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feature review
In 1999 Nemetschek AG, a German software company, bought Diehl Graphisoft, a U.S. CAD software developer. Founded in 1985, Diehl made a name for itself by developing MiniCAD, one of the first 2D/3D CAD programs for the Apple Macintosh platform. About 10 years later, Diehl premiered the Windows version and soon changed the name of the product to VectorWorks. The product was impressive enough to catch the eye of Nemetschek AG, a Germany-based software company; in 1999, it bought Diehl Graphisoft and formed Nemetschek North America (NA).
In 2000, Nemetschek NA introduced its Industry Series, a set of programs built on top of VectorWorks, loaded with discipline-specif-- ic tools for architecture, landscape design, and so on. Now it's the turn of machine-design and mechanical-engineering sectors; Nemetschek has introduced VectorWorks MECHANICAL. Basic
Concepts
While VectorWorks MECHANICAL 9.5 has solid modeling capabilities, it is not a feature-based modeler the way SolidWorks, Solid Edge, and Inventor are. However, it offers some capabilities these products don't, such as useful engineering tools. In that respect, it is probably most similar to AutoCAD Mechanical; like VectorWorks MECHANICAL, AutoCAD Mechanical also has 213/31) capabilities and a large parametric-- symbol library. However, VectorWorks MECHANICAL is less than half the price of AutoCAD Mechanical and it includes built-in spreadsheet/database capabilities to track data. With the recent addition of 3D Power Pack, VectorWorks MECHANICAL now has robust surface-modeling tools to go along with its solid-modeling tools, whereas AutoCAD Mechanical has minimal 3D tools. In addition, I feel VectorWorks MECHANICAL is easier to learn and most of its commands require fewer mouse clicks than those of AutoCAD Mechanical.
Getting Started
Upon opening the software, as shown in Figure 1, users are greeted with an interface that is different from those in Version 9 or earlier releases of VectorWorks. The new toolbar layout works well but it may disorient veteran users, especially since some of the single-keystroke shortcuts don't make as much sense as they used to. For those familiar with other Windows-based products, such as AutoCAD, the VectorWorks interface will look different. However, compared to AutoCAD's, it is actually a friendlier user interface; it consists of a grid that is made to resemble graph paper, while at the same time illiminating the unintuitive command...