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[Sean Flaherty] I am convinced BIM is the right approach in the end. But the way I see it there are actually two types of BIM. There is Design-BIM and there is Construction-BIM. We are focused on Design-BIM. Nemetschek AG's ALLPLAN in Germany is clearly focused on Construction-BIM.

In Germany, for example, they are heavily invested in automation in the construction industry. It is really amazing what they are doing. And for the part of the market moving into automation, ALLPLAN has compelling technology. Architects produce everything in 3D models that go directly to the factory, which then produces the concrete curtain walls, for example. That's the goal of Construction-BIM. I've been in Germany recently and it's shockingly close to that now.

So VectorWorks is going to evolve but stay focused on the design side of the BIM equation?

Yes. I see BIM as actually splitting the market in two, much like PLM (product lifecycle management) has split the MCAD market in two.

In aerospace they aren't even doing dimensions anymore because they never produce paper documents for manufacture. It goes from design to engineering straight down the line to the subcontractor, without any paper. For aerospace PLM is essential, but that's not the US construction market.

Is there any chance that those ALLPLAN-like Construction-BIM technologies may find their way into VectorWorks?

Nemestchek North America has always been a design-side focused company. From a technical standpoint our code base is not so similar to ALLPLAN's because of our Macintosh and Japanese-language support. When NAG first bought us there was some talk about a universal CAD strategy but since they became a holding company we all operate independently. ALLPLAN is very 'downstream' oriented. We are not interested in that. In the European markets where we sell both products I think we can coexist well because of our different focus.

Who is your competition, who do you try to steal market share from?

Clearly Autodesk with Autocad is everyone's competition. If you look in most markets we are cross-shopped against Autocad and ArchiCAD.

BIM maybe the term everyone is throwing around out there but if you look at the market the vast majority of users are using regular Autocad without any add-ons and they are just drawing lines. BIM is the right way to do things ultimately, but it's not the only problem confronting architects with CAD. They care about other things like energy analysis and cost estimation. Estimation is a good example because the old-style way of doing estimation is still very accurate out in the industry and customers often aren't willing to learn how to punch in the values into the CAD program to do takeoffs.

What about the whole easy-modeling phenomenon with SketchUp? What do you think about that? What is that telling the market?

Brad's team has really done a fantastic job and in a certain way their popularity is actually demonstrating how far off focus other company's BIM visions are. Their walls don't even have thickness, yet architects are really taking to this application. Clearly they are showing that architects are more interested in the design-oriented model approach and that it's less about all the detail. The DesignWorkshop folks tried to do the same thing before them but the hardware back then couldn't back them up.

I'm also really pleased to see that Brad brought SketchUp to the Macintosh market. We are working with them on different strategies where our applications can work together more.

I will clearly second your opinion that I am happy to see that Brad decided to bring SketchUp to the Macintosh market.Ê From our conversations they too are very happy about that decision. It has opened up a good market for them.

VectorWorks now has a powerful modeling component but as a BIM application it doesn't truly support the ability to slice up a model yet and provide views.Ê Is that in the plans for a future version?

There are multi-view needs...and that is a weak point for us at the moment. It's a core part of BIM and we are attacking that area. We made big strides with the development of the viewport architecture in VectorWorks, which needed to come first. Sectioning is in the pipeline and it's an area we are all talking about.Ê

Your Industry Series has grown your market share, can we expect future expansion in other disciplines?

We have no near term plans for expansion. ARCHITECT is are most popular series product, but we've also had tremendous success with SPOTLIGHT and it's now the dominant [CAD] product in the US theater industry. And more and more people are using it in related industries...

Such as?

It is very popular in set-design and exhibit design. Both have the same needs: how lighting looks in a finished design. We know that in every small city there are these bands performing and often they do elaborate lighting displays to go with their music. It's very popular. So we are branching the product out in related directions and it's been going very well.

What about civil engineering and road design? Do you see a need there?

 

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