Email this page to a friend!
AEC Newsletter archive:
Geoffrey Moore Langdon
CADENCE AEC Tech News # 45 (March 1, 2001)
AEC Tech News 3/1/01
In This Issue:
VectorWorks News :
VectorWorks SPOTLIGHT
ArchiCAD News :
ArchiRuler, Object Club, ArchiTalkers Image Dumpground on Xdrivecom
GDL Cookbook/ArchiCAD Training Guide, Al Moulton
DataCAD News :
New DataCAD Offices, DataCAD 9.04, DataCAD 9 Users Guide
CheapTricksWare 3 and 4, Stickyback
AutoCAD News :
Hatch Patterns for AutoCAD, BSA.org, GML Presenting to Greater Boston AutoCAD Users Group
VectorWorks SPOTLIGHT
The VectorWorks world of CADD is growing quickly, with all sorts of specialized versions for different professions, plug-ins, third-party add-ons, and growing object symbol libraries. Upcoming we have VectorWorks ENGINEER, and VectorWorks LANDMARK (a landscape and site design package). Already we have VectorWorks ARCHITECT and now VectorWorks SPOTLIGHT. SPOTLIGHT is a 3D modeling/rendering (and 2D production) tool for lighting designers, which can draw beams in both 2D and 3D, and generates animations between scenes, including moving lights, color changes and gobo projections. It will also automatically generate Magic Sheets by focus area or color.
ArchiRuler
Over in the ArchiCAD world of CADD a similar flurry of activity is going on with new plug-ins and object libraries. The Italian company that brought us the wonderful ArchiForma 3D sculpting tool add-on for ArchiCAD - cigraph - have come out with three more plug-ins oriented towards 2D productivity - ArchiRuler, ArchiFacade, ArchiTiles. ArchiRuler has some 14 new icon tools representing over 60 new functions, including Polyline, and a snap point divide tool using Hotspots, among others, which, in particular would appeal to those who switched to ArchiCAD from AutoCAD and are missing some of those powerful 2D functions for drafting details.
Object Club - win a free Car !
If you join the Object Club for GDL objects, as I did recently to obtain the GDL Object Adapter for AutoCAD 2000 (which allows you to instantly plunk in thousands of detailed parametric 3D objects to your drawings) you get a free GDL Porsche virtual sportscar object.
ArchiTalkers Image Dumpground on Xdrive.com
In AEC Tech News #36 (Oct.15, 2000) I mentioned that the xdrive.com and idrive.com web resources can be a great resource for architects as instant, free, mini-extranets. The discussion forum for ArchiCAD, called ArchiTalk, has taken that to a new level, by using the free publicly accessible hard drive space as a supplemental resource for the forum (particularly to avoid people sending attachments to the discussion list). They created an account user name of : archicad1, with the password of: archicad, and publicly gave this out. Then each ArchiCAD user signs on, refers themselves, and gains yet another 5 meg of space to the forum (they hope to reach 5 gig by this summer!). I nominate them for a CheapTrick award for this twist.
GDL Cookbook/ArchiCAD Training Guide
GDL Cookbook is now at version III (up from II) and the ArchiCAD Training Guide is now for 6.5, both are really excellent ways of learning ArchiCAD.
Al Moulton New President of Graphisoft US
Al Moulton, of Boston, and president of Drawbase, is the new president of Graphisoft US becoming the head of all operations of Graphisoft in North America with offices in Boston, San Francisco and San Antonio. Tamás Hajas, is returning to Graphisoft R&D in Budapest.
New DataCAD Vendor
The DataCAD world, also, is opening a new office in Boston for one of their vendors - CADvantage.
DataCAD 9.04 update
We urge current DataCAD 9 owners to download the free DataCAD 9.04 update, which, in addition to important fixes, the development team slipped in some goodies that are now standing applause favorites, in particular the new GetSnap feature of the new DirDist input mode. In English that means you can really easily and quickly line things up accurately. DataCAD 9 eliminated 2D GoToViews in favor of the more powerful 3D GoToView function. In another example of "Feature Return" DataCAD 9.04 has a new 2D to 3D view converter.
DataCAD 9 Users Guide
The new 1000+ page DataCAD 9 Users Guide is an excellent guide for advanced users as well as beginners in DataCAD, and includes extremely helpful illustrations and step by step tutorials in 2D production as well as 3D modeling.
CheapTricksWare 3 and 4
The DataCAD company has also released two new CDs of CheapTricksWare (the compendium of thousands of useful DataCAD macros and symbol libraries). These disks 3 and 4 are actually update replacements for disks 1 and 2, and include better ways to run the macros with DataCAD 9 and MS Windows 98/2000.
DataCAD Productivity Macro - Stickyback
This week I have been intensively spending dozens of hours 2D drafting some existing conditions in DataCAD (yes, fans I really do use DataCAD when working with DCAD firms, and when with ACAD firms I will use whichever flavor of AutoCAD they are using, same with ArchiCAD, VectorWorks, etc.). Normally when I do real architectural work, I do either schematic design or 3D modeling. I found that when doing all that 2D drafting work I used much more typing, exact distances, and dozens of keyboard shortcuts. I now also understand the words of 2D production drafting guru Manny Sneiderman who says that he must use Stickyback macro 100 times a day. I agree that it is a must-have for any DataCAD firm. It allows you to select any portion of a drawing and paste it into any other drawing, optionally retaining layer structure and position.
New Wood and Stone Hatch Patterns for AutoCAD
For over three years, Charles Sweeney's free file CSHatch.zip has been in top downloads list of Cadalog.com with over 13,000 downloads. He is now offering some more sophisticated wood and stone patterns (39) in a collection with those 64 patterns all on CD.
Beware You Could Have Illegal Copies
The Business Software Alliance's truce is now over. This is the organization with the free anonymous phone number that anyone could call and tell them you have more copies of your CADD software on machines than you have licenses for, who will slap you with an immediate fine of $150,000 per instance. We urge everyone to check your records and make sure your office is current with your CADD software licenses. Many design principals are surprised when they find out that they are in violation when they were under the impression that someone in their firm had already taken care of this. Check again.
Langdon Presents to AutoCAD Group
The topic this particular month for the Greater Boston AutoCAD Users Group is Architecture, and they have asked me to present the state of the art on architectural CADD on March 6th.
Links :
SPOTLIGHT = http://www.vectorworksspotlight.com
ArchiRuler = http://www.cigraph.com
Object Club for GDL = http://www.objectsonline.com
ArchiTalk (ArchiCAD forum) = http://www.graphisoft.com
GDL Cookbook/ArchiCAD Training Guide = http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?intcad+Fzc2FL+index.html
DataCAD = http://www.datacad.com
DataCAD 9 Users Guide = http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071363564/architecturalcad
Stickyback (part of DC Sprint Macro) = http://www.datacad.com
Hatch Patterns for AutoCAD = http://www.HatchPatterns.com
Business Software Alliance = http://www.BSA.org
Greater Boston AutoCAD Users Group presentation = http://http://www.architecturalcadd.com/gbaug0301.htm
For a free subscription to CADENCE magazine, go to http://www.cadence-mag.com/contact/freesub.html and fill out the form you find there.
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
Home | Current Issue | Back Issues | News | Advertise | Code Archive | Contact | CADShop | Subscribe for Free |
© 1997-2000 Miller Freeman, Inc. All rights Reserved.