Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD 15 won Construction Computing Magazine’s BIM Product of the Year in 2011 and now the company has released a white paper titled, “Get There Faster with ArchiCAD.” The white paper examines five critical areas to explore before making final BIM software selection. The sole purpose of the white paper is to provide accurate, reliable information about critical issues related to BIM and how ArchiCAD technology addresses these issues.

The key issue areas are:

• Improve profitability
• Enable agile and competitive workflow
• Provide real-time collaboration
• Easy-to-learn and simplfied 3D workflow
• Optimizes use of computer hardware power
• Keeps IT costs low
• Is a secure and proven BIM product

The white paper shares expertise from six design leaders. The company says, “we want to teach and educate in an effort to help architects make informed technology decisions.”

You can download the BIM white-paper here.

LumenRT 2 for SketchUp on Mac and Windows has an entirely new, state-of-the-art real-time rendering engine. The program boasts a complete physical simulation of light, physical and accurate reflections, time-of-day (TOD) real-time rendering adjustability, precise anti-aliasing and motion-blur, software shadows, superb water and underwater effects, realistic skies and advanced material rendering.

01 - LumenRT 2 has stunning real-time lighting rendering capability. (image courtesy of e-on Software)

Some specific new features in version 2 include:

• Standard quality mode generates fast lighting using global illumination
• Accelerated processing of scenes with visual feedback
• Export SketchUp time-lapse animations support
• LumenRT material editor lets you adjust materials directly inside SketchUp
• Create animations of unlimited length
• Low-quality real-time rendering mode for slower graphics boards

e-on Software said the product, currently compatible with SketchUp, is being ported to other 3D platforms, but did not announce which ones. For this major release the company is publishing a free trial version or LumenRT 2 for Mac and Windows, immediately available for download at: try.lumenrt.com

LumenRT is the only solution that combines real-time rendering with a full, physical simulation of light, letting architects and their clients accurately experience the true volume and lighting of their designs.

LumenRT 2 is a plugin application for SketchUp and works on both the free and Pro versions of SketchUp. The product retails for 295.USD with an introductory price of 195.USD. It is supported on SketchUp on Mac OS X platforms (10.6+) and Widnows XP, Vista and 7. Users of LumenRT are eligible for a free upgrade to LumenRT 2 until February 29, 2012. The free trial version is fully functional for up to 15 days. Output for the trial version is watermarked.

To learn more visit LumenRT here.

AutoDesSys will be hosting a Bonzai 3D webinar today at 1pm-2pm EST. The free webinar is an introduction to the SketchUp competitor, a conceptual modeling tool with a Class-A NURBS modeling engine and the power of formZ’s legendary modeling capabilities, packaged into an easy-to-use conceptual tool.

Like formZ, Bonzai 3D has the ability to plug into the power of AutoDesSys’ RenderZone rendering software for photo-realistic imagery making. To register for this seminar go here now. To view previous webinars online, on-demand, go here.

Vectorworks News

Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc., has some good news on its global CAD/BIM product line. For starters Vectorworks 2012 is now available in Japan through its Tokyo-based distributor, A&A Co. Ltd.. You can learn more about that here.

There is also some news about Vectorworks-based design firms winning awards, as in Lukas Schweingruber und Rainer Zulauf from Schweingruber Zulauf Landschaftsarchitekten.

For French-based architects and designers CESYAM is launching a Vectorworks 2012 Tour Across France.

No Autodesk Vista Support

In a surprising twist Autodesk is ending formal support for Microsoft Vista operating system-based computers with its new and currently shipping versions of its software. The new policy goes into affect January 1, 2012.

Autodesk will continue to support Microsoft Windows XP operating systems. Based on the company’s research there are a large amount of customers currently utilizing XP-based systems, while the same research reveals little reason for support of Vista. The company reports that most Vista customers have migrated up to Windows 7.

More information on this topic can be found here.

The book is officially titled “Entertainment and Lighting Design with Vectorworks Spotlight: First Edition.” Kevin Lee Allen is an award-winning lighting and scenic designer whose work includes theater, film, television, museums an corporate environments.

The book explores the use of Vectorworks Spotlight, the leading CAD design program in entertainment lighting markets, with the use of the Renderworks program for producing final renderings. “It is definitely going to be my course texbook for this semester because, despite my students having different needs than entertainment designers, it specifically lists the most important tools, commands and workflows and talks a little about each one,” said Chris Dopher, Entertainment Design, Instructor, FIT.

The new manual is intended for use with Vectorworks 2012 software and is most applicable to Spotlight 2012. It is a part of the Nemetschek Vectorworks’ self-paced training options, designed for people who like to learn at their own pace. To see all the Vectorworks training options, including this book click on this link.

This week the company previewed Autodesk Inventor Fusion for Mac. As part of the Inventor product family, Inventor Fusion is primarily a 3D mechanical CAD modeler application designed to engage emerging young engineers and designers.

Kevin Schneider, Sr. Product Line Manager for Autodesk Design, Lifecycle and Simulation Product Group, noted that Inventor Fusion is the first dedicated mechanical CAD product from Autodesk that is a Mac product.

01 - Autodesk Inventor Fusion for Mac. A new Mac-native ground-up mCAD modeling program for emerging mechanical engineers and design professionals.

“When we look at the next generation of designers and engineers,” says Schneider “we see their expectations of choice and software is very different than the current generation.” Autodesk told Architosh that the company is adapting to trends that show that the future generation of engineers and designers are increasingly coming both to and out of college with an affinity for Apple’s platforms.

While Autodesk Inventor is the company’s Windows-only full-fledged professional mechanical CAD product, Inventor Fusion for Mac is a simplified entry-level product that has been written from the ground-up on Mac OS X. It has a ’state-of-the-art’ modern user-interface and advanced modeling functionality.

The formal release of the product is aimed for the first quarter of 2012. Professionals and students interested in the Mac-based Inventor Fusion can learn more at a special page on Facebook setup by Autodesk (http://www.facebook.com/InventorFusion)

Final pricing has also not been set but those who engage in the public technology preview can try out Fusion for the Mac for free. You can sign up here.

The new ArchiCAD STAR(T) Edition 2012 is based on the robust BIM technology of ArchiCAD 15, but with a feature set and price tailored to the needs of small architectural practices, home builders, and building contractors.

ArchiCAD STAR(T) Edition 2012 is a full-featured BIM program, containing all the tools necessary to creating a building information model of your design and then documenting the project fully as well as generating a list of materials. The latest release features the core functionality of ArchiCAD 15 plus:

• Intelligent Element Connections – automatic connections between building structures and elements to help create the creation and maintenance of the BIM model while preserving the flexibility architects need
• 3D Design Space – 3D guidelines and editing planes to help the creation of the BIM model in the natural 3D environment including axonometric and perspective views
• Latest DWG-DXF file exchange capabilities with the 3rd party applications of consultants

ArchiCAD STAR(T) Edition 2012 is available in International English, German and Austrian versions. Other localized versions will follow during Q1, 2012. To learn more visit them online here.

Columbia Events

A course titled “Vectorworks Core Concepts Course” takes place on March 12-13, 2012. The company says, this is the best hands-on training option to learn how to master tools, menus and commands. You can click here to see the list of topics covered. The cost of this classroom event is 700.USD. Location is at Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc., 7150 Riverwood Drive, Columbia, MD 21046. To register click here.

A follow up event is titled “Vectorworks Intermediate Concepts Course” and takes place on Wednesday, March 14-15, 2012. This event too is 700.USD.  To register click here.

Virtual Event

A course titled “Vectorworks Virtual Core Concepts Course” takes place online and offers the same material as the classroom course. This course takes place between Monday, March 19 – Friday, March 23, 2012. This event is 850.USD.

To register for this event click here.

NCME and Graphisoft agree to establish a NCME-Graphisoft Strategic Partnership with objective to promote and implement Building Information Modeling (BIM) to strengthen the design capabilities of NCME, the brand and influence of NCME, to support the growth of BIM in China and the creation of specifications for municipal design, as well as BIM standards for China based upon Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD and related software.

North China Municipal Engineering Design & Research Institute (NCME) is a nationally recognized, professional organization. A design and research organization integrating urban planning, cost consulting, environmental assessment, project design, contract engineering, project supervision, research and technology development.

During the course of the next three years, Graphisoft will assist NCME with implementing BIM on design, collaboration, sustainability, and create BIM specifications.

To learn more about ArchiCAD visit them online here: www.graphisoft.com

Architosh Analysis

Graphisoft continues to make substantial progress in China with several related agreements like this one in the past few years. Recently Architosh reported on Graphisoft’s team-up with United Design Group of Shanghai, China. And just this early Fall the BIM innovator signed a MOU with China Academy of Building Research Architecture Design Institute.

With China’s recent construction boom BIM is exploding in the growing country. Large-scale agreements like this one can form a very positive momentum for the BIM innovator, growing its market share and attraction in one of the largest markets in the world.

This tutorial covers the workflow for residential garden designers using Vectorworks Landmark software.

“I am delighted to see the fourth edition of this book come to fruition,” said Slatter. “Vectorworks Landmark is such a huge piece of software that it can be hard for users to know where to start. This book is all about making sense of the tools and putting them into context for the garden designer, offering them a repeatable process to follow. I’ve aimed to explain ‘Why?’ at each stage of the process, so it’s much more than a dry set of instructions. I loved writing it, and I hope readers find it invaluable, too.”

“Residential Garden Design with Vectorworks Landmark” is part of Nemetschek Vectorworks’ self-paced training options. These training materials are for people who like to learn on their own and at their own pace. For more information and to purchase this tutorial, please visit: www.vectorworks.net/training/guides

Prominent to these sessions will be several on BIM (Building Information Modeling), including one titled “On CLOUD 9 with BIM 9: A BIM Manager’s Guide to Private BIM Clouds.”

IMAGINiT will also showcase new updates to its popular Scan to BIM product and highlight its brand new ProductivityNOW portal.

To learn more visit www.imaginit.com

From their announcement, “BIM is the technology and processes that formulate, design, analysis, encoding, decoding, fabrication, simulation, management of a project. As such we must recognize that many different kinds of technology exist today that address different workflows in order to move the process forward.”

Jeffrey W. Ouellette, Assoc. AIA, project architect at Nemetschek Vectorworks Inc., will host and lead the webinar. The Webinar is also worth 1 AIA LU.

To register for the webinar click here.

New features in OpenCL 1.2 include seamless sharing of media and surfaces with DirectX 9 and 11, enhanced image support, custom devices and kernels, device partitioning and separate compilation and linking of objects. The OpenCL 1.2 specifications, online reference pages and reference cards are all available at www.khronos.org/opencl/.

The Spanish-language versions will be available this month throughout the Americas, the Caribbean and Spain.

The powerful enhancements found in the Vectorworks 2012 products, including more than 100 performance and usability improvements, will save designers time and increase their productivity. The software’s intuitive interface allows users to easily conceptualize their designs, while innovative, flexible tools let them document their plans and easily collaborate with best-in-class open BIM workflows.

“I think users will find that the advancements in the 2012 version of Vectorworks software will greatly increase their efficiency,” said Jorge Matos, President of Techlimits Informática, who is now offering Vectorworks software in Spain.

This version provides the Vectorworks Spotlight and Machine Design user interface elements in Spanish, and the existing translation has been further improved to provide a more technically and contextually accurate product.

For Spanish-language brochures, FAQs, videos and other marketing materials, please visit www.vectorworks.net/espanol. To learn more about Vectorworks 2012 software, please visitwww.vectorworks2012.net. To check for Spanish-language availability from a local distributor, please visitwww.vectorworks.net/international.

“We are very pleased that this release again offers great improvements for European users of Vectorworks, that allows them to work even faster and with more efficiency,” said Andreas King, CEO of ComputerWorks AG in Switzerland. “Improvements like the x-ray mode and the faster viewports have a dramatic impact on daily work of every planner and make this update a no brainer.”

The powerful enhancements found in the Vectorworks 2012 products, including more than 100 performance and usability improvements, will save designers time and increase their productivity.

“I am sure our users will appreciate the new features such as the new stories feature, Renderworks Styles, and the new soft insulation in walls,” said Lucas Vendersanden, president of Design Express in the Benelux region.

To learn more about European versions of Vectorworks 2012 please visit this link.

US Tour Details

These US Tour events are free and attendees can receive three AIA, LA CES or APLD continuing learning units as well as discounts on Vectorworks software training. Members of the software subscription program Vectorworks Service Select will receive 20 percent off training purchases, and non-members will receive 10 percent off training purchases made at the events.

The schedule includes:

• Los Angeles
• San Francisco
• Oakland
• San Rafael
• Columbia
• Boston
• New York City
• Seattle

Designers can choose between 3-hour classroom or virtual online training sessions, or they can attend a user group meeting in each location to learn about the new features in Vectorworks 2012 and get a sneak peek into other design solution partners such as DeckWorks Outdoor Living by Trex, Include Censor and Asset, Nemetsheck SCIA Engineer, AR-Works and Maxon CINEMA 4D.

For more information, dates, times and to register visit this web page.

To learn more about Vectorworks 2012 read our Press Event coverage notes and this announcement.

Inside this rigging course modo users will discover and learn concepts and techniques essential to rigging models for animation in modo 501. Rich Hurrey leads students from the basics of the modo interface and tools on towards such challenging topics as inverse kinematics and schematic viewports. With the basics behind you students can then approach tackling a tutorial that ultimately leads them to a production-ready asset.

There are 26+ hours of searchable video with indexed chapters in this interactive training series. Items are cross-referenced and linked to online documentation. There is an extensive FAQ section as well. All of this is packaged up in a beautiful and easy to use interface. All materials are downloaded from the Web. Users will need modo 501 SP4 or later to complete the course plus the basic requirements of QuickTime software from Apple.

01 - rigging master course at Luxology is new.

The price is 149.USD until 24 October 2011 and then it will be 199.USD. To learn more visit here.

VIRTUAL TUTOR 12 for ARCHICAD V12 is now shipping. Over 6.5 gigs of movies, nearly 2 gigs more than the previous version, Virtual Tutor 12 allows the viewer to learn at their own pace, with a full reference guide with step by step how-to examples of cool things other users have done.

For more information on Virtual Tutor 12

Anime News

IN OTHER NEWS, Smith Micro 2D animation software, Anime Studio was recently added in the Mac App Store.

This software application has already become one of the top selling Graphics and Design software, following closely behind Adobe’s Photoshop Elements and Pixelmator.

This unique app enables people of all skill levels to imagine, create and animate 2D movies, cartoons, anime and cut out animations. Notably, the apps system allows creators to animate quickly and efficiently.

Anime Studios is hoping to be featured in the “New and Noteworthy” section within a couple weeks on the Mac App Store. Currently the success of this app has warranted Anime Studio to be promoted in next weeks Featured Apps at the store. Apple will even be showing a demo video that will be promoted by the Apple staff.

For information on Anime Studio Debut visit

Anima 1.1.3 is released

Anima 1.1.3 is the latest version of a stand-alone character animation application designed specifically for architects and designers. The program works as a plugin for CINEMA 4D and Autodesk 3DS Max. It runs from 399.USD. to 739.USD for the premium version. To learn more visit them here.

Existing users will be happy with a 3x – 12x speed up for navigating between Viewports and design layers or switching between viewports. Even files in the hundreds of megabytes move this much faster than version 2011. Mac OS X Lion is also fully compatible with this release of Vectorworks 2012, which will please Mac customers.

“This release reinforces our position as a leader in 3D technology within the AEC marketplace,” says Dr. Biplab Sarkar, Chief Technology Officer of Nemetschek Vectorworks. “I’m proud of the many improvements our development team has achieved with this version, particularly those related to BIM, GIS and rendering.”

01 - Vectorworks 2012 has a new 2D X-ray mode that allows you to see behind filled objects while editing the drawing. This among many BIM and powerful 3D refinements.

“With the Vectorworks 2012 products, we continue to deliver the tools designers require to succeed in meeting complex design challenges, whether they work in the field of architecture, landscape or entertainment design,” said Stewart Rom, Nemetschek Vectorworks’ Chief Marketing Officer. “We value the feedback we receive from our users, and we’ve taken their wishes into account to further improve the usability and performance of our software.”

Key New Improvements

• Enhanced 3D Modeling — The program now examines the model under the cursor and sets the working plane automatically, removing the general need for the user to define the working plane manually.
• Instant Access Push-Pull Tool — The Push-Pull tool now works faster and more intuitively.
• BIM Improvements — A new Stories feature improvement adds a parametric capability within your BIM geometry. Plus there are  improvements to BIM objects like stairs, walls, slabs, wall components, etc.
• Improved IFC Support — IFC support has been greatly improved, with higher fidelity improvements from imported elements
• GIS and BIM are now integrated with new Landmark and Designer versions.
• Renderworks Improvements
• 100 Plus Performance and Usability Improvements
• New Features in vertical applications

Some key new smaller features include the new 2D X-ray fills mode and streamlining of the interface tools.

To learn more visit Nemetschek Vectorworks online and view several introductory videos.

ParaCloud GEM (5)

The new ParaCloud GEM version 5 now enables you to utilize a new component system to create batch populations of elements using predefined pattern maps and applying differing population methodologies. ParaCloud GEM integrates with most 3D CAD software systems and runs on both Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows platforms.

Key Aspects of GEM 5:

• Simple To Use – GEM 5 is a powerful but simple parametric system modeler geared towards “designers” not computational experts
• Generative Modeling W/O Scripting – Complexity was never so simple. You do not need scripting or spaghetti wiring
• More Control – Advanced modeling editing means users can edit the mesh down to individual faces or create sets with smart mapping tools. ParaCloud GEM (5) provides smart tools for managing offsets, buildups, parametric transformations and component proliferations
• Performative Intentions – ParaCloud GEM provides tools for exploring expected performative aspects of your design. Specify points of interest and relationships to explore variations of the design mesh and components. Explore alternatives in less time
• Quick Results – ParaCloud GEM (5) provides rapid results with its ease-of-use and modeling processes
• 3D Print Out - You can generate 3D printable output and includes unfolded layout tools for placing the components of your model in the fabrication plane. ParaCloud GEM (5) makes it easy to document the components for shop drawings and includes support for multi-layered materials for designing digital materials.

You can learn more about this latest release by visiting ParaCloud online. There are also free video tutorials to help new users get started. Upgrades are available from earlier versions.

The CadFaster plugins enable the export of highly efficient geometry models from various tool and upload to the CadFaster cloud service, which then enables collaboration between participants featuring annotation, co-viewing and distribution.

” Unlike traditional viewers that are often very slow on mobile applications and require a large amount of internal memory to open a stored file, the CadFaster mobile app allows users to easily and almost instantly view models that are exported from CAD programs using the CadFaster|Collaborate plug-in,” said Raimo Kuismin, chairman, CadFaster. “It’s also much more than a viewer. This application provides a free resource at anyone’s fingertips for accessing, sharing, marking up and co-viewing diverse, 3D CAD designs.”

01 - CadFaster for iPad is a new CAD solution for mobile professionals with iPads. It enables the viewing and collaboration with others with connected CAD assets hosted in the cloud.

CadFaster Collaborate is the company’s main product. Thus far their only versions are for Windows-only CAD systems with the exception of the iPad solution. The iPad solution is absolutely free and you can test it out with demo 3D models up in the CadFaster cloud. Go here.

What We Think

You heard it from our experts in our 2011 State of Apple in CAD series this summer. CAD in the cloud is a reality and we think CadFaster is offering a valuable set of tools to the market. We encourage them to widen their support of CAD systems and platforms. In the future we might expect support for other 3D file formats and for Android tablets as well.

To learn more visit them here.