Vectorworks 2015—The Love-in

[Diamond]

Hi Sean, Jim, & the Vectorworks team,

Just wanted to say congratulations on the release of Vectorworks 2015. As I have been working my way through the list of the new features, I am amazed that a number of requests that I posted on the wishlist, what feels like only a matter of weeks ago, have made it to the cut of this years release.

Having downloaded the Australian release on Friday, and installed on a Golden Master of Mac OS Yosemite, something stood out to me. I was reminded of a phrase from one of John Siracusa's recent Mac OS X reviews on Ars Technica. His thought was that the Mac OS with Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks, was going through an awkward teenager type phase.

It occurred to me that Vectorworks, since renaming itself, has been in an extended awkward phase of it's own. And while I do not see it as yet fully adult—in my mind, this would consist of full multi processor support, live viewport updates for hidden line and OpenGL renders, and central model referencing, to name a few—it feels as if it has turned a corner. It seems that Vectorworks (certainly on Yosemite) is finally confidently walking in it's own identity.

Being the one in our firm that it falls upon to explain these concepts, I sense my life has been made a sizeable increment easier. While I still think there is much work to be done, I feel considerable inroads have been made in this release. A number of new features like; view transitions; perspective 3D projection; and occluded snapping, are now what I consider usable for the average punter in a Sketchup type workflow. And while many would consider these features could be considered direct ripoffs of Sketchup—coming into the confines of Vectorworks already considerable toolset, only adds weight to those other Vectorworks tools.

An example of this is the 3D interface. I can already see how the view transitions feature will enable those that find 3D in Vectorworks in a single window confusing, finally be able to embrace 3D, because they will understand where they are within the drawing. And while the minute extra time taken in the transition might be considered by the pro to be annoying (I believe NV has the right mix here, but I am reminded of transitions in iOS 7), to those new to Vectorworks, this could be the difference between them going back to Sketchud (or 3DS), or actually using 3D in Vectorworks.

It could just be that I am in the warm glow of a new toy, but I am confident this release has answered many of the challenges past releases made unduly challenging, or just hadn't the time to be fully baked. Keep up the good work.

Troy

[PVA - Admin]

I am extremely glad this release lived up to your expectations. It's my favorite so far. (since 2008 )