AnthonyJohnston

All good thoughts I just think that (from watching Autodesks handling of their Autocad, Autocad Architecture and Revit snafu) that "divide and conquer" instead becomes "divide and confuse" in their situation (adesk) and that of VW and GS, at least in the eyes of the market. All my 2 cents of course.

Huh, never heard it put like that. If you run through both sites they really seem to say about the same thing and essentially go "head to head" against each other. But maybe I am missing something. Can you point me to anything on either site that would indicate they are different tasks for different environments? Thanks

Ozzie, I believe the users are just mice running around a wheel for the most part these days

That's kinda what I was thinking. It is probably more of a marketing $ issue than anything else. And yes the 1,000,000 pound gorilla in the North American market will be Autodesk with AutoCAD in the majority and AutoCAD Architecture and Revit pulling in behind it. It would indeed take one heck of a marketing program to knock those guys off their mountain even if you have a better product. They got it soooooo integrated into the fiber of the build market. Many thanks for all the input. Anthony

Great idea Bill. I'll check into that option as well. I wonder if it is more of a marketing / advertising issue? I don't see VWorks or GSoft advertising anywhere. Well I do see some GSoft in some high end commercial / architect mags but that is about it. Maybe they have the penetration they like and don't feel that marketing/advertising would offer that much additional value. Thanks Jay

I agree on the pigeon-hole statement but I know plenty that use Chief for residential and "light" commercial. But I rarely even run into anybody that uses Chief. 90% or more of all organizations I am aware of use some flavor of an Autodesk product. I think some of it is a case of the blind leading the blind and one user is just keeping going what the guy before him did but I am indeed still curious where or how large the Vectorworks user base is in the USA. It really seems like a better product that most Autodesk offerings and their customer service and support seems MUCH better but I don't see it used anywhere (as it relates to residential and light commercial use). I was just curious if I was just in a bad region for its users or if it just does not have much US market penetration and if that is the case does anybody have opinions of why? Thanks, AJ

Yes it is much the same as Autodesk owning, marketing and selling AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture and Revit all to the same markets. In my experience it works against them more than it works for them. It "muddies the water" and creates confusion in the marketplace so users don't know who to believe about what product is best becauase they all claim to be the best. So what do they do? They stick with their 3,4,5 year old version till the confusion is reduced or eliminated. Seems to me it is the same situation for the VWorks and GSoft situation. And do hear that you cannot swap files between the two makes the water even murkier than before. Same thing exists in the Autodesk world. Seems you would want to push and devote all resources to one or the other but that's just me? AJ

I am a bit confused by the ownership of both Vectorworks and GraphiSoft/ArchiCAD by Nemetschek. Isn't it a bit of a conflict of interest to have both products (esp related to North America) available to the same markets? Perhaps they are positioned for different markets but from my understanding it looks like they both address needs in the building industry. Any thoughts or insight that I might be overlooking? Thanks AJ

I have been watching / looking at Vectorworks (and other BIM platforms) for some time now and was curious if anybody had insight into what is Vectorworks target market in North America? The reason I ask is because I don't know of any architects or builders that I work with (or try to get business with) that is using Vectorworks. My focus is on residential and light commercial. Is residential and light commercial a key market for Vectorworks and if so where are the users? Personally, I really like the Vectorworks product but don't understand why it does not seem to have a more dominant base in the North America (at least from my perspective). I know AutoCAD / AutoCAD Architecture / Revit are the King Kongs here for the residential industry but I think it is quite possible VW actually has a better product....Maybe, I dunno???? Thanks, AJ