Vectorworks CEO, Dr. Biplab Sarkar, discusses the company’s response to the industry impacts from COVID-19 and the launch of the first virtual Vectorworks Design Summit. He highlights Service Pack 3’s improvements to Spotlight 2020, and the exciting new features promised for 2021.
California was the first U.S. state to order a lockdown to deter the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The stay-at-home protocols were launched a month before the 2020 Vectorworks Design Summit was to be held at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in San Diego, CA from April 22 to April 24. The entertainment design and technology industry slammed to a halt with events postponed or cancelled worldwide, and the Design Summit was no exception. Vectorworks has responded to the impacts the novel coronavirus has had on the industry and its professionals in a helpful manner: adjusting license agreements, eliminating reinstatement penalty fees, offering free training, and launching the first-ever virtual Vectorworks Design Summit on April 23.
“Our employees have done well the last seven weeks that we have been working from home,” notes Vectorworks CEO, Dr. Biplab Sarkar. “Everyone has adjusted well, and we have regular video conferences to check in with each other. However, business, of course, has slowed down.”
With many businesses suffering, some of Vectorworks’ entertainment customers are unable to afford the renewal of their Vectorworks Service Select, a yearly maintenance program which provides cloud services, premier tech support, access to special content, and an upgrade to the latest version of the software at 22% of the cost of the full perpetual software license. “We have extended our payment terms for 90 days to give customers more flexibility,” explains Dr. Sarkar. “For the customers who must cancel, we are waiving the cancelled contract reinstatement fee for when they rejoin Service Select in 2021. We feel this is the best thing to do for our customers. In the meantime, they can still access Vectorworks software, which is separate from the Service Select maintenance program.”
Vectorworks has adjusted its business strategy in more ways than one to accommodate its customers during this unprecedented time. If a customer’s license can only be activated through a server, which they are having difficulty accessing in the current stay-at-home environment, Vectorworks grants them a temporary license for their home device. For those interested in investing in a license, but not in a position to purchase the full perpetual license, “Vectorworks is offering 30-day and 1-year subscription licenses, available in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and a number of Asian countries, and to be rolled out across Europe by the end of July,” says Dr. Sarkar. After Europe, Vectorworks will look to add additional countries in Asia and South America next. In addition to these licensing adjustments, Vectorworks has thrown open the doors of Vectorworks University, a centralized e-learning platform featuring “over 200 pieces of content and at least 32 hours of training videos for Spotlight alone,” he adds with a tone of pride—now all available for free.
Also accessible for free are the on-demand videos of the 2020 virtual Vectorworks Design Summit featured presenters, including a keynote from Dr. Sarkar on the latest features of Spotlight 2020 and the improvements planned for 2021. Brandon Eckstorm, Vectorworks product marketing manager, also gave a presentation specifically on 3D workflows in Spotlight. View these and more on the Summit website, and stay tuned for more breakout sessions as they get added over the coming weeks. To date, over 1,300 people have watched the keynote, so far exceeding the number that would have been able to see it in San Diego given the hotel capacity restrictions.
In his keynote, Dr. Sarkar stated, “Vectorworks continues to work with Deersoft on Braceworks, PRG on Spotlight symbol content, and MA Lighting and Robe Lighting on GDTF and MVR formats.” He also announced various new partnerships, including Redshift by Maxon, to include the rendering software in Spotlight 2021; Epic Games, to deliver a Twinmotion plugin for Vectorworks; and Unreal Studio, to offer new interactive solutions. These partnerships aid Vectorworks’ continued quest to streamline 3D workflows and enhance rendering capabilities.
Scheduled to launch in September 2020, Spotlight 2021 will allow for less clicks and more productivity. A new search option will allow users to find a tool quickly, without ever moving their mouse. Users will also be able to separate the tabs within the Object Info, Navigation, and Visualization palettes, enabling them to have all tabs available on the same screen, all at once if they so desire. Perhaps the niftiest feature of all is the upcoming OnDemand Menu. “In the future, Vectorworks will collect a user’s actions and then process them through an AI layer that will predict a user’s next move,” explains Dr. Sarkar. “After you’ve used it for a month and the data has been collected, all your frequently used tools will be available at your fingertips in the OnDemand Menu.”
Vectorworks 2020 Service Pack 3 (SP3), launched mid-March, focused on improving overall quality and performance. “This is something on which we worked very hard,” comments Dr. Sarkar. “People are, naturally, not happy if the product is slow or crashing. So SP3 addresses 90% of the feedback we received on Vectorworks 2020. It offers much more stability, and we are very happy with that.”
Schematic views and lighting devices were re-engineered in SP3. Speed improved significantly with enhancements to Schematic Views, as well as the display of 2D label legends and how views are updated with model changes. Snapping and attaching loads to rigging objects in 3D have been optimized, and the graphic generation of lighting fixtures when using specific commands has been enhanced.
In SP3, Vectorworks introduced additional partner integrations with Enscape, a provider of real-time rendering and Virtual Reality (VR) solutions. Enscape provided a free beta plugin to all Windows users, delivering a suite of Enscape rendering tools inside Vectorworks, which can control the visualization in Enscape.
Perhaps the most exciting feature of SP3 for Spotlight users is the vast improvement of workflows when using General Device Type Format (GDTF) data. GDTF files can now be directly imported into Spotlight, applied to any Vectorworks lighting device, and managed directly from the Resource Manager. These lighting devices can then be sent to any previz or console that supports GDTF, including Vision which will now recognize GDTF files when using the MVR Import. These improvements create a fully connected workflow between Vectorworks Spotlight, Vision, and consoles that support these open file formats. Learn more about the MVR and GDTF updates in this video.
Despite the challenges of the current global environment, Vectorworks encourages its customers to share their comments and questions to help Vectorworks make continued adjustments and improvements to its products and its customer relations. Spotlight 2021 promises to stay true to that mission.