Architosh Staff (info@architosh.com)

27 June 2001

MacCAD: Nemetschek NA finalizes VectorWorks 9.0.1 update

Architosh Press Report: Nemetschek North America Finalizes 9.0.1 Maintenance Updates

Columbia, Maryland (June 27, 2001)÷ In its ongoing commitment to product quality, Nemetschek North America today announced that the 9.0.1 English-language maintenance updates for VectorWorks, RenderWorks and ARCHITECT have been finalized. These free updates are currently in production, and are expected to begin mailing to registered users the first week of July. Company officials state that the 9.0.1 updates have new features and functionality enhancements. Furthermore, the VectorWorks update provides the foundation technology for the non-English language versions, which should be available internationally via our distribution channel within the next three months.

Sean Flaherty, Chief Technology Officer, Nemetschek North America, stated, "This maintenance update is the result of three months of engineering and testing. The 9.0.1 updates not only address the more significant concerns of 9.0 users, they also introduce a few new features and improved functionality. This update also presents the first opportunity to tune VectorWorks to the needs of our non-English language customers."

New in VectorWorks 9.0.1 are two additional class viewing options as well as the ability to add additional modifier keys to keyboard shortcuts. 9.0.1 improves printing anomalies such as plotting rotated text on the Mac, disappearing objects, and postscript errors. VectorWorks 9.0.1 also offers general Mac performance improvements, and improves the use of Windows resources which caused some problems with running VectorWorks under Windows 98/ME.

RenderWorks users will find that 9.0.1 requires much less memory to render than the original 9.0 version. Other changes in RenderWorks 9.0.1 consist of better control over textures mapping and enhanced anti-aliasing. Rendering support for NURBS has also been improved in this maintenance update.

VectorWorks ARCHITECT 9.0.1 integrates all of the additions and improvements found in VectorWorks 9.0.1 with new features and notable improvements. Now ARCHITECT allows users to frame Dormer and Gable Walls and provides the ability to create material take-offs for floors and rafters. ARCHITECT 9.0.1 has improved DOE export, enhanced handling of metric units, and improved file transfer capabilities between ARCHITECT 8 and version 9. Lastly, the solar animator creates more accurate shadows in the southern hemisphere.

The complete list of features and improvements for all of the 9.0.1 updates are available under Updates and Downloads section of our website, http://www.nemetschek.net/updates . Customers who are uncertain of their registration status should contact customer service, 888-646-4223. Users that have an immediate need for the update should also contact customer service for a rapid solution. International customers should query their distributor for regional availability.

Architosh Analysis: This update is good news for VectorWorks users on both the Mac and Windows platforms. Since the version 9 introduction we have received quite a few emails regarding this-and-that bug issues. It is especially important to see the speed-up improvements on the Macintosh as well.

While this announcement may sound like relief for many VectorWorks 9 users, many are wondering, including us, when the company will release a Mac OS X version of the leading CAD program on the Mac.