I'm a brand new user of Vectorworks (trial copy, so no investment except of time and gray hair), and I just can't resist throwing my own few stones at this bush. I've been working through trials of all the major programs (Revit, Archicad, AllPlan, Chief Architect etc). Each of them to seem to have their own (for me) major, deal-breaking issues.
It would actually be refreshing if the programmers at these companies would put their selfish ego's aside, and have a good, humble look at all the other programs, and SHAMELESSLY COPY what was BETTER in the competition - instead of refusing to admit somebody else had a better idea or implementation, and continue with an imperfect solution that their users must continue to suffer with (all because of the programmer's ego!).
The company that does this will soon best the competition, and become the User's favorite. Seems a no-brainer to me. Just the ego problem to get over, huh?
Vectorworks touts itself as particularly "User-Friendly". All these architectural programs tout themselves to be user-friendly, but the actual user experience often falls very short of the claims.
I have been really struggling in Vectorworks to get my head around understanding how to set floors up, and my head is just spinning.
It's all as clear as mud.
The User Interface all seems so unnecessarily complicated and convoluted on what should be quite a straightforward issue.
The very fact that the tutorials "explaining" this only ADD to the confusion points to a MAJOR UI problem. There is even a video on Youtube where Jonathan Pickup is being interviewed to explain this stuff, and at the end of the interview, although the interviewer says he now understands the subject, it's pretty clear he is none the wiser afterwards, and is just being polite. One of the commenters on this video remarks on this fact also.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. And in my opinion, that is EXACTLY what is missing from the Vectorworks UI dialog. Instead, the User is asked to make selections from a table format, and is expected to somehow visualize in his head what his tabular choices would mean and look like.
You will note that whenever anyone is pressed to explain what is happening here with floors in Vectorworks, they CANNOT do it just in words! Almost invariably, they resort to producing some sort of sketch to help explain themselves, and to try to get the message across to the other party.
THAT - right there, Gentlemen - has to be the AHA! moment for the Vectorworks UI Designer. (Or it certainly SHOULD be!)
Attached at the bottom of this post is an example of a model worksheet that was provided by Wes Gardner in another thread. I use this example to illustrate what I would like to see INSIDE the proposed new dialog box for setting up floors. And yes, if that is a HUGE dialog box that takes up half the screenspace or more, then so be it. Not a problem for me.
Ideally, this diagram should ALWAYS show THREE floors simultaneously:
the floor ABOVE (on top);
the CURRENT ACTIVE floor (in the middle)
the floor BELOW (show at bottom of sketch)
As the User moves between floor levels, this view of the "current 3 floors" should move dynamically up and down also.
And the User should then be able to just input his values / or tick his choices, DIRECTLY into that diagram - which dynamically changes accordingly.
This dialog box is pretty much the most important - and useful - dialog at the beginning of a project. In ONE diagram, a LOT of the project defaults are both visible and accessible. There is no hunting around into several disparate windows to try and solve a problem. The User can immediately see the full picture, and directly intervene, and confirm that his intervention is doing what he wanted.
In this ONE diagram, the User could also have the opportunity to set some other important defaults right there as well. For example, the User could also visually set the window sill appearances, as well as the initial top and bottom window default heights. Same for the door heights.
And of course, the User must be able to VISUALLY set which feature is LINKED to which other feature eg THIS wall height is linked to THAT surface of THAT slab or Floor. It must be visually clear where the linkages/relationships are (by similar color-coding or special symbols or "connecting lines" or whatever). And it must be easy to click and change them at will.
So the INITIAL opening view in this dialog box looks just like one of Wes' Sectional Views in his example worksheet
And just as Wes has provided several sample worksheets, so too should there be an initial dropdown list from which the User can select his initial basic "Section View" setup. He should then be able to subsequently save his final adjustments as a custom setting or favorite, and be able to call this up later for other projects. And be able to export it to his colleagues for their own use. And likewise, import similar from other users.
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Jonnoxx
I'm a brand new user of Vectorworks (trial copy, so no investment except of time and gray hair), and I just can't resist throwing my own few stones at this bush. I've been working through trials of all the major programs (Revit, Archicad, AllPlan, Chief Architect etc). Each of them to seem to have their own (for me) major, deal-breaking issues.
It would actually be refreshing if the programmers at these companies would put their selfish ego's aside, and have a good, humble look at all the other programs, and SHAMELESSLY COPY what was BETTER in the competition - instead of refusing to admit somebody else had a better idea or implementation, and continue with an imperfect solution that their users must continue to suffer with (all because of the programmer's ego!).
The company that does this will soon best the competition, and become the User's favorite. Seems a no-brainer to me. Just the ego problem to get over, huh?
Vectorworks touts itself as particularly "User-Friendly". All these architectural programs tout themselves to be user-friendly, but the actual user experience often falls very short of the claims.
I have been really struggling in Vectorworks to get my head around understanding how to set floors up, and my head is just spinning.
It's all as clear as mud.
The User Interface all seems so unnecessarily complicated and convoluted on what should be quite a straightforward issue.
The very fact that the tutorials "explaining" this only ADD to the confusion points to a MAJOR UI problem. There is even a video on Youtube where Jonathan Pickup is being interviewed to explain this stuff, and at the end of the interview, although the interviewer says he now understands the subject, it's pretty clear he is none the wiser afterwards, and is just being polite. One of the commenters on this video remarks on this fact also.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. And in my opinion, that is EXACTLY what is missing from the Vectorworks UI dialog. Instead, the User is asked to make selections from a table format, and is expected to somehow visualize in his head what his tabular choices would mean and look like.
You will note that whenever anyone is pressed to explain what is happening here with floors in Vectorworks, they CANNOT do it just in words! Almost invariably, they resort to producing some sort of sketch to help explain themselves, and to try to get the message across to the other party.
THAT - right there, Gentlemen - has to be the AHA! moment for the Vectorworks UI Designer. (Or it certainly SHOULD be!)
Attached at the bottom of this post is an example of a model worksheet that was provided by Wes Gardner in another thread. I use this example to illustrate what I would like to see INSIDE the proposed new dialog box for setting up floors. And yes, if that is a HUGE dialog box that takes up half the screenspace or more, then so be it. Not a problem for me.
Ideally, this diagram should ALWAYS show THREE floors simultaneously:
the floor ABOVE (on top);
the CURRENT ACTIVE floor (in the middle)
the floor BELOW (show at bottom of sketch)
As the User moves between floor levels, this view of the "current 3 floors" should move dynamically up and down also.
And the User should then be able to just input his values / or tick his choices, DIRECTLY into that diagram - which dynamically changes accordingly.
This dialog box is pretty much the most important - and useful - dialog at the beginning of a project. In ONE diagram, a LOT of the project defaults are both visible and accessible. There is no hunting around into several disparate windows to try and solve a problem. The User can immediately see the full picture, and directly intervene, and confirm that his intervention is doing what he wanted.
In this ONE diagram, the User could also have the opportunity to set some other important defaults right there as well. For example, the User could also visually set the window sill appearances, as well as the initial top and bottom window default heights. Same for the door heights.
And of course, the User must be able to VISUALLY set which feature is LINKED to which other feature eg THIS wall height is linked to THAT surface of THAT slab or Floor. It must be visually clear where the linkages/relationships are (by similar color-coding or special symbols or "connecting lines" or whatever). And it must be easy to click and change them at will.
So the INITIAL opening view in this dialog box looks just like one of Wes' Sectional Views in his example worksheet
And just as Wes has provided several sample worksheets, so too should there be an initial dropdown list from which the User can select his initial basic "Section View" setup. He should then be able to subsequently save his final adjustments as a custom setting or favorite, and be able to call this up later for other projects. And be able to export it to his colleagues for their own use. And likewise, import similar from other users.
Section View - MSW - Residential (16 Dec 2016).pdf
Edited by Jonnoxxspelling
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