Vectorworks Design Summit Day 3

This was the final day, so it was filled with the closing address by Adrian McGregor and the peek into the future of Vectorworks 2016 by Dr. Biplab Sarkar. This is the first time ever that Vectorworks have told anyone what the future of Vectorworks will look like. Usually, we only find out what new features will be in Vectorworks when they release the new version (which for the last few years has been in mid-September).

The main new features in Vectorworks 2016 are:

Project Sharing

Energy Analysis

Point Cloud Support

Subdivision Modeling

These features show a major advance for Vectorworks. Project Sharing is something that uses have been requesting for many years. We have been able to use Workgroup Referencing (and you still will), but Project Sharing will keep all the model data in one file. The Project Administrator will be able to control privileges, uses can check out layers, and the system has been designed to reduce the network traffic. Energy Analysis is becoming a big issue and the way that this has been implemented will allow users to create energy certificates to various standards using the Building Information Model in Vectorworks. I have had clients asking about Point Cloud data for a couple of years. In the past the problem has been the shere volume of data. The demo file presented had 27 million data points, but it was fast and responsive. This is going to be a major benefit when working on existing buildings, especially historic buildings. Subdivision modelling is a new ability in several modeling programs and Vectorworks has licensed the same abilities as the others (from Pixar, the animated movie people). The speed of modelling is amazing.

After being so busy for the two days, I was finally able to meet the people in the exhibit hall and spend time with some of the people I had met. The exhibit hall was interesting, and I had a long chat with Bluebeam. Bluebeam is a PDF document management system that is used on projects to collect comments, punch lists, and revisions. It has been designed to allow you to keep the annotations from one drawing issue to the next. For large projects this must be a fantastic product. Have a look at the Bluebeam website.

After the morning keynote it was time for my book signing. I originally thought the idea of a book signing was a joke, but I was really humbled by the number of people that wanted to talk to me and get their books signed. I met some great people and some wanted me to write special messages. I was more that happy to accommodate these requests. Overall, I think it was a success, we sold a lot of manuals and made a lot of people happy. Making people happy was the best part.