Vectorworks Design Summit Day 2

Today was a very busy day for me. When I arranged to attend the Design Summit I suggested that they put me to work as much as possible. Well, they really worked me today.
I gave three presentations today:

• Creating and Managing Your Libraries (2x)
• BIM for Landscape

Creating and Managing Your Libraries is always such an important task. Your library is much more than just a template or a file with symbols. Vectorworks uses a concept called Default Content that it uses to store all your customised information. When you need it, it will appear in the most appropriate place. An example would be Hatches. If you store your default content correctly, you will not see the hatches until you need them. Then you will see all your hatches. If you add all your hatches to your template, they will always be a part of the file, even when you don’t want to see them.
In the first session I was really fortunate to have one of the Vectorworks guys present. That meant that I could confirm that all the information I have in my notes is correct. The only thing I need to add is the order of the default content when Vectorworks searches. The search order is User Folder, Application Folder, Workgroup Folder.
We had a small room for this first session and the room was about half full. For the second session we had the bigger 50 person room and it was overflowing.
You can download the notes for the session here…
BIM for Landscape should probably be renamed SIM (Site Information Modelling). By the time that I knew this, it was too late. It doesn’t matter what you call it, the principles are the same. Many people focus on the 2D parts of landscape design, when there is so much more that can be done. This session did not focus on the details, I tried to show the concepts of SIM and ensure that all the attendees understood the principles. We talked about site modelling and reasons for using it, site modifying, planting, landscape areas, hardscape areas, symbols and reporting.
This session was also in the bigger room. The room wasn’t overflowing for this session, but it was pretty full.
You can download the notes for the session here…
In the evening Vectorworks took us to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for a party. What a place for a party. They decorated the inside of the main hall and we were able to walk through the galleries and see the most amazing art. This is the building that they used for the demonstration of the Point Cloud technology coming in Vectorworks 2016. Thank you architosh for the image. If you haven’t visited the architosh website, please do. I met Anthony at one of the evening sessions and had a great conversation.