AI’s effect on architecture, an ever-growing focus on sustainability and better ways of collaborating were among the key themes of the day, which explored the latest developments in Vectorworks’ software
Architecture is set to be one of the industries most affected by artificial intelligence, believes Julian Geiger, vice president and head of AI product and transformation at software developer Vectorworks’ parent Nemetschek. It was this conviction that led the former Google executive to take on his current role earlier this year. It was also how he began his presentation to the audience at the 2024 Vectorworks Design Day, held in October at the RIBA’s London HQ.
AI’s potential, the increasing focus on sustainability – from biodiversity to reuse of building elements – and better ways of collaborating were among the key themes of the day, and of Vectorworks’ new and emerging software.
The firm’s AI Visualizer, released earlier this year, allows designers to create draft visualisations using a combination of text descriptions and model views. ‘This is just the beginning,’ said Geiger. ‘As we evolve it, you’ll see even better results as well as better integration of workflows so that users can take this into actual design.’
The company’s next steps also include what Vectorworks chief executive officer Dr Biplab Sarkar called an AI design assistant. Based on a ChatGPT API, the assistant will be on hand to answer user questions, faster than conventional help services.
In sustainability, Vectorworks is working to meet designers’ needs in both design and assessing environmental impacts. A dashboard is set to be added to its Landmark software to give users ready access to data needed to ensure the sustainable design of buildings and landscape. ‘It is one space where you will be able to see everything related to sustainability,’ said Sarkar.
On the horizon are tools to help calculate biodiversity net gain, urban greening factors and more. ‘We’re not substituting the work of ecologists,’ Sarkar stressed. Instead, he says, the tool is ‘an aid to reduce the expensive and time-consuming back and forth between ecologists and yourselves’. For buildings, R&D around enhancing object status is set to enable software users to give objects the status of salvage, reuse or similar so that elements can be easily identified for renovation or repurposing.
Features like these are an indication of the software suite’s ongoing development, and Vectorworks 2025 – introduced in September – came with many enhancements. Onscreen View Control now allows faster navigation to model views while Two-Point Perspective allows one-click creation of architectural perspectives. Room Finishes gives improved wall and surface management, described as ‘a major improvement’ by Kesoon Chance, senior industry specialist – interior architecture at Vectorworks.
For landscape designers, a new Curb tool opens possibilities. ‘Not only can you create road kerbs, but also very detailed borders,’ explained Katarina Ollikainen, Landmark product planner at the company. ‘You can also create features like retaining walls, or even street furniture. See where it can take you,’ she invited the audience.
Importantly, there are new features to facilitate collaboration for practices sharing project models and harnessing building information modelling (BIM). The Cloud Document Reviewer enables project files to be reviewed easily across team members and locations while automated BIM classification ‘allows you to collaborate with confidence,’ said Darick DeHart, chief product officer at the company. The sharing of Revit files has been made simpler, with the capability added to automate exports and use preset import options.
Real-world experience of collaboration was shared by Matt Bird, senior landscape architect and BIM manager at landscape architecture firm Wynne-Williams Associates. He highlighted the value of building execution plans as a reference point and using data tools right from the outset. ‘The beauty of using something like [Vectorworks’] Data Manager is that it automates a lot of your work, so you’re not having to manually fill in data on every object,’ he said.
The software’s design capabilities were highlighted by Will Mayes, chief executive and founder and Gina Clarke, lead gym designer, from interior designer Layrd Design, with the latter highlighting how it had ‘helped to streamline the process’ for one project.
Stepping up the use of digital project design and sharing is a major undertaking for any practice. Axiom Architects’ CAD specialist and information manager Patrick Vaziri-Zanjani and its IT manager and CGI visualiser Ole Callf highlighted learning from the practice’s drive to modernise its CAD standards. ‘We have had to build from the bottom up,’ said Callf. A key lesson, said Vaziri-Zanjani, was that ‘we took our time and tested the different assets and workflows in our own separate safe space before we started to integrate them into the practice.’
Learning and feedback from architects are central to Vectorworks’ software development, said its sales enablement director Tamsin Slatter, ‘to make sure we’re continuing to provide what you as customers - and your customers - need to be able to deliver’. To that end, the company’s UK sales director Matthew Bester said: ‘We really want to entrench ourselves into the workflows and methodologies of our customers’.
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