Create a titleblock (as a graphic object)

A titleblock is a good way to try out some of the Basic drawing tools in a real-life situation. As a bonus, it also provides you with a means of identifying your work during presentations.

A titleblock example

A typical large-drawing titleblock will state the Project Name, the Drawing title (in large bold font), the Project No., address, the client's own reference ID for the project (if any), the date the drawing was drawn, the Scale of the drawing, the Drawing No. in large (24pt +) bold, non-serif font at the bottom righthand corner, and a Rev. No. to the left of it. The designer's name and logo would typically go at the top, or the side. The two most critical bits of information are the Drawing No., the Drawing Title, the Rev. No. and the Date.

Automated titleblocks

VectorWorks offers its own range of automated titleblocks if you opt to use one of its ready-made Sheet Borders (File > Document Settings… > Document Setup).
It's simple to use:
Choose a Sheet Border [1]
Turn on To create a border now on layer: [2]
Choose the layer you want it on [3]
Click Title Block [2] to call up the Import Title Block dialog from the Defaults folder [5] of ready-made titleblocks [6].
NOTE: Choose None if you don't want any of them.
These titleblocks are already linked to their own Titleblock Record Format, which means that you can fill them in through the Obj Info palette. However, they are not to everyone's liking, so it is useful to know how to make your own titleblock and link it to a Titleblock Record Format of your own.

To roll your own…

To make your own titleblock, start by drawing a rectangle from just inside the bottom righthand corner of the printed area, to about halfway across the page's width, perhaps more, and about 2/3 of that in height.

Create a nominal Drawing No.

Architectural drawings are usually prefixed with "A" (Interior Design drawings are prefixed "I" or "ID"). Small sets of drawings are labelled A1, A2, A3… etc. Larger sets use decimal fractions, with each whole integer referring to a different type of drawing, e.g.:
A2.x – Plans of various sorts;
A3.x – Building Sections;
A4.x – Exterior Elevations;
A5.x – Interior Elevations
etc.

Format

The Drawing No. is one of the most important identifiers of a drawing – hence it is at the bottom right of the titleblock, and in large letters.

Format text using the Obj Info palette or Text menu

The Drawing No. is one of the most important identifiers of a drawing – hence it is at the bottom right of the titleblock, and in large letters. While the textblock is selected, through the Text menu [1] – or via the Obj Info palette, which is easier – set it to an Arial font (or similar), 36 point in size, and Bold [2].

Make a label for the Dwg. No. field.

Still using the Text tool, type a label for this field – say, Dwg. No. – and position it above and to the left of the Drawing No. value. As this is just a label, make it much smaller than the Drawing No. value – say, 10pt or even 9pt – and Regular style, not Bold.
NOTE: To make it easier to place it exactly where you want it, you might want to turn off the Snap constraints – esp. Snap to Object and Snap to Grid.

Duplicate the Dwg No. to make the Rev. No.

Select both the Drawing No. label and its stand-in value text, and press the option key (Windows: Ctrl) to drag away a duplicate. Press Shift at the same time to constrain yourself to the horizontal, as well, and click a second time to set the duplicates sufficiently offset to be separate.

Center Rev. No. text value

Deselect everything, then click the Rev. No. text value to select it on its own, and turn off the Bold checkmark, and make sure it is centred on itself by choosing Center from the Horiz. Align. popdown in the Obj Info palette.

Ditto for Date, Scale text values

Draw separating lines between Date, Scale, Rev. No. and Dwg. No. fields

Create labels and stand-in texts for Project Address, Client Ref. and Proj. No.

These are normally no larger than 9 or 10pt (not less than 8pt, as that becomes hard to read).

Align/Distribute… menu

To make sure that two or more items (whether text, or graphic objects) are perfectly aligned with each other, Shift-select them [1], then choose Modify > Align > Align/Distribute… [2]

Choose the kind of alignment you need.

In the dialog that follows, choose whether to align the objects along the horizontal axis (Left, Center, Right), or along the vertical one (Top, Center, Bottom) – or both. In this case, we're asking to align them so that their Left sides (= the left edges of the objects in question) are Aligned.

Align Top/Center/Bottoms of field labels, texts

To align the tops of the labels that are meant to be on the same horizontal line, for example, Shift-select them, and choose Align and Top.

Set colour of logo box fill to desired colour

Set logo textblock fill to "None"

Set logo text to desired colour

Select the whole text block, then choose the desired pen colour from the Pen coloured rectangle in the Attributes palette [2].

Clip off projecting bits

Select the coloured heading backdrop rectangle, and using the Clip tool [1], start from a point on the rightside of the titleblock box, drag up and to right: this will clip off the coloured area projecting past the titleblock box (see red area).

Make the boundary lines of the titleblock boxes thicker

The outer box of the titleblock should be fairly thick – possibly as much as 0.70 – while the inner lines [ 2, 3, etc.] can be much thinner, e.g. 0.13.

Group the titleblock components

In the next lesson, we shall learn how to link this titleblock to a Record Format, so that its appearance is the same on all sheets, but the actual text entries are made within the Obj Info palette.