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.