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VW 10, a quiet upgrade?


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So, when version 9 came out, messages (mostly rants) poured on this MB; now that VW 10 came out (I haven't upgraded yet), it's so quiet out there, that there are two possible explanations:

1-nobody upgraded yet, or not so many, (but NNA says it is a very successful release) or?

2-the new version is very smooth, stable, and yet not mind-blowing as there aren't many praising messages either.

Katie, which one is the truth?

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I'm a big fan of VW 10. Not just because I work for the company either.

I think alot of the enhancements of productivity, speed in rendering, improvements in compatibility with alllll the OS's, new features are really good.

I've been getting alot of positive feedback about the upgrade from the customers I speak to.

It's a first version release, so there are bound to be bugs. However, the bugs I've seen aren't too major. There are a few, which we are working on quickly to resolve. I think it's better than 9.5.2 as far as bugs and productivity speed on both PC and Mac, os 9, 10.1 and 10.2.2. The engineers spent alot of time on this version of VW to ensure the product was worth the upgrade. In my opinion, the hard work paid off tremendously.

We have alot of people purchase VW since it's release. I don't know exact numbers, but from what I've heard and see ... the numbers are large.

Are some people waiting to purchase after the first maintenence update or the new FY Quarter? Perhaps .. especially with the market the way it is right now .. and being the last quarter of the year.

In my personal opinion, VW 10 has been a very smooth and great release. I'd say the same from a tech support stand point.

I didn't get paid to say that either!! [big Grin]

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"First update here. Past experience.."

After vw9 who would not be skeptical. But Katie explained previously that the jump from 8 to 9 was greater than 9 to 10.

VW10 new and improvement list are

"some" of the bugs fixes from VW9 (i.e.. walls, cons.dims, setup etc..)

But there are still a lot of bugs which we still have to work around.

That was not address, and I would have liked, to have seen fixed. (i.e.. round walls, worksheets dr & win schedules made easy and safe to use etc..

The cost of the VW10 upgrade is a lot more than, 8 to 9.

I'm was not happy over having to pay shipping for VW9.0.1 or 9.5 fix, which did not work and a month later downloading VW9.5.2upgrade.

I don't think that a few of us is going to upgrade until:

1. The other bugs are fixed.

2. The price come down by half of what it is.

3. VW11 is out.

4. See a demo, "and it's working as advertised"

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Our Sales team has demo's available. Please call to request one be sent to you.

As for the price, I can't comment on that since it's out of my dept. I know in some cases, VW10 is cheaper.

I can say however, there are alot of new features, speed improvements, some things are much more user friendly ... overall it's a sound product.

Do you expect any software to remain at the same price for years on end while the market expenses go up?

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In regard to the cost of the upgrade, the price for a single seat upgrade of VectorWorks 9 to VectorWorks 10 is $250. This is an increase of $25 over the price for the previous 3 years. The price for all other upgrades, including trading up to an Industry Series product, have remained the same or in several cases gone down.

We remain committed to offering outstanding software at an outstanding price. Our upgrade prices are below industry averages across the board. The truth is, the release of v10 thus far, has been 47% more successful then v9 over then same period of time. People are upgrading in droves.

I am sorry to see that a few of you are still waiting. I can certainly understand why you would want to guard your investment, however, Katie is right. This version is faster, better and more stable on all Operating Systems, in comparison to 9.5.2. If you would like to test drive the release, you have a 90 day Money-Back-Guarantee on your upgrade, also an industry best.

The message boards aren't quiet because they haven't upgraded yet or because there isn't anything good to say. It's quiet because there isn't much to complain about, and people are busy getting work done and making money using v10.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

quote:

Originally posted by Chris T:

That was not address, and I would have liked, to have seen fixed. (i.e.. round walls, [...]

I asked before, but you never answered. What problem(s) are you having with round walls? We can't fix what we don't know about. (And if we do, there's a good chance we've already fixed them.)

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There was no polemic intention from my side.

I thought that the reason of the quietness was

no problems and that as usual people write about bad things, not good ones.

I am happy if VW 10 is selling a lot, it is an advantage for all of us VW users if the VW market share increases (is it?).

I will upgrade as soon as have the guts to convince the management.

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Sometimes round walls does not connect to straight wall, reverses the radius or turns into a complete circle.

I paid approx.. $250 to upgrade from VectorWorks 8 TO VectorWorks Architect 9 with Renderworks.

Now to upgrade from VectorWorks Architect 9 with Renderworks to VectorWorks Architect 10 with Renderworks cost $450.

I would pay under $300 for the 10 upgrade.

I think the 8 to 9 upgrade had more to offer than 9 to 10.

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The wait for 9.5.x while others discovered the inadequacies of 9.0 and 9.1 was a prudent one. We moved from a 'stable' (I use the term very loosely) 8.5.2 to a 'stable' and 'not-too-buggy' 9.5.2. I, for one, do NOT give a heck of a lot of credence to Mr. Pacylowski's claim, regardless of what numbers he has to back him up. Sorry, dude.

I, for one, am waiting until 10.5. We have almost all the functionality we need with 9.5.2/3, and have no interest in the possible decreased reliability and stability for added 'features' that we do NOT need -- or even want, really.

Trust isn't given; it's earned. The committed staff at NNA work very hard, but VW has not earned my trust.

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I must agree with Samurai, $250, possible lost production time, and still no support for viewports & xref's and the constant problem of dealing with a'cads .shx reality. Hate to tell this but opted for $600 ACAD LITE 2002 just to deal with my client base, all of whom are in the "other world". Not proud of this decision just out of choices. Waited til 2002 for some problems to be addressed, did not feel that I should upgrade twice in same year and still be lacking in ability. Still a believer but reality takes no prisoners

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Amen, Richard!

I must say, I enjoy working with VWA a great deal, but I woul enjoy it more if it did what so many have been asking for the past year and a half, and since version 8.52.

Needless, to say, it would be great to seamlessly import AutoCAD files intact and work with them in VectorWorks without loss of data and fiddling around with settings.

I have had to work collaboratively with two major Bay Area firms, and to do so effectively, I had to (*gulp*) by an IBM ThinkPad and load it up with AutoCAD.

I've crossed over to the Dark Side, and it was a necessary evil. Bring back the Force!

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Don't forget you neighbours to the North, Sitting here in Canada i've never had to have a dongle and i've been using since version4.

I to will be waiting to see how this board responds to the new release, and how upgrades and patches are released before upgrading the office.

quote:

Originally posted by Katie:

[QB

Previous versions of VW required dongles for versions outside of the US.[/QB]

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Richard and Irving again raise what appears to me to be the SINGLE MOST SIGNIGANT problem with VW - its problems with seamlessly importing and exporting to/from any and all versions of ACAD without LOSS of data. The reality is that MOST of the world is ACAD, regardless of how flawed that program may be. And the reality is that VW people will inevitably have to deal with the ACAD universe... and they with the VW people.

I don't think and speed or productivity upgrades amount to a hill of beans until you get the import/export to ACAD down to a quick simple reliable process WITHOUT DATA LOSS. Once this is accomplished the two platforms can live in the same office, the same world, and there will be no need for staff trained in both platforms and so on. It will also allow talent VW people to work in ACAN environments and visa versa.

Since ACAD rules the market it is the VW people who must reach out to get their software to work and not the other way round. Sorry fellas in the front office.

For those who work in "isolation" and do not need to deal with the ACAD universe all the new tools, and productivity are all THEY care about. Of course, everyone wants a bug free stable platform.

The limitations I experience are not related to tools and 3D and so forth, but interfacing with ACAD people. As a result I am working with the dinosaur known as 8.52. I have made a personal decision not to upgrade until the ACAD issue has been once and for all been dealt with.

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In VW 10, importing AutoCad files is really good. Hatches, solids, paper space -- they all come in.

X-ref's and viewports still don't, but that's the nature of the beast.

It's working with two different languages.

We do have one of the better dxf/dwg import and exports. We work closely with the DXF committee to ensure we meet the standards they have and incorporate as much as we can into our application.

Is there something specific you are not impressed with about the dxf/dwg import or export?

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Our office, staff of 4 architects, has switched to VWA10. We had two people who were never happy w/ VWA 9.5.2 but they seemed very satisfied with VWA10. The enhancements are very nice, program seems to work very well. Our ACAD engineers that we export to are very happy with the dwgs created. We weren't thrilled with cost (site licence for 5) but felt we needed and upgrade from 9.5.2. We would, however, love to see the windowshade effect return to the pallets. Those of us still using 17" monitors need the space!

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Don't get me wrong. I am happy with VWA 9.53 (Mac). I could be happier with VW 10, in fact I would be ecstatic to spend 1/10th of what I spent on a new ThinkPad and AutoCAD (LT) if it VWA would offer more in comparable features and compatibility with AutoCAD.

Dumb questions. If you can create symbols out of groups of objects that can be dynamically updated from drawing to drawing (layer to layer) on which they sit, then why can't we import .dwg drawings with working xrefs? Aren't xrefs equivalent to symbols in function?

Despite the new features and improvements to VW 10, it is not a very compelling "upgrade" to justify $395+.

How about rewarding the loyalty of your customer base that has made NNA and VW as successful as it is by improving your upgrade price structure? I will admit that Michael Bendler did make me a good discounted offer to upgrade my 3 licenses. Bottom line, the upgrade features just weren't compelling enough to justify his generous offer.

[ 11-23-2002, 02:51 AM: Message edited by: Irving ]

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How about rewarding the loyalty of your customer base that has made NNA and VW as successful as it is by improving your upgrade price structure? I will admit that Michael Bendler did make me a good discounted offer to upgrade my 3 licenses. Bottom line, the upgrade features just weren't compelling enough to justify his generous offer.

I FEEL THE SAME WAY..

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I have been using VW since 1993 or so and have always bought every upgrade, but somehow managed to miss version 9 (i think it was the 2 pregnancies that did it). I am still on 8.5.1 and thinking about getting the version 10 upgrade. I'm sure I will be charged a fortune for it. Is it worth it? My biggest problem with VW 8.5.1 is editing the text..it's so time consuming. Has this really been fixed in VW10. And it would be nice to be able to get my structural engineers AC drawings and be able to open them in VW w/o text shooting out all over the place. Is this fixed?

And yes, I think that you should get lots of brownie points that translate into cheaper upgrades if you've been using VW forever (like me).

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