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2020 Design Summit Thoughts


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There is a lot of very technical language around 11:10 of Dr. Sarkar's presentation, in the Graphics Modernization section.   I was wondering what others thought of it. 

  • "In VW 2014 VGM was used for real time interactive 3d"
  • "In the following years VGM was expanded to include wireframe and 2d, plan and sheet layers"
  • "When coupled with now non-blocking multicore drawing, we have significant speedup in interactive workflows"
  • "Multithreaded drawing frees up the user interface while high quality 2d rendering is being finished."
  • End goal is to make VGM independent from graphics technology. 
  • Metal as low level output while the VGM still talks to Open GL, which will result in immediate performance gains. 

Does this mean that sheet layer rendering will take place in the background independent of the user modeling interface?  If so that would be very useful. 

 

 

 

 

Edited by cberg
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1. 3D Structural Grid.. YES!

2. Materials - sounds good in demo vid and concept, but will wait for release to believe it! Ha!

3. Type Legends - couldn't come soon enough.. but she did use a keyword "in the future", so maybe not next release..

Edited by twk
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Hi,

 

thanks for sharing, this.

 

What’s interesting is, that the features Rubin mentioned in her video,

aren‘t in this list, no

- 3D-grid

- materials

- custom wall components (is it different to stacked wall components?)

 

does this mean, the list, shows only the longtime planned new features

and not the features for version 2021?

 

So, there are more things in the pipeline, as mentioned, i think.

 

From a moderator of the german forum, i heard, that the push/pull tool gets

some love for 2021. long awaited, from me. and as you see in the analysis presentation

sheets in some of the design summit videos (not in the virtual keynote ones),

the push/pull tool is one of the most used tools.

 

for clarification (im not a native english speaker), can you please help me

to understand, whats meant in the list above with:

 

- renovation/phasing

does this mean, we can set objects to a state like: new, old, demolished

 

- smart elevation benchmark

something like a smart height kote?

 

- integrated finishes

finishes for what?

 

- unit plan objects

have no idea what kind of objects are meant

 

hope you can help me.

 

greetings from germany and stay healthy

tobi

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19 minutes ago, Tobias Kern said:

- renovation/phasing

does this mean, we can set objects to a state like: new, old, demolished

 

- smart elevation benchmark

something like a smart height kote?

 

- integrated finishes

finishes for what?

 

Hi,

 

From a german user to a german user:

 

Renovation/ phasing -> Exactly what you wrote. I am very curious how it is implemented. As far as I know no cad/bim software has managed to handle it well. Renovations are some of the most difficult projects to properly organize in Vectorworks.

 

Smart elevation benchmark -> Höhenkoten in german. That's something that should've been available since ages. Curious though if it will be able to have them in floorplan-view as well as in sections. In Germany it's very common to have elevation benchmarks in floorplans. AFAIK it's not used in the US.

 

integrated finishes -> Refers to "Ausbauflächen". The space tool is very limited atm regarding wallpapers, plaster, tiles, etc. Rooms can have a complex collection of all these things. This one if very high on my wish list.

 

Regards,

 

elepp

 

 

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I wonder if Unit Plans means having say, apartment 'types' in an Apartment complex project.

Maybe a mix between symbol functionality and viewport functionalities? Think 'Plugin Styles' but for floor plans?

Who knows, the terminology is very vague.

 

The renovation phasing feature in Archicad seems promising though.

 

Edited by twk
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For me a necessary function is that i can assign phases also to components. Lots of times we might want to remove the cladding and insulation but not the structural part. A simple database attached to the whole wall will not cut it. If they plan on developing this functionality, it needs to be done right and not with the least amount of effort necessary.

 

Regarding the unit plan object @twk mentions. That would be an absoulte game changer for us. We do a lot of residential projects and the floorplans of the apartments are very similar. We try to solve it with symbols, but their limitation in regards to refernce heights etc. makes the process very cumbersome. Some kind of mix between Symbol and PIO would be great.

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Hi,

 

i think the integrated finishes can/could come hand in hand with

the mentioned new materials.

 

Having materials as a separate option for structuring, additional to classes,

can give us al lot of new possibilities.

 

I think an object, and by that I mean any object, not just the parametric ones,

can have a lot of different states/data, all of which should be independently

controllable for further use (display/not display, cost analysis, tables, export, ...)

 

- Visual representation (2D/3D = classes atm)

- What the Objekt consists of (concrete, wood, ... = new materials)

- Other Data (Costs, how it is accounted for: length, area, volume, ...)

- Location (inside, outside, ...)

- Data for statics (bearing, not bearing)

- Phase (existing, new, old, demolished)

 

… here should be a clever control menu for this, like classes are nowadays.

 

I have created a lot of databases for some of the above status/data,

but controlling all of this is not very practical yet (have not yet found

a good way until today).

 

But 2021 comes dockable menus, which is very welcome, because

you can show data and object infos simultaneously.

 

Greetings

Tobi

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7 minutes ago, Tobias Kern said:

But 2021 comes dockable menus, which is very welcome, because

you can show data and object infos simultaneously.

What bothers me about the way it has been working and seems to be working in the next release, is the two tabs for information. I have the object tab for information and the data tab. So i have two spots where i can put in my door/window data. In my opinion there should be only one tab for that and you structure the information in that tab as you see fit.

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Guest Wes Gardner

Hi All,

 

I would like to try to clarify what was shown in some of the videos. If I misconstrue something, I apologize.

 

Here are some items that I believe have a very good chance of being included - 

Grids - this will be a HUGE improvement

Materials - improved handling of materials and data for quantity take-offs

 

Here are some items that are still being considered for development but may have been mentioned - (they probably will not make the cut for the next release)

 

Legends - these are used for window types, door leaf types, door frame types, etc.

Stacked Wall Components - although this has been a long time wish, these will not be included in the next release

Renovation/Phasing - this remains "as is" using classes/layers to toggle the correct info on/off

Unit Plan - I'll clarify what's often meant by "unit plan" here in the States -

 

UNIT PLAN

A commonly used design element in mid and high rise buildings is the concept of the “unit plan.”  For example, in an apartment building, there may be a mix of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments(flats).  However, the individual apartment design for, let’s say, a two bedroom “unit” will be the same, repeated several times per floor and repeated again on subsequent floors.

 

In Vectorworks, symbol technology is often used for the creation of the unit plan.  The primary reason to use a symbol is to expedite change management – any change to a particular unit type's symbol will be reflected in all of the subsequent instances of that type.  Thus, saving a tremendous amount of time as well as maintaining a high level of accuracy.

 

Additionally, if you consider a symbol to be like a container or vault, then all elements within any “instance” of that symbol are, in essence, clones or copies of the original repeated as many times as required throughout the building design.  However, when applied to the “unit plan” concept, several issues arise.  Some design elements like Door Numbers and Space Numbers will be contained and repeated via the symbol but will not remain discreet.

 

Wes

 

 

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I very much appreciate that the folks at Vectorworks have provided a window into their design process. The knowledge that Vectorworks' software development roadmap includes much-needed changes brings with it a measure of hope about the viability of the software moving forward. Legends, Improved Wall Components (which better integrate 3D geometry), Renovation Phasing, and Unit Plans, are critical features for Vectorworks to compete in the BIM marketplace.

 

That said, the Design Summit Videos probably needed clearer disclaimer language communicating that the ideas presented were prototypes or conceptual. Seeing these features in action led a lot of folks to believe that they were ready for the next release.  If everything on the big list got incorporated, VW 2021 would be a revolutionary product.

 

As designers, I think we all know that design is a messy, iterative process.  Once ideas are generated, a ton of work has to happen for them to be implemented successfully. I personally would prefer new features to be introduced only when they are ready. 

 

Although if you need beta testers....  Keep us in mind.  🙂

 

Edited by cberg
grammar tweaks
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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

I think that is one thing accidentally lost in the change from a live Summit to this year's individual collection of video presentations. It was easier this year to look at a few frames in a collection of videos and for both speaker and listener to gloss over a phrase of "in the future" in any of them.  Versus the usual Design Summit with more time allocated to a single "roadmap" session, where each speaker had a longer introduction and the whole is set in its context. 

 

We're always excited to share these details with you and see how our planning is received, and it was just as important to do a different kind of "first" and find some way to bring this to you with all the other crazy that's going on in the world today. Thank you all for the feedback that you like what we're trying to do.

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8 hours ago, Wes Gardner said:

  Some design elements like Door Numbers and Space Numbers will be contained and repeated via the symbol but will not remain discreet.

Not to mention walls within symbols sometimes getting confused with elevation level. 😉

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11 hours ago, Wes Gardner said:

Here are some items that I believe have a very good chance of being included - 

Grids - this will be a HUGE improvement

Materials - improved handling of materials and data for quantity take-offs

 

+3000!

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