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.

“We are thrilled to receive this honor,” said Steward Rom, Chief Marketing Officer of Nemetschek Vectorworks. “We strived to make the Vectorworks 2012 program the ideal solution for designers in the AEC community with continued improvements to our 3D, Building Information Modeling (BIM) and rendering capabilities, and it’s an honor to be recognized by the Construction Computing Awards. We’re also fortunate to have partners like Computers Unlimited who make it possible for us to bring these innovations to users around the world.”

The awards ceremony was held November 17, 2011, at The Hotel Russell in London, and team members from Computers Unlimited were in attendance to accept the award.

To learn more about Vectorworks, go here.

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.

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 thrilled to receive this honor,” said Steward Rom, Chief Marketing Officer of Nemetschek Vectorworks. “We strived to make the Vectorworks 2012 program the ideal solution for designers in the AEC community with continued improvements to our 3D, Building Information Modeling (BIM) and rendering capabilities, and it’s an honor to be recognized by the Construction Computing Awards. We’re also fortunate to have partners like Computers Unlimited who make it possible for us to bring these innovations to users around the world.”

The awards ceremony was held November 17, 2011, at The Hotel Russell in London, and team members from Computers Unlimited were in attendance to accept the award.

To learn more about Vectorworks go here.

“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.

The presentation at 2011 PCI Annual Convention and National Bridge Conference, illustrates the benefit of openBIM and how the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) file exchange is allowing architects, engineers and precast manufactures using preferred software applications from multiple vendors, to leverage today’s BIM process to increase efficiencies, reduce errors and ultimately deliver higher preforming precast structures.

“The demo is just an initial stepping stone to deal with all the major exchanges facilitating precast workflows,” said Eastman.

This educational session demonstrated how a design model created by an architect using an IFC-capable BIM authoring application can be imported into a structural analysis software for optimization and code checking.

This optimized IFC model can then be moved downstream and converted into a detailed precast fabrication model. The parts and Bill of Materials of the fabrication model can be used as the inputs into the fabrication process and ultimately to manage the scheduling and project completion on the job site.

“We expect other companies aspiring to support precast work will be joining later,” said Eastman, Professor and Director of the Georgia Tech Digital Building Laboratory.

For more information on Chuck Eastman’s work at the Laboratory the Georgia Tech Digital Building Laboratory
visit.

PCI, the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) is the foremost developer of standards and methods for designing, fabricating, and constructing precast concrete structures. PCI develops, maintains and disseminates the industry’s body of knowledge and publishes a broad array of periodicals, technical manuals, reports, and other informational documents, including an award-winning technical journal.

For more information on PCI

Or any company that is apart of the open BIM Interoperability. See below:

About Nemetschek Vectorworks Inc.

About Tekla

About StructureWorks

About Nemetschek Scia

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.

“This competition shows the impressive results users can achieve in rendering Vectorworks models within Renderworks and/or CINEMA 4D,” explains Dave Donley, Rendering Manager at Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc., “We are continuing to work on technologies which further strengthen this partnership.”

“We are extremely pleased with the results of this competition,” says Friederike Bruckert, Director of International Sales at MAXON Computer GmbH. “The winners invested a great deal of passion and energy into their entries, which serve as an inspiration to aspiring and seasoned designers.”

There entries were extensive and from around the world, representing talent in countries from Germany, the US, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy. All valid entries were evaluated by a jury and a panel of judges, and “Fan Favorite” was chosen by public vote. The winner in each category will receive a 2,500.USD Visa gift card. The Winners are:

• CINEMA 4D Animation Winner: “Modern ubook-kitchen” by Sina Grage. Grage is a student in northern Germany at the University of Muthesius Kunsthochschule Kiel, and she now works for Feuepfeil Design GmbH in Hamburg.
• CINEMA 4D Rendering Winner: “Dinner @ Panorama Tower” by Lmcad Estudios de Animacion. Located in the Dominican Republic, this firm specializes in architectural renderings and animations.
• Vectorworks Renderworks Winner: “Soundstone – house of music Render for a Master thesis” by Nicolai von Stromberg. Stromberg is a student at the Georg Simon Ohm Hochschule in Nuremberg, Germany
• Fan Favorite Winner – “Floating Olympic Village” by Julian Finke & Lena Dietrich, University of Applied Sciences, Detmold, Germany.

For images of the winning entries please visit this link. To view the winning animation go here on YouTube: http://youtu.be/tRlEzyqtWw0

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.

The Vectorworks folks have been a bit more quiet than usual these past few months but their latest newsletter showcases some interesting news tidbits. First off, celebrated architect, Daniel Libeskind is noted for his affect on inspiring the next generation of architects.

Studio Daniel Libeskind has offices in Zurich, Switzerland and New York City. The architectural studio has been using Vectorworks Architect for many years now as their primary design and construction documentation software tool. You can read the full profile here.

In other Nemetschek news, Vectorworks author, Janis Kent, AIA, CASp, has a new book titled, “Stepping Thru Accessible Details: A Compilation from the 2010 Americans with Disabilities Act and the California Building Code for Commercial Projects.” Architects may want to check into this invaluable aid for accessibility design.

Bonzai 3D Webinar Today!

AutoDesSys has a free bonzai 3d webinar today that showcases the modeler with the use of the Maxwell Render. The MaxwellZ plugin brings Next Limit’s superb photo-realistic rendering software technology to bonzai 3D.

01 - MaxwellZ plugin for bonzai 3d brings the power of Next Limit's amazing rendering engine to the very powerful and easy to use bonzai 3D modeling program.

This webinar starts at 1pm, July 26, 2011 and runs for 1 hour. To register go here.

FastTrack Schedule Compatible with OS X Lion

AEC Software has announced that FastTrack Schedule has passed compatibility tests with Apple’s new big cat, Mac OS X Lion (10.7). FastTrack Schedule 9.1 and higher will run on Lion. There is a blog post here about it.

By using the NCS Navigator online tool, architects can create custom palettes and export them to the Vectorworks program for use in their designs. This will help ensure accurate color selection for finishes in their designs.

“Vectorworks is all about design, and designers need to be able to control color, the dynamic and intuitive NCS color portal will allow Vectorworks users to custom build high-quality project color schemes in no time.” said Robert Anderson, Vice President of Integrated Practice, Nemetschek Vectorworks.

“We are excited about our collaboration with Nemetschek and the potential it brings to Vectorworks users to support color exactness throughout the process of communicating, visualizing and realizing a design project. It is a partnership based around facilitating the efforts of every Vectorworks user by incorporating color reliability and color design to their processes and projects via NCS Navigator 2.0 Premium.” Anderson concludes.

To see it in action there’s a video with step-by-step instructions regarding how to create and export custom color palettes from NCS Navigator to Vectorworks:

More information

For more information about the free version of NCS Navigator (Freemium) or to get a 30-day trial of the Premium version.

As of now, this Service Pack is currently available for all non-localized English versions. Nemetschek Vectorworks has announced that other language versions will be available soon.

If you have a license, this update is available.

To install the Service Pack, go to the About Vectorworks 2011 dialog box in the Vectorworks menu (Mac users) or Help menu (Windows users) and click Check for Updates.

For more info

Or for any technical questions or problems contact
tech@vectorworks.net

For more on Nemetschek Vectorworks

Nemetschek’s webinar “openBIM – Real Interoperability, Practical Collaboration” Part 1 was a real success. BIM technology involves processes that formulate, design, analyse, encode, decode, fabricate, simulate, and provide management of a project. There are many different types of technologies and workflows available that do pretty much the same thing. Nemetschek is aware that in order to move forward there needs to be an open dialogue between technologies leading to an open platform for true interoperability–the ability to exchange data and make use of the information, from any source, for any workflow.

These webinars are to focus on BIM interoperability, “openBIM workflows” while being educated on the use of Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) for the building geometry and data.

It is only through the combination of these technologies that the true limits of BIM can be explored.

A recording of the first webinar can be seen here.

Part 2 of the webinar takes place
July 7, 2011 (2:00p.m. GMT)

To register

or for any questions, please contact 888-646-4223
or architect@vectorworks.net.

Kurt Ameringer, Director at Graphisoft, is interviewed by AECcafe.com and you can see the video of that interview here. This was filmed on the show floor at the AIA Convention in May.

Kurt covers the three major areas of improvement in ArchiCAD 15, including design freedom with the new Shell tool, plus renovation documentation workflow and the new 3D environment advancements. You can view the interview here.

Jeff Ouellette of Nemetschek Video – Talks about Vectorworks Architect

Jeff Ouellette of Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc., was also interviewed by AECcafe.com at AIA and he discusses what the company is showcasing there to architects on the show floor.

Jeff mentions the focus of demonstrating how users can transition to BIM using Vectorworks Architect rather than making a complete wholesale switch. He also mentions the strength of Vectorworks in the graphics and presentation environment as well as its IFC compatibilities. You can view the interview here.

Autodesk 123

While not an AIA item per se Roopinder Tara at CAD Insider has another post about how Autodesk is taking on Google’s SketchUp with Autodesk 123. This is an interesting read because it delves into a discussion with John Bacus, product manager of SketchUp, about how SketchUp has become a fan favorite with the Maker Faire type audience worldwide. The Maker Faire itself was the chosen venue for Autodesk’s announcement of Autodesk 123. You can read the post here.

The competition is open to all professional and student designers around the world, and entries will be accepted in three categories: rendering with CINEMA 4D, animation with CINEMA 4D and Rendering with Renderworks 2011.

Entries will be evaluated by a jury and a panel of judges, including Dan Jansenson, principal at Daniel Jansenson Architect and author of Remarkable Renderworks, from Santa Monica, Ca.; Tyler Littman, principal designer and owner of Sholight, LLC, from New York; Nicholas Dunand, freelance designer and sculptor, from Melbourne, Australia; Erik Recke, freelance architectural visualizer at Datenland, from Hamburg, Germany; Alejandro Nogueira, CEO at DECC Arte 3D from Tecamachalco, Edo. de Mexico, Mexico; Christoph Altermatt, Principal at raumgleiter, from Zurich, Switzerland; and Peter Hoste, founding partner at bmd, from Kalken, Belgium.

“We are thrilled to continue our partnership with MAXON Computer through this competition,” said Stewart Rom, Chief Marketing Officer at Nemetschek Vectorworks. “The addition of the CINEMA 4D render engine has dramatically improved the capabilities of Renderworks, and we’re excited to see what our users submit as entries.”

“We want to encourage as many Vectorworks/Renderworks and CINEMA 4D users as possible to create exciting visualizations and renderings for submission,” adds Friederike Bruckert, Director of International Sales and Marketing, MAXON Computer GmbH. “This is an excellent opportunity for architects and designers from around the world to showcase their skills, and we look forward to seeing their fantastic work.”

Each category’s winner will receive a 2,500.USD Visa Gift Card and will be featured in official media press releases and featured on Nemetschek Vectorworks’ Planet Vectorworks news site. They will also be featured on Maxon and Nemetschek social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

To enter, vote or learn more about the competition, visit the Inspired Visions website here: http://inspiredvisions.vectorworks.net/

Presented by Eric Gilbey, RLA, ASLA, Prof. Member APLD, and Landscape Industry Product Specialist at Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc., along with Tamsin Slatter, residential garden designer and Vectorworks Trainer and Industry Expert in the UK, at Design Software Solutions, Ltd.

In this event the presenters will teach you how to remove some of the mystery, which surrounds the Site Modeling tools found within the Vectorworks Landmark and Architect software products. This is a very useful presentation for anyone who has ever wanted or attempted to model sites in Vectorworks and found difficulty achieving particular tasks (for example, roads and retaining walls).

01 - Site modeling in Vectorworks 2011.

Items covered will include:

• Learn how information a surveyor can provide can be used to create a site model
• Discover how to build a model and analyze sites
• Examine how to use basic site modifiers to set designs into models, such as lakes/pools and steps
• Create sections and understand cut and fill.

To register

To register for Site Modeling with Vectorworks 2011: Removing the Mystery, go here and sign up.

Select Service members gain access to a growing library of on-demand learning tutorials, priority technical support, and VIP access to downloads. And with Vectorworks Select Service you will always have the latest software versions. 

You can learn more about Vectorworks Select Service by registering for any of these free webinars:

• Apr 13, 2011 at 2pm EDT (register)
• Apr 20, 2011 at 2pm EDT (register)
• Apr 27, 2011 at 2pm EDT (register)

For those with questions they can call 888-646-4223. To learn more about Vectorworks go to their website here.

Chris, who works at Charlotte’s Norman Sound & Products, will receive a professional license of the 2011 version of Vectoworks Spotlight with Renderworks software.

Rick Rudolph, Chair of the Behind the Scenes Committee, commented, “We are extremely grateful to Nemetschek Vectorworks for their wonderful ongoing support of Behind the Scenes. Spotlight has always been one of the most popular prizes at our annual raffle, and we are delighted to have it as our grand prize this year.”

To learn more about Vectorworks Spotlight 2011 visit here: www.vectorworks.net

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.