my experience of VW2011

[jrhartley]

has been disappointing to say the least.

http://twitter.com/#!/@rktecture

"If it looks like a beta, behaves like a beta, then it probably still is a beta" would be my summing up.

Videos were from a:

iMac 11,2 (Oct-2010)

Intel Core i3 3.2 GHz

8 GB

ATI Radeon HD 5670

[GWS]

I, regretfully, must agree.

I would go so far to say as it has cost me time, productivity and consequently money, not to mention problems with engineering companies and DXF exports.

[Bob Holtzmann]

From your blog, it looks like you upgraded to Vw2011 from Vw2008. Not a good thing, because your legacy files were made before the switch to parasolids.

[jrhartley]

Bob

You're correct that we have moved from VW2008 to VW2011, but we actually don't do 3D in CAD, we do it in SketchUp. We only want 2D capability from our CAD software being a small practise doing bespoke houses. VW2008 allowed us to do that - VW2011 falls painfully short and is a serious downgrade to productivity like Guy has stated.

Nemetshek are pathetic in actually doing anything about this - they just refer me to Computers Unlimited for support.

Computers Unlimited support in the UK is one man. He is currently on holiday for three weeks and I have two outstanding calls in to him from a fortnight ago.

[Bob Holtzmann]

Actually, parasolids are used in 2D editing too. So 2D files made in Vw2008 would need some overhauling for Vw2011. I always finish projects in the same version I started with, to avoid the problems you're facing.

The MacOS version might be a factor, too. I noticed you listed MacOS 10.4.11 (tiger), instead of the most recent 10.6 (snow leopard).

[Mattheng]

JR,

Ignore Computers Unlimited and talk to Tamsin Slatter. She is all over this site and gives the most amazing advice. Concise, informed and completely straight about everything. I'm starting to suspect that she is actually one of the head techs doing a "good cop" act to balance out the rest.

Matt

[jrhartley]

Bob

Sorry - my tag is out of date. Running latest snow leopard on all my machines, office is running Leopard. All the above is true for drawings that have been started in VW2011 as well, incidentally, according to my colleagues who have done this. I'm not starting any projects in VW2011 myself, and I'm not going to migrate any of my VW2008 projects to VW2011.

Matt

Thanks - I will try to find her. CU (computers unlimited) are a couple of syllables away from living up to their name. I have spoken with someone else who deals with Nemetshek and he pretty much confirmed to me that they have let 2D drafting capability slip by the wayside in their fervour to try to catch up on the BIM front.

[_c_]

You don't do yourself or your office a favor.

VW 2011 is far superior than 2008. Far. Specially for 2D drawings. Compare the features.

I don't sell this thing.

Use it to the top of its possibilities, I believe. It's just that the price/benefit is unbeatable, might well have a bug or two, still what you get out of it is a gigantic lot for a really minimal price.

Can teach new colleagues in the office in few days with no effort. The application is easy to learn and to use proficiently.

Our job:

construction drawings on existing buildings, average project type dwelling blocks from 1800-early 1900 with some 5-6 floors and about 40-50 flats. Museums. Lots of technic (try to build in Germany please).

We draw DIN-compliant details in 2D for more or less every conceivable corner, calculate quantities and costs. 3D we use for the acquisition phase and for the building shell, so that quantities generate by themselves.

[jrhartley]

You don't do yourself or your office a favor.

Trust me. When its taking a qualified architect 30 seconds + to wait for a regen on a set of viewports, this really isn't the optimal use of our time. If you want to come and see how slow VW2011 regens on our office imacs, you're more than welcome to come around any time.

And I'm sure that BIM's great if you're doing big blocks with lots of repeated components and details. But a lot of practise aren't doing this.

Edited April 27, 2011 by jrhartley

[J Lucas]

BIM = efficiency

[_c_]

30 seconds + to wait for a regen on a set of viewports

If you mean 2D stuff, is long. I don't see such a thing on both Mac and PC.

You can post here a reduction of one of your files and your complete preferences' set.

I can give a look.

orso

[Bret]

From your blog, it looks like you upgraded to Vw2011 from Vw2008. Not a good thing, because your legacy files were made before the switch to parasolids.

Respectfully, I'm pretty sure that the VW2008-2011 conversion could be much more reliable than it is. The problem is that it's a complicated problem, and apparently NNA has decided not to invest the time needed to ensure reliable backwards compatibility.

Our engineering office has thousands of job files which are compatible with VW2008 (and many older ones with VW 12 as well), and we're dreading the upgrade. Not having access to those job files is not an option, and having to keep VW2008 installed is a pretty weak "solution."

(We're also unsure how our mostly-older PC machines are going to handle it, even with 2D work, but that's another topic.)

BIM = efficiency

Depending on the type of job, it is a possibility. However, I'm still not convinced that the extra design time needed (vs. basic 2D or even 3D drafting) pays off for most small-to-medium scale projects, assuming the competence of all involved in the first place.

[Dieter @ DWorks]

BIM = efficiency

Depending on the type of job, it is a possibility. However, I'm still not convinced that the extra design time needed (vs. basic 2D or even 3D drafting) pays off for most small-to-medium scale projects, assuming the competence of all involved in the first place.

I can agree with you at the beginning of implementing bim in every project. I also felt this way when we did it, but at the end, when you've got a good library build for it, and have some custom scripts, then you can draw as fast with bim than a normal way. And when we need to change some drawings, I'm always happy that we did the drawing a bim way, because it's then that you will have much time savings. So don't expect that you will save time the first time the drawing is setup and drawn, but it's when there are changes afterwards or other things that you will save a lot of time! And you will have far less possible errors. And those errors can save much money!

So I would say that you just try to implement it step by step. Just start with one thing and go on and on until you can switch to a total bim workflow.

Edited April 29, 2011 by DWorks