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2020 Teaser Tuesday - GIS Improvements - Vectorworks 2020


JuanP

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
7 hours ago, Mark Aceto said:

Speaking of the old fashioned way, I believe one of the benefits of this new method is access to more recent sat imagery, right? So it could be 3 months old instead of 3 years?

 

That's correct. Also, higher resolution images, elevation information, and other analytic information (raster images only at the moment in Vectorworks though)

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
5 hours ago, HEengineering said:

I always wondered how to use this in 2017 but never really tried

 

Well, the main part is selecting appropriate coordinate system for where the project is located. Then locate your drawing and everything you draw will be properly georeferenced.

 

 

5 hours ago, HEengineering said:

Is this something that would allow you to see right of way and property lines as well?

 

Not with the default maps. We only have satelite and map image services if you haven't logged it. If you log in, you can search for data in the area of the project.

But for now  we only support raster images.

 

You can ask or look up the servers for your county. They often use ESRI, and you can type in the server address in the Vectorworks feature, and Vectorworks will request imagery from there. This also works with WMS servers.

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45 minutes ago, Vladislav Stanev said:

We only have satelite and map image services if you haven't logged it. If you log in, you can search for data in the area of the project.

But for now  we only support raster images.

 

Where do you need to log in to get more than just raster images - is it Vectorworks, VSS, or ESRI? Thanks.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
10 minutes ago, rDesign said:

Where do you need to log in to get more than just raster images - is it Vectorworks, VSS, or ESRI? Thanks.

 

You can log in to ESRI inside Vectorworks' new feature. Essentially, when you browse for service, you can log in to browse the ESRI's full catalog of services.

 

From those available services, we can only communicate the Image Layer services (raster image). The others are Feature Layer services, the shape file equivalents, which we will support in the future.

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What a tool, it makes open data and cartography easily accessible to users with no deep knowledge of GIS. With a great potential in our office workflow, especially while working on feasibility studies at the architectural and masterplanning scale. Consistent and user friendly, thanks for it and congrats to the team who designed and developed it.

Edited by STR
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  • 1 month later...
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

@Vlado The file I received is .las. It is in MGA Zone55. The point cloud is over 5,000km from the IO. It doesn't display correctly unless it is centred on the IO on import (floating point errors I imagine). Of course centering scrubs the geolocation. Through some trickery we can firstly establish a lat/long of the center of the point cloud and then import a second time into a file with georeferencing already established. Only for the initiated though. We probably need the same 'this file contains georeferenced data' as per the .dwg/.dxf import dialogue? 

Mark Aceto - the .las file would supplement and be additional to other shapefiles and geodata. 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hi @jeff prince,

 

Thank you for your comments. This feature is dedicated to access various data from ESRI, not just maps, but for that you need to login into their Services. Depending on the region, they might have more detailed satelite images.

 

15 hours ago, jeff prince said:

We already have the ability to import georeferenced imagery.  Far better to source you own data and import it correctly IMHO.  I wish Vectorworks would spend more  time developing workflows for processing and importing georeferenced pointclouds and obj models

 

Can you please elaborate on this? We're looking for ways to improve this.

 

You can send me workflow videos or screen capture directly at vstanev@vectorworks.net

 

Regards,

Vlado

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3 hours ago, Vlado said:

Hi @jeff prince,

 

Thank you for your comments. This feature is dedicated to access various data from ESRI, not just maps, but for that you need to login into their Services. Depending on the region, they might have more detailed satelite images.

 

 

Can you please elaborate on this? We're looking for ways to improve this.

 

You can send me workflow videos or screen capture directly at vstanev@vectorworks.net

 

Regards,

Vlado

Thanks for your interest Vlado.

In regards to ESRI log in and services, this is really hit and miss within Vectorworks.  Servers disconnect or are not available, random crashing, etc.  Easier to download source files and bring them in manually due to these inconsistencies IMHO.

 

In regards to "I wish Vectorworks would spend more  time developing workflows for processing and importing georeferenced pointclouds and obj models".

I've been working with this kind of data for a while now.  I have posted several examples on the forum and tried to work directly with Vectorworks prior to purchasing the software and after purchase during my Service Select subscription.  Nothing useful came of this unfortunately.  I use Autodesk Recap and other web services as a result.  Still, Vectorworks does not import this data in correctly.  Here are a few conversations about the topic:

 

 

 

 

Amazing this one still hasn't had a proper workflow created.  If we make a geolocated site model and import georeferrenced aerial photography, manual tweaking still has to be performed to map a aerial photograph to a site model.  This is a major time killer.  You can see the video I linked in my earlier post where I have been able to bring in a texture OBJ site scan into Vectorworks, but it took a lot of manual effort to line it up correctly.  Still can't use an aerial photograph to texture a Vectorworks site model without massive trial an error in lining it up.

 

Vlado I do appreciate your interest in looking into all of this.  Unfortunately, due to all of the previous interactions with Vectorworks and the unresolved issues linked in my signature as an example, I no longer have the time or interest in chasing these solutions.  Many of us here on the forum have spent countless hours working with Vectorworks staff on these topics only to have them move on without warning.  I'm sure you can imagine our frustrations.  That is why I am in the "hope" phase for this to be resolved...  I think if Vectorworks wants to get serious about developing mature workflows that address the needs of professionals like myself, they will form industry committees that team Vectorworks engineers with professionals like myself to develop them.  It would have to be well structured with clear intended outcomes and timelines for it to be worth my time.  I think this is the only way forward since the the tech support, service select, and forum avenues have failed.

 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hi @jeff prince,

 

22 hours ago, jeff prince said:

Servers disconnect or are not available, random crashing, etc.  Easier to download source files and bring them in manually due to these inconsistencies IMHO

 

Please report each case where you see crashes and/or problem, we're actively trying to make the software more stable and reports like this are valuable.

 

22 hours ago, jeff prince said:

Unfortunately, due to all of the previous interactions with Vectorworks and the unresolved issues linked in my signature as an example, I no longer have the time or interest in chasing these solutions.


I'm sorry to hear that, and I understand your pain. I can assure that we're striving to improve the software, and you can imagine there are many ways it can be improved. There are many people with many wishes about many areas of Vectorworks, and they are all important. We are doing our best to log and generalize the wishes and then to prioritize them all in order for the engineering to focus on.

 

So, please don't give up. We do appreciate user input, especially if it a well thought out and described workflow that needs to be added or improved. This helps us understand, prioritize, and eventually implement it.

 

Regards,

Vlado

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35 minutes ago, Vlado said:

Hi @jeff prince,

 

 

Please report each case where you see crashes and/or problem, we're actively trying to make the software more stable and reports like this are valuable.

 


I'm sorry to hear that, and I understand your pain. I can assure that we're striving to improve the software, and you can imagine there are many ways it can be improved. There are many people with many wishes about many areas of Vectorworks, and they are all important. We are doing our best to log and generalize the wishes and then to prioritize them all in order for the engineering to focus on.

 

So, please don't give up. We do appreciate user input, especially if it a well thought out and described workflow that needs to be added or improved. This helps us understand, prioritize, and eventually implement it.

 

Regards,

Vlado

 

I appreciate what people like you are doing and your positive attitude.  I just hope the company facilitates your success before it is too late.  I have suggested the notion of Vectorworks forming industry committees partnered with professionals more than a few times here on the forum.  I think this would help development efforts significantly.

I encourage you to check out those threads I linked above, there are a lot of discussion points to be gleaned there.

 

Additionally, the ability to collect, process, and use 3D point clouds, OBJ models, and Geotiffs of very large outdoor areas is now within the realm of sole practitioners and small offices.  I do this myself and there are many drone and scanning services in my area that I can hire if I don't have time to do it.  This is really revolutionary in my opinion and should be addressed with simple workflows to make use of the data, not online GIS services.  Your competition has excellent tools and workflows in this regard.  If Vectorworks doesn't get on it, the software will continue to fall behind.  Sometimes it seems the company is more focused on its software industry partnerships rather than the practitioners who use their software.  Designing in a bubble is usually not a good things 🙂

 

Below are some of the conversations I have started here on the forum showing some of these processes.

Lots of stuff to be found in those threads as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 months later...
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hey @Mark Aceto 

 

the URL at which you can access the data is: https://cache.gis.lacounty.gov/

I used chrome dev tools to see where they make request to at this site.  It would depend on what you need, when you choose a service from there. I tried the 'Census_2020/CensusBlocks_City' and it showed something.

 

You can browse the services, and view them in a browser by appending to this url, so it looks like this:

https://cache.gis.lacounty.gov/cache/rest/services

 

Then you can browser around and see what you need. You can use the JavaViewer for quick look at the services. What you see there, would be available in Vectorworks too.

 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

@Mark Aceto well, i'm not really familiar with this server. I guess you can open the URL in a browser:

https://cache.gis.lacounty.gov/cache/rest/services

 

and look through it to see which one you will be interested. Vectorworks will be able to work with any service that is (MapServer). you can use the 'ArcGIS JavaScript' link in the browser when you open a service to look at it. 

 

Like for example this one:

https://cache.gis.lacounty.gov/cache/rest/services/LACounty_Cache/LACounty_Aerial_2006/MapServer


When you click on 'ArcGIS JavaScript' you will see the imagery that this service provides.

Vectorworks will be able to show this image too. And if this image is blank, it will be blank in Vectorworks too.

 

 

 

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
On 6/29/2021 at 8:47 AM, dutch Rene said:

Wen can we aspect the WFS in VW ?

Hi @dutch Rene, as I said it's at the top of our list, but it's too early to commit at this point. Check back later, more towards September.

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