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That, in a nutshell, is the essence of a Cloud-based service. A record of my documents, contacts, transactions and other vital information available at any time, and from anywhere. I don't have to worry about upgrading the application when some new features come along, and if I want to share any of it, I can do so with ease, as a comprehensive list of anyone whom I have ever contacted comes with it. And, although Gmail accounts are designed to be used by single users, you can set up user-managed groups to create shared mailboxes using the group's email address rather than their own or set up a CRM solution from the Enterprise Solutions Gallery.

VECTORWORKS CLOUD SERVICES
Workers in the construction industry, however, need a more sophisticated, or focused Cloud Service, either to handle the mass of construction-related documents and activities in a construction project, or to automate and improve the efficiency of the design process and workflows, and, very pertinently, to generate Building Information Modelling data from the desktop to the Cloud, including the generation of sections and elevations.

This includes the most compute- intensive processes, such as the creation of client presentations with detailed rendering - instead of leaving the desktop CPU to coordinate, monitor and wait for calculations to finish while its resources are being consumed.

As you would expect, changes made to a model using Vectorworks Cloud Services are automatically synchronised to private cloud storage.

VECTORWORKS NOMAD
A key feature, however, is the ability to view, mark up and share Vectorworks files across all of your devices, synchronising them and sharing them with colleagues, made possible with the use of Vectorworks Nomad. The mobile app lets iOS or iPad users view all exported sheet layers through the iOS device, create mark-ups using familiar Text, Freehand, Oval, Rectangle and Line Tools, take measurements and manage all interactions with the device using intuitive, common touch gestures.

Nomad users may find it difficult to use Snapping on the device. Snap point data is actually generated in the Vectorworks Cloud Services server, but the tool is only available for measurement tools in Nomad, and for Top/Plan views for 2D and 3D objects.

When you do access them, you will find that red snap points show all points within the magnifying glass area, with the closest snap point to the centre of the magnifying glass highlighted in blue. Measurements are calculated on the blue snapping point. Snapping is not, of course, available in all PDF files, as these could have been created with software tools that don't include snap point information. PDF files created by Vectorworks Cloud Services will, however, include snap points.

VECTORWORKS CLOUD SERVICES WEBSITE
All of this is available through the Vectorworks Cloud Services website, which allows users to view, organise and share documents using a web browser, and to email expiring hyperlinks of exported files to project partners. It comes with a new Vectorworks app - the Vectorworks Remote App that connects your mobile devices to your desktop, using a remote connection plug-in, enabling you to access and present your designs on the website from a remote site.

The Cloud Menu in Vectorworks software provides simple access to the cloud - files are simply dragged to the appropriate project folder in Cloud Services processing folder and all links are created automatically. Documents can also be published to your Cloud Services storage or linked via Dropbox in common formats, such as PDF, DWG/DXF, DWF and popular imaging formats. Once in the Cloud, PDF and VWX documents can be viewed from any locations using Nomad.

Vectorworks Cloud Services are available exclusively to Vectorworks Service Select members as a member benefit, and are accessed through the Vectorworks Cloud Services portal, or through the Vectorworks Services Select portal. You can find out what else is available through Vectorworks Services Select by visiting http://www.vectorworks.net/service-select/

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