Might have to use *cough* Vectorworks...

So I have a possible job opportunity which would be contract work (not full time at least to start) and they are a Mac based office and use Vectorworks so I would need to learn it. I'm not sure what version. They seem to think it's a fairly easy transition to make, but after using AutoCAD for over a decade, I'm not so sure!

Anyone have any experience with both, or making the transition? I honestly haven't heard much about Vectorworks in all the years I've been drafting and I have to wonder why.

I would really rather spend my time learning REVIT, but this might be a good job opportunity. I looked at the Vectorworks web site and Vectorworks Architect looks pretty decent. Similar to AutoCAD Architecture in functionality...?, but it looks like the model is all in one file like REVIT, which I would actually prefer. Compared to REVIT it looks like it's weak on BIM and doesn't have everything linked together as one as well, but I'm not using REVIT now anyway.

Thanks for any input.

Would that be Vectorworks Architect by any chance?

Vectorworks Community Board....http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php

Yes, I would assume it's Vectorworks Architect as it is an architectural firm and there doesn't seem to be any "vanilla" Vectorworks as there is with AutoCAD.

Thanks for the link

Oh, I take that back, I guess their "vanilla" flavor is called "fundamentals"...

Was gonna say that there is a vanilla VW. I have had some VW files from consultants and they were pretty bad. I hope that they just had bad skill sets and that it was not the program itself. You can always download the demo and give it a spin. Macs huh, oh well, maybe you can install OSX on your PC and learn that as well (hackintosh) - link.

I'm pretty sure Vectorworks will run on PC or Mac, although there might be different versions of the same program for the different operating systems, I don't really know though.

Yeah, I'm thinking about checking out the trial version. I've looked at Vectorworks Architect and it actually looks pretty good to me. It looks pretty equal with AutoCAD Architecture and even has a few things that might be a step up. I've heard people say it's pretty intuitive and I think I can kind of see that from the Youtube videos. It looks like it's more suited to BIM than ACA (though it's more manual than automatic like REVIT etc.) and I like how it creates different levels so it can do 3D models all in one file. It looks better at actually using the 3D model for the sections and elevations than ACA, but that's just from the videos I've seen where it's an expert making it look easy, so....

VW still lets you do 2D linework which REVIT doesn't let you do really and that kind of scares me (about REVIT) a bit. There's tons of family objects available, but I'm not sure that I want to have to create a custom family object in a pinch just for a small project that will only ever be seen in 2D construction documents. I'm no expert with ACA, but I haven't been too impressed with the 3D capabilities of ACA. If the 3D roof functions in Vectorworks are better than ACA I might be sold I don't know anyone who uses 3D capabilities of ACA other than the walls, doors and windows, and they only really use that for 2D floor plans etc. anyway. VW is not set up for multiple users to work on one file like REVIT or ArchiCAD, but they say you can break it up into different X-Ref files like with AutoCAD if you need to. Well, I don't mean to sound like an ad for VW because I haven't even used it yet - I might hate it, I'm just rambling.

Oh there is a PC verson just don't expect to use it in a Mac office. I have not messed with it in a while. It is less expensive than Acad, I'll give it that