(Between the Lines): I get asked this quite often and I simply explain it is the evolution of lines arcs and circles to objects as components in a 3D architectural design model encompassing the entirety of the the building from design to meta data on performance and materials.Its all about the data..
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This video is definitely worth watching… it is a bit of a step up from VectorWorks. Although the software and techniques showcased in this video might be a little bit unnecessary for most small-scale projects like theatrical design, it is still cool to see the amazing things you can do with cutting edge CAD suites. And who knows? Maybe this kind of thing will prove useful to someone working on some sort of experimental, interactive production full of moving parts and magic. It is hard to imagine, but not impossible. I could certainly see BIM being used for designing theaters, if it is not already. After all, there are a lot of pieces that go into a modern theatre, and beyond just managing all of the bits and pieces (power, plumbing, etc), maybe it could be used to more easily and cheaply design or remodel theaters with more advanced characteristics: better acoustics, environmental sustainability, and audience comfort.
It is super interesting to look back at the history of CAD. The clips of models that were produced in the 80s are amazing to see. I can not help wondering what the system requirements were for those older programs—considering how little RAM the average computer had in the 80s (not even 1MB!), designers running CAD programs must have required advanced setups. In order to do anything advanced with Vectorworks, like using Renderworks or any of the other memory-intensive processes, a computer really needs the full 16GB. For a while, I was running Vectorworks 2016 on a Mac Mini with 8GB, and it was freezing with relatively few layers. I do think that over the past few years, Vectorworks has bloated up a bit too much, and it has become much less system-friendly. I suspect that my 2013 Macbook will not be able to run the next version.
Not really sure if this video was simply talking about what can be done with autodesk products, or simply what can be done with all the products available in the industry. I recently went down a rabbit hole of researching various drafting programs and realized the true abundance of choice for incredibly powerful or incredibly specific modeling software is available out in the world. We like to joke often about how using AutoCAD for theatre is like cutting butter with a laser cutter, but there are programs out there that make AutoCAD look like a butter knife either in their complexity or the specifics of how they're designed to perform in a specific industry extremely well. However, I do believe there are ways that we can use AutoCAD in a better way as well. Where I worked over the summer, we employed a strict file structure and drafting template which allowed us to place our drawings on the ground plan and section in our own drawings, and have the TD able to reconcile them on her own ground plan using XREFs, to check for conflicts or errors, much like the applications of BIM in the article above.
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