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Vectorworks 2016

Editorial Type: Technology Focus     Date: 09-2015    Views: 2997      






The latest release of Vectorworks debuts some useful (and fun!) new features, writes David Chadwick.

Now that Vectorworks 2016 is here, I was keen to see exactly features made it through from the promising revelations made earlier in the year. Were these just aspirations, or were they based on the results of some impressive background development? Well, I’m happy to say that most of what I had written about has indeed seen the light of day in the new release, making Vectorworks 2016 a substantial hike upwards from the last version in terms of features, capability - and fun!

The feature that excites me the most in the latest release is aptly called Marionette. That's the Python based scripting tool that Vectorworks claims will play a significant role in design workflows of the future. With 3D scanning becoming more affordable and available, Vectorworks has beefed up its support for point clouds, a vital tool for as-built capture of complex, old and inaccessible structures.

Energos, a sustainability tool, provides Vectorworks with the means to ensure their buildings are environmental standards compliant. Plus, of course, a number of other new tools and enhancements to improve design capabilities, model specific components and enhance workflows.

MARIONETTE
If you can create a logical set of algorithms, or flowchart, you can create an unlimited series of designs that react to any criteria that can be expressed within a formula. You can create a building with two floors, the lower ceiling 10% higher than the upper, a pitched roof, and 50% glazing on one wall, positioned to catch the maximum amount of sunlight. You can do it because each element of the algorithm depends on a mathematical calculation, or on bringing in data from elsewhere - i.e. the geophysical location of the building and sun studies, and adding it to the script.

Script is right, as the Vectorworks Python scripting tool allows users to programme well beyond the confines of traditional design software. Marionette uses the Vectorworks 2D interface and 3D modelling capabilities to give designers the flexibility to explore designs previously considered impossible, or extremely complex. Another advantage of creating algorithms to automate designs is that any part of the algorithm can be modified to produce another outcome, or instead to create a looping algorithm with incremental elements to explore a whole range of 'what if' scenarios.

POINT CLOUDS
Now that 3D scanning tools are more widely available and cheaper, they are being used more extensively to create 3D representations of buildings and other structures that can be imported into design software and used as a starting point for extending the design. The principal is the same for old buildings, complex process plant with undocumented additions, inaccessible structures and even modern constructions to check whether the as-built structure matches the architectural model.

The massive point clouds, which may contain many millions of points of 3D data, can be used to create workable 3D models by manipulating and measuring the recognisable features within the point cloud - after importing them into Vectorworks using a number of formats: PTS, E57, LAB and XYZ.

ENERGOS
Although Vectorworks has always allowed architects to include energy related data alongside other information within their models and the objects they have created, such as slabs, walls, doors, etc., the latest release provides a new module, Energos, which uses that data to provide a colour-coded assessment of a building's energy performance. As you work on your design you can dip into the module, and use the Energos fields with any Vectorworks tool to see how a building’s performance credentials are coming along, checking it against a variety of standards, including Passivhaus, whose model it is based on.

Architects can now assess a building’s energy credentials throughout the design process, and before they have to be submitted to Building Control.



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