Herk-de-Stad, Belgium - Wednesday, 27 September 2017 – SCIA, a leading provider of structural engineering software, announced the six winners of the 10th edition of the SCIA User Contest, aptly named “The Art of Structural Design.” The contest represents impressive and inspiring work of some of the world’s top engineers.

In total, 124 outstanding international structural and civil engineering projects participated in the SCIA User Contest 2017. Utilizing SCIA Engineer as the structural analysis and design software, all of these projects not only demonstrated originality and know-how but many also focused on sustainability and the application of BIM.

An international jury of eight experts from the industry and academia selected a winner in four categories: buildings, civil structures, industrial buildings and plants and special projects. The jury also awarded the best BIM project with the "Special Prize of the Jury" for its advanced implementation of BIM.

As in the last edition, SCIA organized the "Prize of the Public" contest on the company's Facebook page at the end of June 2017, revealing all the participating projects to the public who had the opportunity to vote on their favorite ones. Over 10,000 people worldwide visited the contest page, and all projects received over 2,700 votes. The winner with the most votes received the "Prize of the Public" award.

“Every one of the projects in the User Contest 2017 was truly a remarkable showcase of the very art of structural design. I am proud of the work our customers have been able to achieve with SCIA Engineer. Their success and results inspire and empower us to innovate and to provide structural engineers with the tool that enables them to do anything they aspire,” said Hilde Sevens, CEO at SCIA.

The Winners

Category 1 - Buildings: The Port House in Antwerp, Belgium – Mouton cvba.
Category 2 - Civil Structures: Bridge over Rhine River in Strasbourg, France / Kehl, Germany – Ingenieursbureau Stendess N.V.
Category 3 - Industrial Buildings and Plants: Shoaiba II Power Plant in Shoaiba, Saudi Arabia – I.d.d. Engineering.
Category 4 – Special Projects: Rafael Núñez Airport expansion in Cartagena De Indias, Colombia – Estra Engenharia ltda.
Prize of the Jury for the best BIM project: Football Stadium in Dunajská Streda, Slovakia – HESCON s.r.o.
Prize of the Public: Centre Point in London, United Kingdom – Pell Frischmann.

All six winners are awarded a prize of €1,500 each ($1,800).

SCIA launched the User Contest in 1992 with dozens of participating projects in several European countries. Since 2005, the company has organized the contest every other year, and the number of competing projects has grown to over 100 from around the world.

Details on all the participating projects and winners of the 10th edition are published in “The Art of Structural Design 2017” book available in a hardcover and online format. A video about the winning projects can be accessed here by clicking "READ MORE".

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A milestone release that focuses on BIM usability, design productivity and analysis

Columbia, MD (September 12, 2017)—Global design and BIM software developer Vectorworks, Inc. announces the English-version release of its 2018 Vectorworks software. The release includes Vectorworks® Architect, Landmark, Spotlight, Designer and Fundamentals, as well as Vision. New this year is Braceworks™, a structural load analysis add-on module targeted to designers and riggers working on temporary entertainment structures.

“With Vectorworks 2018, we focused on user workflows, making them more robust and efficient,” said Vectorworks CEO Dr. Biplab Sarkar. “In BIM, you can best see this in our direct section and elevation editing and multiview capabilities, and more subtly in all the Wall tool enhancements that allow designers to correctly model wall constructions so walls appear accurately in plan, section and elevation drawings. The direct site model contour editing and enhanced seating sections are other good examples of our usability improvements.”

Another theme for this launch was the integration of analysis and design. With the addition of Braceworks to the entertainment portfolio that already includes the industry-leading Spotlight and Vision software, entertainment professionals can complete their entire workflow, from design to documentation to production, in one interface. Also, customers will notice the simplification of Vectorworks worksheet capabilities, which makes it easier for them to create custom reports from model or drawing data.

This release is the first in the 2018 worldwide rollout, which will include the release of ten additional localized-language versions.

Some of the highly anticipated additions for Vectorworks 2018 include:

• Multiple drawing views: Use multiple views of a project simultaneously, and begin work in one view pane and finish it in another. Switch effortlessly between viewports, views and visibility settings — simply set up panes and view them all at once. Instantly gauge the impact of a design change across 3D, plan, section and elevation views, and even start a rendering in one view while working in another.
• Direct section and elevation editing: Edit models directly from viewports: add openings, align and distribute windows, reposition doors across multiple layers, reshape walls — it’s all possible. Change the 3D views while in the section to see how edits simultaneously affect plans and model views. And, create better-looking, more-accurate drawings in a fraction of the time.

For architecture, notable improvements include:

• Improved graphic output for architectural documents: Generate documentation from a BIM file much more efficiently. Improved graphic controls within section views of wall joins and wall, or slab and roof components provides the flexibility to quickly achieve high-quality documentation from a 3D model.
• Robust wall modeling options: Control individual component heights by instance, attach information to them, insert component caps and simultaneously edit multiple selected components from an easy-to-use dialog box. Plus, swiftly make wall graphic display changes with the new ability to switch all attributes by class.
• Easier title block customization: Customize items such as variables and orientation, choose from an unlimited set of information to include in a title block, and use styles to more simply manage many title blocks across one or multiple projects.
• Streamlined drawing distribution: Publish drawings based on issue date and a tightly integrated new title block object; generate and distribute drawing sets, issue information and reports throughout the duration of a project; and automate the typically laborious process of creating a BIM project or lighting a stage.

Enhancements for entertainment design include:

• New zoom option for video and blended screens: It's now easier than ever to manage the planning and visualization of video screens in designs. With new graphic output capabilities, more accurately understand, estimate and adjust available throw and zoom, to enable final equipment choices earlier in the design process.
• Enhanced seating section: Choose from additional layout methods, multiple seat numbering options and graphic controls to easily set and modify seating sections from the Object Info palette. Generate more precise seating layout visualizations for an event and automate seating schedules for inventory and ordering.

For landscape design, important updates include:

• Direct site model contour editing: Edit a site model easier than ever with improved site model settings and direct 2D contour editing. Modify each contour line as easily as editing a polyline.

New import/export tree survey options: Generate existing site conditions from GIS and tree survey data without the need for external tools. Just use geolocated tree species data to create existing tree objects and export back to clients via Shapefile (SHP), TXT and DXF formats.

As in past years, many updates to the software directly correlated with customer feedback. Designers with early access have already begun to share their thoughts on the new edition.

“Truly amazing new features for Vectorworks, ones that will make working in 3D and using BIM workflows much easier and more compelling,” said Jonathan Reeves, director of Jonathan Reeves Architecture.

Additional testimonials are below:

“Multiple view drawing support will be one of the most celebrated features of Vectorworks 2018. It gives users the ability to think about projects in different ways and from different perspectives, all at the same time!” –C. Andrew Dunning, Owner of Landru Design.

“I really like the new improved title block — it is easier to use, and it puts the details needed for project information, and issue and revision data all in one place — for easier management and tracking.” –Chad Hamilton, AIA, LEED, AP, BD C, Principal Architect at Hamilton Aitken Architects

“Braceworks is an extremely helpful tool to simplify and shorten the workflow within our projects. It allows us to calculate loads directly from the CAD plan and to analyze the feasibility at any time. The easy connection to our partners in the field of structural analysis considerably reduces the costs in this area and ensures faster results. This makes it possible for us to work in constant exchange and thus always to achieve the best solution with a comparable, favorable price.” – John van Look, Head of Production Rigging at PRG Germany.

“Direct contour editing, where have you been all my life? I’m In Love! Our digital terrain modeling workflow with the site modeling tools, was quite often a lot of experimentation and modification to achieve the desired grade. Now with the ability to directly edit the site model contours in Vectorworks 2018, our workflow has been cut in half. This has greatly improved our design production, giving us a higher profitability on site grading throughout!” –Bryan Goff, Director of Design Sciences at Grey Leaf Design, Inc.

“The new Renderworks is an amazing upgrade, with more detail and quality of lighting being delivered at the same speed in Vectorworks 2017, or shockingly — even faster.” –Ion Webster, Principal at Pults & Associates, LLP

Beginning today, the English-language version of Vectorworks 2018 software is available by download for Vectorworks Service Select customers.