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What’s New At Vectorworks

Ellen Lampert-Greaux September 12th, 2008

On Friday, September 12, Vectorworks hosted a press day in Baltimore, which included a keynote by CEO of Nemetschek North America Sean Flaherty, and a whirlwind presentation of the various aspects of the products by Mike Pacylowski, president of ProBuilt Home Solutions, an end-user who used to work for the company and a whiz at showing off all the elements. After lunch the group divided, with the four press folks interested in Spotlight for lighting designers ushered to a presentation by scenic/lighting designer Gregg Hilmar, who took Spotlight through its paces and demonstrated a few of the new elements for 2009.

I have Vectorwork’s director of training, Frank Brault, to answer a few questions:

Frank, what is the big news that will be announced on Monday?

Well, I have to say that the big news is that we have a hot new engine running under the hood!

We have partnered with Parasolid to give us huge improvements in our 3D and rendering capabilities.

What does that actually mean for Vectorworks users?

So, it means faster render times, for instance, up to four to five times in 3D, that trickles down to all the 2D worlds as well. This is a real innovation.

In the popular lighting product, Spotlight, what are the big changes in Vectorworks 2009?

The changes include an updated and expanded fixture libraries, automatic Lightwright communication (without import/export of data), the create plot and model view feature integrates boom positions into the hybrid design enviroment, automatic universe numbering, and on the scenic side of things, more realistic texture mapping to make textures line up correctly around corners.

What about users who have Vectorworks 2008, or earlier. How do they upgrade?

All of the information will be on our website (www.vectorworks.net) as of Monday, September 15, and you can stop by and see us at LDI in Las Vegas in October.

Frank, you will be teaching at LDI, correct?

That’s right, and I’ll be training with the new features of Vectorworks 2009 at that point.

3 Comments to “What’s New At Vectorworks”

Vector Jess Says:

September 13th, 2008 at 1:00 pm

Hi Ellen, What a delight it was to meet you over these last couple of days in Baltimore. In particular, I very much enjoyed my time at the reception where I was able to sit with the Spotlight crew. A lively bunch, you are!

Hey, there’s a picture of you and Guy Smith on our posted Flickr pics. We have yet to edit, title and tag them (and will do so in the next week or so), but I thought you’d enjoy seeing this. The two of you look intensely involved in a conversation. (No surprises there!)

http://is.gd/2zyn

I hope you had a safe trip back to NY.

Jessie

PS - Welcome to Twitter. I’m at http://twitter.com/VectorWorks.
Frank Brault Says:

September 16th, 2008 at 1:42 pm

Hey Ellen, it was great to hook up with you at the press event. I never would have guessed that you would have picked the rollout over PLASA! Just kidding, but I enjoyed blogging with you.

I forgot to tell you about the enhanced number instrument command that we were able to get in this release. So now you can number channels, dimmers and other fields simultaneously. Just click on my name to check it out on the website. Tons of other new stuff under the other tabs at the top as well!

See you in vegas…
Vector TD Says:

September 28th, 2008 at 11:39 am

Ellen,

It was great to finally meet you in person…and now I can follow your blog…and stay up-to-date with the latest and greatest.

Looking forward to LDI.

Vector TD