The others are Fundamentals, Architect, Braceworks, Vision and Designer. Landmark is a very well-regarded and comprehensive landscaping variant and Spotlight has single-handedly developed a leading role in the world of stage and lighting design. One other unique feature in the Vectorworks offering is the way that the technology comes in a variety of flavours. In this release, Vectorworks has actively exposed some of the more powerful solid modelling methodologies of Parasolid, to make accurate manufacturable components, but more on that later. It turns out that having a powerful geometry engine, usually found in manufacturing CAD systems, may well be a better match as the industry moves to embrace digital fabrication. There’s also a new kid on the block called BricsCAD, which uses the ACIS kernel. Both Bentley Systems and Vectorworks utilise the Parasolid kernel from Siemens. Until recently, it was only one of two platforms for construction that used a solid modelling kernel to underpin its geometry. Each of Nemetschek’s BIM brands are run as separate concerns and have different approaches, methodologies and underlying technologies to deliver on the process of BIM.ĭespite its apparent age, Vectorworks has been undergoing a radical re-architecting and a fleshing out of its BIM capabilities. Around the year 2000, it transitioned to the Vectorworks brand when it was acquired by Nemetschek. Vectorworks was born in the mid 1980s and started off life as MiniCad for the Apple Macintosh. With sales in over 85 countries and a very strong presence in Europe, the company seems comfortable with selling what, on the face of it, appear to be competing platforms.Īllplan and ArchiCAD have their origins in Europe. Nemetschek owns three: AllPlan, ArchiCAD and Vectorworks.
All of the other software developers in the industry have one BIM product.
Munich-based Nemetschek is a very unusual software company. In Vectorworks Landscape, for example, it could be used to quickly highlight which plants have the highest solar requirements, pricing or water needs NOTE: I tend to type Sheet names in all caps, to distinguish them from Design Layer names and viewports – but that’s entirely up to your discretion.There are many different applications for the new live data visualisation tool. Type in ID-1 or A-1 as appropriate, and in the Sheet Title – since we’re going to present the design in plan, elevations, isometric, etc., type PROJECT OVERVIEW. The dialog also asks you where do you want to place this viewport – on which layer (it could be an existing design layer, or on a Sheet Layer, which is the kind of layers one uses for presentation.Ĭhoose New Sheet Layer (since we don’t have any, as yet), and a new dialog appears, asking you for a Sheet Number (typically A-# if you’re an architect or architectural designer, and ID-# if you’re an interior designer). VectorWorks doesn’t allow naming any two things by precisely the same name, so it’s a good idea to make the Viewport Name and the Drawing Title slightly different (e.g., with Viewport Names, I tend to use lower-case only, and periods instead of spaces in the Drawing Title I use Title Case with spaces). You get a dialog where you’re asked to name the viewport ( Viewport Name), then the text that you would like its drawing label to state (its Drawing Title – not necessarily the same thing as Viewport Name).