What do you like best about Vectorworks Architect?
While I've used several different CAD programs over the years, Vectorworks stands out above them all. I love the graphic capabilities - the drawings just look better - crisper, clearer, cleaner. I have a great deal of graphic flexibility - both to set overall styles of a drawing but also to zoom to one particular element and adjust it to suit my specific need.
My primary use is Vectorworks Architect but I also own the "Designer" package so I get civil/landscape, theatrical and rendering modules.
But more importantly, I really appreciate the Vectorworks staff. I can call them on the phone, any day of the work week and get a live person who will take the time to answer my question, solve my problem ...and help me understand what's happening ... on the screen while we talk. I was along time user of another program and that never, ever happened.
...and the cost of an annual subscription plus premium support is far less than just the annual subscription to our former architectural software....and that includes the Designer Suite, not just the architect module.
We're a small firm so while cost is an important consideration, customer service/technical support is critical to keeping us working efficiently.
Vectorworks is also cross-platform compatible so it works equally well on PCs and Macs. Setup is easy. Vectorworks does most of the work and you can usually walk away and do something else while it's happening.
Vectorworks has frequent updates. Some are driven by bugs that users find and report - usually in the Fall when the annual major version upgrade is released and the wider user base uncovers the little glitches. But after that, updates keep coming every few months - usually to add new functionality or further refine something.
Vectorworks also comes with a huge array of "content" ranging from generic items like preconfigured title blocks, symbols, date tags, etc. These are ready to use and generally have a consistent way they can be used .... as opposed to my previous software's content which clearly had been developed over many years by many different users so each one was unique and had to be further customized to a consistent standard. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
What do you dislike about Vectorworks Architect?
Vectorworks has a different"way" or working than the widely used software I used to use. It's taken a bit of time - longer than I hoped - to purge the "old" processes from the front of my brain and adapt to Vectorworks. But part of that was my own stubbornness. While Vectorworks has a plethora of keyboard shortcuts, there isn't a command line so if you are used to that being your primary method of command selection and customization, you'll initially feel lost but like any software, you'll quickly adapt to those things you do the most frequently and then keep adding more skills for the less frequently used processes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
