How to Create a Custom Title Block Border in Vectorworks 2024
This tutorial applies to Vectorworks 2018 and newer (with slight differences each year).
Concept
This tutorial provides detailed instructions on creating a custom title block which can easily be added to your drafting plates in Vectorworks. Some text in the title block will be static, while other pieces of text will be linked to “fields” which will allow the text to vary from one sheet to the next. Some of the linked fields will be “smart” - meaning the title block will automatically pull information from the Sheet Layer it is placed on (specifically, the Sheet Number and Sheet Name will always be cohesive). A properly constructed title block will save you time and energy on future projects.
Title blocks and sheet borders will be inserted with the Title Block Border (TBB) tool. Only when inserted with this tool can you take advantage of the smart functions of title blocks.
DISCLAIMER: The specifics of what’s included in a Title Block vary based on personal tastes and the type of work you do. This guide does not discuss any of the nuances of what fields to include or ways of laying out the information. Instead, use this guide to learn how the TBB tool functions, then create your own Title Block as you see fit. It can also evolve over time as you work on productions of different types.
Click a button to download an example file to play around with, or use the tutorial below to create a TBB completely from scratch.
PART 1: Geometry
New File, New Sheet Layer, New TBB
Start a new file in Vectorworks and save it to your hard drive.
Create a new Sheet Layer. Typically you’ll build a title block with a particular sheet size in mind (for example, ARCH D - 24"x36"), so under “Page Setup” set your Sheet Layer to match whatever size you plan on using. For best results, under “Printer Setup” set your printer to a PDF driver (or “Any Printer” on a Mac) and set margins to 0”. You may have to create a custom page size if your computer doesn’t have it.
Once your Sheet Layer is set up, find the Title Block Border tool in the Dims/Notes toolset.
With this tool, double click on your drawing area to insert a TBB object. It'll probably automatically snap to the center of your sheet. Click OK if there’s a pop-up.
You now have an object that the OIP (Object Info Palette) calls a "Title Block Border." (Always be aware of what type of object you have selected by looking at the bold text at the top of the OIP.)
In the OIP, make sure the Style dropdown is set to "Unstyled" (for now... this will change later).
Border Settings
In the OIP, click the Title Block Border Settings button - this opens the main dialogue box where you'll be setting up the attributes of the TBB. The left-hand column lists different parameter categories, and the center area shows whichever category is selected.
Start with the Sheet Border category, and set up the parameters as desired. Make sure "Sheet Fit Mode" is set to "Outside Dimensions" and that you set your border margins as you like (probably ½").
Then click the Sheet Zones/Grid category. You might want to turn off the "Show Grids" checkbox, otherwise ignore this category or set up as you like.
Go to the Title Block category. The defaults are likely fine here, but take note of what options are available.
Thus far you’ve set up the border component of the TBB. Click OK, and make sure the border looks correct on the sheet. Save your file.
Title Block Geometry and Text Objects
In the OIP, click the "Edit Title Block Layout" button (note that this functions the same as the button in the "Title Block" category from a moment ago). It takes you into an editing mode with an orange border, and this is where the geometry of the title block will live.
If you’d like to start with the existing Title Block in the downloadable file above, select the TBB object and choose “Convert to Unstyled” in the Style dropdown in the OIP. Then you can modify the layout however you please and create a new style from it.
If you’re creating a new title block layout from scratch, use rectangles, lines, and text objects to design your title block. Any 2D objects can be used, including images. If you’ve already drawn your title block geometry somewhere else or are pulling it from an older file, copy and paste the raw geometry here (i.e. don’t paste a Symbol, but rather its contents).
Note that each piece of text that needs to function independently should be a separate text object. For example, have one text object for the word “Scale:” and another text object that will be linked to the actual Scale field (use placeholder text for now where necessary).
For all linked text objects that will have text of variable length, set an appropriate anchor point (left, center, right, top, bottom) to allow for varying text lengths.
When you’re done laying out the geometry of your Title Block, you need to tell Vectorworks where the bounding box of the Title Block is. This is done using two 2D Locus points (hotkey zero). Place the first Locus in the lower right-hand corner of your title block (note that you can place it farther away from your title block if you want some whitespace). Then in the OIP change the "Point Type" to "Bounding Box Point". Then place another 2D Locus in the upper left-hand corner and again change the point type. Vectorworks will use those points to place your title block relative to the corner of the page. This is a safety measure in case you ever have a text object that expands wider than planned which would push the Title Block away from the border.
Click the orange Exit Title Block Layout and double check that your Title Block is located relative to the border as expected. Save your file.
PART 2: Data
Setting Up Fields
Click the "Title Block Border Settings" button. The next two categories — "Project Data" and "Sheet Data" — each contain a number of “fields.” A field is what allows a piece of text in a title block to be variable. Later when you’re working on a project, these two panes are where you’ll enter information that you want to populate your title blocks. Fields under Project Data will populate all title blocks in your document, while fields under Sheet Data will only apply to individual title block instances.
If you’re familiar with pre-2018 title blocks, these categories are where you create the fields that would’ve previously been set up with a "Record Format." Note that prefixes and suffixes are no longer needed.
Take a moment to think about what fields you want your title block to have, and whether each would be project-wide or sheet-specific. You can write them down on a piece of paper if helpful. Note that there are fields that come default with the TBB object which you can either utilize or ignore.
In the "Project Data" category, click the "Manage Project Data" button. Add the additional fields that you'll need (custom fields are shown in italics). You can reorder the list to affect the order in which the fields appear, and as of VW2020 you can uncheck default fields that you don’t want to appear at all. There is also a checkmark to determine whether a field is multi-line (word wrapping) or single-line. Then click OK.
Do the same for "Sheet Data" - create and organize all the fields that you will need by clicking the “Manage Sheet Data” button, then click OK when finished.
Once you’ve set up your fields, click OK to exit out of the Settings dialogue box and Save all the work you've done so far. Next you’ll establish the links between these fields and the actual text objects within the title block geometry.
Example Project Data Fields
Example Sheet Data Fields
Linking Fields to Text Objects
This is the most important part, but might seem the most esoteric if you’ve never used linked fields before. Click the "Edit Title Block Layout" button again and notice that when you select any text object here, the OIP calls it "Text in Title Block" meaning that it can do special things if you want it to:
One at a time, select each piece of text that you want to link to a field, and in the bottom of the OIP switch "Data Type" to "Link Value," then find the corresponding parameter in the next dropdown (in the SheetData.____ and ProjectData.____ categories).
“Link Value” means that instead of the placeholder text you typed, this text object will always display whatever is entered into Title Blocks’ linked field.
Double check that each text object has the appropriate anchor point (left, center, right, top, bottom) to allow for varying text lengths.
Click the orange Exit Title Block Layout button once you've linked all your text, and Save your document.
PART 3: Plug-In Style
Saving Your TBB Style
Everything looking good so far? If so, in the OIP click the "Style" dropdown and choose "New Plug-In Style from Unstyled Plug-In."
Yes, that’s a terribly complex way of saying “Save as Style.”
If you haven't encountered Styles before in Vectorworks, it's essentially a system that lets multiple instances of the same object type automatically be the same as each other (sort of like a symbol), while also allowing you to define some of the parameters as unique to each instance.
The TBB Style definition will live in the Resource Manager, like a symbol, and TBB instances will "listen" to this definition. The word “listen” in this context means that when you change the Style definition, all of the instances will update accordingly. (The Style is the “parent” entity and the TBB instance is the “child” entity.)
If there’s a pop-up asking where in the Resource Manager to save the Style definition, click OK.
You will then be taken to a window that looks just like the Settings window from earlier, but it’s slightly different. Click on the Sheet Border category, and notice that the buttons to the left of each parameter are now active. When you click one of these buttons, it switches back and forth between an arrow icon and a slider bar icon. An arrow icon indicates that the parameter will always match the Style definition that you’ve saved (“By Style”). If there are any parameters that you might want to set individually on a per-TBB basis, then click the button to switch from the arrow icon to the slider bar icon (“By Instance”). Doing so means that for each individual TBB instance, you could change this parameter to be something different than defined in the Style. For example, if you wanted to reuse the same TBB on different sheet sizes, you could set the “Sheet Size” and “Scale Factor” parameters to be “By Instance” rather than “By Style” which would allow you to adapt the Title Block as needed.
NOTE: Do not change “Title Block Graphics” to By Instance… leave it By Style!
Make sure to give your Style a name at the top of the dialogue box (e.g. “TBB Style AEB 24x36”). If it’s set up to only work on a specific size, include that in the Style name.
When you’re done reviewing the By Style / By Instance buttons, click OK.
Hypothetically your TBB definition should now be ready to use. Note that the TBB object you’ve been interacting with is now an "instance" which is listening to the Style Definition in the Resource Manager. If you were to click the “Title Block Border Settings” button in the OIP once again, a lot of the parameters appear greyed out. This is because the Style Definition is dictating that these parameters can’t be changed on an individual basis; they only listen to the Style Definition. Therefore, if you want to go back and make changes to your Style Definition as a whole, the magic step is to go to the Style dropdown in the OIP and click "Edit Style" - this is where you will go to make any further global changes to your TBB definition. (The other method is to find the red-text TBB Style definition in the Resource Manager and edit it through there.)
If you need to revisit the title block geometry or change which text objects are linked to which fields, use the “Edit Title Block Layout” button in the Title Block category.
When you’re done testing and fine-tuning settings, save your file.
Using Your TBB
To enter data into a finished TBB, simply double click it (you may want to tell the intermediate pop-up to always edit the Settings/Sheet Data upon double-clicking). You can also click the “Sheet Data” or “Project Data” buttons in the OIP.
Test that all of your fields are linked correctly. If anything needs to be adjusted, edit the Style Definition as needed (see above).
When everything is working properly, paste the finished TBB into your working project file. Copying and pasting a TBB instance will bring the Style definition (in the Resource Manager) along with it. If you get warning pop-ups about existing Formats, you’ll likely want to choose Merge or Replace.
You may want to place your TBB in your personal template so it's always there and ready to use in new files. To do so, start a new file using your existing template, then paste your new TBB onto a Sheet Layer. You can even set up multiple sheets with TBBs ready to go on each of them. When everything is set as you like, go to “File > Save as Template” and re-save over the existing template.
If you want the TBB Style to be saved in a Favorite file in the Resource Manager, simply drag the TBB Style definition (red-text resource in the RM) onto the appropriate file in the left-hand portion of the RM. This allows you to quickly bring the TBB Style into any document even if it wasn’t a file that was started with your personal template.
An easy way to insert TBB instances in the future is to double-click the style thumbnail in the Resource Manager to make it active, then click on your Sheet Layer to insert it.
Note that TBBs in different files are not connected to each other, so be aware of your file management. (There are ways to reference TBBs from a master file, but that’s beyond this tutorial.)
Data that you enter into TBB fields can be pulled into other places in Vectorworks, such as worksheets, allowing you to create auto-updating Drawing Schedules. Fields can also be used to automatically name PDF files (see the Publish window’s “File Export Options” button).