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nca777

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  • Occupation
    PLA, Landscape Architect + Urban Designer
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    skiing, hiking, mountain biking
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    United States

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  1. Hi everyone—back tinkering with VWL after a few years away. i see that VW engineers have added some very useful tools since I left off with VW such as contour editing and the landscape area tools. still, I am struggling to find a singular, relatively standardized, linear work flow for a typical landscape architecture project. For example, a typical project for us almost always begins with a professional site survey delivered in .dwg format with elecated contours and ‘flat’ site data such as existing sidewalks, building outlines, parking, utilities, etc. we almost always work with an architectural plan and 3d model which changes throughout the life of the project. Our typical design scope includes design of the entire site to a detailed level including layout of roads, parking, sidewalks and terraces, steps, walls, and planting. we like to develop 3d models for design and presentation purposes. We also need to deliver a detailed grading plan to civil engineers. i’ve read recently where folks here have identified some workarounds for site modeling such as use of the landscape area tools. I have also enjoyed watching and reading tony kostreski’s tutorials. However, after all of the individual learning I am still fairly confused about how a typical professional landscape architecture project as described above is put together in VW from concept to modeling to documentation. can anyone recommend a good, comprehensive, and RELEVANT workflow tutorial or trainer? I now run a very busy 6 person studio and would very much like to find a way to get our office fully transitioned to a bim platform asap, but reluctant to commit once again due to the lack of clear understanding of the platforms ability to do what we need and how to do it. any help or advice is appreciated. thanks
  2. I remember making the proposed contour editing tool suggestions to vw back in 2017. Everyone, including many of the regulars on this board seemed to think it was a strange idea. It’s good to see they listened. in my opinion, vw could spend more time developing tools that cater to a typical landscape architects work flow, like this one.
  3. Whos actually giving my negative rep?? Weird cultish attitude in here. I'm doing some SD level site modeling this morning...mind numbingly slow and unintuitive tools. Its almost as if the VW users and programmers are stubbornly anti-autocad/sketchup. So many commands missing, difficult to use quickly...
  4. We tried IFC with various settings only to find mssing geometry, missing materials. In the end it was faster and less lossy to exchange a sketchup file and cad plans. Pretty disappointing.
  5. In my mind, this is not an autocad vs. vectorworks discussion. AutoCAD is not a BIM/SIM tool. That said, we do not use any workarounds in our auotocad workflow. As for a BIM workflow-workaround, our typical process includes AutoCAD + Sketchup. We can model a site multiple times faster than via vectorworks. The only problem(s) with that workflow is in coordination/collaboration, whereby the consultants we typically work with are in BIM/3D and collaborating in 3D as well as the fact that we are working in two separate programs with limited contour modeling options. Thats where vectorworks comes in. Unfortunately, the tools out of the box are woefully lacking for true grading , coordination, and construction documentation.
  6. Your ram is good. It sounds like your processor might barely meet the minimum rec'd spec to run vw. Your graphics card is also on the slower side based on the pass mark scores. How much vram? It's pretty common to run an ssd along with an hdd--put all of your programs on the hdd and operating system only on the ssd. Our studio machines all fly with core I-7 3.0+ ghz processors 16gb + ram ~120-500gb ssd's and 1tb hdd's Gtx 970 980 cards 3-4gb vram You might only see minimal success with only upgrading to ssd
  7. What are the rest of your pc specs? ssd's are generally faster, but this sounds more like ram or processor issues.
  8. any chance you could send me a link to some of your project work, samples? Just curious what industry youre working in. LA's are not always low on the project development 'supply chain' if thats what you are insinuating ? Certainly as far as cad product development as evidenced here...
  9. Just watched the video above...wow, that is so true. This goes for site modeling too imo--I would personally rather 'direct model' than get stuck in the dialog windows playing with settings...good points.
  10. BUT...no one really pays for autocad training, for the most part because: A) as you mentioned, free user tutorials are so prevalent, and B) peer-to-peer or on the job training is so common... I paid for autocad training ($$$) in 2001/2002 when I first started learning as part of a community college drafting program that also included hand drafting, etc. Later, in my 5-year BSLA program, I helped a lot of my studio mates learn autocad, whom in turn helped others. This is common in university design studios. For the record, vectorworks wasn't even discussed back in 2005-2009. We dabbled in microstation and revit in addition to autocad, but ac was certainly considered the industry standard. Looking back, I would have never taken the drafting/autocad course and simply learned the program from my peers in studio as most do. Archicad actually lets users (or did at one point) evaluate a browser-based version of their latest software with no trial period. They also offer gazillions of free online videos on just about everything you can imagine. Being able to use the software, even with limited functionality is HUGE for a studio/cad manager evaluating new software. We actually have two seats of Revit LT in our studio as autodesk offers it along with their autocad subscription which is a VERY reasonable monthly rate. It is tempting to use our current revit lt seats and follow the lardarchbim.com tutorials, also very reasonably priced online.. I assure you I am not simply being fickle. I have and have had for some time, a number of reservations about the site modeling tools, but could never find time to learn the software well enough with just a 30 day trial, so we bought a license, vss, and committed to using the software on three or four real projects. As I stated, my experience only confirmed my suspicions. I'd probably be less frustrated if we were paying a subscription and there were ample free learning resources...I have no problem paying for training if I know what I am getting into...VW is still a bit of an unknown in my book..(and likely many, many others...) I'm still having trouble deciphering your original 'regardless' comment, but water under the bridge to me anyway.. If a company still sees LA as an insignificant market, their loss I guess..
  11. Eric-- All in all, I guess I'm trying to have a candid conversation about the realities of the tools at hand and my honest experience as a relatively new user, but long time CAD user, and licensed practitioner. I'm absolutely certain you understand where I'm coming from and I appreciate that. I agree with your analysis and agree that VWL is generally headed in the right direction--certainly your firms work is testament to the fact that the software offers workable solutions to a fairly broad base of project types and scales. If you want to see some of our work at (www) acetola (dot) com. I'm just getting tired of long time users telling us we need more training. While that is likely true, I also feel I understand the specific tools well enough to see their shortcomings. I think this discussion is probably spinning its wheels at this point..
  12. I am not going to pay for training, on top of third party training and resources we already pay for, as well as a license and vss subscription just to find out what I already know--the tools I am referencing above do not do what we need them to, namely the grading tools, roads, parking, but also some drafting and editing commands. Unless you actually use the software as a professional it is hard to explain on a message board. I don't know how much more clear I can be--the tools do not do what we need them to do. It's not a training issue. Its a development issue. Your response is typical and why, at this point, I'd probably rather walk away from the software altogether than continue trying to communicate with anyone there.
  13. First of all, thats completely unprofessional to 'pull up my records' and post about them here. Secondly, That is absolutly untrue that the bulk of my questions were 'training related' ?? ive had numerous at-length conversations with various vectorworks people over the last two or three years. I highly doubt all of those communications were somehow 'noted' and noted accurately. jim, you stated yourself you were 'not very familiar with the site modelling tools' in another post so how could you even make that assessment? maybe your last statement is telling enough--'regardless of the fact that your industry isnt one we primarily cater to...' Huh?!? you have a platform called 'landmark' do you not? your entire team seems to be tone deaf. If i had any plans of coming back to landmark, im certainly reconsidering now
  14. Thats an overview of a handful of tools,not a tutorial on how to use any of the tools. Just saying--this is a good example of the many short videos on youtube that don't really provide any guidance.
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