More than incremental updates to windows, doors and stairs

[Christiaan]

In the Design Day Live Europe Q&A a question about future development of windows, doors and stairs was answered by way of pointing out that Vectorworks is always working on incremental updates to these tools and prioritising which updates to include.

 

Windows, doors and stairs are at the core of our experience, but these tools have been missing key features for many years.

 

Can we have a release where major updates to these tools—instead of incremental updates—are one of the biggest focuses of the release?

Edited October 13, 2020 by Christiaan

[line-weight]

haha, that was my question which the moderators reformatted into a more polite wording than what I sent!

 

Indeed, we need more than incremental updates.

 

To be fair, the answer seemed to imply that they do recognise that things need to be sorted here, and that this is coming (but how soon?)

 

Interestingly the answer also seemed to imply that it was tied in to a re-think of how these elements interact with walls.

 

I got the impression there's some level of re-engineering going on in the background. But we really need some more confidence that this is happening with some urgency.

Edited October 6, 2020 by line-weight

[Christiaan]

Ha, yes, I submitted my own but it didn't even make the cut. I agree with your analysis but I think urgency is still not winning the day. It seems to me that somebody at Vectorworks is still winning the argument that these tools can't be the priority.

 

P.S. remember to upvote.

Edited October 6, 2020 by Christiaan

[elepp]

I posted that question as well. Was not shown in the list. Two of my questions that were shown, were not answered.

[line-weight]

Are the going to repeat the Q&A session for the next two time zone repeats? May be interesting to see if similar questions are answered/asked there.

[_James]

Agree, needs a fundamental re-write/re-engineer. I know they have to put a positive spin on things but the 'incremental updates' made me chuckle a little. Some things got a very definite 'it will be ready for the next version' and I was sad to hear this doesn't seem to be the case for the window, door and stair tool. Not to be crass but it reminds me of the phrase "you can't polish a turd" and it seems that these incremental improvements are getting close to that. 

[_James]

I would also love for some VW employees to chime in here with what's planned for the tool, throughout the section of the talk I heard people were encouraged to take to the forum to chat in more detail with people from VW - it would be great to hear what's coming for these tools

[RGyori]

🙏👉++++++++!

[dtheory]

4 hours ago, Christiaan said:

Ha, yes, I submitted my own but it didn't even make the cut. I agree with your analysis but I think urgency is still not winning the day. It seems to me that somebody at Vectorworks is still winning the argument that these tools can't be the priority.

 

P.S. remember to upvote.

I submitted a similar question as well.. seems like they don't really want to address this in a public/live forum..

[line-weight]

In the bit of the intro speech/video, where they talk about how important it is to take feedback from users... there's a brief shot of the forums, scrolling past ... here's a screenshot. Note the wishlist item with four times as many votes as any of the others...

 

[Raja]

On 10/6/2020 at 9:27 AM, Christiaan said:

In the Design Day Live Europe Q&A a question about future development of windows, doors and stairs was answered by way of pointing out that Vectorworks is always working on incremental updates to these tools and prioritising which updates to include.

 

Windows, doors and stairs are at the core of our experience, but these tools have been missing key features for many years.

 

Can we have a release where major updates to these tools—instead of incremental updates—are one of the biggest focuses of the release?

Yes Please. Major updates really needed.

[rDesign]

I agree with all of the above (and have continually been upvoting this topic for years whenever it pops up again).

For Vw Engineering’s reference, here’s a link to a 2018 ‘Stair Tool - Pain Points’ thread started by previous Vw employee @PVA - Jim, almost all of the points of which are still needing to be addressed as of Vw2021. Thanks.

 

 

Edited October 12, 2020 by rDesign

[zoomer]

On 10/6/2020 at 3:27 PM, Christiaan said:

In the Design Day Live Europe Q&A a question about future development of windows, doors and stairs was answered by way of pointing out that Vectorworks is always working on incremental updates to these tools and prioritising which updates to include.

 

 

I watched all Q&A Videos.

As far as I understood, every single question for updates in specific regions

was answered by a Yes and high Priority.

That alone makes my a bit afraid if there are there any resources left for

issues I am interested of. There is quite a likeliness of getting retired before

seeing major significant improvements for any specific issue in general.

 

I really missed a : not yet, not at this moment, no that has no priority for us,

too little interest from majority of users, .... here and there.

 

Well, I think the most direct negation for a feature was provided by using

"incremental", for topics content in this Thread.

 

Hope I am wrong.

Edited October 12, 2020 by zoomer

[Christiaan]

On 10/6/2020 at 7:26 PM, dtheory said:

I submitted a similar question as well.. seems like they don't really want to address this in a public/live forum..

 

This is presumably because the person winning the argument that these tools should only get incremental updates is near the top of the food chain.

Edited October 13, 2020 by Christiaan

[_James]

@JuanP, @Matt Panzer, @Tamsin Slatter, @Nikolay Zhelyazkov 

 

as regular VW posters on here (or at least ones known to me) are you able to give anymore information on this?

[elepp]

The latest TRXL Podcast with guest Dane Stokes had a good remark about Revit that would also apply to Vectorworks. He mentioned that in the university they had to delete their projects and draw them from scratch again. The result were better designs, because the initial problems were solved. Autodesk should have deleted the old Revit code and written everything anew. Maybe the same should apply to Vectorworks. 🤔 It's basically the same issues plaguing us architects with our design. In Germany we say: "Hinterher ist man immer schlauer" or in English "Hindsight is always 20/20".

[Christiaan]

On 10/6/2020 at 4:45 PM, _James said:

Agree, needs a fundamental re-write/re-engineer.

 

3 hours ago, elepp said:

Autodesk should have deleted the old Revit code and written everything anew. Maybe the same should apply to Vectorworks.

 

Just to be clear, I'm reasonably happy with the way these tools work in principle (although I'd like more direct modelling) and I have absolutely no view on the code. The new wall mounted sliding door (Barn Door in VW parlance) implementation is great, for instance. I just want much more than a barn door in one release.

 

I'm not asking for a re-write/back to the drawing board scenario. I just want these tools finished off, in the sense that we can use them to model the windows, doors and stairs we put in our buildings. At the moment they're quite far off that point and they've been that way for years.

Edited October 13, 2020 by Christiaan

[line-weight]

Silence of the Jambs (PG)

In a story that spans the first few decades of the 21st century, an increasingly desperate architect seeks answers from his CAD supplier as to whether he'll ever be able to put an end to years of BIM carnage resulting from the dysfunctional insertion of doors, windows and other elements. Suspense builds throughout as he attempts to interpret cryptic clues, and questions remain unanswered. As time goes by, a looming sense of mortality weighs heavily as he wonders whether the truth will ever become clear. A slow-burning drama; the protagonist's internal battle between hope and ennui may not sustain interest for all audiences.

[JuanP]

3 hours ago, line-weight said:

Silence of the Jambs (PG)

 

@line-weightVery creative 🙂

 

I have been paying attention to the forums, it that just sometimes I don't have all the answers.
As I mentioned in previous posts and Biplab and Steve mentioned during the live Q&A at Design Day, we plan to release our roadmap of features and improvements for version 2022 before the end of the year and later on Q1-2021 one more that will include our 2 to 5 years roadmap. 
We have been collecting all your feedback, and we are aware of the importance of updating Windows, doors, and stairs. I will be providing more information as becomes available.

 

 

[elepp]

11 hours ago, JuanP said:

 

@line-weightVery creative 🙂

 

I have been paying attention to the forums, it that just sometimes I don't have all the answers.
As I mentioned in previous posts and Biplab and Steve mentioned during the live Q&A at Design Day, we plan to release our roadmap of features and improvements for version 2022 before the end of the year and later on Q1-2021 one more that will include our 2 to 5 years roadmap. 
We have been collecting all your feedback, and we are aware of the importance of updating Windows, doors, and stairs. I will be providing more information as becomes available.

 

 

Hi, thanks for the update. Very much appreciated. I can imagine that it can be a bit frustrating also for you guys at VW Inc. with us complaining in the forum. But at least for myself I can say that it comes from a place of appreciation for the work you all put in. Sometimes I have the feeling we are in a relationship with VW Inc. and we are considering if we should head for couple counseling.

[_c_]

On 10/13/2020 at 6:35 PM, line-weight said:

Silence of the Jambs (PG)

In a story that spans the first few decades of the 21st century, an increasingly desperate architect seeks answers from his CAD supplier as to whether he'll ever be able to put an end to years of BIM carnage resulting from the dysfunctional insertion of doors, windows and other elements. Suspense builds throughout as he attempts to interpret cryptic clues, and questions remain unanswered. As time goes by, a looming sense of mortality weighs heavily as he wonders whether the truth will ever become clear. A slow-burning drama; the protagonist's internal battle between hope and ennui may not sustain interest for all audiences.

 

How can I pin this one as my favourite post of the year?

[blimey]

I add my vote for this