Real VW for iPad OS, please 🙇🏽

[PenChiselCamera]

Some form of actual Vectorworks for iPad OS feels well overdue at this point.

 

The Nomad app is woeful. We need the ability to open, edit and create real VW files with full cross-platform compatibility.

 

Macs and iPads run on the same hardware, with most new iPads satisfying the minimum system requirements for Vectorworks. Plus iPad OS has had full cursor support for years.

 

iPads are great computers for site, meetings and travel. However the inability to access real VW project data greatly limits productivity when away from the office.

[Christiaan]

I would love to be able to take an iPad away with me instead of a laptop.

 

The use case really has grown now that Apple has increased the performance of iPads so much, as well as providing large displays (including plugging into larger displays) and support for things like a mouse and files. There's not much holding back a VW for iPad in terms of processing power or ergonomics these days.

 

However RAM is still a bottleneck (although iPad 15 now allows apps to request for RAM). App size is another limit, although it's been 4GB since 2015 (keep in mind Vectorworks has or had one of the largest code bases on Mac apparently). But, more importantly, as I understand it, VW uses a bunch of code libraries that simply aren't available for ARM processors yet. And of course the platforms team at VW has had their plate full for years now.

 

I wonder if Nomad capabilities could be increased over time but—if we're going to do this—like you, what I really want is a full-blown VW on iPadOS. At least now that iPad is nearing being capable of that. However, because of the above limitations, what we might see one day is a stripped down version of VW. Perhaps with capabilities added over many years to bring it up to par with the desktop version, as the code base is optimised, ARM libraries become available and the limitations Apple imposes are lifted.

Edited July 10, 2022 by Christiaan

[Jeff Prince]

Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Procreate convinced me to upgrade my iPad Pro.

 

Vectorworks convinced me to cancel my Service Select, cancel my Mac Studio order, purchase the last intel iMac, and stay on 2021 while keeping 2022 on the shelf.  Maybe sunnier days are ahead, but right now it’s pretty sad.

 

“The M1 system-on-a-chip (SoC) and the unified memory, GPU, and cores are exciting, and Vectorworks 2022 shines on this platform.” / Vectorworks CTO.  Not for those of us who run businesses that want to be profitable.

[Matt Overton]

On 7/10/2022 at 7:55 PM, Christiaan said:

I would love to be able to take an iPad away with me instead of a laptop.

 

The use case really has grown now that Apple has increased the performance of iPads so much, as well as providing large displays (including plugging into larger displays) and support for things like a mouse and files. There's not much holding back a VW for iPad in terms of processing power or ergonomics these days.

 

However RAM is still a bottleneck (although iPad 15 now allows apps to request for RAM). App size is another limit, although it's been 4GB since 2015 (keep in mind Vectorworks has or had one of the largest code bases on Mac apparently). But, more importantly, as I understand it, VW uses a bunch of code libraries that simply aren't available for ARM processors yet. And of course the platforms team at VW has had their plate full for years now.

 

I wonder if Nomad capabilities could be increased over time but—if we're going to do this—like you, what I really want is a full-blown VW on iPadOS. At least now that iPad is nearing being capable of that. However, because of the above limitations, what we might see one day is a stripped down version of VW. Perhaps with capabilities added over many years to bring it up to par with the desktop version, as the code base is optimised, ARM libraries become available and the limitations Apple imposes are lifted.

Word and Excel are both large installs on MacOS than a Vectorworks install. Scripting might be an issue but Python scripting in the confines of an App is acceptable under i/iPadOS. A focus on improving memory use would help Vectorworks users on all platforms. 

 

Plus if the iPad version is tied to service select some more memory intensive operations could be offlined to the cloud as long as produced content could be brought back in to file. How much of the app size is reduced if Renderworks is drop and only VWGraphics engine is only on the device (for now).

[Jeff Prince]

My new iPad Pro now has the fastest single core speed, and fairly impressive multicore speed, of any computer I use.

It would be nice if some form of Vectorworks could run on it.

[Christiaan]

13 hours ago, jeff prince said:

My new iPad Pro now has the fastest single core speed, and fairly impressive multicore speed, of any computer I use.

It would be nice if some form of Vectorworks could run on it.

 

What form of Vectorworks would you envision on iPad? And what problem(s) would that form of VW solve?

 

I would love full-blown Vectorworks on iPad, with mouse and keyboard, but the only problem that would be solving is being able to carry around a slightly smaller form factor than a MacBook.

[Jeff Prince]

2 hours ago, Christiaan said:

 

What form of Vectorworks would you envision on iPad? And what problem(s) would that form of VW solve?

 

 

 

[HEAT Architecture]

I would love a version of VW for the iPad. The iPad is designed for drawing, it is super responsive and more intuitive than my desktop/Wacom setup. I would totally love to be able to draw and revise drawings on the move - on site - travelling -on the sofa -  in bed!

 

This would require some serious rethinking of the VW interface, but to be honest - the VW interface hasn’t changed all that much since MiniCad. There are apps like Procreate, Sketches and Trace that offer an example. I suspect you would have to shift the whole of VW to a more modular interface - starting out with simple drawing tools and layer and class management, and progressively adding 3d, rendering, interactive objects,BIM (Things that many of us seldom use). The lower level modules could be designed to work on both an iPad and a desktop. (This system would help when you try and use VW on a laptop as well) The current division of basic VW/Architect is a bit arbitrary feels like it has just come about - it’s probably not how you would organise it if you started from scratch. There are parts that I use all the time and parts that I will never use and they are all mixed in together in quite an idiosyncratic way. There are parts of Vectorworks that have been very well developed and have the feeling of someone’s pet project (The framing tool?) and there are important parts that have just been sketched in and left at “good enough”. (I am looking at you door and window tool)

 

For good or ill VW feels pretty static -  like it accretes small improvements but never changes very much. I doubt there is the will to re-organise it to work on an iPad which is ultimately a shame as the reason that I came to it all those years ago is that it was a very elegant drawing tool.