VectorWorks Landscape Tools Presented By: Aliaa Hussein El-Sadaty By: Madis Pihlak Web Address: Topic Number: 136 Date: 06 March 2002

VectorWorks Landscape Tools Last year, Nemetschek North America, maker of VectorWorks Architect, came out with a companion system, VectorWorks Landmark Nemetschek North AmericaVectorWorks LandmarkNemetschek North AmericaVectorWorks Landmark University of Maryland student project using VectorWorks Landmark. by: David King

Since its origins in the early 1980s as MiniCAD, VectorWorks has integrated 2D drawing with increasing degrees of 3D modeling. A designer can draw in plan, numerically specify a height, and be creating a three dimensional model. This capability is invaluable for design development.

Topographic map imported from AutoCAD. By: Madis Pihlak A digital terrain modeling tool performs cut-and-fill calculations for site grading. A new tool grades a simple low-speed roadway with curbs and sets the road into the terrain model.

Landmark incorporates other profession- specific tools for landscape architects as a parking lot layout tool, which helps the designer create the geometry for a variety of parking configurations. Third-year student project. by: Nathan Pepple

it also does well in handling the large files required for detailed site-level landscape work. There are other software packages that support some of these design activities, but I believe Landmark is unique in its combination of simplicity, reliability, and elegant graphic quality.

Other civil engineering software such as Autodesk Land Desktop gives more robust performance at the site level yet lacks some of the graphic flexibility of Landmark or ArchiSITE. Autodesk Land Desktop Autodesk Land Desktop However both the Autodesk and Bentley packages are intended more for civil engineers than for landscape architects or architects manipulating site data.

Landmark at Work It can import data (using DXF or DWG) from a geographical information system (GIS) and manipulate the data or export it (using DXF or DWG) into other 2D and 3D CAD, design, and visualization applications.

VectorWorks is simple and intuitive enough for everyone in the office to use. contrast it with the CAD operator model that was popular when software was too complex and annoying for designers to use. VectorWorks is still as simple and straightforward to use as MiniCAD was..

One of the appreciated features about VectorWorks is the way it deals with scale without "model space" or "paper space" jargon to grapple with. Printing and plotting requires only a straightforward selection of paper size and drawing scale.

The ability to read native AutoCAD files is extremely important The ability to close polygons with only three sides. Automatically generating a fourth side is useful in getting big GIS databases into a Landmark-useable format. Yet most of the professors in our department believe VectorWorks offers a better value in terms of time invested and output produced.

Words of Caution For instance, you need to add RenderWorks to your collection to produce color renderings. In sum, Landmark is a powerful, robust, and easy-to-learn software package. The VectorWorks family of design software is now owned by the large German company Nemetschek, whose architectural CAD system AllPlan is a best-seller in Europe. AllPlan

Having a mix of Macintosh and Windows computers, and finding reliable and useful design computing software that works on both platforms can be challenging. But finding software that will run under both the older Mac OS 9 and the new Mac OS 10 is even more difficult. The newest release of VectorWorks Landmark works with all these operating systems. But finding software that will run under both the older Mac OS 9 and the new Mac OS 10 is even more difficult. The newest release of VectorWorks Landmark works with all these operating systems.

In other ways too, Nemetschek is a good digital citizen. They employ a software engineer whose sole job is to ensure that VectorWorks remains compatible with any changes in Autodesk or ESRI file formats.