VectorWorks 12 Architect Manual

I am just putting the finishing touches on the revised VectorWorks Architect manual for version 12. You may think that it’s just an update of the old manual, but no, the manual has been substantially re-written. The manual has a new structure and covers topics in the order that you would if you were drawing a 2 storey house renovation project on a sloping site:
• drawing the site
• site modelling
• drawing the house and checking against the site constraints
• creating the existing and proposed roofs and finding how the old and new intersect
• setting up the concept drawing that shows the existing building, proposed house, site plan, 2 elevations and a perspective.
• then there are notes on how to complete the working drawings (construction documents).

This manual will be added to my manual page shortly:

https://plus36.safe-order.net/archoncad/manuals/manuals.php

Happy New Year to you all

Well, the old year is over and a New Year begins. At this time of the year many people look at their achievements for the last year and plan what they want to achieve next year. A couple of years ago, I started to write down yearly goals. It a great feeling to meet and exceed the goals.

You should write down some goals that you want to achieve this year and look at them every week. On Friday, look at your goals and make some plans for the coming week to get closer to your goals.

VectorWorks 12 and Canon BJC5500

There seems to be a problem with printing from VectorWorks 12 to a Canon BJC5500. The only solution at the moment is to save your files as VectorWorks 11 format or print your files to PDF and then print them from Adobe Acrobat to the BJC5500... NNA are aware of the issue and will work on a fix for this, but I don’t know when it will be fixed.

NNA have found a fix for this issue and have sent a patch to repair it. They put loads of effort into fixing the problem and produced the fix in a very short time

New Courses in Sydney

After a successful trip to Australia, I can tell you all that I am starting to organise VectorWorks courses in Sydney, Australia. With the help of the Australian Distributor, Julian Carr, I will be running Essential VectorWorks courses and VectorWorks Architect courses, starting in February 2006. When the courses are organised they will be shown on my web site...

http://www.archoncad.co.nz/courses/courses.php

VectorWorks 12 Manual Available

I have just finished my new Essential VectorWorks 12 manual. This manual is more than just an update of my version 11 manual. I have completely re-written huge chunks of the manual and changed the structure of the manual to make the manual easier to use, and to explain the VectorWorks concepts better.

Training in Wellington

For those of you in Wellington that need a beginners course, there is a course this week, starting on Wednesday. If you are interested call Jonathan 021 743 470

New VW12 Movies

NNA have posted new VectorWorks 12 feature movies. These movies are a great way to see some of the new features of version 12


VectorWorks Architect http://www.nemetschek.net/architect/demos.php

VectorWorks Landmark http://www.nemetschek.net/landmark/demos.php

VectorWorks Spotlight http://www.nemetschek.net/spotlight/demos.php

VectorWorks Machine Design http://www.nemetschek.net/machinedesign/demos.php


and thank you to NNA for featuring my bracing worksheet in the worksheet movie.

How To Get Better at VectorWorks

If you are just starting with VectorWorks you might be wondering how to get better, how long will it be until you understand this new program. The answer lies in Perseverance... You have to keep working on VectorWorks everyday and you will get it.

For some people using VectorWorks is the first time that they have drawn with a computer. Do you remember how long it took you to learn to draw the first time? This is no different. You are learning a new way to draw, so you need to learn a new way to think about drawing. Keep at it!

If you want to use the RSS feed: feed://archoncad....

If you want to use the RSS feed:

feed://archoncad.blogspot.com/atom.xml

VectorWorks 12 Press Release

to see the complete press release about the VectorWorks 12...http://www.nemetschek.net/news/pressreleases/2005/101205.php

New VectorWorks Available

Nemetschek North America announced today the release of its VectorWorks product line, complete with a variety of new features and substantial product improvements allowing users to work faster and smarter than ever before. The company is pleased to reveal its newest offerings: VectorWorks Fundamentals, VectorWorks Architect, VectorWorks Landmark, VectorWorks Spotlight, VectorWorks Machine Design, VectorWorks Designer, and RenderWorks.

New Reshape tool for VectorWorks

A long time VectorWorks user has written a Plug-in that you can buy to improve reshaping. Check it out at :

http://www.siriussolutions.biz/

What Are Preferences?

Preferences in VectorWorks are user choices that can change the way that VectorWorks appears to work, can change the way that drawings appear and can control some of the keyboard shortcuts.There are two sorts of Preferences in VectorWorks, VectorWorks Preferences that affect all the files and Document Preferences that control settings specific to a file. To find preferences, go to the Menu Bar and choose:

File > Preferences > VectorWorks Preferences..., or
File > Preferences > Document Preferences...

There are several preferences to choose from and the choices depend on your way of drawing. So try out different preferences and see which ones suit you.

Tips : The Right Mouse click...

I have been teaching a lot lately and one of the issues that I’ve noticed is how much faster you can draw if you add frequently used commands to the right-mouse click (ctrl-click if you only have one button).

One of the commands I use a lot is Add Surface. I used to have a keyboard shortcut for this, but that means taking your hand off the mouse. I added this command to the right-mouse using the Workspace Editor. Now when I want to use Add Surface, I can right-mouse click and choose Add Surface straight away.

Up-Comming Courses

We now have two course organised in Wellington in November. The first course in a VectorWorks Essentials course which will be in early November, followed two weeks later by an Advanced Architect course.

For More details check out the Courses page on the archoncad web site:
http://www.archoncad.co.nz/courses/courses.php
choose the month and click on the Submit button

How Far Can You Go With VectorWorks Rendering

If you are wondering how far you can go with renderings from VectorWorks have a look at last month’s MacGuide magazine. In this issue I show you how to take 2 animations from VectorWorks, and make them into one movie with a sound track and voice over...

In the next article I will be showing how to get this movie into iDVD to name a DVD presentation for you clients.

Wellington Training Available

Jonathan will be in Wellington 4th and 5th of October 2006 for training. If you need training please contact Jonathan (021 743 470) as soon as possible as spaces are filling fast

VectorWorks User Group Meeting in Auckland

The next User Group Meeting in Auckland will be Tuesday 11th October 2005 from 6:30pm to 8pm. At the last user gorup meeting we were missing the log-in codes for the computers, so no-one could use the computers. The feedback was that this was one of the better user group meetings and we should have more like this one. In the future we will try to have more meetings in lecture rooms, rather than the CAD lab.

This user group meeting will cover Constraints, Preferences and Questions and answers...

VectorWorks User Group Meeting in Wellington

The next user group meeting in Wellington will be Tuesday 4th October at 6:00-7:30pm Faculty of Architecture and Design, Room 3.22 (Vivian Street). We will continue the new format with 60min on constraints and preferences and 30min of questions and answers.

Central South Island Trip

The dates are now firming up my South Island trip to Queenstown, Wanaka and Cromwell. I will be in these towns on September 26/27/28/29. Spaces are filling fast, so if you need training call me quiickly so that you are not disappointed.

Getting Started

Hi,
i have heard a lot about blogs and I thought that it would be good to start one to let everyone know what was going on in NZ with VectorWorks.