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As we begin a new year, I'd like to take a moment to look back on 2004. I am thrilled to report that last year was the most successful year for us at Nemetschek North America, thanks to your dedicated support. We closed out the year on a particularly high note with a special year-end offer. And part of the proceeds went to the Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity. Once again, thanks to your efforts, it was a success, so we were able to make a sizable donation. That special offer gave both you and us the chance to help make future holidays happy for others. It was a win-win for all involved.
Looking forward to future win-win arrangements, we're inaugurating an aggressive training schedule this quarter that's designed to address a larger variety of your training needs. We're beginning with product-specific seminars and following up with more in-depth workshops.
More also applies to the trade shows we'll be attending this year. We've added more than 25 trade shows to our schedule for the first half of the year. We want to reach out to you on a more personal level in the environments in which you work to learn more about how you do business so we can help you reach your goals.
The Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco kicks off the season. We've been attending Macworld since we started the company 19 years ago, and we've certainly come a long way since then. We've lined up four days of phenomenal presentations, both by VectorWorks users in the Bay Area and our own VectorWorks software experts. We hope to see you there.
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Sincerely,
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Richard Diehl
CEO, Nemetschek North America
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Graphic Presentation Systems
Piscataway, NJ
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VectorWorks provides an all-in-one solution for building high-tech trade show exhibits for high profile clients |
For almost 25 years, Graphic Presentation Systems has been designing, engineering, and fabricating trade show exhibits. Firm principal Kevin Keizer and his team of designers, engineers and fabricators produce trade show exhibits for clients in a v,ariety of industries--from pharmaceutical and financial to biotech and high-tech. Big name clients include ADP, Bank One, JP Morgan, MacNeil, and Mitsubishi.
All in one
Keizer was sold on VectorWorks from the start, before the program was called VectorWorks, as a flexible, all-in-one solution for his firm's needs.
"VectorWorks is very intuitive and easy to use—it draws the way a draftsman thinks," says Keizer. "I did try other programs and no one else compares to VectorWorks. I've worked with AutoCAD™, but it was extremely complicated and expensive. In a word, VectorWorks was revolutionary. And it revolutionized the way we did business. It automates a very labor-intensive process."
He continues, "With VectorWorks, we can design an exhibit, render it, and do all kinds of modeling where people can see real textures and lighting. We can explode it, show assembly drawings, apply graphics. Then, of course, we have to fabricate the exhibit, and we have to communicate the ideas to all the people who are going to have a hand in building the booth on the floor. VectorWorks provides a very comprehensive set of instructions to put the parts together. So it's a key element not only in design, but also in fabrication for our shop."
Essential
VectorWorks is such an integral part of Keizer's business that he refers to the program as an extremely productive employee. In fact, Keizer attributes his firm's growth partly to VectorWorks.
"Using VectorWorks has really accelerated our detail work and productivity," says Keizer. "We've increased our volume immensely without increasing our staff that much."
Accurate
According to Keizer, VectorWorks automation capabilities are "phenomenal" and allow him to make weldments and manufacture aluminum in house. Extremely accurate drawings allow him to get precise down to a thousandth of an inch, if required.
On-time
One of the biggest challenges in the exhibit design and manufacturing industry is meeting deadlines to deliver the product on time to its destination, which is often a trade show that draws tens of thousands of attendees. Such as the 2005 MacWorld Conference & Expo that's going on right now in San Francisco, for instance.
For this trade show, Graphic Presentation Systems revamped the VectorWorks exhibit. The mission was to redesign the booth to make it lighter to reduce freight costs, more functional to maximize booth space and more visually appealing to attract more traffic—all in a 20' x 20' footprint.
Using VectorWorks, the firm redesigned the booth to reduce the exhibit's weight from 6,000 pounds down to 5,000 pounds, increase the demonstration theater seating area from eight seats to 14 seats, and add one 61-inch and three 20-inch plasma TV screens.
"With VectorWorks, you can easily see how things work together, the harmony of design, so we were able to reconfigure the exhibit to meet the new objectives and do it quickly to meet the tight deadline," explains Keizer.
To experience the work of Graphics Presentation Systems first hand, visit the VectorWorks booth #2233, January 11-14, at Macworld.
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How do I move the break line on a stair? |
A stair object can display a 2D stair break by selecting 2D Stair Break in the Object Info palette. The position of the stair break can be adjusted by moving its control point. The cursor changes to the resize cursor (diagonal double arrow) when over the control point. Drag the 2D stair break to the desired location.
See Image 1, Image 2, Image 3, Image 4
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How do I set a solid color to the background of a viewport, in order to block other objects behind it? |
To add a solid fill to a viewport, select the viewport and access the Attributes palette. Select the Solid fill style and then select the color you’d like to use. This will fill any part of the viewport with that color, with the exception of existing geometry.
See Image 1, Image 2 |
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How do I change the class automatically assigned to a plug-in object? (For ARCHITECT & LANDMARK only) |
The class automatically assigned to a plug-in object can be changed through the Standard Naming dialog box. Select File > Setup > Standard Naming. Display the setup names for classes. Select the reference naming standard and then select a custom active standard for the file. Scroll to the class name to be changed and type the desired name in the Edit Class Name field and click OK. All instances of that class name are updated to the new name.
See Image 1, Image 2, Image 3
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Nemetschek North America Donates to Habitat for Humanity
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Nemetschek North America has donated a percentage of the proceeds of an aggressive year-end sales promotion to Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity.
"As a premier developer of CAD software for architects and builders, we felt Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity was an ideal organization to which we could contribute," said Nemetschek North America Chief Executive Officer Richard Diehl. "By giving a portion of sales from our year-end offer to Chesapeake Habitat, we pledged to help the organization provide its members with the tools they need to build housing for those who are less fortunate. We're not only helping to build houses, we're helping rebuild lives."
"This generous contribution will help us continue to turn vacant shells into beautiful and affordable homes for families in need," said Mike Mitchell, Executive Director of Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity. "By focusing our work within specific neighborhoods, we are able to strengthen entire communities one house at a time. Nemetschek North America's support is an important building block in our ongoing success."
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New Training Guides Now Available |
Nemetschek North America is pleased to offer several new training guides. These guides provide teachers, students, and beginning users of VectorWorks with practical, self-paced educational materials.
Available for the first time outside the professional classroom setting, the VectorWorks 11 Workbook – Fundamentals and accompanying Teacher Edition provide a total classroom solution for instructor-led courses, as well as a foundation for self-paced learning. Initially developed by Nemetschek's exclusive training partner, Resolve Software Solutions, for the VectorWorks Professional Learning Series training courses, this workbook has been adapted for students of secondary through post-secondary levels.
VectorWorks by Project offers students and professional architects a step-by-step approach to learning VectorWorks 11 with an instructional manual and CD that contains starter and progress files to accompany the text. Developed by long-time VectorWorks users Louis B. Smith, AIA, and Raymond Massaccesi, the text is appropriate for a variety of learning scenarios: in the classroom setting, and on an individual basis, as well as for beginning professional users who would like to improve their skills or employers who would like to train new employees on VectorWorks.
Developed by Jonathan Pickup of ArchonCAD, the School Resources Kit is a collection of resources developed as a VectorWorks 11 course for the classroom environment. It comes as a CD loaded with the School Manual, exercises, and narrated QuickTime lessons. The student component includes a 400-page printed manual.
The VectorWorks Kitchen Tutorial – Version 11, also by Jonathan Pickup, teaches you how to build a 3D kitchen using VectorWorks 11. This tutorial also includes a CD that contains QuickTime movies to accompany written exercises.
Visit Nemetschek North America's Training Guides and Manuals Web page for more information on these four training guides.
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Calling All CAD Educators |
Coming soon to the Nemetschek N.A. Web site will be an Academic Page. One of the areas will cover class/course curriculum, and teachers will be given the opportunity to share thoughts and ideas with each other. To help get the site started, we'd love to hear about how you teach VectorWorks in the classroom. Please send us any information about your VectorWorks classes and/or course curriculum. We will then post this information on the Web site for other teachers to use. Call or E-mail Educational Sales at 888-646-4223 or academicsales@nemetschek.net. |
Call for Images |
Share your 3D renderings and working drawings with others and get a
free VectorWorks latte mug. So many of you have spectacular images
that we would love to use in our ads, tradeshow art and on our Web
site. To submit an image please visit
http://www.nemetschek.net/gallery/submissions.html. |
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TRADE SHOW DATES
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EVENT
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LOCATION
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January 11-14 |
Macworld |
San Francisco, CA (Booth #2233) |
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February 1-3 |
NE Grows! |
Boston, MA (Booth #2924) |
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March 17-19 |
USITT Stage Expo 2005 |
Toronto, ON (Booth #385) |
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TRAINING DATES
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LOCATION
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CLASS
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January 11-14 |
Columbia, MD |
• Intro to VectorWorks
• VectorWorks Fundamentals
• RenderWorks Fundamentals |
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January 18-21 |
San Francisco, CA |
• Intro to VectorWorks
• VectorWorks Fundamentals
• RenderWorks Fundamentals |
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February 1-4 |
Boston, MA |
• Intro to VectorWorks
• VectorWorks Fundamentals
• RenderWorks Fundamentals |
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February 8-11 |
Columbia, MD |
• Intro to VectorWorks
• VectorWorks Fundamentals
• RenderWorks Fundamentals |
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February 15-18 |
New York, NY |
• Intro to VectorWorks
• VectorWorks Fundamentals
• RenderWorks Fundamentals |
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February 15-18 |
Vancouver, BC |
• Intro to VectorWorks
• Architect Fundamentals
• RenderWorks Fundamentals |
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AIA Accreditation
NNA is pleased to offer AIA Continuing Education credit for our
seminars. The VectorWorks ARCHITECT course is AIA CES certified, so attendees can earn up to 32 CES learning units. For additional information, contact marketing@nemetschek.net.
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