Over the past 20 years of using Vectorworks and related 3D packages I am coming to certain opinions and approaches that I believe to be central to what we teach. The buzzwords here are Efficiency and Workflow and happen to tie in to the message that Nemetschek have been putting out with their new version of Vectorworks.
Let me expand on some of these themes.
We all strive towards efficiency, as resources are limited and we want to make the most of all our resources. Also (I speak from the heart here!) I am lazy and therefore have a hatred of doing a job the long way when a short way can be found!
There are three keys to efficiency when it comes to software.
One is knowing all the tools well enough to be able to choose the right tools for the job in hand. This is a bit like a London Cabbie knowing all the possible routes to take you from A to B and therefore getting you there as quickly as possible even if there is a jam somewhere!
The second is to do with choosing the right software that will give you these tools and upgrading to the latest version if it gives you more efficiency.
I believe that some of the tools in Vectorworks 2009 will pay for the upgrade by speeding up the things we do every minute that we use the program. Things like selection, zooming, snapping and accurate input.
The other is to do with workflow.
This is more of a Macro approach to the job at hand and involves the assembly of a variety of tools and techniques to make the overall task as efficient as possible. This is much like a factory putting together an assembly line where one part of the job links efficiently to the next one and so on.
In design software, unlike the production line, editing takes up far more time than the initial creation and so anything that speeds up the editing and maybe builds in automation of the editing process makes the overall task more efficient.
So in essence, if efficiency initially involves knowing all the tools then workflow involves knowing all the techniques or at least setting up a set of tools and techniques that makes the whole design and drawing as efficient as possible.
Vectorworks 2008 and 2009 has given you features deep within the program to streamline the workflow and allow you to Share resources amongst the whole practice or just among a smaller workgroup. Do you know how to set these up and use them?
One major topic within the umbrella of workflow, which is my particular soapbox topic at the moment, deserves a paragraph all of its own — 3D…
You may have known that there was such a thing as 3D before Sketchup appeared on the horizon!! Sketchup has however brought 3D into everyone’s vista and made them sit up and take note. There is one practice that I supply who are now all using Sketchup from the 20 something year olds to the 60 year olds and most of them without formal training!
3D in Sketchup is definitely great for presenting ideas and a great intro to 3D modeling. You might think that I am about to speak heresy here but stay with me. Sketchup has the best user interface of any 3D program out there, something that I am wholeheartedly in favour of. The one problem with it (and also its strength) is its simplicity. All you are left with when you have built your model is a cluster of 3D polygons. And pretty much all you can do with these polygons is make pretty pictures. Not much wrong with that I hear you say. Right, but how much more could you do. Having made your model in Sketchup you then get on with production drawings which is effectively starting all over again, this time in 3D.
What if, instead of doing your model then doing your draughting, the model could produce the bare bones of the draughting. What if your elevations, plans and sections were created from your 3D model (hear me out - I know there are objections in the wings there) and furthermore (and this is what I call workflow) when you change your model then all your elevations, plans and sections update. That’s what I call the holy grail of CAD.
But ‘Holy Grail’s are the unattainable! And that is just what this is - unattainable! If anyone offers a Cad program that wants you to create everything in 3d to create 2d drawings just reject it, it’s unattainable. However a mixture of 3D combined with 2D for details, that are not necessary in 3D, is very definitely attainable. I have several clients who have been doing this for years and 2 of them entirely self-taught until I came along.
So what I propose as possible and desirable most of the time now is a combination of 3D for the building shell - walls, doors, roofs, windows, floor staircases - and 2D overlaid on top of plans, elevations or sections that have been derived from the basic 3D model.
For some of my clients like set designers, exhibition designers and woodworkers they are able to do 90% in 3D; for others like the Architects maybe less.
The result is a model that can be used for visual production together with Artlantis or Cinema 4D or even using Renderworks as well as for the outline for plans, elevations and sections.
I believe in training!
I believe that training saves you time, money and frustration!
If my training doesn’t save you then ask for your money back but do try it out.
Training will make you efficient by teaching you all the worthwhile tools and also new workflows, including ways of collaborating with people inside and outside your organisation to avoid the repetition of work.
We are now offering training in 3 ways:
Course titles move the trainees on from a 2D foundation through to using Advanced 2D/3D tools in the Architect or Landmark courses through to a full-on 3D course and then Rendering.
These are all one day courses.
Should you upgrade then?
Well based on my blog the answer should relate to efficiency and workflow, including the issue of whether it does 2D/3D integration any better. In the case of 3D rendering programs: does it produce the visual any quicker?
Improves your efficiency by changing some of the tools and techniques that everyone uses every minute of their vectorworks lives such as the snap loupe, pre-selection highlighting, tool highlighting and snapping in general. These areas alone would be reason enough to upgrade. Assuming I use Vectorworks 4 hours a day for 40 weeks of the year and someone pays me £40 per hr and then the upgrade makes me 2% more efficient (which I guarantee it can)
Do the sums with me. Total cost of me =4x5x40x40 = £32000 and 2% efficiency gain would give me a saving of £640 with an upgrade cost of around £240.
It makes sense.
This argument also holds even better for training!
Upgrading here would be as much for making a rendering look better as much as for speed and both of the latest versions of these programs will do both.
Artlantis R2 is both fast and more importantly beautiful, using radiosity to give an accurate rendition of the site as well as having an excellent sky shader, easy import of props such as people, cars, trees etc.
Cinema 4D 11 gives phenominal speed increases that give a better radiosity solution than that of Artlantis but with a cost of more complexity. For those in the know they have incorporated technology similar to that of Vray into the heart of Cinema making it fast, artifact free and beautiful.
We are still waiting!!