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Ross Harris

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Posts posted by Ross Harris

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Revit specs Here and it's pc only. There has been a huge amount of requests for a mac version, but Autodesk have said it's a Firm No. 

     

    The only thing I'd increase over the Revit specs above is the graphics card - go big as the new graphics engine gradually rolling out leans heavily on the graphics card now and ram - can never have too much as you need to factor in all the other ram gobbling stuff... Like chrome.

    The desktop and laptop in my sig handle Revit perfectly fine with everything I've thrown at it so far. Plus it's not crashed once in the last 12 months of more or less being the daily driver on commercial/industrial projects.

     

     

    • Like 2

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Ross Harris

    1 hour ago, Mark Aceto said:

    Ouch

    Yeah... Exactly. This sort of behavior will go along way to making long term customers who have valid reasons and need time to reassess finances think harder about alternatives.

    To be fair, if Revit cloud import and file health checker are the carrots to swing me over to a subscription... things will need to considerably compelling than that. There's really nothing in the public roadmap that blows my socks off to part with more cash to be frank.

    • Like 2

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    18 minutes ago, Poot said:

    unsubscribe from marketing letters?

    Of course. But the point is the sudden turn to a passive aggressive subscription marketing blitz seems a sorta targetted at the 'straglers' sticking with Service Select..
    If things get tight, at least with Revit, I can down grade a $4500 NZD a year sub to a $850 NZD a year sub and still be able to do 90% of what I do in Revit with LT and cover the other 10% in workarounds. Theres no safety net like this in VW from a subscription point of view - the perpetual version SS ends on is only a fallback until license authentication stops, and without a doubt it will one day. 

    • Like 3

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, rudybeuc@gmail.com said:

    I'm sticking with Service Select until it is no longer an option. 

     

    Then I'll keep my perpetual license and figure something else out.

    Exactly what I'm doing.

     

    I've had an email a day this week on snatching a great deal going to a sub.. In the first email it says 'even though your renewal is not until August 2026... '  Its super annoying.

    • Like 4

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Ross Harris

    16 minutes ago, shorter said:

    That sounds like your coordinate systems are not set up correctly in vectorworks if walls don't stay joined.  I do wish people would not build models in OS coordinates, or even in OS coordinates with a user origin.  It simply is not reliable

    There is no coordinate system set up all buildings I do are at 0,0 and I have no need to georef. Imagine a porch with three external walls, run an internal wall off the return wall, put a dimension across the porch width and try to get that dim to make the wall wider.. it won't until I unjoin the internal wall.

    I also make a new template and workspace file for each new version. I've seen migrated files make VW look like it's possessed..

     

    16 minutes ago, shorter said:

    Of course, if you are not interested in ISO22014 compliance and all that, then it probably does not matter, but we have regularly seen models rejected because of the third party content

    It's a free for all here in NZ.... There is no standard. Bim managers from overseas that work for the consultants I collab will all say the same thing.... NZ is in the ice age of bim adoption and is prehistoric compared to the rest of the world. Its a mess and there is no one to lead it, the government ministry responsible for building certainly doesnt care.

    This time around I'm rebuilding my Revit library with good families, ones that I cleanse or make myself.

    What's likely to happen is the NZ specific Masterspec CBI system will be adopted. Kiwis have a knack of thinking we can do things better than follow established standards...

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    The thing that has amazed me, now that I'm well into my second major Revit project is just how much more productive I am and shines a huge light on VW bottlenecks that seem small in isolation, but add up to a tonne of wasted time. Viewport updating being one and walls either not staying joined or refusing to move when you have junctions with other wall styles resulting unjoining and rejoining them. I didn't expect to enjoy the experience based on my last full time use 10 years ago.

    The other thing is the huge amount of locally available manufacturer products available as Revit families since then. It's like being in a candy store and not all of its bad either.

    I was thinking I'd retain VW for residential...but this experience has me second guessing that thought...

    • Like 3

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    7 minutes ago, Christiaan said:

    Always prefaced with the caveat that there is a 'high learning curve, but once you know how..

    Heh... It's actually not as hard as it's made out... Start with simple things and you're off. Plus there are bazillion you tube videos on this stuff that to be honest are in a different league to the amateur hour often found on the university which you have to be paid up to access..

    • Like 3

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    56 minutes ago, Christiaan said:

    How so

    Like I said it's a litmus test to me personally. There are business decisions for moving on because having to collab with everyone else on Revit is beyond painful and means I loose control of the model because it's in someone else's construction cloud tenant. Then there's getting good staff when I need them - they all use Revit and a lesser extent archicad.

    Aside from those, that teaser thread is full of 'cant do that yet, it's coming, etc which sounds all too familiar.

    Ultimately a whiz bang window tool doesn't solve the issues elsewhere...

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Ross Harris

    @Tom W. like I said a ray of light... But to be the only one in how long? Plus the aforementioned bug... We were promised that subs would allow them to better resource bugs/enhancements/continual refinement/etc, yet here we are. Or maybe it's not working as advertised becuase something else is mucking it up that's not a priority to look at. So, um yeah 'well get around to it '

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    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Ross Harris

    2 hours ago, MaWi said:

    However, I have noticed that a lot of the items on the roadmap have been implemented in recent years

    There is a big difference between saying a feature has been delivered and ticking it off the list to said feature being well designed, functionally complete and intuitive to use. They have been mostly let donw in the planning stage, unfinished with 'coming soon!' caveats that often never come or are half baked by design.

    For example:

    • Back referencing: whoever thought it was acceptable to have to go into a dialog to select the right option for every viewport clearly hasn't had to do this in a big set of drawings. Why is there not the ability to set a default back ref mode so it just automaticall back refs?? I'd rather get a root canal than do this, but mostly I don't bother anymore to save RSI.
    • Countertop tool: The ability to have a symbol cut a hole was genius. Except to accurately model an undermount sink set down or drainage grooves cutting into in the countertop means you have to go into the cutting symbol and offset it from the origin to get it right - completely unituative and most users woudln't know how to begin doing this. Would it have been so hard to have an offset control? Apparently. The lol moment was when a few users asked why there was no offset function post release...
    • Object visibility: So close.. the only thing its missing is a modifier to allow you to unhide an obect and if the pref is set to hidden, it temporaraily makes the hidden stuff ghosted, so you can see what you are undoing. But no, its go select a differnt mode and when done switch it back which is disruputive when you are constantly doing that. Its like there is no thought beyond 'this hows its always been done so thats fine 👍' Seemingly a ray of light; I'd like to think that this was the beginning of something to get hopeful about, but..
    • The UI: It was really just a lick of paint... and now years after that drop... there is no further development on making it a great UI.We're stuck with fixed widths that are either to wide or narrow, a sea of empty bar cos its all shoved at one end - this looks jarring on big monitors. And we are still stuck with palettes on the left side that can never rember where they are meant to go.
    • Annotations... The grid tool is, as a 2d annotation perfect - control over every aspect of how it looks in the style dialog. Its just stupid because it has no smarts with.. ahem... structural members or the like. Why can't this be the case with the detail callout and section/elevation markers? Its like they got to those and went 'uhh near enough... its better than what they had lol'. But its so customisable I hear you say - only if you want to set up a bunch of classes to control things that should be in the style dialog..
    • Titleblocks: an upgrade sure, but why do I have to refresh the scale all the time? Why can't it detect that? Revisions... it shoudn't be this manual. VW truly is a collection of stuff that doesn't work holistically or with other tools/things.
    • Cabinet tool. A few kitchen designers got overly hopeful in that it might do away with the need for interiorcad... nope. Designing by dialog box is just too inflexible for a profession that is highly creative - who did they bring in to develop this tool? Clearly not the cabinetmaking industry... The ones I know who haven't gone off to sketchup or Rhino don't use it and just model solids..
    • Railing tool: the demo videos looked great - but when you use it you realise that it wasn't been put through its paces to show off how good it is, but rather a carefuly curated set of applications to avoid showing how janky it is..
    • Materials: When that was released there were apprently 'big plans'. Were they on a badly named PDF and get accidentally deleted?
    • Styles: There was a statement a few years back to the effect of 'everything will be styled!' Well, if annotations are anything to go by, the steam train ran out of coal.
    • AI Enhancer. Just lol. Or should it be cry emoji that good money and time was wasted on this when so much else is not right.. Good indicator of how they view the truckloads of cash rolling in from subs should be used.
    • The structural member too - the pièce de résistance! The poster child! Perfect in the way that it encapsulates everything thats wrong with development at VW HQ. Poorly designed, poorly executed, left to rot. Give the thing a funeral. There has been a mountain of feedback on this tool in the hope that it might get some love and be a functional wonder. VW might be listening (as they always say) but really, when all you here is 🦗🦗🦗🦗it feels more like internal culture is the problem than a cash issue.
    • Like 5

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Ross Harris

    I believe it's the version where service select is axed or where you decide to stop paying it. Don't quote me on that! You should also have the ability to download the last perp version from the customer portal as you'll still have access to that post 

     

    What will most likely bring on obselecance will be MacOS - you'd need to keep a mac that can run the last known OS the VW version you stop at will work on without problems. Windows tends to have much longer forward compatibility. 

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, MaWi said:

    Do you know that every development at VW Inc. is documented in detail and that there are always more wishes from users for a tool than can be implemented. Careful consideration is always given to which requests must be incorporated into the new version and which can be postponed for later development.

    I've seen the internal process around tasks for features as I used to work for a distributor and provide training. Hence why I'm so disenfranchised - especially when it comes to the user wishes and competitor analysis. So many missed opportunities to nail it.

    • Like 2

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Ross Harris

    Nemetschek are basically why we are at this point. VW got told to boost and stabilize its income so they went sub. Lots of people would buy a perpetual license, then stop service select either due to finances or they just didn't want to pay.

     

    Door and window assemblies was the litmus test for me personally; here was an opportunity to make an awesome tool and really show some out of the (dialog) box thinking... But it's more of the same and missing functionality..

    3 hours ago, shorter said:

    Be careful what you wish for...  Good revit creation is a rare talent. 

    Totally.. found some awesome roller shutter doors... (Where art thou in VW?) But they were made as 'specialist equipment' families and not door families 🤯. So door tags are useless..

    All I want is to make what I model parametric, so the time wasted on, to use the roller door example, bending the door tool to my will or just modelling them is not wasted. This is a perfect example - I shouldn't have to half *** it in the door tool and then manually draft on the door details and clearances in a section that has to be modified when there are changes.. or left to he very end. I don't mind spending a bit longer making something reusable, because I'll make the lost time back in spades by not having to model something, alter a static 3d symbol or fight with dialog boxes continually hitting OK to see if it's going to do what I want it to do...

    • Like 2

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Ross Harris

    3 hours ago, VIRTUALENVIRONS said:

    Why do all of you use this product if you disapprove of it so much?

    For a number of years it did the trick, but of late the quality of new features and other interactions leaves me in a place wondering how much steam this has left in architectural design given the current competion and new stuff thats peeking out.

     

    Its also the cost in terms of time and productivity to migrate - its a big undertaking that needs careful consideration and planning, which in itself is time consuming.

     

    As I've moved into biger commercial/industrial projects, the need to collab seamlessly with consultants - who all use Revit has - reached critcal mass and where I have to switch for efficiency, less friction and ironically, lower cost overall project costs (labour mainly).. For some projects its mandated.

     

    VW just isn't keeping up with what I need in terms of architectural tools or faster workflows. I look at stuff on the road map and wonder how convoluted or half baked these tools will end up judging from previous releases.

    What happened with the announcement some time back about acces to Autodesk Construction Cloud? Looks like nothing, which could have been a lifeline to keep using VW in that environment. But... silence.

     

    4 hours ago, ParkerJames said:

    I just got off the phone with support. I requested that the every 30 day VW phone home function be terminated

    And what happens when they decide to switch off that activation server? Hope that they release a patch to stop phoning home or come up with a non expiring license file? As per the EULA, no one really owns the software and this is just another kill switch to get a sub.

    • Like 2

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    6 hours ago, VIRTUALENVIRONS said:

    You know guys, the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.  If it was, you would already be there

    The grass is already green, it's just a different type. I came from Revit, now I'm half back.. Both platforms will get you the same result, it just depends on how willing you are to be stuck with what tools the developers give you. Last count there were five separate tools to do things to wall objects, and now we're getting a third tool to mash windows and doors together, that is still dictated by how the dialog drives the process. Or the lack of quality control like the annotation markers that were upgraded a few versions back - compare the grid to and how complete control over every aspect of the object is in the style vs. the detail callout and section elevation markers in which you have to make classes to control the visual style of the bubble and the lines.. it's like they run out of steam or get bored and can't be bothered finishing things off properly. There's lots more that have become daily irritations over the last few years.

    Ironically, VW has made me a better Revit user..

    Then there is the business side - there's only a handful of VW users here using it for arch design. I have to train a new hire and if they move on, skill in VW is pointless. They have to be competent in Revit and a lesser degree, Archicad. It's significantly easier for me and there's a bigger pool of people who can use Revit to hit the ground running. The ship has sailed on consultant collaboration.

    The move to subs has forced a massive rethink on every aspect of what I do and and where I've ended up in the current 'doing business' environment here. It's much bigger than a piece of software with the right demo can appear to do everyhing. Like the saying goes, Jack of all trades, master of none.

     

    • Like 2

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Ross Harris

    @Flair-Studio re family editor - that's a hard one! I find it fun and challenging.. but that's me!

    Essentially you build a skeleton of planes and lines then you snap and lock geometry to them. You make it parametric by adding dimensions to the planes and making them parameters which can function like instance or style. Essentially, families are symbols or plug in objects. 

    The liberating part is you can make it how you want it to work.

    I'm partway through outlining some windows and door suites to make.. it can be a rabbit hole if you let it, but my first one works without any of the issues I have in the VW tools as well as missing features. Plus I can add stuff like latches that move when resized or if too narrow drop to one latch. Also made a manhole with configurable stubs the you can set to real-world inverts with MEP connectors for services modelling under or near buildings. 

    The time spent to build the stuff you need gets repayed in the fact you only you it once, not model something every time cos it's slightly different. There is a massive amount of manufacturer content available.. you can explore how families are made by having a peek inside those to.

    • Like 3

    Vectorworks abandoning perpetual licences

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Ross Harris

    2 hours ago, ParkerJames said:

    What would be the closet alternative to VW Architect?

    Revit LT. It's cheap but is missing plugin support (I believe that's being discussed) and in place modelling on the arch front. Also doesn't have any structural or MEP functions.

    I know a few people doing large residential and small commercial stuff quite easily with those caveats.

    To get around the lack of plugin support for rendering, just export to Twinmotion (I've found that best in VW as well - the datasmith exporter is awful on both platforms). There is a bit of a learning curve with the family editor, but once you have the concepts it's an awesome paradigm and you won't miss in place modelling - just make a generic family and make it parametric for reuse.

    The model can still be used in a BIM360 environment if you need to collab with consultants, you just can't manage it or workshare on it. 

    If Autodesk do change their mind on plugin support, that opens the door for a highly functional platform at a great price point. If I could use enscape, environment and BIM Collab pro, that would cover all of my projects.

    Currently VW is only being used on residential projects or quick bulk and location and concept renders for the commercial/industrial stuff. For the latter projects, I am pushed to join the crowd more than anything.. AEC here is dominated by Autodesk.

     

    Just looked at visualARQ... Looks compelling!

    • Like 3

    Structural Member usability improvements

    in Wishlist - Feature and Content Requests

    Posted

    11 hours ago, pschlie said:

    I don't believe VW has a clue about how structural members are actually specified and used in real-world designs, for example starting with basics which VW still hasn't gotten even close to correct over more than the past decade

    Totally agree... One wouldn't think steel members have end plates, stiffeners,etc or heaven forbid, snap to grid intersections. VW continues to be a collection of tools to do things that don't interact.

    Teaser Tuesday is Back: Get Your First Look at Vectorworks 2026!

    in News You Need

    Posted

    I'll bet money we still can't do a config like This, which is common config in these parts. Windoor is still the better tool for getting the sills right and general congs and sills correct to this part of the world - which is a fight in the standard window and door tools. 

    I'd hoped this would be a new tool that would dispense with the hangups and super complicated dialogs of the old tools,but just looks like a tool that mashes the window and doors together with a few additional tricks. Not to belittle the hard work that's gone into this, as an end user having to replace Windoor with this and the foibles of the standard doors and windows is not ideal.

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