2008 disappointment

[michael john williams]

Now had time to go through the list of improvements, view the illustrations and movies and it has been a disappointment.

Nothing really exciting and, to be frank, useful. Maybe components in section but the illustration is poor and I am not convinced it works. Great selection of colours but yet again suits the us market - where are the British piants - dulux, farrow and ball, etc. The improvements are so small it should be a freebi! Not sure I will spend over ?360 per licence. I could get get sketchup for that.

[Guest]

Some of the major features of VW 2008 include rotate plan view, multiple object selection in walls, context menu enhancements, heads up display, object selection highlighting, more viewport controls (include B&W only option), design layer viewports, new workgroup reference technology, and the new plant database and plant symbols. In addition, plant objects have been compartmentalized to quickly adjust the visibility of various plant components for different plan needs - graphic/presentation, construction, details, etc.

I don't quite understand how any of these are thought of as minor improvements. Many of these features were requested through this message board and events held across the world.

After working in VW 2008, I personally find it hard to go back to an earlier version for sheer productivity levels alone. There are many features I've grown to miss when I do have to revert to 12 for training purposes. I think you'll find a few others who've implemented VW 2008 to have the same sentiment.

I stongly suggest giving it a try before you knock it down entirely. Most countries have some sort of trial period of which you can try the software and decide whether or not it is for you. It's a wonderful option to take advantage of.

[Jonathan Pickup]

i think there are some advantages to upgrading. The rotated plan view would be enough for some of my clients to upgrade.

Classes for wall components is a big advantage for creating more accurate walls, making drawings easier and 3D models more accurate.

I understand about the colours. I wish there was a tool that would make it easy to import all the Dulux RGB colours into VectorWorks and save them as a custom colour library

[Eoin R]

Michael

I think that you are being way too negative.

It all comes down to productivity. We will definitely be upgrading soon as a number of the new features (rotation, croppable viewports on the design layer) will pay the upgrade cost back with a couple of weeks. I am sure we will also find other things in the upgrade that we have not even thought about that will be worth the investment.

We might be in a small minority here but to us VW is almost too good value. For one I would be prepared to pay a bit more if we could really see the software make further advances and also have niggly but important issues like the door and window PIO sorted out and improved.

[dontevenjoke]

Michael,

Have you tried St.John's Wort, Camomile Tea, warm baths or getting more sunshine?

Could it be that you're just a little depressed and this is clouding your view of VW2008? Your posts the last week have been a bit sad.

Could I suggest getting some treatment, and by the time you're back VW2008-13.5 will have added extra features and with your new lease on life you will be Mr.PositiveVW and all will be well in the world.

Alternately, move to Australia... You'll get all the local paint charts, and windoor, and balcony tool, heliodon tool (needed cos we have so much sun)...

...and all the sunshine you need to balance your seratonin.

Cheers Mikey

[Petri]

Great selection of colours but yet again suits the us market - where are the British piants - dulux, farrow and ball, etc.

The British Dulux - well, I know something about it. Their colour system is based on the fabulous, perceptive (& very expensive) Munsell scheme. They don't have (or at least admit to have) RGB or CMYK values for their paints. In my understanding, there is no reliable mathematical method to convert Munsell to RGB, even if the ever-so-friendly folks at Dulux would provide the data.

Having said that, Adobe has, I believe, Munsell colours in at least some their software. You can get the RGB values and use them as eg. class definitions. There is also some public Munsell-to-RGB calculators on the Net.

In the continental market, the omission of the RAL scheme may be another problem, but that is also very expensive & under copyright. Since RAL sells also software, they are unlikely to provide data for any reasonable amount of money.

Whatever, the new 24-bit colour scheme makes things a lot easier. Until now, one needed to create gradients (which were only able to be created programmatically to produce single colours, ie. without the actual "gradient") and/or textures. Now it is easy if you know the values.

---

A shameless plug: yours truly may sell (through official channels & only in dongled countries) a system that creates colours on demand (class, gradient, texture). I just need the RGB values! So far of the European paint manufacturers only Tikkurila / Kemira has been cooperative.

[mike m oz]

My impression is that this is still an Adobe WIP. It is PC only at this stage with the Mac version hopefully to follow.

If you need the capability you can always purchase the Adobe Acrobat 3D program - its only US$995 (ouch).

[michael john williams]

Mikey

Just come back from holiday in sunny south of france, drinking lots of wine and staying in a yurt. So was very positive until checking out VW2008.

Love to come to Australia! Obviously you are better catered for out there and even more so in the US. But I thought VW was an international product? Last release had a UK version, why not this release? If I upgrade do I loose all by UK additions?

Its not me that needs the treatment its VW 2008, and its not only me thats saying this. I have not seen many positive remarks yet.

[dontevenjoke]

Hi Michael,

Well I'd have to say that we might be better catered for than the USA, only because of the add-ons that we get for the local markets here in Australia.

While I don't know much about the US VW, and I don't want to add fuel to the 'who's more advanced in the world' debate, or the 'why do Australians have to pay extra' debate...I still think we get a great product and really good support, thanks to Julian Carr.

We get localised windows and door objects(even different styles used on the East Coast or West Coast), and most of the textures and materials peculiar to Australia.

The heliodon tool is great for the Aussie market, as we are trying to keep sun out of our buildings due to the sheer amount of it we have to endure.

Plus, we get great detailing add-ons, Oz handrail add-on and a great precast wall feature.

I have noticed that England seems to be a bit neglected compared, based on other posts.

And fair call, there haven't been many positive remarks, but good comments probably aren't going to be as forthcoming as negative press. The best advice I got from the forum is to buy on the rerelease (the old .5 release) cycle even though I'm itching to have the new gear now.

And as for your holiday in the South of France, I'm as jealous as all the other Aussies who need to set aside 48 hours to fly and recover just to get to France, so good health to you.

Anyway, I hear your points and they are fair...

[michael john williams]

Posted the question with CU re 2008 UK version upgrade a few days ago and no reply:

Have the libraries been updated to include 2008 product lines?

Have the libraries been extended to include further bathroom, door, window, etc ranges?

Does the colour improvements include UK colours and product lines such as Dulux, Farrow and Ball paints, etc?

If not why not?

If so what has been added and improved in the UK version?

Not long I know but I guess that 2008 has forgotton UK.