rohantheboat

Hi Sherwin, it needs a copy of Vectorworks to work. It's a interior / joinery plugin. https://www.extragroup.de/interiorcad/interiorcad-highlights/

Vectorworks Architecture licence, 2021, perfect working order, basically brand new. Offers excepted. $1800 USD or $2500 AUD or 1500 EUR or 1300 Pounds I will also pay the transfer fee. I also have a copy of Interior CAD XS, very detailed Joinery software Thanks Rohan

Hi, Open to offers. Also have a copy of interiorCAD XS Thank you

Current version $2100 USD inclusive of the transfer fee.

current international version, 2021. $180 USD

Thank you. You're both right, but what if the icons appeared inside the preferences bar, instead of opening up a drop down list and move around finding it. The used wall could be visible without you opening anything. The resource manager like you have stated should still exist so you can search other open documents or old projects also, but wouldn't it be nice not to have to go into all the time? In the image below I've roughly shown how the wall icons could sit in the tool bar each time you selected the wall tool. It's more about eliminating having to open things to find things, they are just in front of you. It functions just like the resource manager, it's just an automatic tiny version of it already open. Hit the plumbing button and all the most recent plumbing symbols are there, similar with electrical. the furniture, lighting, plants buttons all automatically show the most used or favourite symbols there to pick from straight away. Basically it's a permanently open, tiny resource manager tool pallete that automatically filters to the tool you have selected, without all the clutter, just symbol icons.

Instead of being presented the whole resource manager every time you want to change the wall style or structure style between ones you have already used. You could add icons of the current document used wall styles to select from in the dialog box next to the tools preference button. It would actually give this second stage dialog box more relevance. So instead of searching around your model (and hoping the wall you picked was the right style) and right clicking on a wall and saying create similar object, you could click on the wall tool, then in the second stage dialog box you could have thumbnails of all the document wall styles you have in use to chose from, then use the tool. This system would also help a lot with tracking how many different wall styles in the file and encourage you to use ones that are already there and manage it. You can do this with the resource manager by using search filters etc, but by activating the wall tool it should automatically filter it for you and have it right in front of you, not buried in another dialog box in the resource manager which is another dialog box itself. w The resource manager is handy to use but also a very big beast, especially with all the different countries local conditions and libraries. The resource manager shouldn't be relied upon during general drafting, there must be a simpler way.

I'd like the option to add Undo and Redo buttons to my custom tool pallets. I know there are shortcut keys. It's the only program I know that doesn't have the option of buttons for these commands, you can't add them as it's not an option. It's 2 clicks, Edit then Undo, then if you need to go back 2 steps, it's 4 clicks and a lot of pointer moving. Having a button means you can keep the mouse in the same place and just click.

When I heard 2021 was going to implement 50 efficiency changes to streamline user experiences and less clicks I was excited, I was unrealistically hoping you employed someone with some logic to reassess the program, I was disappointed. Why are there all these unnecessary clicks, there are too many to mention but there's one that drives me nuts and is super easy to explain. Enscape in every other software has 1 button to start the render, you click it, you wait a little bit and the render appears. In Vectorworks you click the button that looks nearly exactly like every other software's start button and you wait for it to appear... you keep waiting, then you keep doing more work thinking enscape is still processing the request. Finally you realise after a minute there's another button that looks nearly identical you needed to click after the first button. 2 clicks to start a render and a minute of frustration. In this case it might be the 3rd party app that's the issue, which it decided only in Vectorworks to create these extra steps? It's just one example. The other super painful click which gets me every time is the orbit tool. You can move from 2d plans to 3d orbit holding the Ctl+middle mouse button.. GREAT!! but it only orbits around the last placed interactive origin mode, you can't change this origin point when you are in this orbit mode. The only way to have this option is to click on the orbit icon to engage the orbit tool, the tool is halfway there but hopeless. Every other software changes it's orbit axis automatically from the location of the cursor when you engage the orbit tool. Not Vectorworks, you need a click to place an interactive origin point hundreds of times a day. Keeping 1 interactive origin point is fine for modelling an object but orbiting around a huge masterplan is hopeless with your orbit tools. Users have mentioned they overcome it by buying an expensive 3d mouse, do you expect new users trialling your software to buy this mouse before they download the trial software to test? Or do you expect them to be suitable frustrated that they decide on a different software? Or do you expect them to already have one of these expensive 3d mice to test your software? They don't own this mouse, they haven't ever needed it because all the other 3d software's haven't needed it. Please fix the orbit tool, let users decide how to set it up the way they like it. You are putting off new users with the tool you have, orbiting is fundamental.

I have just tried Simlab's sketchup OBJ importer also and it works well, it brings in materials and appears to work like FBX importer (it still needs the cleanup sketchup plugin) as another option.

I’m having this same issue, the very detailed sketchup furniture file only has 4 materials/maps but when I import it into vectorworks the program hangs for way too long and I need to force shutdown vectorworks. I the sketchup file has materials attached to each individual mesh triangle inside the group, as opposed to all the meshes and line to have the default material, and the whole group or component painted with the selected material. Try making all geometry inside groups the default material and only whole groups get material allocation.

An Archicad style Pet Palette to access tools faster. You Left click on an object twice (if it's a group you enter the group) but if it's no a group a small palette of appropriate tools pop up above your mouse click. ie if you click twice on a line you get the options to rotate it, copy it, mirror it, mirror it with a copy etc. I realise you can right click on objects in Vectorworks and find these tools and add tools that you want, this is still handy for changing the properties of things, but for simple drafting work having just drafting tools in this little palette helps. Instead of right clicking, scrolling down the list to find a drafting tool like rotate, then waiting for all the rotate options list to appear (not everyone has a fast computer there is a delay for these menu's to appear) then find rotate and left click to select it, then move the mouse back to the line to rotate it. If you add every drafting tool you need to this right click list it gets even bigger and longer to find things. I know there are hot keys, but that takes more co-ordination than I've got and my eyes need to drift off the screen and do a juggling act with Ctlr+Shift+R.

For others thinking of updating your graphics card to improve performance I can say it's not worth if you are hoping for a snappier experience. I don't see any difference from my K4200 to a RTX2070 Super in viewport performance at all with my old CPU. It has drastically improved updating Open GL viewports, from say 4mins to 1min. Using Enscape in sketchup with the K4200 was pretty terrible but the RTX2070 is super fast and definitely worth the upgrade but thinking you will fix Vectorworks issues isn't the case. The RTX2070 actually seems to be way slower in response times in ArchiCAD and I wish I hadn't swapped it, there is a 10 second lag moving lines in plan mode, I'm hoping it's an Nvidia setting to fix this. Does anyone have any experience with 8700k or 9900k or 3800x CPU's and Vectorworks, are they a joy to use or do you still have delays doing things?

Bimobjects.com have the range but only revit and archicad, I’ve messaged the manufacturer from this website to see if Vectorworks files can be added. It might be another way to nudge them. https://www.bimobject.com/en-au/velux/product/top-hung-roof-window-bottom-operated-gpu-gpl

Photoshop and illustrator have a great system that uses the rulers to quickly drag construction lines onto page and you can drag and copy them, lock them etc. so much faster than finding the right class, starting a line, zooming out, ending the line the converting the line to a guide line. Then working for a bit and finding you need to do it all over again.

Thanks Pat, I am using it like that now. Our council asks for shadow studies for 3 times of the days for winter and summer solstice, so 6 heliodons. I also have 2 heliodons setup for 45 degree shadows for the North and South elevations, then extra heliodons for nice looking shadows with each individual perspective view. Each time you want to change the shadow you need to move back to the design layer and change the time, then back to the sheet. If you create a new perspective view and want a new shadow you need to make sure that heliodon class is turned off in all the other viewports. It just seems crazy that you can't just control the time and date per viewport in sheet space while you are there. I also like to show clients around the model changing the sun times, if it was a task bar time slider without first selecting the right heliodon and making sure the other classes weren't on, and fumbling around. I know you can set up saved viewports, but sometimes you are on the fly with a client sitting there. Coming from other programs there are easier ways of doing things.

Hi, instead of having to keep adding heliodons in model space every time you want to change the shadow time of day, put them on different classes and manage all the classes in each viewport which is a pretty labour intensive exercise and prone to mistakes can you just set the projects location in the document preferences once, then have one global sun in your model, and have the ability to turn the shadows on or off in the object info palette of each viewport. And you also have the ability to adjust the time of day and month etc from this same viewport info palette, so each sun setting is controlled by the palette, not heliodons all over the place? Then there is only one global sun setting in model space with a menu bar that you can adjust there which is independent to the viewports?

Thank you for all of your reply’s, I’ve been learning a lot from everyone that contributes on this forum. My request isn’t about finding a current solution but rather suggesting a feature that may encourage more users to your program. If you make navigating easier for people testing the program then they will have a better chance of taking up the software, so its more like a marketing thing. Sketchup was the first program to really start getting the mass’s using 3d, but a lot of them are out growing the program and wanting a suitable BIM software. As everything in sketchup is modeled in 3d views then it will make the transition to Vectorworks if that program can be set up similar. It’s a marketing thing.

I've just worked out after a couple of months the interactive origin mode can be changed by clicking in space somewhere to set it, I had always been selecting objects first and setting the interactive one that way. So that helps, it works like sketchup but you need to click the mouse first to set where the orbit point is first, not just use where the mouse pointer it..... however... my work flow is in 2d plans then holding down ctrl and the mouse button to activate the 3d orbit tool which makes working in 2d and 3d similtansionsly much better, but you don't get the option to set the interative origin point doing it that way, you can only orbit from the previous origin which is set. If Vectorworks was able to orbit about the pointer on the sceen without needing the click to set the interactive origin then you could use the orbit tool straight from 2d plans without having to look for the orbit tool icon and move into 3d that way.

Hi Mark, thank you for the reply. I've tried all of these and the interactive origin option is the best but you need to constantly more it if you are working all over the place on a masterplan for example. Sketchup uses where the mouse pointer is on the screen at the time as the interactive origin, so when you engage the orbit with the middle mouse button it uses that point as the origin to spin from. I'm ok at using the existing system but I try and design so much in 3d like in sketchup that it just makes things twice as hard and find I then just revert to designing it in 2d. It effects my productivity as well as design freedom, which is what all new sketchup users will first experience.

Hi as a new user of vectorworks I find it really difficult to orbit in 3d like sketchup which I've used for 15 years. There are 100's of thousands of sketchup users that for years have been looking for sketchup to fix their Layout program so it can be used for construction drawings, and the last 2 years of releases have ignored updating the program to suit. I'm one of those many many people that have decided to pick up another 3d BIM program. I tested ArchiCAD for a few months on projects and its way too overly complicated and takes too long to draft in, and it feels like using a Mac after using windows, not intuitive. Revit seems much easier and logical but you can't model in 3d very easily so it feels like a CAD program not design software, but it's very stable and intuitive. Vectorworks feels the most like sketchup and has a more residential style about it and not too complicated. I've picked up pretty well but a few things bug me, one of the things is the way it orbits. In sketchup you don't need to select an object to rotate around, it orbits around your mouse pointer or something and it's so intuitive. If you want to cash in on thousands of thousands of frustrated sketchup users having an option to orbit like sketchup could get you a lot of new clients. And if you could make an option to use the middle mouse button like sketchup to orbit that would even be better. This obviously isn't an issue for current users but more customers means more money, more staff, more chance of fixing other issues. Thanks

Hi, sorry to drag up an old thread but did you ever feel a noticeable different upgrading your GPU to the RTX? Reading through this it sounds like the program is a bottleneck and extra gpu speed is irrelevant? i am considering upgrading from K4200 to a RTX 2070super. I don’t seem to use all the 4gb VRAM in my k4200 yet but there is an annoying delay between things that I would like to loose (viewport performance) with low settings. i know my CPU needs upgrading Xeon 2650v2 but replacing gpu is easiest fix first. GPU rarely is past about 10% used however so it’s never maxed out and I worry a new gpu isn’t going to speed things up. anyone care to share their experience in upgrading graphics cards? thank you

Hi, I'm also after this exact tag and surprised I haven't been able to find any information on how to do it. Does anyone know how to do this? Thank you Rohan