Macworld 2007

Happy New Year! The year 2007 has certainly got off to an eventful start. To start with, there came the stunning news announcement just before the holidays that Graphisoft, developer of ArchiCAD and Virtual Construction solutions, was going to be acquired by Nemetschek AG, a leading European vendor of software solutions for the design, construction and management of buildings and real estate. Nemetschek AG is already the parent company of Nemetschek North America which develops and markets the VectorWorks line of products. Nemetschek AG also has its own flagship building design product, AllPlan, which has evolved into a multi-disciplinary suite of BIM solutions that are very popular in Europe. The acquisition is expected to be completed only in March, and it is still too early to speculate on what it means for the three distinct product lines, ArchiCAD, VectorWorks, and AllPlan. But this joining of forces of the two leading European AEC software vendors (Graphisoft is headquartered in Hungary) is certainly a very significant development, which is likely to have implications for AEC technology implementation worldwide.

There were also some significant new releases of design and modeling applications that support the MacOS, just in time for the annual Macworld show that was held in San Francisco last week. The lineup includes SketchUp 6 from Google, VectorWorks 12.5 from Nemetschek North America, and form•Z 6.1 from auto•des•sys Inc. Another exciting development for Mac users came from 3DConnexion, whose 3D navigation device, SpaceNavigator (described in the recent article on Autodesk University 2006), can now work with select 3D applications on the Mac, including SketchUp. Last but not the least, there was the intense suspense and anticipation about what Apple itself would unveil at the show, which turned out to be a new ultra-cool cell phone and a new media hub, further highlighting the company's continued shift towards the larger consumer market rather than the niche personal computer market it catered to for so many years. All of these developments and product announcements are described in more detail in this AECbytes newsletter, along with a brief discussion of the Graphisoft acquisition from the perspective of Nemetschek North America

Building Design and Visualization Software at Macworld

This was the first Macworld for SketchUp since its acquisition by Google last year, and from a software perspective, it was heartening to find that its substantive booth was as packed as ever, particularly in the sea of all the gadgets and gizmos that have begun to dominate the Exhibit Hall at Macworld. There was a lot to be seen at the SketchUp booth, starting with the new release, version 6, which comes close to a year and a half after the last release (see my review of SketchUp 5 published in August 2005). The new version, shown in Figure 1, incorporates several features that had been demonstrated as prototypes at the 3D Base Camp in October 2005, including Photo Match, which allows users to adjust a 3D perspective grid over site photographs and then model 3D elements with respect to the grid or match an existing model with a background photo; Styles, which allows easy access to a collection of display settings that can be saved and shared; new display types including Sketchy Effects (rendered as though drawn by hand), Watermarks (2D images behind or in front of models), and Fog (atmospheric haze and a sense of depth); and the ability to model 3D text. The most dramatic new feature, however, is LayOut, which has been demonstrated in the past at the 3D Base Camp and at the AIA 2006 Convention as a separate application, Grizzly. It will now come bundled with SketchUp Pro (the professional version of SketchUp), and allows users to quickly create professional-looking design presentations and documentation sets from SketchUp models. We will explore all these features in more detail in the product review of SketchUp Pro 6 next month.

Google also took the opportunity to demonstrate the new release of Google Earth, version 4, and its improved integration with SketchUp and the 3D Warehouse, the open repository for storing and sharing 3D models. For those not yet familiar with Google Earth, it is essentially a 3D browser for geographic information—you can type an address and zoom right into the location, search for points of interest, get driving directions, as well as tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings. Many building design applications, including SketchUp, allow models to be exported to Google Earth with the correct geo-referencing information, allowing them to be seen in the context of the actual site. Google Earth 4 features higher-quality terrain data for many mountainous regions, as well as support for textured 3D buildings, making the navigation experience of the earth feel more realistic (see Figure 2). Other improvements include a new, simpler user interface; the ability to create and share an expanded range of geographic information including photos, animations, and time-stamped data sets using KML, the Google Earth file format; and the ability to annotate and modify the imagery with drawing tools and share these overlays as KML or KMZ (compressed XML) files. Google Earth now also features a default "Best of 3D Warehouse" layer that showcases the most realistic, detailed models from Google SketchUp users. By turning on this layer, Google Earth will automatically load these models for the area you are viewing. Additionally, users can now create and contribute to user-designed 3D Collections in the 3D Warehouse.

Another regular at the Macworld show is auto•des•sys Inc., which used the opportunity to unveil the next version of its modeling, rendering, and animation application, form•Z, version 6.0 of which was reviewed in AECbytes in November. The new version, 6.1, looks very similar to form•Z 6.0, but it incorporates many significant changes underneath the hood. For a start, the Macintosh version of form•Z 6.1 is universal binary, which means that it runs natively on Macintosh Intel hardware in addition to the PowerPC-based Mac, leading to a significant improvement in performance. I saw this first-hand at the Macworld show in an amazingly realistic demonstration of an animation sequence of a penguin walking on snow and eventually plunging into water, complete with splashing and bubbles. It was hard to believe that it was done in form•Z until the demonstrator walked the audience through the entire modeling and animation process step by step. Other improvements in form•Z 6.1include the integration of LightWorks 7.6, leading to improved lighting and rendering; integration of ACIS r16, which improves the reliability of smooth modeling operations; a plugin by Pylon Technical, which makes lighting faster and easier and allows higher quality renderings to be generated in less time; and a plugin for Archvision's RPC product (for the Windows version only), which allows the user to place realistic looking content in rendered images without the overhead of modeling and rendering them. form•Z continues to remain a popular modeling and visualization application for architectural firms, even though its repertoire has greatly expanded to serve other design fields as well (see Figure 3).

Nemetschek North America was at hand to demonstrate the latest release, Version 12.5, of its VectorWorks product family, as well as a maintenance update, version 12.5.1, which was released just in time for Macworld. The highlight of version 12.5 on the Mac is that it is universal, just like version 6.1 of form•Z—it runs natively on both the Intel and Power PC-based Macintosh, leading to dramatic speed improvements. Another notable improvement in both the Mac and Windows versions is Adobe PDF import and export support. The PDF export capability includes support for layers as well as batch operation, improving efficiency and reducing the need to generate multiple PDFs for different uses. VectorWorks also joins the growing list of modeling applications that can export to Google Earth, allowing building models to be better visualized on the actual site (see Figure 4). Other noteworthy improvements to VectorWorks 12.5 include unit matching and intelligent detection of Xrefs for smoother DXF/DWG imports, new and improved drafting tools to increase drafting efficiency, and support for High Dynamic Range Images (HDRI) in RenderWorks, which makes creating realistically-rendered objects and exterior scenes easier. The maintenance update that was just released, VectorWorks 12.5.1, contains fixes that improve the program's stability and robustness, memory, and other issues.

I had the opportunity to chat with Sean Flaherty, CEO of Nemetschek North America, about the acquisition of Graphisoft by its parent company, Nemetschek AG, and its potential implications on the industry as well as on the VectorWorks line of products. While it was understandably still too early for him to say anything definitive about the impact of the acquisition, he was confident that all three product lines, ArchiCAD, VectorWorks, and AllPlan, would continue to survive and be actively developed. There were no plans to introduce AllPlan into the American market, so Nemetschek North America and Graphisoft would be working together to develop a joint strategy for marketing their respective solutions. History has borne witness to the fact that the "one size fits all" approach does not work in architectural firms, and both the product lines have distinct approaches, processes, and workflows. Another key differentiating factor between the two is that Graphisoft has focused on the vertical integration of design and construction with its products, ArchiCAD and Virtual Construction, while Nemetschek North America has concentrated on horizontal integration across various design fields with its VectorWorks product family including VectorWorks Designer, VectorWorks Architect, VectorWorks Landmark, VectorWorks Spotlight, VectorWorks Machine Design, VectorWorks Fundamentals, and RenderWorks. At the same time, the companies recognize that it is critical to avoid customer confusion, and they will work on providing proper guidance to architectural firms that are evaluating which solution to implement. In short, we should see more coordination between Graphisoft and Nemetschek North America going forward, but the product lines will continue to remain distinct. AECbytes will revisit this topic in March once the acquisition of Graphisoft by Nemetschek AG is complete.

Two More Cool Gadgets from Apple

At this year's Macworld show, Apple finally dropped the pretense of being predominantly a computer company by announcing that it was changing its name from Apple Computer to simply Apple. This came as no surprise, considering that the company has achieved much of its recent resurgence and financial success from its iPod line of audio and video players rather than from its Macintosh computers and related software. Apple took an even more dramatic step towards becoming a consumer company with the unveiling of its latest offering—the iPhone—at Macworld. The iPhone combines three distinct functions—a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and an Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, searching and maps—into one small and lightweight handheld device. What makes it really innovative and slick is a radically different user interface which allows users to operate the device with just their fingers, without buttons or any other pointing device. Even though the iPhone is still six months away from release, very pricey at $499 and $599, and works only with the Cingular mobile phone service, it enjoyed a celebrity-like status at Macworld, where it was displayed in glass cases surrounded by throngs of attendees with cameras and camcorders, eager to grab video and still shots of it!

The other big announcement from Apple at Macworld was yet another consumer product, Apple TV, which allows content on a home computer, including movies, TV shows, music, photos and podcasts, to be wirelessly played on a widescreen TV. Not much was said about the Mac at all at Steve Jobs' keynote, except that the transition to Intel processors that was initiated last year (see my newsletter on Macworld 2006) had been completed in a record time of 7 months, and that 2007 was going to be a great year for the Mac. At the Exhibit Hall, we did get to see a preview of the upcoming Mac OS X Leopard, scheduled for release in the spring. It features an automated backup system called Time Machine; several email enhancements including Stationery templates, new Notes and To-Dos, and security enhancements including anti-phishing protection; improved chat with video backdrops; built-in Screen Sharing that makes it easy to take control of another computer's display; easier organization, management, and access of the information on the computer; and improved search, including the ability to search across a network.

Conclusions

While it is terrific to see Apple take its legendary ability to create cool and innovative products and apply it to the consumer market—as evidenced so successfully by the iPod in the past and now with the iPhone—it does seem to be coming at the expense of dilution of focus and energy along the Mac front. The Mac was hardly mentioned in the keynote address at Macworld this year, and the Exhibit Hall continued to be dominated more by gizmos and gadgets rather than by personal computers and software. While leading software vendors such as Microsoft, Adobe, FileMaker, and Quark continued to exhibit Mac versions of their products at the show, their presence seems to have a diminishing impact every year. As for AEC-specific software, it was good to see Google SketchUp out there in full force, along with regulars such as auto•des•sys Inc. and Nemetschek North America. But Graphisoft continued to stay away from the show, even though being cross-platform is a significant plus point for ArchiCAD. Even VersaCAD, which exhibited at the show last year, did not come back this year. While this by no means reflects on the popularity of the Macintosh, which continues to have a devoted user base on account of its superior technology and better design, it does beg the question of whether Macworld will continue to remain a good venue for exhibiting as well as viewing AEC-specific or even general design software in the future.

About the Author

Lachmi Khemlani is founder and editor of AECbytes. She has a Ph.D. in Architecture from UC Berkeley, specializing in intelligent building modeling, and consults and writes on AEC technology. She can be reached at lachmi@aecbytes.com.