upFront.eZine Issue #831
by Ralph Grabowski, with Wes Gardner
Nemetschek Vectorworks last week launched the 2015 release of its Vectorworks line of software to the CAD media. To help upFront.eZine readers learn what is new for CAD users in this release, architectural industry specialist Wes Gardner spent an hour showing me his "top ten" favorite features.
One of the strengths of Vectorworks, he told me, is the integration of the landscape and architectural components. "We can place a building on a site, and the site is also intelligent. Since most buildings have a site associated with them, this is an advantage, as competitors tend to only have a mesh representing the site," explained Mr Gardner.
Vectorworks 2015 is finally 64-bit, which does not mean more raw speed necessarily, but means that it now handles larger project sizes -- which can be seen as an increase in speed through efficiency. But Vectorworks is also "slower" through its new view-transition animations. These are a slower transition from one 3D view to another (instead of snapping suddenly) so that users can keep track of where they are in 3D space.
New Curtain Wall Tool
New is the dedicated curtain wall tool, which designs glass walls framed by steel members, such as for store fronts. (Curtain walls are not load bearing walls.) Curtain walls were possible before with the Surface Array command, but not as native wall objects, and so now the Curtain Wall tool itself creates frames and panels that fit to the undersides to any form, even curved ones.
The primary advantage is editabilty through direct modeling: users can delete and add frames, change panels, add doors by splitting frames, and so on. (See Figure 1.) Doors in curtain walls resize automatically as frames are moved around. The layout of the frames and panels is specified by wall styles.
Figure 1: Inserting a door (outlined in red) in a curtain wall.
While you can move frames individually in a curtain wall, Vectorworks can redistribute them evenly.
A Panel settings dialog box lets users define panel styles in detail; custom styles can be exported to be shared with other drawings, or marked as a favorite to be placed on a server. Vectorworks ships with a dozen predefined styles; wall styles used in the drawing are shown in the Resource Browser.
More Wall Functions
Placing details is now semi-automatic through the use of "named elevations." It used to be that a level had to be associated with a layer, but now Vectorworks 2015 has layer-less levels that are associated with horizontal planes in space -- like named elevations. So a stone facing can be assigned to level "Ledge," which defined as is 1-5/8" above the base (0"). The Stories organization now shows the levels bound to layers and to elevations.
Pressing the K key closes rectangular wall outlines automatically after drawing three walls; no need any longer to try to align the fourth corner with the starting point. Holding down the Option key cuts out notches (corners) from rectangular floor plans. And the new Trim tool edits wall joins correctly. These enhancements are useful for quickly tracing over existing floor plans, said Mr Gardner.
Surface hatching (or "3D hatching") now allows users to align the hatching to the building coursing (such as bricks and blocks), to be meaningful instead just of a pretty picture. (See Figure 2.) A drawback, however, is that users need to purchase RenderWorks to get this function.
Figure 2: Aligning a hatch pattern to the wall's brick texture.
Deforming Direct Modeling and SketchUp Textures
The Twist tool is renamed as the Deform tool, because it now also deforms 3D objects: twist, spread, bulge, taper, slant. Mr Gardner managed to make a group of regular columns look like batch of French fries -- useful for sculpture design!
Vectorworks had already imported SketchUp models (by simply dragging the files into Vectorworks), including from 3D Warehouse, that repository with millions of 3D models. But now it also imports the textures attached to SKD models. The SketchUp textures are added to the Vectorworks library automatically. Also new is that SketchUp models are smoothed automatically.
Drawing Embellishment
While Vectorworks could fade gradients to other colors, it could not fade them to nothing. Now it can. This is shown in Figure 3 by the pools of light, and the shadows from the roofs. This means that there is one fewer reason to use PhotoShop.
Figure 3: Gradients fading to no color
When exporting drawings to output formats, such as PDF or DWG, users can now tweak the settings, such as increasing the resolution for PDFs or changing the format to older releases of DWG. These settings are saved for reuse through the Publish command.
IFC output can be optimized for COBie in facilities management. The STL output in Vectorworks is renamed from Stereolithography, because "nobody" knew that stereolithography was the same thing for outputting to 3D printers.
The software ships during the second half of September, first as downloads to subscribers. For more information about the new release, see the dedicated Web site at http://www.vectorworks2015.net as of September 16.
And One More Thing...
Schott Systeme has been developing its Pictures by PC CAD/CAM software since 1983. They admit the software is not well known, yet is apparently one of the most used design and machining packages within Germany and other parts of Europe. The software does 2D and 3D MCAD modelling through conceptual freeform solid, surface, and mesh modelling.
On the CAM side of things, the Schott software handles:
- 2.5D and 3+2 multi-sided prismatic milling with automatic feature recognition
- Drilling and tapping with automatic hole recognition
- 3D milling with freeform feature recognition
- Engraving and carving of vectorised scanned bitmaps
- 4- and 5-axis simultaneous milling with 5-axis machine simulation
- Turning, wire cutting
For More News
WorldCAD Access: blogging nearly daily with articles about CAD and tips about computers; available on RSS and through email alerts:
- foto of the sunday: Galiano Island as seen by a fish's eye
- Hardware review: My new Lenovo Yoga ultrabook and why I replaced its SSD drive
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Letters to the Editor
Re: All Quiet on the CAD Lawsuit Front
Do you know for sure that Autodesk has a competitive analysis department, or is it a wild guess -- based on the concept that it would be pretty incompetent if they didn't? I can't find a manager who is interested in doing competitive analysis of products within the same company (e.g. HSMWorks and Delcam). This would be useful, as they could move the most efficient code from one to another. The story could be the same between 3DSMax and Maya, both of which they have been held for more than a decade.
It feels to me like the legal department is in a different universe, and may even have contracted out to some consultants to produce this extremely crappy case. I would have looked for actual hard evidence by decompiling the code and looking for C++ class objects with the same memory maps.
- Name Withheld by Request
The editor replies: I know the effort existed in the 1990s, because I did work for them regarding functions DWG viewers, AutoCAD LT, and so on. Now, I'm not saying there is a set-aside department as there is for piracy, but there are people within departments who monitor competitors.
I agree with you on the legal side: the mistakes made indicate to me a law firm overly confident of winning the case but not understanding the technology as well as the judge did.
In corporate culture, there is a difference between siloing and facing a common enemy.
Mr Request responds: Errant code could be inserted by a remote developer against the wishes of the boss. It sounds like there's a good business to be made for installing some plagiarism-checking application in source code, as with school and college essays. If every code commit was run against a database of all open source and stolen code in the world, then software developers could be busted for copying, in minutes. That would be so cool.
"Hello Kitty PDA" Nice! LOL!!
- Chris
The editor replies: This device has some history with me. My daughter wanted one (mid-1990s) because it was pink and was advertised a lot. After I bought it for her, I started playing with it and realized that this kind of device could help me keep track of things. Shortly thereafter, I bought my first PalmPilot and it was an amazing ride for next decade. Even today, Androids and iPhones can't do some of the things effortlessly and instantly as the PalmOS did.
You have, for the next couple of issues at least, at least one reader in Tibet. Currently on a cycle trip here and this line got my attention: "In China, copying is a sign of respect for those great ones who proceeded you." The Designers of BMW X3, X5 and Fiat Panda should feel greatly respected as I have seen cars that look very much like them, but aren't!
PS: I can get to Typepad blogs from here, but it's a bit patchy. Not sure it that's the free WiFi I'm using or regional blocking. No Facebook or Twitter though.
- Robin Capper
Sent from my Nokia 1520 Windows Phone
Notable Quotable
"I think right now there is a lot of what I call 'CAD Fashion' going on. Shiny-new-objects kind of development, where the honest truth is that users just want to do their engineering tasks more effectively."
- Dan Staples , vp of development for mainstream dngineering, Siemens PLM Systems
http://community.plm.automation.siemens.com/t5/Solid-Edge-Blog/Interview-with-Dan-Staples/ba-p/269929
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