Interview: Dr. Biplab Sarkar talks to Architosh about Vectorworks 2016

From the moment Vectorworks, Inc., previewed what was coming up in this latest version back in the spring of this year, at their new Design Summit event, there has been some exciting buzz building for its actual release amongst its user base. The company did something totally new at this first ever event, it previewed features coming up in the next release. And it did it at an event where users had an unprecedented level of interaction with the developers of the software, enabling a rich interaction between software supplier and software user.

MORE: Vectorworks Design Summit: Wrap-Up and Details

The big news about Vectorworks 2016 is that it is arguably the biggest update to the Vectorworks product line in its history. Several developers running projects in the new research unit reached fruition status at the same time, including its new energy modeling technology, Energos, and its new Grasshopper-like algorithmic modeling and scripting environment, Marionette.

Still, the update for year 2016 contained some long-awaited answers to aspects of the program that affect architects the most, especially those working in large teams. Recently Dr. Biplab Sarkar, chief technology officer of Vectorworks, Inc., talked to me about the latest release, and I focused our discussion on two primary aspects: one particularly important for the BIM workflow, Project Sharing, and the other on Marionette, the first true cross-platform visual scripting algorithmic modeling and design environment. Below is our conversation.

Marionette

AFR (Anthony Frausto-Robledo): Vectorworks’ CEO Sean Flaherty said that he was realizing that Marionette is much more than a scripting environment. What was he referring to in the bigger sense?

BS (Dr. Biplab Sarkar): I think he was referring to that it doesn’t just drive the geometry, products like Grasshopper with Rhino–that’s what they do, drive the geometry–and create a final shape when they run the script. But in our case we can actually store the script as a plugin object at the end of the script. So Marionette is not really just a geometry driver but something richer that taps into our plugin architecture in Vectorworks software.

AFR: Are you seeing folks generating this output yet?

BS: Yes, what we are seeing is users starting to already do this. For example, creating Marionette scripts that handle things such as skylights or lights and actually storing these scripts as actual plugin objects that they can use later by changing the parameters.

AFR: So it is then possible that manufactures could use Marionette to create “scriptable” BIM model elements or objects where users can change parameters to derive model object options?

BS: Yes, it could be. We are already seen some parallel processes from BIMobject®, for example. They have a different scripting environment that they support with manufacturers, using Rhino and their software tools.

We are thinking why not Marionette? Marionette can act very similarly to what those guys are doing with Rhino and the BIMobject environment.

AF: Right, and you guys also had a press release saying you were connecting Vectorworks into BIMobjects as well. Okay, so one other question I had regarding this is this: is it possible to setup an ODBC-based database¹ that can talk to Vectorworks and have it communicate with variables in Marionette scripts?

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BS: It is possible. I was just talking to the development team about this but I don’t think we have tried it yet. There are Python calls that actually can access Vectorworks ODBC functionality. And of course, any record data function in Vectorworks can be connected to a database using ODBC connections. We could wrap the Python calls into a set of nodes so users could “wire up” an interface the way they want. We have not tried it yet but aim to.

AF: Let’s switch to the important point of how Marionette technology touches down in workflows in today’s users. Clearly this is technology that is bleeding edge in some respect and we all know how Grasshopper and Rhino are popular among architecture schools and cutting-edge design firms. But for all the other folks using Vectorworks today, what kind of training and support will you provide, what kind of aspirational materials will be offered to the installed base to give Marionette a try?

BS: We have posted a series of introductory training videos on our YouTube channel. On the community board we have actually created a Marionette area where users can share their nodes and scripts and get help and inspiration from one another. And that’s our mechanism for sharing to the outside world.

01 – this video is the first in a tutorial series on Marionette. Follow along to learn about this new technology for script-driven, parametric modeling on both Windows AND Mac!  

We have a Marionette node for skylight design, for example, and a user took the example and changed the shape parameter simply from rectangular to circular and was amazed at the result that Marionette generated. All the other aspects of the script were maintained and this user was amazed at the simple power of this process. So this is the type of thing we want users to do, to access the examples and explore them and share their results with the community.

As the student community comes more online we will see even more of these being generated.

next page: Project Sharing & SubDivision Modeling

Project Sharing

AFR: Okay, so let’s get into the actual Project Sharing subject and talk about that now. I read somewhere that this technology change enables you to work in a remote office situation. How does that work? How does the new Project Sharing technologies work remotely?

BS: I think the remote situation right now only works via VPN, a virtual remote network connection. We don’t yet support cloud storage options like Dropbox…we are working on it but we don’t yet have the solution finalized. So right now I can have a network and you can have a network–like say two offices–and I can connect to your network via a VPN connection and that is the only way at this moment we can work with Project Sharing remotely.

AFR: So if you are working via a VPN connection to a remote network you would have at least two options, one of which is to open the file directly over the VPN connection and work off of that network. Is that the preferred method?

BS: At the moment that is the only method, on a file that is on a network server. So whatever the network is that that server is on, you can login to that network remotely and start working on it. We tried that ourselves because we have a development office in Sofia (Bulgaria) as well…so they can actually check out some things by logging in via a VPN network.

AFR: So what happens when you just take a file home with you, like putting it on a UBS stick…what happens the next time you bring that data back to the main environment?

BS: So there is an ‘off-line’ mode for Project Sharing…you come back and log back in and it recognizes that you have changed something.

AFR: So when you are in off-line mode does the rest of the team become aware or get locked out of areas of the file? How does that work?

BS: The way it works is you have a file on a server which is called the ‘project file’, and when you are working on your local machine you are seeing what is called a ‘working file’ which is just a copy of that project file. And in that working file you can actually check out some of the layers and make changes and as you make changes you can ‘commit’ those change back to the project file. And the moment you commit those changes back to the project file, other users can see those changes and sync those changes.

So it’s basically like any of the source-code control or that kind of database—is how this works.

AFR: So back to the question about cloud storage. Cloud storage and Dropbox in particular is decentralized and they are in some ways the “anti-server.” So how does the setup work with Project Sharing if the so called “project file” is imagined to be on a central file server while the “working file” is on a client computer? Would the project file get replicated up through Dropbox into replicated directories on the client machines and therefore the working file is always talking to the project file in a relative versus absolute directory sense?

BS: Yes—the project file will be replicated by Dropbox on client machine, and the working file will communicate with the project file continuously. These communications will be quite fast. Once the user commits, the local project file on the client machine will be updated and then the Dropbox will sync the project file for all the other users in the project. For the users in the same LAN, the syncing will be again quite fast. For other users, the syncing may take a little longer.

AFR: So what is this technology modeled on?

BS: When we started to develop Project Sharing we looked at things like Git—a version control system for software development—and transactions are taken care of in that database. We modeled it after that. It allows you to check out layers, make changes, check it back in, and you can commit changes when you want to. And then when you are done you can just select ‘release,’ which means that you are both optionally committing as well as giving up those layers for someone else to check out.

AFR: Right and like Marionette, this is another area where for your installed base they will come into this type of technology feeling very novice. What kinds of things are you providing for your customers today so they can learn to take advantage of this?

BS: So for this we have already created tutorial videos for how you can set up your project, including how the privileges for different users work. So different users can have different privilege levels, where you can have varying degrees of control with members of the team. For example, some users won’t be able to create project resources, some users won’t be able to create or edit classes, and some users can only view items.

So things like that you can set up and all these items are now up on the Internet in the form of tutorial videos on our website. And we are doing more videos because what we are seeing is that people are not reading as much, they like visual stuff.

AFR: Yeah, nobody reads these days… (laughter…)

BS: We spend so much money and time creating our documentation, and yet we see less and less people making use of it. They want visual forms.

New SubDivision Modeling

AFR: Okay, that’s good—videos are good, I’ve always been a proponent of that, as you probably know from my reviews. So let’s switch focus a bit to modeling. The new modeling features look great. So the video that shows the SubD modeling, the one that creates that wonderful wooden curved wall that looks like a built-in bench wall and was inspired by Pabellon Ricchezze Barrios Escudero.

If you create that shape using the SubD tools, that’s great but in the video it just blends into something made of many individual pieces, like strips…so is it possible once that shape is made using the new SubD tool that you can simply slice it?

BS: Yes! That’s our basic story there. Anything that you do in the SubD modeling tool, at the end of it, you can convert it into a Parasolid solid, using convert to solid command. Basically it becomes a Parasolid entity from there on. That’s actually how we created that video.

AFR: Okay I understand and that’s good, the mesh can be converted to NURBS or solids.

BS: Actually the mesh, the presentation that is there for the subD, we do some special things there, so we know how to convert that mesh into a smooth NURBS surface. And then it can participate in further modeling operations.

AFR: So the full gamut of Boolean operations work…

BS: Yes, anything that you can do with previous types of solids is now supported on that type of solid as well. It merely starts as a subD mesh.

AFR: Okay, just one more question. We all know that SketchUp has emerged as a prominent force in the world of modeling, and we know that the backbone of that tool is this simple, easy-to-use push-pull modeling capability. And we know others have replicated push-pull modeling and in some cases at a higher level. So my question is, is your push-pull modeling tool finished or is there more to come?

BS: No. It’s always evolving for us. I’m not sure if you know or have seen this but our SubD modeling tool has this new 3D dragging widget…

AFR: No, I actually don’t really recall that.

BS: Well, we actually want to use that 3D widget now for all of our 3D push-pull operations, rotations, scaling, et cetera. You will see. Once you see all the videos about the SubD modeling tool you will see that that 3D widget provides all the aspects about scaling, asymmetric scaling, symmetric scaling, rotation about axis, rotation about arbitrary axis, and then of course translation.

So what we think is that we are essentially done with that widget and we want to implement that widget with all of our other tools. It will become a unified interface element.

AFR: Sounds good. I am sure users will appreciate the improvements to modeling with the SubDs as well as future improvements. Thanks for talking to Architosh about Vectorworks 2016. 

BS: You are very welcome.

More Details

That wraps up our interview with Dr. Biplab Sarkar. We hope this clarifies two of the most important new features in Vectorworks 2016, features that offer entirely new workflows and capabilities and puts this BIM application on its strongest footing ever. We want to reiterate that the Vectorworks folks were well aware of the lack of a native OS X software tool that equated to the Grasshopper plus Rhino workflow. Architosh has written about this missing element for Mac-based design professionals for years. We had originally believed that the formZ folks may get there first. That didn’t happen.

An important aspect of Vectorworks 2016 is that Marionette offers the Mac market—finally—a native tool in which to explore algorithmic modeling within a node-based visual scripting environment.

Footnotes

1 — ODBC stands for Open Database Connectivity and is an open-standard industry way for software programs to talk to each other’s databases utilizing a standard programming language middleware API (application programming interface) for accessing database management systems (DBMS).  Apple’s FileMaker Pro, for those who are wondering, has long supported the ODBC standard and can create a live connection to SQL-based databases and ODBC data sources via an ODBC driver. See: ODBC Overview, FileMaker.com.