| Over a Zoom meeting facilitated by Vectorworks Senior Media Relations Manager Lauren Burke Meyer, CEO Dr. Biplab Sarkar and VP of Product Development Steve Johnson discussed with me their plans for Vectorworks, near and far.
- - -
Ralph Grabowski: What are you planning for the next release of Vectorworks?
Steve Johnson: We are making improvements in a number of areas:
Improvements to the user interface, including
- Tear off palettes
- A quick search for tools that are then executed at the cursor
- Smart Options Display that brings recent tools and controls from the perimeter of the screen to the cursor (it works across multiple monitors)
- Providing users with suggestions for the workflow
We continue to expand upon our conceptual modeling solutions from the last several releases that made Vectorworks an alternative to SketchUp and Rhino, and so the next release has the last piece: draw a line to split the face of a solid to manipulate the geometry using push/pull.
It will have history modeling that provides direct modeling interaction with history-based modeling features.
For interoperability, we are adding Excel import and export, and publishing worksheets to PDFs.
Smart Markers are annotations that work across all our software, with reference links to view details in viewports. They create hyperlinks automatically when exported/published as a PDF. When you click on a marker, it links to the page in the PDF document that it is referencing. These live hyperlinks can also be viewed in the Vectorworks Nomad app, as well as any desktop PDF viewer.
For structural grids, the layout is more automated and can be customized so that users can determine how the grids show up in viewports.
Vectorworks needs to handle larger and larger models with more data, so we have more support for multiple cores to take advantage of the hardware that our users are running. Navigation between scenes in large models is improved. We are integrating and taking advantage of new technologies, and on the road to employing Apple's new Metal graphics system.
For our Vectorworks Architect product, we added a materials resource with graphical and physical attributes that can be attached to any object for better quantity take-offs, like volumes of materials in walls. As an architectural tool, we are best suited for data that falls under the architect’s purview. This includes STC [sound transmission class] ratings, fire ratings, U-values, daylighting information, run-off coefficients, and so on.
Data Visualization shows all data in the model, in multiple ways and now supports Materials, too.
We re-engineered the lighting device to better support focusing, and to handle multiple lights at one time. We were part of a group that defined a new specification for exchanging lighting fixture data between different software programs -- GDTF [General Device Type Format] -- and so the lighting device provides better support of GDTF. (See figure 1.)
Figure 1: Data flow using DGTF
For Landscape, we added support for components in the Landscape Area tool. Components define information such as a layer of topsoil on top of a base material. This lets us get proper sections.
Biplab Sarkar: Landscape is catching up with BIM!
Grabowski: When do you plan to release Vectorworks 2021?
Lauren Burke Meyer: We plan to release it mid-September.
Grabowski: How deeply do you plan to use the APIs developed by the Open Design Alliance for Revit, Navisworks, and IFC files?
Sarkar: We added the first level of Revit compatibility three releases ago. This release has a second version of Revit export: first, we exported models as mesh geometry, now as solids.
We use Solibri for mixed format project files, so we don't need Navisworks. As for IFC, we use our own IFC export/import routines, and we were the first to receive IFC4 Reference View 1.2 Export Certification. (See figure 2.)
Figure 2: IFC data in a Vectorworks model (image source Vectorworks)
We will implement the Civil3D API from ODA in our landscape software, Vectorworks Landmark .
Grabowski: What are some of the long-term goals you have in mind for Vectorworks?
Sarkar: Our vision for Vectorworks is for it to become the all-in-one software for designers around the world.
Currently, Architect supports the needs of our interiors market. However, we’ll be building upon this and soon adding an interior design module, driven by a new rendering engine. (See figure 3.) Real-time rendering is important, and we already have live scenes. Future releases will add TwinMotion architectural rendering [from Unreal Engine] and Maxon's new real-time GPU-powered rendering system, Redshift.
Figure 3: Interior design renderings (image source Eastlake Studio)
Last year, we began modernizing the UI and UX [user experience], and we will continue on that. We are working on a high-performance engine so that Vectorworks can use as many cores as are available.
Interoperability is important, as our customers bring data into Vectorworks from all kinds of other products. We plan more partnerships, such as last year's link to Esri [for mapping], links to more real-time rendering engines, and to other companies under the Nemetschek umbrella. (See figure 4.)
Figure 4: Placing GIS data from Esri into Vectorworks (image source Vectorworks)
Grabowski: I recall some talk about moving data more easily between Nemetschek products; how is this progressing?
Sarkar: We have always been a proponent of Open BIM [for compatibility with other BIM software]. We have been working on tighter integration with Nemetschek products, and are targeting direct interoperability by March 2021.
Grabowski: You use the Parasolid kernel from Siemens. At its user event last month, Siemens spoke about the advances it has made in convergent modeling [mixed solid and mesh modeling]. Does it have a role in Vectorworks?
Sarkar: Certainly! Convergent modeling is useful for any architectural modeler, being able to mix a solid design with a meshed chair from an online library. We are prototyping it [working on implementing it].
Grabowski: Apple is switching the CPUs in its computers from Intel to ARM. As Vectorworks runs on Windows and MacOS, how will the switch affect you?
Johnson: We have already been looking at what is involved. We will not be using Apple's Rosetta [Intel emulator], as we don't want to sacrifice any speed, no matter how little it might be.
It will likely take us only a week or two to compile the Vectorworks core code for the new Apple silicon using Apple's development toolkit. We will be working hard to prepare Vectorworks for the new Apple hardware, which is reported to be hitting the streets at the turn of the year.
www.vectorworks.net
|
|
| The following posts appeared in recent weeks on my WorldCAD Access blog:
|
|
Thank you to readers who donate towards the operation of upFront.eZine:
- Kathleen Maher (corporate donation)
- Trent Barrow
To support upFront.eZine through PayPal, then the suggested amounts are these:
Should Paypal.me not operate in your country, then please use www.paypal.com and the account of [email protected].
Or mail a cheque (US$ or CDN$ only, please) to upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd., 34486 Donlyn Avenue, Abbotsford BC, V2S 4W7, Canada. |
|
|
|
Comments