Vectorworks User Interface Overhaul

[Thomas Wagensommerer]

 

brown - purple - yellow - blue REALLY?

 

Looking at screenshots from VW 2018 makes me extremely sad. Seemingly Vectorworks is the last application adhering to the kindergarten color scheme.

 

A design application must not use colors in the interface!

 

Look at any self respecting or professional design application and please get rid of those colors in the interface.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2017 by Thomas Wagensommerer

[mike m oz]

Zoomer, Texture seems to be a more common generic term in usage.

 

I've always understood a shader to be a machine generated texture pattern and a texture map to be an image based texture pattern.

 

Materials as a concept makes sense but only if you start talking about components of objects and defining their appearance in plan view, 3D views and sections in both linework views and rendered views.  Also their properties in terms of energy analysis, weight, strength, etc.  In Vw.  Isn't that what we tend to do with Classes? Classes are the what in Vw with materials being one of the what classification systems.

[Tom Klaber]

2 hours ago, zoomer said:

 

You mean in a Building Industry Term ?

I was thinking about Software Terms.

In any 3D and even CAD Software I worked with,

Renderworks Textures would be called Materials

(or "Shaders" in the worst case) and edited in a

Material Manager. Image Textures are called

Textures in short.

 

 

Not sure if it is needed to separate the technical from visual part

of Materials. Focusing on Visualization aspects, I wouldn't mind

much if my Render Materials would have additional cost and

energos data.

On the other hand, when applying BIM components to PIOs,

I would not need to recreate my Concrete setup each time I add

a component for a new PIO Style.

 

Well - to me - the intrigue and power of a concept of the idea of "Materials" is that they contain a myriad of information - as you say - price, weight, R-Value...ect - in which a 2D and 3D visual identity is one.  Therefore - it would seem that the 'texture' - as we call them now - would be an 'attribute' of material - one that would be user-defined - along with the other information and maybe behaviors.  

 

I think you are undercutting an otherwise really great idea.  I think 'Materials" are a new thing - not a reworking of Renderworks Textures.  

[zoomer]

I asked for a VW global Material System in VW a few years ago.

I am happy to use one in Bricscad. Archicad has one too.

 

So when I create a new Composition (VW = Wall/Slab/.. Style)

and add a new Ply (VW = Component),

I set basic Ply rules like (variable!) thickness and just pick a

Building Material from my Library with physical information.

So I can use the same enforced concrete, no matter if will be a

Slab, Wall or whatever Composition.

Such physical Material Setups will also have information for

Layer (VW = Class) and Render Material assignment.

Setup for Render Materials is done from Material Manager,

(VW = via Resource Manager)

similar to any Layer/Block/... Managers from global Drawing Explorer.

(VW = separated by Organization + Resource Manager)

 

[Thomas Wagensommerer]

On 8/25/2019 at 3:18 PM, Andy Broomell said:

 

As someone who teaches VW a lot, this is the truth. Most of my lessons involve "VectorWorkarounds" 🤣

 

Just open the Workaround Manager, hold down the Makeshift Key and select the Kludge Tool.😂

 

[Matt Overton]

13 hours ago, Thomas Wagensommerer said:

 

Just open the Workaround Manager, hold down the Makeshift Key and select the Kludge Tool.😂

 

Is that the new Workaround tool or the legacy Workaround tool?

[Andrew Davies]

I like the new workaround tool - but there are things I miss about the old legacy workaround tool so do sometimes find myself flipping between the two.

[Stephan Moenninghoff]

Is this latest discussion slightly off topic? I didn't start this thread so maybe I should keep quiet but it could be useful to have this thread for discussions about the *aesthetics* rather than core functionality. 

[MartinBlomberg]

Hi,

 

Just a 2021 update: how is this topic moving along? I'm looking forward to the day when VW looks, and feels, like a "real" professional software. Even though it's been 4 years since original post, and I've only used VW for about a year, I feel like the UI needs a serious update. What are your thoughts today? 😃

 

Take care all! 

[line-weight]

1 hour ago, MartinBlomberg said:

Hi,

 

Just a 2021 update: how is this topic moving along? I'm looking forward to the day when VW looks, and feels, like a "real" professional software. Even though it's been 4 years since original post, and I've only used VW for about a year, I feel like the UI needs a serious update. What are your thoughts today? 😃

 

Take care all! 

 

Having recently started using VW2021, I do like the "smart options" menu that pops up around the cursor.

 

Otherwise, most things are just as bad as ever.

[MartinBlomberg]

2 minutes ago, line-weight said:

 

Having recently started using VW2021, I do like the "smart options" menu that pops up around the cursor.

Otherwise, most things are just as bad as ever.

Hah, yeah, I kinda' agree. I have a history in AutoCAD and the difference is huge. Whenever I open up VW I somewhat feel a bit ashamed of the UI. 

[line-weight]

To clarify, I've been using VW for 20 years or so. And have just jumped 3 versions from 2018 to 2021. The lack of any real improvement in UI is disappointing. The "smart options" thing is a definite plus point - but doesn't by itself justify the cost of upgrading. There are not a lot of things that have improved, and as usual a few things that seem to have got worse.

Edited March 10 by line-weight

[jeff prince]

5 hours ago, line-weight said:

Otherwise, most things are just as bad as ever.

sad, but true.

I was tutoring VWX via zoom last week and my student commented how my screen looked completely different than hers and she was having difficulty following along.  So,  I deactivated Dark Mode...

she exclaimed, “ah, that’s better”.  I recoiled in horror and braced myself for 3 hrs of retina damaging retro styled computing.

 

I will credit Vectorworks with one amazing “feature” thanks to the redesign...

It has forced me to use keyboard commands and to hide my tool palettes 😉

 

[Andy Broomell]

2 hours ago, jeff prince said:

It has forced me to use keyboard commands and to hide my tool palettes 😉

 

I've hidden my tool palettes too! 95% of the time I'm using keyboard shortcuts anyways; I only needed the toolsets for the other 5%, but now that's been replaced by Quick Search which has become my favorite 2021 feature. Hiding the toolsets gave me a lot more screen real estate to work with.

[jeff prince]

@Andy Broomell one of my clients is on 2021 and I am intrigued by the quick menu at the cursor and this search function.  I’m always dragging behind on upgrading by a year in hopes of stability 🙂

[MartinBlomberg]

14 hours ago, Andy Broomell said:

 

I've hidden my tool palettes too! 95% of the time I'm using keyboard shortcuts anyways; I only needed the toolsets for the other 5%, but now that's been replaced by Quick Search which has become my favorite 2021 feature. Hiding the toolsets gave me a lot more screen real estate to work with.

That sounds nice! So, what windows do you have open? Would you mind share a screenshot? Just for inspiration 😃

[Andy Broomell]

On 3/10/2021 at 11:16 PM, MartinBlomberg said:

That sounds nice! So, what windows do you have open? Would you mind share a screenshot? Just for inspiration 😃

 

Here's how it looks as of today (I'm always experimenting with different arrangements, but I'm liking this one). I ended up putting the Navigation Palette in place of the toolsets... I used to have the Nav Palette minimized along the top title title bar and would hover over it to expand it, but now I like that I can glance over to the left and and see Class or Layer visibilities.

 

[Chad Hamilton HAArchs]

FWW - I like having OIP, Nav and tool palettes on all on the same side, so I don't spend time mousing back and forth across the screen - then I keep the Resource browser and a Keynote editor palette hovering near the title bar, so I can open them quickly be hovering the cursor over them, and they automatically close when I scroll away.  Won't work for everyone, but I find this very efficient.

[JRA-Vectorworks-CAD]

This is a complex debate, and there is no right answer because many of the opinions and suggestions are subjective and personal. However I do think there are a few priorities that everyone can agree on. Having more customisation and a colour or no colour option would really help, and as its already pretty easy to change lots of colours via "interactive appearance settings" this would be a good way forward. 

 

I have loved using vectorworks for over 20 year and still really love using the software day to day. The enjoyment factor is very important, and much of this comes down to smooth workflows and snappy performance, that has been getting better and better in resent years. However, there are still some real log jams and awkward workflows, and the desire to address these is critical.

 

I do think that being able to change icon sizes is critical as users get older the buttons can become harder to see particularly on high res 4k and 5k monitors. I do lots of online training and Youtube videos via Zoom and use a 4K BENQ screen I share running at 2560 x 1440 resolution and lots of people say its hard for them to read the icons. Having the ability to have at leat small, medium and large icons would be essential in my view.

 

Finally, every simple day to day process should be analysed to see if a reduction in clicks or dialogues is possible (It will be) and these should be tackled as a priority. For example we have nested classes using the "-" that allow users to turn off a whole group of classes with one click, and also manage them using the hierarchy. Please follow this though and do the same for nested layers! Its so obvious that this would help as you could then group different design options into one group of nest layers and simply turn them on a off with a single click. This would be a huge time saver alone.

 

As well as focussing on the UI, there are still some areas of Vectorworks that are lagging years behind and are embarrassing us. The roof tool, dormers and lack of parametric roof lights being one of my biggest concerns. Every building in the world has some kind of roof, and the roof tool needs a huge overall to make it more function, robust and also user friendly. Why do we not have a single roof and roof face tool (rather than it being hidden in the AEC menu) that work like the slab tool?

 

Finally, please, please, please make the "Shim Gap" settings consistent so they are remembered between sessions rather than imposing a 7mm shim gap ever single time you restart vectorworks. If I had a pound for ever-time I have had to say "beware the shim gap...... 

 

Also Bi-folding doors need the same attention that sliders have had, and this has been an active request for at leat 5 years now, and still not been tackled.

 

Finally, I would truly love to be able to drag windows and doors widths and heights directly in plan , 3D and elevation. This is how architects design, and having to punch numbers into a dialogue than repositioning windows and doors does not allow "design flow". I accept that deeper settings need the dialogues, but even right clicking or smart options specifically for doors and windows ( then other parametric in the future) would be a huge bonus as it would be a more modern way of doing things, while leaving the existing workflow for those who are used to it.

 

Finally, I have created and shared my customised and enhanced JRA workspace with hundreds of firms and customers over the years, but the workspace does cannot control all the other aspects like preferences and data bar options etc. It would be really helpful if the workspace could set everything to do with layout and preferences etc. when first loaded ( then let people change this as required) and this would save lots of time when training as everyone would have the cat same screen set up to start with. This would mean that more vectorworks or users could create more customised workspaces that could be downloaded and shared. While we are on this, please make it possible to tick all the options at once in the dropdown quick preferences icon rather than having to come out and back into the dialogue multiple times.

 

What does anyone think about this ideas?  I would love to hear your thoughts on the above.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 20 by JRA-Vectorworks-CAD

[MarcelP102]

After seeing the concept videos of @Stephan Moenninghoff In this topic and his work for InteriorCAD (those menu with the icons looks so good, very informative) I really believe this man can/should help bringing Vectorworks UI/UX to next level.

 

For example Look at his work for the new framed fronts of InteriorCAD (https://youtu.be/7ibekCaDKRM)  I couldn't stop thinking how wonderful this kind of setup would be for the windows and door tool. So we can select complex profiles for the window frames with a simple nice looking menu. 

Edited June 12 by MarcelP102

[line-weight]

On 6/12/2021 at 2:45 PM, MarcelP102 said:

After seeing the concept videos of @Stephan Moenninghoff In this topic and his work for InteriorCAD (those menu with the icons looks so good, very informative) I really believe this man can/should help bringing Vectorworks UI/UX to next level.

 

For example Look at his work for the new framed fronts of InteriorCAD (https://youtu.be/7ibekCaDKRM)  I couldn't stop thinking how wonderful this kind of setup would be for the windows and door tool. So we can select complex profiles for the window frames with a simple nice looking menu. 

 

It's clear that there are plenty of people out there (including existing VW employees) who could build massively improved tools and UI for Vectorworks.

 

The issue is that whoever the people are, who ultimately are in charge of strategic decisions at VW, either just don't get it, or have made a commercial decision that they simply don't need to offer us these improvements in any great hurry whatsoever.

 

It's bizarre because (for example) there are already improved window and door tools out there, that are available only to certain regional distributors. We are never given an explanation as to why they can't be offered to all Vectorworks users - not even as a paid extra. I think there are many of us who would probably pay extra for them, even though they already ought to be part of the basic functionality of the programme, just for the time and pain saved.

 

I honestly don't understand it. In the past I've wondered if we could somehow crowdfund some improvements rather than waiting for ever for VW to sort things out themselves.

Edited June 29 by line-weight

[Christiaan]

1 hour ago, line-weight said:

It's bizarre because (for example) there are already improved window and door tools out there, that are available only to certain regional distributors. We are never given an explanation as to why they can't be offered to all Vectorworks users - not even as a paid extra. I think there are many of us who would probably pay extra for them, even though they already ought to be part of the basic functionality of the programme, just for the time and pain saved.

 

Can I posit a guess that this isn't necessarily within Vectorworks' purview; that the makers of those tools don't necessarily have the resources nor inclination to support a global market for their plugin and would rather stick to their local market?

[line-weight]

2 hours ago, Christiaan said:

 

Can I posit a guess that this isn't necessarily within Vectorworks' purview; that the makers of those tools don't necessarily have the resources nor inclination to support a global market for their plugin and would rather stick to their local market?

Maybe. But then you might expect that it would be in the purview of Vectorworks to provide something at least as good as what can demonstrably be created by a maker with much more limited resources than they themselves have.

[mjm]

2 hours ago, line-weight said:

Maybe. But then you might expect that it would be in the purview of Vectorworks to provide something at least as good as what can demonstrably be created by a maker with much more limited resources than they themselves have.

@line-weight super dry lol

Edited June 29 by mjm
clarity

[Tom W.]

6 hours ago, line-weight said:

there are already improved window and door tools out there, that are available only to certain regional distributors.

Are we talking WinDoor? Or something else? Be interested to know exactly where the regional versions diverge from the standard door + window tools i.e. how many + which specifically of the shortcomings are resolved

[line-weight]

18 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

Are we talking WinDoor? Or something else? Be interested to know exactly where the regional versions diverge from the standard door + window tools i.e. how many + which specifically of the shortcomings are resolved

 

Yes - Windoor is for Australia or NZ I think?

But I think there is also something else again for the German or Austrian market?

There may be others.