

Together with this tutorial, you can also use the vwx file at the bottom of this article to help you.

Note

The dimensions in the images are in centimeters.

Result

Step 1: Switch to Advanced wall closure

Insert a Joinery object into the wall.

Go to the Object Info palette of the selected object, and check the ‘Advanced wall closure’ option. The ‘Insertion relative to’ will be handled in step 3.

Step 2: Create splayed edges

We will be setting the wall closure at wall style level:

Right-click the wall, and choose ‘Edit Wall Style’.
In the Edit Wall Style dialog, click the ‘Wall Closure at Inserts’ button.

In the Wall Closure at Inserts dialog that opens, define the settings for each tab as follows:

Profile Shapes

For the Left and Right edge, set the Interior Shape Type to ‘Splay’ with a custom Width and Depth.
Also check the Top edge here. If the Top uses the settings from the Left edge, the top will also be splayed. You can undo this by changing ‘Use Settings from Edge’ to <None> for the Top.

Step 3: Adjust position in wall

From the Object Info palette of the window, set the Insert to ‘Wall Closure - Insert location’ with an offset of 0.
At the bottom of the Object Info palette, set the Insertion Relative to ‘Outside of jamb’.

Step 4: Add a manual sill

The advanced wall closure (beta) does not yet support correct representation of sills and lintels created with the Exterior and Interior Joinery tools . This is why it’s best to draw them by hand and create a symbol, or use a script.

Create symbol

Draw the exterior sill and/or the interior sill in 2D.
Select each sill individually and go to the Architecture/Landscape/Design Suite menu and choose ‘Create floor’. A new dialog box will open.
Give the floor a thickness.
Check if the sills are correctly positioned in the 3D view (top sill at 0).
Select the floor(s) and create a symbol.
Important
Choose an insertion point for the symbol so it will later be placed against the wall. Have the symbol inserted into the wall on the left side of the wall, with ‘No break’. Leave ‘Use Wall Closure’ unchecked for the symbol
Edit the wall opening 3D and paste here the floor(s) at the same place.
Edit the 2D view and add at the edges the wall opening with the same line thickness as the wall. Do not fill the polygon.
Drag the window out of the wall.
Insert the symbol into the wall.
Drag the window back into the wall.

Note

Each change to the design will require manual adjusting for the sill.

Use a script

Drag the window out of the wall.
Open the marionette sill file, which contains a sill symbol built with a Marionette script.
Drag the sill symbol from the Resource Manager in your own drawing, and place it in the wall.
Change the wall Break to ‘No break’.
Drag the window back into the wall.
Optionally, change the settings from the Object Info palette.