July News
Planning for the Designers Shoot-Out continues at a fast pace. At AEC Systems in Anaheim in June a large number of new companies expressed interest in getting together Teams representing their products. Several companies wanted to skip the "architect users" of their software and have their professional demonstration personnel essentially demo their products on the Shoot-Out stage. To those companies, we strongly to encourage them to find real users and encourage them to participate, as one of the requirements we need to ask (at their presentation) them to tell us what the deficiencies of the CADD software they use may be, relative to the competition requirements and their practice in general.
To our shock, several products showing up stronger than ever recently (products thought by many to be, essentially, dead) and, like phoenixes are rising to the occasion and may even put forth Teams in the Designers Shoot-Out. Some of the members of this phoenix club are Architrion, Arris, and ModelShop. We look forward to seeing them in competition.
The design of the award trophy for the competition - the Architectural CADD Cup - also is progressing. The silver and crystal trophy, with lots of room for the names of winners to be etched into it.
James Blauch has put a notice out to the entire BSA AutoCAD users group about the Shoot-Out competition coming up, and is hoping to attract team members to play. They still have to decide which overlay software to use. No one seems to know anyone who uses SpeedikonA, so that may not be an option.
August News
The excitement and interest in the competition has been overwhelming. Quite a number of participants and even attendees are even planning on flying to Boston for this event. The television programs Cyberlife, Beyond2000, NextStep, and Nova are showing interest in videotaping the event. To accommodate the anticipated interest we have booked a larger auditorium hall accommodating over 1000 (instead of 400) with more room for displays from the now 9 different CADD packages used by the 9 Teams. The technical people at the hall are experienced and confident they can easily allow us to switch between the disparate kinds of computer systems.
Although we are sticking to the 3 hour charrette part of the competition - which will be from 1 to 4 pm - we have expanded the time people will be able to see and evaluate the systems (12 noon to 5 pm). Also for the participants, we have the hall starting at 8 am so we have time to set up the systems and make sure everything is working well..
New competitors have joined the frey. Official Challengers of Record have been established for Teams representing AllPlan, ArchiCAD, MiniCAD, DataCAD, official contacts have been established from AutoArchitect, TriForma, ArgosBDS, Architrion, and Reflex, and in progress proto-Teams forming for Arris and MicroArchitect. All the Teams could still use help, so feel free to call the Team Coordinators and contacts of your favorite software to volunteer.
In order to make sure the participants and attendees can get AIA Continuing Education credits for this event (an important incentive) and several other reasons the actual date has been pushed back a little. The official date is now Monday November 25th. Since this is immediately after Build Boston, we have the opportunity to further promote the event with an exhibit of the competitors at the Build Boston exposition.
Look for more new information in the sections on Teams and participation.
September News
Change of Venue ! Event now at World Trade Center Boston In an effort to bring you this event in the best possible way, we have shifted the venue to an even better space (on the same date 11/25/96). The Amphitheater at the World Trade Center just completed over $1,000,000 in renovations, assuring us that we have the ultimate world-class venue for this spectacular event.
Advance tickets for the event (for $30 which is a saving on the at-the-door cost of $45) will go on sale the second week of September. Watch this Web page for details. Advance registration tickets - Now Available Advance tickets - Click Here
The competing Teams are starting to firm up. Numerous design firms expressed an interest in using the new object oriented AutoArchitect software - see the Team page to check who the Challenger of Record and official sponsors are. Meanwhile more information is coming in all the time from the various Team coordinators and contacts.
Captains Meeting
During Build Boston 96, some 3 days before the Shoot-Out, there will be a Captains Meeting of all the competitors. This will be a time to get last minute information on the event, preparations, logistics on how the Teams should bring in and set up their systems, and to get their special Team ID badges. This will also be a time for lots of questions and answers about the event. Each Team should have at least one member at the meeting. The exact design problem will not be given out until noon on the actual day of the shoot-out. We will let you know the exact room and time when it is officially scheduled. The meeting will be open to any and all public at Build Boston - as another way of informing and enticing architects to attend the event as spectators. The Captains Meeting is now listed as Build Boston, event number 396 and will be for one hour Thursday 11/21 from 11 am to noon. (The Build Boston Expo floor opens at noon).
We Do Not Count Keystrokes - Only Results !
Main Menu | | Event
| | Participation | | Requirements
| | Teams | | News |
| Voting | | Info
Send News to : Design Shoot-Out Coordinator