VW2014

[Assembly]

I heard an interview recently with the owner of a listed software start up explaining why his company, which is continuing to make a loss, is experiencing incredibly strong growth.

The software is accounting software. It is 'sticky' software. Once the user is using the software, there is cost to move to another package.

R&D is the main cost to the software company, in the early phase there is a lot of expense on innovation to attract new clients. A mature software company is one with a stable user base. As the main cost is R&D you can easily cut this expense which then catapults the company in to high profitability.

A client, faced with high cost to move software, ie loss of database and training, the client will stick with the software until there is a clear and obvious innovation provided in another offering.

This explanation certainly rings true for me. My reason not to move from VW is due to the libraries and templates that we have set up...

[Bob Holtzmann]

I agree about the impression of the X-Ray image, SBG. It reminds me of the Life magazine illustration showing the nuclear bomb shelter inside the building, or even Superman's X-ray vision. It will take some figuring to effectively use this in construction drawings.

[Dieter @ DWorks]

Not really impressive... There are more important things they need to address...

[Peter van der Elst]

I agree with Dieter here. I don't see any improvements in modeling (roof components!!). The X-ray is not useful because you get a messy wireframe view. Twisting NURBS? This is not Cinema4D. It should be a BIM modeler....

[Tom Klaber]

Stairs with a 3rd stringer!!!

Wishlist addressed!

I am going to laugh and cry at the same time if that is touted as one of the 'new features' in VW14.

[Robert Anderson]

To understand the usefulness of the so-called "X-ray Select" you have to understand how the new "Fast Interactive 3D" viewing works. X-ray select is a complementary mode to Fast Interactive (FI). In some ways, the more fundamental (and useful) change is FI viewing. With FI viewing, all selection is done using familiar methods, but now face selection is enabled. You can select only objects whose faces (or partial faces) you can see.

This is a little hard to explain with just words, but suffice it to say it's a much more intuitive and natural form of viewing / picking / editing. And it is fast--when you edit, scenes are rebuilt so much more efficiently, there's no need to ever work in 3D wireframe.

All of which is great until you need to pick or snap to something that's hidden. That's where X-ray Select comes in. Just by holding down the x-ray key, you can now see and snap to anything (in wireframe) around the cursor and pick anything (using the edge-select mode). You don't have to change your tool or mode or whatever it was you were doing. Just hold down the B key, drill in, do your thing, then go back to what you were doing.

[Christiaan]

You can select only objects whose faces (or partial faces) you can see ? And it is fast--when you edit, scenes are rebuilt so much more efficiently, there's no need to ever work in 3D wireframe.

Great.

[Tom Klaber]

Similar to holding down the 'B' key now.

[Bob Holtzmann]

Thanks Robert. Usually wireframe view is hard to work in for me, because the individual objects become a visual jumble of lines. I guess it can work if the individual wireframe objects can "auto-hilight", so we can perceive the outline of the object. Auto-hilight makes selecting objects fast and easy.

Up to now, I've had to use the new Clip Cube to get behind walls, so this X-ray selection tool looks like a time-saver.

[starling75]

"Fast Interactive 3D" = Sketchup interface

You can select what you see.

There is also X-ray mode in SU which allows to select objects hidden behind another objects ..

[Patrick Fritsch]

Robert, dwelling deeper...can we set this new working view to model in perspective by default?

[Robert Anderson]

Fast interactive is -sort of- like the SU interface. In SU you highlight and select faces (polys). In Vectorworks, when you point at a face in the drawing, the object that the face belongs to highlights. So it's a little different, a little more object-oriented.

Also, in Sketchup, the x-ray is an alternate viewing mode that you choose and, once chosen, is the standard transparent-ish working mode. (Lots of visual clutter for a complex model.) Vectorworks solves this in a different way. By making the "x-ray select" as a key enabled mode, you can stay in your "natural" fast-interactive viewing mode and "drill down" instantly and momentarily, do the operation on the "hidden thing" and pop instantly back.

I would say they're pretty different workflows.

[Robert Anderson]

Fritsh, in a word, yes.

[Patrick Fritsch]

Thanks Robert, this dialogue is a much better more engaging way than hacked Youtube previews...

Anxious to see the stability side of development, all programs crash, it's when they crash too often that frustration sets in.

[RickR]

I'm up for the Flattened DL Section Viewports.

I have to mix 3D sections with 2D imports and then draw on top of that. Going in and out of annotations is a pain.

Add in true elevation markers (finally!) and sections become far better.

Yes, stability is a BIG point. Waiting to see if this version is solid, while seeing the hopefully cool new stuff is frustration defined.

[PVA - Admin]

When working with it in testing it was more stable than any of the previous releases by far.

That particular "feature" didn't get a video or any images explaining it, since hopefully it will be apparent right when you get the chance to use it!

[Itchy]

Just got an email taking me through to the VSS portal with the new feature videos...

[RickR]

I just noticed that space improvements are listed as a Spotlight feature. We haven't had space objects before.

Error or new feature to me?

[steve s]

http://architosh.com/2013/09/nemetschek-vectorworks-will-soon-unveil-major-updated-vectorworks-2014-with-dramatic-new-under-the-hood-technologies/

I hope this means VW can now use more than 2GB of memory before crashing without warning.

[Kevin McAllister]

From the Architosh article, this will be very welcome - "New for Mac users will be a new support for multi-threading for hidden line rendering, increasing this rendering type by up to 40 percent. "

KM

[Bob Holtzmann]

That's good news - multithreading hidden line rendering. Up to now, every time I tried to render a hidden line elevation, it's always been "you've got to be kidding - it's taking this long?"

It seems "home brew coding" saved the day for NVW.

[VincentCuclair]

New in 2014:

Edited September 13, 2013 by Vincent C

[Dieter @ DWorks]

Just got an email taking me through to the VSS portal with the new feature videos...

Why isn't this available for all VSS members worldwide??? We also pay!

[Peter van der Elst]

Hmm, from what I see most new features are about 3d modeling. But what about the basics ie. 2d, no roof components, no 3d hatches, no complex wall profiles...

As far as I can see (no VSS member anymore) we will not be upgrading...

[M5d]

When working with it in testing it was more stable than any of the previous releases by far.

Winner of the most important "new" feature award!

From the Architosh article, this will be very welcome - "New for Mac users will be a new support for multi-threading for hidden line rendering, increasing this rendering type by up to 40 percent. "

I wonder why it's limited to 40 percent faster, shouldn't it be proportional to the number of threads available?