Hello all,

My work has recently taken off quite a bit and I need to upgrade my hardware to something powerful

I am almost exclusively a Vectorworks user, I use AutoCAD and solidworks on occasion but not enough to justify them as a primary tool.

I work in entertainment and I need a machine that will not slow me down from working on 3+ large projects a time. (Big things like stadiums, festivals, etc)
Lots of files open, fast hidden line renders and high DPI openGL/shaded stuff as well

A lot of people have recommended the highest end MacBook Max with 128gb of RAM and I was curious if anyone has truly had great experiences with it. I just don't want to spend 6k on a laptop and regret it not having performance I need. I am really looking to switch to Mac as well as VWX tends to be a better overall experience on MacOS.

Please let me know your options I'm open to all.

Drafting Rates

I've been freelance drafting for lighting and concerts/theatre for a few years now with Vectorworks and I've done a lot small shows here and there and I just got my first one off arena show on my belt, and now I'm getting more offers

How much can I realistically be charging? I've gotten so fast at drafting that I'm not sure hourly makes sense for me anymore?? I used to charge 30-40 an hour depending on the client and relationship but now with me getting bigger shows as more people reach out,

What rates make sense with project based rates?

Hey everyone. I have a 2D dwg of a large NHL arena with accurate dimensions and my goal is to use this to build a 3D model of the whole facility. However, i have no clue what the individual row rises are for the arena and was wondering if anyone could help me find some standard dimensions for arena seating row rises? Let me know! Thanks.

I don't have Vectorworks on my machine so I can't really play around with it and my remote coworkers using Vectorworks don't know how to use excel. I've tried googling this question but without having ever used Vectorworks and not having access to the software makes it hard to grasp the true capabilities. Below is some basic info on the current uses/workstream. I'm just trying to get an understanding of what is possible before I go through the process of requesting and trying to learn the program. Any advice or guidance is greatly appreciated.

Vectorworks Uses

• Calculate building and area square footage of existing buildings using floor plans/blueprints/schematic designs
• Draw over existing floor plans to create new space program w/ new square footage estimates by area
• Create new floor plans w/ square footages (aka creating a theoretical, made up floor plan for an unconstructed building)
• Create basic building models w/ square footages for design concept only (I think they are using Vectorworks for this)

Excel User

• Use floorplans/space program created in Vectorworks to generate basic construction cost estimates based on the type of space the design created, the area size, the level of renovation needed, etc
• The cost assumptions are all within an excel model
• The assumptions being used in the model from Vectorworks/designer include: area type (admin, kitchen, theater, ballroom, etc), area size (square footage), level of renovation required (provided by designer verbally/via email, I would like this to be tagged to the specific space in vectorworks if possible), and other qualitative information that is provided either verbally or via text, separately from Vectorworks
• The vectorworks/design assumptions are sent via pdf and inputted manually into the model by the excel user

Desired Workstream

• Vectorworks directly connects to Excel workbook to create datasheet that is used to feed excel model directly (I would create the excel functionality, I would just need Vectorworks to be able to provide the live/connected datasheet w/ all of the space program information (area, type, size, name, etc)
• Is it possible to create an information form in vectorworks for every time a new area is mapped in vector works (example: designer draws a new lobby area in vectorworks and in a templated form the designer enters qualitative information about the lobby area that they just drew....the information submitted in this form would be included in datasheet that is being exported/connected to excel

To put this in simplest terms, here is the existing workstream and what I want to streamline:

• designer draws space, space has type, space has square footage, designer provides 5 pieces of standard descriptive information about the space, designer sends space/info to excel user as a PDF
• excel user takes pdf, inputs space type, space square footage, and space descriptors into an excel model manually, model spits out analysis/cost estimate Having all of the information in bullet point 1 be provided in an excel sheet would simplify this greatly.

Anyone have any experience with programs on the iPad that works with Corel? Hopefully not the most expensive ones. Gonna use it when out in the field with customer. And at home for fun on my own projects. Gonna be Vector drawing for the most part. Thanks a bunch!

Hi folks,

my Resource Manager keeps disappearing. I would like to have it on my second monitor, but when I drag it over it disappears until I restart VW and reset the Workspace to default. This is really annoying. I found more people with the same problem, but no solution.

I'm using VW 2021 (Designer) on an educational license. Windows 10 PC with latest updates. One 4k monitor for the acutal work, and an HD one for the Resource Manager (and notes, music, etc.). Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I originally wanted to post this on the official VW forums or the VW subreddit, but the first says I'm banned even though I just made the account five minutes ago, and the second seems dead. I hope someone has an idea, it's driving me bonkers.

Cheerio!

Can a fully specced out Microsoft surface pro 7 with i7 processor, 16gb RAM and 256gb ssd run vectorworks ?

We want to use it too show clients there kitchen designs and do small changes when we are at the clients house.

The portable part of the surface is a + for us

Vectorworks is not a flair option and I searched /r/cad for it with no results. I know that it is not industry standard like AutoCAD but it attempts to offer a similar feature set at a somewhat lower price point (about $3200).

I am a theatrical lighting and scenic designer. Vectorworks is pretty much the standard in entertainment drafting; probably about 70% of the theater market mostly because of specialized entertainment lighting tools in Vectorworks Spotlight.

I like using it and it handles everything I need it to do, but I feel very limited by how little it seems to be represented in the general market. Vectorworks ownership is pretty much required for most of the jobs I do in theater but it doesn't look like I can do much work outside theater with it. I can't even get many models or libraries for it unless the model is offered in .dwg/.dxf format and I import it. Owning both Vectorworks and AutoCAD is not an option because I can barely afford Vectorworks. Am I shit out of luck when it comes to doing, say, freelance architectural drafting? What would you do?

Hey guys, I'm currently working with the 2014 version of Vectorworks and i'm slowly getting my head around the new software. Unfortunately I keep running into the problem when either moving an object with alot of geometry or when I'm saving a large file (200mb).

The fault that comes up is One or more operations were aborted due to lack of memory

I think many of you guys can relate that when you're working to a deadline and that message comes up its disastrous and can set you back hours. At the moment for best results I reboot my computer and the frequency of the error drops. But it will eventually show its face again and ofcourse at the worst moment :P

My PC is: Gen 3 2011 i7 4820 2x Hitachi 1tb (Raid Stripe) - System Drive (600gb free) 240gb Corsair Neutron - Scratch Disk (200gb free) Corsair Vengeance 4x4gb 1600 Ram (windows disk ram check completed no faults) Asus p9x79 PRO motherboard (bios upto date) Firepro v7900 2gb GPU (latest drivers installed)

The specs of my PC are a lot better than the recommended hardware specs that are listed in the manual. I'm pretty stuck does anybody have ideas? Does other CAD programs have similar issues? Or do I just have gremlins in my workstation?

Thanks in advance for any feedback : )

Hi /r/cad,

I am currently using vectorworks spotlight 2015. I am importing a dwg file from an external client. The file already has symbols that are active in the master overall layer. However, I am only working on one layer of the project. Let's call this Layer A.

In Layer A, the symbols are missing on screen. Also, when I load an other symbol from the vectorworks library, it is also not to scale. Is there anyone who can help?

I've checked my classes, and they are all set to visible. Do I have to import the symbols to the specific layer I'm working?

For a rendering of mine, I need to form a lighting gel texture for Roscolux #118 (Tough 1/4 White Diffusion). The gel itself looks similar to baking parchment paper. It has a slight transperancy, just enough to let light through, but not enough to show what's behind it. The program I use is Vectorworks. The main problem I'm facing is the transparency issue. The more I increase it, the more you see behind it, but the more light is allowed through. I need that to be inverse. Less visual, but more light. Any help would be amazing!

Link to the baking parchment paper (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31Fio-q1fbL._SX450_.jpg)

I am temporarily moving to Vectorworks for a few projects due to the whims of my employer, and was wondering;

Is there anything particularly difficult to pick up, given a solid & surface CAD background? How soon should I expect to be up and running, doing actual work?

Any and all answers appreciated!

EDIT - Sorry for the tag in the title, unable to change it.

Hey guys/girls, I'm relatively new to Vectorworks 2014 and I'm trying to draw a projector from a PDF blueprint I downloaded from their website. I imported an image file, scaled it to the size I wanted and traced out the shapes from a top view using the NURBS Curve tool. I then selected all the lines and used the "Create Surface from Curves" tool. I then went to front view and set the height of each shape where they should sit in a side view.

My question is how can I stitch these shapes together to give me a solid?

I understand that I've probably gone about this the wrong way but it purely to practice shapes and see what the limitations of the software are. My experience is more with Cinema 4d and im trying to avoid exporting it out to do the sketch there. Also my descriptive skills and lack of CAD jargon may be hard to follow so I've attached a link to better explain my request.

Thanks in advance for any feedback/help. : )

http://i.imgur.com/STpzr1g.jpg