Vectorworks Architect: New in Version 2008: Workflow

Take advantage of new resources and viewport enhancements that provide more flexibility and freedom when working in a referenced design environment.

Design Layer Viewports
You asked for it, and now you've got it! With Vectorworks Architect 2008, you'll be able to create viewports on design layers. Compared to traditional layer links, design layer viewports provide an easier and more robust way to handle linked and referenced views. Vectorworks design layer viewports:

• Are able to represent more than one layer
• Allow layer and class visibility control
• Support layer and class overrides
• Are croppable

True File Referencing
Using design layer viewports, you can also create true references to external Vectorworks files, image files, and PDFs. With true referencing, referenced information is not imported into your documents, keeping file sizes smaller, eliminating naming conflicts, and reducing the "clutter" that can occur when layers with many resources are referenced. Design layer viewports also improve workgroup referencing by allowing:

• Quick and easy duplication of referenced information
• Multiple layers to be easily referenced and managed in a single viewport object
• Layer and class visibility control of referenced layers
• Support for layer and class overrides
• Total control over whether layers and classes are imported into the target document
• Persistent positioning, rotating, and cropping of referenced viewports
• Gathering of all referenced drawings into one plot file
• Easy coordination of reference and target document origins
• A streamlined procedure for importing DWG data and keeping it up to date without adding overhead to the Vectorworks drawing.

Other Workgroup Referencing Improvements
In addition to the true referencing improvement found in the Vectorworks Design Series products, you'll find many other substantial workgroup referencing improvements:

New CAD Manager Features
New CAD manager capabilities make it easier to set up, share, back up, and manage Vectorworks content and preferences. CAD managers can easily control where resources and preferences are stored (centrally or locally on individual computers), which means CAD managers can control who can access or edit resources and preferences. And, because custom folders are stored outside the Vectorworks application folder, updating to newer versions or reinstalling Vectorworks will maintain your custom libraries or preferences. The new capabilities also make configuring new machines and maintaining existing machines with your firm's standards a lot easier.

Improved Library Management
You'll be able to build and manage your resources more easily in the Vectorworks Architect 2008. A new Export Resource command allows you to quickly move resources from the active document into another file without having to open the file-another huge time saver.

• The Home button lets you see at a glance if you are viewing resources in the active document or another open drawing or Favourite file, and can quickly display the resources in the active document

• The Up One Level button makes navigation through resource folders easier by allowing you to quickly switch to the resource's "parent" folder

• If desired, the Resource Browser will always display the resources of the active document

Extract and Reuse Image-based Resources
You can now extract images from image-based resources. You can reuse an image from an existing resource in the drawing instead of importing a new one, when creating image-based resources such as image fills, textures, image props, and backgrounds for RenderWorks users. For example, if you have an image fill you use for water, you can reuse the water image in a texture and map it to a 3D object. This will also save you space, since the image resource is not duplicated.

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