According to results from the fifth annual NBS National BIM Report 2015, Vectorworks Architect is the most popular software in the United Kingdom with 29 percent of respondents reporting that they use the solution from global design software developer Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. for designing with a BIM workflow. This announcement comes on the heels of quantifiable growth for Nemetschek Vectorworks in the U.K. market.
With a legal mandate requiring BIM deliverables for significantly sized, government-funded projects in the U.K. by 2016, Vectorworks Architect’s BIM capabilities have positioned it as a leader in the architectural industry.
“We’ve witnessed a rapid and widespread adoption of BIM workflows from our customers, and we’re committed to further enhancing our software’s capabilities as a BIM tool and promoting BIM workflows that are collaborative and free from the constraints of any single tool or vendor’s platform,” said Sean Flaherty, CEO at Nemetschek Vectorworks.
Sales across the Vectorworks family of design software, which includes Architect, as well as Designer, Landmark, Spotlight and Renderworks, have doubled in the U.K. over the past five years, with over 8,700 new designers choosing the platform as their design solution over the same time period. In addition, as the 2016 mandate draws closer, more architects are utilizing Vectorworks software, creating a 44 percent increase in new U.K. users in 2014.
“Taking advantage of BIM is an opportunity for Vectorworks Architect users to add value to the design creativity they already lend to a project, as well as work more efficiently and collaboratively across disciplines,” Flaherty said.
Two designers who rely on Vectorworks as a BIM solution support Flaherty’s claim: “We are using 3D modeling from the outset on most projects now,” said Robert O’Leary of O’LearyGoss Architects, a 12-person firm in Bristol, U.K. that uses Vectorworks Architect for residential development, healthcare and community design. “Modeling allows us to examine design solutions in context ourselves… We also enjoy less risk of errors between different drawing types… and the ease of generating plan sections and elevations once a change is made.”
Luke Bray of Axiom Architects, a firm spread across several offices in the U.K., added, “Whilst we are only taking our first few steps into the world of BIM, Vectorworks’ BIM capabilities have allowed us to progress fairly smoothly from our previous 2D working into 3D without the need to learn new software packages or suffer problems of compatibility moving from one CAD platform to another.” Axiom Architects’ 35 employees focus on the hotel and leisure, commercial, residential and education sectors.
