List of VectorWorks 9 new features
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001
From: Deirdre Kidd <deirdre@NEMETSCHEK.NET>
VectorWorks and RenderWorks 9 Now Available
Nemetschek North America Previews VectorWorks 9 Industry Series
Columbia, Maryland (March 12, 2001)-- Nemetschek North America today announced the release of VectorWorks 9, the newest version of its flagship CAD product, and RenderWorks 9, an updated version of its photo-realistic plug-in. The result of two years of development, VectorWorks 9 solidifies its reputation as the value leader in the CAD marketplace. VectorWorks also serves as the foundation technology for the upcoming 9 Industry Series, a line of standalone CAD programs engineered to address the specific needs of professional AEC, landscape, and entertainment designers
Richard Diehl, Nemetschek North America CEO, stated, "We have put in an enormous amount of time and effort in making VectorWorks 9 the most stable, accurate and user-friendly version yet. Our dedication to providing our users with top-quality products is steadfast and is unequivocally evident in this latest version of VectorWorks."
Some of the more notable changes in VectorWorks 9 include:
-Improvements to the core CAD engine make version 9 more stable and accurate (now supports a 64-bit floating point coordinate system)
-Scores of interface enhancements streamline routine drafting and modeling tasks
-DXF & DWG Import/Export commands now support AutoCAD 2000i
-Enhanced support for text, including a Spelling Checker and Find/Replace commands
-Powerful new 3D technology, including support for NURBS and Extrude-along-a-Path command
-New and improved printing technology
-Revolutionary new dimensioning technology and support for Associated Dimensioning
-Advances to VectorScripttm for easier tool and command customization
-Support for OpenGL on both Mac and Windows
-A truly native Windows interface supporting Tool Bar Docking and other Windows conventions.
As the add-on product for VectorWorks and the Industry Series, RenderWorks 9 delivers new tools, better control and flexibility in addition to highly customizable shader texture components. Users can create an infinite range of materials, colors and textures and RenderWorks 9 is twice as fast as the previous version. Examples of RenderWorks 9 advanced functionalities include: Color, Reflectivity, Transparency and Bump shader components; NURBS; enhanced rendering with LightWorks capabilities; and VRML Import and Export.
Diehl continued, "Rock-solid VectorWorks CAD technology, coupled with RenderWorks superb rendering capabilities, gives ARCHITECT 9, SPOTLIGHT 9 and LANDMARK 9 a significant advantage over their competitors. We are delighted to finally realize our goal of offering a series of custom CAD solutions created to address the specific needs of designers in a number of industries."
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001
From: John Williams <jodawi@NEMETSCHEK.NET>
Subject: Re: AC 2000i support
>> Here's a question for you guys at NNA, VW9 states that it now supports
>> DWG/DXF import and export through version 2000i, but does that include
>> solids? Or do you still have to go through the 3D studio export/import in
>> AC before importing to VW to get solids to come in? And do VW solids
>> translate better? As something more that just the faces?
answer :
> These have not changed.
Here are some things that have changed:
- Layer links export as blocks
- Views export as you see them rather than always being top view
- Layers with different scales can be rescaled to look the same in AutoCAD
- Now support versions 2.5 through 2000 for both import and export (2000 is the same file format as 2000i)
- Lineweights exported to and imported from 2000 files.
- More dynamic and informative dialogs
- Units popup menu in the import dialog with all the units defined by version 2000
- Export and import of units to version 2000
- Improved dash handling on export and import, including automatic dash scaling on import to avoid very small or very large dashes
- "All 2D" import option
- mtext (multiline styled text) export
- Font export
- More convenient scale setting on import, including suggesting "nice" scales like 1:50 instead of 1:47.345423
- Paper space comes in at its own scale and on its own layer (or class)
- Record format info and linked symbol text exports as block attributes (also applies to other things that export as blocks, like plug-in objects and groups)
- Improved import of block attributes as linked symbol text
- Import of leaders
- Import of arc-aligned text (as regular text tangent to the arc)
- Improved progress palette
- Import of proxy objects (created by some programs like Architectural Desktop)
- Improved "ByLayer" export for classes, and improved export when using layer colors (including setting some things to "ByBlock" so things will be more familiar to AutoCAD users and behave as they expect)
- Improved stability and error handling in low memory situations
- Import of 3D splines as NURBS curves instead of as segmented 3D polys
- Many bug fixes.