Vectorworks Conferences and Websites

One down and one to go!

The annual Vectorworks conference in Newbury, saw over 100 people get to hear about the delights of Vectorworks 2013 – and for the benefit of the 50+ joining us on Thursday at The Lighthouse in Glasgow, I won’t spoil it by talking through the contents of the event here. However, from the feedback forms, it would be fair to say that everyone felt that the content was extremely useful and that 2013 is a Vectorworks release to be admired.

Newbury conference

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also took the opportunity to announce our new website. Whilst the site has always been full of useful and interesting information, it hasn’t necessarily proved the easiest to navigate, unless you really know what you are looking for. Therefore, we took the decision that we needed to review the website and create something which approaches Vectorworks from the user’s, or potential user’s, point of view. Strangely, this is always the thought uppermost in our minds when putting together training curricula and notes, hence it’s a surprise that this hadn’t taken shape on the website before now. Our only defence is that, like yourselves, we have been focusing on the day to day business and growth last year was 68% after 70% the year before, so we have been somewhat busy.

But a business, yours or ours, loses sight of its customers at its peril. Once we forget that anything and everything we do has to give benefit to our customers and potential customers, our appeal to them will lessen. That thought is the driving force surrounding the new website design – why not take a look? With new people pages guiding visitors to the appropriate Vectorworks information, based on what they do, as well as the ability to access product or training information in a single click; hopefully those who know what they want and those who don’t, will feel equally well served.

Website

The conference in Glasgow on Thursday marks the final event in a frenetic period of activity and with our Vectorworks 2013 training notes updated, we’re already starting to run Vectorworks 2013 training courses. If you want to find out more, call us on 0845 003 7066 or take a look at the website.

BIM, Vectorworks 2013 and people like us

So, two weeks into Vectorworks 2013 and already a huge number of positive comments about the great improvements and functionality in Vectorworks 2013! As the premier reseller of Vectorworks in  the UK, we have had a busy time taking the Vectorworks 2013 message to a host of exhibitions and customer meetings – and the feedback has been resounding in its praise for the new release.

Even spending eight days at Earl’s Court, first at Plasa, then at 100% Design hasn’t dampened our enthusiasm. Follow that with shows in Kent and Essex to the landscape design fraternity and the pace has been frenetic. However, if you still haven’t managed to catch us yet, we still have the Vectorworks Annual Conference in Newbury tomorrow, October 3rd, and in Glasgow on October 11th – come along and find out more.

However, having just emerged from a customer meeting this morning where we were accompanied by senior Nemetschek figures, Biplab Sarkar, (CTO), Robert Anderson, (VP Integrated Practice, and other key members of their team, things have again been put into perspective. Software tools such as Vectorworks Architect have made great advances, but it is people, processes and workflow which are needed just as much to achieve successful projects.

In just the same way that moving from drawing board to computer provided most benefit when the drawing process itself was reviewed in the light of this new technology, so it is that moving to BIM requires similar rigour applied to how we use the new capabilities. With all of our training notes updated to 2013 already and new BIM consultancy and training agendas in place, our customers are already benefiting from this proactive approach to getting top value from their Vectorworks investment. In fact, the world of architecture is our biggest customer market and one that is very receptive to the cost-effective hands-on and supportive approach which typifies Training For Design.

That’s it for now – into another 2013 customer meeting and then onto the Newbury Conference tomorrow. With over 150 people booked on, it promises to be an interesting and interactive session. If you can’t make it to Newbury or Glasgow, please call us on 0845 003 7066 to find out more about how we can help you with your move to Vectorworks 2013.

Adrian Slatter

Vectorworks 2013 is here

Scene modelled and rendered by Dan Jansenson

You can see Vectorworks 2013 live at Earl’s Court tomorrow (19th September) through to Saturday (21st September) at the 100% Design show. We’d love to see you there.

We also want to share with you our review of Vectorworks 2013 and the difference it will make to our customers’ working days. We’ve added some pages to our site which describe how the new features will affect each user group. Take a look!

We’re also excited about the announcement of Cadfaster for Vectorworks 2013. We’ve had some involvement in testing this too, and it’s a lovely way to share a 3D model on an iPad, discuss with other users also viewing on their iPads and comment without needing to travel. Find out more about the new Cadfaster app and see if you can guess the identity of the voiceover artist!

Vectorworks 2013 is coming….

Vectorworks will be at 100% Design

Hi, it’s Adrian Slatter again. Well, three days to go as Nemetschek Vectorworks Inc. has announced that the release of Vectorworks 2013 will take place on Tuesday September 18th. The sneaky views of Vectorworks 2013 we’ve gained through the videos released by Nemetschek have only heightened the anticipation of Tuesday’s event.

However, it meant that last week seemed quite strange. As is usual at this time of year, we were at the PLASA (Professional Lighting and Sound Association) show taking place at Earl’s Court in London.  The attendees enjoyed a seminar from Tamsin, explaining the benefits of Vectorworks Spotlight’s streamlined workflow for Lighting Design, Event Planning and Exhibition Design. We also ran some free training sessions and had good feedback on the content delivered by Mark, one of our senior trainers.

During our time presenting at PLASA over the last four years, the launch of the latest Vectorworks version has coincided with the show. Hence in the UK, PLASA attendees have been amongst the first to see the delights of a new Vectorworks release in action.

With this year’s release on September 18th, PLASA attendees will miss out… but Earl’s Court will not! For the first time, Vectorworks will also be on display at 100% Design from September 19th to 22nd and Vectorworks 2013 will be there at the forefront as we entertain architects and interior designers.

So, why not come along and see us on Stand E32 and get a chance to see Vectorworks 2013 in action. If you can’t make it, we always have the Vectorworks Annual Conference on October 3rd in Newbury and October 11th in Glasgow.

More news soon…

A sneaky peek at Vectorworks 2013!

There’s a lot more you’ll hear about in the coming weeks… but Vectorworks 2013 is definitely on the way, and here’s a sneaky look! We’ll keep you informed as more information is released!

You can find more information, as soon as we have it, here:

Vectorworks 2013 News…

Vectorworks reduces the cost of getting to work

With summer upon us, although not in the UK weatherwise,  colleges and universities are saying goodbye to design students in architecture, interiors, landscape, lighting and set design. Their courses having come to an end, many of them will start work with existing companies, benefiting from a technology infrastructure already in place, whilst some will start up their own practice or pursue the path of a freelance designer. For all, a new world awaits. As a design student in any discipline, software to help is freely available, and some packages, including Vectorworks, are actually FREE to obtain.

However, once those college or university doors close on you for the last time, when you graduate, suddenly that new world dawns – one where nothing is free and setting up a business or as a freelance designer requires significant investment. Cashflow is always important and both Vectorworks and Training For Design recognise this and have acted to help students by “reducing the cost of getting to work”.

Here at Training For Design we have already started helping newly graduating students obtain the Vectorworks Design Series product of their choice at a special “Student2Pro” 40% discount! Essentially, anyone graduating from a design course may be eligible to obtain this discount within 12 months of graduation date. Therefore, if you graduated at any time from August 2011 onwards, give us a call today on 0845 003 7066 to take advantage of the offer, or email info@vectorworks-training.co.uk to find out more.

In addition, here at Training For Design, we run subsidised student training (see our current schedule) and also offer finance packages for those people looking to spread the cost of acquiring hardware, software and training over a period of time to preserve cashflow.

So, whilst the weather may not be great, the Olympic Games, Vectorworks and Training For design are doing their best to bring summer smiles to all.

Design collaboration – technology for the team

Adrian Slatter again. The world of Vectorworks is a varied one, and all the more interesting for it! The last couple of weeks have seen us exhibiting Vectorworks Spotlight to Lighting and Set Directors at the Association of British Theatre Technicians Show in London; explaining the benefits of integrated landscape design and estimating at the British Association of Landscape Industries in Warwickshire; interspersed with a variety of BIM CPD sessions for architect practices large and small. However, Vectorworks doesn’t sacrifice functionality in return for the versatility it has to address these individual business areas. In each case, strong and deep functionality and content push the Vectorworks products to the forefront in each industry.

CadFaster Model viewed on iPad

With that in mind, yesterday the team and I got the chance to have a closer look at the  CadFaster add on for Vectorworks and could see immediate benefits for our clients in whatever design discipline they to be:

• being able to visit clients with a tablet and show them the design, letting them “walk round” the building/landscape/venue is certainly valuable
• sharing models with architects/contractors/production, to enable collaborative working – all looking at and marking up the same model, even if they don’t have Vectorworks is incredibly useful – and as you are not giving access to the actual file itself,  intellectual property is protected at the same time.

Combined with Vectorworks Cloud Services, It seems like the Vectorworks world is fast becoming a more convenient and accessible place to be.

If you want to find out more about collaboration for your team, give me a call on 01488 658580.

Integrated Design and Estimating

Integrated Design and Estimating available as Design Software Solutions and Benchmark Estimating announce integration for Landscape Designers and Contractors using Vectorworks

Select Vectorworks Design Elements to Take to Benchmark

Design Software Solutions Limited and Benchmark Estimating Ltd are delighted to announce integration between Vectorworks Landmark, the market leading design package for landscape design, and Benchmark Estimating Software, used globally by leading landscape firms to create accurate and professional estimates.
“For a design and landscaping firm, the scalability of the business is all about the number of projects that can be completed simultaneously. But it’s not just about volume—it’s also about making sure projects are manageable and profitable, particularly in today’s economy” says Adrian Slatter, Sales Director at Design Software Solutions.
“One issue facing these firms is the need to re-enter all the information from the design software it has used into the estimating software it also uses – this takes time, costs money and can introduce errors” Adrian continues.
Now with the combined effort of Design Software Solutions working with Benchmark Estimating Software, this situation can be a thing of the past. With the newly created Vectorworks plug-in, a landscaping user can easily select elements of the design to be passed to Benchmark, attach/amend any necessary information, effectively creating a Bill of Quantities which can be saved and taken directly into Benchmark. Once there, a whole raft of facilities exist to enable the user to create a highly professional, accurate, consistently priced AND profitable quotation – exactly what is required.
“We have been working with Benchmark for some time now” says Adrian, “and the integration is key to providing an even better solution to existing and new Vectorworks users alike.”

Load directly into Benchmark

The new solution will be on display at the BALI Show on Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th June, where Design Software Solutions will be on the Vectorworks Stand both days and delivering a seminar on the subject on the Wednesday.
“We have been working with Adrian and Tamsin Slatter and the team at Design Software Solutions since last year,” says Benchmark Director, Rob MacDonald, “and this new integration is a result of the great relationship we have and our combined commitment to streamlining workflows for our clients and helping them to win more business, more profitably. We already have a number of joint clients and we expect that number to increase as a result of this announcement”

For more information, contact Adrian Slatter on 01488 658580, or email adrian@vectorworks-training.co.uk

All Roads Lead to BIM

BIM Forest

It’s Adrian Slatter this time round and certainly, my car would agree with that headline!

Since the announcement of the RIBA accredited CPD “BIM – your next step”, we have been carrying out CPD sessions regularly, with two already completed this week. The outcome of all this activity, combined with Ecobuild, has seen the team involved with a number of clients on BIM project preparation. By explaining Vectorworks BIM functionality, helping practices to adapt processes, responsibilities and drawing management strategies, they have taken their first successful steps towards implementing BIM.

With formal BIM training and project workshop sessions, we have the resources available to help any practice move further into BIM. To understand a little more about our approach, why not take a look at “The Path to BIM” or book a CPD session for your own practice.

Really looking forward to the Jubilee bank holiday weekend and the Jubilicious informal open day that we have told our customers about already – more next week.

Vectorworks® Software and Consultancy Sales Drive Record Growth at Design Software Solutions

Design Software Solutions Limited is delighted to announce that figures for its financial year ending 31st March 2012 show record growth. Financial Year 2011/2012 has delivered record results for the company, with both revenue and profit growing. Sales are up some 67% on last year, which itself had seen a rise of 54% on the previous year.

This further reinforces Design Software Solutions as the leading reseller of Vectorworks® products in the UK. Interestingly, whilst our growth in software, training and consultancy has been spread across all the business segments addressed by Vectorworks including, Landscape Design, Interior Design, Theatre Lighting and Set Design, the growth in Architectural clients has been particularly pleasing. We have also seen a growth in the number of existing Vectorworks users turning to Design Software Solutions to help them make the most of their investment. This is borne out by the figures which show that new business sales account for 75% of revenue this year compared to 84% last year.

The last 12 months has seen the release of Vectorworks 2012, with focused improvements designed to save designers time and increase their productivity, with particular enhancements for clients looking to use best-in-class open BIM workflows.

In addition to being a supplier of Vectorworks software, Design Software Solutions also provides support and training materials to Nemetschek Vectorworks, inc. In fact the company rewrote one of the Vectorworks Getting Started Guides for the new release which is shipped with every licence sold.
As we move into 2012/2103, we are already seeing continuing growth, further justifying the decisions we made to increase training space and staff numbers in sales, training and consulting. As ever, Vectorworks plays a big part in our business and we are passionate about providing the best support, consultancy and training in the UK to help clients transform their own business using Vectorworks.
We strive to improve the workflow and profitably of design firms, though deployment of the cutting-edge Vectorworks technology, together with specialist training and consultancy. Our mission is to reduce cost, streamline workflow and enable collaboration for every client.

If you are looking to move to Vectorworks, already use Vectorworks and want to make more of your investment, or just want to find out what all the fuss is about – give us a call on 01488 658580 or email info@vectorworks-training.co.uk