After reviewing TurboViewer 2.0, our previous view that Farros was already speaking our language, was further confirmed. It is not just that he is making a bold prediction about the impact of a game-changing device–anyone can do that! But rather that IMSI/Design is clearly showing what they mean by “inflection point” in the CAD industry.

The Key is Immediacy

On a personal note, I’ve been toting around an Apple iPad 2 since it came out. I couldn’t wait to use it as a tool for practicing architecture. I was very excited about what I could possibly do out in the field and what older processes could be replaced by this new tool. I was particularly interested in “speeding up” work flow processes that normally were tied down to limitations in the field or repetition back at the office or both. But here is what I learned: if the new process on the iPad isn’t fast enough to keep up with the old analog process, it doesn’t matter all that much if you are speeding up workflows downstream.

Let me explain it more clearly. Say you typically take field meeting notes on a pad of paper. Then you type up those notes back at the office. Say you often sketch up details and ideas for the client or the contractor as part of those notes on paper. Now you have an iPad. And you want to do all this work directly in the field and not burden yourself with the conversion from analog to digital back at the office. In theory, you should save time. But here is the rub. If the process on the iPad is anywhere more than 25 percent slower than the old analog process, you will not find the reward you are looking for. And if the process needs to keep pace with the flow of meetings, then it must be just as fast as analog or faster.

As it turns out, not a lot of iOS apps for AEC professionals meet this criteria yet. They offer streamlining by “everywhere access” and elimination of “double data entry” back at the office, but if you can’t keep up with others or an existing workflow it doesn’t matter how great the tool is–eventually you will stop using it.

Why TurboViewer Pro Succeeds

Given that criteria then, the reason why TurboViewer and TurboViewer Pro succeed as top notch tools in the new mobile app space is this: They are simple viewers that provide the market with CAD file viewing needs that normally have been served with mobile laptops. But they exceed laptops because they view the data faster, provide easier mobility, and also provide unique “one-of-a-kind” viewing experiences.

01 - Pixar's Wall-E robot is the star of this CAD file. The Views menu is shown in TurboViewer Pro 2.0. Selecting a view choice switches to that saved view.

Let’s start with the uniqueness factor. With TurboViewer and its Pro sister app you have the power to spin 3D models around effortlessly with your finger tip. It is like having the object in your hand. The combination of Apple’s Multi-touch user-interface and CAD/3D is wonderful when it is delivered this smoothly. And it is very smooth! Take the Wall-E.dwg file shown in the image above. (see image 01). TurboViewer Pro gives you an excellent Views menu with easy to understand icons and viewing options. It is so easy to reach out and touch the object on the screen and start spinning little Wall-E around.

If you get to where you have lost control and spun the model around in a way you don’t like (sometimes that can happen) you simply re-choose a typical view from the Views menu. (image 01) From there you have the option of axon, and all the various sides of an object. And with the Pro version you get Perspective options as well, giving you preconfigured lens starting at 28mm Landscape mode up to 50mm Object mode. (see image 03)

02 - Visual styles are available and the Pro version features X-ray mode, which is very useful for architecture urban design model files. You also have Perspective as an option.

03 - In the Pro version you have "Perspective" in addition to side and axon views. Camera options are available, including Custom.

Other unique things that are not so easy to do in a CAD application on a laptop are the simple way you can switch to various visual styles. You can easily toggle between line view, hidden line view, X-ray mode, shaded openGL and more. The X-ray mode is particularly cool for buildings; SketchUp users in particular with be at home with this viewing method. (see images 02)

next page: Other Details & Closing Comments

In this review I am not able to address all of the improvements, added features, etc.  There are too many.   I am just going to sort of randomly pick out a few and comment on some that stand out at first glance.  The best way to see them all is to go to this site.  And you will notice that my comments are directed mostly towards the use of the features by an architect, because that is what I know best.

Working Planes: Handwriting is on the Wall

The first new feature that I noticed with affection is the ability to select a working plane by just clicking on it and then being able to work directly on it, adding text, cut outs, new parts and so on. (see image 01) I have up to now been too lazy to really use working planes choosing instead to sort of work around them.  This is a great new feature.  But on my computer at least I have noticed a bit of a time lag as the changes get updated in 3D.  This is one of the many issues that come up as a program gets more complicated.  Older computers have a harder time keeping up.

The handwriting in on the wall, that is if you select the working plan then type some text it will be on the wall or plane selected in 3D, this I believe could be done before but now it’s much easier.  Also dimensions can be added in a 3D view so it is much easier to show the height of an object for example.

Pushing and Pulling

This is not really new from 2011, but by easily selecting the working plane it also becomes easier.  One thing I thought would be fun and useful was to draw a curved line on a working plan in 3D and then pull it up to a height and turn it into a wall by extruding it.  That didn’t work.  Then I tried to change my curved object by offsetting it.  That didn’t work either.  What does work is to draw any shape in 2D then offset it using the close open curves (also works with straight lines) mode then use the push pull tool to stretch it up to whatever height you want.  It could also just be extruded at that point.  The thing that makes this interesting is the ability to easily create curvilinear shapes that can become walls or maybe areas of glass. (see image 01)

The Push Pull tool gains efficiencies despite it being fundamentally different because you simply do not have to select the working plane on an object now. That can be done in automatic mode, saving you many steps. You can also toggle that automatic mode off, a handy feature at times.

01 - Offsets and shape making in Vectorworks 2012. Note that text can be easily added to any plane by selecting it by just clicking on the plane, thereby making it the working plane and then typing text (see text on blue section, as well as imported image).

You gotta love the ability to change the size and angle of tiles and hatches on the fly; wow this one is cool.  It’s great for anyone who does layouts of paving for example.  I almost made myself crazy doing this a few versions back working on the design of a small piazza in Italy.

next page: Collaboration

What’s New in Mudbox 2012

Autodesk Mudbox 2012 continues to advance itself and in this year’s release the design software giant added support for 64-bit Linux in addition to Windows and Mac OS X 10.6.x support. In this update Autodesk touched on all three major areas of Mudbox (sculpting, painting and posing) adding useful improvements, but in general the largest updates are concentrated in the area of 3D painting and posing.

Before we get into those we’ll briefly touch on some general improvements. Version 2011 added 64-bit support for Mac and now as we mentioned we have the same for Linux. A big new improvement in this update is the ability to create and edit stencils. You can bring in images to use for stencils directly from the Mac clipboard.

Autodesk also has introduced new single-step “round-trip” workflows for other related Autodesk software, such as: Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Softimage. Imagining a scene origin from your DCC software of choice, you can export to Mudbox to add painting or sculpting effects and detail and then merge back to your digital content creation (DCC) software. That improves work flows for those working with Autodesk DCC suites. There is a new Send To option in the File menu.

Another useful and related new feature is the new Maya-like “Hot Menus” introduced in Mudbox 2012. Clicking the spacebar quickly creates a “heads-up” hot menu system. For whose who do not use such menu systems it may take getting use to. (see image 01).

01 - Autodesk Mudbox 2012 features new "heads-up" Maya-like hot menu system.

Some significant minor changes include the ability to use tools like Grab and Pinch to manipulate stencils to more closely conform to the shape of your model. There are new selection tools with region and lasso modes. This gives you more control over how you control your model. (see image 02).

02 - Mudbox 2012 features expanded selection tools with new lasso and region modes.

There are two new Grab brush options–Grab Silhouette and Follow Path–that allow you to create innovative new shapes. And this release vastly improves on texture data sets.

next page: Painting Improvements

First a Few Notes About Vectorworks

Vectorworks is the all-around CAD program for architects, landscape architects, civil engineers, mechanical and electrical engineers, theater lighting designers and design in general. From the standpoint of graphics, Vectorworks can be a one stop shop for an architectural office.  It’s a design tool, a production tool and a rendering tool that can also be used for most of the graphic layouts an architect might need.

Vectorworks is well regarded for its short learning curve compared to other CAD programs. Design can be done all in 3D and those 3D drawings will be or can be the same drawings that become the 2D drawings making up the production drawing set.  Client presentations can be rendered printouts, animations, walk-throughs, or even real time views of a 3D model taken on one’s laptop to a client meeting.  And if one needs to do a graphic presentation, a competition board for example, pictures, text, 2D and 3D drawings can all be composed and printed right in the program.

Vectorworks 2011

Nemetschek North America changed its name last year to Nemetschek Vectorworks. Most in the industry, including its users, saw that as a good sign–a sign that they really want to identify with it (the Vectorworks brand) and thus make it the best they can.

The biggest bit of news in Vectorworks 2011 is that they have replaced the rendering engine in Renderworks with the Cinema 4D render engine.  And they have created an easy integration with the actual Cinema 4D program.  This is a really big improvement especially for anyone wanting to take their models to a very high level. The company claims a 5 to 7 times increase in speed. However, we did not verify this in any tests in this review.

The other big feature change is what they call 2D/3D integration.  Vectorworks has for a long time been a very flexible program allowing one to create just about any 3D form.  But now with this integration of 2D and 3D the program is even more flexible and easier to use for preliminary design.  I know there are people who design in SketchUp and import into Vectorworks. Vectorworks’ new modeling technology, with its improved Push/Pull tool, will begin to enable experienced SketchUp and Vectorworks users to simply model all in Vectorworks 2011. We will spend some time digging into the new 2D/3D integration and modeling features as well as many other improvements in the full review.

New Improved 3D Environment

There are some stunning improvements to the new unified 2D/3D environment in Vectorworks 2011. The most important is the way 2D objects can now be drawn in 3D views, complete with text creation and editing abilities.

Most experienced Vectorworks users will delight in the ability and flexibility to manipulate planar objects in various 3D views. Architects and engineers for example might develop connection details in axon views complete with dimensions and extruded connections and members. (see images 01 – 03)

01 - The new unified 2D/3D environment allows all 2D objects, including hatches, fills and gradients inside objects to be planar objects which can be displayed in 3D.

02 - In order to maintain associative dimensions one must associate the dimension to the 2D planar object prior to it forming the basis of a 3D object.

03 - This axon view was actually rotated. Notice how the text and leader lines exist in 3D. They were drawn on the workplane which was set to the face of the column.

Vectorworks 2011 allows you to work with text blocks in 3D just like in 2D. One caveat however. If you create a viewport of a 3D view or 3D object, you cannot place text in 3D in the annotation layer of the viewport. Therefore, you must first add that text on a design layer prior to the creation of the viewport. That is the method for establishing a detail like above. (see third image above).

Vectorworks 2011 now allows you to utilize, view and edit fills, gradients and hatches in isometric views. This will greatly expand the possibilities for presentation drawings.

Autodesk acquired Skymatter Inc. in the summer of 2007 and have taken over development since then, releasing versions in 2009, 2010 and now 2011 (released earlier this year).

The What of Mudbox

Mudbox is a digital sculpting 3D software program with several different uses. In the visual-effects (VFX) industry Mudbox’s primary value is in creating high-resolution digital sculptures of creatures, characters and terrain. It is also a capable 3D painting tool and a tool for the creation of displacement and normal maps. 3D artists from hobbyist to studio professionals and animators can tap Autodesk Mudbox’s power and ease of use for rapid 3d sculpting.

What is powerful and useful about Mudbox is it utilizes 3D meshes and supports Catmull-Clark subdivision of mesh polys. One can work swiftly with a low-poly count mesh even after creating several surface subdivisions. The program blends into Autodesk’s arsenal of 3D applications nicely borrowing interface design coloring and features and works particularly well with Autodesk Maya in addition to Adobe Photoshop.

An Introduction

Mudbox 2011 features an updated user-interface that primarily changes in that it utilizes the same color scheme as Maya and Autodesk-related software packages. The Mudbox 2011 UI features a simple tabbed structure, a large primary 3d view window wrapped by layer, object and properties control palettes and tool and material trays at the bottom. (see image 01 below) The program has a very nice HUD (head’s up display) implementation within the primary 3d view window delivering key contextual messaging.

01 - Autodesk Mudbox 2011 has a very clean interface, relates well aesthetically to other Autodesk Media and Entertainment division software packages, such as Maya and Max.

When you open up Mudbox 2011 you are presented with a Welcome window overlaying the UI. (see image 01 above) The primary benefit of this window is to choose a template mesh. Mudbox speeds up character and object 3d modeling creation by providing templates such as a human head (bust), a bull, a human body, a cube or ball, et cetera. Also within this window are a series of video tutorials and quick start guides.

There are three primary functional areas in Mudbox: sculpting, painting and posing. In this release, the biggest new changes are in the introduction of a posing toolset and 3D painting.

As a general introduction, a model is chosen from a template form. This can be a humanoid, an animal, or basic form like a cube or sphere (as shown below, see image 02). When modeling you use the sculpt tools to create a basic sculpt stroke. This will produce either a positive addition or negative subtraction to the model’s mesh body. With each stroke of the sculpt tool, vertices on the mesh are affected. There are simple controls for the size and strength of the stroke using keyboard shortcuts with the tool. Another key aspect of sculpting is the degree of subdivision to the mesh itself. Mudbox 2011 allows for continued degrees of subdivision of the mesh, thereby increasing or decreasing the subtly of each tools’ deformations on the model.

02 - With various sculpting tools one can modify basic elements and increase subdivision levels.

03 - Mudbox features non-destructive sculpting layers and you can blend sculpt layers together.

When you sculpt in Mudbox you do so on “sculpt layers.” (see image 03) Mudbox calculates the differences between vertices after a stroke tool and records that difference (delta) on the layer. Deltas for all other layers are added up to arrive at the final shape of a model. Sculpt layers in Mudbox 2011 do not need to be in any stacking order because sculpt layers combine in an additive manner.

As you can see in the image above (see image 03), sculpt layers have opacity. Increasing the opacity amplifies the sculpting on that layer, while reducing it decreases the amplification.

04 - You can sculpt in Mudbox 2011 using stencils.

Mudbox already had stencil and stamp modeling in the previous version. With stencils Mudbox utilizes images to apply interesting sculpted details to the model. It does so by corresponding black pixels and white pixels differently to the affect of the tool. White values allow the tool to pass through and affect the model while black values don’t. In the image above the spiky hair on the human head was created using a stencil affect in the modeling. (see image 04).

Every real, as opposed to virtual I guess, project that we architects do has a site. The site might be an empty field or an infill one with existing buildings all around. It could also be an existing building with work done on the outside or even the inside. These days many of us are designing in 3D creating nifty little 3D models of our work that often just float around in space with no reference to the actual site. Or we may create the site and its surroundings virtually to have a place to put the model. But for the client and for the completion of the design process what could be more illustrative than to see the new structure on a photo of the actual site.

This can be done using Vectorworks importing a picture and then matching the exact angle and perspective of the picture with a 3D view of the Vectorworks model. It’s not too difficult if we know the exact position of the camera, the angle, the focal length, et cetera, of the imported picture. But I can tell you from my own experience that what might not seem too difficult can take hours of messing around and trial and error to get a result that even seems close to reality. This is assuming you know the details of the imported photo mentioned above, but what if the client just hands you a picture taken from some random location?

Cameramatch

Cameramatch solves all of these problems and once one learns how to use the program the “photo” of the site combined with the model of the proposed project can be accomplished in minutes using just about any random photo–not hours. Time savings on just one of these should more than pay for the 100.USD cost of the program and from then on it’s just more money in your pocket.

Now I have to admit that I have had a few start-up issues. The instructions, who wants to read instructions, are detailed and one must read them and follow them. One must also be familiar with the base program, which in this case is the latest Vectorworks 2011, by Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc.. Cameramatch is also available for earlier versions. I have been at fault in both cases. I just got the new version of Vectorworks and I don’t really like following instructions. I know I’m not alone otherwise they wouldn’t have a ‘quickstart’ guide in just about everything we buy these days.

Here are before and after photos of a little house we are working on in the Czech Republic. It’s actually a teardown and rebuild of an existing structure attached to another house. The photo used was taken at random by the client. We have not even been to the site.

Cameramatch works by aligning a 3D view of a model in Vectorworks to a photo’s specific perspective. The general idea is you are going to model something in Vectorworks from the vantage point of a specific photo, whether you re-use that photo as part of your final visualization product or not.

In the top image below we start with the basic establishing of 3D reference points in the photo taken. (see image 01). In the second photo below you “align” your 3D model created in Vectorworks (or possibly created in another program and brought into Vectorworks) to the Camermatch object in the annotation space of the viewport. (see image 02).

01 - Cameramatch 2011. Locations of dots and lines indicate found perspective guides for the model.

02 - Cameramatch 2011's process and interface. The 3D model aligns with guides established through the Cameramatch object.

This was just my second attempt at using the program; so don’t think that it’s the best that can be done with the program. Go to the site www.panzercad.com and look for some examples done by others to get a better idea of the true potential of the program. And after we make some revisions to this design requested by the client I will make a better version of this one.

Matrox GXM Options for the Mac Platform

There are two key products that can serve the entire current line of Mac computers: Matrox DualHead2Go DP Edition and Matrox TripleHead2Go DP Edition. In this review we took a look at the DualHead2Go DP Edition GXM unit (see image 01). And we tested it on a mid-year 2009 MacBook (MacBook 5,1) with a 2 GHz Intel Core Duo processor and Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics chip with 256 MB of memory.

For older Macs that do not use the Mini DisplayPort Maxtrox has both a digital and analog series of products (Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition and Matrox TripleHead2Go Digital Edition; and Matrox DualHead2Go Analog Edition and Matrox TripleHead2Go Analog Edition, respectively) to serve you. And in addition to these products video professionals on the Mac can also be served up more Mac friendly hardware that work in conjunction with these units.

01 - DualHead2Go GXM unit. As you can see next to an aluminum 2009 MacBook the unit is relatively tiny, perfect for carrying with you on business travel if need be.

The unit itself is a smallish, black metal box of punched-holed metal about 4 x 5 x 1.5 inches total–very discreet, tidy and attractive. On one side consists display ports and on the opposite side a USB port for powering the unit and another single DisplayPort. (see image 01 above) Standard items shipping with the unit include DisplayPort to DisplayPort input cable, USB cable for powering the device from your computer and the Getting Started CD.

There are two key things you will need to get started. First, you will need a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter cable if you are using a Mac (such as a MacBook). This is sold separately for about 35.USD. Secondly, you will need to download the Matrox PowerDesk software for Mac in order to fully configure the product. The PowerDesk software for Mac installs key software and a new Matrox control panel to your Mac’s preferences. (see image 03 below)

The Matrox PowerDesk software for Mac comes in a standard OS X installer package and provides you with various settings organized across three windows. This is a native OS X application and sits inside your Applications folder. Once opened you can access the Matrox GXM Control Panel, which is also accessible from within your System Preferences, from inside the PowerDesk app.

Next page: Configuring the Unit

The most significant change for Vectorworks 2009 is a new 3-D modeling engine from Siemens PLM. [We have an extensive discussion of it here and in this interview.]  Suffice to say that this industrial strength modeler significantly boosts the power and performance of Vectorworks 2009. Nemetschek has stated that the new engine operates roughly four to five times faster than the previous version for most 3-D operations and up to twelve times faster for Boolean operations.

There are also some important implications of the new modeling engine when it comes to Building Information Management (BIM).  [For more on BIM and Vectorworks 2009 improvements for Architects in general, see this previous review of Vectorworks Architect.]

While I am writing this review from the point of view of an Architect using Landmark. Nemetschek aims Vectorworks 2009 Landmark at “landscape architecture, landscape design, contracting, or planning” professionals and they should find this review useful as well.

New Features Unique to Landmark

One of the more significant additions to Landmark 2009 is the new “Landscape Area” tool that allows you to designate groupings of plants by outlining an area on your plan.  Individual plants are not graphically shown in these areas, but the landscape area is graphically shown, and by assigning attributes to that area, all individual plants are included in your plant list.  Landscape areas can be made up of a single species of plant or multiple species.  After drawing a simple polyline, you can edit the settings to control the species, the graphic look of the plant cloud, and the information to be shown on the Plant Tag (see below).  In the case of multiple species, you can determine how many plants of each species are to be included by assigning percentages.  [see image 01 below] 

01 - The new Landscape Area tool is a huge time saver over adding individual plants.

Landmark 2009 also has enhanced controls over Plant Tags.  Plant tags are the labels that can appear on your plan pointing to one or more plants displaying information such as species, common name, the number of plants, etc.  The new features give you far more controls over how these tags look including the approach angle, shoulder angle, and the bubble style.

For those 3D users following US design software juggernault Autodesk, and their continued acquisitions, there have been some concerns that the healthy and competitive field of high-end 3D packages might collapse down with product integration. We have reported on Architosh that Autodesk states they have no such plans. But even if they did, rest assured that there are still several independent top-notch tool sets that vie heavily for technical dominance in this field. Maxon’s Cinema 4D is one of them.

In a previous review we took a broader look at the application. This review will be solely focused on the use of C4D AE v11 in the AEC visualization space. Maxon is a subsidiary company of German AEC software giant Nemetschek AG. As such it is a sister-company application to two leading BIM/CAD applications also under the German software giant’s umbrella: ArchiCAD and Vectorworks Architect. It also is a sister application to Nemetschek AG’s own ALLPLAN BIM software, the leading BIM software in Germany.

01 - C4D R11 has excellent built-in detection of new software with a streamlined ability to download updates including key plugins and updated help files.

From this view C4D AE 11 is made to work hand-in-glove with all three of these BIM packages. The product ships with plugin modules to support files from these BIM applications directly into C4D AE 11. Installing them is also quite simplified as the plugin modules are listed like other modules for C4D and are automatically discovered and downloaded by the application (see image 01 above)

Cinema 4D AE v11 – General Summary

C4D version 11 has two major applicable editions: Architectural Edition (AE) and Engineering Edition (EE). These are not to be confused with the “modules” of which there are presently eight different modules (available separately or in particular bundles). Modules vary from advanced and network rendering to hair and dynamics.

The Architectural Edition comes with several key modules useful to AEC visualization. These include the Advanced Render and Sketch & Toon modules, as well as the Architectural Extension Kit. The kit includes numerous tools and utilities useful to the Architectural Edition.

The Interface

Cinema 4D 11 features an impressive interface system. This UI system is the same one introduced in version 10 and as we mentioned in a previous review (see Architosh Review: Cinema 4D R10.5) the “program really is a GUI inside a GUI.” While some may find this awkward the beauty in this solution is it enables the Maxon developer team to focus development resources on features rather than code time on managing two operating system (OS) GUI environments. This is “only” beautiful when you consider the end result of this simplification on Maxon’s part and ask: “is this unified UI (user-interface) attractive and easy to work in?” This author’s opinion is a definitive yes.

02 - Mouse Move Activation and the very important Menu Popup Delays can be customized by speed differences in C4D R11, making this application unique in ability to control so much of the user interface.

For starters the flatter, multi-gray user interface is wicked fast! In fact you can customize the interface speed too! (see image 02) It also has that serious sexy look common to video applications and 3D tools like Luxology’s modo! The value of the gray interface is that color is special and stands out. A gray interface is also less intense on your eyes. (see images 3-4)

03 - The default light-gray user-interface option.

04 - The default dark-gray user interface option.

We want to spend a little bit of time on this interface before we plow straight ahead into this review’s real focus. While perhaps daunting at first sight and perhaps different than what you are used to, the Cinema 4D user interface system is powerful and easy to learn. Moreover, it is highly customizable, enabling the user to control palettes, menu items, icons and keyboard shortcut settings and even the colors of the interface features.

To get a fundamental understanding of the overall program we suggest that you read our first review (from version 1). In this review, we will focus on the new features and the overall quality of this software. BeLight Software itself has a nice array of high quality videos demonstrating the many features and capabilities of Live Interiors 3D version 2 on its own site, which we highly recommend you check out. 

Some Basics First – Floor Plans

Live Interior 3D allows you to start your project using some template floor plan arrangements (click on the link to see image) or types but you don’t have to. Although the templates come in a lot of common arrangements if you don’t see anything close to the configuration of your apartment or house you can start from scratch. 

Drawing walls in Live Interior 3D is very easy. There are several really nice touches in this program. For instance when you click the wall tool the Inspector palette provides you the ability to set up profiles for crown and base mouldings, making these apart of the wall assembly rather than separate elements added to the rooms later. This saves time. A series of master walls gives the user the key walls they will need for exterior walls, including various thicknesses used in common construction. 

01 - Split-screen feature. Makes wall/plan creation more interactive.

02 - Wall editing. Dynamic dimensioning makes adjustments easy.

Walls snap together very well in this program; however the real beauty comes when you decide to move walls or move a single wall. To do this you simply select the wall with the selection arrow tool, the wall will highlight green and there will be green diamonds at the ends of that wall plus a double-arrow icon over the center of the wall–implying slide me in either direction. That is exactly what you do to adjust the location of the wall. The beauty comes next when dimensions of the wall–and other key walls touching the wall you are moving–appear automatically and adjust dynamically as you slide the wall around. Once you reposition the wall those dynamically driven dimensions disappear. (see images 01 – 02)  We find this feature much easier and more powerful than many of the highend CAD software programs we review that cost hundreds more. The appearance of the dynamic but temporary dimensions is really an outstanding feature.

Of course in Live Interior 3D Standard and Pro you can always add permanent dimensions and annotations (notes) to your drawing to produce the common types of blue-print or construction drawings you seek. 

Multi-Storey Design

Now in Live Interior 3D (Standard and Pro) you have the ability to add a storey below or above the current storey you are working on. You can add not just one but several stories (Pro), creating multi-story apartments or homes. And with the stair tool you can link these stories together. (see image 03)

To create a storey below or above you current storey you do so by selecting menu Edit > Building > Add Storey Above Current command. (see image 03) In doing this the storey below you will appear in gray. The Project Tree will than display a series of boundary walls that align with the boundary walls of the storey below or above your current storey. If you choose to delete your new storey you do this from the same menu. You can also create storeys, edit their default heights and other storey related functions by using the “Building Properties” tab on the Inspector palette. 

03 - Multi-storey design is easy with Live Interior 3D v2.

04 - Live Interior 3D has excellent help system. Here it helps us find the command for deleting a storey.

In testing this we also got our hands wet with Live Interior 3D’s Help system; this taps some of the Mac’s underlying technologies, we believe, for sophisticated guidance systems that not only allows you to learn about the particular features in Live Interior 3D but also show you the menu commands that pertain to this feature. (see image 04)

Next page: Google SketchUp and 3D Warehouse integration.

The news was definitely a shot across the bow of CAD industry giant Autodesk and its archrival Bentley. Now the US-based and Germany-backed cross-platform CAD rival, Nemetschek North America, was setting its sights on larger fish and now in position to come at them with superior technology. German industrial giant Siemens was proudly in attendance in Baltimore…to say their world-leading Parasolid geometric modeling kernel was being incorporated into the industry’s first cross-platform BIM tool. 

The Review

This product review is focused on understanding the key benefits of this milestone update to Vectorworks Architect. Admittedly, with so much work involved in getting a new modeling geometry kernel under the hood, this release is not over-flowing with brand new features, as in other past updates. Yet is not without some very compelling new tech — the stuff that can sway a potential adopter to its corner. 

This review is organized around three broad areas:

• Its new “world-class” snapping and selection system
• The impact of the new Parasolid geometry kernel, and…
• Productivity improvements and updated compatibilities features

Part 1: World-class Snapping

Vectorworks has long been known to have good intelligent cursor technology, even back in the MiniCAD days. The SmartCursor, as its been called for quite some time, would provide good visual cursor feedback to the user. In Vectorworks 2008 the company advanced the way selected objects were highlighted by providing a soft orange glow on selected objects that resided on the “active” layer. If they resided on an “inactive” layer they would glow another color. Both colors were customizable by the user.

That was a very good improvement. But it was the tip of the ice-berg!

Now in Vectorworks 2009 Nemetschek North America has pulled out all the stops — with an all new Interactive Appearance Settings. The method in which visual feedback of pre-selection and selection of objects, snaps, and extension lines is fantastic.

In order to demonstrate some of the improvements over the previous version we have two QuickTime movie files below to compare. Before we do that however we will review the new snapping technology as a whole. 

Pre-selection and Selection

A big improvement in Vectorworks 2009 is the new visual highlighting applied to items just prior to “selection.” This is called “pre-selection.” It is fully customizable via the new Interactive Appearance Settings. We have to admit we were overwhelmed when we first saw this new dialog box (see image 01) but it didn’t take too much time to master.

01 - Interactive Appearance Settings.

The Interactive Appearance Settings dialog box lists all the Interface Elements involved in “object selection” and SmartCursor technology settings. Each element can have its own color. Users can customize these settings or leave them in standard default mode. For instance, we changed the SmartCursor – Cue Background color to a light green with a significant degree of transparency. We also made the SmartCursor Cue Text dark blue, which matched the floating data bar text color. Such changes can improve the visibility of cursor interface items. 

We also changed the color of Object Highlighting for “Inactive” Layer objects to purple, as it contrast dramatically from the default orange of “Active” Layer Object Highlighting. We bring this up because in essence, with just a few custom modifications, a Vectorworks 2009 user can now dramatically improve the user interface (UI) from previous versions of the software — making for a notable more enjoyable and productive environment.

2008 may turn out to be a watershed year for advanced industrial societies due to the collision of two major forces: the near total collapse of global financial markets and the rapid uptake in interest in alternative and renewable sources of energy. Both play into the adoption and interest in BIM for several reasons. Most notably BIM, unlike CAD, enables a better understanding (vis-a-vis analytical software tools) of building energy use and capture much earlier on in the design process. 

And in this time of marked “economic downturn” architecture firms, according to a recent AIA Economics report, are stepping back and looking for ways to optimize workflow and gain new efficiencies. Into this picture fits BIM (building information modeling) and with that ArchiCAD 12. Let’s take a look. 

ArchiCAD 12

With ArchiCAD 12 Graphisoft — which is now apart of the German Nemetschek Group – has done major work on a new underlying “systems technology” as well as optimized their code base for today’s multi-core processors from Intel and AMD. ArchiCAD 12 is the world’s first multi-threaded BIM application. The Hungarian developer also has addressed a broad range of BIM functionalities with a series of engaging new features and functional improvements.

So what’s new…?

First and foremost is the new Curtain Wall tool, based on the new systems technology mentioned earlier. Because this technology underlies significant future changes to ArchiCAD this will be our main focus in this review. However, there are several other important new features that warrant attention. First and foremost is the new Partial Structure Display and the related new feature 3D Document capability. Both of these make dramatic improvements to the core program. 

Secondly, Graphisoft has dramatically improved the StairMarker tool and the Hotlink Module. Finally there are several smaller improvements of which we will briefly touch on near the end of the review. 

A New System – Curtain Wall Tool

By far the biggest new feature in ArchiCAD 12 is the new Curtain Wall tool, which Graphisoft has told me is based on new “systems technology.” Developed internally Graphisoft’s new systems technology differs from its intelligent objects technology behind things like doors, windows, and stairs. 

The main distinction visible to the end user is that Curtain Walls — based on the new systems technology — can be edited at the “component member” level without dissembling the whole system or element. Also unique is that when you edit Curtain Walls at this level you do so within a dedicated 3D work environment complete with its own tools specific to the purpose of editing curtain walls. This is entirely different than the way in which you edit other building objects within ArchiCAD and it is a welcome change. (see image 01).

01 - ArchiCAD 12's new 3D Edit Curtain Wall Environment.

A key defining aspect of this new “systems technology” is that in the case of the new Curtain Wall tool there is introduced a new schema or set of “constructs” for understanding how the curtain walls you create are actually made and controlled by the program. These constructs include things like “reference line”, “reference plane”, “grid” and “base plane” and other constructs more closely aligned to real-world components like “panel” and “frame.” We are not going to talk about these specifically in this review but it bears mentioning that we hope Graphisoft can implement its systems technology going forward with a directness and simplicity consistent with the best aspects of the program. 

Interface

For seasoned users, the most obvious change introduced in version 10 is the whole look of the program: it has taken on a less-sculpted, slate-grey look with all the button highlights in orange (somewhat reminiscent of modo, we have to say). However, interface flexibility has always been a forte of Cinema, and the old-style looks are still there lurking under the surface, ready to be called up from the Edit > Preferences > Common dialog box. Cinema has also eschewed the collection of printed manuals of previous versions, with all its documentation now being searchable hypertext that is shipped on the DVD and opened from within the program itself. However, the documentation isn’t installed by default, and to install it you actually have to install the relevant language file that you want your interface to ’speak’. This caused us some head-scratching at first.

The Cinema 4D interface concept also merits an explanation. The program is really a GUI-within-a-GUI (i.e. neither Mac nor Widows.) In fact, the Mac version doesn’t even use the Mac Menu Bar – all menus are accessed from within Cinema 4D windows themselves. This also leads to some problems: since the interface basically sits in a Mac OS X window, the three window control buttons don’t do what you expect them to. Clicking the ‘x’ button doesn’t close the current document — it quits the whole program. This had us really confused at first. Also you don’t get the little dot in the Close button to tell you that your document is unsaved.

But this control over the GUI has allowed the developers to build in a great deal of flexibility with regards to screen layout. Basically, every interface element (toolbars, OpenGL views, Attribute dialogs, and the like) exist as separate windows. These windows can then be docked with one another– either vertically or horizontally — to create a ‘flat’ interface. Should you require a little depth to your interface, any window or docked ‘pane’ can be turned into a tab, and these tabs can then be stacked to allow multiple panes to reside in the same interface space. Of course, most of the time, you won’t have to think about this, since Cinema 4D comes complete with ready-to-use interface layouts for General use, Modeling, Animation, two layouts for BodyPaint (Maxon’s 3D painting solution) and…Architecture.

00 - C4D Architecture Edition features exchange plugins for Allplan, ArchiCAD and Vectorworks, enabling

Yes, Architecture. Maxon is taking the field of architectural visualization rather seriously (see last section below). The number of layouts available to the user is essentially unlimited, and they can be chosen from the Layout drop-down in the standard interface or from the Window > Layout menu. Careful if you have you interface stretched across multiple monitors, though. Choosing a new layout snaps the entire interface into the monitor carrying the Menu Bar. Even with the interface split into two windows (one per monitor), both windows still crowded onto the main monitor when changing the layout. We hope this is addressed soon.

Another major interface change introduced in version 10 is Layers. These do what you would expect them to — organize various scene elements into groups that can be controlled as a whole — and a bit more besides. The architectural implications are obvious, in that you can group structural, service, landscape, entourage, etc. onto their own layers and hide and show them at will. Although you can also control visibility in final rendering, hiding in the Object and Material managers and in the Timeline.

Layers can, of course, be locked and they can have any deformers or HyperNURBS objects turned on or off at Layer level. Creating a new layer can be as easy as selecting some objects in the Object manager and Right-click > Add to New Layer. Naturally you can also add them to existing layers. Layers are also global: any item in a Layer will be affected wherever that item occurs: simultaneously in the Object manager and Timeline, for example. Layers also work independently of Groups in the object manager: the contents of a single layer can be drawn from members of different groups. We found the new layers extremely useful in organizing the often-messy hierarchy of imported model files — for instance we found them invaluable for organizing and controlling the visibility of the tangle of Cameras that seem to come in with our test SketchUp files.

01 - Cinema 4D's flexible HUD system allows the user to drag commands into the main window as HUD elements.

Finally, we come on to the HUD. (see image 01) The HUD increases interface flexibility dramatically, by letting you simply drag commands from the interface into the OpenGL Editor (the 3D workspace). The commands then sit there independent of the view and give you immediate access to whatever attributes they control. For instance, select a number of attributes in the Attribute Manager, they become a collapsible HUD element. You can Command-drag to place the HUD element anywhere in the workspace. Then dragging on any of the fields in the HUD element, and the corresponding parameters update in real-time in the Editor. And in 10.5 the concept has been expanded so that just about anything can be used as a HUD element. We found that the positions of HUD elements could get a little ’scrambled’ when changing between views, but luckily this is ameliorated by the new Auto Fold option.: this collapses any HUD element down to a single button that pops open when you mouse over it. The HUD really comes into its own when you want access to particular commands for a particular project, but don’t want to go to the trouble of designing a custom layout for the task.

But the inevitable question gets asked: “what about Photorealism?” Sure, it’s always been possible to export your geometry (and textures, depending on the export format used) to third party programs, but this has at any time been accompanied by several caveats. First of all, geometry doesn’t get translated properly (missing faces, wrong smoothing). Second, textures don’t always make the transition properly. Third, you only want to do a rendering, but have to buy a modeling, rendering and animation package to use just one third of it (well, two thirds if you want the animation as well).

The Use of TurboSketch

Given the preceding, how many of us have thought how nice it would be to produce photorealistic renderings right there, inside of SketchUp? IMSI/Design (makers of TurboCAD) certainly thought so, and came up with TurboSketch, to date the only Mac-based plug-in renderer forSketchUp.

TurboSketch Studio is basically a collection of Ruby scripts for handling model translation and the LightWork Design rendering engine. Oddly, IMSI/Design have chosen to bundle the rendering plug-in with a copy of the freely-downloadable Google SketchUp. However, this has meant that due to licensing problems with Google, the product is not currently available for the UK market. This one has us scratching our heads. Why make the decision to bundle a commercial application with a freely-available one, if including that freely-available product means that you close out a large part of your target market? The plug-in does, after all, install and work fine with copies of Google SketchUp that are already downloaded, and also works without any problems with the commercial Google SketchUp Pro. Answers on a postcard please…

Once it’s installed, TurboSketch Studio notifies its presence by posting a small palette of nine icons that you can place anywhere on the screen. These icons represent: Preview Render, Standard Render, Presentation Quality Render, Save Image: then come Lighting, Environment, Image and Render controls: then finally a button to summon the help. (see image 01).

You’ll also notice that when you right/ctrl-click on an object, you get two new entries in the contextual menu: TurboSketch Material andTurboSketch Light Attributes. (see image 02)

01 - TurboSketch Studio's palette icons are a bit weak.

02 - New Context Menu items in Google's SketchUp once TurboSketch Studio has been installed.

Finally, moving over to the Components Browser, you’ll find a new sub-section: TurboSketch Lights where seven new component light types are installed.

The main claim of TurboSketch is that it emulates the simplicity of SketchUp in offering one-click rendering. So how true is this claim? Well, one-hundred percent true. But is the rendering you obtain any good? Well, by and large, yes, it is.

I’m sure a lot of us are familiar with the first results from a render: the anticipation, followed by profound disappointment at the first results, followed by the usual round of tweak-and-refine until you get the results that you wanted the first time. With a few reservations, TurboSketch Studio largely avoids this and really does delivers on its promise of one-click rendering. We say “largely” because the first time we tried it we got a jumbled mess. We then realized that what we were looking at was geometry that was hidden in our SketchUp files, but was rendering in TurboSketch Studio. This is a limitation of the Mac version of the program, so if you’ve got hidden geometry you’ll need to “Save As” — then delete the hidden stuff. IMSI/Design are working with Google to resolve this problem.

The standard environment is set up to use the sun position from your SketchUp file, provides the sun as the only light source and uses the SketchUp horizon and ground colors. The results can be impressive, to say the least. When the Presentation Quality render option is chosen, the light and shading quality of the resultant render can be quite beguiling.

03 - With quality set to "Presentation" and sun as light source one click gets you renderers of this quality.

04 - Another rendering of the same model showing attractive results.

There’s an almost luminous quality to the sunlight, and the shading and drop-off in the shadows is extremely convincing (although the shadows themselves aren’t soft-edged). (see images 03-04). For the presentation quality renders you will have to wait, however: at 1024 x 768 the render took just over twenty minutes for our scenes. That’s because TurboSketch Studio is unable to take advantage of multiple processors, which seems a real shame, especially if you have a Mac Pro. In this release animation is also not supported.

The two other render modes are Preview (for rough-and-ready ‘thumbnail’ renders) and Standard — which is often good enough. The renders can be tweaked for brightness and contrast before and after rendering and any settings are automatically applied to the next render. The quality settings for each of the render types is also tweakable through the Render Settings Dialog, although there doesn’t seem to be a way to turn turn off reflections for Preview rendering, which is odd, given that they’re not really needed here and can slow down the rendering considerably.