Published: 15 April 2008 Architosh s1

Published: 15 April 2008 Architosh

http://www.architosh.com/features/2008/reviews/vw2008/index.html

Nemetschek North America's VectorWorks Architect 2008 is easily the company's most ambitious update in the history of the program since it changed its name from MiniCAD to VectorWorks. There are several notable aspects to why this is so, but far and away the most noteworthy reason for this update being its most breathtaking is the progress the company has made with VectorWorks Architect 2008 as a true multi-user, building information modelling (BIM) application for the architecture market. The company has tackled convincingly true teamwork functionality through the use of "true external file referencing," centralized CAD management, and an array of BIM goodness, including the all important Industry_Foundation_Classes (IFC 2x3) data translation.

However, before we look at all that, we'll delve into the broad array of feature improvements in the core version of VectorWorks (Fundamentals).

General Improvements: Fundamentals

We'll start off this review by looking at some of the core improvements and this begins with the user interface itself. The VectorWorks UI has always been relatively simple compared to many of its CAD/BIM peers. The challenge with any software designer is keeping the user interface uncluttered, organized and logical while adding more features and functionality. In VectorWorks 2008 Nemetschek North America has made some minor but very smart improvements while maintaining the simplicity and elegance of its classic Mac graphics software heritage. Gone are the view-related tools at the bottom of the main window. Instead the view bar contains such items as Zoom controls, Fit to Objects, Fit to Area, and some brand new tools such as the new rotate functionality and the new "floating data bar"(head's up display). (see images 01 – 02).

01 - Click on this image to see the whole horizontal new data bar. Note the teapot icon represents rendering modes; the teapot is an icon within the 3d graphics community.

02 - The new "floating data bar" display system controls visibility here in the drop-down menu. Click on this image to read the various options.

Numerical input has always been in the program, it was just not under the cursor where it is far more efficient. Of course, there are legacy modes still available so those who do not like such functionality can optionally utilize the old data bar. (see options in image 02– floating data bar).

Head's Up Display and Other Improvements

The new Head's Up Display or "floating data bar" marks a major improvement for users who do an intense amount of numeric input. Essentially, it locates the data bar under the cursor and the user has several degrees of control with it. Most users will likely always utilize the floating data bar but some might prefer to invoke it by hitting the Tab key, which is an option.

The floating data bar allows you to swiftly create objects of precise shape directly under the cursor. Watch this series of QuickTime movies as we create a piece of furniture with exact dimensions and then locate it on the plan precisely 1" away from two walls in the corner. (see QuickTime QT-01).

QT-01 - Here we create a furniture piece for this room. We input precise dimensions and then we locate it precisely 1" off the walls in the corner of the room.

When moving an object by simply dragging it the floating data bar is a particular benefit. Often users need to make minor adjustments to locations of elements and having such quick numeric control directly at the point of interaction is a real boost to users' productivity. (see QT-02).

QT-02 - In this QuickTime we manipulate a column or pier, moving it, using the floating data bar's numerical inputs. Having immediate access to these under the cursor offers speed.

Now in VectorWorks 2008 users can select multiple objects (of the same type) and make edit adjustments to them. In previous versions if a user selected say, five rectangles, the dimensional data fields in the Object Info palette would be turned off. Now they are available, making it easy to change the size of multiple objects at once. Although Nemetschek touts this functionality improvement relative to doors and windows inserted into walls, it can be useful to manipulating several objects that are the same but not turned into a symbol (eg: chairs around a dining room table, a series of posts or columns, et cetera). (see QT-03).

QT-03 - In this QuickTime we were able to select multiple piers and manipulate their size all at once. There are however limitations when selecting objects other than doors and windows.

Sometimes these other objects in formation may not all move (grow or shrink) as anticipated. Users must be careful when using this feature.

Improved Viewport Workflows

We are going to talk about the dramatic improvements in design-layer viewports when we cover Architect specific features (in a bit) but even in VectorWorks Fundamentals 2008 there are several improvements to the way "viewports" work.

Firstly there is the new improvement when navigating between design layers (where your content is made) and your viewports (where your content is displayed and laid out). In the Edit Viewport dialog there is a new option, Navigate Back to Viewport, which is a default. This helps dramatically with work speed. No longer does the user need to revisit the Navigation palette or the Layers drop-down menu (see images 03-04) to get back to their viewport.

03 - A new default option in the Edit Viewport dialog allows you to easily navigate back to the viewport once you are done editing it. This is a huge productivity improvement over version 12.5.

04 - At the source design-layer the entire working window has a new orange-glow "highlight" with an orange back button. Once done editing, click this button to go back to the viewport.

Other enhancements include adjusting flipped text in viewports without affecting text in other viewports or design layers, and a new black and white only setting to control which viewports have colour and which do not. Zoom settings between the annotation mode and the crop mode of a viewport are now maintained. Viewport layer overrides enable the user to present multiple options by duplicating the same viewport and altering the layers associated with them. Lastly, there is new support for Associate Dimensions in sheet-layer viewports, but alas, we found that it only works in Top/Plan view mode, thus this feature is of no value in other view modes, such as elevation or section modes. (see images 05-06).

05 - Red-selection square indicate associative dimensions, but they only work between viewports and sheet-layers if in Top-Plan mode.

06 - Here we changed the wall on the design-layer and its dimension adjusted automatically. We hope Nemetschek fixes this so they can work in at least elevation and section modes.

VectorWorks has always led the entire CAD field when it came to colour, line weights, transparency and drawing effects. Now VectorWorks 2008 takes colour to an unlimited dimension with "unrestricted access" to the system colour palette. Even better, this new release comes with colours palettes for Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, Pittsburgh Paints, Pantone and more, including an AutoCAD DWG compatible colours palette. And you can create your own palette and name it. You also get a palette called, Colours in Active Document. (see images 07-08).

07 - Colours in the Active Document appear at the bottom of the Active Document colour palette. Colours can be added from other palettes or custom system colours.

08 - The new Benjamin Moore colours are accessed through the Colour Palette Manager. You can add colours into a new custom palette and give it a name for reuse.

And for those with PostScript-based plotters that do not perform well with a mixture of transparency and "screened" colours in the document, this broad brush of colours will mean you will never ever have to "wash down" a colour -- to make it lighter -- by applying a screen to it again. (see images 09-10).

09 - Here this bush was given its "light" green colour via a percentage "screen" from the colour palette screen options. The only way to get such light colours in wide variety in the previous version was thru 10, 20, 40, 60. or 80% screen values of a solid colour.

10 - Now with Pantone palettes and palettes from a wide variety of paint manufactures -- plus unlimited system colours -- you can always find a 100% version of the colour you are seeking. This helps plot times on certain Postscript-based plotters.

The last major new improvements in the Fundamentals version of VectorWorks 2008 is the new CAD Manager features. It is now much easier to manage CAD standards centrally and carry these standards to the next version of VectorWorks. In an office with several people or more, ideally you would store these on a central server but you can store standards locally as well.

And VectorWorks 2008 now has support for AutoCAD 2007/2008 products. Over the years -- and especially since version 12, when Viewports were introduced -- VectorWorks' import/export functionality has dramatically improved. Now onward to the "Architect" specific version of VectorWorks 2008 and the new features.

VectorWorks Architect Specific Features

A really cool new feature for architects who work with large buildings or buildings often with angles in their plans is the new rotate 2D plan feature. With it you can rotate your entire document so that the x-y coordinate system is re-aligned with angled portions of your building. Frank Lloyd Wright would have loved this tool! However, getting the knack of it may take a wee bit of time, as it did for us. See the QuickTime movie for it in action. (see QT-04).

QT-04 - In this QuickTime we show the new rotate plan feature, which is really very useful and easy to master. Watch as we demonstrate it a couple of times.

Design Layer Viewports and True-File Referencing

Now we are getting into the meat and potatoes of this major update. In VectorWorks 12 Nemetschek North America added viewports which created a model-space / paper-space structure to the program akin to Autodesk's AutoCAD software. However, such viewports were simply "windows" displaying particular views of data which would be laid out on "sheet-layers" to create drawing sheets. Now VectorWorks 2008 adds true external file referencing.

The essential key addition here is the new ability to create design-layer viewports. With the ability to create and place viewports on "design-layers" newfound possibilities open up, including the option to create references to "external" VectorWorks files. Bear in mind that creating viewports for sheet-layers is still a preferred way to lay out your architectural drawing sheets, as it enables you to create a viewport or viewports of essential and repeatable title-block data.

For users who have adopted sheet-layer viewports in VectorWorks 12 your first baby step in creating "design-layer" viewports may surprise you. When creating a viewport in VectorWorks 12 you always created the viewport on top of the drawing data you wanted in your viewport. In other words the source location. However, when creating a design-layer viewport you are in the receiving side of the location where the viewport is to be displayed. The following QuickTime movie demonstrates the difference (see QT-05 - QT-06).

QT-05 - In this QuickTime we work through the palettes of setting up both types of viewports: sheet-layer and design-layer. Note that you need a "crop object" for sheet-layer viewports.

QT-06 - In this QuickTime we update a design-layer viewport (from the Nav palette) and show that there is no "annotation" space layer in design-layer viewports. You dimension and note on the placement layer.

The Viewport dialog box now has several new areas. There is a new Select Source button and at the top, where it says Create on Layer, you have a new pop-up menu that is clearly organized and provides three options for the location (ie: New Sheet Layer, New Design Layer or choose one of the existing design layers in the current document) (see image 11). If you choose an external source another dialog pops up where you can select the source of your viewport data. Previous external references appear in a drop-down menu, while selecting New Reference allows you to choose a new VectorWorks file. (see image 12).

11 - This image shows the new Create Design-Layer viewport palette, with its new organization and "source" options.

12 - This image shows the new Create Design-Layer viewport palette, with its new organization and "source" options.

So users may be confused as to when you use which type of viewport in VectorWorks 2008. To clarify, design-layer viewports are generated from and rest upon data on design layers themselves. Sheet-layer viewports however rest upon special sheet layers and their data is generated from design layers. If the purpose of a viewport for you is to show already drawn data at a different scale then you will want to utilize sheet-layer viewports because design layers can only have one scale at a time. And design-layer viewports do not have annotation layers attached to them for noting and dimensions. Instead you note and dimension them directly on the design layer in which they rest. (see QT-06).

One of the primary goals of design-layer viewports for Nemetschek North America was to add true external file referencing (xRefs). The company has spent considerable effort on developing strategies for utilizing these new capabilities and has two projects on its website for download and examination. The largest project is a million square foot plus, mid-rise multi-use structure of considerable size. As part of the VectorWorks BIM in Practice Series, the Ellicott Heights project explores and demonstrates the use of true-external file referencing via design layer viewports and shared project resources. It is excellent that the company is providing such resources for its users.