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AEC Newsletter archive:
Geoffrey Moore Langdon
CADENCEAEC Tech News # 20 (Feb. 21, 2000)
Updates
The new MicroStationTriForma is now available from Bentley, as well as the new Structural for MicroStation TriForma 7.1. We are also looking forward to reviewing and featuring the upcoming add-on package called "Architecture for TriForma" as soon as it is available this summer.
The IntelliCAD Technology Consortium has been busy creating new alliances to make sure the development of IntelliCAD continues. Though you can download the software free or at low cost from a number of links to partners at ITC's Web site, each brands its version by installing to a folder with its company name. This is works as a tie-in promotion to help them sell related add-on products in the future. ArchT from EaglePoint, and Bricsnet Architectural, will both take a decidedly architectural spin on the IntelliCAD core. Similarly, Struc Plus IntelliCAD 2000, bundles its SPTools drafting utilities for structural engineering.
The ITC is also licensing Hitachi's image display product for use with IntelliCAD 2000 to display bitmap images that were embedded in AutoCAD files. This development would bring IntelliCAD closer to the image handling abilities of AutoCAD 2000, with the ability to, among other things, import a scan and trace over it to quickly get existing conditions such as site contours into CADD.
You always remember your first--18 years ago I stopped using the clunky 2D and 3D CADD programs we had on Prime and IBM mainframes for the elegantly simple and fast 3D modeling of MegaCADD on a PC and have not looked back. The same company that brought us the MegaModel successor to MegaCADD, DesignFutures Inc., has just released IDRAW 2000 for Windows 95/98/NT, which is a 2D design, drafting and illustration software. It is worth checking out their free demo at their Web site.
DataCAD users will be pleased to hear that Ramp Master macro, which will automatically generate different kinds of ADA-compliant ramps and railings, is now available, and now on the DataCAD Web site.
There are already seven teams in the upcoming Designers 3D CAD Shootout slated for A/E/C SYSTEMS in June 2000 and the official invitations have not even gone out as yet! In addition to several teams wanting to make a strong comeback, we have some enthusiastic AutoCAD Architectural Desktop users wanting to join the fray.
VectorWorks Architect
VectorWorks is a powerful 2D and 3D CADD package used in a wide range of professions from surveying and landscape design to engineering, space planning, building design, and even theatrical lighting design. For years many users have added customized macros that automatically draw or model things with their easy programming language. The latest version has added an intelligent object ability which, among other things, makes it easy for architects to easily do sophisticated 3D models while simultaneously generating floor plans, elevations, and sections.
The new VectorWorks Architect software goes even further, with a whole suite of features to help run the whole design office. While it most importantly includes a number of office management features, such as standardized templates to establish CADD and layer standards, drawing managers, and so on to make starting and organizing an architectural project easy, the most exciting parts of Architect are the smarter architectural elements. Now walls, roofs, stairs, handrails, windows, doors, railings, and so on are all automatically put on the right layers (creating them as necessary) and interface with each other in smart ways. They are also modifiable via parametric floating information boxes. With several people collaborating on the same drawings across a network, the software will also coordinate that work and automatically redline potential conflicts. For design, VectorWorks Architect also has new space planning abilities and can even generate sun-study animations.
VectorWorks, one of the world's most popular CAD programs, is available in some 14 languages; the Mac version is the best-selling CAD program on the Mac. Every year in the Design Shootout competition its Team has used one Windows and one Mac version networked together specifically to demonstrate how well the company's multiplatform strategy integrates. They now have new online and CD tutorials that are so good they may put me out of the consulting business.
There are now dozens of add-on products for VectorWorks from DiehlGraphsoft as well as third-party companies that add specialized abilities to the software. For example, one does very complex window walls very easily, and another adds more elaborate 3D tools such as sweeping a profile along a path (which can be used for everything from fireplace mantles and crown molding to handrails and roofs). Another add-on called RenderWorks, does photo realistic rendering with textures, shadows, and dramatic lighting effects.
The current controversies in the VectorWorks world involve the transition from 2D drafting approaches commonly used with its predecessor MiniCAD, the use of layers vs. classes (another organizational method type of sub-layer), and the need for a feature to match door/win settings, now that using intelligent objects is becoming common practice.
ObjectsOnline, which for the past several years has been a wonderful repository source of 3D intelligent library objects (from palm trees and pianos to dormers) for ArchiCAD, has a new agreement to soon provide VectorWorks objects as well, now that such parametrically adjustable objects are possible within VectorWorks.
Links :
MicroStationTriForma, Bentley = [http://www.bentley.com]
IntelliCAD Technology Consortium = [http://www.intellicad.org]
ArchT, EaglePoint = [http://www.archt.com]
Bricsnet Architectural = [http://www.bricsnet.com]
Struc Plus IntelliCAD = [http://www.struc-plus.com]
IDRAW 2000 Design Futures = [http://www.designfutures.com]
DataCAD = [http://www.datacad.com]
Designers 3D CAD Shootout =[http://www.architecturalcadd.com/shootout.html]
A/E/C SYSTEMS = [http://www.aecsystems2000.com]
AutoCAD ArchitecturalDesktop2 = [http://www.autodesk.com]
VectorWorks Architect = [http://www.vectorworksarchitect.com]
ObjectsOnline = [http://www.objectsonline.com]
About Geoffrey Moore Langdon, AIA
Prof. Langdon is a registered architect and is the principal of Architectural CADD Consultants, a firm that specializes in helping architectural firms with computing and CADD. He has taught Design, Solar Energy, and Architectural CADD at a number of colleges in the Boston area. He is the author of Architectural CADD: A Resource Guide to Design and Production Software Appropriate for Architects, a guest speaker at many AIA events, and the founder and organizer of the Designers 3D CAD Shootout competition. contact him at aectechnews@architecturalcadd.com, or through his website: http://www.architecturalcadd.com
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