Hi, I am a senior Geologist / Renewable Energy designer, using Vectorworks since 2002. I would like to connect colleagues interested in the same fields.
I noticed the lack of active discussions here about anything but architecture. Even the mechanical engineers are terribly silent here although Vector’s 3D printing features is a definitely an opportunity for them. I admit, that I also met the software through my architect wife, and lately even I use Vectorworks to assist her architectural tasks.
However, I do hope that this universal, user-friendly, and remarkably cost-efficient software could and can impress some other earthbound / natural resource user guys like me. It would be a shame if Vectorworks would just remain to be a valued secret of a handful of architects. :crazy: I also hope that some architects, engineers, Landmarks users and all who would welcome to have integrated environmental design in their projects would also join to this discussion to form a future community.
I would be glad to find some partners to share our ideas and viewpoints regarding:
- Practical Vectorworks visualization methods useful for describing / designing natural phenomenon, resources, or Geotechnical reporting
- Teaching / Advertising the software to non-architects
- Applying existing scientific visualization methods to this software
(If a market can exist or can be created for a Vectorworks tutorial/handbook aimed for Geoscientists, I would be glad to help in writing one. The existing SketchUp methodology created specifically for Geologists is good, but not really useful for design, or even for communicating with engineers. On the other hand, I went through some Vector architectural handbooks and tutorials, which were useful for me, but the attitude and wording is so different that they are just hard to use by most Scientists.)
What can I surely share is Experience / Files / Hatches / Ideas in designing:
- Water wells, thermal wells, springs, boreholes, and all sorts of Geothermal utilizations / heat pump systems, including their shafts/manholes/tanks, wellheads, valves, etc.
- Geotechnical, drainage and environmental/remediation design plan drafting elements/customs
- Colorful surface and underground geological maps and sections usually covering several square kilometers with scales varying between 1:200 - 1:500.000 scale (It took some time for my architect wife to be accustomed to use geological scales, probability maps, and the number of possible interpretations resulting from the same geological data. However, believe me, I was also stunned when I first needed to use inches and millimeters