# Vectorworks Fundamentals Reviews **Vendor:** Vectorworks, Inc. **Category:** [General-Purpose CAD Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/general-purpose-cad) **Average Rating:** 4.1/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 12 ## About Vectorworks Fundamentals Built to showcase your skill and creativity, Vectorworks Fundamentals offers superior 2D and 3D capabilities and an intuitive modeling and documentation platform. Freely sketch, model, and document your design ideas with precision drafting capabilities and the most flexible 3D modeling engine available, powered by SIEMENS Parasolid. ## Vectorworks Fundamentals Reviews ### 1. A Self-Employed Architect's appraisal of VW **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Julius W. | Sole principal, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 22, 2021 **What do you like best about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** It is possible to draw and think like an architect NOT a computer programmer; I also like the ability to see line thickness, object attributes, layer colours etc., etc. **What do you dislike about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** Great programme but its cost is now beyond my means (semi-retired on limited income) **What problems is Vectorworks Fundamentals solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ability to create exceptionally clear presentation and construction drawings with a minimum of effort - it just works for me! ### 2. Not going back to AutoCad **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Architecture & Planning | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 08, 2019 **What do you like best about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** User friendly, great for presentations. **What do you dislike about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** The DWG conversion is not great. The custom workspace doesn't export properly from older to newer versions. **Recommendations to others considering Vectorworks Fundamentals:** Very easy to use. Ideal for quick presentations. MAC platform. **What problems is Vectorworks Fundamentals solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it daily to produce construction drawings, presentations. ### 3. What you see is what you get **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** O.J.C. O. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 25, 2018 **What do you like best about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** How easy it is to import other file-types How simple it is to draw and make adjustments. Compared to ACAD it is much easier to make a clear drawing, especially because you immediately see what you will get on the drawing later **What do you dislike about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** There is not much that is not possible, I have not come across anything that does not work. **Recommendations to others considering Vectorworks Fundamentals:** If you are used to working with acad it is very easy to learn to work with Vectorworks. Especially on a Mac, the stability of the program is extremely good. In addition, exchanging files with other programs is easy to do, so DWG or DXF files can be imported and exported. **What problems is Vectorworks Fundamentals solving and how is that benefiting you?** With good clear drawing it is easy to convey ideas and show clients what needs to be done or what the end result is and becomes. ### 4. Vectorworks Fundamental - Easy use **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 04, 2018 **What do you like best about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** The symbols are very similar to the ones used in other softwares, so it's really easy to adapt from another one to Vectorworks **What do you dislike about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** Nothing in particular once used to it. I was used to render in 3d Studio and V-ray, so to change to another renderer can be a bit challenging at the beginning, when used to be jumping between a few programmes **Recommendations to others considering Vectorworks Fundamentals:** Give it a try, it's much better than the traditional softwares in the market **What problems is Vectorworks Fundamentals solving and how is that benefiting you?** The mix of 2d and 3d in the same software instead of the traditional two programmes and to be able to change all at once instead of 2d in one place and 3d in another one is quite useful. It's kind of a trend in design and really required in a few studios, but still really useful. ### 5. Vectorworks Fundamentals **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Architecture & Planning | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 12, 2017 **What do you like best about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** Vectorworks is great design platform. Easy to use for both pc's and Mac systems. Many disciplines use the software so if can be down all on one platform. **What do you dislike about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** As with any CAD software, it has some limitations- The door tool used to be limited but with the latest releases in 2017 and 2018 have made great strides. **Recommendations to others considering Vectorworks Fundamentals:** Great Product- **What problems is Vectorworks Fundamentals solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am able to begin with conceptual drawings and then carry directly into design dev. onto CD's Keeping it in one program save a huge amount of time. ### 6. Easy to Draft with and I love the design vs sheet layers **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Architecture & Planning | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 17, 2016 **What do you like best about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** I like how you can overlay plans on separate design layers, but turn some on underneath to see how different plans work together. It really helps with coordinating different drawings and incorporating MEP. **What do you dislike about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** It's not as widely used as say AutoCAD or Revit, so we are often converting and exporting to dwg files to work with other firms and our consultants. It also doesn't have the best hatches. **Recommendations to others considering Vectorworks Fundamentals:** Take the time to explore all the commands and even call customer support. We were able to set up a video/phone chat with a VW tech rep who showed us a lot of the features we didn't know about and hadn't been using up to that point. **What problems is Vectorworks Fundamentals solving and how is that benefiting you?** It works well for the type of drawings we do. Our firm has not made the switch to BIM modeling, and so I cannot attest to the qualities of Vectorworks in this area. ### 7. Vectorworks Fundamentals 2012 - Usually Gets the Job Done **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Museums and Institutions | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 14, 2016 **What do you like best about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** The interface of Vectorworks is somewhat like Adobe Illustrator and allows me to create different kinds of scaled diagrams and 2d graphics with ease. **What do you dislike about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** The drafting capabilities are not as precise as AutoCAD or Rhino. Curves and splines are also a bit more tricky to draft. **Recommendations to others considering Vectorworks Fundamentals:** If you are looking for an inexpensive alternative to AutoCAD and your designs/art don't involve complex curves or geometry, Vectorworks would be perfect for you. **What problems is Vectorworks Fundamentals solving and how is that benefiting you?** Being able to create different diagrams and graphics other than architectural plans have allowed us to communicate design info more precisely to our Construction and Fabrication teams. ### 8. Great overall BIM software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jennifer B. | Junior Architect, Architecture & Planning, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 14, 2016 **What do you like best about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** The versatility and easiness of use. Is a very complete software too. **What do you dislike about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** There's nothing I can think off. I've been loving VectorWorks since Minicad. **What problems is Vectorworks Fundamentals solving and how is that benefiting you?** I can work very fast. There are multiple ways to do a project. ### 9. Easy to use, multi-function software **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2015 **What do you like best about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** I do event design, so require an array of different needs from the software - but I love that everything can be in one file: floorplans, 3D builds for rendering & build drawings for scenic etc. **What do you dislike about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** There are constant things that go wrong in a file and it usually takes awhile to pinpoint what the issue is, but its usually some weird setting or if I've imported something with an error etc. **Recommendations to others considering Vectorworks Fundamentals:** Its worth learning how to 3D build / render in this program to keep all compenents in the same place (in the past I was building floorplans in VW and renderings in SketchUp - but then it was a lot of back & forth btwn the programs to make sure the line up, etc) **What problems is Vectorworks Fundamentals solving and how is that benefiting you?** helps get through floorplans efficiently and quickly ### 10. Decent product for the price **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 26, 2015 **What do you like best about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** I like that vectorworks has great graphic output, its quick and easy to learn and works well for small business owners **What do you dislike about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** It definitely has some imperfections. I am mostly dissapointed in the fact that the fundamentals version has so few capabilities. I expected it to cover more tools than it actually does. I also don't like that there are many many people in our profession that don't know and use this product. It makes it difficult to hire personnel. **Recommendations to others considering Vectorworks Fundamentals:** If you can afford to, buy the more juiced up versions because Fundamentals has only the very bare minimum. **What problems is Vectorworks Fundamentals solving and how is that benefiting you?** Its relatively quick to learn and can be used for very basic drafting as well as more sophisticated modelling, etc. ### 11. Similar to AutoCad but not as great **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Gonzalo C. | Exhibit Designer, Marketing and Advertising, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 08, 2015 **What do you like best about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** Very similar to AutoCAD. At my company like I said about Vectorworks Designer. We have precoded designed parts and we input them into the program. Now it works very effectively for this. Its basic and does a pretty decent engineering job and its very basic for product development **What do you dislike about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** Where to start Similar to autocad but not as exact or precise steep learning curve to the product not for product development. use another program. not the best for entertainment design. **Recommendations to others considering Vectorworks Fundamentals:** Good for our business (entertainment) Awful for product development Awful for interior design **What problems is Vectorworks Fundamentals solving and how is that benefiting you?** Entertainment design problems and solutions. Tradeshows. Fast creation of products as a whole ### 12. Accessible CAD, for 2D, 3D and even BIM **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Stefan B. | sr. BIM Manager, Information Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 17, 2014 **What do you like best about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** Fast and efficient drafting, with good object snapping, control over visual output and layout. Quite complete, including full 3D kernel (Parasolid) and integrated rendering. More and more supporting BIM workflows, including IFC exchange. The integrated spreadsheet allows you to measure quantities from drawn elements. Also supports OSX and fairly cheap when comparing with regular CAD software, such as AutoCAD. **What do you dislike about Vectorworks Fundamentals?** Does many things "differently": layers are classes in VectorWorks and the VW layers are used for something else; 3D was a mixed-bag in the past: entities that were not 3D-compatible, stayed 2D and cluttered the viewport. The strengths of its 2D drafting don't fully carry over into the 3D modelling. **Recommendations to others considering Vectorworks Fundamentals:** When you still rely on drafting and like to work more like Adobe tools than AutoCAD, VectorWorks will make you feel at home. It has a powerful 3D engine and is supporting BIM more and more, so it does provide a growth path. **What problems is Vectorworks Fundamentals solving and how is that benefiting you?** Have used it for almost three years full-time, when working in architectural offices. ## Vectorworks Fundamentals Discussions - [What is Vectorworks Fundamentals used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-vectorworks-fundamentals-used-for) - [View Vectorworks Fundamentals pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/vectorworks-fundamentals/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-26+16%3A08%3A43+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=d648f7ab-0ff1-4bb7-90d5-646cd91da631&secure%5Btoken%5D=41156dbed044c506965bdce3ad6c00f50f8c982eb87e66fab223d1f730b0f91a&format=llm_user) ## Vectorworks Fundamentals Features **Design** - Drawing - Modeling - Visualize - Rendering **Edit** - File Import - Push/Pull - Views - Grips **Collaboration** - Annotate - Documentation - Data Extract ## Top Vectorworks Fundamentals Alternatives - [SketchUp](https://www.g2.com/products/sketchup/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (1,296 reviews) - [Octave BricsCAD](https://www.g2.com/products/octave-bricscad/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (130 reviews) - [Autodesk Fusion](https://www.g2.com/products/autodesk-fusion/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (509 reviews)