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Like all good software companies, Nemetschek Vectorworks has a large and active feedback group, sending in suggestions for the future direction of the software. Every year about a 100 or so good new ideas are put forward, with quite a few of them making it into one or other of the next couple of releases. The suggestions put forward are not necessarily unique or singularly inventive, but are tools that users would like to have access to within their favourite application.

As a taster, at the end of the Vectorworks Design Summit in Philadelphia, the software developer's CTO Dr. Biplab Sarkar outlined some of the suggestions that have been accepted and developed, and which are now ready to be released to the Vectorworks community of users.

VISUAL SCRIPTING
The first of these is Visual Scripting, to be made available as an integrated module inside Vectorworks Design Series products with the rather interesting name - Marionette. This is a brand new rapid computational system that can be used to explore design variations. In appearance it looks like a hand drawn flow chart - and that's exactly how you lay it out, linking nodes together, each of which has an algorithm, or logic statement, associated with it. If you are building a multi-storey building, for instance, one of the nodes would relate to the height of each storey - which can be changed on the fly to try out design variations. These are the building blocks of the process.

Nodes are assembled within a separate toolbox, and can be dragged and dropped to create the flow chart. It can all get quite complex, though, as architects can use logic to introduce an element of randomness to the flow chart, or path extensions can be modified on the fly to create individual shapes that would be difficult to design otherwise. Visual Scripting, therefore, extends the boundaries of an architect's creativity. So, to help simplify what could develop into a complex maze of workflows and interactions, sequences of nodes that cover complete operations can be condensed into a single node on the flow chart.

The network of nodes is then converted into a geometrical model, using Vectorworks Python API that defines path based parametric objects, co-ordinates and actions. Objects created (rectangles, parallel lines, etc.) along the underlying path can be subsequently edited in Vectorworks using reshape and other editing tools. For example, when creating a free-form tiered building by using Marionette, the underlying surface can also be edited at any time using the reshape tools and the building will be regenerated accordingly using the intelligence of the Marionette node network. It might take some experimentation to get the most out of, but Visual Scripting is a very interesting addition to the Vectorworks stable.

ENERGY ANALYSIS
Building performance has been notably lacking from previous versions of Vectorworks software, which has always aimed to provide a complete solution for architects from terrain development right through to rendering, landscaping and visualisation. No development can be undertaken these days, though, without incorporating energy use calculations into the design - and these, for effectiveness, have to be available as early as possible in the design process.

Hence the introduction of energy analysis, or Energos, as another module, essential for anyone aiming for Net Zero building design. Users can work on lowering the carbon footprints of buildings with Energos, which uses Passivhaus calculations and methods to provide a building's energy performance figures. Energos can create reports for compliance checks against Passivhaus, BREEAM, Minergie, LEED, Ashrae, etc., providing a simple tool for calculating energy use in a building.

Energos covers all components, materials and elements within a structure - doors and window types - and it includes ventilation and heating systems.

The analysis looks at the overall design using typical spaces within the structure to produce performance figures, and architects can play around with different layouts, materials, heating system performance ratings and so on, to achieve an optimum solution. At the end of the analysis the software comes up with the buildings environmental classification.

The architect as environmental engineer? Not quite, as Energos doesn't include the necessary CFD and other tools that enable a detailed environmental study of a structure to be made, but uses the data already available within the model to perform a satisfactory survey and confirm that the right steps have been taken to maximise a buildings environmental credentials.

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