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Geoffrey Moore Langdon
CADENCE AEC Tech News # 24 (April 17, 2000)
AEC Tech News 4/17/2000
News
DataCAD users await with extreme anticipation the presentation and release of the new DataCAD Plus software they hope will catapult them into the paradigm of 3D smart parametrics, on April 28th in Avon, Connecticut.
VersaCAD users may be shocked that Tom Lazear, President of Archway Systems, Inc.thinks that the new VersaCAD with its 3D companion will be finished soon enough to enter a Team in this year's Designers 3D CAD Shootout.
The Designers 3D CAD Shootout, by the way, is now a demonstration event and challenge, rather than a competition, where architects show that it is possible to do the 3 hour design project in their favorite software. Some popular CADD programs, such as ArchiCAD and ArchT, still need architect user groups to volunteer to demonstrate.
You also will be hearing more and more about the Web Challenge for CADD as the start date of this site of tutorials, where you experts out there can show your stuff and make money too, draws closer in mid-June.
The Architects Technology Summit is a free conference worth 16 AIA CEUs on May 3, 2000, at the AIA meeting in Philadelphia.
Microsoft has signed on as a sponsor of the Congress on the Future of Engineering Software COFES2000, which will be held in Scottsdale, Arizona, May 17-20, 2000.
Bricsnet ProjectCenter has signed on as a sponsor and host for the drawings and images for the Designers 3D CAD Shootout, June 6-7, 2000.
Revit Software
The first thing you notice about working in Revit is that it shows a large dynamically changing dimension line as you draw a wall in any plan, section, elevation, or even in a rendered axonometric view. It also gives you such live feedback while you start to place windows, doors, stairs, columns, roofs, construction lines or any of the other 17 types of architectural components listed on the main menu, and automatically snaps those elements into place though giving you a chance to easily override. Most things are simply done automatically, so that cleaning wall intersections and wall/floor links is a thing of the past. It will warn you if architectural elements don't meet and give you options such as resolving all your walls to a roof configuration. A number of these intuitive and logical kinds of features we have seen in far less powerful programs like 3D Home Architect and Vellum which also, like Revit, were designed specifically to be absurdly easy to use without ever cracking a manual, but never before have we seen this level of flexibility, sophistication, and capacity to do large projects professionally. Thus it is no accident that the current user/subscriber list for Revit includes some very big architectural and construction firms such as ADD Inc., NBBJ, and Macomber.
There are similarities to some of the other architectural CADD packages currently pushing the limits of the 3D architecturally intelligent paradigm. Working in four simultaneous views is like ArchitecturalDesktop, only there are now intelligent floor slabs and creating floor stories just involves a single click. Working with the parametric building components is very similar to ArchiCAD and VectorWorks Architect (only now you have parametric ceilings and ramps on the main menu). The depth of information about every drawing element and its ability to automatically generate schedules and space planning is like TriForma or Aperture, but far easier to use, leaving you continually wondering how the program knows so much about your design without having to explicitly put it in. All put together in a nicely designed software developed from the ground up for 3D artificial intelligence and ease of use and, yes, it is worth much of the hype we have been hearing.
The main problem with developing software this advanced is that once people use smart features like this they want more, and in a complex and varied construction industry, developing smart building components will go on, essentially, forever. Yes, there is a "line" tool, so that a designer can always just draw something line by line as they did with AutoCAD12, but when you get hooked on all those other automatic instant smart interacting components you want more. Thus, while there is certainly enough in Revit now to get building projects done, it will be continually evolving, which makes their business model - where you subscribe to an automatically updating software via the web (and cannot buy it) - make sense, as they add new things like automatic details, more building components, and cost analysis in the future.
The drawing interface works well, automatically setting up four different 3D views that can be modified extensively as needed, selected elements instantly showing up red in all views, little open and closed locks next to every element as you pass over with the mouse to easily set up fixed relationships, and how you do things like click on a section line to switch to that section. The section lines are dynamic, so that you see the section change in real time as you move the section line through the building - also becoming an elevation if you move it outside the building. A number of Revit users seem to have developed a way of working where they merely sketch an approximate design and then pass over the elements and adjust some dimensions, letting the software resolve all the relationships. The only glitch in the interface is in the most frequently used command - zoom to region - which requires some five mouse clicks, whereas many programs, even AutoCAD, use fewer, (and ARRIS does this with just a gesture).
The first truly public view you can get of Revit in action will be at the Boston Society of Architects Design Software meeting, which, this month will be at the Revit headquarters, on April19, 2000.
Geoffrey Moore Langdon, AIA
Links :
DataCAD Plus = http://www.datacad.com
VersaCAD = http://www.versacad.com
Designers 3D CAD Shootout =http://www.architecturalcadd.com/shootout.htm
ArchiCAD = http://www.graphisoft.com
ArchT = http://www.archt.com
Web Challenge = http://www.architecturalcadd.com/cup/webchallenge.html
Architects Technology Summit = http://www.cmdg.com/rsvp
Microsoft = http://www.microsoft.com
COFES2000 = http://www.cofes.com
Bricsnet ProjectCenter = http://www.bricsnet.com
Revit = http://www.revit.com
BSA Design Software = http://www.architecturalcadd.com/bsa/designsoft.htm
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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