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Architect G?rard Siero

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  • Occupation
    Architect, Ecological Planner
  • Hobbies
    Ecologically Sustainable Design
  • Location
    Western Australia
  1. G'day all, VW remains FAR better than Autocad lite. Had to use it once, never again. VW has cross platform compatibilty, beautiful 2D drawings, thousands of colours and fill patterns, easy dimensioning, easy editing, easy printing, great presentation. I use it everyday. Still having hassles with the elevations (when moving from design drawings to working drawings), but as was said above, just redraw in overlay, it's still faster than drawing from scratch. Every human endeavour can be improved. When I look back at my first MiniCad drawing from 1988, we've come a long way. And the steps have mostly had enough continuity for me to make the transitions easily. The Australian VW Architect version has loads of useful tools - a credit to Julian @ Ozcad. (I promise I'll get the training CD's next time.) Comments from users are valuable input enabling programmmers to make improvements. A customer who comments to the company about a product is usually a customer who wants to find a constructive outcome for the producer. The distructive complainers are those who complain to others. One day, we will use VW create virtual buildings, and view our architecture everyway, 3D, 2D, interiors, flyovers. Take off easy and good looking 2D plans and elevations. And dimension it and annotate it easily. And the interface will be even more graphic and intuitive for us visual architect people. Meanwhile VW is still the best value for practicing architect, as attested by its use by several leading practices in WA and many more around the globe. (I've not stopped promoting it to my peers since 1988.) Good discussion. Thanks. Gerard
  2. Simple Graphic Interface: There's an older guy (65+) here who has recently tried to get into CAD, word processing, etc. Following the enthusiastic recommendations of various local VW users, he bought VW. He hasn't found it as easy as I did when I began. He didn't find the intuitive visual guides I did in 1988. At last report, he's still struggling, he's not very computer literate. He's been referred to Archoncad's training manuals. He's new to computers. A visual person, used to manual drawing, not really a computer enthusiast. Like most of us, he just wants to produce: ? Easy sketches of design ideas, prefably with simple 3D models clients can understand ? Developed Design drawings he can use for Town Planning Applications: plans, elevations, sections and 3D's ? Basic working drawings (2d is ok, but 3D is better - Client changes from Developed Design need to be easy to make) ? Comprehensive working drawings: plans, elevations, sections and 3D's, all live, with dimensions, notes etc., able to extra details easily. As far as I know, he's not using the spreadsheets. A drawing/visual interface for every task would be my wish. Even for creating and editing hatches. Maybe we could just paste a texture (sources from anywhere?) or pattern or series of lines into an object, rather than the complex hatch edit interface. (What you see is what you get.) (This may, of course be difficult to programme.) The file sizes are important too - clients often do not have the capacity to download large files via email, especially if they are in country areas with poor internet services. The size of elevations files is a problem for sending files to Clients via emails. Easy visuals for training and interaction with the software for ordinary folk (as opposed to computer wizards), like worked examples in MOVIE form, would be a useful training tool that can be provided with the software. VW remains a good product - for the sole practitioner architect, the best value around. I wouldn't use anything else. I make these suggestions purely as contructive feedback in the hope of both broadening our user base, and making life easier for everyone, especially the less sophicticated user, of which, I believe, there are thousands, myself included. Thanks for the discussion.
  3. Great idea. Hatches are always tedious. This would save lots of time.
  4. No one is denying the value of VW. However let's not lose sight of the fact that its ease of use and accessibility for CAD novices was one of its endearing qualities. Easy visual cues are an important part of that. Intuitive user interface is part of the ethos of the Mac environemnt. That needs to be remembered when making upgrades. Not all architects are computer or software engineering types for whom CAD is a breeze. Jonathan, you know that most architects work crazy hours, so anything that makes that work easier and faster helps. Secondly, every business needs to watch overheads and produce work efficiently. That includes minimising a l l the costs associated with CAD. Thanks for your comments. Gerard
  5. memo:Vectorworks authors and editors VECTORWORKS ARCHITECT Feedback VISUAL INTERFACE I think that easier ways of playing with wall composition and thicknesses, especially of adjoining walls would be useful. When I do a measured study of an existing house as a 3D model to which I then add the extensions, it is hard to get the model to work in 3D. It is very difficult to get all the crooked walls of varying thicknesses to align at corners to complete the model. Existing drawings in 2D are relatively easy, but I need to model the 3D look for people using basic VW Architect. Most sole practitioners I know here can't afford to add on or upgrade all the time. It would be good if a better rendering function could be integrated into the basic architect instead of being an add on. TRAINING RESOURCES Every package ought to come with a self drive tutorial, rather than that being an add on. I have been a MiniCad/VW user since 1988, mostly as a 2D user, and it still represents the best tool I know for my architectural work. Inspite of having seen other local WA architects using Autodesk products like Revit, I know VW is still easier to use because I use it, and couldn't if it weren't, and newcomers to CAD still have lots of problems with the other packages - if they WERE easier, they'd make more use of them! It's a pity that Ozcad's Julian's training is only available in Sydney - 4000 km away Post script: MORE ON INTUITIVE/VISUAL INTERFACE: The more I think about this, the more I realise could be improved to make the life of the architect easier - (read Vectorworks-using-architect) - and that's what its about, huh, making life easier while enabling us to provide a better service to our clients. All these mentions in menus like windows and columns etc "style -1" "style-2" etc are USELESS. It would be better were these styles to be given NAMES and PICTURE examples to be able to be SEEN as to what they mean. ARCHITECTS AND THE MAC ENVIRONMENT ARE VISUAL SO THE CUES FOR ALL VW FEATRURES MUST BE VISUAL, (though a word fallback may be ok). Therefore, REPLACE ALL SUCH ANONYMOUS NAMES WITH VISUALS that immediately suggest what the item is, and what it does. Standard keyboard shortcuts ought be provided and shown for everything and kept from one version to the next. We architects are always time poor, and will not generally make use of what is not "bleedin' obvious!" Most of us just turn on VW and drive! One of the great things about the old MiniCad 1 on which I started in 1988, was how intuitive it was to use, without any training. It was quite visual, not too much verbage. Therefore, INTUITIVE CUES (and visual) for identifying and selecting variations to/within tools and library objects and macros would greatly enhance the appreciation and use of the libraries VW has gone to the trouble of providing for us ?dummies? to use. 3D to 2D For working drawings, I have found that it is difficult to get enough constructional information into the 3D model. It also seems hard to get good 2D elevations and sections from the model - the elevational views seem to take up a lot of memory Cheers, G?rard Perth Western Australia [ 02-04-2005, 12:46 AM: Message edited by: Architect G?rard Siero ]
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