The Nomad app running on an iPhone or iPad then connects to the Vectorworks cloud and indexes the processed models, which can then be loaded. This takes between one and three minutes, depending on size and complexity. Models will need to be uploaded to the cloud, where they will be processed and ‘thinned out’. To use the AR capabilities in Nomad, you will first need to be a Vectorworks customer, to generate BIM models and then have a Vectorworks cloud services account, which is free. From this, Vectorworks has already received a lot of positive feedback from users, together with a sizable wish list of suggested new features. In the first two weeks of release, over 200 users accessed the AR tools, launching over 1,000 sessions. Work started in late August 2017 and the product was released in mid- January 2018.

This could include looking at a BIM model projected on a table top, for example, or the proposed layout of desks and chairs within an office at a scale of 1:1.ĪEC Magazine caught up with Alex Nicol, mobile team manager at Vectorworks, in order to discuss the application’s capabilities and to get an idea of where the firm’s AR development is going.Īccording to Nicol, development of Vectorworks’ AR capability was fasttracked when Apple launched the development kit. Included with Vectorworks Nomad, the company’s mobile viewing app, the new functionality enables the viewing of Vectorworks CAD/BIM models in situ through an Apple mobile device. Vectorworks has been one of the first BIM developers to launch free AR capabilities. If 2017 was the year that Virtual Reality (VR) become accessible, 2018 is surely going to see AR, or ‘Mixed Reality’, become a common tool in the building design market. In fact, it has kick-started a rush to develop AR applications.

Given the incredible popularity of Apple mobile devices, Augmented Reality (AR) is now within reach of millions of consumers and design professionals. First shown in June 2017, the ARKit enables developers to display dynamic, high-fidelity 3D models in the real world, viewable onscreen by mixing them with the live image from the camera lens of an iPhone or iPad. These are enabled by the combination of the A11 Bionic processor and the ARKit (Augmented Reality kit) development platform. When Apple introduced its iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X models back in September 2017, the company’s brand-new Augmented Reality capabilities took centre-stage. Nomad supports models in white and can also bring through colours from the Vectorworks model into AR

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