Global design and BIM software company Vectorworks, Inc., a daughter company of the Nemetschek Group of Germany, has released its big annual update. The new Vectorworks 2023 product line includes discrete solutions for the AEC and entertainment design industries.
These include Vectorworks Architect, Vectorworks Landmark, Vectorworks Spotlight, and Vectorworks Fundamentals. These products respectively serve architects and interior designers, landscape design professionals, entertainment design professionals, and general CAD design professionals. Also included in the annual update are 2023 versions of ConnectCAD, Braceworks, and Vision, products that further support the entertainment design industry and the AV (audio/visual) industry.
Vectorworks 2023
“For Vectorworks 2023, we have spent our time focused on improving our software so that designers don’t feel bogged down by the technology but instead find efficiencies that let them focus on imaginative and creative designs,” says Vectorworks CEO Dr. Biplab Sarkar.
The new Graphics Legends feature/technology in Vectorworks 2023 is a prime example of boosting workflows and making them faster and more streamlined.
For the company’s important architectural and interior design customers, version 2023 appears to boast some exciting new capabilities. In the last year’s release, Vectorworks became the first BIM solution to run natively on Apple’s industry performance-leading M-series processors.
Architosh has an upcoming feature interview article with Vectorworks’ leadership about this year’s release, but below let’s summarize the key new tech in this year’s 2023 Vectorworks.
BIM Technologies
Some exciting new technologies that will please architects in BIM workflows include a powerful new BCF Manager tool built directly into the Vectorworks Architect 2023 interface that is still highly flexible in terms of where you put that window. There is also a new Graphics Legends tool that is a time-saver allowing architects to create charts and schedules tied to BIM data rapidly.
For Vectorworks 2023, we have spent our time focused on improving our software so that designers don’t feel bogged down by the technology but instead find efficiencies that let them focus on imaginative and creative designs.
Additionally, core architectural objects have been re-engineered (part of a multi-year effort) and modernized so users will now have faster ways of placing windows and doors into walls, working with the various layer components of walls such that users can terminate those components exactly how they intend to. It is now possible to simply draw a rectangle on a wall plane to create a new window and to immediately resize it by dragging its edges versus using a dialog box to enter dimensions.
The company has also wrapped up multi-year efforts on new push-pull modeling technologies that will help all designers, but particularly architects, landscape architects, and entertainment design professionals, craft and create environments and objects faster.
Interoperability Technologies
New in the 2023 release, the BCF Manager, is now a web palette that can support connection to cloud-based BIM collaboration tools supporting the BIM Collaboration Format (BCF) process. This release also supports the latest BCF 3.0 standard.
The new BCF Manager is now implemented inside a web palette and can interconnect in real-time with numerous cloud-based BIM collaboration solutions.
There are also new Revit file import options, and Vectorworks 2023 will now support the translation of more Revit object types. There is much more to talk about with interoperability, and we will get into that in our next article, including updates to other file formats like DWG.
User Experience (UX)
The new Vectorworks 2023 release also features a new Home Screen, offering all users a single source for not only getting started with Vectorworks but for training, learning, and ongoing opportunities and connection.
The new Offset Edge tool is the same thing as the multi-year effort in push-pull modeling already mentioned above. What sets this push-pull modeling apart from, say, SketchUp is that it works on both planar and non-planar surfaces, which is to say it enables much faster creation of complex curved and multi-faced objects.
Vectorworks’ new rendering modes for Shaded Rendering offer more realism yet real-time interactivity.
Additionally, updates to the Shaded Render Mode to support an unlimited number of light sources, environmental lights, reflections, and object reflections greatly enhance visualization capacity with Vectorworks. “Working in 3D has never been better,” says Dave Donley, director of product technology. “Now you can see the model in high fidelity context with lighting and materials all in real-time. Changes to geometry, materials, and lighting are instantaneous, and the high-quality rendering allows you to really understand what your design looks like. New Shaded Rendering is one of those features that once you try it, you will never want to go back.”
BIM for Landscape
Vectorworks Landmark 2023 continues to assert its industry leadership as the BIM leader for landscape design professionals, from registered landscape architects, urban design and planning professionals, to garden designers. Serving the interests of architects as well, Landmark 2023 continues to advance site grading with new site modifier modes that will allow site designers to tackle the most complex of grading projects.
This will help aid site drainage design making those tasks more intuitive and faster, as well as boost the capacity of vehicular and pedestrian design workflows.
New site modifier technology makes it easier for users to develop more complex sites with more sophisticated and difficult site grading conditions.
Partnering with Laubwerk, version 2023 also brings a new and extensive range of 3D plant geometry to the program, with a wide range of detail levels, season changes, and growth representations.
Entertainment Design Technologies
Vectorworks Spotlight continues to see improvements and new features to help those in the entertainment design industry be more productive. Upgrades to cable configuration tools in Spotlight are one such example. Users can now define the entry and exit of cables in a cable run.
Version 2023 of ConnectCAD boasts faster ways to create and edit cable riser diagrams and reports and better file organization with updated class structure.
“Delivering these frequently requested improvements to the existing functionality in our entertainment products is sure to make the upgrade process for Vectorworks Spotlight users smoother than ever before,” says Darick DeHart, chief product officer at Vectorworks.
Availability
Vectorworks, Inc. says that users can look forward to the release of Vectorworks 2023 products soon with the first delivery of the English-language editions of Vectorworks, Braceworks, ConnectCAD, and Vision 2023.
To receive updates and the latest information, readers can visit them online here: www.vectorworks.net