Would you like a trip to Bali?

At Vectorworks Training we are lucky enough to be visiting Bali next week, unfortunately not the beautiful Indonesian island but the British Association of Landscape Industries Landscaping Show in Warwickshire, which we are sure will be just as much fun but perhaps not nearly so sunny. Come and join us on the 21st and 22nd June on Stand T15.

On Tuesday 21 June, Tamsin will be drenching the show attendees with information regarding award winning sustainable garden design using the Rain Chain Garden by Wendy Allen. This innovative & topical design uses sustainable materials, a green roof and rain garden to absorb rainwater and help prevent flash floods caused by excess rainfall run-off.

On Wednesday 22 June, Tamsin will be tackling Sites, Surveys and Modelling with a little help from a West Country Restoration Project. Tamsin will feature this project in which the landscape is being restored to its 1720s glory to assist in bringing an imposing building back into its surroundings.

The presentations on both days will begin at 11am in Breakout Room 1 we hope that you will come and see us on the stand where we will be happy to answer any questions you have about Vectorworks.

Spotlight on Vectorworks at PLASA Focus

In the run up to Easter, we spent two days at PLASA Focus on Tuesday and Wednesday in Leeds. The two days started brightly as we were speaking in one of the seminar slots at 10:00 on the Tuesday morning. As you are probably aware, speaking to a group of people who want to find out about Vectorworks is something to look forward to. It’s a great feeling when the audience gets the message about 2D/3D design, integrated high quality rendering and the industry specific functionality built into Vectorworks – in this case Spotlight, with its streamlined event planning workflow and lighting specific design and reporting capabilities. Most of the people who attended the talk also came to our stand to talk further and I am sure that we will have more Vectorworks new users to train in the coming weeks. It is also re-assuring that when  we talk to people about Vectorworks Spotlight becoming the industry standard for entertainment design that they agree or make the statement before we have chance to! Certainly our work with some of the colleges such as RSAMD and Mountview will help reinforce this position.

Even the Box Hedging Wants Vectorworks!

Similarly when we exhibited at The Landscape Show and the Society of Garden Designers (SGD) Spring Conference the week before, that same sentiment came across for the landscape design and garden design industries.

So now it’s time to enjoy Easter and then to welcome on board our two new recruits, another architect to join the training team and a sales administrator to help Adrian and the team keep pace with the growth of the company and the demand for Vectorworks software and training.

We love Vectorworks!

Women and Work Awards – then back to the shows

Having trained a large number of people who came to us with support from Lantra (Land Training), we were delighted to be able to support the Lantra  “Women and Work” awards when it was held a couple of weeks ago. Furthermore, one of our own students Jasmine Bellinger, was one of the award winners and we are delighted for her.

Award Winner Jasmine Bellinger with Tamsin Slatter and Kate Pearson of Vectorworks Training

Since 2006, the Women and Work programme has worked with over 1212 companies in England to support 3,250 women develop their skills and progress their careers in industries where women are under-represented and we look forward to working with them further.

However, in the meantime we are entering a busy show schedule again. This week on Wednesday and Thursday we are at The Landscape Show, whilst on Saturday it is the Society of Garden Designers Spring Conference, finishing off (for the time being) with PLASA Focus in Leeds, an event aimed at those involved in Lighting and Design within the entertainment industry.

Whilst the events are hard work, we really enjoy them as they give us a chance to meet a lot of potential Vectorworks users, as well as allowing us to catch up with those who already use the product and have had training and software from us in the past.

Hence Easter, with a few days relaxation, will I am sure be extremely welcome!

Lots more to say – but it will have to wait for another day. In the meantime, hopefully we will meet you at one of the shows.

Vectorworks Training Vacancy – Architectural Trainer

The Vectorworks Training office building in Newbury, Berkshire

It’s been another mad week at Vectorworks Training, with much running around to train clients from different design displines. We’ve been working with landscape designers, and several interior designers, looking at building cabinetry and using the architectural tools to manage the addition of extensions to buildings. In all cases, our clients were desperate to move to 3D to make the most of the time savings this would ultimately offer in creation of sections and other detail drawings.

Due to the massive growth we’ve experienced in the past year we have a job vacancy for a new trainer to join our dynamic  team. If you have an in depth knowledge of Vectorworks or other Architectural CAD systems such as AutoCAD or Revit, and have “architectural leanings”, we’d love to hear from you! To find out more about the role, please visit www.vectorworks-training.co.uk

Vectorworks 2011 Tile Fills Available for FREE!

See, they are still smiling even though it's now all gone 3D!

It’s been another busy couple of weeks. Two more training days for the Society of Garden Designers, where those who started out terrified have now been introduced to the third dimension and discovered it’s really not that frightening after all. We’ve one more session left, in which we’ll be looking at rendering with Renderworks and adding lighting and shadows to our models.

I’ve spent more time with my Landscape Architect clients in the North East. I am so impressed with the way that they’ve grabbed Vectorworks and recognised it to be so much more than a drawing tool. They have put an enormous effort into replicating their very personal graphic style, which I’m delighted to say now includes my collection of Tile Fills.  We have also been designing more custom reports to pull quantity information from the designs to reduce the admin that usually accompanies the design process. A fully documented process is so much more than a drawing!

I had the pleasure of visiting another client (Justin Spink Ltd) where I was delighted to see that the processes I helped them design two years ago are still being used today albeit with some development. Again, my time with them was spent further developing their drawing setup processes and the creation of reports to assist them in reducing administration and potential errors in calculation. Having just upgraded to 2011 we were also able to look at some of the fantastic new features, including the Existing Tree tool and the Tile fills. Lovely stuff.

Vectorworks 2011 Tile Fill - Try making THAT with a hatch!

You may have noticed I’m quite keen on Tile fills for Vectorworks 2011! So much so, that I’ve made  a collection of them including some rather nice paving patterns. If anyone wants a copy of them, please contact us at support@vectorworks-training.co.uk and I’ll give you the link to download them. (You will need Vectorworks 2011.)

We’ve also introduced the students at the London College of Garden Design to Vectorworks and got them started on their exciting learning curve. Back this week to build their excitement levels even further!

Vectorworks Courses for Professional Bodies

Tamsin Slatter, at Sparsholt, a long time ago! (or is it her younger sister?)

Last week was one of focus in Landscape and Garden Design for us, taking me back to my “roots” at Sparsholt College Hampshire, where I originally trained as a Landscape Designer. We ran the first in a series of courses for the Society of Garden Designers – our Foundation course. A great start for those completely new to Vectorworks. The rest of the series of courses will take our designers through the process of using Vectorworks for landscape design, including 3D work and making the most of Renderworks for visualisations. For many designers, it was an introduction to a completely new way of working, but as experienced designers ourselves we are happily able to translate the terminology from one way of working to another. It was lovely to be back at Sparsholt where I spent happy years both as a student and a lecturer. I was back in the same drawing studio, which has gone all high tech, but still has the same reassuring (pleasant) smell of artists materials and I don’t really know what.

Our Foundation Course runs regularly and is an ideal introduction to the world of drawing in Vectorworks. Attended by designers from all walks of life, it is a stimulating day that includes a fantastic opportunity for networking – you may even find new business partnership opportunities!. Last week, we ran a public Foundation course (in addition to the SGD course) which was attended by Landscape Designers, Interior Designers, Architects and Event Planners.

Landscape Design continued to be our theme with our third course for our “Lantra Ladies.” The Landscape Trades Association has a mission to help to create a more even gender split within the world of horticulture and many have benefited from funding to enable them to enhance their professional skills. Vectorworks Training will be sponsors at LANTRA’s Awards Ceremony on 30th March!

We also managed to squeeze in some training for some commercial interior designers who were already working in 2D with Vectorworks but delighted by how easy it was going to be to draw, model and render in the same workspace.

The week ended with another trip to Newcastle to work with a Landscape Architect practice. They have put tremendous effort into customising Vectorworks (with a little help from yours truly!) to reproduce their own hand-drawn style, with stunning results. Despite loving the hand-drawn look, like many designers they realised that in order to work more efficiently with other professionals they needed to move to a CAD system. Vectorworks was chosen because of its ability to produce such graphically pleasing drawings all within one application. No need for further post-production work in other applications or maintaining two separate files as the project matures.

A fantastic, if exhausting, week. This week it’s more of the same…

2011 – Time to build on 2010

Incredible – 2011 is here and this last year, 2010,  in particular has gone particularly quickly. We have been fantastically busy all year, providing Vectorworks software and training to a myriad of designers from all walks of life. In fact, we only finally stopped the year at 7:00 pm on New Year’s Eve with a final flurry of activity and orders from people wanting to beat the VAT increase and looking to take advantage of Vectorworks Service Select.

RSAMD in Glasgow

On a personal note, the run up to Christmas was made a little more exciting, when I found myself almost trapped in Glasgow on a Friday night when Heathrow airport was suffering from snow and ice. Whilst Glasgow is not a bad place to be trapped, I had already spent three days training and wanted to get home as soon as I could. I had been training students and staff at RSAMD (Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) how to use Vectorworks for Production Design and Lighting Design. It’s a fantastic place and made me want to relive my youth!

But wanting to get home, I made a frantic taxi journey to the railway station just before midnight and managed to secure myself a place on the Glasgow-London sleeper, arriving home early the next morning.

So, as 2011 dawns, at Vectorworks Training we are looking at a January and February schedule which is already busy with a variety of 1:1 training sessions, college training sessions and our own group courses. Vectorworks itself continues to grow in popularity and many are looking at early 2011 downtime as the ideal opportunity to refresh their skills for a busy year ahead. This next week in particular sees us with 8 delegates (architects, interior designers, garden designers)  on our Foundation Course; a further 8 ladies on the Lantra Training Day; and 14 delegates from the Society of Garden Designers on the next – a busy week for all concerned!

Therefore, with 2011 strectching ahead of us, we wish all of our customers, suppliers and partners a happy and prosperous New Year.

Vectorworks 2011 wins Product of the Year!

Last night we were at The Tower Hotel in London attending the Construction Computing Awards for 2011. It was a  great evening that was topped off in brilliant style when Vectorworks was named as ”Product of The Year” for the release of 2011. There was certainly loud cheering from our table when the award  was announced and Jacqui Smith,

Tamsin with the coveted award - it's made of glass!

 Group Marketing Manager from Computers Unlimited, the UK distributor for Vectorworks, accepted the trophy.

Certainly, the feedback to the release of Vectorworks 2011 has been universal in its praise and with good reason. This award will undoubtedly mean that we will continue to be busy and see even more clients deciding that it is the the right time to make the move to Vectorworks 2011!

We were also fortunate to be at the Landscape Institute Awards last week where Vectorworks was sponsoring one of the award categories in the landscape design environment. Some impressive and innovative designs were honoured and it was really good to meet up with many friends and clients in the landscape architecture world.

That’s the end of the awards season for us, but it’s really fantastic to see the recognition of Vectorworks 2011, even if it meant that we didn’t get home until 2:20 am on a freezing cold night – worth every minute. Also, big thanks to Jacqui Smith for a wonderful evening.

Vectorworks 2011 in the Spotlight!

For the last few weeks, we’ve been overwhelmed by new Vectorworks users lapping up the delights of Vectorworks 2011. We’ve also been extending our range of courses to offer you the very best support in getting the most out of the new software, including the brand new Renderworks engine from CINEMA 4D and the new site modelling features.

The academic year has started in earnest, and we’ve started teaching  the eager students at Oxford College of Garden Design, now in their gorgeous new location at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. They are feeling the pressure already, and many of them are also trying to grow moustaches for Movember, alongside their studies. Tough call! Mine isn’t doing very well…

After Oxford, I spent a happy few days in the vibrant city of Glasgow, with my hosts The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. It was a wonderful place to be – full of an inspiring creative energy, and definitely a cool place to hang out! This time, it was Vectorworks Spotlight on the screens as I introduced students of costume and scenery design, lighting and production management to the delights of designing in 3D. I’m back there in a few weeks, for another couple of days with the same lovely people, but also running a course for BECTU on Vectorworks Spotlight.

Even the cover is new!

Other great news this week is that the third edition of my book Residential Garden Design with Vectorworks Landmark is finally available to order! It’s been re-written to incorporate as many as possible of the new features in Vectorworks Landmark 2011. The previous editions are now available (for 2010 and 2009) if you haven’t upgraded.

The rest of the month has been spent training in our office, but also doing a great deal of online training, either of completely new users or existing users who want a refresher or to delve into a particular subject in depth. It’s working well I hope.

For those of you who attended my recent webinar, with Eric Gilbey from Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc., I will happily make my small collection of plant image props available to those who want them. However, it would be even better if you sent me YOUR plant images so that I could convert them and then share them with everyone else who needs them. Will get this done asap…

Now for the 2011 Webinar

Since I last wrote about the release of Vectorworks 2011, we have been incredibly busy, culminating in last week’s round of presentations and exhibitions. We were presenting at Plasa the day of the release and last week followed that up with a roadshow taking in:

• Tuesday – Midlands BALI exhibition in Pershore
• Wednesday – London Vectorworks 2011 launch
•  Thursday – Vectorworks Annual Conference in Newbury
• Saturday – Society of Garden Designers Autumn Conference in London

We showed Vectorworks 2011 at all of the events and universally, everyone was impressed with the fantastic new developments that 2011 brings. In fact the tagline “Vectorworks 2011 Delivers” is true in so many ways. We also got the chance to meet up again with the Nemetschek guys in London, who are as passionate about Vectorworks as I am!

However, for those of you who have managed to miss Vectorworks 2011, the great news is that there will be a webinar review of the best bits of Vectorworks Landmark 2011, broadcast at 7:00 pm UK time on Wednesday 20th October. The webinar will be hosted by Eric Gilbey from Nemetschek Vectorworks and myself. Eric is Landmark Industry Expert at Nemetschek Vectorworks and this will be the second time that we have joined forces on a webinar. So, to find out more about Vectorworks 2011 you can  register for the webinar or give us a call (0845 003 7066). We can tell you all you need to know and provide you with upgrade information or new licences and training – all of our courses and notes are already updated for 2011.

So, another full week of training to look forward to with an international flavour this time as we welcome delegates from Germany and Belgium, who contacted us after seeing our latest schedule of courses.

So Sunday has come and gone, bringing with it a chance to recharge the batteries and watch David Tennant in his latest role.