Architosh reader Jim Anders, wrote in to tell us that eDrawings for iPad also works fine with cloud services such as DropBox, SkyDrive and others. He notes: “This is a great app for us SolidWorks users and it works well on my first generation iPad.”  This tidbit compliments our report earlier in the week.

thinkLabs of Altair

Altair’s thinkLabs design studio team has come up with an ingenious device for handling the power cords of Apple MacBooks. The kickstarter project has developed a prototype and there is a good little video here to show you how it works. The kickstarter deadline is today so act quickly!

01 - Altair's thinkLab design studio team came up with this clever little device for your MacBook.

Vectorworks at AIA National in DC

The Nemetschek Vectorworks folks want people to be aware that they will be at the AIA National Convention & Design Expo this month. The note says….” ‘Like’ us on Facebook and then visit booth #2009 for a prize.” Each day until the festivities start on May 17, we’ll be revealing exciting ways for you to design, collaborate, perform advanced renderings and animations, simulate pedestrian traffic, and present ideas with augmented reality tools!

From their Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Vectorworks) you can get involved.

AR-works

The AR-works technology consists of a plugin for Vectorworks, an AR-works Viewer application and a physical Marker–a printed graphic used to trigger the experience. The only requirement to view the model is a computer with a webcam. If you do not have a webcam the model can still be viewed in “on screen” mode.

The client or architect can experience the model in the Viewer by turning and rotating the Marker in their hand, as if the virtualized building was sitting in their hand.

01 - AR-works is a new "augmented reality" (AR) plugin for Vectorworks Architect.

Viewing the 3D model in AR-works has several options for interaction. You can interact with it by holding the model in your hand and moving it around. You can read the building’s form by removing components like floors and walls or you can slice through the model across various axis to look inside the model.

AR-works is being offered at a special introductory price of 299.99.USD. It will normally go for 649.99.USD.

To learn more visit them online here.

Renato Candusso is a partner in Candusso Arquitetos. We learned that his rather good sized architecture practice was centered around a strong belief in 3D visualization as a key component of their design and business processes and we invited him to talk to us about his firm, their creative process, and how he uses key tools like Maxon’s CINEMA 4D as part of their workflow to achieve their consistently outstanding design.

The Interview

Anthony Frausto-Robledo (AFR): Renalto, tell me a little about your firm. How long has your architecture firm been in business, what is its background?

Renato Candusso (RC): Sure. We have been in business since 1976. Candusso Arquitetos has always stood out by the characteristics of our designs, which besides being bold and noticeable, seek to balance aesthetic appeal and functionality. Moreover, the constant concern we have to provide the best service to our clients, managing deadlines with organization and efficiency, the investments we make in new technologies, and the attention we apply to the development of construction processes, has all turned the office of Candusso Arquitetos into a reference between the professions and companies that make up the building industry in our country.

01 - The Brazilian architecture firm Candusso Arquitetos is an 80-person strong firm located in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The firm is one of the largest in South America and one of the larger Mac-based architecture firms we have profiled here on Architosh.

AFR: And who makes up the leadership of Candusso?

RC: The partners are myself (Renato Candusso) and my father Roberto Candusso. We now lead a team of over 80 highly qualified professionals who are divided into eight teams: concept, legal documentation, execution, computer modeling, popular housing, special projects, partnerships, and administration. Together we have developed over 1500 successful projects in various segments of the architecture industry.

AFR: Speaking of segments, what types of building types does your firm specialize in designing?

RC: We work on single-family homes, condominiums, residential buildings and towers, commercial buildings, retail, hotels and housing developments. The office always meets the market demands and therefore we can fit into all segments.

02 - A condominium project (set of towers) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Such projects are entirely visualized using 3D renderings along the entire design process. Candusso Arquitetos continues to seek markets outside Brazil and South America as its services become more capable.

AFR: Your firm is noted for its excellent use of advanced 3D visualization. Can you tell us about how 3D models and renderings are utilized within your practice?

next page: How Candusso Works with Cinema 4D

CadFaster | Collaborate for Vectorworks is a powerful collaboration tool available through a plugin for Vectorworks software. CadFaster | Collaborate provides design and engineering professional teams the power to distribute their 3D CAD and BIM models effortlessly and to invite others to view and mark them up remotely and in “real time”, even from a laptop or iPad.

01 - CadFaster of Finland has been a hot new CAD technology and now its is available for Vectorworks users.

“Vectorworks users will enjoy the simplicity and convenience that CadFaster has to offer them for real-time, cloud-based 3D collaboration,” said Jeremy Powell, director of product marketing at Nemetschek Vectorworks. “We’re very proud to have CadFaster | Collaborate as the most recent addition to our third party partner product portfolio.

CadFaster works by compressing very large CAD data files into much smaller chunks of data that can be emailed or sent to users from a Web URL link. End users do not need to run a client application, simply clicking on the CadFaster file will launch the file in its own user-interface. From there users have the ability to view, rotate and annotate the 3D CAD data. Features include turntable mode navigation, selection of rotation center, standard views and measurement/markup in section views–all contributing to improved productivity.

“Collaborating closely with Vectorworks to offer our software as a plug-in will benefit many Vectorworks customers,” said Raimo Kuismin, chairman, CadFaster. “CadFaster | Collaborate for Vectorworks brings design and engineering professionals the ease of real-time multiuser collaboration with geographically dispersed teams; reduced engineering costs; increased productivity; and most importantly, the kind of functionality that can really drive revenue.”

CadFaster | Collaborate is available in English worldwide for all users of Vectorworks 2012 software. A retail price of 99.USD is listed on the Nemetschek website. For more information or to purchase CadFaster Collaborate for Vectorworks please visit: http://tinyurl.com/7r924nz.

At this present time BIM, or Building Information Modeling, continues to gain significant traction within the AEC industry at various paces worldwide. While it may have begun sooner in Europe for instance, than in North America, the latter region has leapt forward more aggressively. Additionally, in the North American market software giant Autodesk, with its popular Revit BIM platform, has established a notable mindshare presence with regard to the industry transformation to BIM. Within this context a group of proponents of “open” coordination workflows have begun to work harder at clarifying the advantages of what they refer to as a true “Open BIM” process…a process that allows the benefits of BIM without many of the classic limitations that can emerge around centralized file formatting.

Our discussion begins by talking about the importance of this movement.

Open BIM: Context and Importance

AFR (Anthony Frausto-Robledo): Akos, talk to me about the importance of this Open BIM movement.

AP (Akos Pfemeter): Sure. Firstly, the AEC industry has changed a lot in the past 20 or so years. In the last century AEC processes were mostly sequential, meaning that things came one after the other. Now, we are dealing with the forces of an accelerating economy that require AEC projects to finish faster also. This results in the traditional sequential order of things now to have substantial overlaps and even be fully parallel–happening at many times. (see image 01)

AFR: And how does this change the nature of collaboration in AEC?

AP: Back in the time of paper, design coordination meant that everyone would exchange paper drawings and use light tables to coordinate differences. Then 2D CAD came along and instead of light tables we overlaid Xref’d 2D CAD layers in much the same way to coordinate and discover important differences.

01 - BIM today is addressing the very nature of the transformation from traditional project delivery to "integrated" project delivery (IPD). Methodology changes are responding to "parallelization" of typical "sequential" processes of design, manufacturing and construction. BIM addresses these fundamentally but Open BIM as an approach is formulating the ideal workable solution for all parties involved.

But BIM (Building Information Modeling) fundamentally changes things including interdisciplinary coordination as well. In contrast to the 2D drawing primitives as the least common denominators of the traditional workflow, BIM carries an abundance of information that does not make sense to coordinate using the traditional approach.

AFR: But it seems there are some different views or approaches to how “coordination” or collaboration takes place within the BIM workflow. Can you define these?

next page: Approaches to BIM: The Open BIM Way

3Dconnexion wants 3D mouse users to show non-3D mouse users just how awesome it is to use a 3D mouse for their CAD and 3D design work. They have teamed with GrabCAD website to promote a video competition. Entrants are challenged to create a demo video promoting the use of 3Dconnexion mice. The competition has just started and ends 18 April 2012. To learn more visit this page.

Nemetschek Launches Creative Minds Competition

Nemetscheck Vectoroworks, Inc., has announced the start of its Creative Minds Monthly Design Competition in the United States. The “charrette style” competition introduces a new concept every month to be answered with any kind of design response–architectural design, product design, landscape design, entertainment design and others.

The competition challenges designers to explore multiple design options for documenting and presenting a response to a design challenge. The competition is open to anyone within the US and submissions can come from an individual or a group of up to four people. Each month’s winner will receive a 150.USD Visa gift card, along with the opportunity to be showcased in Vectorworks’ traveling exhibit, which will be featured at venues such as the AIA National Convention and Design Exhibition. All winning entries will also be showcased in the online “Creative Minds” publication.

To learn more and enter this competition please visit the following website:

http://www.vectorworks.net/creativeminds/

To be honest, Sean Flaherty, CEO of Nemetschek Vectorworks, left us a very good clue last summer when we spoke to him about the iPad in AEC. He said he felt the iPad was actually a “cloud device” and that was the moment when we began to think about iOS differently and how even Apple’s iCloud made sense in an emerging cloud-based world.

Now the company is announcing something big. In a few days Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc., one of the largest CAD companies worldwide, is going to announce Vectorworks Cloud Services, an entirely new facet to the growing company’s products and services.

What is Vectorworks Cloud Services

Vectorworks Cloud Services is a multi-faceted offering which will serve as a future platform for the company. In this initial release it will provide a specific base set of functions and operations. In future releases it will expand and do even more. Let’s look at what is going to be offered very soon. (see image 01)

01 - Vectorworks Cloud Services (VCS) is an upcoming cloud-computing offering from Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc.

For starters, Vectorworks Cloud Services creates presentation versions of your Vectorworks files up in the cloud. The cloud server automatically creates a PDF presentation file with each “sheet” in the Vectorworks file becoming a “page” in the PDF file. If you purchase premium 3D credits the cloud server will also update and render 3D viewports as part of this process. The cloud server is undertaking this operation while your desktop computer is free to do other Vectorworks tasks. When it is complete the PDF file is automatically saved back to your desktop.

The next thing Vectorworks Cloud Services does is allows you to upload and synchronize your Vectorworks files up on the cloud. This means you can synch your file or files from two desktop locations (syncing from an iOS device is yet another location) and work on them with colleagues. (see images 02-03)

02 - This image is what the Vectorworks Cloud Services Portal looks like.

03 - You get your files into the cloud by placing them inside this special folder.

Nemetschek’s chief technology officer, Dr. Biplab, Sarkar, spoke to us about the essential components of Vectorworks Cloud Services. “The first component is a small desktop application which is somewhat like DropBox,” said Dr. Sarkar. “It connects to Vectorworks Cloud Services, synchronizes your folder of files, updates viewports and creates PDF documents for you use.”

The second part is the Cloud Portal which is driven by a Web App. “From a web browser you can login through the portal and view all the published files that have been created,” said Dr. Sarkar. “You can also do additional things like email those PDF files to colleagues and clients.”

Lastly, Nemetschek Vectorworks finally has its iOS offering. The new Vectorworks Nomad software is an Apple iOS app that essentially allows you to login to the Cloud Services and do a bit more than just email and view files. “It lets you do basic markup and measurements,” said Dr. Sarkar, “as well as email and printing via Apple’s Airprint technology.”

Next Page: How You Can Use This

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.

“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.

The event takes place 15 November 2011 at 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST. You can register here.

Details

openBIM is a new industry term applied to the use of internationally recognized BIM interoperability standards for data sharing. These open standards include (but are not limited to) the use of Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) for building geometry and data. IFC is supported by over 35 international vendors and over 50 software applications and is used today to create, analyze, and distribute building information models.

Learning objectives include:

• Define openBIM and IFC
• Explain how interoperability is improved with openBIM workflows and IFC technology
• Explain how collaboration with design partners is improved with openBIM workflows and IFC technology
• Identify examples of how openBIM and IFC are used today

To learn more and register visit this link. If you have any questions: call 888-646-4223.

One AIA Learning Unit (1 AIA LU Hour) is available.

“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.

“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

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.

Earlier we wrote about the Inspired Visions Global Rendering and Animation competition by Maxon and Nemetschek Vectorworks. If you do renderings and animations you should sign up. You can obtain 30 and 42 day trial versions of the software used for the competition so it is an opportunity to learn more software and pick up skills while having fun. There are currently 13 weeks left and you can see the results of competition here. Also, for German-language users there is a new book titled Vectorworks Architektur: CADD+Visualisierung, by Horst Sondermann. This book is available here.

2011 iSquint Student Design Competition went to Colin Chaunche, who is a senior at SUNY (State University of New York) Fredonia where he will graduate with a BFA in theatrical production and design with a concentration in lighting design. As winner of the competition he will receive a professional license of Vectorworks Spotlight 2011 with Renderworks, as well as a license of Lightwright 5 and a single license of Field Template SoftSymbols V3. You can read more here.

LumenRT News

e-on software’s leader Matt Riveccie has noted that there are new same images from their new rendering software lumenRT, available for viewing on the lumenRT website. LumenRT is a new SketchUp rendering plugin coming soon. The new images are of the Azuma house by Tadao Ando.

Learn more here. http://www.lumenrt.com/

Parallels News – Makes Switching to Mac from PC Easier

Parallels has announced this week that there is a new application called Parallels Transporter which is available on the Mac App Store. The new software makes moving from PC to Mac even easier.

Parallels Transporter helps in the automatic transferring of music, pictures, Internet bookmarks, documents and more come over to your new Mac. To learn more visit 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/

VBvisual produces high-quality, photorealistic images of plants and trees in computer renderings without overloading the computer. These are low-poly count objects (even large trees are less than 10,000 polys). Vectorworks users might not be aware of this tool, its inclusion in Renderworks and more. VBvisual plant objects can be changed per season without having to change the geoemetry. The company has a vast library of products, including general textures. To learn more visit here: http://www.vbvisual.com/

Swiss Architects “Project of the Week” achieved with Vectorworks

In other news Nemetschek is touting the work of Leuppi & Schafroth Architekten AG, who achieved “Project of the Week” for their Rhine Falls visitor center. To see pictures of this interesting structure and learn more visit here.

Vectorworks at AIA

Finally, Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc., will be at AIA National this year in New Orleans in mid May. Their booth number is 3601. They will be supporting buildingSMART and the development of Open Standards for BIM.

To learn more about Nemetschek visit them here.

A&A Co., Ltd, of Tokyo, the Japanese distributor of Vectorworks software, is offering emergency support and services for reconstruction efforts related to the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. As a part of the initiative, A&A announced an offer to contribute 150 free licenses of Vectorworks 2011 and FastTrack Schedule software programs to organizations involved in the reconstruction planning and projects. A&A will also provide free software training, which includes dispatching training staff where needed.

“We are sure that reconstruction projects will take a long time, and we do believe that our computer software will be a big help,” said Kazuko Uchida, CEO of A&A Co. Ltd. “We hope we will be able to assist in the reconstruction process for local people, even if it is a small amount of aid, with help from our staff and from our software users nationwide.”

Vectorworks 2011, developed by Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc, is a very popular CAD software package in Japan and it is localized by A&A for the Japanese market. The Japanese version contains extensions to simulate both evacuations and thermal environments during the design process.

“We have a long-standing relationship with the design community in Japan, and we were shocked and saddened by the recent devastation to so many communities there,” said Stewart Rom, Chief Marketing Officer of Nemetschek Vectorworks. “We are pleased to be able to support our Japanese partners at A&A in providing this technology to assist with the rebuilding efforts.”

AKVIS 12.5 Announced

Useful to visualization professionals, AKVIS has announced the latest version of AKVIS Sketch for Windows and Mac, version 12.5. Sketch converts digital photographs into amazing pencil sketches, watercolor, charcoal, and pastel drawings.

01 - AKVIS Sketch 12.5 offers new batch processing and RAW image support to this popular Adobe Photoshop plugin for visual artists.

New in version 12.5 is batch processing for stand-alone mode. Previously, batch processing was only available using the plug-in as a Photoshop action. RAW format has also been added. To learn more visit them online here: http://akvis.com/en/index.php

Lightworks News – Helps Get HBXL to Market in Two Weeks

Lightworks, of Great Britain, has announced that it has helped get PlansXpress from HBXL out to market in just two weeks by the company’s adoption of Lightworks Artisan rendering software technology. Artisan provides pre-packaged applications that can be simply integrated into OEM tools, providing pre-configuration workflows and easy-to-use applications. By using Lightworks Artisan customers reduce time to market.

HBXL is the UK market leader in construction software for the small to medium sized building firm. The company’s award-winning PlanXpress product is targeted at builders and developers, with the aim of enabling them to produce architect quality plans and 3D visuals quickly and easily. To learn more about Artisan and Lightworks visit here.