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Fix Your Sections & Elevations FAST | Good vs Bad Breakdown — Transcript

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0:00[music]
0:04>> This section and elevation don't read
0:06well. The [music] hierarchy is unclear,
0:08the line weights are inconsistent, and
0:10the drawing feels a little bit flat.
0:12There's no depth, no clarity, and no
0:14real sense of material. [music]
0:15And so, in today's video, I'm going to
0:16take these drawings and turn them into
0:18this. I'm going to walk through the
0:20process of transforming a section
0:21elevation from something that feels raw
0:23and [music] confusing into something
0:25that is clear, intentional, and easy to
0:27read. Welcome back to the good versus
0:29bad series. [music]
0:30take drawings that can be improved
0:32whether through layout, graphic
0:34hierarchy, [music] or how they
0:35communicate architectural intent, and
0:37refine them step by step as I talk you
0:39through the process. If you'd like to
0:40follow along or try this workflow for
0:43yourself, there's a link in the
0:44description where you can create a free
0:45Rayon account.
0:47So, let's dive into it.
0:52So, I've exported the original section
0:54elevation as a DWG, and I'm now going to
0:56import them into Rayon so we can work on
0:58them accurately to [music] scale. So,
1:00the way that you can import a DWG into
1:02Rayon is to head to the top left hand
1:04corner here, and we can simply import
1:07our DWG. [music] We can then set the
1:09correct scale. You can do this by
1:11clicking on two points. So, this is a
1:14[music] 1.2 m difference here. So, then
1:16we can
1:17import that into our model canvas. And
1:20from here, we can start working into the
1:22[music] sections and elevations. This is
1:24fundamentally going to provide a base, a
1:26foundation to the drawings that we're
1:27now going [music] to build. And Rayon
1:28makes this really straightforward
1:30because you can bring standard files
1:32such as a DWG and immediately start
1:34editing them. And before we change
1:36anything though, let's understand
1:38>> [music]
1:38>> why this drawing doesn't work. First,
1:40line weights. Everything has the same
1:42thickness, so it's difficult to
1:44understand what's being cut through and
1:46what's behind, where the depth is to the
1:48drawing. The second is going to be
1:50blocks and people. So, adding [music]
1:52the intended use and activity to the
1:54spaces. And the third is annotation and
1:56materiality. There's no texture, shadow,
1:59or material definition, which makes the
2:01building and drawing just feel flat.
2:03[music] So, the drawing isn't wrong
2:04technically, but it doesn't communicate
2:06clearly. So, let's start improving it.
2:08So, the first thing that defines a good
2:10section or elevation is graphic
2:12hierarchy, particularly in a section
2:14where you are showing the cut through
2:15lines. And so, that should read
2:17immediately. [music] And so, as you can
2:18see here, this DWG that's been imported
2:20has particular styles, colors, line
2:23weights assigned to it. [music] As you
2:24can see here, as you click some of these
2:26elements, you can edit and adjust some
2:28of these fills. Now, in this case, we
2:30have a kind of yellow fill that's been
2:31assigned to these cut lines, and so we
2:33[music] can change them to white, for
2:35example. We can change all the floors to
2:37white, and you can see here that we can
2:39almost just neutralize the drawing by
2:41removing some of these colors that have
2:42come through in the DWG. And I'll start
2:44by retracing the main structural
2:46elements using [music] Rayon's wall and
2:48line tools. And what I'm doing here is
2:50separating three line types. We've got
2:52the cut element, we've got the elements
2:53beyond, and [music] then we've got the
2:54background context. That's going to be
2:56our three layers to this drawing. So,
2:57what we're going to do here is we're
2:58going to simply use the wall tool. Now,
3:00the wall tool works in floor plan
3:02section elevation. In this case, we're
3:03going to draw it across here at the top
3:06to show the roof cut line.
3:07>> [music]
3:08>> And now you can adjust and extend the
3:10thickness of this wall by either
3:12dragging it and kind of extending the
3:14thickness, [music] or you can type in
3:16the particular thickness of the wall.
3:17So, in this case, we're going to type in
3:19a 0.4 wall, and then we can just
3:21basically start populating and dragging
3:23that across the drawing.
3:24>> [music]
3:24>> Now, with the wall, you can then change
3:26the fill to a black, or you can change
3:28the stroke if you'd like. In this case,
3:30we're going to fill it black cuz [music]
3:31we want it to be quite a strong graphic
3:34element to the drawing. I think a
3:36particularly good section [music]
3:38looks great when the cut through line is
3:40really clear and evident. In this case,
3:41we're going to show that by using black.
3:43We can then do that across the drawing
3:45[music] and also work into the walls,
3:48for example, the vertical walls. We can
3:50then do it [music] into the floor slabs.
3:51As you can see here, we can adjust
3:53um to black. Now, as you can see
3:55already, the section is popping a lot
3:58more. Now, the next step is going to be
4:00the ground cut through line. In a very
4:01similar way, this should equally be very
4:04strong. Maybe not as strong as the cut
4:06through lines of the walls, but it needs
4:07to have a thickness to it, needs to have
4:08a depth. So, in this case, we're just
4:10going to adjust this ground line to,
4:12>> [music]
4:12>> let's say, a 0.5 in this case, which is
4:14fairly strong. And we can work into some
4:16of the interior line weights to provide
4:18[music] that kind of three-tier
4:20structure. So, we have the cut through
4:21line, which is the strongest. We then
4:23have some of the wall elements that are
4:24going to be um the next kind of level of
4:27thickness, and then we have the details
4:29such as in the windows or the furniture
4:31as the kind of next
4:32>> [music]
4:32>> uh level down. So, we can see here that
4:34we can now adjust some of these wall
4:35elements to maybe a 0.1.
4:38You can then work into the ground cut
4:40line. In this case, [music] we want to
4:42add maybe a kind of diagonal um hatch,
4:45an oblique hatch in this case, and we
4:47[music] can adjust the the opacity ever
4:49so slightly to make it a little bit
4:50softer. But, this is really important, I
4:53think, particularly when you're working
4:55in section, having that strong ground
4:56line and having it quite clear and even
4:58a graphic element of the drawing. So, in
5:00this [music] case, we've kind of got
5:01this oblique uh diagonal lines, which
5:04gives a real graphic touch [music] to
5:06the drawing. And we can work across some
5:08of our other elevations and sections to
5:10show this kind of ground line [music]
5:12and work into that graphic hierarchy.
5:15And likewise with this section here, you
5:17can see how [music] now we have all of
5:18those walls and elements filled black.
5:21So, fundamentally, we now have the base
5:22of [music] our drawing. The graphic
5:24hierarchy is there. Now, we need to
5:25start populating it with those blocks
5:27and [music] people. And so, people and
5:28furniture and objects have and will give
5:31scale and life to the sections and
5:32elevations, [music] but they only work
5:34if they're accurate. And luckily,
5:36fortunately, in Rayon, everything comes
5:37[music] in at a one-to-one scale. So,
5:39I'll open the block library where Rayon
5:42has 10,000 blocks including people,
5:43[music] trees, furniture, technical
5:46elements, pretty much anything to
5:47populate your drawing, all available in
5:49plan, [music] section, elevation views,
5:51which means that you can now have blocks
5:53that correlate with your floor plan and
5:55your sections and elevations, and you're
5:56not going to have a mishmash of types of
5:58different types of blocks. [music] But,
5:59the key point here is that the blocks
6:00shouldn't just decorate the drawing,
6:02they should help communicate how the
6:03space works. And so, in this case, we
6:05already have a floor plan that we've
6:07worked into in some [music] detail.
6:08We've populated them blocks, we've
6:10styled it, etc. And now, what we're
6:12going to do is basically start
6:13transferring some of those [music]
6:14blocks across into our sections and
6:16elevations. Now, this works really well
6:19because if you then zoom [music] into
6:20your floor plan and you start selecting
6:22some of these blocks that we have in our
6:24floor plan, for example, we want to
6:26obviously perfectly replicate those
6:28[music] into the section and make sure
6:29they line up properly. What I'm going to
6:31do here is I'm going to copy all of
6:32these [music] blocks and I'm going to
6:34paste them into the section. Now, once
6:36we line them up and get them all
6:37correctly kind of parallel to the
6:39section,
6:40>> [music]
6:40>> you'll see here now where it becomes
6:41very, very useful to have these three
6:43different types of views in each block.
6:46So, you'll see here now when you select
6:47[music] a certain element, once we have
6:49it all lined up, you select this
6:50woodwork station, for example. You
6:52select this block and you'll see that
6:53this block instance has [music] three
6:54different types of views, side view,
6:56front view, plan view. And then that
6:58means that basically in the section now,
7:00we can start flipping all of our block
7:02elements that we have, changing them to
7:04side view, and pulling them into our
7:06drawers.
7:07>> [music]
7:07>> So, then all of a sudden, we can then
7:08perfectly align up the sections with the
7:10floor plans. And so, this is a really
7:11great way of working between these
7:13drawings.
7:14Now, this will just take some time of
7:15just
7:16>> [music]
7:16>> turning some of these elements here.
7:17We've got woodworking tops, we've got
7:19kind of stools that we can drop into
7:21place, and you can also scale these up
7:22and scale them down as you wish. They
7:24all come in at a one-to-one scale from
7:26the block library. [music] But, in this
7:28case, where it looks a little bit too
7:29small, let's say this kind of woodwork
7:31station, we can scale it [music] up a
7:32touch. We can then bring in some kind of
7:35bookshelves in the background. And then
7:37this will be really important to make
7:38sure [music] that the the kind of
7:40layering of these blocks and elements
7:42are in the background and the
7:43foreground, so we can drop this and
7:45arrange this to back of layer. And now,
7:47all of a sudden, you can really work
7:48[music] into your your sections using
7:51your floor plan as a reference and start
7:53[music] really populating your drawing.
7:55So, now we've got plenty of detail and
7:58plenty of activity, and all of a sudden,
7:59you understand [music] the intended use
8:00of the space. Now, the beauty of these
8:02Rayon blocks that, as you can see, it
8:04has so much detail. There is so much
8:07detail and clarity [music] in these
8:08drawings, which really add character and
8:11interest to the drawings. Now, the next
8:13move is going to be adding some people.
8:14Now, people is a really great touch to,
8:16of course, show the activity, to show
8:18that intended use of space. And so, what
8:20we're going to do is just going to pull
8:21in some people and drop them into
8:23[music] some particular positions. So,
8:25on stools, someone standing up next to a
8:28worktop. And as you see, we're
8:29populating all of our drawings with
8:30people walking dogs, people playing
8:32volleyball, people stretching, someone
8:34sat on the phone.
8:35And we've really worked into this to
8:37show that activity.
8:40Now, with this building, a really
8:41important element is context. You'll see
8:43in the floor plan here that we have
8:44plenty of surrounding trees that's
8:46surrounding the building. And it's also,
8:48as you can see in the section, it's also
8:50built into [music] a landscape which is
8:51located in a park. So, trees are going
8:54to be really important to populate these
8:55sections and elevations and show [music]
8:57that context. So, we can find trees in
9:00the block library, of course, and we can
9:02find a particular tree that we're
9:03looking [music] for. We can drag and
9:04drop that in to our model. Now, with the
9:07trees in this case, there are two
9:08layers. [music] There's going to be the
9:09background layer and then the foreground
9:11layer. So, in the background, we want to
9:12show some trees in the distance behind
9:14the building, behind the section,
9:16>> [music]
9:16>> and then we want to show some trees in
9:18the foreground, particularly in the
9:19elevation. And we can then start
9:21populating the [music] trees across the
9:24elevation. We can drop that then down
9:26into the trees behind, which is at the
9:28bottom of the layers.
9:29>> [music]
9:30>> And then what's really important now is
9:31to draw a mask that will then mean these
9:33trees will sit behind. So, what we can
9:35do is we can fundamentally go to our
9:36default layer. We can then trace
9:39>> [music]
9:39>> the building,
9:40fill that as white, and then now all of
9:42a sudden, these trees look like they're
9:43in the distance. And then with some
9:45work, as we zoom out here, you can see
9:47that now we have a full populated
9:50sections and elevations, and we've
9:52dropped some of the opacity of the trees
9:55so that now they look and feel quite
9:57soft and subtle
9:58>> [music]
9:58>> uh in the background. And now this is
10:00really important so that the trees don't
10:01dominate the drawings, they don't feel
10:03like they're overbearing the context of
10:04the drawings, [music] but instead
10:05they're adding that real needed context
10:08and reference to the surrounding site.
10:11And we can do the same with the trees in
10:13front and you'll see here now we look
10:14across our sections [music] and
10:15elevations, the context just makes these
10:18drawings come to life. And we can even
10:19add some cars in here. So we've got
10:21we've got some kind of supercars. And so
10:23I think the final improvement comes
10:25through annotation and material
10:26expression. Right now the drawing is
10:28technically correct, but visually we
10:30need to add some more detail [music] and
10:32annotation to the drawing. So start by
10:34adding some material hatches. This
10:36immediately differentiate construction
10:39elements [music]
10:39and materiality to the drawing. And the
10:42next thing will be to add shadows. This
10:44will give the drawings particularly
10:45plenty of depth
10:47>> [music]
10:47>> to help the viewer understand the layer
10:48of space. Now the drawings will become
10:51and feel much more architectural [music]
10:52rather than diagrammatic. So to add
10:54shadow it's going to be really simple.
10:55First it's important to have a new layer
10:57of course named shadow. And what we're
10:59going to do is basically just start
11:00drawing some polylines and shapes and
11:02fill [music] them with a kind of dark
11:04gray to indicate some shadow. So we can
11:06do this here, pick up a on a certain few
11:08elements. For example, we want to
11:10>> [music]
11:11>> pick up on some of maybe the window
11:12reveals and the depth of the windows.
11:14And we could do a [music] similar thing
11:16with trees and people. And so in this
11:18case we want to basically duplicate this
11:20block. We want to then unblock it so we
11:22can then edit this element.
11:24>> [music]
11:24>> We can then change the fill to black.
11:27We're going to then skew this tree into
11:29[music] place to basically indicate a
11:31location of the shadow and where the sun
11:33is coming from. We can then pick that
11:35same style as [music] the shadow that
11:37we've created. And then all of a sudden
11:40here we have a shadow to the [music]
11:42tree showing the direction of the sun
11:44and we can work it and position it like
11:46these other tree elements and we can
11:48overlap them and we can have the same
11:50with the kind of vertical timber
11:52elements in this elevation. We can have
11:54the same with shadows for people.
11:56[music] So these are all elements that
11:58we've basically taken a block and
11:59reworked it reworked into it [music] and
12:01added shadow to it. And the way to add
12:03materiality to this drawing is very
12:05similar. We want to use the polyline
12:07again. [music] We want to use some of
12:08these shapes and start basically filling
12:11some of these elements with [music]
12:12patterns and textures. Now in this case
12:14it's we're just going to kind of draw
12:16this rectangle.
12:18We can then select this element
12:20in the same way that we've edited and
12:21adjusted the fill for the shadows, we
12:24can also head to the right hand side
12:25here and click the [music] texture or
12:27hatch panel. Now here you can add a
12:30hatch where we're going to maybe do a
12:33brick. This one we can then adjust the
12:35scale of the brick. So [music] in this
12:36case it's quite an intense brick. Maybe
12:38we want to make them slightly bigger
12:40blocks. This might be a stone brick wall
12:42>> [music]
12:42>> but it gives the effect that when we
12:44drop the opacity right down it looks
12:46quite soft and subtle in the drawing but
12:48it gives [music] the context. And we can
12:49apply that throughout the drawing. We
12:51can do that equally the same next door
12:54to this element here. Now [music] the
12:55same here with this low kind of low
12:57wall, we want to make this maybe a stone
12:59wall. And we can apply this across the
13:01entire drawing. [music] So now all of a
13:02sudden the drawing has materiality. You
13:05have an understanding of okay, what
13:06elements [music] are stone, what
13:07elements are brick/stone, what elements
13:09are glass, what elements are concrete
13:11and it gives it a much more stronger
13:13material context. [music] And a really
13:15useful thing to kind of just quickly
13:16touch upon is that in some of these
13:18elements where you've applied a kind of
13:20finish, applied a brick [music] or stone
13:23finish here for example, you can then
13:25also add kind of metadata to [music]
13:27these elements. So in this case we can
13:28select this element. We can then head
13:31down to the bottom right hand corner and
13:32click [music] add custom properties. Now
13:34we're going to add a new property that
13:36we're basically just going to call for
13:37example [music]
13:39manufacturer. So we can suggest where
13:41the manufacturer is located or where
13:42this material [music] is being
13:43transported from. And likewise if you
13:45wanted to add a delivery location, you
13:47can then change this [music] delivery
13:49location for example to Ireland for
13:51example if it's being shipped in from
13:53Ireland. [music]
13:53And so this is an example of how you can
13:55start adding data to these elements. So
13:58they don't actually just become visual
14:00graphic, [music] you also have data that
14:02lives with the drawing. And finally I'll
14:04add a few key annotations, leader notes,
14:07material tags, levels [music] just to
14:09add that required level of detail to the
14:11drawing. In this case we have some of
14:13these kind of levels that have come
14:14through with our DWG that we [music]
14:16imported and what we want to do is
14:17basically start reworking to the stroke.
14:19So we can adjust these to red. We can
14:21work into some [music] of these the kind
14:23of text and adjust some of the text. So
14:25we can edit this style that's been
14:27imported with the DWG. We can adjust the
14:29font [music] and we can work into some
14:32of the thickness of this kind of
14:34elevation mark. We can make it [music]
14:36all red and quite bold. And so now we
14:39have a consistent annotation which is
14:41red [music] over the top of our black
14:42and white drawing. So often the drawings
14:45that I quite enjoy are black and white
14:46drawings that feel quite analog they
14:48feel quite kind of sketchy and
14:50architectural with then a hint of quite
14:52strong color that overlays and kind of
14:54overlaps [music]
14:55the drawing. So in this case we've got
14:56hints and kind of punches of red in the
14:59drawing which [music] is the annotation.
15:01Likewise we can add in some kind of text
15:03to show the kind of exhibition or
15:04gallery spaces
15:05>> [music]
15:06>> and we can adjust the type and font
15:08here. Once again, we want to drop the
15:10opacity of the the font down so that
15:13it's not too strong [music] in the
15:14drawing.
15:15We can then also add some potential some
15:17leaders where you can then show or
15:19indicate certain [music] elements that
15:20you want to have a bit of a call out
15:22for. So for example in this case we want
15:23to draw attention to lift one which is
15:26kind of tucked away behind this
15:27reception. We could have a leader here
15:29and adjust [music] the kind of end.
15:31Likewise if you wanted to add dimensions
15:32across the drawing, you can use the
15:34dimension tool, drop the size of the
15:36text down. And so now we have a set of
15:38drawings that are much more clear and
15:40graphic and they're showing context,
15:42they're showing materiality, they're
15:43showing depth, they're showing correct
15:45line weights, much more intriguing.
15:47>> [music]
15:47>> And so now it's all about pulling these
15:49together and representing it in a
15:51presentation. So the way around works is
15:53that they have paper canvases and model
15:55canvases. All [music] of the drawings
15:56I've been creating have all been in a
15:58model canvas. Now to show that in a
16:01presentation [music] you want to use a
16:02paper canvas. And in the paper canvas
16:04you can start adding things like titles,
16:06you can add viewports into your model
16:08canvas, [music] you can start adding
16:09some text and annotations and working
16:12into a presentation that makes your
16:13drawings
16:14>> [music]
16:14>> look and feel presented and curated well
16:17to be ready for a presentation or a
16:20>> [music]
16:20>> kind of portfolio submission for
16:22example. Now you can create this paper
16:23canvas in the top left hand corner
16:25[music] here when you click the plus
16:26sign. Now I'm just going to call this
16:28paper canvas presentation slide and the
16:30way this works is that you can see here
16:31that we've created a page. Now this page
16:34can be edited and adjusted, you can
16:36scale [music] it up and down, you can
16:37position it and change the orientation.
16:39We're going to keep this currently at a
16:40A3 format. And we can copy these across
16:44>> [music]
16:44>> so we have now two pages set up and we
16:47can then look down in the block library
16:49for maybe a title [music] block.
16:51And so in this case we can find a A3
16:53title block that we want to bring in.
16:55There's lots of different examples
16:57>> [music]
16:58>> where you can then drop and drag them
17:00into place
17:01and you can also customize these, you
17:03can double click into them, you can edit
17:04them, you can kind of make them more
17:06personal to you. And a particular title
17:08block that I like to use is this
17:10horizontal title block here [music]
17:12which I think works really quite nicely
17:14with the kind of light gray element in
17:16the bottom right corner with the kind of
17:17big
17:18>> [music]
17:18>> number drawing number. You can see here
17:20now we've got two drawings side by side,
17:22two pages side by side. Now what we want
17:24to do is create a viewport [music] into
17:26that section. Crop and drag and drop
17:29some of these elements so you can then
17:30position [music] the drawing as you
17:32please. You can also scale them up and
17:33down. So currently this has been
17:35imported at 1 to 158.something.
17:38[music] We could change that to 1 to
17:39100, 1 to 200. Of course these
17:42elevations and sections are quite long
17:44so we're going to have to scale
17:45>> [music]
17:45>> scale it right down but we can position
17:47this onto the page
17:50and get this
17:50>> [music]
17:51>> lined up and dragged on
17:53so that now we can position and present
17:55these properly [music]
17:56and make sure that they look
17:58professional and clean and are presented
18:00clearly. We could do the same with the
18:02other
18:03section for example. We could then blow
18:05this one up and have it much higher
18:06scale, maybe 1 to 100 and position that
18:08centrally here. So then we can have the
18:10much longer elevation sections on one
18:12page and the much smaller and shorter
18:13one on the right hand side with the
18:14different scale.
18:16And the beauty of the model and paper
18:17[music] canvases is that they work live.
18:19So these viewports that are
18:21kind of looking into the model canvas,
18:23if you adjust anything [music] in that
18:24model canvas then it reflects on the
18:26paper canvas. And the finishing touches
18:28to these drawings is just adding some
18:29annotations like text so we can indicate
18:31what these sections are and the scale of
18:33the section.
18:34And we can also add a key plan for
18:36example. So I have a key plan here that
18:38I've created. We can create once again
18:40[music] another viewport into that key
18:42plan and we can just and position that
18:44into place. We can then add a indication
18:47of what those section lines are. So AA,
18:49BB for example. And now all of a sudden
18:52we have a really strong presentation
18:54with these sections and elevations
18:56>> [music]
18:56>> presented properly. They're now not just
18:58drawings that don't have much structure
19:00or graphic hierarchy [music] or context
19:02and they're kind of just floating. Now
19:04there's a structure and presentation to
19:06them. They come across clear and they
19:08work [music] really well. And so you can
19:09see here with these drawings side by
19:11side, the before and after, this is
19:13where the difference becomes obvious.
19:15The geometry hasn't changed much at all
19:17in [music] fact, but the communication
19:18of the architecture has dramatically
19:20improved. So good sections and
19:22elevations aren't about adding more
19:23information, they're actually about
19:25clarity, clean line weight hierarchy,
19:27accurate scales, thoughtful material
19:30representation. Often the difference
19:31between a weak drawing and a strong
19:33drawing is simply a series of small
19:35thoughtful adjustments. If you'd like to
19:36try this workflow for yourself, there's
19:38a link in the description where you can
19:40create a free Round account and [music]
19:41access the files used in this tutorial.
19:43Thanks for watching today's video and
19:45we'll see you in the next one.
20:02>> Woo!

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