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"The United States National CAD Standard (NCS) streamlines and simplifies the exchange of building design and construction data from project development throughout the life of a facility. It coordinates the efforts of the entire industry by classifying electronic building design data consistently allowing streamlined communication among owners and design and construction project teams. Use of the NCS can reduce costs and produce greater efficiency in the design and construction process." - National Institute of Building Sciences It is possible to configure a Vectorworks file to be 100% in compliance with the latest (v5) National CAD Standard, however we do not provide 100% NCS configuration automatically. This is up to the user to decide upon, control and enforce. The NCS is a cost-subscribed standard distributed by the National Institute of Building Sciences. We do not distribute any parts of the NCS directly so as not to be in conflict with this revenue stream for NIBS, which we support wholeheartedly through its BuildingSMART division. All the following remarks apply to version 5 of the National CAD Standard. The NCS is an open-ended set of guidelines, the main components being: 1. The "CAD Layer Guidelines" naming standards for assignable drawing attribute divisions (layers in AutoCAD, classes in Vectorworks); 2. The Uniform Drawing Standard, which comprises a collection of practice guidelines for Drawing and sheet organization Schedules Drafting conventions Terms and Abbreviations Symbols Notations Code compliance tables and diagrams 3. Plotting guidelines (not applicable to Vectorworks as it is a "WYSIWYG" and not a color-table driven graphical system) Item 1, the "CAD Layer Guidelines," are coordinated with Vectorworks' internal standard classing system in Vectorworks' "Standard Naming" feature. However, our collection of "Standard Names" is much smaller than the NCS broad list of standard layer names, which are intended to cover most eventualities and to be user-extensible to a project of any complexity. The user can extend their class list as required by the individual project. Vectorworks' maximum class name length is in excess of 60 characters, much greater that the 18- or 19-character limit needed by NCS: Vectorworks does not restrict the user's creation of class names to NCS standards as (a) this is antithetical to Vectorworks' design-usability philosophy and (b) the NCS is an extensible standard, so no comprehensive list of acceptable class names could be created in any case. Item 2.2, Schedules: Our default Door, Window, and Room Finish schedules are generally in compliance with the NCS (our default schedules are somewhat more comprehensive, reflecting the broad information contained in our objects). The NCS Schedule guidelines in any case only "suggest examples of potential content of schedules" and do not provide an exhaustive or restrictive standard in this case. Lastly, Item 2.5: the graphical symbols and conventions: As far as we have been able to determine, all of our standard graphical elements (dimensions, callouts, drawing labels, north arrows, title blocks, section line and detail markers, etc.) have at least one option that is compliant with the latest version of the NCS. Again, we do not enforce this, we only allow it. We have also successfully tested an import of all the NCS standard symbols to verify that they can all be imported into Vectorworks: However, as mentioned earlier, we do not distribute this symbol library as we feel this might be in conflict with the NCS revenue-stream of BuildingSMART and NIBS, whom we support.

Update Cloud Services Desktop and Nomad Apps for Vectorworks 2013 Compatibility With the release of Vectorworks 2013 software on September 18, 2012, we recommend that users of Vectorworks Cloud Services update their Vectorworks Cloud Services desktop app by following one of the links below based on their individual operating system (Windows or Mac): https://cloud.vectorworks.net/download/latest/Windows https://cloud.vectorworks.net/download/latest/Mac We also recommend that users similarly update their Vectorworks Cloud Services Nomad app to get the benefits of its latest version. Simply check your portable device for updates. Update features improvements Updating your Cloud Services apps resolves some bugs and provides user improvements, such as faster hidden line rendering and document zooming and panning while a markup tool is active. For a detailed list of improvements, go to: https://cloud.vectorworks.net/portal/releasenotes/ Completing these updates also solves some potential compatibility issues.* Note that even if you’re finishing a project in the 2012 version of Vectorworks software, you will benefit from these updates. Please contact tech@vectorworks.net if you have any technical questions or problems during this process. Regards, The Vectorworks Cloud Services Team NOTE: Vectorworks Cloud Services is offered exclusively to Vectorworks Service Select members. Click here to learn more about the service, which allows users to browse and share their latest designs from any web-enabled device. * We’ve identified the following potential compatibility issues. Updating the Vectorworks Cloud Services desktop app will fix these issues. If you use Vectorworks Cloud Services with a 2013 serial number (and no 2012 serial number has been logged on Vectorworks Cloud Services) and you still have the older Cloud Services desktop client, rendering and font mapping will fail. If you upgrade your license from Vectorworks 2012 (without Renderworks) to Vectorworks 2013 (with Renderworks), rendering will fail and font mapping will use the Vectorworks 2012 font mapping.

MiniCad 1 Mac 1985 3D editor, hidden-surface rendering, 27 geometric primitives, perspective views, bitmap render editing environment MiniCad 2 Mac 1986 2D editor, 15 layers, PICT support, unlimited zoom, multi-page support, text input with Mac fonts, bitmap objects, 8 dash styles, symbol library, dimensions MiniCad 3 Mac 1987 multi-document editing, text rotation, pen and fill patterns, snap and display grid, free object rotation, double-line tool, clip/add/intersect surfaces, fillets, movable origin, layer colors, trim menu command MiniCad 4 Mac 1988 fly-out tools, text editing at any zoom, double-line polygons, double-line joins, new arc creation modes, general speed increase MiniCad+ 1 Mac 1988 array duplication, MiniPascal, integrated spreadsheet, symbol folders, spline tool, integrated 2D/3D editing environment, Worksheet, 256 color support MiniCad+ 2 Mac 1989 DXF translation, EPS export, fully rotatable text, vector hatching, click-click drawing mode, constraint palette, mirror tool, floating tool palettes, combine into surface MiniCad+ 3 Mac 1991 2D smart cursor, records and formats, data palette, database rows in new worksheet palette, query language for MiniPascal and worksheet, new dimensioning tools MiniCad+ 4 Mac 1993 wall object, floor and roof objects, walkthrough tool, flyover tool, 3D smart cursor, tolerance dimensioning, user dash styles, section generation, hybrid object environment, mode bar, message bar MiniCAD 5 Mac 1994 chamfer tool, user definable scales and units, smarter cursor, polyline object, enter group editing mode, unlimited layers and classes MiniCAD 6 Mac/Windows 1996 object info palette, holes in polygons, export EPSF, ClarisCAD translator, working plane palette, 3D reshape tool, 3D locus object, wireframe and solid editing modes, SDK and plug-in environment, workspace editor, PowerPC-native support MiniCAD 7 Mac/Windows 1997 lights, sun position feature, dashed hidden-line rendering, associative hatching, auto-join walls, wall framer, math support in numeric entry boxes, dual unit dimensioning, column object, rotatable grid, export DWG, 3DMF export MiniCAD VectorWorks 8 Mac/Windows 1999 multiple undo/redo, round wall object, wall styles, complete roof object, context-sensitive menus, tools tips and balloon help, reverse translation, QuickDraw 3D rendering support VectorWorks 8.5 Mac/Windows 1999 introduction of VectorWork Architect, door and window schedules, enhanced wall styles, door and window objects, point plug-in objects, OpenGL rendering (Windows only) VectorWorks 9 Mac/Windows 2001 introduction of complete Industry Series and RenderWorks, floating-point database, associative dimensions, parametric constraints, callout object, NURBS curves, extrude along path, connect/combine tool, path plug-in objects, tapered extrude VectorWorks 9.5 Mac/Windows 2002 OS X-native support, 3D Power Pack (non-manifold solids engine, NURBS surface creation, blend edges, shell solid, stitch and trim surfaces, IGES import/export) VectorWorks 10 Mac/Windows 2002 batch file translation, zoom mouse-wheel support, resource browser, gradient fills, image fills, STL export, faster solids engine, space planning tools, connected walls, seating layout object, export DOE-2 VectorWorks 10.5 Mac/Windows 2003 raster printing, protrusion tool, revolve with rail, perimeter texture mapping for NURBS VectorWorks 11 Mac/Windows 2004 Viewports, context-sensitive help, SAT file translation, 2D OpenGL acceleration, Sheet layers, roof framer, Artistic RenderWorks rendering, multi-processor support, hardscape object, stipple object VectorWorks 11.5 Mac/Windows 2004 default lighting, improved freehand tool, recently used fonts list, vector sketch ( no support planned for OS X 10.5 ) VectorWorks 12 Mac/Windows 2005 Section Viewports, 3DS import, worksheet formatting improvements, DTM object, more flexible tool palettes, Organization dialog, view palette, improved door/window/stair/cabinet objects, .SHP file support, class overrides in viewports VectorWorks 12.5 Mac/Windows 2006 Intel Mac support (Universal Binary), Perspective section viewports, Google Earth export, PDF import, HDRI image support, mesh smoothing VectorWorks 2008 Mac/Windows 2007 Heads-Up Data Display, Rotate-able 2D Views, Intel Mac support (Universal Binary), Design Layer viewports, 2-Way Worksheets, IFC import/export, GSA-compatible Space Objects, Google Earth export, PDF import, AutoCad(r) and SketchUp6 support, HDRI image support, mesh smoothing Vectorworks 2009 Mac/Windows 2008 Integration of Parasolid modeling kernel, Pre-Selection Highlighting, Improved Snapping, Snap Loupe, PDF Snapping Support, Visibility tool, 3D modeling improvements, Parasolid X_T import/export, DXF/DWG 2009 support Vectorworks 2010 Mac/Windows 2009 Making Change Easy. Implementation of easy to use 3D environment, unified views, planar graphics, interactive dimensioning, automatic drawing coordination, wall sculpting, corner windows, DXF/DWG 2010 support, SketchUp 7 support, Decal Texturing, Event Planning Suite, and many usability improvements. Vectorworks 2011 Mac/Windows 2010 Vectorworks 2011 Delivers. Improved 3D Environment, Push/Pull Tool, Extract Planar Objects, New Slab tool, 3D Wall Components, Cinema4D Rendering Engine, New Existing Tree Tool, Improved Focus Point Support, Perfect Preview Text Editing, Scalable Symbols Vectorworks 2012 Mac/Windows 2011 “This release reinforces our position as a leader in 3D technology within the AEC marketplace,” says Dr. Biplab Sarkar, Chief Technology Officer of Nemetschek Vectorworks. “I’m proud of the many improvements our development team has achieved with this version, particularly those related to BIM, GIS, and rendering. Macintosh users will also be happy to know that Vectorworks 2012 software is fully compatible with OS X Lion.” Vectorworks 2013 Mac/Windows 2012 Introduction of Surface Array, Speaker Array, Auto Hybrid Object. Massive navigation graphic and hidden line rendering improvements. Fully Compatible with OSX Mountain Lion. Vectorworks 2014 Mac/Windows 2013 More than 130 improvements, including new BIM tools for architects, increased site design capabilities for landscape architects and designers, and enhancements to lighting devices, documentation, and graphic controls for entertainment designers. Vectorworks 2015 Mac/Windows 2014 Now a 64bit application. Introduction of 3D hatching, artistic edges in render styles, Curtain Walls, the Deform tool and a new Level constraint system. Vectorworks 2016 Mac/Windows 2015 Introduced Subdivision modeling. Introduced Marionette graphical scripting. Rendering improvements: Caustics, Ambient Occlusion, Camera Effects. Introduced Project Sharing. Vectorworks 2017 Mac/Windows 2016 Rebuilt the Resource Browser from scratch as Resource Manager. Vectorworks Graphics Module upgrade, allowing Top/Plan views as well as 3D to utilize GPU resources instead of CPU. Revit Import. Introduction of Web View.

In this video tech tip we show how to link Renderworks Cameras to Viewports. Linking Renderworks Cameras to Viewports gives you greater control over how you present your project:

In this video tech tip we discuss how to quickly create floors and detailed slabs from existing geometry. Depending on your project, Vectorworks provides multiple methods of creating floors and slabs:

Application-wide Tips: VectorCaching Under Tools > Options > Vectorworks Preferences > Display, there is an option entitled "Use VectorCaching for Faster Drawing" which will cause Vectorworks to store some drawing details in system RAM instead of on your hard drive. This allows faster drawing, zooming and panning in many cases, but is not recommended unless you have plenty of RAM not in use, generally this means having more than 4-8GB of total system RAM. Enhanced Navigation Graphics Under Tools > Options > Vectorworks Preferences > Display, there is an option entitled "Use Enhanced Navigation Graphics" which will utilize your machines graphics card ot GPU more heavily in order to rapidly draw objects onscreen, specifically during zooming and panning in 2D. This option may actually slow down machines with Intel integrated or other weak graphics hardware, but if your machine had a powerful graphics card similar to one mentioned HERE, you should enable this option. File Specific Tips: Relative path file referencing rather than Absolute file path referencing By choosing relative path referencing it limits the time it takes VectorWorks to find the files being referenced into a document. Instead of following a long server file path to find the referenced files, VW searches for the files relative to the location of the file containing the References (files in the same project folder). Do not create circular references. Save Referenced Cache to Disk Use this option for referenced files that do not need to be updated regularly (daily). Note that this will increase the size of the file that is containing the reference, but it will take less time for the file to open. Check ‘Automatically update out of date reference during file open’ to update the referenced data if any changes have been made when opening the working document. If this option is unchecked you would have to manually go to the Navigation Palette and update any referenced files displaying red text are to show the most current data. DWG Shuttle File Use the DWG shuttle file to easily create a referenced design layer viewport of your DWG files into your working document which will allow you to snap to points, control layer and class visibilities separate from your working document and allow you to update revised DWG files. Note that when you create design layer viewports to select just the layers that you need and keep any layer information that you do need invisible. This will reduce file size and help drafting speed. Importing DWG Files After importing DWG files go to Tools > Purge. This will delete any symbols not being used in the document from the Resource Browser and also delete any classes that do not contain any geometry (reducing file size). Do not collapse everything into one class, this will limit your control of which objects you want/need to be visible or invisible with a referenced design layer viewports. Although it may take time to sort through the classes it will improve drafting speed and time because VectorWorks will not have to calculate or redraw geometry that you do not need. Also check to make sure the vital geometry does not contain unneeded vertices to represent the object. Extra vertices will take VectorWorks longer to calculate the geometry. Saved Views Use ‘Saved Views’ to easily control layer and class visibilities of objects as you work. You can reduce the number of objects that are visible and increase the intelligibility of your work view. Fewer visible objects means VectorWorks takes less time to redraw the information when panning and zooming. Symbols Use ‘Symbols’ instead of ‘Groups’ when you have to show an object more than once. Not only will this increase drafting speed but it will also reduce the file size. When a Symbol is created VectorWorks contains the geometry (the Definition) of the symbol in the Resource Browser and shows the object (the Instance) multiple times through out the document, where as an object that is Grouped and duplicated the geometry and vertices are also being duplicated causing VectorWorks to calculate more information. Updating/Resetting Plugin Objects When documents are converted from an older file format (i.e. 11 to 2013) into the new file format, a significant delay in many operations will sometimes occur. To resolve this issue, go to Tools > Utilities > Update Plugin Objects. Normally you will want to check all three options when updating an older document. Purge The Purge command located under "Tools" is used to remove objects that exist in the docuemnt itself, but are not present in the drawing area. Objects that have been brought into a document, but then not used (ie. Textures that were applied to a 3D object, then removed) are still in the document taking up space. A video detailing the Purge process can be found HERE. This means that if you choose to purge "Classes", any classes in the document that are not assigned any objects will be deleted. Similarly, if you choose "Textures", it will delete any textures residing in the resource browser but not applied to 3d objects. Symbols will remove any symbols in the document that are not use, NOT delete symbols that are in referenced libraries in the rest of the resource browser, just this document.

In this tech tip, we demonstrate how design layer viewports can be used with a large scale project and how it can be used within the same document.

Would you like to save a drawing file as a template to use it as a foundation for creating other files? A template file is especially useful when you have common drawing elements, including resources, layers, and classes that will be used repeatedly in future projects. To create a template file, set up the classes and layers (even sheet layers and viewports) as you would for most projects. Once all the information, title block, symbols, classes, layers, and anything else you want has been added, select File > Save as Template. Save the file in the Vectorworks > Libraries > Defaults > Templates folder. Once the file is saved, the next time you open Vectorworks, rather than creating a new project from a new blank document, simply select File > New. Select “Use document template” and then select the template file name in the drop-down list. If you want to use the same template as an office standard so multiple people will use the same template file, either copy the template file to everyone’s template folder, or store the file on the server. If the file is stored on the server, create a shortcut to the file. Place the shortcut in everyone’s Vectorworks > Libraries > Defaults > Templates folder.

See how the the Export PDF and Publish commands in Vectorworks 12.5 and later create clean and efficient PDF files from a Vectorworks project.

When working in Vectorworks, you may sometimes think an item has disappeared or been deleted. Before you start over, here is a method of finding/revealing "lost"objects. Occasionally, when changing the scale, zooming, or changing render modes, an item (or even your entire project) may seem to have vanished. Most likely, the view has simply been refocused to a blank area of the file. By resetting the drawing window around all visible objects in the file, the objects can be "found" again. To fit thedrawing window around all visible objects in the drawing: 1. Ensure that the current layer contains the object(s) to view, and that no objects are selected. 2. Select View > Zoom > Fit to Objects. (Note: You may also choose this option from the View Bar in the lower left corner of the document window) Vectorworks zooms in or out so that all the objects in the drawing display in the drawing area.

What are the MINIMUM system requirements for Vision? On Windows: Windows 7 (64-bit), Windows 8.1(64-bit), Windows 10 (64-bit), a 2.5 GHz processor, 4 GB of RAM, a 2GB video card, and a mouse with a middle button or scroll wheel. On Mac: OSX 10.11 or later, a 2.5 GHz processor, 4 GB of RAM, a 2GB video card, and a mouse with a middle button or scroll wheel. For both PC and MAC, it requires a dedicated graphics card supporting GL_ARB_draw_buffers extension with 8GB of VRAM or more, preferably released in the past three years (e.g., NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 TI series, AMD Radeon RX 5000 series). We do not recommend any integrated Intel video chipset. While Vision may run, we do not support them due to their lack of performance and speed. For the full list of system requirements and system recommendations see Vectorworks System Requirements. Does Vision run on macOS? Yes, Vision is cross-platform and runs on the MAC and Windows operating systems. MAC OSX 10.11 or greater is the only requirement. The MAC version currently supports Artnet and sACN as DMX providers. All Vision licenses are cross-platform, allowing you to run on either PC or MAC. There is a known compatibility issue with macOS Nvidia Drivers. Please see the Tech Bulletin for complete details. How many lights can I run in Vision? The speed of your video card and rendering settings directly impacts the number of lights that you can run. Vision currently recommends the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 or the AMD Radeon RX 5000 series both with 8+ GB of RAM. You can improve the performance of Vision by adjusting your Vision Preferences and Document Preferences to match the capabilities of your graphics card better. Turning off Render Shadows; Reducing the Texture, Shadow, Surface Light Quality; Rendering fixtures as black or turning off fixture rendering, and many other settings can significantly increase the performance of Vision. If you are running a slower video card and are still experiencing sub-optimal framerates, you should consider upgrading to a faster video card. What is a dongle? Do I need one to run Vision? A dongle is a USB key that contains your license information, including the number of universes that you own and subscription data. Vision 2018 Users: You need a dongle to run a 2018 Vision license. This device allows you to install Vision on as many machines as you choose, but it will only enable Vision to launch on the computer with the dongle attached. Vision 2019 or higher Users: You do not need a dongle to run a Vision License. However, if you need to use MA-Net as your DMX provider, MA Lighting requires the use of a dongle for Vision. The Vision dongle can be purchased directly from Vectorworks. MA Lighting does not currently support visualizer connectivity via MA-Net on the grandMA3. How many universes can I buy? Beginning with the launch of 2020, Vision Unlimited is the only professional purchasing option. What if I already own Vision or Vision Plus prior to 2020? Your Vision or Vision plus license will automatically be converted to an Unlimited license free of charge. Customers whose Vision license is active on a Service Select contract will automatically be transitioned to Vision 2020 as part of the benefits of the program. Customers will experience a slight increase to continue renewing their Service Select membership with Unlimited licenses. Customers who are not actively on a contract will be required to purchase the upgrade to 2020, but the transition from Vision or Vision Plus to Vision Unlimited is at no additional charge. Why is Vision Unlimited the only available option for 2020? The Lighting industry has grown in size so that anything less than Unlimited Universes is not sufficient anymore to visualize most professional shows. We want to ensure our customers are receiving the most practical and relevant product for this growing market. With the release of version 2020, we will be offering a free 2 Universe Vision license for those that are part of the Vectorworks (Spotlight, Designer) Service Select program and want to try Vision, or who only require a few Universes. How do I control Vision? Vision is listening for DMX-512. Any console or onPC/off-line editor that outputs Artnet, Hog- net, MA-net, or sACN can be used to control Vision. MAC product integration is limited to Artnet and sACN at this time. Will I ever have to buy the new version of Vision? You are not required to buy the latest version of Vision. However, Vision can be purchased with Vision Service Select, our annual Software Service program. Vision Service Select provides updates to new product releases, priority technical support, and access to newest library files while your agreement is active. Membership to Vision Service Select is renewed annually. How many lights are in the Vision fixture library? While the numbers are continually changing, you can be assured that the fixtures from the major manufacturers are included. These include High End, Martin, Coemar, Vari*lite, ETC, and many others. What if I need a fixture that isn't included in the library? Active Vision Unlimited customers are entitled to request a maximum of 4 lighting fixtures per 30 days, using the “FIXTURE REQUEST” form on the Vision product page. We will make every effort to provide that to you within 72 business hours, often sooner. Any other customer request would be put in the queue as fill in. What exactly is Update Dongle, Update Library and Update Vision? The Update Dongle contacts the Vectorworks server to update your dongle. Is should only be necessary to run the Update Dongle command when you renew your Vision Service Select agreement or when you want to view your contract expiration date. If you do not have a dongle, there is no need to run this command. The Update Library contacts a cloud-based internet server that all of our customers can access. When you access the Update Library server, it compares the latest library files against what you have on your computer and updates any files that have been added or changed. This ensures that you always have the most recent data available. We recommend that you access the Update Library server before you begin any major project. You must have an active Vision Service Select agreement to access the Update Library server. The Update Vision contacts the Vectorworks server to update your Vision software to the latest available service pack. Do you have a trial version? Yes. Vision has a free downloadable 30-day trial which will allow you to run Vision. This will allow you to test Vision's capabilities and see the superior quality of Vision. You will find sample files, DMX recordings, and detailed information regarding patch, etc. in the "Demo Documents" folder within your Vision Trial installation. INSTALLATION Do I need any other programs to install Vision? All necessary support files are included in the Vision installer package. Should I plug my Vision dongle in before I start the install? We recommend it. If your dongle is not handy at the time of installation, you can later run the updater by inserting your dongle and running the updater from your desktop or from the Vision folder to ensure you have the latest version of the library. Can I change the installation directory? Yes, you can. However, once installed, Vision will always look in the installation directory for the files it needs. If you need to relocate Vision, you will need to reinstall and connect to the patch server to update the new installation. Always backup any important files before attempting this, though. VISION How do I navigate in Vision? All navigation within Vision is accomplished using the middle mouse button. To pan up, down, or around, hold down the middle mouse button and move the mouse. To zoom in or out, hold Ctl+Alt and the middle mouse button and move the mouse in and out. To rotate the scene, press Alt and the middle mouse button and move the mouse. You can also use the tools that are provided in the tool window to zoom, rotate, pan, and tilt. Find a complete list in Vision Help. How do I focus conventional fixtures in my rig? Select the lights that you wish to adjust in the scene. All the lights are turned on. Another way to select the fixtures you want is to use the mouse and arrow in the scene. Once the lights are selected, you can move them all in sync by using the four arrow keys. These keys correspond to the pan and tilt of each fixture. If you wish to focus all selected lights to the same position, move your mouse to that position, right-click and select "Focus selected lights here." If you wish to focus each light individually, be sure to have the main window picked and hit the page down button which will highlight a single fixture. Focus that fixture using the arrow keys. When you complete, hit page down again and the next light is highlighted. Continue the process until all fixtures are focused. How do I adjust the haze in the scene? Haze can be adjusted in the Document Settings window or by select the ROOT from the Scene Graph window. The movement of the haze is controlled by Haze Vertical Speed and Haze Horizontal Speed. By setting these to 0, the atmosphere will be constant without any movement. To set the density adjust the Haze Amount up or down, to suit your needs. A setting of 0 will assume no atmosphere (such as in a theater setting). If I am running a complex scene, how can I increase speed? There are a few things that you can do that may assist you when running a complex scene. You can lower the graphics settings under Vision Preferences and modify your Document settings. You can also eliminate the geometry associated with the lighting fixtures by setting Render Fixtures to Off in the Vision Preferences. You will notice that the fixture will disappear from the Vision, but the light is still emitting from where the fixture used to be. Significant speed increases can also be achieved by turning off Render Shadows on the Document Preference settings. If your file contains multipart fixtures, checking the Force Emissive option for these fixtures will also improve performance. Lowering the Volumetric Quality or disabling Enhanced Volumetric may also improve performance. For files with a very large number of fixtures, disabling the High Precision option may increase performance with minimal impact on rendering quality. How do I connect my console to Vision? To begin, check out the forums on DMX Connectivity, which contains detailed instructions on connecting Vision to a number of the most popular consoles. In Vision, you only need to select the DMX Provider under the DMX menu. What is the optimal resolution for running Vision? Once again, this is somewhat determined by your video card. Generally, you should run Vision at 1280×720. This will give you the optimum performance and quality for your real-time visualization. Vision is capable of running at much higher resolutions, but lower resolutions allow for better performance and higher quality rendering. Resolution is configurable from within the Vision Preferences and should be adjusted to best fit your needs based on the hardware being used. VISION UPDATES I have an expired maintenance program; how do I get the latest build? Contact the sales team at sales@vectorworks.net and renew your maintenance program. Vision Support will be able to reactivate your dongle remotely so that you can access the Update Server once again. My maintenance program has expired. Can I still run Vision? Yes. Your version of Vision will still be active. However, you will no longer have access to the latest versions of Vision. Make sure that you keep your subscription active to ensure that you have the latest and greatest versions of Vision at your fingertips. Please be aware that any fixtures released following your subscription date will not be visible in your Vision model. Free Vision for Vectorworks Service Select Customers Why are we offering free Vision licenses for Vectorworks Service Select customers? Vectorworks is introducing a new benefit exclusively for Vectorworks Service Select customers. This will allow you to try Vision or have access to Vision if you only require a few Universes. What are the conditions for the free license on Vectorworks Service Select? Vectorworks Service Select customers can download and install one license of Vision, free of charge for each Spotlight or Designer license owned. Each Vision license includes 2 Universes and will not increase the cost of your Service Select renewal. It will stay active on the contract perpetually as long as the Spotlight or Designer licenses are active. If I am not a member of Vectorworks Service Select, can I still receive a free Vision license? No, the free license is a benefit of being an active Service Select member. How do Vectorworks Service Select Customers receive a free license of Vision? At the launch of 2020, the Service Select portal will feature a function that will be available only to customers with either a Spotlight or Designer license. For each Spotlight or Designer license, customers will have the ability to receive a free license of Vision (with 2 Universes) simply by selecting the option in the portal. The Vision license(s) will be visible and usable perpetually. If I require a dongle, can I still receive a free Vision license? No, only series E is available for the free 2 Universe license. Will my price increase if I download the free Vision license? No changes will be made to your renewal cost if you download the free Vision license. Can I transition to vision unlimited? Free Vision licenses cannot be transitioned to Unlimited, however you can purchase an Unlimited VIsion license that will be added to your contract in addition to your free Universe license. Do I get a new free license every year? Yes, as long as you are an active Vectorworks Service Select member with at least one Spotlight or Designer license, the free Vision license will be available upon release. Can a customer add a free Vision to more than one license in the portal? Yes. Customers can receive a free license of Vision for each Spotlight or Designer license that is active on contract, regardless of how many licenses of either product they own. G-series licenses with multiple Spotlight or Designer licenses will qualify for a free Vision license for each seat on the G-series license. Is the Vision license connected to the Spotlight or Designer license it was provided for? No. Vision continues to operate independently of Vectorworks and is not connected in any way to the Vectorworks license. Does a customer have to add Vision to all eligible licenses with the offer, or can they choose one license to add it to? The customer is eligible to receive a free Vision license for each Spotlight or Designer license on contract. However, they are not required or limited by the number of Vision licenses they request. They may select to use a Vision license for as many as they are eligible for, or as few as they would like. Can the customer take advantage of the offer for different licenses at different times throughout the year? Yes. If the customer has more than one Spotlight or Designer license, they may opt to take advantage of the offer for each license at different times throughout the year. As long as the Spotlight or Designer license remains active on the contract, the customer will be able to take advantage of the feature at any time. Why is Vectorworks offering one free license for each Spotlight or Designer license on contract, rather than just one per contract? Companies with multiple licenses have multiple designers. We want to offer the opportunity for all designers to try Vision who may ultimately be interested in using a professional Vision Unlimited license in the future. If I add a new license to my Service Select contract after the launch of 2020, will I be able to receive a free Vision license? Yes. Any Spotlight or Designer licenses added to an active Service Select contract will automatically become eligible to receive a Vision license, which will be available in the Service Select portal. I no longer wish to renew my Vision license on contract. What are my options? If you no longer wish to renew your Vision license on contract, you may choose to park the license. Parking a license means it freezes it at its current version. You won’t have to pay for that license on your renewal each year; however, parked licenses and their assigned users are not entitled to the benefits of Vectorworks Service Select. You can park or unpark a license 90 days prior to your renewal date. Vectorworks Service Select customers who continue to have an active Spotlight or Designer license on contract may choose to receive the free license of Vision offered as part of the service, regardless of the status of a parked Vision license.