- Vectorworks 2020 Requirements
- Vectorworks 2021 System Requirements
- Vectorworks Machine Design
- Vectorworks Mac
Locate the email containing your Vectorworks serial number. Download the appropriate version of Vectorworks by clicking on the following links: 2017 Vectorworks 2017 Mac: Download Here Vectorworks 2017 Windows: Download Here. 2016 Vectorworks 2016 Mac: Download Here. 2015 Vectorworks 2015 Mac: Download Here. 5 Things the New macOS Big Sur Optimized with M1 Brings to Vectorworks M1 — Power Unleashed. One of the biggest pieces of news is the M1 processor chip that Apple is initially providing in. Testing the Hardware/Software Combo. Apple has engineered its macOS Big Sur specifically for the power of. Vectorworks dongle Series B & G and Vision are Intel Big Sur compatible now. Update With the official release of macOS Big Sur tomorrow, Nov 12th, I wanted to share some updates with you all from our R&D team: Big Sur Intel – No issues to report at this point with the latest release candidate 11.0.1 offered to developers.
- Windows
Jump to: Basic Palette, Building Shell Tool Set, 3D Modelling Tool Set, Visualization Tool Set, Dims/Notes Tool Set, Walls Tool Set, File Menu, Edit Menu, View Menu, Modify Menu, Model Menu, AEC Menu, Spotlight Menu, Tool Menu, keys Menu, Window Menu, Cycles through Modes in Tool bar, Miscellaneous Shortcuts, Toggle Snapping Palette Settings, Other Shortcuts, …Switch to Standard View, Worksheet Key Functions
X | Selection |
H | Pan |
Option+Z | Move Page |
Shift+C | Flyover |
C | Zoom |
1 | keys |
Option+1 | Callout |
0 | 2D Locus |
Option+0 | Symbol Insertion |
2 | Line |
Option+2 | Double Line |
4 | Rectangle |
Option+4 | Rounded Rectangle |
6 | Circle |
Option+6 | Oval |
3 | Arc |
Option+3 | Quarter Arc |
Option+5 | Freehand |
5 | Polyline |
8 | 2D Polygon |
Shift+T | Triangle |
Option+8 | Double-line Polygon |
Option+Shift+R | Regular Polygon |
Option+Shift+S | Spiral |
Shift+E | Eyedropper |
V | Visibility |
Shift+A | Attribute Mapping |
- | Reshape |
Option+= | Rotate |
= | Mirror |
L | Split |
; | Connect/Combine |
Option+Shift+L | Trim |
7 | Fillet |
Option+7 | Chamfer |
Shift+- | Offset |
Shift+N | Clip |
Shift+M | Move by Points |
9 | Wall |
Option+9 | Round Wall |
Option+J | Wall Join |
Option+Shift+J | Component Wall Join |
Option+Shift+D | Door |
Shift+D | Window |
Shift+C | Flyover |
Shift+1 | Set Working Plane |
Option+Shift+1 | Align Plane |
Shift+R | Push/Pull |
Shift+0 | 3D Locus |
Shift+7 | NURBS Curve |
Shift+3 | Sphere |
Option+Shift+3 | Hemisphere |
Shift+F | Fillet Edge |
Shift+J | Chamfer Edge |
Shift+G | Shell Solid |
Shift+K | Loft Surface |
Shift+L | Extract |
Shift+H | Create Contours |
Shift+; | Project |
Shift+’ | Analysis |
Shift+C | Flyover |
Shift+U | Walkthrough |
Shift+V | Translate View |
Shift+W | Rotate View |
Shift+Z | Light |
Shift+A | Attribute Mapping |
N | Constrained Linear Dimension |
M | Unconstrained Linear Dimension |
. | Angular Dimension |
, | Radial Dimension |
9 | Wall |
Option+9 | Round Wall |
Option+J | Wall Join |

Command+N | New |
Command+O | Open |
Command+W | Close |
Command+S | Save |
Command+Option+P | Page Setup |
Command+P | |
Option+F4/Command+Q | Exit |
Command+Z | Undo |
Command+Y | Redo |
Command+X | Cut |
Command+C | Copy |
Command+V | Paste |
Command+Option+V | Paste in Place |
Command+D | Duplicate |
Command+Shift+Option+D | Duplicate Array |
Command+A | Select All |
Command+3 | Zoom–Normal Scale |
Command+4 | Zoom–Fit to Page Area |
Command+6 | Zoom–Fit to Objects |
Command+Shift+Option+3 | Class Options Active Only |
Command+Shift+Option+4 | Class Options Gray Others |
Command+Shift+Option+5 | Class Options Gray/Snap Others |
Command+Shift+Option+6 | Class Options Show Others |
Command+Shift+Option+7 | Class Options Show/Snap Others |
Command+Shift+Option+8 | Class Options Show/Snap/Modify Others |
Command+Option+3 | Layer Options Active Only |
Command+Option+4 | Layer Options Gray Others |
Command+Option+5 | Layer Options Gray/Snap Others |
Command+Option+6 | Layer Options Show Others |
Command+Option+7 | Layer Options Show/Snap Others |
Command+Option+8 | Layer Options Show/Snap/Modify Others |
Command+5 | Standard views: Top/Plan |
Command+Shift+W | Rendering–Wireframe |
Command+Shift+S | Rendering–Sketch |
Command+Shift+Option+S | Rendering Sketch Options |
Command+Shift+G | Rendering Open GL |
Command+Shift+F | Rendering–Final Quality Renderworks |
Command+Shift+E | Rendering– Hidden Line |
Command+Shift+D | Rendering–Dashed Hidden Line |
Command+Shift+P | Rendering–Final Shaded Polygon |
Command+0 | Set 3D View |
Command+Option+L | Unified View |
Command+Shift+M | Create Multiple Viewports |
Command+Shift+. | Next View |
Command+Shift+, | Previous View |
Command+M | Move |
Command+Option+M | Move 3D |
Command+F | Send to Front |
Command+Option+F | Send Forward |
Command+B | Send to Back |
Command+Option+B | Send Backward |
Command+- | Align to Grid |
Command+= | Align/Distribute |
Command+Shift+= | Align/Distribute 3D |
Command+L | Rotate Left 90 |
Command+Shift+R | Rotate Right 90 |
Command+Shift+H | Flip Horizontal |
Command+Shift+V | Flip Vertical |
Command+ | Set Working Plane |
Command+T | Trim |
Command+J | Join |
Command+Option+J | Join and Fillet |
Command+Shift+J | Join (no Trim) |
Command+Shift+Option+A | Add Surface |
Command+Shift+Option+C | Clip Surface |
Command+Shift+Option+I | Intersect Surface |
Command+Shift+Option+P | Compose |
Command+K | Convert to Group |
Command+Option+R | Convert to Mesh |
Command+Option+O | Convert to 3D Polys |
Command+Option+N | Convert to NURBS |
Command+G | Group |
Command+U | Ungroup |
Command+[ | Edit |
Command+] | Exit |
Command+Option+G | Show Guides |
Command+Shift+Option+G | Hide Guides |
Command+Shift+0 | Unrotate 3D Objects |
Command+Option+A | Add Solids |
Command+Option+S | Subtract Solids |
Command+Option+I | Intersect Solids |
Command+Option+T | Section Solids |
Command+E | Extrude |
Command+Option+E | Multiple Extrude |
Command+Option+X | Extrude Along Path |
Command+Option+U | Tapered Extrude |
Command+Option+W | Sweep |
Command+Option+Y | Create Fillet Surface |
Command+Option+Q | Create Planar Caps |
Command+Option+K | Create Surface from Curves |
Command+Shift+Option+E | Project Settings (Energos) |
Command+Shift+Option+N | Number Instruments |
Command+Shift+Option+O | Auto Number Positions |
Command+Shift+Option+F | Focus Instruments |
Command+Shift+Option+R | Replace Instruments |
Command+Shift+Option+M | Find and Modify |
Command+/ | Refresh Instruments |
Command+Shift+Option+L | Label Legend Manager |
Command+Shift+O | Organization |
Command+9 | User Origin |
Command+8 | SmartCursor Settings |
Command+Shift+Z | Plug-in Manager |
Command+Shift+Option+W | Workspace Editor |
Command+Shift+T | Format keys |
Command+Shift+C | Palettes–Snapping |
Command+Shift+A | Palettes–Attributes |
Command+I | Palettes–Object Info |
Command+Shift+K | Palettes–Working Planes |
Command+R | Palettes–Resource Manager |
Command+Shift+N | Palettes–Navigation |
Command+Shift+Option+V | Palettes–Visualization |
Command+‘ | Palettes–Activate Object Info Palette |
U | 1st group |
I | 2nd group |
O | 3rd group |
P | 4th group |
[ | 5th group |
] | 6th group |
Y | Toggle SmartCursor Cues |
/ | Toggle Angles Relative to Prior Segment |
G | Set Datum |
Z | Snap Loupe |
T | Set Smart Point, Edge, or Vector Snap Lock |
Toggle Automatic Working Plane | |
‘ | Suspend Snapping |
B | X-ray Select Mode |
J | Coincident Selection |
A | Snap to Grid |
S | Snap to Angle |
D | Smart Points |
F | Smart Edge (2D only) |
F | Snap to Working Plane (3D only) |
Q | Snap to Object |
W | Snap to Intersection |
E | Snap to Distance |
R | Snap to Tangent (2D only) |
Command+Arrow Keys | Switch active layer or class |
Arrow Keys | Pan drawing |
Shift+Arrow Keys | Nudge objects |
Shift+Command+Arrow Keys | Move objects |
Command+1 | Increase zoom by a factor of 2 |
Command+2 | Decrease zoom by a factor of 2 |
Command+Option+1 | Increase zoom by a factor of 4 |
Command+Option+2 | Decrease zoom by a factor of 4 |
CC | Increase zoom by a factor of 2 |
XX | Deselect all selected objects |
Esc | Cancel the current operations |
Esc | Exit keys editing mode |
Esc Esc | Exit Group |
Press and Hold Shift | information |
0 | Top/Plan or Rotated Top/Plan |
1 | Left Isometric |
2 | Front |
3 | Right Isometric |
4 | Left |
5 | Top |
6 | Right |
7 | Left Rear Isometric |
8 | Back |
9 | Right Rear Isometric |
Arrow Keys | Move one cell up, down, left or right |
Tab | Move right by one cell |
Shift+Tab | Move left by one cell |
Enter | Move down by one cell |
Shift+Enter | Move up by one cell |
Created by rank17 on 7/29/2017
0 Comments for 'Vectorworks '
The following are real-world system requirements for running Vectorworks 2018. In some demanding cases, we would suggest a more capable machine than is described by these recommendations. Likewise, there are some less demanding situations where Vectorworks will perform well on older hardware.
General Requirements:
Operating System:
macOS 10.14
macOS 10.13
macOS 10.12
Mac OS X 10.11
Mac OS X 10.10
Windows 10 (64-bit)
Windows 8 (64-bit)
Windows 8.1 (64-bit)
Windows 7 SP1 (64-bit)
Minimum Hardware Profile
Entry-level Profile:
For small projects, simple models/drawings with a low level of detail, simple renderings (such as, small residential projects, small theaters, small landscaping design)
Processor:
64-bit Intel Core i5 (or AMD equivalent) or better
RAM:
4GB or more
Graphics Card:
OpenGL 2.1 compatible graphics card with 1GB of VRAM or more
Some integrated graphics cards such as Intel Iris graphics are acceptable for simple models/drawings, but a dedicated graphics card is preferable.
Vectorworks with Vision requires a dedicated graphics card, preferably released in the past three years.
Using multiple view panes with different visibilities in all panes requires a graphics card with at least 2GB of VRAM.
Display Resolution:
1440 x 900 or higher
Hard Disk:
10GB free disk space is required for the installation. 30GB or more is required for a full installation with all libraries.

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Recommended Hardware Profiles

High-end Profile:
For large projects, complex and very detailed models/drawings, complex renderings (such as large BIM projects, large entertainment venues, commercial sites, GIS, high end landscaping design, photorealistic rendering)
Processor:
64-bit Intel Core i7 (or AMD equivalent) clocked at 3GHz or better
RAM:

16GB-32GB or more
Graphics Card:
A dedicated OpenGL 2.1 compatible graphics card with 4GB of VRAM or more
Vectorworks with Vision requires a dedicated graphics card, preferably released in the past three years.
Display Resolution:
1920 x 1080 or higher
Hard Disk:
10GB free disk space is required for the installation. 30GB or more is required for a full installation with all libraries. Installing Vectorworks on flash storage (SSD) is recommended.
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Mid-level Profile:
For medium-size projects, complex models/drawings with medium level of details (such as small commercial projects, mid-size entertainment venues, residential site modeling)
Processor:
Vectorworks 2020 Requirements
64-bit Intel Core i5 (or AMD equivalent) clocked at 2GHz or better
RAM:
8GB-16GB or more
Graphics Card:
A dedicated OpenGL 2.1 compatible graphics card with 2GB-4GB of VRAM or more
Vectorworks with Vision requires a dedicated graphics card, preferably released in the past three years.
Using multiple view panes with different visibilities in all panes requires a graphics card with at least 2GB of VRAM, with 3GB or more recommended for large files.
Display Resolution:
1920 x 1080 or higher
Hard Disk:
10GB free disk space is required for the installation. 30GB or more is required for a full installation with all libraries. Installing Vectorworks on flash storage (SSD) is recommended.
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Network Requirements for Project Sharing:
Project sharing requires high-speed network connections. As the network bandwidth increases, so does project sharing performance. Slower network speeds can still provide a satisfactory user experience if you minimize operations that transfer large amounts of data over the network (such as committing changes to the project file or refreshing a local working file).
LAN Sharing:
Minimum: A Fast Ethernet (100Mbit/s) network connection
Recommended: A Gigabit Ethernet (1Gbit/s) network connection is required for large projects.
Cloud Sharing:
Project sharing using cloud-based storage requires a high-speed internet connection (50Mbit/s or above). This method of sharing works best with small teams or small projects. It is not recommended for large teams or large projects.
Hard Drive:

Storing large project files on flash storage (SSD) is recommended.
Additional Details
Graphics Cards
IMPORTANT – Several Vectorworks features have placed higher demands on graphic hardware. Additionally, the performance and quality of the graphics provided by the Vectorworks Graphics Module depend directly on the speed, memory, and supported extensions of the graphics card. These features have the potential to provide a very fast and fluid experience if used on capable hardware, or a noticeably slower experience if used on older or incompatible hardware. Graphics cards should support at a minimum OpenGL version 2.1; cards not meeting this recommendation will have limited functionality and poor performance. In general, the more powerful your graphics card is, the better your Vectorworks experience will be.
The amount of Video RAM (VRAM) required to drive Vectorworks adequately depends largely on the size of the display being used and the complexity of the Vectorworks document. Medium-sized displays with a native resolution of 1920x1080 or less should be driven by a graphics card with at least1GB of VRAM. Larger displays should use a modern graphics card with at least 2GB of VRAM, with 4GB or more recommended.
OpenGL rendering of shadows and edges are VRAM-intensive and require at least 1GB, with 2GB of VRAM or more being preferable. If you want to take full advantage of OpenGL shadows and edges, especially in situations where you have any combination of the following:
- many lights
- point lights
- image textures
- anti-aliasing
- high shadow quality
- excessive geometry
and if you have a graphics card with less than 1GB of VRAM, you should consider upgrading your graphics card.
Using Multiple View Panes with different visibilities in all panes can be VRAM-intensive and require at least 2GB of VRAM, with 3GB or more recommended for large Vectorworks documents.
We strongly recommend that all users check that their video drivers are current. The majority of display problems reported to our Technical Support department have been traced to older video drivers. In general, a recent graphics card running the latest drivers is preferable to an old high-end graphics card running outdated drivers.
Vision Pro requires a dedicated OpenGL 3.0 compatible graphics card preferably released in the past three years. We do not recommend any integrated Intel video chipset. While Vision may run under these environments, we do not support them due to their lack of performance and speed.
For the latest information on our graphics card recommendations for Vectorworks 2018, go to the Vectorworks Knowledgebase.
Remote and Virtual Machines
We do not consider remote login environments such as Remote Desktop, Terminal Services and VNC or virtual machine environments such as Parallels and VMware to be appropriate for regular work, so Vectorworks performance in these situations is not of primary concern to us. They may be appropriate for administrative testing or utility purposes, and Vectorworks is fully functional in these environments. You should not expect high performance in these environments, however, especially with interactive screen feedback.
We do support Vectorworks running under Boot Camp on Mac machines. As long as you have appropriate and current drivers for the hardware on your machine, you can expect fast and reliable Vectorworks behavior.
Maintenance Releases
Unless there is a known problem with a maintenance release of the operating system, we recommend the latest maintenance release at the time we ship a new release of Vectorworks as a minimum because that is what we test with. If you have problems with an earlier maintenance release, we will often ask you to update as an initial troubleshooting step.
Optimizing Performance
Vectorworks 2021 System Requirements
For users who work with large files and complex renderings, we recommend running with at least 8GB of RAM. When RAM runs out, Vectorworks usually continues to function, but is slowed significantly by the need to access the hard drive to provide virtual memory. Extreme lack of RAM may cause operations to generate errors in cases where given sufficient RAM they would otherwise succeed. Faster hard drives can have a large impact on system performance especially when virtual memory is actively being used. Faster or slower processor clock speeds have a predictable impact on Vectorworks performance. Hard drive size requirements are driven by the total size of Vectorworks including all content files. You can reduce this size by opting to not install some of the larger Vectorworks content files.
Vectorworks Machine Design
Project Sharing and Network Bandwidth
The performance of Vectorworks when working on a shared project over the network will depend on the available network bandwidth. If the network bandwidth is insufficient, operations that transfer large amount of data over the network will be slow.
We recommend at minimum a Fast Ethernet (100Mbit/s) network connection. For large projects, a Gigabit Ethernet (1Gbit/s) network is required for a fast and fluid experience.
Project sharing using cloud-based storages requires a high-speed internet connection (50Mbit/s or above). This method of sharing works best with small teams or small projects. It is not recommended for large teams or large projects. Although project sharing requires high-speed network connections in general, slower network speeds can still provide a satisfactory user experience if you minimize operations that transfer large amounts of data over the network (such as committing changes to the project file or refreshing a local working file).
Vectorworks Mac
Examples of data transfer times during commit and refresh operations for different bandwidths and project file sizes are shown in the chart below:
