2021 - Teaser Tuesday: Collaboration Improvements Make Us Better Together

[Jeff Prince]

@Tom Klaber LOL.

I switched to a mac after 20+ years on dos/windows.  The only regret has been certain photogrammetry softwares not being available on the Mac, but that is largely a hobby workflow for me.  I think it's good to shake things up and change softwares on occasion, get's you thinking about stuff in different ways.

[SamIWas]

Dear god, please make this work with FileMaker. That would be worth the cost of the program alone for me. 
 

Well, maybe worth $1000. 
 

please please please

[line-weight]

On 9/2/2020 at 4:59 PM, Mark Aceto said:

 

VW users: we're not upgrading because there are no new tools!

 

VW: there are ton of new things we haven't announced yet in these 4 Trigger Tuesdays

 

 

How many users are actually saying that though?

 

I think that most users are frustrated not by a lack of new tools, but the ever increasing number of old (core functionality) tools that have had major problems for years, and don't get fixed.

 

I've not upgraded since vw2018, because each year I see evidence of some new things that might be nice, but no evidence of the things that repeatedly cost me time and productivity being addressed. The new things wouldn't really improve my productivity enough to offset the cost of the upgrade. Yet, there are a few things which, if they could be fixed, would massively affect my productivity. Then I'd happily pay for the upgrade - they'd pay for themselves in a few weeks.

 

What's particularly frustrating is that this forum is full of people who are willing to spend quite a lot of their own time identifying problems and suggesting and discussing improvements. And a lot of the time I get the feeling this resource is just ignored. Even the number of threads where someone writes out a detailed account of a problem, and there's no response from anyone at VW at all. Even if someone were just to say, thanks, we've looked at this and are aware of it, and we're doing something about it. Which is kind of what JimW used to do. For some reason the VW management have decided not to appoint anyone to fill JimW's shoes. They don't seem to get it.

 

There are now things where previously I might have written up a thread here, in a constructive spirit, that I can't be bothered any more because it just seems like a waste of time.

 

Most people, by definition, who contribute to these forums, are designers by profession. They understand that fixes are not often easy, they understand that there will be many complexities beneath the surface that make a seemingly simple problem difficult to solve. The way to avoid the pitchforks is to engage with users. The comments about 'roadmaps' are right - most people will be pretty tolerant of issues if they feel that something is happening in the background, that we'll get there eventually.

 

One of the most baffling things to me is the situation with the door/window tools - we know there are plugins available in certain countries that are better than the stock tools. We don't know why these things can't be provided to all users. Unless I've missed something, I've never seen anyone from VW explain why this bizarre situation exists. So the conclusion many people will go away with is that they just aren't that bothered. Maybe they just don't realise that most architects spend quite a lot of time fiddling around with doors and windows (and stairs) and not that much time exporting excel spreadsheets?

[Jeff Prince]

@line-weight well said.

 

The recent stacked wall thread is an excellent example of withering on the vine.

[Matt Panzer]

2 hours ago, line-weight said:

On 9/2/2020 at 11:59 AM, Mark Aceto said:

 

VW users: we're not upgrading because there are no new tools!

 

VW: there are ton of new things we haven't announced yet in these 4 Trigger Tuesdays

 

 

How many users are actually saying that though?

 

It seems to me that there's close to an equal number of users are on both sides of that fence.  I think a number of those users actually stand on both sides. 😉 

 

Quote

I think that most users are frustrated not by a lack of new tools, but the ever increasing number of old (core functionality) tools that have had major problems for years, and don't get fixed.

 

I've not upgraded since vw2018, because each year I see evidence of some new things that might be nice, but no evidence of the things that repeatedly cost me time and productivity being addressed. The new things wouldn't really improve my productivity enough to offset the cost of the upgrade. Yet, there are a few things which, if they could be fixed, would massively affect my productivity. Then I'd happily pay for the upgrade - they'd pay for themselves in a few weeks.

 

What's particularly frustrating is that this forum is full of people who are willing to spend quite a lot of their own time identifying problems and suggesting and discussing improvements. And a lot of the time I get the feeling this resource is just ignored. Even the number of threads where someone writes out a detailed account of a problem, and there's no response from anyone at VW at all. Even if someone were just to say, thanks, we've looked at this and are aware of it, and we're doing something about it. Which is kind of what JimW used to do. For some reason the VW management have decided not to appoint anyone to fill JimW's shoes. They don't seem to get it.

 

There are now things where previously I might have written up a thread here, in a constructive spirit, that I can't be bothered any more because it just seems like a waste of time.

 

Many of us do monitor these forums daily, take note of issues discussed here, and often do reply back.  I would say this isn't the case with this thread because many of the comments were unwarranted for this topic and oftentimes replying back can easily fuel the fire.  The purpose of this Teaser Tuesday topic was to simply give you a sneak peek at a new feature that's coming in Vectorworks 2022.  While this feature may not benefit you, it is very welcome to some.  Teaser Tuesdays are supposed to be a light spirited way to show a few things coming in the new version.  They are purposely vague to generate discussion and excitement. Each teaser is typically from a different area of the software so they don't always appeal to everyone.  We always welcome constructive feedback and do pay attention to it.  However, judging the software before it's even out of the gate is not constructive and should be done in the appropriate forum.

 

Quote

Most people, by definition, who contribute to these forums, are designers by profession. They understand that fixes are not often easy, they understand that there will be many complexities beneath the surface that make a seemingly simple problem difficult to solve. The way to avoid the pitchforks is to engage with users. The comments about 'roadmaps' are right - most people will be pretty tolerant of issues if they feel that something is happening in the background, that we'll get there eventually.

 

I do get the frustrations about not seeing improvements in certain areas and agree that more information about what we're actively working on would be good.  For now, our Design Summit presentations are the best indicator of this.

[cberg]

8 minutes ago, Matt Panzer said:

simply give you a sneak peek at a new feature that's coming in Vectorworks 2022.

 

I would LOVE to see what's in store for VW 2022.  :-).  (Just giving you a hard time.) 

 

Looking forward to VW2021 as well.  I very much appreciate the dialogue with the VW team. 

 

Cheers!  C. 

Edited September 15, 2020 by cberg

[DBrown]

5 hours ago, line-weight said:

One of the most baffling things to me is the situation with the door/window tools - we know there are plugins available in certain countries that are better than the stock tools. We don't know why these things can't be provided to all users. Unless I've missed something, I've never seen anyone from VW explain why this bizarre situation exists. So the conclusion many people will go away with is that they just aren't that bothered. Maybe they just don't realise that most architects spend quite a lot of time fiddling around with doors and windows (and stairs) and not that much time exporting excel spreadsheets?

I'm also baffled with, it seems that the other distributors found the tools are short on options and created their own seeing that Vectorworks is not willing/caring to improve the doors and windows, and worst, no even trying to get those toosl for the rest of the user base...

Just see this post, it resume the Door / Window situation

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by DBrown

[E|FA]

7 hours ago, line-weight said:

One of the most baffling things to me is the situation with the door/window tools - we know there are plugins available in certain countries that are better than the stock tools. We don't know why these things can't be provided to all users. Unless I've missed something, I've never seen anyone from VW explain why this bizarre situation exists.

I agree.  I have always assumed it's about the cost of buying externally developed tools.  It seems like a shortsighted decision, especially for tools with a long track record like Windoor.  Perhaps the developers are unwilling to sell?  Any VW employees want to explain?

[JMR]

7 hours ago, line-weight said:

One of the most baffling things to me is the situation with the door/window tools - we know there are plugins available in certain countries that are better than the stock tools

This. For an architect, doors and windows are THE most important plug-in tools! Not some silly photographs-to-choppy-3d-geometry tool, while maybe a fun curiosity. Yeah I can model a star shaped window if I like but that's not a productive and easily adjustable workflow. My buildings have hundreds of windows. I just need to get enough of the geometry right with the stock tool, which currently creates weird solid sills like I have never seen anywhere in real life... 🙄

 

[Mark Aceto]

8 hours ago, line-weight said:

I've not upgraded since vw2018, because each year I see evidence of some new things that might be nice, but no evidence of the things that repeatedly cost me time and productivity being addressed. The new things wouldn't really improve my productivity enough to offset the cost of the upgrade.

 

vw2019 is the Snow Leopard of VW.

 

It's also the first version to introduce multicore (albeit limited to 3-cores). If everyone on vw2018 (or earlier) upgraded to at least vw2019, tech support call volume and troubleshooting in the forums would be cut in half. Every version before vw2019 gave me "Command+S" PTSD, so that to this day, I still manually save every 10th keystroke.

[line-weight]

12 minutes ago, Mark Aceto said:

 

vw2019 is the Snow Leopard of VW.

 

It's also the first version to introduce multicore (albeit limited to 3-cores). If everyone on vw2018 (or earlier) upgraded to at least vw2019, tech support call volume and troubleshooting in the forums would be cut in half. Every version before vw2019 gave me "Command+S" PTSD, so that to this day, I still manually save every 10th keystroke.

 

I have used vw2019 a bit (doing some external work, on another company's license, but on the same machine) and 95% of the things that waste my time in vw2018 are still there. As I believe they are in 2020, and I'm expecting in 2021 too, but let's see.

[Mark Aceto]

5 hours ago, Matt Panzer said:

Teaser Tuesdays are supposed to be a light spirited way to show a few things coming in the new version.  They are purposely vague to generate discussion and excitement.

 

RESPECTFULLY, the Vectorworks team needs to "read the room."

 

Teasing hungry animals with "purposefully vague" 90sec videos a month before a release (that many of us paid for months ago with VSS) generates the same level of excitement as throwing chum into shark infested waters. Next year, I'll force myself to ignore these teasers to avoid feeling triggered, and taking the bait (huge waste of time and energy).

 

That said, I'm very much looking forward to the livestream next month, and a public roadmap ASAP.

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by Mark Aceto

[Mark Aceto]

9 minutes ago, line-weight said:

 

I have used vw2019 a bit (doing some external work, on another company's license, but on the same machine) and 95% of the things that waste my time in vw2018 are still there. As I believe they are in 2020, and I'm expecting in 2021 too, but let's see.

 

Are you using it on an 11-year old Mac running a 5-year old OS, or is your signature out of date? I've had no issues with vw2019 or vw2020 on any of my Macs running High Sierra / Mojave.

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by Mark Aceto

[Mark Aceto]

Vectorworks 2021 is out!

 

Sort of... almost. Or it will be soon: https://www.vectorworks.net/en-US/2021

 

"SERVICE SELECT & SUBSCRIPTION CUSTOMERS CAN ACCESS THE LATEST RELEASE TODAY"

 

Looks like they're in the final push to release this by EOD... 

[bpsabatier]

10 minutes ago, Mark Aceto said:

 

RESPECTFULLY, the Vectorworks team needs to "read the room."

 

Teasing hungry animals with "purposefully vague" 90sec videos a month before a release (that many of us paid for months ago with VSS) generates the same level of excitement as throwing chum into shark infested waters. Next year, I'll force myself to ignore these teasers to avoid feeling triggered, and taking the bait (huge waste of time and energy)

 

That said, I'm very much looking forward to the livestream next month, and a public roadmap ASAP.

 

 

 

Ha!  Read the room...  I feel the same about avoiding these teasers.  I seem to remember them in the past being longer than this year's samples, which gave us more to be excited about. The current format just brings out the worst in us....

 

These teasers, however, have done their job....My curiosity has been heightened by the lack of substance. When should we expect the new release?    Any ideas?

[Mark Aceto]

7 minutes ago, bpsabatier said:

When should we expect the new release?    Any ideas?

 

Today! See the post directly above yours for the link. Might be a few hours before the download is ready... 

[fabrica]

@Mark Aceto 

[Mark Aceto]

@fabrica thanks for the heads-up! Downloading... 

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by Mark Aceto

[Jeff Prince]

fanboys gonna fan 🙂

[Mark Aceto]

20 minutes ago, jeff prince said:

fanboys gonna fan 🙂

 

"Now, release your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me."

[Jeff Prince]

 

5 minutes ago, Mark Aceto said:

 

"Now, release your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me."

"Search your feelings, Lord Vader."

[Mark Aceto]

10 minutes ago, jeff prince said:

 

"Search your feelings, Lord Vader."

[line-weight]

On 9/15/2020 at 8:12 PM, Mark Aceto said:

 

Are you using it on an 11-year old Mac running a 5-year old OS, or is your signature out of date? I've had no issues with vw2019 or vw2020 on any of my Macs running High Sierra / Mojave.

 

 

It's not quite as bad as it looks as it's a heavily refurbed mac pro.

 

But the issues I'm talking about are not performance issues. I'm talking about core functionality and tools that don't work. These aren't anything to do with my machine or OS. I'm talking about the amount of time I have to spend modelling things like windows and stairs from scratch because the VW tools can't produce them properly. And a multitude of smaller things that would be useful if they worked, but they don't. They just don't work, and no-one is fixing them.

[Mark Aceto]

@line-weight Understood.

 

I'm reposting this here in case anyone missed it:

 

VECTORWORKS DESIGN DAY

https://www3.vectorworks.net/vectorworks-design-day-registration

 

"Join CEO Dr. Biplab Sarkar and the Vectorworks leadership team as they discuss innovations to version 2021 and share industry perspective in these changing times. With an exclusive live Q&A... "

 

Festivus is coming early this year.

[Tobias Kern]

hi Marc,

 

thnx for sharing.

 

Hope we can get the recorded show on youtube after the event.

i’m sadly not at home on this day and time.

 

greetings

tobi