Performance Improvements in Hidden Line Rendering
Hidden line rendering now uses multi-threading on the Windows operating system to give you faster and more reliable results.
2D/3D Navigation Visualization
For Vectorworks 2013, we've dramatically increased the speed at which you can move around your drawing. No matter what your design discipline is, you'll love this feature. Panning and zooming improvements are applied in 2D and 3D, so you get significantly faster graphic re-draw. Plus, you'll get much quicker OpenGL and 3D wireframe previews while rotating.
Surface Array
The surface array object brings tremendous 3D modeling power to your fingertips. With this new command, you can easily duplicate 2D and 3D geometry onto planar or NURBS-based surfaces, giving you the power to easily model curtain walls, complex roof systems, stadium-like structures, or any other array model you can imagine.
Clip Cube
The clip cube provides additional visibility control over large, complex models, allowing you to work on isolated parts within the interactive boundaries of the clip cube.
Full-screen Perspective Projection
You can now work in a full-screen perspective view while modeling, with the option to turn on the cropping window when setting up views for presentations.
Improved Walkthrough Tool
The Vectorworks Walkthrough tool has evolved to provide an interactive experience that's more responsive and predictable when navigating inside a model.
Enhanced Graphical Feedback for the Rotate Tool
The improved Rotate tool provides enhanced graphical feedback while rotating objects. A protractor preview clearly shows the rotation center, the axis of rotation, and the rotation lever. This way, the rotation angle can be interactively applied to your selection.
Auto Hybrid Object
The new Auto Hybrid command provides an easy, yet powerful way to turn arbitrary 3D geometry into a hybrid BIM object with a custom 2D plan appearance. Its controls give you the flexibility to determine specific aspects of the plan appearance to meet the needs of your documentation while maintaining the powerful and intuitive 3D geometry editing capabilities of Vectorworks software.
Create Detail Viewport
The new Create Detail Viewport command provides an extremely efficient way to automatically create cropped viewports, allowing for better navigation between detailed views and the model. This improvement gives you detailed views of plans, elevations, and sections with markers that automatically reference and coordinate to your viewports' drawing and sheet numbers.
Enhanced Window and Door Capabilities
The door and window objects in Vectorworks 2013 have received a series of significant improvements that deliver greater flexibility in how you create, configure, view, edit, and report doors and windows in your models.
Optimized Space Object
We've introduced a vastly improved methodology for reading and writing customizable lists such as room finish names and occupancy organizations for space objects. In addition, multiple default text files containing room finishes, names, and occupancy organization data can be stored for use in project teams or across multiple projects. Plus, spaces and their boundaries can now be controlled by separate classes, which provide greater control over graphic visibilities and styles for documentation. Even more, the space object height can now be associated with the building model story, just like for walls and columns.
Parasolid-based Roofs
Roof objects have been completely re-engineered and are now based on the Parasolid® modeling kernel. You benefit from significantly improved performance, and you gain reliability for all roof configurations and modifications.
Enhanced IFC Usability
IFC data can now be attached to Vectorworks symbols, enabling you to automatically define IFC data for all existing instances of symbols in your model. Plus, you can now see a short description of assigned IFC data, and run the IFC Data command from the Object Info palette.
A new IFC option to export solids operations as BREPs has been added to the Export IFC Project command. In addition, the layout and controls in the IFC Export dialog box have been improved to meet the requirements of the new IFC2x3 Certification 2.0 process. Additional IFC export options increase the flexibility of your Vectorworks software to communicate with many other IFC-compatible products.
New gbXML Export
With direct support for gbXML, you can now easily export required information to communicate with a wide variety of energy modeling and analysis applications.
New DWF Import and Export Support
With Vectorworks 2013, you can now import and export the Autodesk DWF file format.
New Rhino Import/Export Support
Effortlessly work with Vectorworks and Rhinoceros with the addition of import and export support for Rhinoceros 3DM files.
New FBX and COLLADA File Export
With Renderworks 2013, you can now easily work with additional, popular 3D applications such as Google Earth, SketchUp, 3D Studio Max, and others using the COLLADA and FBX file export.
Dynamic Database Table Update
Databases connected to Vectorworks files through ODBC now dynamically update their database table rows when adding or removing record instances of a connected record format. In addition, you can now automatically create record formats from database tables and create database tables from record formats.
New DXF/DWG Import and Export Capabilities
You asked and we listened. With Vectorworks 2013, we've added several improvements and capabilities to the DXF/DWG import and export process that will dramatically improve the interoperability process.
Now you can export Vectorworks 3D objects as 2D flattened graphics in the DWG model space.
A new command lets you do a batch export for DWG/DXF from multiple files at the same time.
A new option allows you to make 2D and 3D conversion resolution adjustments during DWG/DXF imports.
A new option lets you choose true (RGB) or indexed colors on DWG/DXF exports.
A new DWG/DXF import feature improves the speed of your imports by alerting you when complex hatches with multiple boundaries are found. This alert gives you the option to skip importing the hatch, convert hatches to lines, or proceed with the import.
New Arroway Texture Import
We've added one of the highest-quality texture libraries to Renderworks version 2013. Now you have access to a default library of image-based Arroway Textures for wood veneers, concrete, wood flooring, stonework, tiles and other construction materials. An integrated menu item lets you easily import higher-resolution versions of these textures purchased directly from Arroway Textures.
Non-blocking Renderworks Rendering
Perhaps one of the most significant time-savers is the addition of non-blocking rendering. Now you are free to continue working in your project while a scene is rendering sheet layer viewports or images from the Render Bitmap tool.
Physical Sun and Sky
The physical sun and sky backgrounds provide more natural lighting that automatically responds to a site's location, as well as the date and time of day.
Improved CINEMA 4D Export
The Export to CINEMA 4D and Send to CINEMA 4D commands are now available to our Fundamentals customers in addition to our Renderworks users. Improvements when exporting from Vectorworks and Renderworks to CINEMA 4D ensure that the structure and naming of geometry, materials, and textures is consistent with the data that comes from the Vectorworks file, with the assistance of an intelligent Merge Changes dialog box in CINEMA 4D. In addition, the resulting .C4D file size has been reduced by up to 50%.
Custom Line Types
Dashed lines and custom line types are now resources that can be easily created and shared. The new feature enables you to base line types on Vectorworks objects to create a repeating pattern. Since line types are resources, you can easily edit them, share them, and set teamwork standards.
Golden Rectangle
A new rectangle creation constraint lets you easily create rectangles with golden ratio proportions (approximately 1:1.618).
Hyperlinks
A great addition to the Vectorworks program is a new hyperlink feature. With Vectorworks 2013, you can create hyperlinks with associated thumbnails or symbols to launch websites containing product manufacturer data, open other Vectorworks documents, open a folder, or display saved views, sheet layers, open file resources such as image files, PDFs, movie files, and more. Plus, hyperlinks are preserved when exporting to PDF.
Images in Worksheet Cells
Easily add images from any type of Vectorworks drawing object to the cells in a Vectorworks worksheet. The image can be either a thumbnail of the object or a sample of the object's 2D attributes. There are preferences for customizing the image display, including the size, view, render mode, and margin. With this new capability, you can easily incorporate door and window elevations, rendered isometric views of any symbol, legends for plant lists, hatches, fill patterns, wall or slab types, and more.
Improved Efficiency
A series of improvements have been made to some commonly used tools, modes, and commands in 2013, including new plane mode options, multiple symbol editing, and the new Align/Distribute Leader Lines command.
Collapsible Classes
You can now choose to display classes inside the Organization dialog box and Navigation palette in hierarchical form. You'll be able to hide groups of classes you don't need to see.
Sheet Layer Ordering
A new stacking order column has been added to the Organization dialog box and Navigation palette, so you can easily change sheet layer stacking order by drag and drop.
Windows Explorer Document Plug-in
A Windows Explorer plug-in for Vectorworks documents has been added, providing you with additional details about the file when in Windows Explorer, displaying an image preview of the file or an icon, and adding the ability to search for text strings inside Vectorworks files.
Lighting Device Improvements
The lighting device object has been completely re-engineered to offer you great new capabilities and speed for new reset and regeneration times that are 10 times faster than in the 2012 version. Plus can now fully customize the lighting device parameter display with a new dialog box that allows you to add custom fields and re-order and re-name existing parameters. You can also add unlimited label legend labels to lighting devices.
New Speaker Objects
New speaker and speaker array objects, originally from Landru Design, let you effortlessly create speaker system layout drawings and perform basic audio coverage analyses.
Lighting Device Colors
You can now automatically assign colors to your lighting devices though preferences or by class. You can also assign parts of the lighting device to different classes, giving you complete control over the look of your light plot.
Lighting Device Parameters
You can now automatically assign colors to your lighting devices though preferences or by class. You can also assign parts of the lighting device to different classes, giving you complete control over the look of your light plot.
Improved Plant Object
Individual plants within plant groups can be randomly scaled and rotated for a more realistic look. Plants in curved rows can now be positioned tangentially, which is particularly effective for hedges. 2D plant shadows can be optionally varied depending on the plant height. Additionally, variations of plant settings can exist for the same definition, reducing extra work.
Site Model Improvements
A series of beneficial, enhancements have been made to improve the functionality of site models. 3D locus objects can now be created from an imported survey file, resulting in nimble files without stake object data for situations where the data is not needed. A new Create Pad from Grade Limits command automatically creates a balanced pad modifier from selected grade limits, so the amount of cut is equal to the amount of fill.
