Art V

Yes Claris is an Apple subsidiary, ClarisCAD was a CAD "upgraded" version of MacDraw (which later became ClarisImpact) at the time, even though it was really nice it did have its limitations compared to e.g. AutoCAD (even then), VersaCAD, MiniCAD and Vellum so it fell by the wayside after a few years. Being able to define units for dimensions per viewport sounds nice and I can see why you want it, you can already dimension in units of your choice and setting up dimensions styles for that is a solution as already suggested by others but probably not the one you prefer given your reaction. Though I think using dimension styles for each unit type is in the end more flexible than assigning (dimension) units per viewport which can create issues for people who don't expect that or are not even aware of it. However.... as @Frank Brault found out... this seems to be broken now. @Frank Brault This surprises me a bit because some 3 years ago this still worked if I remember correctly as I had a project back then where I had to use both metric and imperial versions of the same drawings. I can't think of a good reason to break/remove this functionality. Even an ancient program like Canvas Draw (now Canvas X Draw) handles this properly. Could you find out why this was changed, or perhaps it was broken unintentionally. (Though I'm currently no longer using VW and may not use it in the near future I may return to it later so I'm still around to keep tabs on how it is developing so I may be chiming in on discussions from time to time.)

OS updates, as well as software updates, can cause quite a bit of clutter/overhead on a system so once in a while doing a clean install/reinstall will improve performance, e.g. Once every 12-18 months depening on how many updates have been done. Another thing to look at is the number of undo's that VW is keeping, the higher the number the greater the chance that it will bog down Vectorworks if you use the undo a lot. I knew someone who used undo a lot instead of delete and combined with a high level of undo steps to keep it bogged down his system to the point of crashing the CAD software, once he used delete instead of undo where appropriate he had less crashes and less slowdowns. This may not apply to your but just in case it might this is something you could check on as well and reduce the number of undo levels to see if it makes a difference.

The computer may be recent but unfortunately that does not mean the internals are also recent. The i5 model I saw listed locally has a 10th gen Intel processor (i.e. From 2019/2020) so it is not that recent. It isn't a bad processor though and should suffice for 2D work. If it can go to 64 max, then for 2D 16 GB might be sufficient though someone from Vectorworks has probably better info on this to comment whether 16GB would be enough for you or that 32 GB would be preferable. If you want to go for 32GB then please do check if there are better low profile alternatives available than the GT 1030 just in case.

How much RAM does your workstation have, it could also be a RAM memory issue and not a GPU issue, or it could be both. Based on what I could find on your workstation model still being sold over here it has a 10th gen i5 (which is ok for 2D work), 8GB of RAM memory though you may have a version with more memory added when purchased, intel 630 GPU which will probably share memory with RAM. You may also want to make sure you have enough free space left on your drive, which is probably a 256 GB SSD, depending on how many programs and files you have on it it could be that available space is getting too low for swap memory etc. for VW as well. So you have two issues in my opinion: 1. Available RAM is probably too low anyway if you have 8GB, especially if you are running another program along Vectorworks it will go at the expense of available memory for VW and for the Intel 630 GPU causing the issue you have. 2. The GeForce GT-1030 is really low end from 5 years ago and has only 2GB Video RAM so I doubt it will make much of a difference for 2D work compared to the Intel 630 GPU if that has sufficient RAM available. My suggestion would be to first check how much a RAM upgrade would cost, assuming it is possible to add more RAM to see if that makes a difference. Some systems are limited to 8GB max memory supported (I had one years ago that was already maxed out at 8GB so even when the CPU and GPU were still sufficient, RAM not being upgradable was the bottleneck and I had to get a new machine anyway). If it improves responsiveness of Vectorworks but not enough then you could still consider getting a GeForce GT-1030 though I would rather check if there is not a better low-profice GPU card available. That being said, with VW2023 when that comes out you will probably run into this issue again so you may want to consider getting a new workstation instead if that is financially speaking an option. The cost of additional RAM and a GPU is probably 30-40% of a new system if the price over here is an indication so it may not be the best investment compared to getting a new(er) workstation if the current one with hardware upgrades may get you perhaps just one year of additional usability.

An option could be to have a look at the Affinity store, there are several asset packs/add-ons for water colour artwork. You could use those to create tiles in e.g. Affinity Photo. A nice set could be https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/store/product/daub-watercolours-and-washes-brush-pack/ Then there are programs like ArtRage and Clip Studio Paint that may be useful to create your swatches. Krita (freeware paint program similar to ArtRage, Painter etc.) has a texture template, combined with its watercolour brushes it might be useful as well to try.

The license has been sold and is no longer available for purchase from me.

This is indeed a bit annoying, I suggest to submit a bug report and have VW support look at this. Some things can be a matter of perspective changes but the moving should imho not happen like this.

As mentioned in my other reply, this is one of the reasons why I don't see muself going back to Mac in the foreseeable future. I miss those days where the user could at least upgrade RAM and harddrives themselves in a relatively easy way for non top of the line machines (e.g. the Mac II series, it's that long ago even though those were not exactly budget machine either but comparatively speaking at least not that hyper expensive as the current top level machines).

In my opinion this depends on what one is doing. For purely CAD drafting purposes my experiences is that this is not really the case because most things in CAD are still single core and performance in that area is often increasingly marginally across a few years and then a noticeable jump every few years like with the 12th gen Intel processors compared to the three or four generations before it. So over a few years it probably evens out in the end as the user is often the more limiting factor in that case than the hardware. When it comes to rendering that is (mostly or only) CPU based I agree with your theory if one is rendering a lot because there has been more progress in multicore performance than in single core performance. For working with really large documents and files a lot, regardless of rendering, a three (max four) year period makes sense for replacing hardware, as that often coincides with a performance jump with processors. For more moderate demands a 5-6 year period could be ok if rendering is not a major part of one's workflow and the hardware specs are suffient (i.e. not a low(er) end machine). Then increasing RAM or replacing the GPU might be a more cost effective option in the meantime. This of course depending on how much the CAD software's resource needs increase is developing over that period of time. One of the things stopping me from returning to Apple is their tendency to limit users to upgrade some hardware components themselves (e.g. adding RAM or replace a drive with a larger one) except for their most expensive machines so you have to use whatever is offered within budget and hope it will be sufficient.

No it doesn't include Landmark, though there is some overlap in functionality. I.e. Architect has some tools that are from Landmark but the Landmark version is more extensive/complete. It is similar to the stair tool in Landmark, it is based on the Architect stair tool but with more limited functionality.

The easy way for a single class is to put a prefix in front of the class other than the current one or remove/change the current prefix. If it are multiple classes at the same level then the batch rename function may be the way to go. If you just want to get out of hierarchical display, right click on a class and deselect hierarchical display or use the menu button in the title bar of the palette to deselect the hierarchical display. Unlike layers you cannot reorder classes manually by dragging them to a different position. Layers can be manually repositioned in the organization dialog by dragging the layer number to the desired position, for classes there is no such thing so you have to do it by renaming the class.

Do you have the annotations and labels on the design layer or within the viewport? One way to make sure that the viewport style (i.e. Sketch in this case) will not affect them is to put the annotations etc. on the presentation layer itself, i.e. on top of the viewport.

If it is the same procedure as over here for selling a license to someone in another country that is not serverd by the seller's distributor, the distributor in the US will need to contact the distributor in the UK with the required information, as the UK distributor needs to release the license registration (after approval of the then current license holder) so that the distributor in the US can properly register the license to the buyer. Failure to do so will have the consequence that the buyer will not be able to upgrade the license to a newer version. Most likely the US distributor will need the last 6 digits of the license and the registered name to check wtih the UK distributor whether the license is a legitimate one or not and whether there will approval from the current license holder to transfer the license (besides approval from the distributor). There may be a form that needs to be signed by both parties to formalize the transfer.

If they are independent licenses, i.e. one is not an upgrade of the other, then yes you should be able to sell one and keep the other, or sell both to two different people. Just make sure the correct license gets transferred in case both are listed on the same registration/VSS/Maintenance contract. In addition to what @JuanP said, if you are selling to someone outside your country then the buyer's authorized distributor should be the one to contact the seller's country distributor to initiate the transfer of the license so that the buyer's distributor can properly register the license to the buyer's name. The buyer's distributor will charge the buyer for the license transfer costs. The seller's distributor will have to release the license for transfer. Otherwise the buyer will not be able to upgradeto a newer version later if it hasn't been done properly. (If the transfer between seller and buyer is within the same country then the license transfer costs will usually be charged to the seller) At least that is what my distributor told me.

Because a lot of SVG files come from non-CAD software that does more often than not lack the accuracy that CAD software is capable of. So yes from a DTP software perspective SVG can be quite accurate for the given purpose, but as an exchange format from other other (e.g. CAD) software I'd rather use e.g. DXF for 2D stuff for compatibility reasons even though that may have its own issues as well. Of course this depends on what one is doing and ones requirements. A lot depends on how well native objects are translated into SVG objects and in my experience such translations can introduce small deviations that may cause issues in CAD software. So in my opinion SVG is good for publishing, importing for general shapes (i.e. not requiring a high level of accuracy) but in general less ideal as a format for importing detailed things that require a high level of accuracy.

Probably not in the foreseeable future, if ever. EPS and to some extend SVG are export formats and not meant for editing and generally lack the accuracy of CAD files. .AI files would probably only be possible to import if they were saved with PDF compatibility and then you might as well use PDF. Adobe is cheating/not complying with the EPS standard when they save their EPS files with Adobe Illustrator compatibility, which means they attach the Illustrator file at the end of the EPS data so that it remains fully editable in AI. Because this is proprietary most if not all non-Adobe software is ignoring that part and use only the "proper" EPS section and therefore the EPS files are not as good to edit as it would be with Illustrator which does read the aforementioned AI part of the EPS file.

In case you have not yet purchased the card, yes it is compatible in the sense that VW will run fine with it but... VW will not be able squeeze out all the performance that this card is capable of because that would require specific drivers that don't exist for VW (these drivers do exist for e.g. Solidworks, Autodesk software like Inventor, Maya etc.) Not sure if there are any Mac compatible drivers, probably for Windows only. Getting a good GeForce RTX card will give you a much better performance for your money either because you get more performance for the same amount or you would be paying less for similar performance. Do you need the card for a Windows machine or a Mac?

That was a good choice, as the 12th gen Intel processor is supposed to be noticeably faster than the 11th gen Intel processors, especially with CPU based rendering this should make a difference.

I sent you a PM with some info regarding the license transfer etc.

The license does not include VSS if that is what you mean. I cancelled that last year, but you can upgrade this license to a new version when it comes out or purchase VSS with your local distributor anytime after the license has been transferred. I'll contact the local distributor here about the license trnasfer costs and then get back to you.

Yes it is still for sale

Do you have large(r) images in your files? If yes then that may also be part of the problem because Vectorworks used to export the entire image even if it is cropped in a viewport and this may still be the case. In that case recompressing alone wil not be sufficient, then you will also need to use a PDF editor to discard all (image) content outside the page/clipping boundary as well, which may then reduce the file size even more. I would suggest to keep the compression at default settings (i.e. higher quality than maximum compression) and change the resolution and compression in a PDF editor, if the result is not satisfying then you can redo this with less aggressive settings without having to re-export the whole document from Vectorworks.

Did you find this? https://www.vectorworks.net/products/features/energos Not sure if it is what you are looking for

One thing to keep in mind is that Vectorworks does not take advantage of the extra features of Quadro RTX cards because that requires specific drivers that are not available for Vectorworks. Unless your other software (the energy design and thermal modeling and whatever else you may be using) can take advantage of the Quadro card you will probably be better off with a GeForce RTX card, for the same price you can get a high end GeForce RTX with more GPU memory etc. which will be more beneficial in the longer run. Unless you are planning to get additional software in the near future that does take advantage of the Quadro card.

In which country are you located, it may have a small distributor with not a lot of technical support staff. It can at times be very busy at technical support but a 45 minute waiting time is really way too long, though I have been on the phone with local tech support for an hour so it could happen if they are dealing with a complex issue, but then they would usually suggest to take things offline or have a direct call to avoid further blocking the tech support hotline availability if it was busy.