There was a major downfall in accepting my current job: they don't use Revit. In fact, they don't even use AutoCAD. I had to learn a program that I had never used. I had also heard it was a complete nightmare to work with.
If Revit is like Data from Star Trek, that means it's calm, cool, collected, logical and smart. It holds together in stressful situations, it's intuitive and easy to work with. For the most part I could reason with Revit and if something was wrong there were a series of steps I could take to figure it out.
Vectorworks is Ruprecht.
I remind myself hourly that I haven't had any training, the drawings I'm working in aren't set up correctly (which I only recently found out) and I still don't know a lot of what this program can do.
However.
It blows my mind that there are classes, design layers and attribute palettes to control the display of objects. There is such a thing as too many options.
How does a drafting program not have a Copy tool?
It's nearly impossible to stretch and contort my fingers into the shortcut keys the program offers: Command+Shift+Option+3 - really? Some of the shortcuts are quick but they're strange: 2 for Line. What's wrong with L?! Oh. L is used for Split - riiiight of course.
I find myself wishing for AutoCAD multiple times in my day. If I could only open this up and take a look at it with software that other people in the industry use.....
My boss is planning on converting to Revit which is one reason she hired me. In the meantime I have to stick it out with Vectorworks and give it my all. When Revit and I meet again I think I'll break down and cry tears of joy and relief.
6 comments:
Agggh!!! VW!!!!
If you need help with the switch to Revit let me know!
SC
I can relate in that my school board's marks-entry program is totally bullshit. It was freezing like Antarctica during report card time.
when you do get to use re it again, let's have some sort of vectorworks burning party!
This is what you need:
http://learn.archoncad.com
Vectorworks is VERY similar to Revit in most ways except that VW has far more -freedom- to create drawings. This shows in how many options it has to do some things. Without training, yes, VW will seem daunting - Any complex software does. But with some amount of guidance (and I don't mean the kind one might get from an equally untrained colleague) the application is very good.
Now keep in mind, Freedom is a double-edged sword... If you don't know what to do with it, you may squander it and even get hurt/frustrated. However if you do know what to do with it, you can use it to your advantage and produce files that are both full of information AND look fantastic.
Neil?!
Hey, how's it going? Thanks so much for your kind words, it's good to hear from someone who knows what they're doing that there is a ton of hope. I know my frustrations are largely due to lack of training.
How did you know about my blog?? I have about two readers!
... but maybe you can write some posts giving Vectorworks the finger? YES! DO EET!
Post a Comment