FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Who should use Vertex BD?
Vertex BD is an advanced building design software application for medium to large sized residential and commercial builders. Home builders have been utilizing our industry leading software to automate the process of generating lot specific drawing sets, while wood and cold-formed steel panelizers, component manufacturers, and modular and manufactured home builders have taken full advantage of our extremely customizable framing generator to automate the generation of production drawings.
Vertex BD has been delivered to thousands of companies all over the world, including:
- production home builders
- custom home builders
- commercial builders
- manufactured home builders
- modular home builders
- component manufacturers
- architecture firms
- engineering firms
- material suppliers
- plan service providers
- educational institutions
How is Vertex BD different than CAD?
CAD refers to the old-fashioned software applications used for creating 2D line drawings, and eventually 3D models, that contain only simple geometry.
Vertex BD is a 2D and 3D design system that enables a designer to build a structure in virtual space using objects that contain information about themselves. For example, when you draw a wall in Vertex BD, the wall object has information about what it should look like in 2D and 3D, as well as, the materials used to build that wall, the framing details to be used when generating the production drawings of that wall, and what connections that wall has to other walls, floors, roofs, etc.
Once the building has been created in the software, all this information is used to generate architectural layouts, elevation and section drawings, structural layouts, production drawings, material reports, manufacturing data, and rendered images, all from one source. This eliminates the task of creating all of those drawings and reports separately, and ensures they are all consistent with each other.
Is Vertex BD a BIM software application?
Yes. Vertex BD has utilized BIM technology long before the term BIM was commonly recognized in the industry. BIM stands for Building Information Modeling, which basically means that the model created in the software contains information about itself. See "How is Vertex BD different than CAD?" to read about how Vertex BD takes advantage of BIM technology.
In recent years, many people have misunderstood the term BIM to mean a file format compatible with Autodesk Revit. BIM is a generic term used to describe a type of software, not any one specific application.
What makes Vertex BD different from other building design systems?
Vertex BD is a complete architectural and framing BIM software package. It is designed to produce plans up to 2X faster and eliminate mistakes at the construction site.
There is no need to redraw the model in different software applications. Once the building has been created in the software, it is used to generate architectural layouts, elevation and section drawings, structural layouts, production drawings, material reports, manufacturing data, and rendered images, all from one source.
The framing generator saves an enormous amount of time by automatically generating productions drawings, complete with dimensions, piece labels, cut lists, and more. Unlike some other framing systems, our framing rules, details, and materials are all customizable, and our final production drawings are completely editable.
Vertex BD is also highly customizable - libraries of walls, floors, roofs, ceilings, doors, windows, trims, details, and more, can all be modified to fit the way you build.
What are the hardware requirements?
See the hardware recommendation page.
Can I purchase or rent the software?
Vertex BD is available to purchase and subscribe. Please contact us for more information.
Do you provide software training?
Yes. We provide on-site training, as well as, training at our local offices. We can also provide hands-on online training sessions. Training is always conducted by one of our expert software support engineers, and is private for each customer.
How much training should we get?
Our training sessions are tailored to specific needs. We recommend 2-3 days of training for framing features or 5 days for architectural and framing features. Additional days are also recommended based upon the selected add-on software modules.
Can you help us setup and customize the software?
Yes. Our support engineers can develop customized functionality such as modifying/creating component libraries, framing rules, and material databases to more closely integrate the system to a company's existing and long term goals. Services can be performed both on-site and off-site according to what best suits your company's needs.
What is included with the Support & Maintenance Service?
Our Support and Maintenance service gives you direct access to our team of Software Support Engineers. As part of the Vertex Systems group of companies, our engineers work closely with the software developers and are able to research questions and issues quickly utilizing the Vertex BD source code.
- Support assistance via phone, email, and online web conferencing.
- Software patches and updates.
- Annual software upgrades.
How are Vertex BD licenses managed?
Vertex BD uses a NetVID Online License to control the product and module configuration, and number of users that can run the application at the same time. The software may be installed on any number of computers, but it can only run on computers that have the NetVID Online License. The licenses may be moved to different computers as needed. Each license may have a different product and module configuration.
Purchased licenses have no time limit and will run indefinitely with the initially installed version of the software. Licenses covered by our optional Support and Maintenance service are eligible for periodic updates and annual software upgrades. Licenses not covered by the Support and Maintenance service are not eligible for updates, and will not work with updated software.
Support and Maintenance service is included with subscription licenses, and are always eligible for software updates and upgrades.