Vectorworks Cloud Services: Architosh has the story!

So perhaps many of you have been wondering why the leading CAD company on the Mac platform has been so long coming on developing a product for Apple’s phenomenally popular iOS platform devices like the iPad. Yes, we were wondering that too! But now we know why.

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)

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)

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

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)

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.

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.

Next Page: Details and Behind the Scenes

Details and Behind the Scenes

The new Vectoroworks Nomad application is a native Apple iOS app, ideally for your iPad. True to Flaherty’s remarks last year Nomad turns your iPad into a cloud-based CAD device with basic markup, measurement, emailing (collaboration) and printing capability. (see image 06 below)

Over time Dr. Biplab Sarkar said the Nomad application will evolve and take on capabilities which users seem more necessary. I asked Dr. Sarkar to explain where the initiative for Vectorworks Cloud Services came from. He explained that it was a mixture of evolving technology in the overall computing industry, strategy and customer interests.

“We don’t feel that the desktop is going away in the CAD industry,” said Dr. Sarkar. “We see it being complimented by mobile and the cloud.” “A lot of complex functionality can move away from the desktop applications and into cloud-based applications.”

Nemetschek’s cloud-based solution today will be running on Amazon’s EC2 platform. EC2 stands for “elastic compute cloud” and Dr. Sarkar explained that it can run many many instances of Vectorworks simultaneously.

Initially, Vectorworks Cloud Services will be available just in North America (US and Canada) but will expand out to specific areas in Europe later this year. The continued goal will be to have cloud services offered globally. Users must be subscription users as noted earlier and each user will get 1 GB of cloud storage for free. Additional storage and 3D viewport cloud-based rendering are available for additional fees.

Closing Comments

Vectorworks Cloud Services looks very promising and, as Dr. Biplab Sarkar told us, establishes a future platform for the company to expand on. The “cloud” is going to be a growing critical piece of the enterprise landscape in AEC and CAD industries and there is no escaping that.

Vectorworks Nomad also follows up on Sean Flaherty’s views that the iPad is a “cloud computing device”, meaning that its essential unique value only comes to light when used in conjunction with the cloud. For this company, mobile (smartphone and tablet) and the cloud are seen as a unit.

Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc., approached Architosh and one other CAD media company to do a feature on the new cloud services offering ahead of their official announcement, planned for 2 April 2012. We look forward to expanding on our coverage in the week ahead and sharing more details. Readers are welcome to discuss this announcement in our Architosh Facebook and LinkedIn Group social sites.

To learn more about Nemetschek Vectorworks, go here.