Vectorworks Cloud Services: Architosh has the story!

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How You Can Use This

If you are a Vectoroworks user and have long been dreaming of viewing your CAD or BIM files on your iPad or iPhone this might be exciting news for you. The use of Vectorworks Cloud Services means some simplification of the process of getting your Vectorworks drawings and models onto your iPad. Additionally, you now have a Nemetschek Vectorworks application (Nomad for iOS) which does markup and measurement–both useful tools in the field. Let’s review the entire process.

Firstly, you must be a Vectorworks Service Select subscriber. If you are you actually use the same subscriber user name and password. Once you have downloaded the desktop and iOS applications and installed them you will be ready to go. To upload files to Cloud Services you have a few options. You can place or copy files from your normal file folder into a special folder created by the desktop app called Vectorworks Cloud Services or you can drop a shortcut or alias of a project folder of files into the Vectorworks Cloud Services folder. The later will be preferred. (see image 04)

04 - This is the Vectorworks Cloud Services folder which is auto-created by the DropBox-like application for cloud services.

Then you can simply choose Synchronize Now under the Vectorworks Cloud Services icon menu which is kept in the system menu bar at all times. (see image 05 below). Once your files are synchronized with your cloud folder, you can view the auto-generated PDF files from the Web portal (via a browser on a computer) or the iOS Nomad application on your iPhone or iPad.

05 - The Vectorworks Cloud Services desktop app is launched from a persistent menu bar icon. From here you can perform basic tasks like synchronization.

Again, each “sheet layer” becomes a page in the auto-generated PDF file. With Vectorworks Nomad on your iPad you can bring your CAD data into the field for reference, measurement and markup. Then you can synchronize your markups back to the cloud server for later viewing say back at the office or by a colleague who is in the office awaiting responses to changes in the field in near real time.

Other uses of the Cloud Service include sharing files with colleagues and clients, though this may be less critical to firms who already use a web-based project collaboration and document management (PCDM) system. And lastly, because the Vectorworks Cloud Server can render viewports one can use the system offering as a rendering cloud server offering. Yes, you heard that right.

The Vectorworks Cloud Server is a specially tuned implementation of the normal version of Vectorworks with Renderworks, including the new incorporated CINEMA 4D rendering engine. This means you can utilize it as a rendering engine for final quality renders, completed within viewports and auto-generated into PDF presentation files.

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